Carthage Christmas Festival

I'm heading to Kenosha tomorrow for the Christmas Festival at Carthage ... it has been a favorite event of mine for the past two years, and I can't believe there is only one more year to take it in after this one, as Drew will be a senior next year. Time flies, gotta do this stuff and enjoy it before it's too late!

Drew is in the 2nd row up in this picture, just to the right of center. You can see a little larger version by clicking on the pic.

Sounds like it will be a snowy visit, with as much as 6 inches of snow on Saturday. That should get me in the holiday spirit?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a great week here at the Scott house, having Drew home all week on fall break! With his trip to China taking up 6 weeks last summer, it just felt like he had been gone forever. You can see a full size version of the pic if you click on it.

Here's the crew getting ready for the Thanksgiving feast! And then there is TJ, who does like a little pumpkin pie with his whipped cream!

Next weekend I'm headed to Carthage College for Drew's choir Christmas Festival and to get the holiday shopping started. It's always a fun trip and great to have that one-on-one time with him, where I don't have to share him with Abby! haha

Happy Thanksgiving!

Basketball Time!

Lots of basketball being played around here this time of year! TJ is on the 7th grade team and practicing 6 days a week (12 hours a week!) and now Abby has started a 6 week skills clinic. She has spent so much time in the bleachers watching TJ's games that she definitely thinks it is HER turn to play!

Drew is home for Thanksgiving week and it is so great to have everyone under the same roof! We'll be spending the holiday at home and I'm cooking the full meal, pretty much as I've done for most all of the past 28 years. Mitch's family doesn't have a get together and my family is pretty non-existent ... so we don't really have family to spend the time with, and it's up to me to get the meal together and be sure my kids have traditions to remember it by. Even though it's a lot of work, it's definitely a holiday time of good memories!!

Pumpkin Carving

Two posts in one weekend ... don't faint!

I wish I could find (make) the time to post as often as I used to, because I love going back through old posts and seeing the activities and faces! Maybe I can get better at that again ...


We carved pumpkins yesterday and had a great time. Abby LOVES reaching in and getting the slimy pumpkin guts out, haha. Last night was trick-or-treating here, as we always do that on a Saturday night when Halloween falls on Sunday to accommodate a couple of groups in the area who don't like those activities on a Sunday. In the end, I think it works out better anyway to not go out on a school night, regardless of the other ideas about why not to do it on a Sunday.

I'm sure we'll still see a few little goblins at our door tonight, those who missed the memo! :-)

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!