A Butterfly in the Spring

Yesterday, we went up to Spout Springs Elementary to watch Abby's 1st grade music program, "A Year with Frog and Toad". It was so cute, and of course, she has the BEST music teacher in the world!(Her Mommy).

Abby and several others in her class were "butterflies in the Spring". Seems Frog and Toad's adventures include meeting butterflies and bees, a snail who delivers mail, and birds who sing "tweet, tweet". See Mr. Frog and the bees?

Abby really gets into her singing! It's so nice to see that--since neither of the boys do that!

Notice the birds...........

"Eating cookies, eating cookies. I'm so happy eating cookies"

"Down the hill we are sliding--down the hill we are gliding"

The End


We always enjoy seeing each of our grandchildren in their school plays, but yesterday we had a double treat--we got to see both of our granddaughters perform in two seperate programs-one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon!


After the performance, Abby was sweet enough to share her cookie with her brother, Will, before he went back to his own class.

Coming up soon---Pressley, in her Thanksgiving program at her school!

Smokey Mountain Trip with Great Friends

I think many of you believe that everything we do centers around our four grandchildren. However, here is an example of one of the other things we do. We look forward, each year, to our trip to Pigeon Forge with these dear friends. Ralph and I lived in Jacksonville, Florida from 1984-1988, and that is where we became close friends with Janet and Eddie(front) and Susie and Russ. We all had young teens then, and now we are all grandparents of the most wonderful children around. We rented a cabin in Pigeon Forge--and did a lot of "catching up".

We ate at the Applewood Farmhouse Restuarant, and had this picture taken there.

The second night we were there, we went to a show. The music was great and they had a Christmas theme that really helped us get into the Christmas spirit! And, best of all, they sang a lot of Christian songs. Very inspiring!

Here are Janet and Eddie. They are both sweet Christians, and have meant so much to us through the years. I hope I've convinced Eddie to start a blog, himself. He expresses himself so beautifully and has so much to share that would mean a lot to so many!

And Heeeerrrreee's Susie and Russ! We actually knew them here in Atlanta, before we moved to Jacksonville. We ended up living a short distance from them in Florida, and our relationship just became much stronger. All of us were in the same church--and enjoyed that time in our lives so much.

We all like to play Mexican Train, so here we are, doing just that--on a rain day in the Smokies.

Thank you, God, for giving us such wonderful friends. Love to each of you!

More Fall Events

Halloween began early in the evening for Evan and Pressley. They met at the house of some of their neighbors, and had a group picture taken. Aren't they all cute?

Then, they went back to their house to begin "trick-or-treating". Evan was a karate Ninja and Pressley was Ariel, the mermaid. Thanks to Amy for these pictures of her children! For the past couple of years, we have gone to watch them go trick-or-treating, so this year, we decided to make it fair--and alternate where we go each year. After all, they are all growing up so quickly, they probably won't want us to come for too many more years.

Above, is Abby--a beautiful princess. (She is indeed a little princess, and Pressley is, as well.)

The rain tried to interfere with the fun, but Will and Abby wouldn't let that happen. Out came the umbrellas--and off we went! And you should have seen the "loot" they came home with!

Will also enjoyed giving out the candy to trick-or-treaters who came to his house.


Our next event was on a beautiful, sunny day. Last Thursday, Will and Abby's school had a parent/grandparent's day, for us to come eat lunch in the cafeteria with them. What fun!!

First, we "ate" with Will. Actually, since he eats a 10:45AM each day, we decided to sit with him, and wait to eat with Abby(at 12:00 noon). We also got to meet his "girlfriend". Her name is Hayley, and they have liked each other since kindergarten(Oh, my!) Cute!

Below, is Coach Adam, the PE teacher, and a good friend of Beth's. Everyone got a big laugh seeing him in his Cafeteria garb! But, you have to hand it to him--he was a great sport!

