How to Make the Most of Your Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is so short and there are so many cool things to do during the summer, that we tend to go non-stop around here. By the time it is all over I think I may need a vacation from my summer vacation, but in the meantime we have been having a lot of fun. Some of the fun things we have done in the last couple of weeks include:

• Trey, Kendal and I went and watched the Mitchell Musso concert at Alabama Adventures. With our season passes they have concerts throughout the summer that are free, so we are taking advantage of the "free-ness" and enjoying some good (and not so good) music. Tomorrow Kris Allen is playing, so we may head over because I actually like him and his music.






We celebrated Jeff's birthday. We are so lucky to have such a great husband and dad. My kids sure do love him and I do too!





July 4th weekend we headed back over to Wedowee to spend some quality time with family. Spencer and Leigh came with their family and we also got to enjoy the company of my Aunt Angelia, Aunt Aurelia, Uncle Dick, cousin Hannah and her kids Reid, Ava, and Porter and of course, Grandma and Grandpa "G". Once again it was a houseful, but definitely a fun houseful. We enjoyed beautiful weather and spent time at the lake and in the pool. We capped off our July 4th festivities on Saturday night by doing fireworks. It was a great weekend.



Trey showing his July 4th spirit even while sleeping



The boys shooting off Roman Candles



The lake wouldn't be the lake without smores

The babies enjoyed the evening as well















The next week the kids and I headed to Georgia for a couple of days while Jeff was out of town with work. While in Georgia, we got our teeth cleaned and checked by Spencer, went to the World of Coke museum, and spent quality time with Grandma and Grandpa G. It was a fun couple of days and my kiddos weren't ready to leave when it was time to go.





Last Friday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. Our faithful readers know just how much our family enjoys Chick-fil-a, so you know we did not let an opportunity for free food at Chick-fil-a pass us by. The deal was if you dressed up like a cow you received a free meal. So all of us sported our best cow spots and hit 3 different Chick-fil-a's in 2 different states for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Completely crazy, but totally up our thing.


Trey is our crazy cow...he insisted on a head piece and the pink ears just didn't work


This year I did a little square foot garden. In it I planted 3 different types of tomato plants, a zucchini plant, squash plant, two red pepper plants and a watermelon plant. So far it has been my most successful gardening year after many unsuccessful tries. We have gotten lots of cherry and Roma tomatoes and a few beefsteak tomatoes before the plant gave up, and it looks like we are going to get 3 red peppers. I am still crossing my fingers that we get some squash and zucchini. The plants are healthy and flowering, but no veggies to show for it. I think it is because I have only seen female flowers on the plants...how can I get some male flowers?? Nonetheless, I think this year may have inspired us to try again in the future and see if we can continue our successful streak.





Last week our Relief Society had a cake decorating class. I signed up not for myself, but in the hopes that they would let Bayley come and watch as she loves to decorate cakes. They let her not only watch but fully participate. She loved every minute of it and did a great job. She is looking forward to the next class when we return from our trip to Indiana.






On Wednesday the Relief Society did a lunch activity for moms and kids at a local state park that had a lake and a beach. We packed our lunch and headed off for an adventure. The kids had a great time but it was super hot. Adison and I were not in the water so we didn't stay too long. The park also had a little petting zoo, which we hit on the way out which the kids enjoyed. It is always fun to find something new and exciting to do close to home. We will definitely head back sometime when it is not so hot.





In between the big events we spend most other days either at the library, Alabama Adventures and occasionally we have a chill day at home....nothing like an air-conditioned house to escape the heat. Next week we headed off for another adventure, this time we are going to Indiana to spend time with Jeff's family. The kids are looking forward to another great trip.
Last but definitely not least, I am way over due on documenting what Adison is up to at 9 months. I took her to her well check up and she weighed 17 pounds 5 ounces (25th percentile) and was 29 inches long (90th percentile). She still has zero teeth, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to try everything that we are eating. She has just started moving in the last week or so...it's almost a crawl, but her own little version. She loves to dance and will start bopping her head whenever she hears music. She is quite the trooper as she braves the heat and long days while the rest of us play. We love our little Adison!

