McKinney's First Ever AR/Sight Word Celebration

McKinney - today I had a wonderful time celebrating with you at your Sight Word Celebration. This is your first of many. You did AWESOME!!! You earned your hat (10 sight words) and your 20 word button. You are a smart boy and I pray that you enjoy reading as much as I do!!

Sitting with your class. You guys did great!!

The theme of this celebration was focused on cheering for your team. They had the kids do a cheer that said "Go Dawgs". You were so frustrated that you had to sit and listen - you kept your ears plugged the entire time!! Ha!

Here is your sweet buddy, Toby!

Rebekah's Big Change

Rebekah, today you were able to see clearly for the first time in a long time, literally. We went to pick up your new glasses and you were so excited. Here is the before glasses Rebekah....

And here is the adorable after!!
You were looking at a clock across the room. You were so amazed that you could see the numbers from so far away.

On the way home you were enjoying reading. You kept looking up from your book and saying, "Oh wow - I can read the signs on that building" or "Oh my goodness, I can see what that says on the back of that truck". It was so cute and I am so glad that you will be able to see better from here on out!

Our Last "First Day Ever" of Preschool

So, with many tears this morning - I sent you to preschool for the first time. Of course, Micah, you weren't shedding the tears, but Mommy sure was. I am going to miss having you at home with me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. You are a sweet, smart, talkative, funny little guy and I know you are going to love "school". Although I will miss you, I know this is part of growing into the person God has for you to be. So although I am sad that this "baby" phase of my life is over, I am thrilled to see you grow into a precious little boy. I love you!!

And this is why you need to go to school ~ LOL!!

That was one heavy bag for such a little guy!

You couldn't wait to get in the car :(

Sweet kisses for Daddy before he buckles you in!

All last year when we would drop McKinney off at school, you would ask to unbuckle and climb on the "carpool seat" just like he did. I would always tell you that you could do it next year when you started preschool. Well, today you were very excited to be unbuckled and you quickly took you spot in the "carpool seat" right beside Mommy.

And another thing you have been looking forward to - putting your head out the sunroof. Although you are barely tall enough to reach, you couldn't wait to try!

You got out of the car like a champ - not even the smallest concern that Mommy wasn't coming with you :)

In you go big boy!

Here is a super cute video of Micah telling me about his day!

Father/Daughter Weekend at Camp Highland

Rebekah and I (Robbie) went to Camp Highland in Elijay, GA a couple of weekends ago for our first Father / Daughter Retreat. Camp Highland is a high-adventure camp whose stated mission is to "lead boys and girls into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ". In addition to the traditional week-long summer camps, they do Father / Son and Father / Daughter weekends in the Spring, Summer and Fall. There were a total of 48 father / daughter couples in attendance.

We went with Russell & Lauren Segraves and, as you can see from the pictures below, Rebekah and Lauren were virtually inseparable all weekend. They did meet some other friends, too, and we also got some alone time, just the 2 of us.

The weekend was just an awesome time of deepening my relationship with Rebekah and communicating to her how important and valuable she is. In this day and age of busy schedules and kids growing up way too fast, it was great to carve out some one-on-one time with her and also have a blast at the same time!

Getting settled into our cabin upon arrival Fri evening

You can't see it, but there is actually a trapeze swing out in front of where Rebekah is standing in this picture. You use the trapeze to swing out over the water and then drop about 20 feet. She was brave enough to try it once - but only once!

This was Rebekah's favorite "attaction" that she did. It's called the "Drop Zone" and it consists of a horizontal line hanging between 2 trees. The participant is strapped in and hanging from another line that comes down from the horizontal line. Then, using a rope, the other spectators pull the participant up as high as they dare, until they choose to release the rope and then they fall and swing out over a hill side. Rebekah couldn't wait to do this and she went fairly high. There is video down below at the bottom of the pictures.

Rebekah and Lauren hanging out after swimming in Carter's Lake. It was a VERY hot weekend and getting to cool down in a huge lake was one of the highlight's of the weekend for me.

Rebekah also enjoyed this barn that was completely covered, all 4 walls, with climbing apparatus.

These pictures of Rebekah in her personal kayak were in a smaller lake that had a water slide, a dock, and the aforementioned trapeze swing. We spent several hours during the heat of the day Saturday hanging out in this lake.

Saturday night we had a bonfire and did Smores. Rebekah was very tired by then (so was I for that matter) and it was still very hot, so we didn't stay long and headed back to our cabin to crash for the day.

Before leaving Sunday morning, we had this picture taken with Rebekah wearing her new Camp Highland T-shirt.

Here is Rebekah taking her turn in the Drop Zone.