Look Who's Turning 40!

It's my turn now! On Tuesday, September 30th, I will celebrate my 40th birthday! That is exactly what I wanted to do....celebrate! So, I decided that rather than be sad or depressed about it....that I would do something ACTIVE and fun! Yesterday, the kids and I traveled to Chattanooga and I ran/walked in the 5K Race for the Cure! My neighbor, Martha and I have been doing a training program that takes you "From Couch Potato to 5K" and although we have not finished the program, I still wanted to participate! A couple of months ago, I looked for a race that would take place near my birthday and this one in Chattanooga was perfect! My sister-in-law, Kathy lives in Chattanooga and I asked her if she would like to run with me. She said yes, and she was so sweet to stay with me and run/walk the race rather than run the whole thing! (Which she could have done in half the time it took us!) My sister, Susi drove up from Atlanta and my mom and dad drove over from Nashville to celebrate with me! We all went to J. Alexander's for a late lunch after the race and had a great time. Sean stayed at home to host our Sunday night small group. We didn't think that we would be back in time for group, so he wasn't able to go with us. We missed him, but it was still a great day and I had so much fun!

Coming down "the home stretch"! It was fun to see and hear Beckett, Helen, Ty and Marley cheering for us as we came to the end of the race!
We made it!
My family! Beckett, Marley, Ty and Helen

Which Will It Be?
I was just looking at these pictures that I took of Helen as she was painting the other day and I noticed how she is using her left hand in one picture and her right hand in the other! Will she be ambidextrous? Who knows? Either way, she really enjoyed herself!



You can double click on the pictures to see them more closely and to better appreciate the amazing artwork! :)

Hiking Harpers!

It was a beautiful day on Satuday so we hit the trail! We have a nice area very near our home where we can be "in the woods" within about 10 minutes! We hiked along the ridgeline and looked down at the lake and we also hiked alongside the lake. It was a great morning just enjoying God's creation and each other!

Taking a break to get a picture!

Helen hiked in front of me and I enjoyed watching her bounce along!

I didn't want to forget how cute she looked as she walked along the trail, so I took this little video clip! What a sweet memory!

Busy Week!
We have stayed quite busy for the last week! Sean and I went to "Quiet Waters" last Thursday and Friday night. Our church hosts this time once a year and it is an opportunity to get away and seek our Heavenly Father through prayer, reflection and some instruction. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville which was very nice and had a great time! My mom and dad came over to stay at the house with the kids and they all enjoyed that. They don't have many opportunities to be together without Sean and me present, so that was fun for the kids! (I think they get away with more when we aren't here!)

Sunday night was our first Growth Group meeting at our home for the Fall season and we had a great time! We had many new families come and we had a FULL house! On Monday night, Sean and Beckett began BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). Beckett and I have been attending the day program for the last four years and now that he is in first grade, he can go to the school-age program. Helen and I still go to the day program on Wednesdays. Sean's mom and dad are keeping Beckett on Wednesday mornings so that we can still go and we are so appreciative of that! Beckett does his school work in the afternoons on those days!

Tuesday night was our first Homeschool Family Connection meeting at our church. My friend, Sarah and I have started a group to help families who are educating their children at home to connect and find support! We had a good turn out and we are excited about this new group!

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and had a great visit! After dinner we moved into the living room to talk and our conversation became quite long and boring for the kids! They were VERY well behaved, but around 9:30 they moved to our bedroom and began watching "John and Kate Plus Eight". When our friends left, we went back to check on them and Beckett was on our bed alone. I asked him where Helen was and he told me that she had gotten too tired, so he put her to bed. I went in to check on her and she was all tucked in her bed, safe and sound and I was just so proud of her big brother for the way he had taken such good care of her! Just had to share! :)

Tonight we are hosting a table at the Young Life banquet! Didn't I say it had been a busy week? We are looking forward to this event, but I must say that we are also looking forward to a Friday night with nowhere to be and nothing to do! We are planning a hike on Saturday morning, so I'll share a few pictures of that sometime soon!