Even though we couldn't get a picture "with" Will, we did get one with Abby. They both had already warned us not to embarrass them when their friends were around by "hugging and kissing" them in front of their friends. So, we tried to behave ourselves!

Coming up soon--Our trip with dear friends to Pigeon Forge.

It's Fall in Tucker--or is it Winter?

BRRRRRR! It's cold tonight! We just did a little Fall decorating this week, but now, on this Saturday, October 17th, we are wondering if winter is here! Wish we could escape to Florida!---Oh, wait--we ARE going to Florida!!!! That's right! Several weeks ago, we set aside this next week to go somewhere fun, since we're retired. We decided to wait until the last minute so that we might be able to get a good deal. Well, Wednesday, we finally booked a place in Redington Shores. It is between Clearwater and St. Pete. And we did get a good deal--at least, we think we did!

Thursday, Amy called and said the kids kept asking to come over to Poppy & GranNan's house. She said she decided, if she didn't get them over here this week, they would be very unhappy to hear that we were out of town next week. So, we had a pleasant surprise! They came over for several hours--and we all got to go out to dinner together, too! Are they sweet, or what?!!

Fall Weekend--Part #3

OK, where was I? Oh, yes--we visited cousins, Evan and Pressley! After a fun time was had by all four, we decided to get Corin to meet us at "The Casa"( It's actually Uncle Julio's Casa Grande). Amy and Corin and their kids go there almost every Friday night, so we decided to tag along. The chips there are fantastic--as well as most everything they have! Here, they are enjoying the chips--and the waitress also brought each of them a ball of dough to play with!

Before we took Will and Abby home on Saturday, Abby wrote this note to Poppy and GranNan. Of course, it just melted our hearts! (the word "sing" was actually supposed to be "things".)

After we took them home on Saturday, Beth, David and the kids went up to my sister, Lynn's, lake house. We had a lot of responsibilities at church on Sunday morning, so we didn't go up until Sunday afternoon. We were all there together from Sunday until Tuesday. Sunday was the only day we didn't have rain, but we still had a lot of quality time together.

We also got to see more cousins when we arrived at the lake house. Lynn had had Debbie's grandchildren over the weekend, and we were so glad to see them! This is Sydney and Michael. They are my neice, Melissa's, children. As most of you know, we lost my sister, Debbie, to an auto accident in 1991. It breaks my heart to think that she never got to see her three precious grandchilren. Her oldest, Amanda, will be 15 in January! Debbie would have loved and enjoyed each one so much!

Sunday, before the rains began, Will and Abby thoroughly enjoyed fishing! Here Will is showing off his very first fish ever!

Abby caught one too. It was about the same size as Will's--we even wondered if it was the same one, since Will's was thrown back in.

On Monday, the kids played with the Wii--they have really gotten good at Wii Bowling!

Since it was still raining on Monday afternoon, we all decided to go to Anderson, SC, which is about 25minutes from the lake, and take in a movie. We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". It was cute!

That completes last weekends activities. All good things must come to an end--but we're looking forward to more fun times!

Fall Weekend--Part #2

Hello! Here we are, back at the Botanical Garden again. Will and Abby especially liked this "Hannah Montana" scarecrow! Below, Ralph and the kids are standing behind the waterfall in the Children's Garden.

Here's another cute scarecrow--on a bicycle!

And a band of scarecrows!

Here, Will and Abby are standing in a little gazebo in the Japanese garden.

Below is a group of pumpkins with the Dale Chihully glass piece in the background.

Unlike today, our visit was on a very warm day, and the kids enjoyed cooling off in the neat mister in the gardens.

This is a Moore piece. I love the way you can see the skyline of Atlanta through it!

As we left the gardens, there were lots of scarecrows "telling us goodbye".

Since Evan is in another school district, he was not out of school last Friday. So, we waited until his school day was over to visit with Evan and Pressley. I wanted to get some new pictures of the four of them together, so here is one of the many, many we took!