Homecoming 2008

This weekend was Choctaw's Homecoming. Although they didn't go to the dance, Christian and some friends got dressed up and had a great time anyway. They went down to the beach and took pictures. Then they went to dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. After dinner, Christian went to watch a movie with some other friends, then went and hung out with the guys for the rest of the night. As you can see Christian went stag. Isn't he just the cutest :-)

So beautiful and handsome!!!!

The studs!!!!


Crazy Boys Jumping Off of Stuff.

How About a Cruise?!?!?!?!?

The Style Marchers (Christian's High School Marching Band) have a GREAT fundraiser going on right now!!! We are giving away a Carnival Cruise for 2!!!! Each $10 donation enters you for a chance to win this fabulous prize.

This is the informational poster

Your name and contact information will go into the drum to be drawn on November 14th.

If you don't live in the area, no problem. You can mail your donation. Or, to make it even easier, I will be happy to take your donation via PayPal. Just send an email to juliemichellebabcock@yahoo.com with the Subject: Cruise, and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Follow the step by step instructions and you will be able to make your donation and be entered to win!! Don't have a PayPal account, don't worry. You can still use this method, PayPal will just debit the amount from the account you specify.

Feel free to send this info to anyone you think would be interested. But hurry, time is running out :-)

Thanks for supporting the Style Marchers.
We'll see you at the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
in 2009!!!!

Who's Birthday Is It?

Thursday Hayden's school celebrated their 50th Birthday with a pep rally. All of the kids got a T-shirt to commemorate the event. The pep rally lasted about an hour and the kids had a blast shouting and cheering and watching skits put on by the faculty. Later in the day, they all got to go outside where they were treated to cupcakes and ice cream.

Hayden enjoying a Pryor birthday cupcake on HIS birthday

At the pep rally. 7th and 8th graders (not shown) get the bleachers. Sixth graders have to sit on the gym floor. Wait 'till next year guys :-)

Here is a link to the School District Article. There are some much better pictures. Note Hayden's Homeroom teacher in the Zebra striped hat, his Math teacher in the camo pants and chains and spikes, and his Band Director AKA Elvis.

Saturday Choctaw hosted the Emerald Coast Marching Classic. This Festival/Competition is one of the band's biggest fundraisers. Adam and I, along with many other band parents volunteered in various areas. It was a looooong but wonderful day. We set up at 8:00 am and broke down at 11:00 pm. Everyone did a fabulous job and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. All of the 13 bands were SUPER! The final numbers aren't in, but hopefully we raised a lot of money.

The patch I designed to commemorate the event. We have never had these before and they sold really well.

The stands were packed by the end of the night.

Happy Birthday to Hayden

My baby will be 12 tomorrow! I can't believe it. By this time next year, Adam and I will have 4 teenagers - YIKES! Tomorrow is going to be another crazy day so we let Hayden open his presents tonight. Yes, we had to twist his arm . . . but ;-) He asked for a lifetime supply of Stride gum. We figured 18 packs was enough to last him for a month or two. We got him the spinner that he was fascinated with at the toy store a few weeks ago. And then he got the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records - the 3D edition. So he is a happy camper.

Guinness Book in 3-D with a mouthful of gum.

Hayden's Word Cloud Card.

I am so pleased with how this card turned out. The words were printed on white cardstock with a free program I heard about. It's http://www.wordle.net/ Check it out if you have some time to kill. You enter words and the computer randomly places them. The more times you enter a word the larger it appears in the final product. You can control things like color, capitalization, and whether the words are mostly vertical, mostly horizontal, or both. But the placement is random. So, if you don't like the look you can have it rearrange the words. I clicked about 12 times before I got the large words right where I wanted them. Anyway, it's fun - go check it out.

Gearing up for a BUSY weekend. The Emerald Coast Marching Classic is this Saturday. We will be volunteering all day at the school. So pray for nice (not hot) weather for us. Oh yeah, and for LOTS of people to come. This is the bands biggest fundraiser of the year.

Another Busy Weekend

This weekend Adam and Hayden got to go fishing. Adam and Hayden (along with one of Adam's co-workers and his son) left out on Saturday morning for a fun day of chillin' out on the water. They had a really good time. Luckily, I wasn't home when they got home. Apparently they STUNK!! I can believe it - I had to wash their clothes 3 times to get the smell of squid (bait) out of them. They both took showers right away. Poor Hayden, he still had that "boat rocking" feeling in the shower. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to rinse his hair. With his equilibrium off, he lost his balance and down he went :-( Luckily, he didn't get hurt, but his head is a little sore today.

Adam and Hayden chilaxin'. They caught Red Snapper, Blue Fish, Triggerfish and Lamp Rey (not sure if I spelled that right).

Hayden the fisherman.

