Star Wars Camp

The event of the summer (at least by Carter's standards) finally arrived the first week in August... STAR WARS CAMP! As I said in an earlier post, Russ created this little 3-day Jedi Training Academy especially for Carter. Carter had great dreams of attending a camp that simply did not exist. Rather than dash his dreams, Russ designed a curriculum and presented it to the Maumelle Community Center for approval.

Initially, I think Russ was a bit disappointed that he only had 8 padawans signed up...by the end of the first day, I think he was wishing he only had two! Russ didn't realize that little boys can complete an hours worth of activities in 15 minutes. Add the chaos of giving them all weapons and he definitely earned his title of Jedi Master Russ. I volunteered an hour each day to help with organizing and photographing. A nice "mom job." In the end I think it was a big hit. The kids all seemed to have a really good time while learning about Jedi qualities such as friendship, loyalty and trust. They had to complete the Jedi trials on the last day to become a Jedi Knight Level One. I'm proud to say my little guy passed!

The first day photo shoot.

Whispering to Natalie (the only girl in the class!) during a "transmissions" class.

Owen and Carter calling upon the force.

Receiving their tattoos after putting in a full day of training.

The entire class practicing their moves. Russ may have

borrowed this exercise from the Jedi Training Academy at

Disney World. Who says those trips don't pay-off?

Carter posing with his planet. The boys had to design and name

their own planet. They had to decide if it belonged to the Empire

or the Republic. Carter was Republic all the way!

Dueling with his buddy Isaac.

All the young padawans with Jedi Master Russ.

Playing a game with R2D2.

Alex was an official Jedi Master, as well. He was a tremendous help.

He lead a discussion on main characters and their characteristics.

I love all those raised hands.

Getting ready for the Jedi trials on the last day. The

boys had to complete an obstacle course while carrying Yoda

on their back.

Each day Russ did a power point presentation on Episodes 1-3.

He would play clips, pause and discuss. I was amazed at how

much the kids enjoyed this.

Bowing to the Jedi Master during the graduation ceremony.

VBS...UGH!

Carter is simply not a fan of VBS. I don't think it's anything against God, I think it's everything against learning...and singing. He HATES singing and he STRONGLY HATES singing with hand motions. Carter is strongly convinced he is 17 years old and no self-respecting teenager would ever sing without an electric guitar in hand. Unfortunately for Carter, he doesn't have his license yet. Until he packs up for his career as a professional surfer in Hawaii, he has to suffer VBS at the good ole First United Methodist Church of Maumelle.

Having Avery and Owen Counts in his group, helped ease his pain.

The theme was Cafe VBS and their group was the portabello mushrooms.

Carter said this was lame...

He did enjoy watching Ms. Michelle get slimed at the end of the week.

He talked far more about the slime "ingredients" than he did the daily lessons. He thinks it was probably made out of glue, food coloring and a little bit of blood. He soooo NEEDS to be in church!

Please note the happy children singing/performing on the last night.

Please note Carter's bitterness...and lack of hand motions.

He survived! Ice cream social afterwards helped a tiny bit!

Sidenote: Alex was too old to attend this year so he helped Russ

"teach" the recreation rotation. It did NOT make Carter feel better

to have his dad and brother present. He said, "I think it's great

that they're helping all those kids, but I want to stay home."

Can't wait for next year!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...Part Deaux!

Russ has Star Wars with the boys and I have Harry Potter. It's our thing. Alex has read all of the books and Carter has watched all of the movies. Side note: Carter says, "It's silly to read all those huge books when you can just watch the movie in two hours." I see Cliff Notes in his future! Anyone surprised?

My Harry Potter infatuation began when I was about 15 months pregnant with Alex. I could not get comfortable enough to sleep, so I would stay up all night watching Discovery Health and freak out about the health of my first born son (you'll have to have Russ tell the story of the morning he woke up to find me in hysterics because I KNEW our baby was going to suffer from dwarfism!). In an attempt to lure me away from the TV and save Russ' sanity, a friend gave me the first Harry Potter book. I laughed at the time, but picked it up around 4:00 a.m. when my only other choices were "Mystery Diagnosis" (I was quite certain I would have the ailment) or Lifetime's "Mother May I Sleep With Danger" (it starred Tori Spelling, enough said).

