Back to School and Time to Start Snooping Again....

Way back at the end of school just a couple of months ago, Ben and Drew asked one morning if they could have their friends over during the summer to play in the sprinklers. Well, of course I said YES! with plenty of ideas swimming in my head of how to have a small, fun water day for a few buddies. Well, what the twins heard me agree to, and what I thought we were agreeing to were apparently two different things. Because they went to school that morning and announced to every single teacher and child that they were invited to our house for a water party. Nice. And since the new school year was just around the corner, what with our summer being so full of so many fun adventures, I figured I'd better get on the ball and make good on the promise I'd made to my boys. So, the compromise to having every child at Otter Creek in our backyard at the same time was to invite just the boys from their class (and those boys' siblings) over for a day of water fun. AND FUN IT WAS! We had 9 boys (2 sets of twins), 2 babies and 4 mommies and I have to say it really was a blast! Here is one of the few pictures I could get with all the boys having lunch
We filled up the baby pool as far as it would go, turned on 2 sprinklers, set up the slip-n-slide, had 4 super-soaker water guns, and 2 rubbermaid bins filled full of water balloons in addition to the trampoline and sandbox. I'll say I don't think our backyard has ever been so much fun. Here are two pretty cute pictures of why I do what I do...those little smiles are worth every bit of effort. And then one Friday afternoon after Michael got off work we took the boys to see the Titans practice. We didn't intentionally go on the hottest day of the whole summer, but I'm not sure there were days any hotter. But we all kept our good attitudes, and sweated it out while we watched the Titans and waited for some autographs. Here's #10 Vince Youngand Chris Johnsonand Coach FisherHere's one of the ways the boys passed the time once practice became boring to 4 year olds with a limited attention span: play football with Daddy (while mommy takes pictures from the shade and sips Gatorade)But by far the highlight of the day was at the end of practice when a few of the players come over to the fence to sign autographs. We were at the beginning of the line and Michael had Ben on his shoulders and I was holding Drew on the fence as he was waiting so patiently for a player to come by and sign his plaque. Well, the very first player who came over to us smiled so big at us and Drew held up his hand to high-five him and Drew said "aw man, you were awesome!" Well, this guy says to Drew "thanks, little man. How old are you?" to which Drew tells him "I'm four and a half" and to all of our surprise, he held out his arms and says "you wanna come over here with me?" and Drew went to him!!! He took him onto the field, let him run around with him, and then took him over to his personal bag and told him to pick out whatever he wanted. I think Drew must not have been sure about if he should take someone else's things because he ended up picking out a bunch of stuff and bringing it to us for the boys when he brought Drew back over to us. I wish I could have captured the look on Drew's face as he walked back to us, but to say he was proud and beaming would be a gross understatement. He gave the twins his very own receiving gloves (which Drew sometimes sleeps with, bless his heart), wrist bands that he signed, and then signed all the other stuff we had. For days (and even still now) he has talked and talked and talked about "his friend Mr. Colin Alred" and how nice he was to us. He made such an impact on us and our boys. But that isn't the coolest part. For weeks after that happened, I kept feeling like I wanted to get a thank-you to this person for being so kind to my child. But I had no idea how to get a message to a Titan player....until I was telling a good friend this story. And she asked what that player's name was. When I told her, she said that he had married a girl that we were at Lipscomb with. What a small world!! And once I tracked her down to get that thank you note to her husband, it's been cool to re-connect. And Colin now has 4 lifelong fans, whether he's a Tennessee Titan or not! Pretty cool indeed...there were grown men watching incredulously (and maybe with a hint of jealousy). Next was time for Snoopy Day again! Here are the boys before their first day in Miss Amanda's class. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them with her...but this will have to do: One week into our very first year of Prekindergarten, we got word that my Papa was in the hospital and not doing well. So while Daddy was traveling for work the boys, MiMi and I headed over to the farm in Waycross to help take care of them. We didn't get many pictures...we were much too busy keeping them both off their feet and playing outside. But we did manage to get a couple right before we left. Because God answered our prayers on their behalf out of His love and grace, they are both doing much much better and are still living without any full-time help on their farm. Not only that, but a few weeks after we left them they celebrated 67 years of marriage together. What a blessing they are to me and to so many others. I'm so thankful that God has allowed our boys to have such a sweet relationship with two people who I love so dearly. Without them, these boys wouldn't even be here.

What fun we've had in August!! Time for the best season of the year....bring on FALL!