Christian and I had other plans for Saturday. The Style Marchers went to an FBA evaluation at Tate High School. I was one of the chaperones for the percussion section. It was a fun but long day. Between practice, travel and performance, the kids put in 13 hours. But, it was worth it. They received Superiors in every category!! This weekend we will have our own competition. Choctaw will be hosting our 2nd annual Emerald Coast Marching Festival. More on that soon.

Waiting for Fort Walton Beach High to finish, so we can enter the field.

Waiting for Retreat.

During Retreat, all of the participating bands send representatives to the field to receive their evaluation.

Getting Involved

Hayden has gotten quite invovled at his school this year. I am so proud of him! I truly believe that being involved at school makes a HUGE difference. He is having a lot of fun too.

He is in the Chess Club. They meet about twice a month to get together and play. The kids all spread out on the floor in their sponsor's room.

Playing chess takes concentration :-)

Hayden is also involved in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes).FCA meets each week. They are currently working on a fund raiser to put together Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for our local area.

After the FCA meeting the kids hang out outside and enjoy a snack.

Today, we are off to Tate for a Florida Marching Band Association qualifier. This is where we get our score to see if we qualify to compete at State. I will be chaperoning on the Percussion bus, so I should have some interesting stories/pictures. Great kids, but a little crazy :-)

P.S. when you watch the video, note that Christian is the one who does the airplane sound effects (among other things) - so proud of my babies :-)

Peanut Butter, Jelly and Other Ramblings

It's been a couple of days. Sorry about that. Last Sunday, Adam, the boys and I went to an end of season pool party with some classmates from our Sunday School class. It was a lot of fun. We just hung out by the pool and ate and talked while the kids swam. We have such a neat class. We feel really blessed to have found such a great group!!

Hanging Out at Mary and Duane's Pool The kids had a blast swimming - of course

Monday, We raced around after school doing errands. The band had an exhibition that night at Fort Walton Beach High School. So we had to drop Christian and 20 PB&J's off. Now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture of our PB&J assembly line the night before :-) Adam and I had it down!! I was PB he was J - LOL!! We made 2 loaves of sandwiches in no time. Helpful tip y'all. Making a PB and J for future consumption is soooo much easier if you use frozen bread. The bread doesn't squish or rip when you spread the jelly. When your done, pop them back in the freezer. Take them out just before you need to transport them. The frozen bread keeps them from getting soggy or smushed, keeps the sandwich and other items in your cooler/lunchbox cold, and yes they do thaw out in time to eat them. I usually make 10 sandwiches at the beginning of the week, bag them and put them back in the freezer. Then the boys just pop one into their lunchbox/bag in the morning.

In the parking lot before practice

Christian and some of the "Guard Girls"

After we dropped off Christian, Hayden and I went to the post office to pick up a package he has been expecting for weeks. Well, they changed the post office hours and they were closed -grrrr! So, we ended up going to the toy store across the street to look around. Hayden found plenty to do over there.

Lots of fun playing with this remote control construction set.

Video of a weird spinner toy that Hayden was fascinated with.

We Got BOO'd !!!!!

Doorbell rings and nobody is there??? But wait, what's this? A note that says:

BOO! To our good friends on our street
Our homes' locations made us meet.
You now have been Boo'd, but who could we be?
We'll never tell, it's a secret, you see.
We placed these goodies for you and yours
Then we ran fast, after knocking the door!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Place this Boo on your front door
And make sure you Boo two neighbors of yours!


Can't wait to Boo the next two!!!

Start the fun in your neighborhood.
Download your own "Boo" at www.myfolsom.com/boo

Fun in Vermont

If you ever have a chance to go to Vermont - TAKE IT! It is so beautiful up there. Adam's father's family grew up there and many of his aunts and uncles still live there. We enjoy visiting in the summer whenever we get the opportunity. Adam recently went up to do some work on the family land. There was a shed and a barn that were about to fall down. The family decided to have them leveled and have a new garage put up. Adam, Jeff and Bob were the lucky ones who got to go up and build it. They got to see the changing colors (Adam says the pictures do not even do it justice), hang out with some of the locals and well, lets just say they didn't starve :-) Jeff brought some of his famous venison sausage burgers. They also had homemade bread and butter pickles, pickled green beans and even moose meat.

Here is a link to some of the construction pictures.

Happy 50th Pryor Middle School

Yesterday, I subbed at Hayden's school. They are celebrating their 50th birthday this year and took an aerial picture to commemorate. There will be a big pep rally at the school in 2 weeks. Jest happens to be on the same day as Hayden's 12th birthday! I will be subbing there on that day too. It will be a fun day.

Here is the video of the chaos (I mean fun) trying to get the picture taken. If you don't blink you can see half of my head for about 1 second. Don't even bother :-)