The rest is history. I absolutely could not put the book down. I read it in one day and rushed to Barnes and Noble to buy the second. I had not read anything so positively genius and addictive since Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High Series (come on, you know you loved those crazy twins!). After Alex was born, I would read aloud to him during our midnight feedings. It was only natural that he have it in his blood!

My little Harry Potter. Halloween 2006.

Could he be any cuter?

The movie event of the summer!

The Pig and Hermit...

Before our trip to Destin, we went to the Maumelle library and checked out several videos for the boys to watch in the car. Apparently, we are not the superior parents we believed ourselves to be, because we somehow forgot to expose our children to the genius of the Muppets! How could this have happened? Both boys were absolutely rolling...truly, thrashing around in their seat belts with unsuppressed laughter! Of course, they had their headphones on so we couldn't hear what was causing the hysterics. We paused the movie and had Carter explain what he was watching. The result was a story about "the pig and hermit"...maybe we should brush up on our Muppet terminology!

**** Please take note that the Galbraith fam (i.e. Russ) has officially learned how to get video rolled over to the blog! Woot, woot! Watch and be amazed...

Jones Family Reunion...

We had the Third Annual Jones Family Reunion on July 16th. We have tons of pictures of our boys swimming, sliding and diving, but very few of the other family members. In all actuality we did a horrible job with pictures all the way around. I'm documenting this fact so I WILL do better next year! We needed a picture of all the grandkids to precede this one of the "next generation." Nonetheless, they are a pretty cute group...

Patsy, Natalie, Carter, Linley, Alex, Kennedy,

Anna Claire, Harrison, Madelyn, Jaxon

4th of July

I didn't do the best job with pictures this year. The battery died just as we were getting ready to watch the fireworks show. Nonetheless, here are few from the day. You get the idea...tubing, swimming, repeat...

Chris was good sport on this one! Hanging on with an 80 lb.

weight bouncing around on your back is no small feat!

Carter LOVES being a daredevil.

He is obviously lacking in confidence :)

Love this face!

Me sporting the truck driver look...

Bliss

A close up of my classy lake wear...

The canal that we take from Lake Thunderbird to Lake Sequoyah
.

Alex and Natalie

Trying their hand at fishing. So far, Natalie has caught two

in her three years of life...the boys have caught ZIP!

I'm sure he is trying to con Mimi and Papa into something :)

Trying a second round with Papa...still no success!

The boys loved twisting the smoke bomb stems together

to create a "new color."

For some reason, Lake Thunderbird has helicopters fly really

low before the fireworks show (they started this last year).

I suppose it's an added bonus...it is pretty cool.

The only firework shot I got before the battery died.

The boys both pretended that their sparklers were

wands from Harry Potter. I think a few spells were cast.

Beach Boys

July 18-25, 2011: We spent a glorious week soaking up the sun in our favorite vacation destination, Destin, Florida. We stayed at our tried and true Seaspray Condos with the extended fam. With over 600 pictures, it was hard to choose...below are a few that made the cut!

Could they be any cooler?

Playing football with Uncle Chris. Alex was in heaven with
a full week of football on the beach.

Alex zipped through 3 books this week...Carter continued

to memorize the pictures in this Star Wars book.

Tubing! I love this shot!

Chillaxin' under the umbrella with Mimi and Papa.

Check out Papa's crazy sunburn!

Time to hit the waves!

Alex loved boogie boarding...

...Carter loved to scream!

A true Jedi never leaves home without his lightsaber!

Dead fish starting washing ashore on the last day.

Gathering and burying were on the agenda.

LOVE THIS!

Having a serious planning meeting...

The end result...Sponge Bob! We are soooo commercialized!

Hanging at the pool with Natalie. Unfortunately, Carter still prefers

the pool to the beach. Chris and Wendy (the rockstars of uncles and aunts)

earned our undying gratitude for letting him tag along with them!

One of our favorite restaurants. Papa has the magic

ability to get us in without a wait!

We celebrated Wendy's 33rd birthday with a cook-out and whiffle ball!

We had one rainy day so we headed to Destin Commons.

Hard Rock for lunch then to the Rave for "Mr. Popper's Penguins."

Carter was so excited that he was finally old enough to DRIVE

the go-carts this year!

We had professional pictures made with the entire family.

I snapped a few while the photographer was snapping hers!

Too sweet!