Griffeth Family Reunion...A week at the Lake

Six years ago a tradition was started...one week at a Lake with the entire Griffeth Family. Six years ago there were 9 adults and 2 children. This summer there were 8 adults and 8 children (we were missing Grant, Alyssa and Olivia). Every summer we seem to grow in numbers and every summer we add a new element of fun to our family traditions. Last week was our annual Griffeth Family Reunion at Lake Wedowee and as always there was good food, lots of games, lots of time in the Lake, lots of time in the pool, and of course lots of laughter and fun. My kiddos look forward to this week all year long. It is so fun to see cousins that we don't get to see very often and to spend an entire week enjoying their company. It is also fun to see how everyone has grown since the last year and the new dynamics a year in growth can make. For example, this year Trey and Nate got along great and were best buds most of the week. Here are some of the highlights in pictures:

Wes got the award for best spills during the week (this is him biffing it while tubing, he also biffed it with Nate on the tube, and finally he totally drank lake showing off on the kneeboard)

Yep, that is me skiing! Not only did I ski, but I kneeboarded for the first time successfully!

Grandpa and Adison were pals on the golf cart

Wes striking a pose before biffing it!

Kendal also kneeboarded for the first time! You go girl!

Bayley kneeboarding...she is definitely a lake junkie!

Trey on the boat...he preferred the jet ski rides the most last week. He love jumping the big waves that the boat provided!

Jeff and Adison...I wish they made infant life jackets more comfortable. She loved it as long as the boat was moving.

Kendal enjoying smore night!

Nate showing off his marshmellow face!

Bayley and Wes tubing!

Grandma "G" reading bedtime stories to grandkids.The babies were very patient with the rest of us.
Spencer and Spence at the wheel of the boat!

Family Fun

It has been a fun and exciting couple of weeks. Besides the end of the school year activities, we have also incorporated a couple of trips and lots of fun activities into our schedule. The highlight had to be skipping the last day of school and heading to the beach for a couple of days of fun in the sun. We made it just in time to miss the oil and were actually able to enjoy both the beach and the water. We had a great time playing in the sand and the ocean, but when we tired of those we were able to enjoy the nice pool at our hotel. One afternoon we took the kids out to try putt-putt golf for their first times. It was hilariously fun. Bayley was actually pretty good while acting too cool for the sport, Kendal was competitive as usual, and Trey was stubbornly determined to do it his own way. The phrase of the day was "sign him/her up" if someone did a good job on a particular hole. Trey would finish and say "am I ready to be signed up???". So funny. Adison loved the sand and did a very good job of playing in it and not eating it. She only ran into problems when she wanted to rub her eyes, which suprisingly was not very often. We had a great time and enjoyed a couple of fun days together as a family.

After one day at home so that we could go to church, we spent Memorial Day at Lake Wedowee with Grandma and Grandpa "G". We took a couple of different tubes out and enjoyed the lake while the weather was good. And of course, when we were playing in the lake or the pool we were playing games, which is always fun!

To cover some of the other stuff we have been up to I will do a quick update on each of the kids.

Bayley

Bayley finished up an excellent school year. She finished with straight A's and made the honor roll. She will miss her great third grade teacher, but is looking forward to moving up to 4th grade! The last week of school she also had her first piano recital. She did an excellent job playing "Recess Rock" and "Old MacDonald Had to Rock". She has learned a lot in a short amount of time. Yesterday was Bayley's dance recital. She performed in 3 dances as part of the mini-dance team and did an excellent job. Watching her perform you can tell that she really enjoys being on stage...maybe she doesn't always like practicing, but she does like when everything comes together. She will try to keep busy this summer reading books....her goal is to read 10,000 pages this summer. We've signed up for every reading program known to man...as if she needs motivation to read???

Kendal

Kendal completed a great kindergarten year. She had an excellent teacher who absolutely adored her. Funny story about Kendal....as part of her school's field day activities each class chose 2 boys and 2 girls (supposedly the fastest) to represent their class in the "Top Gun Run" for their grade. Kendal was chosen to represent her class. During the week leading up to the race she was nervous about coming in last during her race. Now as a side note, Kendal is a pretty fast runner when she wants to be. However, she is easily distracted and sometimes spends more time looking around then running. So our advice to her was just to do her best, not quit, and try to run without looking around so much. Well, she came home from Field Day as the "Top Gun Runner" for kindergarten girls in her school...She WON! She was so excited. I guess kindergarten was the first race of the day (they race in front of the whole school) and as she ran towards the finish line people were chanting her name! She too is spending a lot of time reading this summer. She wants to catch up with her sister so badly and be able to read big chapter books, but I have to remind her often that Bayley didn't begin reading big books, but had to start out with shorter chapter books before she moved onto the big books. I love that she wants to and is now able to read.

