First day of school

"E"s first day of high school!! He's officially a DH Conley Viking. He can wear blue, yellow, and white collared shirts this year.

Mom, it's too early. I have at least 4 more hours in bed! J and S can wear purlple, yellow, and white shirts this year.

She is very proud of her "anti-uniform" uniform. We searched high and low to find clothes that were within the policy guidelines but still allowed her to feel "fashionable". I'm kinda proud of her initiative to follow the rules but still express herself! We searched high and low to find wedges to fit her small feet. She purchased the necklace and earring herself to wear the first day of school.

Happy 14th Birthday "E"!

AWESOME firework show!!

Pop was making sure he was protected after one of the smaller fireworks flipped over and sent things flying the wrong direction. Luckily the boys always have their airsoft gear outside and ready to go in case of any potential threat of attack. The pellets are rather annoying to step on, but I fell better knowing they're prepared for anything. Granddaddy was rather amused by it all!

The preshow entertainment. Legal NC fireworks!

Waiting for the fireworks show to start. By the time we were done there were another 10 kids and parents that showed up. Always something going on at the Bartholomew household. They know Mr. T LOVES to do fireworks.

Do they ever tire of this? Someone was tied to the STOP sign the other day......

A very willing “victim”.

Happy 14th birthday! Yes, we know there are only 13 candles on the cake. It was all we had and he had already blown one out on the dessert at the restaurant so we figured it all evened itself out!

“E”'s favorites! 5 lbs. of M&Ms, Laffy Taffy, and some Stride gum. Thanks Grandma and Pop! He also got some Jolly Ranchers, iced cookies, and doughnuts from Grandmommy. Rico wasn't very happy with the meowing b-day card and had to come and check things out.

Cash is always a favorite! Thank you Granddaddy!

Some of the guilty party. Notice J's expression. He wondered why he didn't have such fanfare on his birthday. S just reminded them when her's was and told them she expected the same. Notice her smile.



Happy Birthday “E”! Friends form the neighborhood made him a sign while we were out to dinner. No wonder they wanted to know what time we'd be home. And thank goodness he has some very tall friends. We knew something was up when we saw them scattering everywhere when we pulled into the neighborhood.

We had a great evening celebrating "E". He chose to eat at Rucker John's and they treated him like royalty, he came home to a greeting by his friends, ate some "wedding" birthday cake, and topped it all off with a spectacular fireworks show by his daddy. I am blessed to have such a good life!

New haircut!

S now has a current version of the haircut I so loved on her as a little girl! She's got it tucked behind her ear, but it's a little longer on one side to give it a little "edge" since she's going into 5th grade and everything. We love it!

What will they think of next

OK, so I don't have a picture of this entry, but I was just too surprised to run in a grab the camera and the "victim" REALLY didn't want his picture taken, so you'll have to use your imagination too envision it....There were 5 boys playing in the back yard. Now after 3 hours a riding on the sled the previous evening it finally broke during a great trip over the bump in the yard by our septic tank (the rider never let go of the rope so he took a short ride with nothing...pretty funny to look at). Left over there was the long rope, pieces of the sled, and a hollow aluminum pipe the "E" had found in the trash pile on the new house they are building at the end of the street. What could they do with all of these things? Well, T and I were sitting on the front porch enjoying the evening when we heard them come walking around the house. We looked up and there was "E" and a neighbor carrying the pipe on their shoulders. Between them was the smallest of the boys (not J) tied up very neatly with the long rope. They proceed to carry him down the street, yes, we told them not to walk on the pavement in case he slipped, tied up like a pig getting ready to be roasted. They carried him down to his house and tried to negotiate a selling price with his parents. I don't think they were able to agree on a price.......Thanks goodness they understand the "fun" and humor of boys!!!

Redneck Fun!

Or should I title it, "Inevitable Head Injury"? The boys and their friends came in and asked T if they could ride the go-cart. He said sure, just don't hit his new car. Well, I was sitting at the computer and could see what they REALLY wanted the go-cart for so I told them to give him the full reason for wanting to ride the go-cart. ( You know if you leave out details it makes it harder to get in trouble later....give as little details as you can get by with so you can plead that you were given permission to do it....) The biggest kid of them all had a great time driving, S could be heard screaming, "Faster! Faster!", and as you can see it cleared out the neighbors pool and T ended up playing with about 15 other kids this afternoon. Supper just got cold as I couldn't bear to interrupt the fun! (Click on the pic of S and just look at the grin on her face)

Wild animals

OK, so we've taught our children to break the law by buying and shooting off illegal fireworks. (We even bought music to go along with our fireworks show.) You know that one is suppose to drive just past the border to get the illegal paraphernalia and then head straight home making sure to break no laws on the way so as not to draw suspicion upon oneself....just in case you needed to know. At our favorite place there happens to be wonderful animals that flank each side of the store. "E" has been dying to take his picture with them so I backed up and got out the suitcase to get the camera and took the pictures. Of course S had to get in the act. J politely declined.

In honor of Lauren

Mermaid girls!

Oh, Mom......

OK, so the boys wanted to dig a hole and bury each other in it. Of course, I saw a special recently where kids had died on the beach doing that very thing and said no. We compromised and I let them bury J just over his suit, not too cool. Hence, the unhappy look in the pics.

Jellyfish!!

OK, so I don't have any great pictures of jellyfish, but I do have a story. We thought the lifeguard was just a great supporter of ECU b/c she had yellow and purple flags flying form her stand. Well........purple means jellyfish. J was the first to get stung. The lifeguard washed it off with vinegar and he seemed to bounce back just fine. In the picture all you can see is a small red area just about an inch below his shorts. My neighbor wasn't so lucky. She and I were enjoying body surfing and talking when all of a sudden she starts flailing around. I knew what it was and started hauling myself out of the water as fast as possible. Poor thing, when it stung her hip she instinctively reached down and tried to get it off of her but instead managed to get it wrapped around her arm. As we were quickly exiting the water she kept flinging her arm around tyring to brush it off. People were just watching her because there was nothing on her arm.....it must just make it feel like it was still there. She got rinsed off with vinegar too and tried to convince her DD to pee on her arm. THAT didn't happen so she called a nurse friend. Tip for if you ever get stung by a jellyfish. Take a credit card and scrape the area in an upward direction. That helped her the most! She still had welts that evening and into the next day and hers hurt much longer than Js did.

Cherry Grove

Our neighbors condo is in Little River, SC so they hop in the car and drive to the public beach access in Cherry Grove. It has a bathroom, a small parking area, and a lifeguard so it's perfect. They live there most of the summer so they have the beach thing down pat. Note the really cool table/umbrella set up. Plus, we didn't have to hall everything ourselves as she has a cool cart. We stayed for about 3 hours and had a lot of fun. On the way home we got to see one of Cherry Grove's most famous citizens out on her front porch watching the gardeners do yard work.....Vanna White! Check out the next post for some exciting creature interactions!

Back to the beach

The kids and I got invited by our neighbor to go to their condo at Myrtle Beach. Of course we said yes! The girls had fun playing in the great set up they had there. One room slept 5 with two bunk beds, they had another bedroom that had a double, and then there was the pull out couch. It was just the moms and kids and we really had a great time! The funny thing is that I showed her a picture of the twins and asked her who Junebug looked like and she immediately said J. I told her that we thought that must be somewhere from the Gay side of the family. Well lo and behold, her MIL is a Gay from Franklin county around Bunn. We've checked with grandma, who has check with great grandma, and yes, she does have some relatives there. We found one name in common (our neighbors great grandfather) and we're trying to track down if there is a connection. Needless to say the kids have been calling each other cousins for the last 3 days and trying to learn the family history. The girls are just excited that there MIGHT be a possibility that they are BOTH cousins with L! Funny!

Football Camp and other stuff

J has been going to football conditioning camp this week. He has survived very well and is really enjoying lifting weights. He's also proud of the fact that he hasn't thrown up yet either! We'll keep you posted on how try outs go after school starts. We're headed out tomorrow for a short trip to Little River, SC to meet our neighbors and enjoy the beach a little bit. The kids seem excited! "E" got his high school schedule in the mail today.....aaawwww.......I'm feeling very nostalgic......

Fashion Designer?

When boredom sets in you just get creative. The front says "Rock On!" She's thinking of becoming a fashion designer when she gets older (along with being a plain old mom, a teacher-part-time, and a weekend cheerleading coach------I have complete faith in her abilities to do it all). It brings back memories or the 80's. Don't deny that you don't know someone who wore a large black one to school on Punk Rock day...don't deny it......