School's Out!

There are mom's who cheer when the kids go back to school in August, and there are mom's who can't wait to have them home for the summer. I'm in the latter group most of the year, except a few trying days in the summer. :)

The boys could leave right after the awards program on Thursday. Isaac got an award for AR (Accelerated Reader) and Andrew got an Academic Achievement Award. I'm always amazed that Andrew does so well in school despite missing so much. I was one proud Mom for their achievements! And I think Isaac is pretty proud of himself, since it's Sunday and he's worn his medal everyday since he got it! :)

Angel Mounds

Andrew had an appt and we always like to do something fun when we go to a far-away visit. So, after lunch we wound up at Angel Mounds State Recreation Area. This is a historical site where Mississippian Indians lived and were buried. We walked around the museum and gift shop and then went outside for the grassy trail that led us to all of the mounds. Here are some pics from our adventure (although had to use my cell phone camera)

Hard to see, but this is Andrew sitting inside of a hollowed-out Indian canoe. Love that they encouraged you to get in!

Looking at some of the exhibits...he is really in his element when he is on an educational, yet fun, trip!

Standing outside near one of the mounds. There are steps on the back side of this one that we walked up and could overlook the whole grounds.

Playing the flute we bought as a souvineer of our trip. It was perfect since he's been asking about the recorder I had to learn to play for an education class many years ago. :)

It was a fun place to visit...I love exploring and learning with my boys!

Relay For Life

Our county's annual Relay for Life was yesterday. This is something our family likes to participate in together. We always do it to remember my brother, who lost a short, hard battle with melanoma in 2005. This year, cancer has reared it's ugly face again in our family as my mom is battling stage 4 colon cancer.

The theme for this year was "Birthdays". When you are fighting for your life, every additional birthday is a blessing and a gift. The survivors lap always puts things in perspective for me! I can remember when Andrew was 8 and his health was spinning out of control. We were searching for answers and things continued to change with him. At that point, we weren't sure there would be a 9th birthday for him. So I truly understand why Birthdays was the perfect theme for this year's Relay.

We were on the Taekwondo Relay team this year, so we did an Asian Birthdays theme. There's an Asian tradition that if you eat cake with 100 friends on your birthday, you'll have good luck for the year. So, we sold cake and threw in a Chinese mint and a fortune cookie with it. We had all sorts of cute decorations, too! Except the cute little hats bled on the white shirts when it rained off and on throughout the day.

Setting up tents

You can see some of our decorations...and the black and red lanterns survived the rain and still glowed at night!

This was another fundraiser we did...for $2 people could duke it out. It always drew a crowd. 

Someone was trying to take a pic of Andrew and I, but the young cute one is missing. I'm usually the one taking pics so what the heck, for once, here's me.

Our team raised over $3000 this year through our soy candles and candy bar sales in the spring, and our coffee, hot chocolate, cake, and boxing at the Relay. Way to go Stangle's Taekwondo! Already looking forward to next year!

Jedi Training

Here are some pics from Isaac's party, otherwise known as Jedi Training. It was a BYOLS (Bring Your Own Light Saber) event, and he got a kick out of telling everyone that. We had a lot of fun and all the kiddos seemed to enjoy it, too.

Looks like everyone was having fun, except my niece Alexis on the right. The older kids (nephew Kaine, Andrew, and Jesse) all were my Droid helpers. However, Alexis just wasn't too into hanging out with a bunch of first graders playing Star Wars. Third graders are much cooler than that, don't ya know??

The first part of Jedi Training - the lightsaber relay. These little padawans were better than I expected!

Dinnertime...how does that Dugger lady do this 3 times a day? So thankful for being able to have the party at the church!

Getting ready to blow the candles out as soon as the song's over. Can you believe it...a real smile from Isaac?!

We went to the basement for an asteroid hunt. I found Court protecting the stairway from runaway padawans. Unfortunately, my other pics down here didn't turn out too well. 15 kids running around grabbing asteroids made for blurry pics.

Opening gifts...and loving the musical Star Wars card!

The night-shift padawans...playing lightsabers in the dark. Pretty cool!

Seven

Seven. Wow! Where has the time gone? Isaac is now 7 years old. The baby we thought we may never have is now suddenly so grown up. We offered to take him to dinner for his birthday, knowing full well that we might be eating McDonald's, but he surprised us. He wanted to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant so he could wear the big sombrero. Keep in mind this is the picky child who really never has been happy to go here with us. However, Andrew once chose this for his b'day dinner and Isaac remembered the sombrero. And the big birthday bowl of fried ice cream. So off we went!

My Three Amigos!

"For this child I prayed." 1 Samual 1:27

Greater Things Are Still To Be Done

I cannot get this song out of my head today. This is a video that was made by a couple of my friends who go to our church. There are pics from each of the small towns in this part of the county. This song has kind of become our "theme song" at church and I just love it. Let me know what you think!

May already?

It's been a hectic couple of weeks around here. Andrew had surgery and has been recovering from that. We have had many appointments, and some new progression found, which will ultimately lead to even more appts. We also had a simple ortho appt that will be leading to another oral surgery. He had a tumor in his mouth (last year) that prevented a tooth from growing upwards. Biopsy showed it to be a cyst and they put a button/chain device and put braces on his teeth to attempt to pull it up. The button has come loose, and there are 2 options, but both involve surgery. Poor kid! And this happened on Thursday, which was the first day he felt good in almost 2 weeks.

In other news, May snuck up on us! Isaac has been planning his 7th b'day party since shortly after he turned 6. He has mentioned taking a group of kids to French Lick's indoor waterpark, going to Holiday World, an Indians ballgame, Gatlinburg, and the list goes on and on. He has no concept of money. :) And all he keeps asking for is a real dirtbike or an indoor puppy. NO! So, it's been a challenge to find a suitable (lower key) party and find a present for the boy. He finally decided on a Star Wars party, so I went from there and am hoping he'll love it!

We are counting down the days until school is out!