Allison's Awards Day for Third Grade!!!!

Allie had her awards day at school for finishing up third grade today. We are so proud of all of her hard work and determination this year. She ended being recognized for her honor attendance (she only missed 2 hours of school this year and it was for a morning dentist appt!) as well as a special award for achievement. This was given to her for appreciation of her hard work and creative talents. Wow! That really made her happy and us a very proud Mama and Papa! Here are a couple of photos from today. One is of her showing us one of her certificates and the other is of her and her teacher this year (Mrs. Andrews) whom she absolutely loves! Way to go Allison Renee......you did it!

Camp-Learned-A-Lot End of the Year Cookout at School!

So today marked the end of the Camp-Learn-A-Lot at Allie's school so they celebrated with a cookout for lunch. Parents and siblings were invited as well so we all got to join in on the fun! It was great weather and the kids enjoyed eating grilled hot dogs and relaxing in the court yard at school. Here are a few photos from our fun day! Two more days of school and it is officially summer break.....yeehaw!

Allie finishes her first volleyball season!

This week marked the end to Allison's first volleyball season and she did great! We are so proud of her accomplishments with this and especially her determination to work hard and keep at it! She was such a great teammate and loved every minute of it. The team finished their season 5 and 1 (WOW!) and all of them improved so much over these last few weeks. She is already talking about playing in the next season's league and she spends alot of time outside in our backyard playing on her new volleyball net Daddy recently set up for her. Tonight was her awards program and she is very proud of her medal. Way to go AllieGirl.....we are so very proud of you....in the words of your little sister Lauren...."YOU ROCK"!!!!

Allison's Field Day At School!!!

Allie had her field day at school this week and the kiddos had a blast! Our elementary school always does a fantastic job (headed up by our wonderful phy.ed. teacher....Mrs. Smart rocks!) of providing a fun day for this. This year's theme was "HillBilly Days" and the kids loved being silly with this one. And, the weather turned out picture perfect and was rather warm by late afternoon so all of the water games that they had were a welcomed sight for those sweaty children! Here are a few photos of the fun. We were able to go and watch for most of the afternoon and then we also had a chance to visit her classroom as this week has been "Camp Learned-A-Lot" and I wanted to get a pic of the tent that her teacher had put up inside their room. This camp is so much fun for the kiddos and they are able to pretend they are at a camp (complete w/ the tent, sleeping bags, stars at night (twinkle lights on the ceiling!) and reading their camp mail from home!). Allie has had so much fun and actually is sad that third grade is coming to a close. She loves this grade! Her last day isn't until mid-week next week so she still has a bit more time to enjoy! ; )

Lauren's last soccer game and a friend's birthday party!

We have officially begun the countdown until school is out....YEAH!!! Lauren finished up her preschool last week and Allie has this week and two days next week until she is done....wow, she's almost a 4th grader!!!!

We had a busy weekend at the Massey house although anymore, that's nothing new! ; ) Friday night Allison had a friend from school spend the night and we had some strong storms moving thru so the girls in the family (minus Katelyn!) decided to have a "mini" slumber party in our basement. We stayed up watching movies and snuggled until we all konked out! Saturday Lauren had her soccer awards program and last game of the season. She was so excited to get her trophy! It was very muddy from the rain the night before so needless to say both Lauren and Coach Massey (aka Daddy!) were pretty much covered in mud by the end of the morning! Lauren wanted to get in the mud but then wasn't too sure about it. You will notice in the photos that she spent much of the game walking around the field "tiptoeing" and holding her hands up like she was going to get it on her! So very girlie..... ; ) Allie found a friend there that was watching her sister play as well so they decided to spend much of the time inside the van watching a movie! And Katelyn just enjoyed clapping for her big sister and then trying to eat her trophy!

We spent the afternoon at home getting some things done around the house and then ventured out to Wal-Mart and one of our favorite eating spots (the Mooresville Ponderosa!!!!) to end our night. Sunday we had a wonderful church service to start our day and then headed to one of the girls' friend's grandparents' house for a birthday party. Sarah is turning 9 and Allie and her have been friends since they were around 2 or so. They attended the same daycare when they were babies and "grew" up going to the same preschool there as well! It's so neat that they are still friends! ; ) Sarah now has a little sister (Mary) that is just a bit older than Lauren and they attend the same Parents Day Out program so they are now friends too! So both the girls love going to their parties! They always have a bounce house outside and lots of room to run around and just have fun. It was a beautiful day outside too so the afternoon was a huge success!

