Cheer Camp

In June, I helped out with a Cheer Camp at our church. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

It was for girls ages 5-12. One of our pastor's wives took their daughter to a very expensive cheer camp last year and she was disappointed and thought, "I could do a better job than this!" So she did! So she had the vision and approached us to help and this has been in the works for months. There were 7 of us as "Instructors" and then tons of other "Coaches" and volunteers helping out. My part was teaching Cheers & Chants with my friend Emilee.

Because I was working the whole time, I got 0 pictures, but luckily somebody made a picture slideshow!

Here are some videos of the girls (thanks to my neighbor Kim who videoed at the Pep Rally!)...

Warm Up that we did every morning:

Red Bulldogs (4-5-year-olds)

(No video of the Green Gators because Kim was deleting apps to film more! Ha!)

Gold Hornets (8-9-year-olds)

Blue Wildcats (10-12-year-olds)

The great spin on this cheer camp is that she tied in biblical truths with it as well. So cheerleaders are: filled with joy (from the Lord), full of encouragement (encouraging words instead of discouraging words=words spill from our heart), and we're ready to help others. Isn't that so neat!? I don't think there's ever been a cheerleading camp like this!

There are so many more details I could share, but I'll just close by saying Elizabeth is one gifted lady and I know all these gals loved their week! And so did I!

Zoo & Splash Pad

I'm on a blogging spree--nobody stop me! :) I'm sure I'll take a couple weeks off again when we get so crazy busy for me to even stop and think!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Knoxville Zoo. My grandmother Jane (a.k.a. Buddie) got the kids season passes for Christmas. That's my favorite present! To quote Cousin Eddie, "It's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year." Thank you, Buddie!!

To my knowledge, this is the first time that Henley has been up and at 'em at the zoo. She generally has wanted to stay in the stroller, but not this time! I almost didn't even need a stroller!

LOVE this. She's super excited to see the Meerkats.

Gavin and Henley watching the Gibbons (monkeys)...

You can see it in the background (that is, if you can take your eyes off the precious pigtails! Good grief she's so cute!)

Checking out George the Chimpanzee:

Henley kept lifting her shoulders like she does when we ask her what a monkey says, so I had to get a video:

Our whole purpose of going to the Zoo was to try out the brand new Splash Pad. Henley did fine if she was in a friend's arms...

...but generally this is how she felt about the Splash Pad:

Her brother was equally as excited, but I have no pictures of that bad attitude, thank goodness.

BUT how can I get mad at this preciousness???

I guess we'll just stick to the Zoo animals for now. They happily hopped back in the stroller (BEGGED to get back in the stroller would be more like it) and we went to Nani's favorite animal, the giraffe, before we headed home.

All in all, it was a fun day. It was A LOT of work to get them changed into bathing suits for it to last about 2.5 minutes, but we'll try it again! It was an incredibly gorgeous day with a cool breeze, so maybe on one of these 100 degree days they will welcome the water! :)

Swim Lessons

I am SO PROUD of my little man! He is learning to swim this summer--thanks to our good friend Mrs. Melanie! It helps that a. we have a friend that is a trained swim instructor, b. I am now on staff at the gym where she works to get a great discount on private lessons, and c. Gavin has been swimming with her his whole life when we would do playdates at her neighborhood pool!

Last week, he finished his 6th and final lesson with Melanie for this summer. We went 2x a week so he would learn a lot in a short period of time so as not to forget. He has learned to kick (somewhat) with straight legs, move his arms to swim, hold his breath and breathe, jump off the side and start swimming, and swim to the side of the pool and grab on.

Warning--these videos will probably only be exciting to grandparents, but I wanted to post so they could see Gavin's progress!

Videos from swim lesson #2 in mid-June:

Lesson #4:

For the last few, we swam and picnicked at the baby pool before Gavin's swim lessons so he could get some energy out!

Lesson #6:

Last lesson:

He learned on the last lesson that Melanie was backing off a little bit, so he kept searching for her in the water! The stinker. But he has progressed SO MUCH since lesson #1!

Thank you so much for all you've taught him, Mrs. Melanie!!

Ode to the Eadys

We sure love our neighborhood--especially the people that live in it! We have a weekly ritual every Thursday (most weeks) to grill out with our neighbors the Eadys. 

It started last year when they asked Ryan to teach Gabe guitar lessons. Ryan taught Gabe, and they fed us dinner. Even trade. :) Now, Gabe goes to guitar lessons from an actual instructor, but we carry on our grilling out tradition!

Check out these guys jammin':

Gavin LOVES "Abbey Gabe" as he calls all 5 kiddos together. :)

This is a very rare pic of Jamie SMILING! He is normally Mr. Tough Guy :)

We sure do love this family, and love their crazy kiddos that love our crazy kiddos. I shoot so many videos of our fun times together that I wanted to document a few...

Kite flying day back in April:

Gabe, Abbey, and Laney figured out to lay them out, run, and pick them up and they would fly crazy high:

Gabe called this "Killer Corn Hole". Watch at 38 seconds--the rest will probably make you sick!

A few weeks ago, Ryan stopped by the Dollar Tree to stock up on water guns to have a huge water gun fight.

Well these kiddos took it to the next level and aimed the water guns at cars driving by. It then turned into a car wash:

We watched the 5 kiddos while Kim and Jamie went on a date this past weekend. Man, we have so much fun with these kiddos!

Gavin is pulling Laney on the dead Gator. Notice the huge smiles on both their faces:

Then Gabe joined in on the fun:

Then we pulled out the bubbles and got some awesome pics!!

We love this family!

Slip n Slide

The awesome Slip n Slide for our annual 4th of July party stays up for a few days, so we get to enjoy it the day before and after with no waiting in line! :) Here's fun pictures of just the neighbors going down...

These 2 are READY!

Henley and Emily:

The little guys:

LOVE this pic of sweet (and mischievous!) Delaney:

Henley Jane had THE BEST time going down!

Gavin went all by himself over and over:

 "Ta Da!"

 The 3 Mommas went!

Then Henley took a turn with me:

But, as usual, she prefers her Daddy!

 Love. her.

Laney and Kim:

Rachel and Emma:

Sweet pic of Emma:

Then Laney had the bright idea to add a tube to the equation! Genius!

Our neighbor Beth always goes down 1x each year. I sadly did not have my camera (the 1 time I didn't have it with me!) to document, but she did a cheer before going down this time. I got her to do a reenactment:

I can't deny that we are beyond blessed to have such a fun little life!