Three Special People.....

Three Special Days!

The Harpers have had three very special days recently and I wanted to share a few pictures of each of these important events! Last Friday, Beckett had his half birthday! We always celebrate the kid's half birthdays with a trip out for ice cream, so for Beckett's special day he picked Maggie Moo's! Nana and Papa joined us for our yummy treat to honor our 6 and 1/2 year old!

Special Day #2

On Monday, Helen began "Mother's Day Out" at Miss Jennifer's house! We were looking for a one day a week opportunity for Helen to go play with some other kids and have fun, but it is almost impossible to find any day "school" programs that only offer one day! Most of the programs around here for 3 year olds are 2 or 3 days a week. We feel so fortunate that Miss Jennifer has re-opened her former day-care in her downstairs area for Helen, Carlie, Carson and Maura! Helen was so excited to take her pink camouflage lunch box and her pink backpack and head off for the day! She had a blast! Miss Jennifer has some awesome toys and you should see her playground! I'd put it up against any other daycare playground around! Helen enjoyed everything about the day and can't wait for next Monday!

Helen's friends at Miss Jennifer's!

Special Day #3!

Today was Sean's 40th birthday! We had a great day celebrating with him! He took the day off from work and wanted to go to the mountains to fish. We started the day with breakfast and presents and then headed to the zoo for Beckett's second oceanography class. While he was in class, Sean, Helen and I enjoyed the frog exhibit and the butterfly exhibit! Helen and Sean dressed up as bees, which is the reason for the "No Rain" song on my playlist! Blind Melon did this song years ago and had the funniest video with a little girl dressed up like a bee! We were reminded of it when we put Helen in the bee costume at the zoo. I made Sean put on the bee antenna and have his picture made with her! After the zoo, we headed to the mountains to picnic, play in the water and fish! Sean fished in a couple of different places and had a great time. He caught several fish, one of which I was close enough to get a picture of before he put it back in the water! On our way home we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings for his birthday dinner and loaded up on chicken wings, then it was home for birthday cheesecake! What a great day!

What a pretty rainbow trout! A pretty handsome 40 year old as well! (If I do say so myself!) :)
What a precious bee! (This one's for you, Marilyn!)
Don't you love the antennas? Helen loved showing her daddy all around the zoo!

Fun Two Days!
On Tuesday, we went to the zoo for Beckett's first Science class. The Knoxville Zoo has a wonderful homeschool program and this month, they are studying "oceanography"! He had a great time and seemed to learn a lot! We will go each Tuesday this month. It is quite a lengthy trip and with gas prices the way they are, I'm not sure that we will go to each month's study, but we are committed to go each Tuesday this month! He really liked it! Helen and I wandered around the zoo while Beckett was in class and we had a good time! Check out "The Slam" for Beckett's explanation of his class!

On Wednesday we had fun with M&M math! Helen has enjoyed learning a letter each day since we began school, but she was pumped that she got to do math with us this time! It doesn't get much better than adding and subtracting with M&M's! (Especially subtraction when you get to make them disappear!)

Some pictures from the last two days!

No Pictures this Labor Day!
We have had a great weekend with some fun activities, but no camera! (I just forgot to bring it along!) Saturday night we went to Nana and Papa's house for supper and a trip out on "the gator" to check on the food plots that they have planted to attract deer and turkey! On Sunday we had a great morning at church, Helen and I had lunch with Marilyn and shopped and then later that afternoon we went to a KOA campground in Sweetwater where our friends the Rogers were camping for the weekend. They invited us to come swim, play and eat supper. It was such a nice campground and we had a great visit! On Monday, Helen and I worked on re-organizing the garage so that we could fit the van and the car in there! It is a tight squeeze, but we did it! Sean and Beckett went dove hunting since today was opening day. They didn't get any doves, but they had a good time. Tonight we went to the Fritz's home and swam and had a low-country boil with shrimp, crawfish, corn, sausages and potatoes! Yummy! We had a great time swimming, hanging out and visiting with everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!