On The Move With My Boys

The Rest of the Story....

2012-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

The basket ball court in the back yard, is the biggest Christmas present the boys (and Craig and I) are getting this year. We had told the boys that the rest of their Christmas would just be small stuff. However, I think they came out very well.

The boys each got a Washington Wizard jersey from Craig.

My suprise gift this year was a pair of red clogs. I also got a pair of shoes for work and some other small stuff.

Craig's favorite gift is this Capitals sweatshirt.

And since we had a basket ball theme going on - Craig decided to suprise the boys with tickets to a Washington Wizards game in January.

I bought the boys some much needed bedding (sheets and comforters). And gave them each a fleece blanket to top their bed off with. As you can see, they each have their own favorite college (Eamon - UVA, Shannon - Virginia Tech).
I think we had a wonderful 2011 Christmas!!

Looking forward to 2012 and all the fun it brings!!!

The Best Christmas Present Ever - Part II

2012-01-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

Moving onward with the basketball court.....
They put up a wooden frame

And put the rebar down. In the picture below, you can see the post in the back ground. It was spray painted black by the Lowry crew.

Two days before Christmas, the concrete was poured and the post was put in place.

On Christmas eve, the concrete guy came and cut the grooves into the concrete.

Finally, the day after Christmas the backboard and net were put up and we were able to use our new basketball court!!!

We still have some finishing touches to make. We plan to put up a small retaining wall along the back ridge to keep the dirt from falling on the court. And Craig plans to have the court painted with the appropriate lines. Then we have some landscaping to do. The yard is quite muddy now, so hopefully it won't be too long till we have some grass and I can plant some bushes on the front slope.
I think we will all enjoy this Christmas present!!!

Who is that young man???

2011-12-25T16:35:00.000-08:00

I saw this young man in my house the other day and had to stop him and find out who he was.

Oh, it is Eamon!!!

Eamon is on the 8th grade basketball team this year and has to dress up on the days of his away games. I have not seen Eamon dressed up like this for 3 years - since my sister's wedding. Wow! Along with the new dress clothes, Eamon has been getting lessons in laundry and ironing. I think I will enjoy this basketball season!!

The New Bedtime Routine

2011-12-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

If you remember back a few years ago, Shannon would go to bed tucked between his 2 large Nerf guns. Well, he hasn't done that for some time now. Since we adopted Lacy, he has wanted her to sleep on his bed with him, but that is not allowed. So, Shannon decided that if she couldn't sleep with him, then he would sleep on the floor with her. So, this has been Shannon's bed for about the past month. Although I'm not quite sure what Lacy thinks of her new "job" of putting Shannon to bed.

I sure hope this will extend the life of his mattress :)

The Best Christmas Present Ever

2011-12-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

The end of soccer this year brought us right into the beginning of basketball. Shannon is playing on an AAU travel team and Eamon made the 8th grade team at Wilbur Pence Middle School. The boys have always asked for a basket ball goal on the driveway, but our driveway is on a hill, so it just was not feasible. (Unless you want to constantly chase balls down the hill). So, Craig came up with the idea of putting a basket ball court in our back yard. We began the process around Nov 10 and it has been a long slow process.

Week 1 - This is the "before" picture. Here you see the garden that will no longer be full of weeds.

Week 2 - When we decided to get started, the plan was to dig out the back yard. However, when Miss Utility came out to show us where utility lines are, we found out that we have some lines running right through the middle of our back yard. So, the first step was to see how deep the lines were. Thus, the 2 piles of dirt that you see.

Week 3 - Finally the excavation started. The ground was leveled as much as possible without getting deep enough to damage any utility lines.

Week 4 - Many loads of dirt were hauled into our back yard to level it out.

Week 5 - Now the gravel are placed on top and leveled out.

It really has been a slow process. The weather has not cooperated very well. It seems as though the guys would get a day of work in and then it would rain. Then it would take several days of drying before any more work could be done.

To be continued.......

End of soccer season 2011

2011-11-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

November always means the end of fall soccer. We finish the season each year with a tournament in Richmond.

Here is Eamon - celebrating a goal, I'm sure.

This is a far away shot of Shannon. He is the one with the white shirt who looks like he is in the goal. This was Shannon's best game of the whole season and this goal he scored was the highlight of his entire season.

This is Shannon with his team after this game. His team went on the next day to get 2nd place in the championship for his age group (U11).

Eamon - looking rather serious in this picture.

Here is Eamon's team. They won the championship for their age group. A great end to this year. Not sure what will be next for these boys. Most of them will try out for JV soccer in the spring, so this may be the last of travel soccer for a while. It's been a good ride!!

In our near future, we have basketball and futsal. Shannon has decided to try AAU basketball this winter, and Craig will be assisting with the team sometimes. Eamon is signed up for futsal, which is a nice low-key sport, and he is also going to try out for the 8th grade basketball team. Will we be doing soccer in the spring?? Only time will tell.....

How old are you?

2011-10-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my 5th grader:

For some reason (I think it has to do with attention from the girls), Shannon has needed to dress up at least one day of the week. On this first day of dressing up, I made sure to get him on camera as I didn't realize that it would be a regular happening. As we were getting ready on this morning, Shannon looked in the mirror and stated, "Is that a gray hair I see?" I said, "What?" And he replied, "I'm pretending to be an adult!!" What a funny boy!

Here is Shannon with his soccer team - this was at the end of a tournament in Virginia Beach.

Here is another "funky and fresh" dress-up day.

Sometimes you drive my absolutely crazy, but I love you Shannon!!

Lacy

2011-10-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

Shannon has been having some fun with photography lately. He enjoys trying to get good shots of Lacy. So, here are a few good ones.

Since Lacy has moved into our home she has become a die-hard Redskins fan. As you can see, she has her own jersey that she must wear for every game.

Lacy and her favorite sport to play - ball.

Here's a good close-up shot of our "little girl".

Shannon got himself in this shot. What a cute pair - a boy and his dog.

Where did the summer go??

2011-09-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

I finally got some spare time to down load some pictures and look at some blogs and I realized - I haven't posted a blog since July 3!!! Well, as I stated in the prior blog - the summer went too fast!!
Here are a few of our activities during the months of July and Aug:

Shannon was on the Ashby swim team this summer. He had some good friends that were also on the swim team, so it was lots of fun for him. Here he is with one of his best buddies, Finn. Shannon's favorite strokes to swim in the meets were the freestyle and the breast stroke.

Shannon spent his first full week at camp this summer. He had a great time!! Here he is with his cabin mates and his brave counselor, James.

Eamon also spent a week at camp and he also had a good time. He had a lot of soccer buddies at camp this year, and he also knew some people from camp last year.

