Happy 5th Birthday Lauren Elizabeth!!!

Hard for us to believe, but our little Lauren hit the big "5" mark on Sunday celebrating her 5th birthday! Woohoo! We had a big weekend to help her ring in another year. Saturday she had her first "official" friends party at the grand party place of Chuck E. Cheese....what a better way to spend a Saturday than eating lots of good cheesy pizza and running around playing arcade games...does it get any better???!!!! ; ) She had a ball and loved every minute of it....well, actually she wasn't crazy about the Chuckster coming real close to her. Which was funny because she usually doesn't mind him at all but for some reason during her party, she decided to get freaky with it and demanded that he not come close to her....lovely! : ) Oh well, I'm sure that mouse is used to kiddos doing that! Anyway, all in all, a great party was had that day. And then we couldn't just end the fun there, we decided to head down to the lake on Sunday afternoon to celebrate some more with family! What a fun weekend! She woke up on Monday morning and asked me...."Mommy, you mean since I had a birthday yesterday, that means I'm still 5 today? I didn't go back to being 4 again?? That's cool".... ; )

Fun at the State Fair!

We took advantage of the free admission coupons that the Indy Star always runs each year and headed to the state fair this week. Yep, it was a school night since Allie started school that day but hey, you can't miss a good deal and fun at the fair, right???!! We had a great time. The girls and I especially enjoy seeing all of the neat cakes in the 4H exhibit and Allie liked the artwork there as well. She is an aspiring artist so seeing all of the creations really excited her! They loved seeing all of the various animals, especially the baby ones. Although, you can definitely tell that even though we live in Mooresville and have cows behind our house, our girls are still very "city" and complained the whole time about the smell! : ) We let them choose a couple of games to play and a couple of rides to do. By the time it was done, they each had a stuffed animal to bring home and were pretty tired! Last but not least, on our way out, we had to get in on some of the yummy fair food so we each got to choose our own treats....Lauren of course wanted cotton candy (sugar queen!), Allie wanted one of the HUGE snowcones, Jason went for a milkshake from the dairy barn and some kettle corn on the side (to share with Katie!) and I went all out and grabbed a corn dog....YUM! What a great way to spend an evening together...SO MUCH FUN!!!

Allison Renee is officially a 4th grader!

Well, we officially feel old! : ) Our oldest, Allie Renee, started 4th grade today at Waverly Elementary. And boy was she excited! There is a first for everything and today, she was up, dressed and ready to go before I even thought about getting out of bed! : ) Here are a few photos while we were waiting on the bus. Of course, she gave me the "aww, Mom, do you have to take pictures???!!" But then when she saw her friend from down the street and her mom doing the same thing, she cut me slack and figured it was ok! I am anxious to hear how her first day back went. She has most of her friends in her class this year so mama had to remind her at breakfast this morning that school this year would be lots of fun and there would be time to socialize but not to get carried away with it! haha! Lauren starts her last year of preschool next Tuesday and Katelyn begins a parents-day-out program next Friday. Man, it's going to get pretty quiet around here soon.....what will I do???!!!

More summer fun.....

Just been spending more days (& nights!) of fun during the summer. I always have mixed emotions when summer begins to wind down. First of all, I absolutely love being able to spend more time with my girlies and that includes staying up late and sleeping in! So, that will be missed greatly once school starts up again. And, we seem to connect so much more as a family during the summer time....not sure if that's because our schedules all tend to get a bit more relaxed, if we bond more over playing outside so much together or what....but that will also be bittersweet as it slows down towards the start of a new school year. Either way.....we have had an absolutely wonderful summer this year and I am getting sad to see it get close to ending. Allie starts back to school two weeks from tomorrow (8/13) and Lauren goes back shortly thereafter to her last year of preschool. Then again, I also am the type A person who runs on schedules and adores (call me crazy!) list-making so getting back into the swing of things will be nice too! Anyway, here are just a few more photos of the Massey family summer......some things we have enjoyed lately are.....VBS, swim lessons, Allie's volleyball camp, lots of grilling out, trips to the library, fun in Louisville with family, tons of bike rides and eating red & blue jello with cool whip on top before bedtime! ; )

4th of July weekend!

Well, here in Indiana, it turned out to be a pretty soggy 4th of July so we spent much of Saturday inside hanging out, playing games, watching movies and just spending some time doing things around the house and relaxing as a family. Kind of a nice welcome change from our normal "craziness" in the house! Sunday after church, we ended up heading down to the lake house to spend the day. It was still cloudy and a bit too chilly for swimming in the cove or hanging out on the beach but we still had fun just spending the day with family. Sunday night we headed back home to Mooresville and enjoyed the fireworks that were postponed until tonight given the rain out last night. What a great way to end our weekend, the kiddos loved hanging out at Pioneer Park and listening to the band before all of the great fireworks started. All three of the girls, including little Katelyn, loved watching the fireworks and didn't seem to mind that they were pretty loud this year! All in all, a chilly and wet weekend but still a great one together! ; )

Camp Friendship 2009!!!!!

Well, Allie and I have both officially survived AND thrived with Camp Friendship 2009! This is our church camp located at Versailles State Park, for those kiddos who have completed 3rd, 4th and 5th grade this past year. I decided last spring that I wanted to go as my first year as a camp counselor and after a bit of gentle "nudging", Allie decided she also wanted to go for her first year as a camper. And, we both absolutely LOVED every minute of it! We were all kept very busy with crafts, games, sports, swimming, morning Bible studies, evening chapel services, lots of great food and tons and tons of laughter! God worked in mighty ways during the week and several kiddos made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior by the end of the week....woohoo! ; ) Allie loved getting to know her cabinmates a bit better (8 little girls in our cabin) and also enjoyed having fun with our Jr. Counselor, Renee, who is an awesome example of a Christian young lady who just graduated high school this year. To those little girls, she was seen as a very "cool" girl who also loved Jesus with all of her heart.....YES!!!! I think Allie and I both came home on fire for God and loving our church family even more! Here are a few pictures from our wonderful week......

Family vacation to Duck, NC (Outer Banks!)

We just got back tonight from a week's vacation with our family to the Outer Banks of North Carolina....specifically Duck, NC. Jason's mom and dad have a timeshare property down in that area so every couple of years, we all go (his parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and us!) together to spend some great times on the beach hanging out! This was our second time to this specific location and we drove away on Saturday for sure that this was one of our absolute favorite vacation spots of all time! ; ) We had a wonderful time and couldn't have asked for a better vacation! We spent some time on the beach, making lots of sand castles and exploring for seashells and watching the dolphins. We also logged many hours playing in both the outdoor and indoor pools and riding rental bikes up and down the main avenue there. What a ball! The kids loved every minute of the week and were sad to see the end of our week come to a close but we reminded them on our drive out of town that we'll be back again in another couple of years so it gives us something to look forward to! Here are a few pictures from our week. Now, Allie and I are off this coming week to church camp.....should be more fun in store for us!