Tracking Hurricane Earl

Billy might have found his calling...a Storm Chaser. Here he is in his command center doing the following report on the looming Hurricane Earl. We have a scheduled trip to Virginia Beach this weekend and he has been serving as advisor for travel plans for Nana and Pop and Pie. He has also kept Mom Mom in Ohio up to date on this very serious storm. He writes..

It came across the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Verde! It is going towards the East Coast and now it is near the Bahamas and Cabo. Earl is already a category 4 hurricane and it is possibly headed for Virginia Beach and we are supposed to go there this weekend. If it does hit Virgina Beach, it would during the night time on Thursday. If the weather is not too bad for the weekend, then we will go on Friday and get to see if there is any damage. That will be cool. One time a hurricane destroyed the pier right near Pie's house.

The AT

A Note from Minnie - The boys are back in school, so the posts from Billy will not be as frequent....but I will continue to post because I have fallen so far behind on scrap booking, and this blog has become easier to document our lives. I will mark Billys post from now on to highlight the ones from him!

We hiked yesterday to a thru hikers cabin on the Appalachian Trail yesterday. It was really neat, though not very luxurious! We all agreed we like hiking but then going home to our nice comfy beds....we would not want to hike 20 miles day after day, and have staying in this place be a huge treat. Guess none of us will ever be thru-hikers on the AT! We did about 3 miles yesterday...so we completed about .75% of the trail, not bad!

Minnie's Trail Mix
Pumpkin Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Mini Animal Crackers
Cashews
Crasins
Dates
Reece's Pieces
***Spiced gumdrops on the side!

A proud Minnie!

Four days of school are under our belt and the boys are both doing fabulous. In fact, both of them got to pick prizes out of the prize box today. You need 5 'stars' to do so...do the math and see they both are averaging more than one star per day! Here they are with their loot!

First Day of school

Billy and JJ had a great first day at school. They both have had a lot to say about their day...here are just a few snipets...

From JJ - 'This was a really good day. SSES is my favorite school. I want to go all the time even in the summer...but not Saturdays and Sundays. Ms. M is a nice teacher and the only time she is mean is when the kids are bad. The only bad thing about today is when I almost got lost in the cafeteria because I was not paying attention to my class. I will not do that tomorrow. I liked school a lot, but I am glad to be home. Can you call the bus and ask them to come early tomorrow because I am so excited to go!'

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From Billy - 'My first day was awesome. I think this will be my best year ever. Mrs. C is a great teacher because she is really strict, but also really fun and I like it when teachers are both of those things. The only bad thing is that our playground still stinks!

The Last of The Really Great Whangdoodles BBC

My friend from school has a quarry filled with water because years ago, when digging for rocks, they hit a natural spring. I have been wanting to go to it for like ever and we finally got to today because we had boys book club there. We read the book, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and not very many people in the book club finished the whole book because it was really long, and it is close to the end of summer and because I guess they were lazy. So, we did not have much of the book to discuss. I liked the book, it had a funny character named Oink in it. It was not my favorite book, but it was good. Back to the quarry...it was awesome because it is full of deep water, like 60 foot deep. I liked jumping off the dock and doing dives and side dives. I want to go back again really soon and walk around and maybe jump of the really high cliff!

From JJ - The cliffs were cool and the seaweed freaked me out, but it was actually kind of funny to get stuck in it! (Editors Note....I contemplated including the following comment, because it is a little inappropriate, but those of you who know JJ will recognize this as being just so JJ....it also freaks me out...more than the seaweed because I was swimming next to him the whole time!) I peed like 16 times when I was swimming in the quarry because I was trying to get the water higher so I could jump off the cliffs the next time I go! The book was good. I liked the oink and also the Whangdoodle.

Open House for SSES

Billy and JJ are off to school in a few days...JJ will go to kindergarten, Billy to second grade. JJ will have Ms. M and Billy Mrs. C. After meeting their teachers and getting all their school supplies settled, here are their thoughts on the school year:

Billy - I hate to admit it, but now I am actually thinking this will be a good year.

JJ - I am really excited about it because this will be my first year at SSES. I am a little nervous too...were you nervous when you went to kindergarten? But Ms. M is really nice and really fun. And yesterday, I only met the girls in my class which I do not like. I hope I have boys in my class.