Here is the butterfly that we "raised". One day at work, someone brought in some freshly picked carrots with the tops on. In the tops, we found 2 green caterpillars (or as my mom would say - worms). Someone said, "Carol, you should take them home for your boys". So, I did. I didn't like the green creatures myself, but I thought it would be interesting. I made the green caterpillars some comfy homes in glass jars and managed to keep them fed for 2 weeks. Then they somehow incased themselves in these brown cocoons. After about 2 more weeks, we finally had these 2 beautiful black swallowtail butterflies. It was neat to let them go and watch them fly for the first time in their life. One has to wonder - how do they know where to go???

Then, we come to the end of August and the end of summer. But, also the beginning of school. Here are my handsome boys on the first day. This year I am the proud mother of a 5th grader and an 8th grader. Both boys are at the top of the food chain this year :)

Well, that's a quick overview of some July and August happenings. I hope to blog again soon and tell you more about the Lowry events.

Water Fun - Summer 2011

2011-07-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

This summer of 2011 is passing much too quickly. We are keeping very busy as usual. Shannon is doing swim team and both boys are working on their soccer this summer. In between, we have also had some fun activities.....
Our friends the Lovingers have a jet ski that they ride at Lake Anna. Mitch invited Craig to go down there with him one weekend. And the next weekend we went down as a family with them for jet ski rides and a cookout.

Here is Eamon with his buddies (Jake and Andrew).
We had a fun day and hope to be able to join them again sometime!!

The official Lowry vacation took place in the end of June. We went to VA Beach for 2 nights and then to Williamsburg for 2 nights. While we were at the beach, we tried to spend as much time as we could in or near the ocean. The boys also enjoyed renting bikes to ride on the boardwalk. We rented a 4-person family bike on the 1st day and the next evening we rented a 2 person bike for the boys to ride.

Shannon insisted on being buried in the sand.

Then at Williamsburg, Shannon got what he really deserves on most days :).

Our last evening of our vacation, we had supper at a nice Italian restaurant. Overall, we had a really good time on our vacation, but it felt good to come home. Now I wonder.....where will we go next time??

Catching up.....

2011-06-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long, long time since I have written, so I have some catching up to do. My last blog was about our newest family member and we are still in love with Lacy. She has been a wonderful addition to our family.
As usual our spring has been very busy with travel soccer. We started in March with a tournament in Virginia Beach. It was a cold weekend. Shannon did not play in the soccer academy this spring, but he was lucky enough to have some other younger brothers to hang out with.

Despite the cold temperatures, these boys still played in the water and mud. They were lovingly named "the lost boys". (In this pic - Shannon, Jason, Finn, and Matthew).

Eamon's team did well. The team came in 2nd in the championship.

March also was the time of Shannon's birthday. He chose to have some friends over for pizza, ice cream cake and a sleepover. Finn and Patrick came to celebrate with us, but I failed to get any pictures.

This is the boys making peanut butter cookies - YUM!!!

May brings 2 more birthdays to our family. Craig's is first and we celebrated with a yummy fruit trifle. We celebrated early as Craig was scheduled for surgery that week.

Eamon's birthday was next and he also decided to have friends over for pizza, ice cream and a sleepover. Eamon's guests were Jake and Seamus. Andrew was also supposed to come, but he came down with a case of chickenpox that very same day. I also failed to get pictures of Eamon and his friends.

However, I do have a very nice pic here of my boys with new haircuts. These are my very handsome 13 and 10 year old boys!!

We've had a busy spring and we are looking forward to lots of fun times this summer. I hope to do better with the pictures and blogging, so I hope you will be hearing from me again soon!!

Lacy

2011-02-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

Lacy is our "foster child" for the weekend. We have all fallen in love with her and have full intentions of going thru with this "adoption".

We all had to have our picture taken with her this evening.

Craig even got on the floor to "play" after supper. But now, it is getting late and I need to be moving on to bed.....more details of the "Lacy story" to follow soon.

Janurary 2011

2011-01-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here we have almost completed the first month of 2011 and what have the Lowry's been up to??Well, there have been snow days and sledding, Shannon completed a wrestling clinic, Eamon started basketball, we had a Saturday pancake fundraiser at Applebee's for Eamon's soccer team (see pic below), sleepovers with friends and a trip to the Massanutten Water park, Shannon competed in an indoor track meet and he started gymnastics.

At the pancake fundraiser, the boys on the soccer team were the "waiters" for the breakfast. Eamon found that his out-going personality gave him quite the talent for this type of work, he did a good job of serving his "customers".

And today we had a quiet Sunday at home and we found that Eamon is quite a chef as well. He came to me and said he would like to have some stir-fry. We had plenty of vegetables in the fridge, so I told him that if he wanted stir-fry, he could make it himself. So, Eamon chopped the veggies and with a little direction, made a great-looking stir-fry (see pic above).

Shannon took advantage of this quiet Sunday to get out an old toy. He built this car track and spent some time running his vechicles over the jump - trying to complete the jump without crashing.

Here we managed to catch one of the vechicles in mid-flight.

I took advantage of this "quiet Sunday" to get a few small projects done at home. I cleaned out my refrigerator freezer and put together this vegetable soup, which was mighty good after being flavored up by Craig.
What a great way to end the first month of 2011!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T16:08:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful Christmas for the Lowry family!!! Our Christmas started a few weeks ago when my family (The Kiser's) celebrated the holiday. Now it is Christmas morning. The boys got up around 7:00 and got everyone else up around 7:30.

Here is Eamon with his books I gave him, both are soccer books, one on Kaka and one on Messi (both are professional soccer players). Shannon got a Calvin and Hobbes comic book. And I gave Craig his yearly book - this year about a marathon runner from Africa.

The boys gave Craig a gift that they worked on all by themselves. Inside this big box was a shoe box and inside the shoe box.......

.......was a wrapped potato :)

I gave the boys a fushigi ball to share.

And the grand finale - the X BOX with the Kinect!! Did you notice the progressively bigger smiles on the boys faces?? The boys say that this is the "best Christmas ever"!!!

After opening gifts and having a breakfast of crepes, we went to Craig's mom's place for the annual family gathering. Everyone was able to come this year and the food was good as always. We had a nice time visiting.

Then we came home to have some Kinect family competition. We boxed, competed in track and field and many other activities for several hours. We all have sore muscles today!!

As I said earlier - What a wonderful Christmas!!

Football season and Pinatas - part II

2010-12-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

Part II - Finally, last Sunday, we got to break open the 2nd pinata that Craig and Shannon made a couple months ago. The Redskin and Cowboy game was upon us, so we attacked the pinata with the big blue star.

We couldn't find the baseball bat that we used last time, so we had to use a street hockey stick.

The boys each got a couple good hits and stabs with the hockey stick before it busted open.

