School Parties

Last week was full of school parties for both girls.  Mary Grace's school had a special Christmas lunch for Kindergarten and Pre-K families on Wednesday.  I enjoyed a lunch of turkey, dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, and red cookies with Mary Grace.  On Thursday and Friday mornings, Elsie had Happy Apple parties.  They both started with a short singing program in the sanctuary at church.  They sang several songs, including, "Happy Birthday, Jesus", which is one of my favorites.  It's so sweet to hear all of those little voices sing, "Jesus, I love you!".  Thursday afternoon brought a Christmas party at Miss Julie's house, complete with a visit from Santa.  Mary Grace's Kindergarten class had a cookie decorating party on Friday afternoon.  I was blessed to be able to attend all of these parties (except for Miss Julie's).  The photos above are from those.  I love the first one.  That's Mary Grace and Ella-Morgan at the Kindergarten cookie party.  This might be one for the CCHS yearbook in about 12 years!  That's Mallory and Maleah with Mary Grace in the next photo.
SMES also had a Polar Express party a couple of weeks ago.  I guess I didn't take any photos there but both girls really had fun.  Santa came to that party, too, and one of the photography studios in town, Studio S, was on hand to take photos of the kids with him.  That was an especially nice treat since we don't have a mall around here.  No mall, no mall Santa!
Now the kids are out of school for Christmas.  I am working three days this week and then am off until the new year.  We are getting ready for our second annual Christmas cookie decorating party and are looking forward to having lots of friends over for that on Thursday afternoon.  Then we have one more party to go to as a family on Thursday night.  After that, we'll be heading out for Christmas.

Nutcracker!

Hello, friends and family!  We've been up to so much and I haven't updated in so long that I'm just going to start with our most recent happenings and, hopefully, work my way back to Thanksgiving over the next couple of days. 
Most recently, these girls went to see the First Coast Nutcracker yesterday afternoon. I purchased tickets for this event early in November and have been so excited to start this tradition with our little family. But yesterday morning, I worried that we still have so much to do to get ready for Christmas that we didn't really have time to give up for this event.  I'm so glad that we went anyway.  It was a nice, peaceful break from the Christmas rush and really a fun show.  We had great front-row seats and the girls were enthralled with the dancers and costumes.  It was a feast for the eyes and ears, as the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra provided the music.  We were just in front of the pit, which the girls thought was so cool!  Mary Grace's favorite part was "when they got married" and Elsie's was "the green boy".  She thought it was so funny when he got a spanking and was carried out.  I loved the costumes and set.  They were so elaborate and really beautiful!  As for Stephen, well, he says he's had his "culture" for the year!

Christmas Photos and Saturday on the Playground

We've had a great weekend so far!  Last night, we joined our Sunday School class for a Thanksgiving dinner.  The food was wonderful and the friendship even better!
This morning, we met Santa on the beach for photos and then later took some photos of our own.  We went to Driftwood Beach on Jekyll.  The girls loved playing in all the trees!  Stephen had plans to shoot skeet this afternoon with a friend so the girls and I came home so that they could rest.  Early this evening, we went to the playground at Mary Grace's school.  It's a wonderful playground with a big field and sidewalk all the way around. It's become sort of a meeting place for all the kids in town.  We went there last Sunday afternoon and ran into many friends.  Today, we planned to meet Stella and her family there.  The gnats were bad so we parents got on the swings while the kids biked and ran around the field.  I had forgotten how fun it is to swing!  I felt like I was back in 5th grade.  It was so fun that I decided to try out the jungle gym after that.  Mary Grace impressed us all with her endurance as she ran around the field two times for a total of a half mile after pedaling her Big Wheel around twice!  And, in Mary Grace style, she did all that in ballet flats and a dress.  Elsie biked around the field several times.  We already have plans to go back tomorrow afternoon. 

Mary Grace's Soccer Party

Mary Grace also had her last soccer game on Saturday morning.  I didn't get any photos of that.  I coach her team so I couldn't coach and shoot photos at the same time!  We had her party that afternoon at the clubhouse at Winding River.  It was a joint party with U8 Team Spain.  Our team is in blue.  The weather was beautiful and the kids couldn't  resist dipping their feet in the pool.
Mary Grace had a great season.  She scored her first goal and is really starting to go after the ball and enjoy the game more.  I'm going to coach her team again in the Spring.  It will be my last season as her coach.  After that, she'll move up to U8 and Elsie will be at the U6 level.  I'm going to continue coaching U6.

Elsie's Soccer Party and Last Game

 Here are some photos from Elsie's last soccer game and her team party.  We had the party last Thursday night at the Moody's home.  The last game was on Saturday morning.  She had a great season and really enjoyed getting out and running around.  We're looking forward to Spring season!

