June marked a month of firsts.  Levi began his first year of baseball.  He played up as a 5 year old into a 7 year old machine pitch league.  He really improved significantly from the first day of practice, as he went out on the field, “WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?”…something none of our older children would have ever been outgoing enough to ask, to the end of the year where he was one of the better hitters on the field.

After the year completed, Levi was so exhausted that he decided to take a nap – for some reason, he decided to go back to sleeping in a crib.

After cross country finished for Jonathan, he broke down and feasted on the largest Reese’s peanut butter cup in the world along with his friend, Brittian.

Darol and Donna also purchased their first ever truck.  It’s an old 1978 Ford “beater” that they purchased from the famous Dr. Silver.  It has served well so far in taking the children around to do their grass cutting jobs.

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Darol even took a trip back to Memphis for work with Microsoft.  He had an opportunity to go back and visit Rhodes College, where he ran cross country and played baseball.  Here is a shot of the famous Halliburton Tower on the campus

Here is a “glory days” picture of his cross country team.

Donna loves to make a trip over to Laurens whenever possible to see her grandmother, and the children enjoy it as well.  Here are several shots of some of the children with Gram.

Gram is nearing her 100th birthday in about 1 1/2 years.  That will surely be one humongous party in Laurens when that day arrives, Lord willing!

May represented a number of short trips in the Charlotte area.  Benjamin’s PSB Select Team had a tournament on the north side of town one day.  Actually, that was a source of a bit of frustration, as he played on a team hosted in Matthews/Indian Trail, but did not play a single tournament in that areas.  Oh well, we had a good time watching his games.  On this particular day, we needed something to do in between a 4 hour “layover”. So went to the Lazy 5 Ranch.  The youngest children had never been, though the older ones had been many years earlier.  The trip was replete with the opportunity to feed by hand many different animals, including giraffes, zebras, pigs, and various kinds of deer, including many that jumped up against the van with their hoofs.  Well, I guess we wouldn’t have claimed to have a scratch free vehicle, but now our ride is much more in the “Mom My Ride” category.

Donna also took the children over to a strawberry patch one day as well.  We definitely don’t pretend that homeschooling is the best answer for everyone, but this is a fringe benefit of homeschooling in that one can take a field trip at any time of the day and seek to avoid the normal rush of going during a busier time.

Finally, our day trip list wouldn’t be complete without a picture of a Frisbee golf outing at Hornet’s Nest.  At last count, our family has now played 4 courses in Charlotte, 2 in Columbia, and 2 in Colorado.  The favorites at the point are the one in Frisco, CO because of the view, Hornet’s Nest in Charlotte because of the difficulty, and “The Cousin’s Course” in Columbia (not sure why, but maybe just because they get to do it with their cousins, and that’s a good enough answer).

Even though our anniversary is in March, we spent our 18 year anniversary on a trip to the Smoky Mountains.  We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast and had a great time together, while the Mimi and Pops looked after the children…well, not all of the children.  How could you not want to take me along??

Yes, just as in the past 2 years, l’il Chloe found a way to tag along with her parents.  After all, I just sleep all the time anyway.  I won’t be any trouble.

All in all, it was a very good time.  The bed and breakfast was nice, and located on a remote mountain just outside of the National Park.  We spent some time in Dillon and in the Park, and saw some pretty sights.

May marked a good Mother’s Day family celebration.  In the past we’ve done some scavenger hunts for Donna, but this year was a little more low key.  But there’s not much better than a mother surrounded by her loving children.

She was also pleased a few days earlier to have her fine little violin players do a good job at their recital.

Based on the pictures we have saved for April, it looks like our focus was definitely on our pretty little girls.  Abigail celebrated her 8th birthday by getting her ears pierced.  This was our first experience in that realm, as it’s questionable as to whether Elizabeth will ever go down that route!  The girls did a craft together based on their initials and a cake from Whole Foods (gluten free), one of the few grandchildren cakes not made by the master cake making Grandfather.   