The pinata was filled with plenty of goodies: candy, football cards, hockey cards and coins.

Another recent activity in our household was a Nerf gun war. We had an early Christmas celebration with my family a few weeks ago. The boys had some money to spend and they decided to each buy a new Nerf gun (although they have about 4 Nerf guns already). So, we took the guns home and Craig decided it was a good evening for a Nerf gun war. We turned all the lights out in the house and snuck around like snipers.

That's something I never aspired to do, but with a household of boys you never know what activities they might come up with.

Stay tuned for news of our 2010 Christmas....coming soon......

Fun times and Friends

2010-11-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have given an update on our busy life. I thought I would start this blog with a picture of my handsome boys.....

We have been visiting some new churches over the past few months and this was a Sunday morning picture.

Last Sunday was Halloween. Shannon invited a few friends to come trick or treat with him and Eamon invited a few friends to come over and hand out candy with him. So, we had snacks out and had several friends over. The boys came over while there was still a little daylight out, so they started the evening with a friendly game of football.

Here is the crew at the end of the evening - starting with the back row we have: Zoe (the lone girl of the evening), Eamon, Andrew, Jake, Seamus, then Shannon, Matthew and Finn. Everyone seemed to have a really fun evening!

Travel soccer has also kept us busy lately. Yesterday we were going two separate directions. Eamon had a game in Lynchburg, so he rode with the Lovingers. He had a fun time with his buddies (Jake and Seamus) on the ride to and from the game. The team also did very well, coming home with a win and first place status in the league for the season. Shannon's team was playing four mini-games in Blacksburg, so we teamed up with Finn's dad (Bob). Shannon had a fun day with his soccer buddies also. His team also did very well with 3 wins and one tie (a scoreless game of 0-0). I got a pic of the boys on the way to the games (Matthew, Shannon and Finn). They were very quiet on the way down and we barely heard a peep out of them.

The day was cold and windy - a rather miserable day to sit outside and watch soccer!! However, on the ride home, the boys were a little more lively and decided they were hot! So, they started shedding clothes,as you can see, and they devoured a lot of food!! It was a long day, but a fun time for everyone!

Football season and Pinatas

2010-10-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Football season is upon us. Craig has started a tradition every year that when the Redskins play the Cowboys, we have a "Lowry football party". Well, this year, after shopping for a pinata, Craig decided to make his own. So, he studied how to do it and we plunged into the unfamiliar area of "arts and crafts". The pinatas took about a week to make. Shannon joined Craig in this adventure. Craig decided to paint his green and make it a Eagles pinata and Shannon made his silver for the Cowboys. The object of the pinatas, of course, was to make them replicas of the teams that they DON'T like, so we can have fun beating them with a bat. We decided Saturday night was a good time to "break out" the pinata.

Craig hung the pinata from the ceiling and we all took turns with the bat. I got the ceremonial first hit.

Craig's turn.....

Shannon up to bat......

And after we all had 2 turns, Eamon felled the pinata with the final blow. Craig had filled the pinata with fun items, so the kids gathered all the items into one big pile.

This is the loot - football cards, gum, money (coins) and Reese's cups. We then divided up the loot evenly between the boys. This was a fun way to get ready for the actual Redskins vs. Eagles game that takes place on Sunday. Stay tuned for the Cowboys game/pinata later in the season.....

Lowry Show and Tell

2010-10-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few various and sundry items that I decided to combine into one blog for memory's sake.
We had our first garden this summer - we had 4 tomato plants and 2 cherry tomato plants. Our plants produced as though they were on steroids. We had so many cherry tomatos that we tired of picking all the little things. Craig went out one day and found this little cherry tomato for me!

It was truly amazing how that little leaf dried onto the tomato in a perfect little heart shape :)

In an effort to keep our dietary menu interesting, I like to try new recipies fairly often. I found this recipie in a book that the boys' daycare put together one year. The dish is called Thai Shrimp and Angel Hair. This is the shrimp and veggie mix with peanut sauce that we put over our pasta. As I was preparing this meal, Criag decided that if we were going to eat Asian food - then we must eat in Asian style. So he had the boys get 2 cinder-type blocks and a piece of old plywood from the back yard and they prepared this table.

I made a pot of hot tea and we all sat on the floor to eat our supper. The meal was made complete with Asian music coming from our computer :) What a fun meal! We had a great time sitting on the floor and talking.

Craig also came up with this idea to make pinata's for football season. It was a project that took about a week to complete. Here is Craig and Shannon on one of the first nights of pinata making.

More on this to follow in the next blog........

Eamon's 1st Cross Country season

2010-09-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

It was exciting to have Eamon join Craig and I in our love for running this summer. Eamon decided in June that he would like to run cross country. Craig was a good trainer for him, he had him running 4 days a week for most of the weeks this summer. The official cross country practices started in mid-August. The first meet was held at Montevideo Middle School. It was a very hot day!

Here is the Pence line-up for the first meet.

You could usually find Eamon and Jake running about the same pace.

For the first meet, Eamon placed 3rd!!

Eamon missed the team's first invitational of the season, but he was able to run in the THMS invitational which was the last race of the season. It was another hot day with no rain since the first meet several weeks before. Eamon ran well, he finished 7th overall in this race (out of approx 125 boys) and recieved a medal.

Congratulations Eamon to a great 1st cross country season!!!

Back to School 2010

2010-08-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time to go back to school!!! We have had a fast, but fun summer! I haven't done much blogging, but let me tell you now about some of the things we did this summer. The kids did several camps, we started the summer with a basketball camp at TA, we participated in a few of the track meets with the Shenandoah Valley Track Club. Eamon did a good bit of running this summer in preparation for his first cross country season. The boys played a good bit of tennis this summer and attended 2 weeks of tennis camp at Bridgewater College, Eamon actually participated in 2 tournaments. The summer flew by so fast, we only got one camping trip in at Highland Retreat - my family has made it a tradition to go for the annual Steak BBQ fund raising weekend. Shannon spent a 1/2 week at Highland in the end of June, and Eamon spent a week there in the end of July. We went to the Massanutten Water park one day with a group of family and friends. We went to Richmond for my Triathalon in July. We went canoeing. In August the boys had their "team soccer camps" - that was the sort of kick-off to starting soccer practices again. We went to Roanoke/Smith Mountain Lake for a weekend with my family. And recently we've just been enjoying the end of the summer and getting back in touch with school friends again. Other summer activities included going to the pool and working in our garden. Shannon and I also put out a humming bird feeder this summer, so we have enjoyed watching our little birds come and go.

And now it's time to go back to school! Shannon was actually excited to go back to school this year! He says he has the "best teacher in 4th grade" and he has some good friends in his class. I hope he'll continue to be so excited once the homework starts coming...