Girls and Guys Weekends

Stephen and several of his friends planned a trip to Jay's cabin in Blackshear last weekend to hunt.  This trip is something that they do a few times a year.  While Stephen enjoyed a guys weekend, the girls and I had a little retreat of our own to Caswell Beach.  We met Nana and Dr. Danks and Aunt Chatham and Uncle Johnathan up there for a quick weekend getaway.  It was fairly cold, but we managed to get in plenty of time outside.
We enjoyed a Christmas craft fair in Southport, time on the playground, and dinner at the club on Saturday.  We went back into Southport for brunch before heading back home on Sunday.
Here are some photos of our trip:

Leadership Camden Trip to Cumberland Island

I traveled to Cumberland Island yesterday with my Leadership Camden class.  We took the NPS's "Loggerhead" boat to the island, docked at the Ice House and rode in vans to Dungeness, Plum Orchard, and the First African Baptist Church.  We toured the dorms where volunteers are housed and ate lunch on the lawn at Plum Orchard.
Cumberland Island is Georgia's only National Park.  A small portion of the island is privately-owned but most of it belongs to the National Park Service or will revert to NPS ownership once the current owners die.  You can read all about Cumberland on National Park Service website.  It's only accessible by boat.  Once you get over there, you have to walk or ride a bike to get around.  Only the NPS and private land owners can operate motor vehicles there.  So to be driven in a van to the north end of the island to see the First African Baptist Church, which is more than 10 miles north of the Sea Camp dock, was a true privilege.  This church is best known as the location of JFK, Jr.'s marriage to Carolyn Bessette.  The NPS is working on a transportation plan to make the island more accessible to all people.  There won't be a bridge to Cumberland, but there are going to be either trams or vans to take all visitors to the North End soon.
I hope you enjoy the photos.
On another note, you'll notice that the last few photos are of the St. Marys waterfront.  Does it look like a hurricane just hit?  A movie, "Eye of the Hurricane", is filming in our sweet little town.  They are almost finished and are currently filming their last scenes at the waterfront so the debris, torn awnings, etc. are part of the set.  I met the producer yesterday.  You can read more about movies in Coastal Georgia here.

Halloween!

Between two school parties and a Halloween party with friends, Elsie managed to squeeze in three different costumes last week and weekend!  For her Purple Apple party, she was a munchkin.  For that, she wore the same costume that she wore last year.  I don't have any photos of that party because I was working.  Stephen went to the party but forgot his camera.  For her Red Apple party, she was a fairy.  For trick-or-treating on Saturday night, she was Dorothy.
Mary Grace picked out a Southern Belle dress for her costume but when the time came for trick-or-treating she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
We had the Moody girls over on Saturday afternoon to play and eat supper before trick-or-treating.  Later that afternoon, we went to watch the game at the home of some friends.  They projected the game onto a screen in their front yard.  It was a fun time for the adults but our girls were ready to go trick-or-treating before long.  So we loaded up in the back of a pick-up and trick-or-treated around downtown St. Marys.  The actual trick-or-treating didn't last long because the kids got tired but we saw some great lawn decorations and spooky scenes at some homes.  Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

San Francisco

Stephen and I had a wonderful time in San Francisco!  Here are some photos:

You Actually Have to Visit the Website

to see my Italy photos!  A shameless ploy to get you to go to the site instead of just reading your e-mail!

Italy! Finally!

We're off to San Francisco tomorrow morning and because I hate to leave on another trip without posting about Italy, here are our photos from our big Italy trip.  Laura and I are behind the camera so much that it almost looks like Jay and Stephen went by themselves but I promise we were there, too!  I'll do a more detailed post later but wanted to get these pictures out since so many of you have been asking for them.  They are in chronological order, starting in the Jacksonville Airport, then Atlanta, then in the Venice airport.  From Venice, we drove east to Aquilea and then to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea.  We spent our first night in Aquilea with Laura's friend Glenda and her family. From there, we went back to Venice, where we spent one night at a hotel.  We had rooms looking out over the Grand Canal.  From Venice, we traveled by train to Florence.  We were in Florence at the Torre Guelfa (with fabulous roof-top views of the city) for one night.  We rented a car (a Volvo wagon, how European!) in Florence and drove to Tuscany.  We stayed at the Villa Rosa for two nights.  We enjoyed our tour of the beautiful Tuscan countryside.  Then we drove back to Florence, dropped off the car, and took the train from Florence to Rome.  We spent our last two nights in Rome (my favorite part of the trip) and flew home from there.

