Grimm's and Zinn's dropped by for a Sunday visit!!!

Cathie only had Madison with her today. Raybon and Hannah were in Mississippi with Mike. I can't believe how much the girls are growing. Hannah and Annie have grown the most this year!!! The girls drove the golf cart around and played some wii and ate some watermelon and blueberries. The Bushes down the street, brought us back 2 watermelons from Cordelia, GA. They do that every year, so sweet!!!

Ty and Em's keeping room!!!

This is the keeping room Ty and Em have created in their kitchen where they have their morning coffee and shut off all devices to spend time together! Notice Drum overhead lamp and drum table:)

Latest news happening in the Nicholson household... never a dull moment, thank goodness!!!!

Laurel and Hayley's lease runs out this weekend and the competition for apartments is fierce in the fall here in Athens!!! They will raise the rent on you or challenge you to move! Laurel and Hayley have to come up with an extra months rent to be able to move into a new place! They will be moving in with us for a month or so to save up a bit. The girls (Ellie and Emma) are delighted because they adore the boys girlfriends and know that when the girls are here, their brothers will be here too! One big happy family!!!

Oh, and I played my 5th summer combo match today! Since we won today, we will go into playoffs to see who goes to state! I play in the playoffs on Monday. (Since I can't play on Saturday, they are moving the match up so I can play in it.) Last season one of my other teams made it to the playoffs, but we ended up getting beat and not going to state. Honestly, I don't really get caught up in my teams ranking that much, I just try to do my best in whatever match I'm playing in. Trying to move my swim lessons around to fit my tennis schedule now. Didn't plan on going this far this season. I didn't even know summer combo leagues could go to state. Still learning the game. My coach is always correcting me on my terminology. She asked me the other day how my summer combo matches were going. I told her that I won all my games so far. She looked at me and shook her head and said, "You mean you've won all your MATCHES".  haha, oops!

Lets see, what else, oh yes, Keith's car died on him while he was traveling this week... super stressful!!! $3,300 bucks! Ouch! But it runs like butter now, and cheaper than having a car payment... right??? 

School starts just around the corner. We got the girls school supplies this week with new book bags and lunch boxes. They are so excited!!!! Emma's got a back to school party next week, and Will and Maggie (my precious baby sister's kids) will be spending a few days with us before school starts! Can't wait!!!

Oh, and last, but not least, my parents, and awesome Aunt Betty, and eldest sister, Dawn, are all moving in together this weekend. All our kids will be in Marietta for a family reunion/helping them move! My parents, sisters and their families, and my sweet aunt will all be living within 5 minutes of each other! I feel like an outcast living in Athens, but it will be easy to see everyone in one visit!!! Miss them so much!

Ellie had her film camp this week!!!

This was a stop motion video camp that UGA offered in the summer. It takes between 1-2 hours to make 1 minute of video time when you do stop motion. (Think, Chicken Run, Wallus and Grummit, Shaun the sheep, and for we old timers, Gumby!) Who has that kind of patience??? They created 3 different sets. The one Ellie is showing is from the Lyndon House in Athens that she toured. The team wondered what might happen at night when no one is there... They came up with some possibilities. According to the video, the place is haunted at night and ghosts come and go and things come alive at night and move around. They play erie music too. Tried to download video, but blogger won't let me:) Their team also gave an impressive intro...

PCB July 2015

Lisa and Darron were there the week before us, so we got to overlap vacations for one night. Wish it could have been longer! Lisa and Darron got some new furniture and lights to update the condo. Keith and Darron are hanging the lights. Darron's making sure Keith doesn't get electrocuted, lol.

Ellie wrote an amazing short story while we were there! 

We only went to the beach once this week, on a cloudy day. It was just too hot to be outside. We mostly played games in the air conditioned condo and watched movies.

Keith and I also did a little shopping while we were there. We replaced a cracked toilet seat, a broken dvd player, and replaced the vertical blinds with some total blackout curtains to match the new couches. 

Alex, Drew, Laurel, and Hayley came and spent one night on their way to meet Tyler and Emily at her parents' condo in Fort Walton. I made a big spaghetti dinner, then we went to the beach and looked for crabs after dark, then on the way back, we climbed the fence and snuck in the pool and went night swimming. (pools close at 10:00) The next day the boys and I played tennis before they got back on the road!

Emma (almost 10), Ellie (13)

Emma loves to play in my makeup and to get her picture taken. Ellie... not so much:)

Emma at OYP Camp (Oconee Youth Performance)

At the end of the week they performed a musical for the parents. This year's musical was, "Freckled Face Strawberry."  Emma was fabulous!!!

Emily and I have been teaching swim lessons all summer!

This is one of our little fishy's, Eli!

Laurel and Ellie went to see the movie, Max, today!

Packing for Beach

Okay, get up and help... These suitcases don't just pack themselves!

Packing for beach...

So cute in her leopard print towel:)

Ahhh, fresh and clean:)

Neighborhood 4th of July Party!

After tennis and swimming, we ended the 4th of July with a cookout at a neighbor's house. I have never seen so much food! It was delicious! There were people of all ages there. They had a big water slide and corn hole and music (we left before the fireworks). I noticed one of the little boys kept asking people if they wanted to play the cup game. Everyone kept saying no. I said, Can I play? He put a rock under one of the cups and started sliding it around. He didn't realize it, but when he was sliding the cups around, the rock flew out. I caught it. Then he asked me to guess which cup the rock was under. We went through all 5 cups and he gasped, It's gone!!! I opened my hand. He looked at me with wide eyes and said, How did you do that??? Are you magic??? I said, Yep! hahaha. We started building towers with the plastic cups by the keg. Then the other little boys joined in. One little one tugged on me and was doing the pee pee dance. He said, Gotta go potty! I said, Where's your mom? He shrugged. I said, Come on I'll take you to the bathroom. We got up the deck stairs and he said, I wanna pee outside and turned around and pulled his pants down and started peeing right down the steps facing everyone. I had a flashback the boys when they were little, lol!