Here is my handsome 4th grader.

And here are both my handsome boys. Eamon is going into 7th grade. And he is ready to conquer the world!! He is enjoying running cross country and playing travel soccer.

Shannon is in the soccer academy again this year, so we are keeping very busy!

Here is one of my jobs for today..... Craig went to the garden last evening and this is what he found.

Just like summer is ending, so is our garden. It is a sight to see right now, but we are still enjoying the last of the summer rewards.

Canoeing

2010-07-24T18:53:00.001-07:00

During the summer, our church usually has some fun outings for the kids. Eamon, Shannon and I went on the canoeing trip this past Saturday. It was a sunny, hot day - perfect for canoeing and playing in the Shenandoah River.

Here is the "canoeing crew": Mary, Shannon, Jacob, Eli, Eamon and Carrie

When we would get to a nice spot and when everyone was nice and hot, we were allowed to hop out of the canoe and swim for awhile. Shannon is front and center here, Eamon is the one that is the farthest out.

Shannon found a swamp monster that he had to fight off!! (A.K.A Eamon with river grass on his head)

Shannon thought that when he was swimming like this he looked like a "turtle".

Here they are at the end of the trip!! It was a fun, 6 mile ride down the Shenandoah River.

An "Event"-ful weekend

2010-07-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

This has been a long-awaited weekend for me. Several years ago, I started thinking about doing a triathalon. I figured, I know how to swim, I have a good bike, and I enjoy running - makes sense to put them all together. So, last summer I was talking to a friend who has done several triathalons and I decided that this was the summer to do it. I will be turning 40 in a couple weeks, so I thought it would be a perfect way to give a final "hurrah" to the 30's.

The race I chose to do was in Richmond which is convienent as we have several family members who live in that area. We make arrangements to stay with Craig's Aunt Jean. It's a beautiful place where she lives - it's a townhouse community that is on a small lake. Not long after we arrived at her house, the boys were each given a fishing pole and were off to the lake to fish. We had our fair share of tangled fishing line and hooks that got stuck in the bottom of the lake, but the fishing did end up to be very successful.

Shannon caught 6 fish.
And if you are wondering about the color of his hair.... Yes, it is gray! He decided to color it with a white hair spray just before we left our house. We all decided he looked a bit like George Clooney.

Eamon caught 7 fish.

The fish were small (sun fish and blue gills, we think) and we threw them all back in. We even saw a couple turtles who were also enjoying our bait of bologna and bread.

Craig and I were up very early on Sunday morning to head to the race site. I had to be there around 6:00 to get everything set up. The start times were staggered as the swim was in a pool, so they started each participant off and 10 second intervals. My start time was 8:10:50 to be exact. The swim (300 m) was hard for me as that is the part that I have the least experience in.

Here I am coming off of the swim. The YMCA (indoor pool) is in the background and this path was laid out to the transition area where I hopped on my bike for the 20K (12.4 mile) bike. It was a good feeling to be on my bike and the course was nice with small rolling hills. Then the run was a 5K (3.1 mile) and it went well. It is difficult to start the run after being on the bike, but I soon adjusted to the running and felt like I finished up strong. I am pleased with my results I was the 52nd woman to finish (out of a total of 185), I was 5th in my age group, my time was 1:14:56. I wanted to finish in less than 1:30, so I am very pleased with my time.

Here I am right after the race with my favorite fans!

I also had a "suprise fan" that showed up!! Here I am with my good friend, Joan. We have been friends since our days in nursing school. Joan lives in Richmond and is an accomplished triathalete, and now a new mom. She and her 6-month old, Ryan came to cheer me on! It was wonderful to see her again, but we did not have a long enough time for a good visit.

All-in-all, the weekend was a great success! I have reached the goal that I made for myself - now I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the summer (and catch up on all the cleaning and yard work that I have not been doing)!! However, I think my family may have caught some of the racing bug, Craig and the boys have all been talking about trying some races in the future - so maybe you'll be seeing some more "event"-ful times for the Lowry family.

First time at camp

2010-07-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

For the past few summers, I have been hoping to send Shannon to camp. Due to several different factors (the camp changed the camp options and Shannon's readiness) he has not gone to camp till this year. I was very eager for Shannon to try out his ability to be "on his own" for a few days. Since this was his first time, we chose the 1/2 week of camp - I dropped him off on Wed morning and picked him up on Fri late afternoon. The best thing about Shannon going to camp this year - his was able to sign up and be cabinmates with his cousin, Austin.

The boys cabin was located right next to the tether ball, the small climbing wall, and the new attraction - the ga-ga game court. So when we dropped the boys off, we literally dropped their things in the cabin and they were running out the door to go play. Shannon was not one bit concerned that I was leaving.

We had to make the boys stop their game for a photo op.

When we picked the boys up on Fri, we heard that the weather had been cool. It was very pleasant during the days, but the night temps were 48-50 degrees. I asked Shannon if he ever got cold at night and he said 'no'.

Here is Shannon on Fri when I arrived to pick him up. Yes, I expected him to be dirty, but I was very surprised to see that he had grown facial hair as well!! On Fri morning they apparently had some sort of "carnival" that involved face painting.

I believe the boys had some crazy counselors! Shannon came home with several stories about "Biscuit". Acutally both of the counselors were named Mike, but the one in the front on this pic had the nickname of Biscuit.

Here we have the "big boys" who were in charge of our "little boys" for a few days! It was their first week of camp for this summer as well, and I think they did a great job!!
I know Shannon's first time at camp was successful because he now says that next year he wants to stay for the full week. I think he's hooked!!

The Impromptu Trip

2010-06-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Craig and I were discussing the weekend. He said, "Why don't we go camping tomorrow?" My initial response was "What did you just say?" It has been about 5 years since Craig last accompanied us on a camping trip, much less came up with the idea himself. When I told the kids that Craig wanted to go camping, their response was, "In a tent?"
So, on Saturday, after the USA World Cup soccer game we embarked on our simple camping trip. We packed lightly - just what we needed - the tent, sleeping bags, pillows, a change of clothes, and a few other items. Then we stopped by IGA and picked up just enough food for supper and breakfast.

We drove to Todd Lake and picked one of the camping sites that are just off the road to the lake. Craig prefers to camp away from other people, so we were on our own here. The boys did a very good job of getting a fire going. We were able to fuel our fire by just using wood that we found around the site.

This is a pic of our campsite. Behind me was the stream where the boys looked for crayfish and where I washed my hands when needed.

There were 2 big logs to use as chopping blocks. Eamon had remembered to bring the axe, so the boys were able to work on their chopping skills.

