SPRING CHORUS CONCERT

Amelia and Ava tonight before their spring chorus concert at Green Valley.  This will be Amelia's last chorus show at Green Valley!

Here are the girls with their music teacher, Mrs. Deavers.

Ava

 

Proud Ava

 Ava and her principal.

Ava was awarded the "Character Counts" award for her class for the third quarter of school.

45 Today

 

Cards from my kids.  Love the one Ava wrote from Drew.  Can you read it?  Made me cry.  

Run For The Rock -5K

 

Here is the start of the 5k this morning.  Andrew participated with his teacher in the "Athletes Serving Athletes" program.  Peter pushed Andrew for the 5K through Baker Park early this morning.

 Here they are returning to the finish line.  Andrew is the largest of the the kids being pushed, and these two were the first to come back to the finish line in 26 minutes!  We were there to cheer them on.

 The finish line with the sisters.  I think Drew slept through the whole thing.

 The finish line with Peter and Kayli.  Peter is Andrew's teacher, Kayli is his Instuctional Assistant.

Our family, including Grandma after it was all said and done!  Drew wanted to go back to bed, and the girls just wanted to go play on the playground....

Braces - #2

National Walk for Epilepsy

  

Here we are the LGS Welcome Reception last night in DC.

 

 We attended the LGS Welcome Reception in DC last night.  Jenna insisted her face be painted like Captain America.  She was us up 6:30am this morning to make her shield.  We took this photo bright and early this morning right before we left for the walk.

 It was such a beautiful day!
 

 Here we are at the walk!

 Ava and the cherry blossoms.

 Drew after the walk

Amelia on the walk with the blooming cherry blossoms.

ANDREW

 Andrew received a CARE Award today at school!

 And.. this started tonight..... Prayers, well wishes, healing thoughts, good ju ju, are appreciated for Andrew and for this working.   .3ml tonight and then again tomorrow morning.

Amelia - day #1 BRACES

Today was Amelia's first visit to the orthodontist.  Braces here we come!

Family Adventure!!! GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE

 

 The kids were off of school a few days for spring break, so we planned a little get away in order to take advantage of our family "World Access Pass" given to us as we left Give Kids the World in the fall.  We had some free amusement activities to take in in Gatlinburg!  Here is Drew at our hotel the first night.  He loves to play with water fountains.  These pools were outside.  The water was warm, but not warm enough for Drew.  This is the hotel on our first night, actually in Pigeon Forge.

Jenna giving a very enthusiastic thumbs up for these outdoor pools.

 

 Dave keeping an eye on his girls in the pools.

 Thursday brought April 2nd and Jenna's 6th Birthday!  Here are her and Meredith in the morning on the hotel rocking chairs. We are on our way to an entire day of birthday fun.

 Our first stop.  Ober Gatlinburg.  One of these trams takes us up to the top of the mountain to their amusement park.  We are ready to go!

 Here is Jenna up high in the sky!

 Drew and I are watching as Dave and girls take an even further chair lift ride up the mountain so that they can come down the mountain on the sled run.  See it all out there?

 After that excitement the girls asked to go ice skating at Ober Gatlinburg, so off to ice skate in our shorts.

 Here we are back down off the mountain ready to start exploring all the downtown Gatlingburg "smaltz" as Dave and I call it.  We shopped, had ice cream and Dave and girls visited yet another haunted mansion. We even used our pass for a 5D movie experience.

Jenna saw this store and we had to trek for quite awhile to get to it. She wanted her picture taken and even bought a monkey holding the hugest lollipop she ever has seen.

(Don't know how I got out of order), but these otters are part of the small animal exhibit at Ober Gatlinburg.  These river otters were very excited to see us!

 Here's the birthday girl and her birthday cake at dinner.

 And... back to the hotel pools.  Drew got in this time!

 Friday morning we explored Smoky Mountain National Park.  Here we are at Clingman's Dome - very windy, and some 27 degrees colder than at the bottom of the mountain.

 Here we are trying to stand still!

 Beautiful Amelia with the beautiful scenery.

 Here's Drew at the Sugarland Visitors Center.  He got kicked out of the movie about the park, so we happily waited outside and enjoyed the warmth.

 (and out of order)... back on top of Clingman's Dome - climbing rocks!!

Ahhhh.. finally Friday afternoon... THE WATER PARK!!!  This is the outdoor version of the waterpark hotel.  Our room wasn't quite ready, but that was fine for the girls.  They loved the gigantic bucket dumping water all over them.

Water slides, water slides..water slides... Our room overlooked this scene.

 Here's the indoor water park. Each of our girls took a turn on this surfing thing.

 Amelia's turn.

 Water slides, water slides, happy girls, happy girls... happy dad.

 My favorite photo of the trip..  This just may be the happiest you will see Amelia.  Pure joy.

 oh, speaking of happiness.. Ava - Olive Garden salad.. We've seen this before....  This is our second trip to the Olive Garden in Kingsport, TN.  We are getting to know this town.

 Drew's happiness.. Olive Garden Lasagna.

 One more pool...Happy girls in Kingsport, TN.

 Woke up this morning to a full box of Krispy Kreme donuts.  This is how we roll.

Back at home, Drew found what the Easter bunny had left for us first.  Happy Easter everyone!

Remember that big lollipop from Chocolate Monkey?  Finally today I let her enjoy it!!! We are happy to be back home!