50 years

We just returned from Ohio where we celebrated the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Mom Mom and Pa! Here are Billy and JJ's thoughts about 50 years....and the party.....

Q: Is 50 Years a long time?

JJ: - Yes, because I am only 5 and when you are 5, one year is a long time!
Billy: - Kind of, but dinosaurs are a lot older!


Q: What do you think you will you be doing in 50 years?

JJ: - Eating Ice Cream and Cake!
Billy: - Living in Mom Mom and Pa's house after I go to Denison!



Q: Do you think you will ever be married 50 years?

JJ:- Well, I am really hoping for 70...and I might as well try for a million!
Billy: - Probably, because I am a great catch!



Q: What was your favorite thing at the party?

JJ: - The fake cigarettes (from the 1960 candy basket)
William: - The rain, I love rain!

The Columbus Zoo

We all loved the polar bear exhibit the best...is it any wonder why?

Our reading list...

An early intention of this blog was for Billy to share advice on things he thinks other kids would enjoy. Here is a list of books to check out which we read this summer. Minnie, JJ and Billy each ranked their own list in order...and all three lists were combined to make this one. Wtih the exception of the last ranked book, we would recommend the entire list to any bibliophile!

#1 The Fantastic Mr. Fox ***JJ's fav (because 'because,because it is just my favorite book ever!')
#2 Surprise Island (Boxcar Children #2)
#3 The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
#4 Henry and Beezus ***Billy's fav (because 'it just was!')
#5 BFG ***Minnie's fav (because of the funny way the BFG spoke!)
#6 The Boxcar Children
#7 Junnie B Jones and that Meannie Jim's Birthday
#8 Beezus and Ramona
#9 Danny, Champion of the World
#10 My Father's Dragon
#11 The Twits
#12 Captain Underpants
#13 Dude, Where's My Spaceship

Apparently Big Max MUST come too..

Hope we have room in the car....

Editors Note: I am only allowing this so there can be a reunion between Big Max and our #1 Fan!

Off to Mom Mom and Pa's...with all these guys

JJ's reasons why he needs to take all of these stuffed animals to Ohio for the weekend...

'If I don't take Jake the Dog, I will miss him...and Garfield is my favorite, and this one is my second favorite (Ellie Grace the reindeer), and Gwynn the dog helps me sleep and Cowie is hungry'.....

Good reasons...so they are all making the trip!

Polo and Peaches

We got to go to a polo match yesterday. It is like watching a mix of hockey and soccer, but on horses. A bunch of my friends went too and we played some fun games. After the match, we went to pick peaches. One of my friends got locked in her car. Everybody thought it was funny...except for her. We all had a great time!

Bowling and Book Club

We have had another busy week of summer. The boys are getting lots of free adventures around town because they are doing the reading program at the library....this week was a bowling pass. We have also done roller skating and went to see the Turks baseball team play.

Billy's favorite thing about bowling...'trying to roll all the really heavy balls, like 14 pounds down to the pins,and oh yeah the game room in the back'

JJ's favorite things....'nothing, I didn't like bowling!'

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For Boys Book Club, we read 'Dude, Where's My Spaceship'. Because the book was about aliens, Minnie thought it a good idea to go see the movie, Despicable Me with all the kids because she thought all the little yellow dudes on the commercials were aliens....turns out they were not aliens, but minions and the movies took place on earth. So, it did not tie into the theme much, but the movie had lots of potty humor, so it was a good time for the boys!

As far as the book goes....according to Billy "I liked the book okay, it was not my favorite, but I did not hate it. I like aliens and the title was cool, actually I should have liked it better...'

and from JJ's point of view....'the aliens were funny, I liked the one named Ploo. They thought pizza were box turtles...and they ate the box!'

White Oak Canyon Falls

Yesterday we went on a waterfall hike! It was 5 miles long, and it took us more than three hours. It was our longest and hardest hike ever! We saw tons of neat things....fire roads, people riding horses on a horse trail, some bridges, millipedes and a deer right off the trail. We even saw a lot of swimming holes! This was a great hike.

Editors Note: Joining the family on the hike were Harrison the bunny, Lioney the Lion, and Clyde the Hiking Walrus....all pictured above!

Introducing our new family members...

Smokey Bug-Eyed Road Kill Blue Ace Harrison...named by JJ

Buddy...named by Billy