The latest from the Massey gang!

We've been pretty busy lately with soccer, volleyball, tutoring, Bible Study, MOPS, etc, etc, etc......but also having LOTS of fun! Last week, Allie had her "religious education" program with her school. We are so fortunate to belong to a school district that still allows for Christian Bible classes to be given once a week during the school day. It takes place at the small church right next to their school and she really enjoys attending the class. The teachers put together a program honoring the kids for their hard work this year, as every single one of the 3rd grade students that attended memorized their weekly Bible verses! YEAH! And, Allie had to memorize a small part for the program as well. She shared about how God's Word is like a mirror. When we look to His word, we can see all His treasures that He has for us, and that includes the face that He made us!

We spent most of last weekend having "family" time. Friday night, we headed over to Plainfield (much easier for us to get there than Greenwood anymore) to the Metropolis Mall. The weather that evening was really nice so given that this mall is outdoors was an added bonus! We ended up purchasing a volleyball net to have at home for Allie to practice with as she is still really enjoying her vball league and getting better with each game/practice! We capped the night off with a trip to Ritters....can't get much better than shopping and ice cream! Saturday was absolutely gorgeous outside so we spent almost all day long (after Lauren's morning soccer game) outside doing yard work. The two older girls had a couple of friends over to, believe it or not, play on the water slide in the yard.......I know, it's only the end of April but it was so hot that day that they loved it! Jason and I got alot accomplished that day and were completely exhausted by that night. But we are very happy to report that our yard and landscaping look great and are ready for the summer season! Sunday after church, it was still nice weather so we decided to take the girls over to one of our favorite local parks (Pioneer Park right here in Mooresville) to enjoy the sunshine. We "hiked" a couple of their trails and the girls had fun riding the scooters as well. Katelyn just enjoyed running around in the grass, playing with a ball and laughing at her sisters! Unfortunately, I forgot to have my camera around the day or I would have had some great pictures. Here are just a few of the latest escapades to show you.......the picture of Katelyn is to show you how she loves to rub her hair/head after she has eaten dinner and therefore, she usually ends up w/ some sort of a crazy hairstyle and some crumbs of what she has eaten in there too! The girls helped her a bit with this latest style. Allie is shown studying....she's anxious to finish out her 3rd grade year and has really been studying hard for some of her big tests lately. They just finished a huge unit on Space, which she loved. And, then there's Lauren.....always crazy and still hanging on to that pink blankie. Most of the time, she walks around with it on her head, as seen in this latest photo! Man, oh man, life is crazy here, but so fun and Jason & I find ourselves at the end of the night usually laughing about something one of the kiddos did or said that day and reminding each other what a wonderful family we have been blessed with!

Allie's 1st Volleyball Game!

Allison decided to join a volleyball team at a church rec. center this year. It is for 3rd and 4th graders. She and three other classmates are on the same team so she was very excited for this activity to begin! We have tried other sports with her in the past (soccer, basketball) but when it came time for the games, she was never fond of the sport and complained of either sweating too much or being bored! : ) Daddy just loved it when he coached her basketball team back in 1st grade and during the first time-out, she was in the other team's huddle because her best friend was over there! Anyway, she has had a couple of volleyball practices and last night was her first game. She has played a bit in gym class at school and has more recently been practicing at home with either myself or Daddy so she's getting pretty good for her age. Well, they played the best of 3 games and although the other team was much bigger than her team, they ended up only getting beat by 5 pts. the 1st game, 1 pt. the 2nd game and then won the 3rd game! And, Allie got 5 serves over the net, which for their age, is a pretty big deal. In the photos, she is the one in the bright pink shorts and blue jersey, kind of hard to see her but she warned me that she did not want her mother out on the court taking pictures of her, that would just be too embarassing! : ) Lauren enjoyed cheering her on and Katelyn liked watching the balls flying everywhere. And, of course, both of them just liked hanging out in the bleachers eating snacks during the game! Allie loved it and had alot of fun. After the games, we told her how proud we were of her and how hard she's working at this and asked her if she enjoyed being out there and she said "Yeah, I was kind of mad that we had to stop at 3 games for the match tonight!" : ) So, maybe she will be a bit of an athlete after all....there might be hope! And, her mama played volleyball in middle and high school so let's just say she's carrying on the family tradition! ; )