Finally finished Ellie's 6th grade project!

  For Ellie's 6th grade project, she had to do scale models of the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Big Ben. It became a family affair! We used a big box to make the Eiffel Tower. Ellie and I figured out the scale and designed and drew it. Keith cut it out for us and we taped and spray painted it with metalic paint. The other 3 were made with poster board or stock paper. We better get an A+ on this project... uh, I mean, she better get an A+.

Keith took a vacation day to spend with the boys...

Yesterday, Keith took a day off and joined Drew in checking out the Athens Tech campus. Once a month they have "Tech on Tuesdays", a day for prospective students to visit the campus and see what they offer. Drew feels like he's more of a hands-on learner and decided that a technical school is a better fit for him than a university. It dawned on him a few weeks ago that his favorite class in high school was metal shop. He's loves drawing, painting, working with clay, writing poetry... always creating something beautiful with his hands and his mind. Athens Tech offers Welding Technology as an area of study. Drew said, now that he knows what he wants to do, he can't wait for classes to start. I've never seen Drew so excited about anything! He's been looking online and discovered there are many opportunities for welders. Keith and him had a great day. Then they headed back and picked up Alex and the 3 of them had lunch together. Tyler was still in classes, so he didn't get to hang with the guys this time.

Girls' tennis lessons with Genaro

Keith was on call this weekend, so Sunday afternoon, the boys and Emily met me and the girls up at HCM park. We played tennis while the girls took their lessons. Whatever calories we burned on the court, we put right back on afterwards at the "Cook Out".  Best greasy burgers in town and totally worth it!

Watched the UGA/FL Game with some neighbors Saturday afternoon.

Halloween 2013!

Pumpkin carving time...

Emma drew the owl on a piece of paper and I carved it onto the pumpkin. We all pulled out the pumpkin guts!!! Lots of the neighborhood kids helped! Belina, the boxer pup, helped with the clean up. She ate lots of pumpkin guts:)

This is my tennis team!

About 4 of the ladies are missing from this picture. We are all beginners, and slowly improving. Our tennis coaches, Stacy and Genaro are wonderful and encouraging and make learning the game fun! I've always wanted to play tennis, but when I failed it in college, I decided it wasn't for me. I was very intimidated to join a team because I knew I was really bad and didn't even understand how to play the game. Amy, my new neighbor, encouraged me to play saying, "We're all beginners... everyone has to start somewhere." I'm so glad I listened to her because I am really loving the game! 

Amy is 3rd from the left. On top of our regular group lessons on Thursdays, and our matches on Tuesdays, we tacked on 4 private lessons (or semi-private, since we do them together) on Fridays. We just needed someone to show us the basic strokes and how to serve. We have been taking the kids up to the neighborhood courts in the afternoons with us about once a week. The kids play so well together and are enjoying it and we are getting in some extra practice. Our husbands are both really good tennis players, so the 4 of us go up to the courts on the weekends and play. They are about 10 years younger than us, so they kill us! 

Today I played my first doubles match. We lost, but not without a fight. We took it to 3 sets! We killed them on the first set 6-1, but then they came back strong and won the second set 4-6. Since we were tied, it took us into a third set, which they won 3-6.  (So my first match lasted 26 games, whew!) It was so much fun though! I'm so glad to have my first match behind me because I've been nervous about it all week. Thankfully, everyone is very gracious and encouraging.

I signed up Ellie and Emma for 4 private lessons. They had their first one on Sunday and absolutely loved it. Much better than the group lessons they had in the past. Although, they were much younger then and mostly just ran around and played. I was surprised at how well they did at their first lesson. Hopefully, we can all get good enough to play together as a family at some point. It's great exercise and a great way to spend some family time.