Columbus Day

The girls and I enjoyed a welcome break from work and school today.  After talking about Columbus Day and learning (with help from Grandma's Scholastic poster) why we celebrate Mr. Columbus, we went over to Mary Grace's school to play on the new playground and take some photos since the weather was so beautiful and the grass (really, sod) so green at the new school.  After playing, we met Stephen for lunch at Papa Luigi's, our favorite pizza place.  Then we went home to rest.  This afternoon, we made a trip to WalMart to stock up on things that Momo might need while she's here.  The girls got some Bendarooz at the store.  What a neat toy!  They spent a good part of the afternoon playing with those.

They've finally put in signs at the new school.  Can you believe how big?  And there are two of them, one on each corner.  I just hope they're planning to add a period after "St".  They know that.  There's one on the sign attached to the school.  I'm giving them a couple of weeks before I say something.

Soccer

Both Mary Grace and Elsie have been doing great in soccer this season.  Mary Grace scored her first goal last week.  It was off of a corner kick from her teammate, Jilly.  She put herself right in front of the goal in perfect position to kick the ball in.  And Jilly made a perfect kick to her.  It was great!
This past weekend, Elsie finally started playing.  Up until then, she had wanted us to be on the field with her.  She's one of the littlest ones out there.  But she really came out of her shell this past weekend.  The video is of her team (in white).  She's the little one with the white bow.  She takes the ball from the person who fell to the ground, dribbles the ball to the other side of the field, turns it to go toward her opponent's goal, and is on her way to score when her teammate takes the ball from her (that's just part of U4 soccer) and scores.  Please excuse her momma's yelling in the background, I was pretty excited!

CCHS on ESPNU Tonight

We are pretty proud of our local high school football team. They are ranked 10th in the US and tonight's game is being televised on ESPNU. So, even if our Dawgs don't give us much to cheer about this year, at least we still have a winning team to cheer for!
This game also got us a welcome "teacher work day" so folks could travel down to Ft Lauderdale for the game.
Go Cats!

My Law School

Law magazine: Georgia State's College of Law ranked is No. 1Print E-mail .By Péralte C. Paul






From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



"National Jurist magazine, a publication aimed at law school students ranked the College of Law at Georgia State University No.1 in value, up from its fourth place ranking last year. Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School, ranked second, unchanged from last year, while the University of Louisville’s Louis D. Brandeis School of Law ranked third. The University of Georgia School of Law, the only other school from the Peach State to make the list, ranked 15th. The magazine based its selection on bar passage rates, tuition costs, average student debt after graduation and post-graduation employment rates."

We Are Back!

We arrived home from Italy late on Tuesday night.  It was a wonderful trip filled with food, spectacular sights, and good friends and I am so thankful that we were able to go.  They say it takes a village to raise a child and I truly felt that this past week.  We would not have been able to go without the help of Nana, especially, and Dr. Danks, Momo, Aunt Chatham, Uncle Johnathan, Paula and Bridget, plus lots of local friends who all came together to take care of the girls while we were away.
We flew out of Jacksonville to Venice (via Atlanta) on Labor Day, spent a night in Aquiela, a night in Venice, a night in Florence, two nights in Tuscany, and two nights in Rome before flying back home on Tuesday.  It was a full week but I wouldn't have done it any other way.  My mom kept the girls by herself all of last week and managed to get them to school and all of their activities on time.  Yeah, Mom!  She took them back to Raleigh last weekend so that she could attend some social functions and Aunt Chatham and Uncle Johnathan stepped up to babysit.  Mom and Momo brought the girls back to St. Marys on Monday.  They left yesterday morning. 
I will post photos of our trip as soon as I get them downloaded off of my camera.
Ciao!

Happy Apple!

Elsie started 3-year-old preschool at Happy Apple on Monday.  She will be going 5 days per week.  They don't have a 5-day class for 3-year-olds so she gets to be two different apples: red on M, W, F and purple on T, Thurs.  Her Red Apple teacher is Mrs. Galluccio, who also taught Mary Grace, and her Purple Apple teacher is Mrs. Blansett, our next door neighbor (and Blake's momma).
She was so excited to start school and had a wonderful first two days.  Here are some photos from Open House and from her first days:

With her self portrait.  Notice the Mickey ears!

With Mrs. Galluccio

Lots of boys in her class!

With Mrs. Blansett.

Purple Apples!

With Stella.

We went out for pizza at Ops with the Bakers after Open House.

Flashback: Mary Grace's first Red Apple day.

Flashback: Elsie on Mary Grace's first Red Apple day.

We are so blessed to be part of such a wonderful little school.  There were so many parents and grandparents on the lawn outside of the church on the first day of school.  Some even wore the same color as their apple!  All had cameras and everyone was so excited to be there.  There is so much love surrounding that school.  I truly love this little place and am proud that it is a ministry of my church.