The Day Before the Night Before...

It has been a busy fall. John graduated from DARE program at his school. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The DARE officer was so nice and sweet and all the boys had crushes on her. Here she is giving John his diploma:

Here she is giving her speech:

Here is the keynote speaker, a Charlotte morning show host from Fox News Rising, Steve Lyerly. He was very good and joked that after hearing the essays from these kids he was, "definitely not smarter than a fifth-grader". He was actually filling in for his co-host Beth Troutman, who was a Miss Cabarrus County years ago and is now a Charlotte celebrity too.

...and finally here is our very local celebrity, the principal, Mr. Cochran with John:

It was an exciting day for everyone. These kids learn so much from the DARE officer and have a good basic knowledge with which to fend off offers of drugs. I hope they can all remember what they've learned and take it with them into middle and high school. Sadly, there are rumors that this is the last year that DARE will be offered to our school due to funding, which I think would be a huge mistake. I remember when Jen and Dave had it and they still remember their DARE officer very well and what all he taught them. I will find out more about that after school starts back up.

We also did a lot of hiking this fall. Here are the boys hiking...I was there too, taking the picture. I made it almost to the top. What a beautiful day that was. I love the mountains!

 The boys made the walking sticks. They made me one too! We were such hikers...we looked just like the signs that indicate hiking areas all over the parkway.

This past week we had parties at school. Here is John and one of his friends at lunch before they got all hyped up on sugar. I think they were anticipating it though...

Jen came in to the school to help out with the parties since we had two at once and her Christmas break started a week and a half ago. Here she is helping Michael build his gingerbread house.

Jenileigh gave Michael some really good ideas and I was able to go around and help some of the kids whose parents couldn't make it to the party. Sadly, there were quite a few.

 

I wanted to share this with you all...what a difference five years makes...

I cannot believe how young the kids look in the 2002 photo. Why does the time have to go by so quickly?

Merry Christmas to all!