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!

"The Pact" has been broken!

About 14 years ago, Sean and I made a pact that we would never own a mini-van! We swore that would never be us! Boy were we naive! Today, the pact was broken and we drove off the Oak Ridge Nissan car lot with a brand new Quest mini-van! And we were excited!! We love it! Who knew? Never say never! :)

With an $11,000 cash back incentive going on, we knew we needed to move on this! Sean did a great job researching, crunching numbers and finding out what the vehicle was worth. He is SO good at the bargaining part of buying a new car! He loves the challenge! We found a "base model" (no bells and whistles) at the Oak Ridge dealership and started negoitiating! No fancy packages, no DVD player and we didn't get to pick the color....but who cares? It was a fantastic deal, and we are very blessed to be the owners of a new MINI-VAN! :)

This time last year......
I started blogging! I began this blog when Beckett started Kindergarten. We started back to school this week and I thought it would be fun to show how much the kids have grown in one year! The small picture is from the first day of Kindergarten and the big one was taken this past Tuesday when we got back to work! He is doing well and for the most part has been excited to get back into our school routine! He is reading everything that he can get his hands on and we will begin chapter books in a couple of weeks! Helen is doing well, too! She really wants to "do school", so I've set up her little area and she has been working on learning her ABC's! She is able to handle more independent time this year, so that helps a lot! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Check out my friend's new blog!

I know a very special first grader who is creating a blog to share his experiences this year! If you would like to check it out, click here! Enjoy and check back every week or so! Not sure how often we will get it updated, but I want to use it as an opportunity for him to do some writing this year! I'll probably let him take a few pictures along the way as well! :)

End of Summer/Back to School Blast!

Today is Beckett's first day of first grade! To celebrate a great summer and to give us a kick off to a new school year, we spent the day at Dollywood yesterday! It was Sean's first time to EVER go to Dollywood! It was such a fun day! Beckett discovered a whole new Dollywood with his dad! They rode all of the "big" roller coasters and water rides that he had never tried before! He went upside down in the "Tennessee Tornado", he rode "Thunderhead" three times and we all got to do the "Slidewinder" and got soaking wet! We rode rides until 6:00 when they closed the park! Beckett didn't even ask for food! You know he is having fun if he doesn't think about eating! We totally skipped lunch so we could get in all of the rides! Helen had a great time too! The "Slidewinder" was a lot of fun for her and she was fired up that they had new booster seats for the cars at the "Rockin' Roadway" so she was able to "drive" the car! She even rode the Veggie Tales roller coaster all by herself! She is such a big girl! It was a fun-filled day and a great way to end a wonderful summer!

Beckett and Sean on the "Dizzy Disk"....another new ride that Beckett had never tried until this trip! There was just something special about having his dad with him that took the fear out of the rides and it became a challenge and a thrill to try them all out! It was so fun to watch him experience these "scary" rides for the first time! He loved it!
Helen was all smiles as she got to "drive" a Thunderbird for the first time! Pure joy!