On July 4th, we went to the Harwell's to shot some fireworks with the kids and then Katie and Gray came with us to the stadium to watch the city's firework display.
Our church also had Vacation Bible School in July. I helped in Will's class and Ainsley went to the nursery. Will had a great time. He espescially liked music time. Every morning the entire group practiced 3 or 4 songs that went with the week's theme, and then each class went to music seperately with Ms. Mary Pat. He learned many of the words and dance motions and sang them for weeks. He participated well in all the activities (except maybe snack time)! One day when I picked Ainsley up, the nursery worker said, "Jo Ellen! She is busy!" Ha! Tell me about it! She was good, just active! The weekend after VBS, we went to Hot Springs to meet my mom's family, the Howells. My uncle has a friend who has several houses on Lake Hamilton that they get to use once each summer. The rest of us stay in hotels and hang out at the lake house all day. My mom's sisters and brother and most of their families were there. It's impossible to get everyone together each time anymore, we just pick a weekend and whoever can, comes. My uncle was even able to get his friend's jet to pick up my aunt and uncle, their kids and families in Nebraska!! It was great to have them there! My uncle Phillip took Will on their jet ski, which he of course, loved! Ainsley had just started walking well, so she was all over the place. The lake house was very nice and had lots of expensive, breakable things at kid-level, you had to be on your toes inside and out. We decided that being on a lake for vacation with 2 little ones was NOT very relaxing! It was good to see my family, but the weekend was hard work.
The next weekend we went to Guy and Julie's because Julie and I had signed up to go to a Continuing Education conference at the facility where she works. Mitch and Guy kept the kids while we went to class for 2 days.
The first weekend of August each year is the Colvin reunion in Louisiana. It is usually at the Colvin Memorial pavilion at Unionville, but since it is always super hot, they decided to try moving it inside this year. Mitch was the President this year and he did a great job! It was held in Dubach and was well attended. Here is Ainsley wearing her cute monogrammed dress, sitting in Papaw's lap - eating, of course. The name "Ainsley" is an old family name on the Colvin side - Mitch's great-great-great grandfather, or something like that. Each year someone reads the names of the 17 children of the couple that settled in the area from South Carolina. Ainsley was one of their sons. So, it is neat that Ainsley will get to stand up when that name is called!
The next weekend I helped organize a garage sale put on by Service League to benefit Scott and Katie Harwell. Scott was injured in June while on duty. He was standing behind his patrol car after working an accident at about 3 am one morning when a drunk driver hit him. He lost his left leg. It was quite a devastating loss, but Scott is doing good now. The sale was an idea brought to me by another friend who wanted to do something to help off-set some of the medical expenses. It was a lot of work, but we made above and beyond my expectations and Katie and Scott were grateful. The day after the sale, Sunday, August 9th, my dad got very sick and we were told he had little time to live. He died Thursday, August 13th at about 6:15 p.m. It was a long, emotional week. I will have to save the details for another post at another time.
The same night that my dad died, Will was in the Hope Landing Talent Show, which was held at the Arts Center. Mitch and I were unable to watch the show, but he and Papaw played baseball. They took the doormat that they use as home base, as well has his bat and foam balls. Gill pitched to him and he got several good hits. He ran around the stage like he was running the bases and said "safe!" when he got back to "home". The purpose of the talent show was to focus on the kids' abilities rather than their disabilities. We were able to get a video of it that another parent made. They all did a great job!
The next week, school started for Will. He is in 3 year old pre-school in Mrs. Melinda's room. We have all loved her this year. Will is doing better this year. He is learning a lot and now that he is more verbal, he is able to tell us about it.
Here he is on the first day of school.
The next weekend, Hope Landing had a family fun day/fishing tournament. Mitch and Gill took the kids (we had 4 things going on that weekend, and we couldn't do them all, not to mention I wasn't up to that much socializing at that point). Will got an award for the "Most Patient Fisherman". Papaw took them on a little 4-wheeler ride.
On Labor Day, Vivian's sister Maggie and her son Stacy came up for dinner. They grilled "Maggie chickens" and we had a great meal. Gill had worked on building a swing set for the kids all summer, and the weather was perfect for playing outside on it.
In September, school and therapy were in full swing, Service League was in full swing, we had a few doctor's appointments, a few birthday parties, I worked at HL some, and football season started. We like to go to Wildcat games as much as we can. We took Ainsley to her first one this year. She made it until half time. She was good, just very wiggly! She went back and forth from me to Mitch to Gill and back a million times. We took Will only to several more through out the season. He likes watching the game, the crowd, the band, the cheerleaders - all of it! Here are the kids in their purple/white and a couple of other good pics!
At the end of September, we took a great trip - to New York City!! We took Will only and left Ainsley here with the grandparents. We celebrated our anniversary while we were there. I'll also save that story for it's own post.
