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!

The Tremont Scotts Go Beachy!

Don't you love our beachin' new blog? Sun, sand and water, our three staples of fun!

Beautiful Weather

The weather has been so nice ... thought I'd take the kiddos out for a couple of pics, and they wanted to get the pets involved too.

This is Rosie, she's a Husky-Collie mix that we brought home from the animal shelter 11 years ago. She is a very sweet dog and so good with the kids. She doesn't get around quite as good as she used to, but she still enjoys her time outside and is a glutton for dog bones!

Calvin is a cat we found 8 years ago in a culvert near our home. He was so tiny and scared, but you would never know it now. He is quite the pampered fat cat and has a funny personality.

Weekend in St. Louis

We had a fun (and hot!) weekend in St. Louis for Father's Day! On Saturday we went to the Cardinals game, which was very fun. We stayed at the Hyatt downtown and the kids enjoyed swimming in the rooftop pool that overlooks the arch grounds. It's kind of funny to look down on the arch instead of up at it!

Drew took the train down a day early and spent some time with friends from our years living in STL. He had a great time and we picked him up yesterday to return home with us.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Grant's Farm and the kids loved the tram ride to see the animals in the park. We were headed across a covered bridge in a tram and a mama buffalo and two young calves were standing on the bridge. Like any good mama, she stood her ground and protected those babies, stomping her hooves and snorting and not letting us through ... until a park truck came along and moved them onto safety. We then walked through the petting zoo area, and Abby was not too excited about the goats that wanted to nibble on the bottom of her skirt! But she had fun watching Drew give them milk in little bottles.

It was especially fun to have a chance to see the Clydesdales and their foals. We hit the road about 4pm and got home a few hours after a pretty big storm hit here, but we did not have any rain on our drive.

Festival Time!

It has been a long, hot weekend ... but we had lots of fun at the Tremont Turkey Festival this weekend!

We started out Thursday night at the pageant. It has been lots of fun to see it the past 2 years since Drew's classmates are the contestants. Abby went along and got bored pretty quickly, but I think picked up a new behavior to model ... each day ever since the pageant, I have heard her with a toy microphone singing her heart out. I think she enjoyed the vocal solos most of the girls did for their talent. HA

Fri night we hit the rides hard and burned up most of the tix we had. It was a lot cooler and nicer there Fri night than the past two days with 90 degree temps and plenty of humidity. But the crowds came out in good number and I think it will be successful for the community.

Today we went back for round two of grilled turkey sandwiches and strawberry shortcake ... had a couple great lemonade shake ups while we sat in a cool spot waiting for the parade to start. The kids got a huge haul in candy ... here they are trying to get the attention of one of the firemen at the beginning of the parade to toss them some candy. As soon as we came home, they put their candy bags on the scale and I think our dentist would not be happy to hear that Abby picked up 8 lbs of candy, and TJ 10 lbs. HA It was raining candy, much of the parade.

The pic above is of Drew driving in the parade with 3 of the queen contestants in tow ... on the left is Cori, our neighbor. Drew sang a solo on Fri night in the "Tremont has Talent" competition and won first place and a $250 cash prize! He sang "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts and did a great job.

Another Turkey Festival has come and gone!

Spring Evening, Spring Flowers

It was a beautiful spring evening tonight and the kids and I spent some time outside soaking it up. It's that pretty time of year when the grass is really green and the early flowers are in bloom ... and haven't been scorched by the hot summer sun yet!

We took some pics of the pond and the honeysuckle that is in full bloom on the trellis over the pond. It is a favorite of the hummingbirds and we see many of them during the summer months.

We also tried to get pics of one of the resident pond frogs, but they all let out a screech and jumped into the water anytime we came near. They are pretty funny, and pretty scared of us. Wonder if it has anything to do with TJ's relentless efforts to try and catch them in a net all the time? ;-)

Then we moved out front to shoot a few hoops. Abby had to get in the action, even though she was in a dress.

While we were there we took some pics of the beautiful Irises that are blooming near the front walk. I wish they stayed this pretty all year long, but soon they will fade.

A Summer-Like Weekend!

It was a balmy 85 degrees this weekend, felt more like mid-July than the end of May. Well, I guess it is now June as of today!

TJ had a swim party for a group of 4th graders on Sat, so he spent the day at the neighbors house enjoying a good cool down. They had balloon fights (girls against boys) and a great time.

Then we went out to the boat on Sat afternoon. After dinner out, we made a quick stop at a local festival to listen to a set by one of our favorite area Jimmy Buffett style bands. After the music we took in a fireworks show, and the kids were beat so we headed back to the marina to spend the night and get ready for a busy day relaxing on Sunday.

Today was nice and toasty, and just the perfect day to try out the new little boat. It was lots of fun and a great day to be out on the water. We took several rides and didn't leave the marina until way late since it was so nice ... at least it's not a "school night" any more, but it is still a "work night"! Well and Drew starts his 8-week Chemistry class tomorrow morning at the community college, to get a jump on the fall semester at college ... so a few of us aren't off for the summer like TJ and do have some obligations tomorrow! HA