Craig took the soccer balls and he worked on his soccer juggling a bit. So far, he is tied with Eamon for the lead in our friendly family competition. They have both reached the level of 13 juggles.
After breakfast on Sunday morning, we packed up the tent and all our "stuff" and we ended the impromptu trip with a family trail run (Shannon and I had a trail run/walk). It was a wonderful way to end our "weekend away".

Those boys!!

2010-06-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

One day last week, a friend of my boys came over. Nick was wearing a green Nike shirt. My boys also have green Nike shirts, so they decided that they all needed to wear the shirt.

The boys decided to introduce Nick to their new street hockey game. I loved Eamon's goalie outfit, so I had to have a pic. He is wearing a football helmet, lacrosse chest and shoulder pads, hockey knee and shin guards, and he is using a baseball glove to help stop the ball. What a creative outfit!

Here they are in action!!

Memorial Day Soccer Tournament 2010

2010-06-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

The grand finale of the Spring 2010 soccer season!!! This soccer tournament was in Richmond. Eamon had 4 games at Bryan park and Shannon had 3 games at Hensley soccer complex south of Richmond.

Here is Eamon in action as a forward this time.

Here is Shannon in action. You cannot see his #11 as he is in the action of giving the ball a hard kick. You can see his yellow cleat and his leg up in the air and the ball going straight for the goalie.

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a nice family dinner at Chili's.

This is Shannon with his good friend, Finn. They are in the same class at school this year and Finn's brother is on Eamon's team.

Here is the winning team!!! Eamon's team won their 3 games and had a championship game to compete in. They won the title for the U12 age group!!

Shannon's team did not fare so well. They lost all their games, but they had a fun time in spite of the losses.

Another Sport??

2010-05-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

As I look back over the past 8 years, we have tried many different sports: soccer, baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, swimming, cycling, track meets, tennis......could there be any other sports for us to try?? Of course!!! Roller hockey!!
One evening a few weeks ago, a friend of ours called to see if the boys wanted to come play roller hockey in a cul-de-sac near their house. Shannon was at a birthday party, but Eamon was eager to go. So, he donned his roller blades and off we went. He had a great time and our friend gave him a hockey stick so he could practice at home. The next day, he and Shannon were out in the road trying out their new sport.

Shannon getting ready to take a shot.

Eamon guarding the goal. (It's not really a hockey goal, it's the old lacrosse goal that we have had for some time. The boys have been using it this spring to 1 v. 1 soccer in the front yard.)

Both boys in action!!

Eamon already has some fancy moves to celebrate when he makes a goal.

Craig even got out there to play goalie (without roller blades).

So, we'll see what happens with this new sport. I'm hoping it will be a good outside activity for this summer. I'm all for anything that will get the boys outside!!

Eamon - 12 years old!!

2010-05-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Eamon turned 12 on May 7, 2010. On the evening of his birthday, I made lasagna for supper and he happened to have a suprise visit from some old friends, Ryan and Nick. The next day was Saturday and he had a soccer game and then had some soccer buddies over to celebrate.

This is the whole crew: Seamus, Andrew, Eamon and Jake

The boys had fun playing "Cosmic Keep Away" with a new game ball that I bought. We had baked potato bar for supper and then a Chocolate Extreme Dairy Queen cake. Then we finished off the evening with some "Cosmic Bowling" from 10-12. After that the boys all spent the night and we had a yummy pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. What a fun time!!

Just as he wished, Eamon recieved some monetary gifts for his birthday and he ended up with just enough to get the I pod touch that he so badly wanted! He also got some tennis clothes and shoes.

Happy Birthday Eamon!!!!! I hope you have fun being 12. :)

Shannon, my thinker

2010-05-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Shannon like to test theories, and invert new things. Here is one of Shannon's inventions:

It is a bar of soap that will not slip out of your hands. It has a hole in the middle of it so you can secure it onto your finger. How clever!

Shannon and I had an interesting conversation in the car the other day. He heard an ad on the radio for a masters degree program. He asked "You have to pay to get a master's degree?" And I said, " Yes, it is just like college, you have to pay and it is very expensive". There was a pause and then I heard a little voice from the back seat say, "....will you help me?" I said, "What are you talking about?" And Shannon replied, "Will you help me pay for college?" :)

Of course, honey, we plan to help you. I will be eager to see what you become!

This also reminds me of a conversation that Shannon had recently with Mamaw. He told her that he plans to go to Virginia Tech because JMU is too easy to get into!! Well, time will tell.....

Easter weekend

2010-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

The boys had a good Easter break from school, even though it was shortened a good bit. They were supposed to be out for a whole week, but due to the snow in Feb, they only got a 4 day weekend. Thurs and Fri they spent the day with Papaw (and Amy was there on Fri to entertain the boys). On Fri Eamon was able to spent the afternoon playing tennis with his friend, Ryan. And Shannon dyed Easter eggs with Amy, Austin and Adam.
Sat was our big family excursion. Remember the money jar that we sorted and counted on that snowy weekend in Feb? We finally used that money for our fun family activity. We went to Washington DC to see a DC United soccer game. It was a good game even though they lost 0-2.

Here we are all decked out in our DC United jerseys.

We had really good seats. Here is a picture of the action from where we sat.

Then on Sunday we went to Easter Sunday church service and had lunch with the grandparents at the usual Kiser Sunday dinner (Nana was also there). The weather this weekend was beautiful, so we took advantage of it and spent Sunday afternoon beautifying our yard.

The boys helped with the mulching for a little while, but they spent more time flying a kite that they got for Easter this morning. For their "Easter baskets" this year they each got a kite, a pack of hockey cards, a chocolate Easter egg and some chocolate covered cashews. For some funny reason the "Easter bunny" didn't put the items in baskets this year, he just used bowls from my kitchen cupboard. I wonder how that happened??

The big Tournament

2010-03-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we started our spring soccer season off with a bang - a tournament in Virginia Beach!! It was a beautiful, sunny weekend. Sat was sunny and in the upper 70's, Sun was a bit cooler and windy.

Eamon's team did well with 1 win - 1 tie - 1 loss. Here is Eamon in action with his friends Seamus and Jake.

Eamon took this amazing pic of Shannon in action. This was the beginning of a serious tuck and roll that Shannon took.

Here is the famous goalie in the pink jersey in action! Eamon loves to play goalie and really does a great job!!

Shannon also likes to play goalie, but the position does not hold his attention very well. When the ball is on the other side of the field, we often find Shannon getting tangled in the net.

Shannon's team also had 1 win this weekend which was very exciting for the team.

Bedtime routine

2010-03-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

The bedtime routine with Shannon is sometimes very frustrating. However, lately, I have to grin every time I tuck him into bed. Shannon is very paticular at bedtime and need to be in the "correct position" before I can cover him up. That means that his Blue Dog that he sleeps with also needs to be positioned correctly. Now since his birthday he has 2 Nerf guns that he also sleeps with - to protect him from any zombies that might enter his room at night. This is a picture similar to the "correct position".