Next, Donna took the family to Laurens for some time with their great-grandmother and the celebration of Easter, while Darol stayed behind to preach at a church in Locust. Gram has always been a godly influence on all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  All of our children were also caught in a rare picture where they were dressed up, and not even a trace of orange on them!

After the time in a dress at church, Elizabeth was able to get more comfortable in her “archer clothes” in Gram’s back yard.

Finally, April finished with a trip to the beach at Springmaid.  This is a beach near Myrtle Beach to which Donna used to go every summer as a child.  25-30 years later, her father took them back to the beach for a fishing outing.  This had most of our children excited, given their recent passion for fishing.  There were a few shark catches, and everyone enjoyed it, despite the high amount of rain that dampened everyone on the pier.

The crew is already discussing a return trip this year…

This year we really started to notice some creativity in Abigail.  She enjoys time sitting around creating things, and is doing well with her violin playing.  She really has an ear for music.  Darol bought a groupon for Abigail and Donna to use at Dish It Out, and Abigail obviously enjoyed it.

We love the pictures when we capture the girls together at one time.  In this case, it was for some nice weather on the deck.

For Levi, this marked a significant first.  Fortunately, of all the sports that the children are playing, there is the hope that he will actually stick with the right one and not succumb to all the basketball pressure!  He enjoyed his first year at MARA playing baseball, and got to where he had a pretty good swing in his first year.

Quotables:

Levi, walking onto the field at his 2nd practice:  “WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?”

In the middle of February, we went to New Orleans.  It was the first time back there for Darol in 13 years.  We had not been back since Jonathan was a baby, and so all the other children were seeing Darol’s hometown for the first time ever.  We stopped by a store to get some groceries, and all the children decided to try out some disguises.

  The next night we were able to view our first parade, very close to the Wilson’s house in Metairie.  The children were focused on gathering as much “treasure” thrown from the floats as possible. 

In addition to viewing the parades, New Orleans is probably most famous for all the various food options.  You can go for the famous crawfish (mud bugs), or the deep fried donuts (beignets from Café Du Monde).

We also wandered through the French Quarter on Saturday morning looking for any sort of treasures to bring home from the market.

After going through the Market, we headed back to our van to drive back and get ready for the afternoon and evening parades.  Unfortunately, our departure from the parking lot was …impossible…the lot was empty when we arrived early on Saturday morning, and Darol made the mistake of parking the multi-passenger van in a spot that was later completely enclosed by other cars.  After 4 hours of sitting in the parking lot, including being hoaxed by a local who claimed to own the lot, multiple people attempting to back the van out themselves, we finally found an attendant who tracked down a car owner in order to move the car.  We were so glad to get out of there, given the potential that we could have been stuck there for 2 days!  As of one year later, we still have one king cake left in our outside freezer, waiting for the right time to break it out and relive the experience.

January had the usual snow outing for the family.  Here is a fast sled down the hill.  

Followed by a cold Abigail needing to come in to warm up…

Chloe was even ready to get into the action with big brother Jonathan at the helm

Finally, Chloe needed to have a snowman snack after all the exercise.

January 2014 kicked off with an impressive commitment from the children to really eat much healthier.  One of the main events in that month was a cooking class for the girls by Coach Conrad, the children’s cross country coach. He put together a healthy meal of a pasta chicken dish, along with some shrimp.  The evening finished with a smoothie competition between Conrad’s smoothie maker (a Kitchen-Aid) and our Vita-Mix.  I think we would claim the victory on that one.  But Conrad would get the more significant victory in contributing to a longer lasting desire in the family to improve eating habits (Darol is probably the one in last place on this), though the rest of the family is really well on board. The children did some extra workouts with him at various times at his studio.  The main thing they emphasized was around jumping, hip strength and balance.

It was a good start to the year on the health side!