My Baby Turns 17!

James had another birthday this month. We need to stop this! He keeps getting bigger and older.

His birthday was on a school day, so he did have to work on his special day. We went out to dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant in Marietta, then came home for cake & presents.

It looks like someone is in need of a hair cut!!!

Happy 17th birthday, baby boy!

Another School Year Starts

School starts earlier & earlier each year! James started his junior year of high school this morning. 

 

 

 

 

And Hannah started her 8th grade year. 

For fun, here are a couple of pictures from 2003. James' first day of kindergarten.

And Hannah's first day of Mother's Morning Out.

James Turns 15!

I am a bit behind in my blogging. I was having technical difficulties with Blogger for a while, then right after I got that all worked out, my Eye-Fi card was having troubles so I couldn't upload pics from my camera the easy way. I refused to just take the card out & transfer the pictures the old fashioned way. Anyway....the problem with the Eye-Fi card has been fixed, so I have some catching up to do!

My baby boy celebrated his 15th birthday on January 7th. He always requests homemade cakes for his birthday. This year I made "The Best Chocolate Cake" from Kevin & Amanda 's blog.  It is an altered cake mix recipe that adds instant pudding & chocolate chips to the Devils Food cake mix.  The cake was delicious! I used the recipe for the the Butter Cream frosting that was posted with the cake recipe, but I wished I had used my own. It was a shortening based butter cream and I personally prefer butter creams made with butter. James loved the cake, even with the shortening based butter cream and that's really all that matters.

Sometime this fall, James grew taller than me. He had been waiting for that moment for a very long time. He also had to shave for the very first time. He doesn't need to shave daily yet, but he did have that "fake moustache" thing coming in. He is half way through his first year of high school and he's old enough to go get his driver's permit.Where has the time gone??? Where has my baby gone?


Here are some old pictures of James. We didn't get a digital camera until after Hannah was born, so it's hard to find really young pictures of him.


James with his new baby sister, Hannah.

 

 

Soccer boy

Playing guitar

Drama Camp at the Mable House - he was a fly.

Ninja boy

Choi Kwang Do

Bird lover

Happy Birthday (belated), James!

School Concerts

James & Hannah both had school concerts recently.

 Hannah had her debut as a cellist. They don't have assigned chairs yet -it was first come, first served. Hannah made sure she arrived early so she could sit in the front of her section.

And James had his first high school band concert. He recently earned the first chair position in his band. There are 4 different bands at his school and they are based on ability, not grade level. James is in the Symphonic 2 band.

The tubas were all seated in the center back of the stage, so I couldn't see him at all. So I didn't even bother to try to take a picture. I did get this one before hand.

We are so proud of our musical children!

Marching Band - BOA Atlanta

The McEachern Marching Band performed yesterday at the Georgia Dome for the BOA - Atlanta Super Regional.


Here's Hannah with some signs that she made for the competition.

Our little friend is holding another one of our signs.

The sousaphones practicing before their performance.

Each section was practicing separately in the parking lot.

Getting into position.

Face Off!

Of course most of my pictures feature the sousaphones.

McEachern had a fabulous performance. They have grown so much during the season. They placed 14th out of 34 in the preliminaries, but only the top 12 go on to the finals. We're down to a few more football games and a Veterans Day parade and then the season will come to an abrupt end.

School Pictures

This year I received a portrait CD/digital copies of the kids' school pictures, so here are their 2012 pics.


James - 9th grade
He has gotten so tan from marching band!

Hannah - 6th grade
We paid extra for retouching on Hannah's pictures because she had bug bites all over her face from a Girl Scout camping trip a few days before picture day! She had at least 5 mosquito bites on her face - definitely worth it for the retouching.

Marching Band

This is James' first year in high school and his first year in marching band. Now that school is in session, our schedule looks a bit like this:

Monday: Marching Band Practice
Tuesday: Marching Band Practice
Wednesday: Dance Classes (Hannah, not James)
Thursday: Marching Band Practice
Friday: Football Game (Marching Band Practice before, performs during)
Saturday: so far about half of our Saturdays have had marching band activities in one form or another
Sunday: Chris has been working on band equipment & props, but we can usually fit in some family time

A couple of weeks ago, the high school football team played in the Korky Kell Classic at the Georgia Dome. The marching band played during the game and them did a half time show as well. This was their first "real" performance.

Here's my baby boy with his sousaphone. (It's not a tuba!)

Hannah had such a fun time at the game. Two of her friends from Girl Scouts were there, so she had  fun hanging out with them.

The sousaphones (not tubas) getting lined up.

 

Their first marching performance. 

The McEachern "M". (photo credit - Dee Coffey Breeze and thanks to Mandy Cross for posting it on FB)

Playing pep music back in the stands.

So our life has been revolving around marching band, but we are having fun! 

Back to School

It's back to school time at the Vesper house and this year both kids start new schools. James is starting his freshman year and Hannah begins middle school.

James posed for one picture this morning. That's all I could get from him. And Chris is in the background, too!

Hannah was more than happy to pose for a picture. She was super excited about having to wear uniforms this year. We'll see how long that lasts! I am very glad that the school added navy this year!

She insisted on posing with Snickers, too. I was able to get Kay-C in the background.

In Powder Springs, the elementary schools start first. So for the first time in 9 years I didn't have to get anyone out the door before 7 am. It was very nice to sleep in a bit longer! I think I'm going to like that!

Here's to a great 2012-13 school year!

Another Artist in the Family

James finally got to go painting. He and his friend Tyler went to a Van Gogh painting class at Painting with a Twist.

Here are the boys with their masterpieces.

8th Grade Awards Day

Today was the 8th grade awards day at James' school. We had received a letter saying that James was going to receive an award, but we weren't told what award he would be getting. We were completely surprised (and so was James for that matter), that he received 3 awards.

Here is James with his awards.

Mom & Dad with James.

This was award was presented by the media specialist and a surprise to me. I am so happy that James has been reading this year!

We were expecting the Perfect Attendance Award.

His third award was for Business Education. I am so proud of this one because this is the career pathway that he has chosen for high school. James wants to be a video game designer.

It was an emotional morning. My eyes teared up on several occasions. He has one more day of school and then my baby boy will be in high school!