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!

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"!!!!