This is the quick action that he would be able to do in case of intruders.

That Shannon - he really is one of a kind! And I love him for that, in spite of the frustration that he often causes!!

Happy 9th Birthday Shannon!!!

2010-03-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

3/14/2010
Shannon turned 9 years old today!!! We celebrated his birthday at Funky's Skate Center and we had a marvelous time! We had 12 boys and 1 girl as our guests.

Here is Shannon with his cousin Shawn.

Here you can see the whole crew. Shannon had 7 boys from his class : Stuart, Finn, Berkley, Ben, Brennan, Patrick and Joe. Berkley brought his twin sister, Grace. She was the lone girl of the group, but she didn't seem to mind. We also had 3 cousins : Adam, Austin and Shawn. And 1 brother, Eamon, and his friend Seamus (who is also a brother to Finn).

This is Shannon with a "blinking" mouthpiece. Unfortunately the picture does not show the blinking colors.

Shannon chose to have an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

As far as I could tell a great time was had by all. From Mom and Dad this year Shannon recieved a Nerf gun, a small Lego set, $20 and the Virgina Tech shirt that he is sporting in the pictures. What a great day for Shannon !!! Shannon says "I want to party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

What can you do with your ears??

2010-02-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a conversation I had with Shannon while he was in the bathtub this evening:

Shannon: Did you know my ear is like a suction cup??

Me: Really

Shannon: Yeah, listen to this....

Then he proceded to put his ear against the tub and rub his head up and down a little - and lo and behold, when he pulled his head away from the tub - his ear made the sound of a suction cup!!

That is Classic Shannon for you!! So, I challenge you, what can you do with your ears??

What do you do in a cold snowy winter??

2010-01-30T17:57:00.001-08:00

Well, this has been one cold and snowy winter!! I just keep telling myself what a beautiful spring we are going to have because everything will be watered so well. Actually, I don't mind the snow so much, it's really the cold that I could do without. Only 7 more weeks till spring.....
So, what have we been doing?? Well, the boys are in basketball, but the games have been cancelled a couple times already due to the weather. Eamon continues to take tennis lessons once a week and Shannon is hoping to start tennis again this spring or summer. Shannon has been making some creations with his K'nex that he got for Christmas. And he sometimes like to make creations with his food as you can see below.

Last week the boys had an extra day off school (a teacher workday). We took advantage of the day and went snow tubing at Massanutten. It had been about 5-6 years since I had taken them there. We had a fun time, but it was not easy to get pictures of the sledding because we were going too fast. The tubing lanes were labeled as "fast" that day. I asked one of the attendants how fast the tubes go and he said "on a good day, 35-40 miles per hour". Here is a pic I got of the boys as we were leaving the park.

Now we are having another cold snowy weekend. Basketball was cancelled today and church is already cancelled for tomorrow. Yesterday Craig came up with the idea that we should empty out his change jar as it was overflowing. So, last evening and for a good part of today, we were sorting and wrapping coins. Here is Shannon with Craigs empty change jar.

Craig told the boys he would pay them to sort the money. The jar had much more money than any of us thought it would. We all took guesses before we started to sort the money and the guesses ranged from $111.11 to $215.00. Well, we ran out of wrappers and still have some more to wrap but our guestimation is that the jar had approx $450.00 in it!! The boys are each walking away with $25.00, which $15.00 of that is going in their bank accounts. Then we decided that the rest of the money will be used for a fun family activity - maybe a Capital hockey game.

Here are the boys hard at work.

Our other fun activity today was making 'pumpkin spider bread'. This is something Shannon has been wanting to make for a week and we are finally getting to do it. We used Matt's famous pumpkin bread recipie and as you can see, our project turned out very well!! Shannon thinks the pans look like they are floating :). I didn't have twizzlers for the spider legs, so we just had bugs or legless spiders, whichever you prefer.

Well, it's time for bed..... Shannon says "Good day"!!

Eamon's little friend

2010-01-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had the chance to spend a day with our small group friends from church. Three of the couples in this group have been small grouping together for more than 12 years. That means we were small grouping B.C. which means before children. Eamon was the first of all the children in the group, and so he is the eldest of the 13 children.
As we spent the day together yesterday, it was a joy to see Eamon looking after the youngest member of our group, Violet.

Violet is 10months old, and she loves her mommy very much at this stage. Eamon did a good job of trying to play with her and make her happy.
Good job, Eamon, I love to watch you becoming a fine young man!

Princess Grace

2010-01-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Finally the Lowry's got to meet Princess Grace!! We went to visit Lana and Grace last weekend and had a very nice time. Grace spends a lot of time with mommy now (eating and "snuggling"), but the boys did get to spend a little time with her as well.

Here are all the knights with the Princess: Eamon - 11, Shannon and Austin - 8, Adam - 6, and the Princess is 3 weeks old.

Here is the whole "Kiser clan". This picture shows the 3 Kiser girls with all the kids as of now.

Mamaw also came along on the trip, and Mike was there too. However, we all missed Matt as he had to take an unplanned trip to Texas for a funeral.

Christmas - part 2

2009-12-25T17:15:00.001-08:00

Here is the continuation of our "8 days of Christmas"......
Dec 20 - The boys got gift certificates to go to the movies - a rare occasion for us - that present will be one they really enjoy!

Dec. 22 - The boys got a fun small gift today - Crayola coloring books with 3-D glasses included.

Dec 24 - Christmas eve - the boys got new shoes. Eamon got shoes for basketball which will be starting in Jan. Shannon got new shoes for school.

Dec. 25 - Christmas Day!!!

The grand finale!! Eamon got another pair of shoes - they are "skateboarding shoes" which seem to be fashionable now. He was very pleased as his old shoes are about 2 sizes too small, but he insisted on wearing them till he got a new pair. Shannon was excited to finally get his own DS. Eamon has had a DS for 2 years now and Shannon has patiently watched and waited to get one of his own.

We have had a very nice Christmas 2009!! I think I enjoy opening the gifts in a piecemeal fashion like this. The boys are able to enjoy their gifts for a little before moving on to the next one. It certainly made for much less craziness on Christmas morning!

Crazy boys!!

2009-12-20T17:44:00.001-08:00

Well, this boy is not showing his crazy side here, but we see it come out every now and then.
Here is crazy boy #1.

Here is crazy boy #2.

Here is crazy boy #3.

And here is what crazy boy #2 and #3 decided to do in the 2 feet of snow we got over the weekend:

Shannon had been wanting to ride his bike in the snow all afternoon and I said "no way". Of course it is way to dangerous. Well, when I wasn't paying attention, the boys got the bikes out anyway and I found them riding on the snow packed road and then trying to ride thru the 2 feet of snow in the front yard.