Trey

Trey is enjoying having his sisters home during the day. They both read to him and play with him (most of the time). Occasionally he will complain that they are not including him and his feeling are genuinely hurt. Sometimes its hard to be a boy among so many girls. He has picked up right where he left off as far as swimming. He loves the water and during our beach vacation made many people nervous while we were at the pool. Under my watchful eye, he would occasionally wander to the deeper end to jump into the pool. One particular time he was getting ready to jump in and I watched two ladies stop him and ask him if he knew how to swim. When he said yes, they weren't sure whether to believe him or not, but then he jumped. I think they were surprised that he did just fine. Now for a funny Trey story. During our recent visit to the lake, we talked Trey into trying one of the tubes all by himself....which was a huge step, because until recently he didn't really even like to go tubing. Well, with this particular tube if you don't lean back during "take-off" the tube goes forward and you will end up drinking some lake water. Well, I took off with him holding on for dear life and sure enough he flipped over and ended up in the lake. He was so mad!!! He was screaming and crying and hitting the water. So as I drove up to get him out of the water, I yelled to him "That was so cool...how did you do that?" By the time we hit the dock, he had forgotten how mad he was and thought he was pretty tought stuff for doing a "trick" on the tube. Funny, funny, boy.

Adison

Adison is 8 months old! She is still a funny little girl and every day we get another glimpse into her blossoming personality. She is starting to open up a little more to new faces and will actually smile at other people other than her immediate family. She has learned how to clap and just started to figure out waving bye-bye this week. She is a pretty picky eater and will not open up if she doesn't like what is offered. There is no talking her into it either. She has learned how to drink out of a straw and a sippy cup and loves to drink all of the time. She still isn't a mover...not that I'm complaining, but is getting more brave everyday with how far she is willing to stretch to reach something. Still no teeth...again, not complaining. Overall, Adison is a great sport with tagging along and going with the flow of our busy lives.

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Fun, fun stuff. We love summer and are enjoying every minute.

The smile on the kiddos faces....priceless!

Do you ever get in the middle of a project and wonder to yourself why in the world you decided to start the project at all? In the last couple of weeks I can say I have had those feelings/thoughts on numerous occasions. The last couple of weeks we have been doing projects. With our new house, has come many projects. In many ways it makes us miss our last house even more....when we bought that house there were ZERO projects to be done. The only thing we did while we were there was maintain. However, this house is another story. There is a decent sized list of things we would like to do to make this place better. Last weekend we tackled one of the top items on the list....put in a swingset for the kids. Initially we had talked about hiring someone to come level out a place in the backyard so that we could put in the swingset. But after numerous extremely high dollar bids and a grandpa who stepped up to help, we decided to do it ourselves. We spent all weekend building a retaining wall, building a swingset, transporting mulch and spreading pine straw. It was a lot of hard work! Many times we wondered why we were doing all of it....then, our kids jumped on the swing set for the first time. You should have seen the smiles. They have loved it! They ask in the morning to go out and swing before school. The first thing they do when they get home is swing. My kiddos love the outdoors and they love their swing set! Thanks to my hardworking husband and dad, we saved at good chunk of change and we have a great place for the kids to play.


Some of the other projects as of late have had nothing to do with the house, but are just a product of being a mom. Kendal's kindergarten class had their musical program a couple of weeks ago. We were asked to come up with a cow costume for her to wear. Now you may be thinking that a cow costume really isn't that hard to do...which it isn't, however when you really aren't that crafty, like me, and you are asked to do something like that it really is a bit stressful. In the end I think the costume turned out all right and she made a very cute looking cow. She loved preforming and was excited her Grandpa could be there to watch her program. Bayley also had a crafty project that I was asked to participate in. The Activity Day Girl's at church had a special mother/daughter activity where we worked together to make a pillowcase for Bayley's room. Bayley got to pick out her own frabric and loved showing off her sewing skills (thanks Heidi) to the other girls. It was fun and a pretty full proof project for a mom like me!

Trey's only projects have come with his preschool. Myself and two other women with kids Trey's ages put together a little preschool where we take turns once a week teaching and doing activities with the kids. The kids look forward to Tuesday's all week long. My last preschool day before we take a break for the summer was a couple of weeks ago. We decided to take a field trip to a strawberry patch. The kids loved it and the strawberries were delicious.


Yesterday was Kendal's last softball game. They had an end of the season tournament, where her team was the #1 seed entering the tournament, but after a very poor first inning they lost the first game and were done for the year. It was an interesting season in that Kendal's coach knew absolutely nothing about softball. So the fact they she learned anything about the game is amazing in and of itself. She definitely improved as the season went on and she says that she wants to play again next year. It was funny how after they lost their game most of the girls really didn't seem to care....Kendal however, after getting into the car to leave was pretty distraught and upset that they had lost. I love that she is so competitive!


We've been busy and really are just gearing up for a busy summer. We can't wait! So whenever I ask myself why I do some of the crazy, busy things that I do....I just have to remember the smiles on my cute kid's faces....they really are priceless!