Summer classes are over!

Way to go Drew ... today was the final exam for his summer Chemistry class! He has had a pretty intense 8 weeks of chemistry lab and lecture, 5 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays. All to make his freshman year of college a little bit smoother, at the recommendation of the choral music chairman. Now he has 5 weeks off before college!

Happy 10th Birthday, TJ!

TJ had a fun day turning 10! He and I had some mom/son time today to have lunch and take in a movie together (Wall-e) and then the whole family went out for dinner at Chevy's. He got the usual treatment of their birthday celebration, complete with singing, clapping, ice cream and a souvenier sombrero. HA

His aunts/uncles/cousins made sure he has some spiffy new shirts ... Bulls and NASCAR, so those were fun to open. We came home kind of late from dinner and he thought the fun day was over ... but he had one last surprise. He was happy to see the snare drum kit he wanted to get him started on the drums for 5th grade band. Yes, we are crazy. He's just a drum kind of kid, though ... it just fits him!



So we finally got it opened and assembled and he started playing the drum about 9:30pm ... I checked everywhere in the drum bag, but I didn't find any ear plugs or Tylenol for the owner's parents! HA

And you can tell it was past Abby's bedtime in the video because she is tired and at the end is saying a very dramatic, "You never do videos of meeeeeeeeeeee ..." She was tucked in shortly thereafter! ;-)



Happy birthday, TJ! I can't believe I now have two of my kiddos in the "double digit" years. And it won't be too much longer before Drew is celebrating his last birthday in the teens!

An Honorary Member of the Tremont Scotts!

The Tremont Scott Trio becomes the Tremont Scott Quads for the 2008-09 school year!

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting an exchange student from China for the upcoming school year! Jia Yu (Beverly) is a 15 year old girl from Guangzhou, Guangdong and will be a Sophomore at Tremont HS! She will arrive sometime after August 15, but we do not have firm travel information yet.

Of course we will keep you updated on her here as part of the family ... but I have also created a special blog to post more info about her, pictures of our home and around Tremont and more to help her get to know us before she arrives, and to help her family stay up-to-date on her life in Tremont while she's here. You can view that blog (and offer up your own welcome message to her!) here ...

http://www.tenmonthsintremont.blogspot.com/

We'll be a bit cozy in the two-ish weeks after she arrives and before we take Drew to college on August 31, but we'll make it work! The kids are excited to meet her and learn more about China, maybe even learn a little Mandarin along the way! Drew is taking Mandarin as a freshman year class at Carthage, so maybe when he's home at holiday time, she can help reinforce that to him as well. Should be a fun adventure, stay tuned!

The Bespectacled Beauty

So we went in for the kindergarten eye exam, a new IL state requirement for all kiddos entering kindergarten this year. Pushed into law by the optometrists, of course. And we left with an order for glasses. Nickelodeon glasses, to be exact.

She did need some correction, but her vision isn't too bad and the doc thinks wearing these for the next 6 weeks will even strengthen her eyes and maybe the prescription can be reduced at that time. Tonight we picked them up. She is SO proud of them. Thank goodness I don't have to fight her to wear them. Now if we can only keep them on when we need them and keep them from getting broken!

Happy July 4th Weekend!

We had a beautiful and relaxing long weekend at the marina to celebrate the 4th of July. Watched the fireworks over the Peoria skyline on Friday night. Here's a glimpse of the downtown lights and sky as the sun began to set. Click on the picture to see a larger view. No fireworks pics that turned out, but they were beautiful as always!