A Busy Week For Sure....

Monday was the first day of school. HOORAY! The kids have been so ready to get back. New clothes, notebooks, pencils, lunchboxes, and anything else they could get away with, were all chosen and ready for the big day.

And as an extra special treat, Grandma Robison drove into town just to walk to school with us! We just LOVE our grandparents!

Abby was thrilled to see Miss Kelli again, and Kelly was hopping with excitement to go into her new 2nd grade class with Mrs. Jones. For some reason my allergies were acting up that morning, because my eyes were kind of watery watching my biggest little lady walk into her class. She's gotten so tall, and she's so pretty. She holds her head high, and her heart on her sleeve. I'm just so proud of her. I'm so proud of all of my kids. If all goes well, Abby will be mainstreamed into kindergarten part-time this year. She's come so far as well. So very bright, and so very sweet. I felt so bad for Max... he began to cry when he found out he wasn't going to be able to stay at the school with Abby. It won't be too much longer though- he needs to stay my little man for a little while longer. Before I know it, he'll be just as big as Kelly.

As you can see, it was very difficult to get any decent pictures of the little turkeys though! LOL...








Saturday was Gary's big 40th birthday bash! Okay..... it was a moderate sized backyard barbecue with about 25 people showing up, and he made out like a bandit with the birthday gifts- the lucky dog. Gary's work schedule (his being able to take vacation) was up in the air for so long, that I wasn't able to set a final date for this party until about a week beforehand. And I'm the queen of disorganization to begin with, so I'm grateful to those who could come help us celebrate on such short notice. (Cassondra and Jake only had an hour or so!)

Not only had I been ferreting a bit of the savings away for awhile, but I'd also been saving my AMR paychecks for this. I was finally able to give Gary a few of those 'big ticket' items that he's been wanting or needing for so long. He got a nice mountain bike, a top of the line GPS device- along with some mapping programs, a new pair of binoculars, new speakers for his truck, and a telescope from the kids (they said it will work better to look at the stars than his spotting scope that he has been using!). Our wonderful neighbors made him a hand-made pillow from travelling (or chilling in the livingroom!), and the last present Gary opened was the one that got the most laughs. His good friend from church, Jake, gave him a box of Depends, and a card that said he'd make sure to tell him if he started getting that 'old man smell.'

Thank you to everyone who was able to come, and those who were with us in spirit!