Needless to say - Crazy boys!!!

Our first 4 days of Christmas 2009

2009-12-19T17:24:00.001-08:00

This year Craig decided that we should do something different for Christmas. Instead of having all the craziness on Christmas morning, we should do it like the Jewish Hanukkah and open a present every day. He thought we should have "12 days of Christmas", but that didn't work because we didn't have 12 presents for each of the boys to open.
So, we started our Christmas on Dec 13. (I however, know that the real reason for starting early is because Craig was so excited about opening this first gift).

Dec 13 - The boys got an electric football game. This is something Craig had as a boy and he spent many hours playing with this game. I think all 3 "boys" will have a lot of fun with this.

Dec. 14 - The boys got some warm-up clothing for their sport activities. Eamon got a warm-up jacket (which actually replaces one that he lost this past fall). And Shannon got a warm-up suit and a tennis cap.

Dec 16 - Eamon went to a tennis lesson this evening and Craig let him open his gift of a new tennis racket. Shannon got one of his big gifts this night too - a "video game rocker" for his room. Although, we do not have any video game systems, this chair was the perfect size to fit in Shannon's freshly cleaned room.

I hope he gets many Aces with this one!!!

Dec 18 - This is probably one of the least exciting gifts for the boys. Since neither of them enjoy reading very much, they are not very excited about getting books. However, Eamon did say that his book (a football story) sounded interesting and I think Shannon will like his book about Michael Jordan as a boy.

Well, that completes our first 4 days. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.......

Air and Space

2009-11-16T19:02:00.000-08:00

Finally, soccer season is over. We were supposed to finish our season with a tournament in Richmond this past weekend, but with the recent heavy rains, the tournament was cancelled due to standing water in the fields.
Since we were supposed to be gone on Sat and had no plans, I decided it was time to go visit the Air and Space museum in Dulles, VA. This is something I have been wanting to do for some time. It came at a good time too because Eamon has just finished reading a book on WWII Bomber Planes and he is doing a report on it. Shannon also loves reading about military planes and he loves to construct jets, planes and space vechicles with K'nex and Legos. We also rented the movie Apollo 13 for the kids to watch on Friday night.
Here is a sampling of our past weekend:

This is a Star Wars ship that Shannon put together this summer. Then it broke when he decided to play with it. And Shannon is so detailed about things that he took EVERY SINGLE piece apart and reconstructed the whole ship. He just finished it for the 2nd time this weekend.

This is the Enterprise Space Shuttle - acquired by the museum in 1985. It is rather amazing to see in person.

This is an interesting plane we found.

Here we are in the observation tower. The tower looks out at the landing strip of Dulles ariport and you can watch the planes land.

Here is Shannon with his 2nd Star Wars ship of the weekend. He also constructed a jet plane and another small space vechicle with his K'nex.

We had a great time at the museum. We all tried out the simulator rides that they have. We ate lunch at the McDonalds that is right in the building. And we finished the afternnon off by watching an IMAX film on Fighter Pilots.

Whew!!! With all this Air and Space, my head feels like it is spinning in the clouds! What next??? Maybe we should rent Top Gun.......

What kind of muffins??

2009-10-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

This evening as Shannon was trying to do his homework, Craig was in the next room vacuuming the living room. Shannon could not work with all the noise, so he covered his ears and said, " I need some ear muffins!!" I'm sure ear muffins would not taste good, and I don't think they would be very noise resistant either. :)

Virginia Beach 2009

2009-10-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

Oct 9-11 found us in Virginia Beach for a soccer tournament. It was a beautiful weekend for the most part. The soccer games did not go well for Eamon's team, but we had a lot of fun anyways!!

Here's the whole crew enjoying the hot tub and pool at the hotel: Shannon and Robert Miller in the pool, and in the hot tub we have Matthew Lovinger, Andrew Miller, Jake Lovinger, Eamon and Hannah Lovinger.

Before and after the tournament we were able to spend a little time on the beach. We we arrived on Fri afternoon, the temp was in the 80's. The water felt cold to me, but the boys enjoyed riding the waves.

Who are those "surfer-dudes"??

On Sunday after the tournament, we all (the Lovinger's, the Miller's and us) went to the beach and walked on the boardwalk. The temp was a little cooler, in the 70's. And we had some really good ice cream. This weekend was a great way to officially end the summer of 2009!!

Is it Halloween already??

2009-10-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the boys got into the costumes last weekend. They played "Star Wars" all weekend long.
This is our new neighbor, Joseph. We are glad that he likes to play Star Wars and he has his own costume too!!

Shannon as Anakin Skywalker.

Eamon the fierce warrior.

Here is the whole crew. If you happened to be driving thru the neighboorhood this past weekend, you may have seen them running around.

Glen Kiser Jr???

2009-10-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we had a problem with water leakage from our refrigerator. Of course our first reaction was to "call Dad" as he always knows what to do. Even though it was 7:30 in the evening, he came on over to check out our fridge and luckily, he was able to find the problem and fix it.

As you can see, Shannon was right there with him.

You can easily get Shannon's attention whenever something is being taken apart. He loves to see how things work and he thinks he knows how to fix everything. Which makes us wonder - is he another Glen Kiser??

This thought was confirmed for me this morning. As we were on our way to church, the boys were talking about cleaning my car. Eamon was saying how the wheels are very dirty and need to be cleaned. I made sure they knew that if the wheels get cleaned, the whole car needs to be cleaned first. So, Shannon says, "First we will clean the car, then we will clean the wheels and then we will fix the engine". That got my attention and I asked "What is wrong with my engine?" And Shannon says, "We need to fix it so it can accelerate faster" !!!

The End of an Era

2009-09-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

Times change and children grow.
My children have decided that they don't need our "play gym" in the back yard anymore. There has been some discussion for about 2 years now about taking it down and replacing it with a garden. This spring Eamon took the original roof off and replaced it with a "new" roof. Then he and a friend painted the play gym black. Now the boys decided that it is time to come down.....

They enjoyed the destruction very much.

But, it saddened me to see the structure come down - my boys are not little anymore.
My hope is that next summer I will have pictures of a wonderful garden in our backyard.
As they say....when one door closes, another door opens.

Food for Thought

2009-09-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a picture of what I woke up to this morning..... Craig and I had the rare opportunity to sleep in till 9:00 this morning. When I started to get up and walk out of the bedroom, Shannon greeted me with a "go back and rest for a few minutes". I knew then that something was happening. Shannon soon appeared in our bedroom, all decked out with a dress shirt, vest, tie and a pair of soccer shorts - with a menu of breakfast choices!! We chose waffles and milk for our breakfast. Eamon was our chef and he did a fabulous job of making breakfast. They sure made me feel like a queen this morning.
And I should have a picture of this evening as well.... Eamon had a friend over and asked me to make a fruit pizza. I had all the ingredients, so I made the crust and the cream cheese topping and had some fruit available. Then we all sat down and made our own customized fruit pizza squares. It was fun to see what the boys chose to put on their squares of pizza.

