The Goodwill Tour

This past week-end we made what one of our friends called "The Goodwill Tour!" Friday evening we went to visit our good friends Scott & Becca, and their two boys, Eli & Jonah. We ate dinner with them and visited a while before heading to the hotel for the night. Rachel & Katelyn really had a great time playing with Eli & Jonah. Thanks guys for sharing your toys with the girls!

On Saturday morning we got up and headed over to visit with Coach Bell and his family. When Robert first started teaching and coaching, he coached basketball with Coach Bell. Even though Robert was only at that school two years, we have tried to keep in contact with the Bell's. They are such a fun family! Coach Bell and his wife, Jonna, have SIX kids! They range in age from 2nd grade to 10th grade. They have 3 girls (Corley, Britt, and Tavie) and 3 boys (T.J., John Mark, and Christian), and all 6 kids are awesome! Of course, they all 6 play basketball!!! We were able to see Tavie and Christian play basketball on Saturday morning. The Bell kids were so sweet with our girls! T.J., who is in 7th grade, really played with Rachel & Katelyn and had them laughing and giggling the whole time! During breaks in the game, he would take them out on the court and let them dribble and shoot. Rachel even made a basket and the crowd went wild!!!! Or should I say our family and the Bell family went wild! Of course, that's 12 people, so that is a crowd!!!

After visiting with the Bells, we headed over to meet Dale & Jean Marie for lunch. Dale & Robert played tennis together in college, and Jean Marie also played tennis there. Anyway, we met them and their 2 kids, Charlie (age 6) and Mary Jean (age 3), for lunch and then headed to a basketball game where the three of them went to college. The kids played well together. Charlie is super smart - I mean his IQ is like genius level. He loves to read and can memorize anything he reads. Anyway, here's a funny story about him. He's in 1st grade. His teacher was starting a lesson about weather. She asked the class to name some things/words about the weather. Of course she was expecting words like rain, snow, sunshine, etc. Instead, Charlie raises his hand and says "Weather is what happens in the earth's troposphere!" Imagine being the teacher hearing that come from your 1st grader's mouth! She tried to take it in stride and proceeded to write "troposphere" on the board. When she turned around, Charlie had his raised again. He said "You left out a 'p' in troposphere!" Sure enough, the teacher had misspelled it! How funny!!! Anyway, I digress. We had a good visit with Dale, Jean Marie, Charlie, and Mary Jean. Soon, however, it was time for us to head back home.

On our way home, we stopped to eat supper at Fazoli's and Robert's parents, Puddin & Papa, met us there. So in less than 24 hours, we visited with 3 different sets of friends, in 3 different cities, and then also got to visit with Robert's parents. I guess that's why Jean Marie nicknamed last week-end our "Goodwill Tour!"

Anyway, I'd love to share some pictures with you. Here they are... Aren't they great? What? You don't see any? Oh yeah, I forgot to take my camera!!! So just imagine that I have all these cute pictures of Rachel & Katelyn with all their friends - Eli & Jonah; Corley, Britt, T.J., John Mark, Christian, & Tavie; and Charlie & Mary Jean!

Rachel's Kindergarten Christmas Party

Well, this post is about a month late, but better late than never!!! Below are some pictures from Rachel's kindergarten Christmas party. Rachel's class and another class put on a little program for the parents, and then we went back to the classroom for a pizza party. The program was really cute with the kids singing several songs and then saying the ABC's of Christmas. Each kid, or 2 kids, were assigned a line of the poem. Rachel had the letter "A" and her line was "A is for angel on top of your tree." However, Rachel wasn't satisfied with just learning her line. She memorized the entire poem! It's really cute! I have it on video, but it's the mini-VHS kind of video and I'm not sure I can get it downloaded to the computer. Maybe one day when I have nothing else to do I'll try that. Yeah right - like when do I have nothing to do!!!!!

Anyway, back to the kindergarten party. Katelyn had a blast with all the "big" kids! Katelyn & I stayed for most of the day and Katelyn decided she liked kindergarten! Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Kembel, has already said that she wants Katelyn in her class. She decided that when she saw Katelyn display how well she can write. Katelyn wrote her name, mommy, daddy, Rachel, and then boo! Katelyn does write well for her age. Probably the most impressive thing is that she can write her letters in a normal size. It doesn't take up an entire page for her to write her name. Instead, she keeps her letters right within the lines (on lined paper). Of course, she practices pretty much every day. I keep a notepad in my purse, and everyday while we're waiting to pick Rachel up from school, Katelyn writes on the notepad. (Rachel's school has early bird pickup to help out with all the traffic congestion since there's an elementary school and middle school right next to each other. Early bird pick-up is 10 minutes early, and you have to wait in the cafeteria for your child. So we usually get there and have at least 10 minutes to wait for Rachel, which is 10 minutes that Katelyn usually practices her writing!) She'll look around the room and find something and then ask me how to spell it.

Here are some pictures from Rachel's last day of school before Christmas break. This first picture is of Rachel with her teacher, Mrs. Kembel.



This picture is of Rachel with the teacher's aide in her class, Ms. Lisa.



This picture is of Rachel and her friend Garrett.

This picture is of Rachel and her friend Olivia. Olivia also goes to our church, so she & Rachel are big buddies!

This picture is of Alexis, Olivia, Rachel, and Kaylee. All 4 girls are in the same kindergarten class and all 4 go to the same church! What fun!!

This picture is of Rachel and her friend Kaylee.