The Best Chocolate Cake

So because I will be gone for Father's Day to mark the occasion we had cake and ice cream tonight. This is a picture of the best Chocolate Fudge Cake and it was definitely a cake that required milk. I love and appreciate the fact that I have such a talented wife to constantly keep me fed with some of the best cakes ever on the different special days of the year. (birthday, father's day, and anniversaries)

Memorial Day Parade

Dacula has a annual Memorial Day Parade every year this is our third year in attendance. These are a couple of the pictures taken, one of Maryn and Kate Harkness and the other of McKay and the Harkness boys. The Harkness family is one of our good friends here in good ol' Georgia. We spend a lot of time shuttling our kids back and forth to each others houses and activities. Dacula is one of the only places in America that does a Memorial Day Parade we are lucky to be able to remember those that have served and protected our freedoms by making the ultimate sacrifice. Also, to all the other Veterans out there. A side note Gretchen ran in the 5k before the parade again preparing for the run across Florida mentioned in the other post.

We attempt to Garden in the Red Clay of Georgia

So Gretchen has been itching to have garden space ever since we settled in Dacula. Well finally after a second year some good soil, dung and a roto tiller what you see in the pictures is the end result. She has beans, carrots, potato's, corn, onions, zucchini, pea's, cucumbers, herbs, lettuce and spinach. Between this backyard space and the small section in the front. We are all excited, we even used some of the lettuce for our dinner tonight.

More of Mckay and Will

McKay and his buddy Will graduated from Pre-K and will be going to Kindergarten next year. Here is a picture of McKay and Will with their teacher Ms. Brenda. They were the Frogs this year and had a lot of fun learning and playing.

Gretchen the Runner

So recently, Gretchen's friends have been encourage a new habit, running!!! She and some of her girlfriends are going to run across Florida in a 24 hour relay and so they have been training by doing several of the local 5K runs. Gretchen is building to do a 10K we just need to find one that she wants to run in or works out with our current schedule. But we will, this is a picture from the Susan G. Komen run for the Cure in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness.

The Piano Women

Maddie was able to share here piano talent by playing prelude music before the start of graduation. She and two other girls were asked to do this, she did an excellent job.

McKay and Will

This is the story of two buddies that went to school and played together all year. Here are some pictures of them getting their Play Ball medals. Play Ball is a program they offer to help teach sporting skills and sportsmanship. They had a great time they both worked hard. Will and Mckay have been in the same Pre School and Pre Kindergarten for the past two years they will be attending different elementary schools next year but I am sure will remain close friends as they still will play and attend church together.

Goodbye 5th Grade, Hello Middle School

Here is our daughter Maddie graduating from the 5th Grade. It seems that in the south it is a big deal to move from elementary to middle school. She had her graduation at the local huge Baptist Church, she graduated with 250+ other 5th graders in 12 classes. She was excited it was a special time for her. She also was awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. Next year she will be attending the newest Middle School in the district they just built it, and it has all the new stuff it will be called Twin Rivers Middle School the mascot is the Bears.

I think I can still count this as fall pictures since they were taken in October. This is McKay at a field trip to an apple farm in North Georgia. The kids each got to pick 5 apples off the tree and bring them home. We went on a hayride and these pumpkins were so neat looking. Sorry the photography isn't better. They were huge pumpkins and so fun to see. I was asking my kids what food they would like for Thanksgiving just to see if they had any favorites. Madalyn said turkey and potatoes and apple pie (she loves Aunt Sherrie's apple pie), Maryn said nice turkey and pumpkin pie and McKay said pumpkin pie, pumpkin butter, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin dessert, hmmmmm......think McKay likes pumpkin?!

So, Maryn has played soccer for 2 seasons now. She thinks she loves it and is so excited to play until about half way through the season when it turns into "I don't want to go to practice today." Saturday was her last game of the season. Her favorite position is goalie (not sure I spelled that correctly) Maryn has no fear when it comes to pouncing on the ball and begs her coach to play that position. When there's no action on her end of the field, she entertains herself and the parents with little dances and songs which is pretty funny sometimes....especially when she doesn't remember that people are watching.

HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPES!!!

So, one of my favorite church sites is LDS Living Magazine. Here is a link for 10 yummy looking hot cocoa recipes. Let me know if you try one of them and how you like it.

http://ldslivingmagazine.com/articles/show/1766

GOOD NIGHT

Hope that satisfies a few curiosities about Hawaii. We had a fabulous time and will definately do it again someday. It might take me a few weeks to get blogging again but I'm forever trying to do better at it. Erik's in Kuwait and it's a good way for him to see the kids so I'll do my best to put up a few things each week. Love and miss you all!

Red Sox?

So, Erik and I have this friendly fued over baseball teams. He's a Sox guy and I'm a Yankee girl. For the record, I have his hat on ONLY because he didn't want to wear it in the water and NOT because I was supporting the Sox in any way shape or form. He's laughing while he reads this because he knows that I'm only having a little fun with him. However, when he travels to Boston or gets sport attire for the kids with the Red Sox on it....curiously he never brings anything for me. Love you honey!

We went on a dolphin excursion up off the north shore. There isn't a road that goes all the way around the island and the mountains that are behind Erik and McKay are an area of the island that most people don't see because it's not easy to get to. It took alot of persuading the get Madalyn in the water even though she was so excited to see the dolphins but she did it and had fun. The dolphins we saw were spinner dolphins, a little smaller than ones you're probably thinking of when you here dolphin. The came right up by the boat and swam around underneath for a while. We had some good views. It was a great day. The water is the prettiest color blue. I don't know how it gets that blue but it's just really pretty.

More dolphins

Dolphins

Dolphin excursion

Submarine

We went on a submarine and did the whole underwater experience. I think everyone had a blast except for me. I started getting sick as soon as we boarded the sub and we were on the thing for an HOUR! Let's just say I used the little white bags they give you on the way in and the rest of my afternoon was rough. The kids took these pictures. You can see some sea turtles sitting on the reckage of the top pictures. The pictures don't do it justice, it is pretty if you don't feel sick.

Navatek Cruise

One of the advantages of taking a sitter was being able to go on a few dates with my hubby! Erik took my on this fabulous dinner cruise with a 7 course meal, music and entertainment. It went all along the west coast and down past Diamond Head and then watched the sunset before returning to dock. I ate my first lobster from the shell and just relaxed on the ship. A very fun memory!