Catching up, Part 2

The end of hunting season means Papaw plans a rabbit hunt for all the kids at the hunting camp!  (including the big kid who happens to turn 37 this year...).  Up and at 'em early!

I can't believe my eyes...  he looks 10 here!

And despite the freezing cold winds, he came out a winner!  And as seen here, was beyond proud.

February also means the annual Gore-Koonce family Christmas celebration! We love to wait until after the holy season to gather on Saturday.  My oh my how we have grown!!  We always laugh and laugh, what fun times!

This little man now loves to get his schoolwork done. Oh, and he is a little perfectionist too.

And Avery also loves her work... this is her dictation practice from school... Mississippi girl at heart.

Late February, we enjoyed a great day at Samuel's dedication at FBCJ... then celebrated his 3rd birthday with family afterwards at our house!  You can't tell in this picture, but Samuel knew this day was about him... and loved being the center of attention.

And of course, a "mi-mou" cake and hats. He always does a great job rolling with whatever is going on... and his first (3rd) party was no different.  We will always grieve that we missed his first two birthdays, but also know God has BIG things planned for this smart, awesome boy.

Samuel loves his family... as you can see by this picture.  He often goes to sleep now repeating all the family members he can think of: "Momma, Dada, Mimi, Papaw, GG, Pop, Mop, Ya Ya (avery), Li La (silas), momma, mi-mou, dog, bobo, (surely he doesn't associate dog and bo-bo...ha) mimi, dada, etc..."

Then came Dr. Seuss Day at school. Thankfully, Silas and Avery both wanted to be Fox in Socks... and Samuel decided to be a ninja for the picture.

One of the wonderful things Grace and I remember about staying overnight at Mamaw and Papaw's house (my dad's parents) is the Donut Fairy.  Papaw would tell us the legend of the Donut Fairy and how she lived on Mount Everest... and rolled her special sweet donuts in the snow. The white bag would always be sitting on their kitchen table waiting on us when we awoke.  Well, guess who made her debut at the Warf house in March?!

And, of course, they wrote a thank-you note...

The first weekend of Spring Break, we were dying to get back to to Jackson, TN to see Moppy and Poppy and the rest of the family.  Moppy is doing so well and recovering like the rock star we know she is... and was so kind to open their house to our wild bunch:-)  What a fun time we had!

These two have something special...from the time Avery was about one year old...  I love watching.

Then March 14th marked SIX MONTHS since we met this precious face.  Seems like yesterday and forever at the same time.  Truly Samuel is such a gift, adds such joy to our family, and is like a teddy bear personified - who more than loves Mexican chips and salsa.  I find this so funny.  But it is his favorite, so we chose none other for his 6 month family day celebration:

He only ate two baskets full of chips. By himself. His brother finished another two.   (neither of them ate the quesadilla... of course that's tomorrow's lunch)

What a difference six months makes! 

Catching up here, part 1...

This blog has been a little neglected since February, so here goes.  Breakfast of champions on the way to school!  

The 100th day of school meant dressing "like you were 100 years old".  We got many laughs out of this.  And yes, Silas' zipper is down... naturally.

He would rather his pants not have buttons or zippers. (not to say that I blame him, ha!)

Silas and Avery are in different classes this year, which began a little harder than one might think, and are still stuck like glue. I love this one:-)

Never to be left out...

I picked them up in the rain that day and of course the only thing they wanted to do was "show Samuel Chuck-e-Cheese"..  Errr, okay.

Maybe it's in his genes... but he is a natural gamer! haha.

The end of Upward season brings about soccer!  (well, they do overlap a little bit...)  Avery was SO excited to play this year on her own team.

Oh my, these girls are 10x more aggressive than the 5U boys teams...

February and March meant Saturdays at the soccer fields, beautiful spring days (we love "spring" in February and March in Mississippi) with countless snacks - the highlight of any youth sport.

Basketball practice... I caught this sweet picture from across court. They might wrestle and rough-house like brothers, but you have one awesome big brother here! (Samuel's ball had gone rolling where the big kids were, and Silas left his practice when he heard Samuel upset about it and remedied the problem.)

I'm trying to take off at least once every other week to pick up the kids and do something "fun" after school...since they only have one more year of half-days and no homework left (cue my sad face and possibly a tear)... and would you know, it was raining cats and dogs AGAIN. This time, I didn't let them pick... we showed up at the trampoline park!  Silas and Avery had been, but this was my (and Samuel's first time).  I decided to jump too, because I couldn't just watch them have all the fun in case Samuel needed help:-)

We were basically the only people in the place.  Oh. My. Goodness.

I so wanted to try the trapeze thing... BUT then a birthday party and lots of adults (none of whom were jumping) showed up, so I had to exercise restraint...

Can you find him?  Samuel has no fear and no problem catapulting himself into a bin of unknown foam head-first, feet-first, blindfolded, you name it.  And he climbed out without complaint, only to do it "gain", "gain". His Mississippi accent is starting to show...

Catching up, part 3

The Easter Bunny came with an extra basket this year!

All were excited at the crack of dawn...

No one was more excited about the suckers!!  This dude's favorite thing:

A "word find" book and water gun… he's happy!

I don't know where Avery's picture is, but she loved her princess crown and art book.

After having fun with the Easter Bunny's happies (or should I say hop-pies…), we donned our church clothes and talked about the true reason for Easter.  These three - be still my heart!!

We enjoyed celebrating our risen Savior at church then met the Sturdivants and Mimi and Papaw at the Fairfield for lunch.

More than thankful for these!

We always have better cooperation when they chose the pose.

The day after Easter is a school holiday (I'll never figure that one out, it started after I was out of school…) So I took off work and we had a fun picnic breakfast at the park.

And let Millie swim a little, under Avery's instruction, of course.

Then the end of the season soccer party - what a fun crew they are! We have loved playing the last few years with them.

Avery and I met Mimi and the Sturdivant girls at the Frozen Ballet

Meanwhile, Papaw helped the boys make a box for the little garden, helped get the shutters off so we could re-stain them, "boy stuff".

And we attended a fun wedding - everybody loves a photo booth!