Back to school!

Today is the first day of school for our county and our school Georgia Cyber Academy (officially!).

Jayden is half way through first grade and doing well. He loves history! Especially learning about the Greeks. We are looking forward to a great year. He should be starting 2nd grade after Christmas if we have no major illnesses causing us to take an extended break. I was hoping that Jayden would start swim lessons this week but we are still on the wait list. He will be taking classes through a program called Timothy Ministries. It will be one day a week in addition to his regular classes that we do from home. Chemistry, Animal Science, Spanish and PE! He loves going to this program.

Julianna was supposed to start a pre school program through Timothy Ministries this year but we've been advised by her doctors to not send her. Her immune system has a really hard time fighting off something as simple as a sniffle. She's been doing her own "school work" when Jayden does his and is doing well. We've filled out the paperwork for Cobb County School Distrust to get Juli an IEP (individualized education plan) so she is ready to be enrolled in GCA for next year. I am hoping to start some speech therapy for her soon. Ever since she was sick in February with that tube (life support) in her throat for 3 weeks it really messed up her vocal cords and she is having a hard time pronouncing some letters that were easy to say before. She may qualify for an in home teacher due to her immune system though. Juli will be doing a session in September at the Music Class, one of her favorite things to do! She's on the list for canine assistance but they won't move her to the active wait list till she is 7! Then it can take up to 2 years to get a dog! We've also applied for Extreme Makeover! It would be so amazing for them to come to our home and make things easier for Julianna! Her wheel chair should also be in soon!

We plan to have some fun outings throughout September before cold and flu season gets into full swing and forces us to stay home and protect ourselves from all the germs out there! We will do a few outings just to stay sane when the weather gets cold but will be very cautious and it won't involve settings where children get in her face! I'm tempted to put a sign on our front door to remind people how dangerous their "little" cold could be to Juli! Maybe something to put on her wheelchair too for when we are out might be a wise idea.

Another trip to the Center for Puppetry Arts!

We absolutely LOVE the Center for Puppetry Arts! They put on the best shows. The kids loved seeing Martha Speaks and this was the dog puppet that we made after the show. The kids were excited to bring my mom with to enjoy the show since they are always talking about it.

We plan to go to see the Ugly Duckling next week! Can't wait to see the puppet we make then!

Our trip home!

No trip to Pennsylvania is complete without a stop at Sarris Candies! We all love the ice cream shop and Justin LOVES the chocolate hard cap! I couldn't resist posting this adorable picture of the kids sleeping in a hotel somewhere in West Virginia! I can't remember where we stopped, the drive through that state takes forever!!! They were both so wound up when we got to the hotel that night they couldn't settle down and slept in nice and late the next morning.

Visit to Pittsburgh!

Since I was supposed to visit Pittsburgh for a few days before driving home Justin flew up to be with us and make the drive home! He was so worried about all of us since Julianna got sick. While in Pittsburgh we were able to visit Justin's family including his Grandfather and Uncle Mark! The kids were happy to visit Grandma and loved spending time with their cousins. I can't wait till Hailey's old enough to come visit us! She is so much fun. We took the kids to the children's museum and had so much fun. The kids favorite area is the art room. They also had a Dora exhibit which they all enjoyed. Jayden and Hailey took turns dropping parachutes to each other while Juli explored some of the vehicles they had to check out. We spent the last night at the house and Juli even talked Grandma into cutting some of her flowers for her to have! :) There were a lot of tears when it was time to say good bye!

Visiting Central Pennsylvania

What a trip! Seriously, it's hard to describe all of the insanity that we dealt with! Juli had a mild cough on the drive up and we thought all would be fine with lots of breathing treatments and even a visit to the pulmonary doctor before we left town! We left Georgia Saturday morning and drove half way only for Jayden to spike a fever in the middle of the night while staying at a hotel in Virginia. Ran to the pharmacy at 1am with both kids and thankfully got it under control. Got to Zena's house Sunday night and Juli was struggling to breathe! Packed our hospital stuff said good bye to Jayden and Zena's family and she took us to the hospital. We were admitted to the ICU and spent 8 days in the hospital there. During that time Zena and her family took Jayden in for me! Thank you! Since I had to stay with Juli I missed my Grandfathers funereal. Thankfully we were at least able to visit with my Grandmother before leaving town. We did not take Julianna in though, I was to nervous to take her into a nursing home with all the germs! The last day that we were there I took Luke and Miranda to Perkins where we met Josie and our Aunt Barbara. We got to celebrate Miranda's 10th birthday while there! Afterward I was supposed to take the kids over to Dot and Roland Beavers house to meet Zena but on our way over we got the disturbing call that Roland was ill and not to come by the house. My heart goes out to all of the Beavers! They went through a very stressful week before they had to say goodbye to Roland.

Our beautiful ballerina

Julianna missed half the year of ballet class when she was sick so she wasn't able to be in the recital, not to mention it was the beginning of May and she still wasn't walking great at that time. Her teacher did send home the recital costume so we got some pictures of Juli wearing it. We enjoyed going to see her friends dance at the recital!

Jayden's 1st lemonade stand

So the neighbors had a garage sale a few weeks ago and Jayden's been asking to have a lemonade stand for months! He made a few dollars selling cupcakes, lemonade and sweet tea. Both kids enjoyed setting up and serving people. the kids used their earnings for a new toy from the museum gift shop.