time gets away from me again.

it's a good thing i have lots of pictures because when i wait a long time between blogging sessions i kind of forget what we've been up to. the 3rd graders at max's school have been keeping in touch with the 3rd graders at another local school this year - pen pals. their letters to each other have been pretty cute. max had 2 pen pals. at the end of the year they always have a pen-pal picnic so the kids can meet each other and have an afternoon together at one of the schools playing and eating and getting to spend in-person time with each other. as it turned out, max already knew both his pen pals. one of them is in his cub scout den and the other is also in cub scouting and he met him at the blue and gold banquet earlier this year. kind of takes the big fun out of meeting at the picnic, but they were good with it. they're boys, right? they don't care. they played lots of games and got lots of prizes and ate lunch and had popsicles..a perfect day for them.

blake's freshman choir spring concert was this week so of course we were front and center. he walked out onto the stage when they were getting on the risers, and greg, luke and i simultaneously said, "oh my gosh he's so tall!". unbelievable how fast that happens. and his voice is changing too. (this is something he is undoubtedly happy about because now maybe people won't call the house and think he's me when he answers the phone.) anyway, the choir was great! we stayed to hear collegium musicum perform. blake auditioned for and made it and will be in that group next year. they have a renaissance style of music and dress. lots of performances. lots of great vocal experience. we're excited for him to be able to participate in it.

there was a tree planting ceremony at the elementary school in honor of haley and zoey, so of course greg and i went to that. we thought we were early but when we got there it was over! we were a little bummed about that. it went well though, and their classmates were able to participate, which will help them along in their grieving process. wsaz was there and did a nice piece on it for the local news. please continue to pray for our smith friends. God uses time gone by to ease things and to heal, but it is still so hard. they need our prayers.

max has his spring program coming up tomorrow. i found out just a few days ago that his costume won't be provided and i needed to come up with something...it's a disney themed program and he's dopey. i couldn't find a pattern anywhere except on ebay and didn't have time for that. so i just used pictures of dopey that i found online and went on a treasure hunt at the dollar tree and goodwill and then got some things at walmart to put something together that would pass for dopey. i got an old grandma robe (green buttons not included) and some pants at goodwill for about $5. the robe provided a nice (if not gross) chuckle. max tried it on and when we were pulling it down over his head some tissues fell out of one of the pockets. he just about gagged! hilarious. of course i washed it all before i got to work on it. i feel like the costume turned out pretty well, and max is really happy with it so we're good!

we had some long overdue fire time with nathan and kathy and their kids. always always good. it was so relaxing and a perfect night for it. and i got to hear my friend kathy really LAUGH. it's about time. this is my favorite picture from the evening (aside from unpostable nakie pics of andrew streaking) because it's of nathan while i took advantage of one of my opportunities to harass him for smoke instead of fire.

blake and luke were in the youth praise band sunday morning. they did GREAT! all of those kids were SO great!! it's amazing to see how talented they all are and how God blesses their efforts to use what He's given them for Him. we were so proud of our boys, and so proud of ALL of them. our whole congregation was, you could just feel it.

yesterday we took the boys and went to the cemetary. greg really was feeling like he needed to go to his mom's grave, as well as his grandparents and my blake grandparents. he bought flowers on the way home from church, and off we went. the boys did most of the work, cleaning off the grave markers and putting in the flowers and giving them water. cemetary visits used to be pretty emotional for me. this time wasn't - not sure why. i love my family. i love my mamaw and papaw blake still, and miss them. i wish i'd spent more time with them. i wish they knew my boys at this stage of their lives. but i wasn't filled with sadness when we visited yesterday. just as well..if my mamaw blake saw me crying at her grave she'd probably swat my rear end if she could.

we wrapped up sunday spending time with matt and betsy and some of their family. we've known them pretty much forever but have never done anything with our families together. we had a really good time. very relaxing and just time to talk and get to know each other a little more. the creasy boys had fun playing and swimming with their son charles and baby girl eliza. they live along the river so we were able to watch some boaters having fun and watch the river roll on by. it was such a beautiful evening.

today greg had a long list of things to do out in the yard and time to do it, so we spent a lot of time outside. i don't have those pictures on my computer yet so that'll be an entry for another day!