Back to School

I know that I have not blogged in forever, but I will start with back to school and then go on to our end of summer fun from a while back.

Jane is in 2nd grade (check out that monkey)

Grace is in 6th grade (first year in middle school)

I am in 8th grade (I look pretty great!)

 We love school so far and it seems like it will be the best year yet!  Only one more year until High School, world watch out.

Like the three musketeers or three stooges- whichever

"Book Club"

I have a "Book Club" with a couple close friends from church.  In the last meeting, we decided to read Catching Fire in the Hunger Games series.

For those of you that have not read the book, here is the synopsis:

"Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games.  But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe.  The Capitol wants revenge... and President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe!  By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss Everdenn and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly became the faces of an impending rebellion."

Last night we planned to discuss the book as a group. It was my turn to host our “Book Club” so I choose to have it at our neighborhood pool.  

With summer vacations,  some of the members of the club were unable to attend.  But we met as a smaller group anyway.  Some of the questions that I threw out for discussions were...

1.   Why does the Capitol devise a special reaping procedure for every 25th Game? Do you believe the requirements for this Quarter Quell were decided in the past or were they designed for this Game to force Katniss and Peeta back to the Arena?

2.   What is more harmful to the players in this Game—the physical traumas like the fog and rain of fire, or the emotional trauma of hearing the jabberjays?

3.   Why does President Snow come to Katniss’s home? What does he mean when he says, “you have provided a spark which left unattended may grow into an inferno....” What, exactly, was the significance of the handful of poisonous berries at the end of The Hunger Games?

The next book that we decided to read is Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  It was suggested by one of my friends that had said this author is a great writer.

Here is the synopsis of this book:

"Through journal entries, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions."

Camp Blazing Trail

My sisters and I have been going to Camp Blazing Trail hosted by the YMCA all week. At the camp we have all sorts of fun and we do things that my mom and dad would never take us to do. We go on hikes, catch fish and then kiss them (yes-- we do kiss them and that is always the highlight of the week), see snakes, learn and practice archery and do some interesting crafts that should really go on Pinterest. One of the crafts that we did today was making paper bag trees.  

 One other fun aspect that the camp instructors add to the experience is different sorts of dress activities.  For example; wear all green one day or wear your bathing suit for water day and my least favorite—is wacky tacky day.  Today was supposed to be wacky tacky or so I thought.  I have been taught from a young age what makes a fantastic wacky tacky outfit is a "rag-a-muffin" look.  The more mismatched and crazy the better.  However, this theory is completely contrary to how I was raised.  Both my mom and dad are not fans of the rag-a-muffin look.  When camp announced wacky tacky day I was not planning to do it but, my sister Grace talked me into it.   Grace LOVES any opportunity to get wacky and tacky! The counselor had also said to wear a lot of red and orange colored clothing.  So this is what we all wore. 

We were dressed in orange/red, wacky and tacky!  As we unload from our car we noticed that all of the other campers were wearing red/orange but, they were not sporting crazy socks or hairstyles.  As it turns out it was “WACKY WEDNESDAY” where everyone was to wear red or orange.  "TACKY" was not part of it at all!  We were stuck looking crazy all day.  Go rag-a-muffins, our parents were so PROUD!

Pool Fun

 As soon as school lets out, and even before, it is hot. It is like an "oven" hot in North Carolina in the summer. In order to keep cool we spend almost all of our days at the pool trying hard not to fry like an egg.

Today was one of those 97 degree days that we spent chilling at the pool.

  

  We spend time doing many jumping photos but I only added a few here. 

Without this pool I do not know what we would do.  We may all be sitting in the bathtub with cool water rolling over us. However we may need a bigger bathtub.

Golfing Adventure

I have been taking golf lessons for five years with only one game of nine holes under my belt. My sisters have been playing for only about a year--and that being mostly golf lessons. Then, we come to my dad who has been playing well... since cavemen discovered fire.   We decided to have some quality family bonding time and go play nine holes of golf.  In the beginning, we were all very cheerful and rather optimistic. Then we went to the first tee.  

We went to play at this little course that is an all par 3 holes--meaning it should only take three strokes to get the ball into the hole. This also means that the tee boxes are quite close to the green. In my mind-- I am a professional golfer ( I soon figured out that I had some kinks to work on) so I went to the men's tees with my dear old dad. This was my first mistake that would be one of many to follow. I teed off and my ball skirted "gleefully" across the ground and up the many hills and landed at the bottom of the biggest one. This obstacle meant that I would be scoring a five on this par 3 first hole.  Hmmm. I just shook it off though because everyone needs a warm up hole, right? My younger sisters were certainly not much worse-- they also scored a five and six due to lack of power, aim and a few other issues. The veteran of the sport scored a three, of course.  The next four holes were equally challenging.  I still had not found my rhythm.  And the wheels officially fell off.   

On our finishing hole, my dad hit it into the woods and the rest of us followed suit. The three girls hit it into the water on our next shots and dad sailed his over the cart path... and beyond. Through all of this you can imagine that my mom (the official photographer) was almost having a heart attack from laughter. After seven balls lost, a couple tears shed here and there and a finial score of 50+ (when it should have been 27) we finished the nine holes.  Look out Tiger and Phil Mickelson-- there are four golfers quickly coming upon on your heels.

Here is the final picture of the night--still smiling!

How the Name Came to Be

So it is an interesting story of how the name of my blog came to us.  I wanted to start a blog and, of course, you need to have a fun, memorable name.  I asked my family to help shout out some names I should call my blog.  I got names such as "The Hot Pretty Kitties in the City with their one Tom Cat", "Four Chicks and a Rooster", "The Southern Belles and the Gentlemen."  All of these names have to do with the fact that there are four girls in my family (including my mom).  You would think that we would have been blessed with at least one boy for my poor dad.  That was not meant to be because he is left alone to hear drama, dress dolls and have tea parties.  One of the final names that was shared was "The Silver Fox in the Henhouse."  This name was given as a jab towards my dad.  He is a dapper looking man and he has some subtle grey hair sneaking in on him.  Finally, the name we settled on is "The Blonde Squad and a Dude."  This name sums up our family-- four blond girls and a lonesome dude.  I hope to make this blog witty and document the adventures of my wonderful family.

My Family