Swimming and Snuggling

Four little cuties right here.  Fun summer swimming memories with friends.

ICE ICE BAY

My cousin Julie challenged me to the ice bucket challenge, Wayne got challenged by several friends and Hadley got challenged by Gracie Mae.  I got captured these still shots from our video.  I ecspcially love mine and Els, it reminds me of a jelly fish.  Just looking at Hadley's still shot, I can hear the volume of her scream....IT was loud.  For the record, Ellison volunteered to be my sidekick, she didn't want to be left out.  I think she might opt out, if it happens again.

The First Day of School

I have a fourth grader...I must pause for a second while we take that in.  I have a fourth grader who has her Daddy for a second year in a row.....She is growing so fast.  To say I was dreading this school year would be an understatement....not for Hadley, she has always been quite independent and it doesn't really phase her.  However, the Elsie Bopsie started school this year, her first year of PreK.  This mama was worried and I haven't typically been that Mom, but I am with her.  I guess because she is a worrier and stresses, she makes me worry and stress.  So I took all these pictures the first morning of school and I didn't post them to the first place...because I was traumatized and not for the reason I was expecting but because the school decided to do something DUMB and Ellison and I were both traumatized.  It was like the administrators had never transitioned Pre K students into the Elementary school before and it was chaos.

I try not to be too judgemental since it isn't just our school, but Wayne's place of employment, but it weighed on my all day and I was a mess.

Ellison had never met her teacher, as we were encouraged not to take her to the Orientation so we could focus on the directions and such.  So the morning of, I was expecting to drop her off in her classroom, introduce her to her teacher, sit with her for a few minutes and be on my way...this is what we had done with Hads at the same school.  It was what I had prepared Els for.  I should mention at no point in the orientation did they mention anything other than this.  So imagine my surprise when we arrive at the classroom and it is empty...we are directed to the lunchroom by another teacher...we arrive at the lunchroom and are directed to the Pre K holding room.  We arrive at the Pre K holding room and I am not being dramatic when I say there were 40 Pre K children, howling at the top of their lungs, clinging to their parents and not the first member of our school staff in sight.  Ellison kept asking where her teacher was and I couldn't answer.  She looked at me at one point and said, "this is really freaking me out."  Finally, two of the other Pre K teachers came in and announced they would take it from here and the parents could leave.  I attempted to leave her with another teacher and she let me know real quick that wasn't the deal.  So I ushered her to the lunchroom and what happened next took the chaos to a whole other level.  As these two teachers tried to usher the 40 some odd screaming PreK'ers down the hall, they began to get mixed in with all the parents and students in the hall and couldn't hear the directions and began to get separated from the group.  It was HORRIBLE.  We made our way to the lunchroom, located Ellison's teacher and I introduced them, she was still a little unsure about this whole thing.  I left and  immediately sent Wayne a text and told him I didn't care how busy he was that day he better check on my baby and I better get an update.

I was quite relieved when I got this text from Wayne, seems they are in the lunchroom at the same time and she had worked through the drama of the morning....WHEW!!!!!  Mommy still gets fired up typing about it now and wants to go thump someone in the head.

Ellison's Day O FUN

Ellison went to my parents while we went to Camp with Hads...so when it was Hads turn to go to my parents to "even" it out, we decided to make it a day of Ellison FUN!  We surprised her and took her to the Chattanooga Zoo.  Which I prefer over Atlanta, it is much smaller and you are able to see the animals, plus it is significantly cheaper....Unless of course you decide to ride the camel as soon as you walk in.  I've always thought it would be cool to ride a camel, of course I envisioned it being in a more exotic location than the Zoo, but hey when you are having Ellison's Day of Fun and she wants to ride a camel...you ride a camel.

After the Zoo we went to Mellow Mushroom, a personal favorite of mine and Elsie Bop.  Then we went down to the Riverwalk and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon.