Thinking about more than themselves.

We received this email from Hayden's teacher, Mrs. Fossum:

Hello all!  I am SO thrilled to introduce to you our class service project!  As the holidays started to approach this year, I couldn't help but thing about how fortunate we are here in Carmel, IN.  We go to school in a wonderful community; we have lots of computers, books, curriculum supplies, and educational resources to help us learn, we have food provided for us each day at school, and we have families and friends around us to love and care for us.  We are LUCKY!  However, not everyone is as lucky as we are around the world.  Last week, we learned about how kids in other countries do not have school supplies like we do.  Some kids don't even have school uniforms, which make it impossible to go to school in their country.  I thought that with all of the people around us in our school, families, and communities, there must be some way to help!  SOOOOOO...without further adieu...I present to you....our T-Shirt Drive to raise money to purchase school supplies for kids in Africa.  

Here is the video that they put together to 'sell' their product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqp4wAgfqQk&feature=youtube_gdata

They reached their goal of $150 in 1 day and currently have collected $319 with 7 days to go.  They wanted to create another video, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfRVvwOM_Og&feature=em-upload_owner        

 

So proud of this group of kids and his teacher is AWESOME FOSSUM (that is my nickname for her anyway!!)

Where does time go?

I really need to 'catch-up' since it has been 6 months since a post and we all know that a lot can happen in 6 months, like a new niece, trip to Wisconsin, school starting, fall break, halloween, thanksgiving.  Oh this makes my head spin.  I guess if I could get access to a computer at home it might be a little easier but I am always the last one and by then I am ready for bed.

Well here is something that made me laugh this holiday weekend.  After watching a jewelry commercial this was our conversation.

Hayden:  I know why there are rings.
Mom:  Why Hayden?
Hayden:  So you make her happy and she will say yes.

The boy is learning fast :).

Holy Crap Summer is almost over.

Well I thought keeping a journal online would ensure that I write more frequently, guess not.  Here it is a couple of weeks before school starts and I have yet to talk about what the boys did all summer!

I tried to keep them busy with different camps so they didn't spend to much time at home.  Thank goodness for a sitter that can run them around.  I took the first 3 Friday's of summer off to have some fun with them.  The first Friday it rained but we managed to make a day of it at the State Museum seeing the Star Wars exhibit.

Hayden, Evan and Ethan Morrell in front of the wookies

Entrance into the exihibit

I think he wanted to jump in

no caption necessary

no sure what the pose is all about, maybe the force overtook him

The following Friday we headed to Indiana Beach to ride some coasters and have a great day.  We didn't wait in line for ANYTHING and we were done by 4 and headed home, which was fantastic for me since I was solo and didn't want to drive home late because I can to sleep in a car, anytime, anywhere!

The next Friday we headed up to Chicago to hang out with John Howard and family and Todd Hamilton and family.  These are Chris's closest friends and we rarely get to see them as John is a pediatric ER doctor and his wife is an ER doctor and Todd and his wife are both optomistrist and just opened their own practice.  We had a fantastic time.  We went to the Shedd Museum, Brick world (Lego creation convention) and then went to Medival Times for dinner.

Candy, that's whats for lunch.

Hayden is attending the Brad Stevens basketball camp this week at Butler and has a $10 punch card to 'purchase' items.  It appears that the items are gatorade, chips, fruit and candy.  Monday Hayden was proud of his choices and he selected an apple, chips and M&M's.  Yesterday I picked him up and first words out of his mouth were 'I didn't make good choices today.'  I thought he was referring to behavior so was concerned that he may have been a distraction.  Nope, behavior fine.  He chose to have a full size Snickers, Hershey Bar and 2 bags of M&M's.  Really?

He only has $4 let to last him 2 days so lets see if he makes better choices today.

Spring Break 2013 - HHI

We just returned from a great week away at Hilton Head Island.  Weather didn't cooperate very well but we still got 1 beach day, 1 exploring day on the 'Walawender's Beach', a sunning croc in our backyard, crab legs for dinner and miniature golf.

Playing with the 'new' camera

You thought I was kidding when I said a croc in the back yard didn't you.  He was about 15 feet!

Nothing says happiness like a chocolate smile in the morning.

Evan running in from playing in the ocean.

Nothing says beach better than this picture!

Hayden spent a couple of hours in the water.  It was so cold it took your breath away, as you can see he didn't care.

Little golf instruction.  He ended up beating me, legitimately.  That doesn't say much about my golf game.

To cool for words.

Hayden taking target practice during the golf game.

We think Hayden is practicing his Jedi moves with the golf club.

After a friendly golf competition.

We were lucky enough to be able to take 'the girls' with us.  This is Sadie telling Mollie to 'back off before I b*tch slap you'!

Chillin' on the 'exploring beach'

Thanks to the Walawenders they introduced Evan to crab legs.  I think he will want them whenever possible.  Is surf and turf next?

We waited 2 1/2 hours to eat at the Wreck of the Salty Dog.  The food wasn't worth it but the company was as we had dinner with friends of ours!  

This was on the 'exploring beach' and according to Hayden the crabs are 'storming the beach'.

Better picture of the crabs or as I thought of them the spiders, ugh.

Crew that explored together, Megan W., Graham S., Evan, Griffin S., Hayden and Allison W.

Notice the pants?  We told him to wear shorts because we were going exploring but no 'I will just roll my pants up.'  They then got muddy and wet and he complained.

This picture pretty much explains the relationship between my dad and his dog Mollie. Well it is my mom's dog too, but sometimes you wouldn't even know that because she sits at the doors and whines when my dad leaves even if JoJo is right there.

JoJo hanging with the boys.  Actually she was on FB I am sure since she is a FB addict.

No explanation needed, just a fun picture.

When did he grow up?