Halloween Parade

Abby had a great time at the Halloween parade last night, and even was one of the winners in her age group for the costume contest! She wore her tumbling recital costume and when it was her turn to cross the stage in front of the judges, she did the splits and all the kids went "ooooohhh" haha. I think I see a performer in our future! :-)

Ready, Set ... Dodgeball!

Friday night was the Tremont Middle School dodgeball tournament, and it is always a great event for the kids. A good mixture of exercise, fun and competition! TJ's team made it into the semi-finals, finally losing out to an 8th grade team. Action shots are tough in the gym, but you can see they had fun.

TJ is also deep into practice for the 7th grade basketball team ... and looking forward to games in Nov/Dec/Jan. Right now they are practicing 6x a week for 2 hours (12 hours a week!) so we told him that he will be all fit and ready for track season when he's done, haha

Carthage Homecoming 2010

We had a great visit this weekend to Carthage to see Drew ... beautiful weather for homecoming and great to spend time with him. Prior to this weekend, I had spent just 2 days with him since July 10 when he left for China. And those 2 days were spent unpacking from China, doing laundry, packing for college and moving him into the dorm! So this weekend was our first time to relax and talk for several months, and I enjoyed every moment of it!

I put some pics from the weekend on Facebook, and you can see them on this link even if you do not have a FB account, just CLICK HERE

Little Miss Tumble Bug!

Abby participated in a dance clinic with the THS dance team, and last week they performed at the Homecoming Pep Rally! She was quite enthused to show off some of her skills and do the splits at the end of the dance routine, haha Thanks go out to Jenny at Simply Charming Photography for capturing this great shot under the stadium lights. My camera just doesn't cut it at night in the bright lights!

She's coming along quite nicely in tumbling, and is now doing a round off/backflip without a spotter! She has worked hard on that, and I'm proud of her because she only has class for an hour, just 1 night a week, for the past year.

TJ is doing well in 7th grade with very good mid-term report ... and Drew is doing well in his junior year of college. Can't believe he'll turn 21 next week! We're going to Carthage the Oct 9-10 weekend for homecoming, which will be fun!

Back to School Time!

Today is day number 3 of school, as on Wednesday Abby headed to 2nd grade and TJ to 7th! So far they both think it sounds like a fun year and they were glad to be back in the routine with friends ... seemed like such a long summer since they got out so early, on May 20.

Drew is in his final week in Beijing and will be home on Aug 26 ... just for 24 hours, then it's back to college time! I cannot believe he is halfway through college and is heading back for his junior year.

We heard from Beverly and she is back at Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, ready to start her junior year of high school there. The time is flying by!

Drew is China Bound!

Drew left Peoria this morning for the first leg of his trip to China ... and now is sitting at O'Hare waiting for his flight to Beijing! He'll arrive late on Monday, July 12 Beijing time (late morning Monday, our time) and have one free day on Tuesday. Registration at Beijing Language & Culture University takes place on July 14, and classes begin July 15. He'll finish up on August 25 and arrive back home on August 26 ... just in time to move back to college in Wisconsin on August 27!

He has posted his first entry to his travel blog, and I'm hoping he will post pretty often during the trip. You can follow his blog if you CLICK HERE

I miss him already, but I'm excited for him to experience China!

So busy I forgot to blog!!

Bad, bad blogger here! So much has happened since I last blogged, let's see how much of it I can remember!

School ended May 20, and life has been a blur ever since. We moved Drew home from college right before Memorial Day. He is only home for 2 more weeks before heading off for his 6 week study abroad program at Beijing Language & Culture University!

Abby started June with a tumbling recital, and that was lots of fun. She loved getting flowers from Drew after her performance! She is enjoying tumbling and dance classes this summer and staying busy!

Right after that recital, she was also part of the Miss Tremont Pageant. The contestants each have a "little girl" who does the opening dance number with them, and the girls were also in the parade. Big fun when you are 7!

TJ decided not to play baseball this summer, so his schedule has not been so hectic! He did take part in a 2 day basketball summer tourney, and that was great to have a chance to play and hang out with some friends who he hasn't seen since school got out.

Drew is going to blog from China, so I'll share the link as soon as that is set up! We're headed into July, and summer is half over already ... hopefully I can get back in the blog routine and not be so out of touch!

Big week ahead!

This week has lots of changes for the Scott kiddos ...

TJ and Abby have just four days of school remaining, and will finish up on Thursday. We are getting out so much earlier this year than last!

Drew is finished with classes and has finals this week ... and on Friday we'll head to Kenosha with the trailer to get him loaded up to return home. He has to stay until Sunday as his choir sings at Baccalaureate and Commencement on Sunday. So he'll arrive home late next Sunday night.

Let summer vacation begin!

Drew's Summer Adventure!

Drew has taken 2 years of Mandarin in college and has developed such a strong interest to learn more of the language that he is adding a Chinese Language minor to his Music Education degree ... and this summer, he's heading to China to do a 6-week language immersion program at Beijing Language & Culture University!

BLCU was established to teach Mandarin to foreigners, and he'll live in a dorm on campus. This will be quite the adventure, and it will take up about half of his summer break ... from mid-July through the end of August. Since Mitch and I spent two weeks in China, we know what's in store for him in the way of adventure and culture shock, but we know this will be a wonderful experience for him all around. He'll be much more on his own, whereas we spent most all of our time with a bilingual guide. The BLCU campus is just about 2.5 miles from the Olympic Village, and there will be much to see in this historical city.

Drew thinks that after college he'd like to spend some time teaching music and English in China, so this will give him a good intro to life in a large city (Population in Beijing is 13 Million) in China and help him know more about his desire to hold onto those future goals. If the current school/teacher cuts in the U.S. continue for the next 2 years, it may be a great plan to have!

Back to Reality!

Back in the work and school groove for a week after spring break now ... but my mind drifts off to those beautiful days we spent on the beach, and how I love that time away from home and work and laundry and house cleaning. Time spent with the kids, watching them play on the beach. Lots of good seafood to eat and absolutely no agenda or schedule!

The boat is in the water now, and I shot the sunset pic here from my cell phone on Saturday night.