Cowboys 1st game!

Ready for the game!

#6 is heading towards the action

#6 was giving me a "thumbs up"

#6 is Super Fast!!!

What does Trent wear to his big brother's football game?
He wears his t-ball uniform, of course!

What does Rachel do during Brad's football game?
Read, play, eat, lay down, play electronics, etc...she wouldn't want to get bored!!

Brad had his first flag football game of the season. He played GREAT! He was so excited about the game! One of the very first things he did during the game was pull his opponent's flag as the boy was running towards the endzone. Brad's speed kept the other team from scoring a touchdown! He was absolutely hilarious and precious with his enthusiasm when he pulled the flag. He roared with joy and it was obvious that his adrenaline was pumping! We're looking forward to many more fun games with our adorable son. Go Cowboys!!

Stone Mountain

Me and the kiddos

Nick and the kiddos

Beginning of our climb...with the confederate battle flags, which changed several times

top of the mountain...what a view!!

Brad, Trent and their friend, Nathan with glow bracelet light-sabers

This past weekend, we went to Stone Mountain and climbed the mountain!!! It was NO joke! I don't remember the last time I climbed it, but I did not remember how steep or hard that it was! I know it's a mountain, but definitely forgot the fact that climbing something is HARD work!!! The kids did fantastic and Brad practically flew up the mountain. It was such a fun thing to do and I'm glad we all did it! I have to admit that along with the difficulty in climbing a mountain, the views were breathtaking and beautiful! It was so awesome looking out and seeing the Atlanta skyline. But, the extreme heights also brought some uncomfortable feelings, puckers and butterflies, in places I didn't know I had.

After we climbed the mountain, we met our friends, the Moons, at the Laser Show. The show was spectacular...so many wonderful songs and a patriotic tribute to the battle of the north vs. south. As well as a tribute to everyday service heroes in our armed forces, firefighters and police men. Since we have been studying Georgia, it was a nice re-cap of all the things Georgia and the good ole South is known for. Fireworks were beautifully mixed throughout and we left feeling more patriotic and proud of America than we have in quite awhile.

But, that mountain, it ain't no joke. :) More power to the people who can climb it without huffing and puffing OR the people who were actually (gasp!) jogging up and down the mountain! I look forward to doing it again (huffing and puffing, I'm sure)...and maybe at least knowing what to expect next time.

"I can see clearly now, the rails are gone...

...I can see all obstacles in my way."

I am so excited that for the first time in 10 years, we can see off our front porch with an unobstructed view. The rails were/are needed to meet code when building a home. And, I enjoyed having them when the kids were small because I didn't want them to fall off the porch. Now, I feel quite confident in their ability to avoid the edge or jump off carefully. (If/when we ever try to sell our home, we will probably have to put up some sort of rail to meet the requirements, but for now, we are going to enjoy not having them. And, if we do put rails back on, they will be shorter, which will still meet code, but will not impede the view quite as much.) This is the first step in our front porch overhaul. We were talking about how awful the rails looked and how they needed to be repainted along with the columns and the porch itself. Then we started talking about taking off the rails and seeing if we liked the look. Well, we do like the look. In fact, we LOVE it! I couldn't stop singing that song in my head the whole time I sat on our comfortable swing and looked at everything in the yard: I can see clearly now, the rails are gone (sung to the tune of: I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.) :) We have a lot of puttying and sanding and painting to do, but I am excited about our new look and our unimpeded view!! And, I am so thankful to have a handy husband who can tackle any project we want to do around the house!

Go Speed Racer!

About 2 weeks ago, Brad decided he wanted his training wheels taken off his bike. This is the same bike he's had for 2 years and ridden very seldom. He never felt comfortable on his bike. I don't know if it was because he thought the training wheels felt wobbly or what the issue was. He showed almost zero interest in his bike...even when Rach and Trent would zoom up and down the driveway on their bikes. So, we were a little surprised when he asked Nick to take off his training wheels. Once Nick took the training wheels off, Brad was a little wobbly, but then quickly found his balance. Within 1 day, he was riding his bike like a Pro! Now, he loves riding his bike! He can't wait to get outside to ride! And, he is very, very fast! Now that he's gotten very confident, he races up and down the driveway and around our parked vehicles. There have been a few collisions with 3 kids riding their bikes and sometimes forgetting to watch where they're going. But, thankfully they haven't had anything more than scraped knees and legs and arms. Bradley has joined the Milligan children as another Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer, Go!!

Georgia Peach

Rach eating a crunchy, un-ripe peach, with our canned peach pie...almost ready to bake!

My pretty girl with her pretty peach pie!

A warm piece of peach pie with melty vanilla ice cream! Yum!!

This year, we have decided to study the USA! We want to know a little bit more about each of our great states. So, of course we started with the best one: Georgia! In our studying, we are learning the state's geographic location in the USA, the state bird, state tree, state flower, state fruit, state crop and of course state capital. And we are learning the major waterways (if any) and important cities in our state's history.
One of the books we checked out from the library had a recipe for Peach Pie, and Rachel thought we should make one...so we did! Unfortunately, we didn't let our fresh peaches ripen before we wanted to make the pie (oops...I forgot about that part!), so we had to use canned peaches (not as tasty!!). However, the pie was fun to make, yummy to eat, and a really special treat! Now Rachel's talking about making all kinds of other pies! We'll have to see what the state fruit is for Tennessee and Virginia (our next states to study, since we're going on vacation there next month!). Rach wants to make a recipe for each state based on what they are known for producing.

Hooray for the U-S-of-A! We are proud to be Americans! God Bless the USA!

Our "Laborious" Day

before: Eww! A dirty deck that needs an overhaul!!

before: Eww!

 

Next: Clean and ready for a new look!

 

after: a nice new look for our back deck

 

 

after: The finished product...we are very pleased!

 

 

Our Labor Day was definitely full of labor...but we wanted it that way. Our back deck has been an eye sore for quite some time...dirty, dog-haired, half-stained with wood stain and half with grease and mud. Anyway, we spent the day cleaning and then staining the deck. It was a family affair...even the kids helped stain it! I have to say it was back-breaking and hard work, but it was a great feeling to be (almost) done with it in one day! All that's left is to touch up some spots that we missed or didn't quite get to. Next project: our front porch!! :) Happy Labor Day!!