Friday Nights Lights - Homecoming Fun

Friday night was CAL's homecoming, and I have to say, when the morning dawned rainy and cold I wasn't really looking forward to the festivities.  The annual pre game parade would be miserable, maybe even cancelled, and nothing about tailgating in the drizzle sounded very appealing.  But around mid afternoon the skies cleared, and by the time the parade started we were under gorgeous blue skies.  Because our school is K-12, homecoming is truly a family affair.  The parade is made up of all ages and grades, so it's fun to see the 3rd and 4th graders participating with the juniors and seniors.  By 5:45 we were in our seats and ready for the action.

Let the parade begin!  

Each of the high school grades had a themed float.  This year they each chose a city (at least I think that was the theme based upon what the floats looked like!).  The Seniors were Paris, the Juniors were New York (complete with the naked cowboy singer, which I thought was really funny), the Sophomores were somewhere in the midwest (a cornfield?), and the Freshman were Honolulu.  They were all really cute, and it reminded me of all the hours I spent working on our class floats in high school.

Paris! 

New York!

Yee-haw!  Scarecrows!

Honolulu!

John rode with the 3rd and 4th grade football team (it took three pick up trucks to haul them all).  

Our #89 tosses some candy to the crowd

The cheerleaders got the best ride by far - the giant Eastwood firetruck, complete with firemen!

...and don't forget our Centurion!

Sam Stone as our mascot

After the parade and some tailgating, we headed over to the game, and it was packed!  It was such a beautiful fall night, and soon it was time for the Centurions to hit the field.  I don't care if it's 4th graders, high schoolers, college players or the NFL, it's always a thrill when the home team takes the field.  Here come the Centurions!!!

We had a great night hanging out with friends and watching some football.  I think we saw John for about two minutes when he came to get some money for the snack bar (all the elementary boys play their own impromtu game behind the stadium all night), and I don't think we saw Sarah for even 20 seconds (hello? hang out with her parents at the football game? uh, no.).  

Future varsity Centurions John and Daniel 

Half time was my favorite, when they crowned the Homecoming Queen.  Such a silly tradition, but still so fun!

The Homecoming Court - such pretty girls!

When it was clear that CAL was bringing home a victory, we rounded up the kiddos and headed home.  This was the end of a busy week, and while at the beginning of the day I was only wanting to curl up on the couch with my sweatpants on, I can't imagine a better way to spend a Friday night.  

Happy Homecoming!

Too Busy to Blog

I was hoping when I went to my blog today that a little blog fairy had posted all the fun stuff we've been doing the last few weekends, along with photos, but it looks like that didn't happen, so it's up to me to get caught up!  This will be a marathon post because we've been really busy for the last 10 days, with lots of work, school, sports, family time and the lake (whew!).


First, I wanted to post a picture from a golf outing with some of my coworkers a few weeks ago.  My team gets together a few times a year to go over goals and brainstorm, and we usually end our meeting with something fun.  Golf is not my idea of fun, but since my boss wanted to golf, you guessed it, we golfed.  I am terrible at golf...I have tried so hard over the years to develop even a sliver of competence at the game, but it's impossible.  Luckily, the weather was beautiful and we had a fun afternoon.  

Love these guys - they are so fun to work with!

Last weekend we went to the state fair.  We always go to the fair, but I didn't think it was going to happen this year, because our weeknights are filled with sports practices, our Saturdays with football games, and our Sundays with church and baseball (I know, there needs to be some sort of Sabbeth day in there, and I'm working on that).  Anyway, the only time we could fit the fair in was on the last Friday night, which wouldn't be my first choice due to the crowds.  Sarah bowed out for the first time ever (the chance to hang out with friends at the varsity football game trumped a night at the fair with her family - yes, times they are achanging).  I love the fair.  I have such fun memories of going with my friend Mary Oliver when we were in middle school (our parents used to drop us off there for the day, which seems unbelievable now).  One time we lost all our money on the very first ride we went on (those crooked carnies!), and we spent the rest of the day pillaging for free stuff in the east wing. Anyway, Lawrence loves the fair too, and we've gone with the kids every year since they were babies.  We walked through all the booths and got our annual batch of fudge, looked through all the crafts (the cakes and scrapbooking entries are my favorites), had our traditional dinner at the Kentucky pork producers tent, which I know sounds gross but is so good, and then ended the night on the midway.  John spent the entire night determined to win one of the REALLY big prizes...he finally conceded that he doesn't think anyone ever wins those.  At sunset we went home with no big prize, but satisfied with another fun memory of the fair.

Checking out the cake decorating

Dinner! 

Fried Kool-Aide - disgusting and insane!

Trying really hard to win the elusive jumbo prize!

The next morning we had our first home football game, which Lawrence was super excited about because he gets to announce the games (just like the swim meets, he is happiest with that microphone in his hand).

I bet he can't wait for his shot to call the varsity games one day...

The game was great because we had our second win, this time against Fern Creek.  

Our #89 gets the sack!

On Wednesday, John's class led chapel at school.  He was so excited because he got to do the closing prayer.  He has lamented for years that every time his class leads chapel he never gets his name drawn for one of the "special" jobs, like the pledge, or opening or closing prayer.  Well, good things come to those who wait, because he finally had his moment.  

Entertained by that day's speaker

Giving the closing prayer

The rest of the week was soooo hot (so hot that Sarah's field hockey game was cancelled), and on Friday the long weekend finally was here.  We headed to the lake for the first and only time this summer.  The Weis family came too, and we had so much fun hanging out.  The lake is fun no matter what the weather...it was hot one day, cloudy one day and rainy one day, and every day was a good one.  We tubed, ate, swam, fished, saw tons of friends on the water, had a great dinner with the Higgins and Bush clans, hooked up with the Wilmsmeyers and loved being off the grid with little to no cell service for three days.  The highlight of the weekend was jumping off the "cliffs" in Piney Cove.  The Weis boys had done it before, but Sarah and John hadn't.  On Saturday afternoon we stopped at Red Rock and the kids climbed up to jump, but Sarah decided you couldn't pay her enough and scooted her hiney back down to the water.  On Sunday we went to the "cliffs" and she was adamant that she wasn't jumping.  Owen showed the ropes to John, and while he was completely stressed out climbing up to the jump off point, he persevered and took the plunge.  Later in the afternoon, Sarah's friend Kasey joined us, and the girls couldn't stand being left out of the fun, so they finally went up to the top, where they proceeded to stay for about an hour trying to get up the courage to make the 35 foot jump.  Keep in mind there are tons of boats in the water in the cove, with about a hundred people yelling "Jump, Jump, Jump!" (someone even started blaring the Van Halen song "Jump", which was actually pretty funny).  Even Lawrence went up to give them a pep talk (and jumped himself!)  Soon it started to rain and they had no choice but to get down.  Sarah went first, and then Kasey, and while Sarah says she's glad she did it, she says she's never doing it again!  We had tons of fun times this weekend, oh, and it's my birthday today so I got a birthday present too (a new scrapbook, or course!).  LOTS of photos from the weekend.

Tubing fun

Owen kicks back in the canoe

Hanging out in the water 

More tubing

Sunset boat ride over to the Higgins' place 

All the kiddos having dinner at the Higgins

Owen jumps first from the cliffs while John gets up his courage 

John goes for it! 

Harris climbs a "stick up"

Sarah and Kasey wait with the other jumpers

Lawrence goes up to offer some encouragement

Lawrence - perfect pencil form!

Here comes Sarah!

And Kasey's next!

They look happier now on the jet ski

Happy birthday to me! 

Work morning - time to cut some wood

The boys found a cool turtle

Lawrence and Owen stoke the morning fire

This was a great way to end the summer, and I'm now officially ready for fall.  Good bye 100 degree heat index - bring on the football, chili, boots and pumpkins!