Where have I been lately??

2009-09-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, life in this "new chapter" has proven to be very busy!! In fact at this point I am praying for some rain to come so we can spend some time sitting in our house. Here is what a typical week looks like for us now:
Monday - Eamon has guitar lessons, Shannon has soccer
Tuesday - Eamon has soccer, Shannon has football
Wednesday - Eamon is taking tennis lessons, Shannon has soccer
Thursday - Eamon has soccer, Shannon has football

Whew!! So far, the boys are doing a good job of getting homework done before and after their activities. Shannon seems to have a more rigorous schedule than Eamon, so every now and then I let him skip a practice just so we can keep our sanity.

This past weekend, Eamon and I went to Roanoke with his soccer team. He had a game there on Sat and another game in Blacksburg on Sun. We had a very nice trip. Craig and Shannon stayed home, but they stayed busy. Shannon had a football scrimmage on Sat morning followed by a soccer festival that afternoon where he played 4 "mini" soccer games. On Sun I asked Shannon whether he liked football or soccer better and he said "That's a hard decision".

Well, I hope to have some pictures to show sometimes soon - if only I could find time to go buy a camera.....

A New Chapter In Our Lives

2009-08-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

As we begin school today, I think of this as beginning a new chapter in our Lowry household.
For Shannon, he is entering 3rd grade, which as I remember with Eamon was a year that the children are expected to become much more independent. It is also the first year of the real SOL tests.

He doesn't look very happy here, but the morning went well with no complaining and everyone got to the bus stop in plenty of time. And, yes, he did wear shoes to school today--we just didn't have them on yet at picture time.

Eamon is entering 6th grade, which means a new school with a new sort of schedule to get used to. He did not seem to be nervous about going to middle school - the only concern he voiced was remembering the combination to his locker. As a middler schooler, there is no more afterschool care for Eamon. Most of his friends will be going home afterschool - some to an empty house. Eamon will be riding a different bus in the evening and going to Mamaw and Papaw's house. I am very thankful for grandparents that live locally and can be there for the grandkids.

For me, this new chapter is exciting and also a little scary. I hope both the boys are able to do well in school. And I hope they continue to make good friends.

This new chapter also includes a lot of extra activities. Shannon is participating in soccer and possibly football this fall. Eamon is in travel soccer and taking guitar lessons. I am hoping that both boys are also able to find some time to attend the church's Boys Club and Jr Youth functions. Needless to say, I am a little anxious about how all we will manage our schedules, but I'm sure it will all work out.

And for Craig, he is not one bit worried. He just says we need to take one day at a time. He is also hoping to have some time to do some track workouts with Eamon (a new activity they are trying) and he would like to keep Eamon's tennis skills up with a few lessons.

One day at a time ..... I just need to keep that as my motto over the next couple months!!

Our visitor

2009-08-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

We had an unusual visitor a couple weeks ago. His name is Maverick and he is short and brown. He is also very well behaved.

Here is Maverick with the boys.

This is how we came to have Maverick as a visitor:

Shannon has been working with a "tutor" this summer on reading and writing. Maverick belongs to Ms. Jennifer. At the beginning of the summer, she told us that sometimes Maverick can go home with the children that she tutors. We waited for the end of the summer to have Maverick over as a treat for working hard.

I think Maverick had a good day at our house. Eamon took him on 2 walks (which were about 1 mile each). The boys brushed him and just enjoyed having him around for the day. He also got to eat a few potato chips at lunch. However, Maverick did seem to be happy to be back home at the end of the day. And for some reason, he didn't even say "Thanks".

Could I be an inventor ? :By Eamon

2009-08-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today us boys {Austin, Adam, Shannon, and I (Eamon)} made our own washing machine, which you can read about here. Well, us boys started hammering in stakes that we got out of the garage. Then Austin, Adam, and Shannon quit on me after that so I was all alone! So I went inside and tore apart a couple of trash bags. Then taped and stapled them into a triangular
shape which took a while. Then Amy and I put the tarp over over the clothes to protect the clothes from the rain. Which is working out pretty well now since it's raining now !!!

Please don't tell my mom yet because it is a surprise. SHH!!

A Nearly Perfect Day

2009-08-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today was such a wonderful day that I just have to write about it The boys started the day with a tennis lesson and then we.....
-listened to fun bluegrass music at the library for the end of summer celebration and had ice cream sundaes to top it off
-came home for lunch and an afternoon of working on Star Wars lego ships

-I worked on my once-a-year dusting of the livingroom

-we made chocolate covered pretzels

-I mowed the front yard
-had a wonderful salad for supper with a tomato from my very own tomato plant
-went to the park so the boys could fish while I read a book
-had a very funny game of Apples to Apples Jr. (we taught Craig to play)
-and now finishing with some laundry (the never-ending chore)

What a wonderful day!!! I think this just may be one of the best pre-birthday presents that I have ever had! Thank you Lord!!!

Magic 8

2009-08-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

I decided today that 8 is a magical age. Shannon is still a little cutie, but he is also step-by-step becoming aware of the big issues in life. He still loves his Blue Dog (the animal he sleeps with every night) and Blue Dog still gives me kisses (I have to get close to Blue Dog and Shannon and Shannon gives me a little lick on the cheek). Shannon is also still getting piggy back rides from me around the house, but he is quickly getting too big for me to do that. As I know from watching Eamon, this magical age is over far too quickly. I hope I can savor every moment.

Smith Mountain Lake

2009-08-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here we go!!! My first blog post with the help of my sisters :) We (Eamon, Shannon and I) are spending a weekend in Roanoke with Lana and Matt. As a part of our weekend, we planned a day at Smith Mountain Lake. Here are my boys playing in the sand.....
We also had a fun time playing in the water. Here the boys are playing nicely. The playing then phased into some play wrestling in the water, and then into actual fighting (over a piece of driftwood they found in the water).

We spent a good deal of time with the "rental vehicles". Mom graciously rented several things for us over the course of the day. We started with a 4 person paddle boat that you move by pedaling like a bicycle, then we tried out this single person "bike" that you ride on the water, we ended with a peaceful canoe.
Here is the whole crew at the end of the day. Tired and a little sun burnt, but very happy and satisfied that we had a safe and fun day on the "beach".

Carol is now on the web too!

2009-07-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

I must have started a trend....

We now need to welcome Carol to the Blogging community!

I can not wait to hear her many stories.

Lana