Friday, October 16, 2015

End of summer and the start of Friday Night Lights


So this summer the kids were doing more things on their own and I don't have as many pictures. Jacob went to EFY....no pictures.

Ashley and her friends decided to have a surprise birthday party for Kate and I stole this picture from someone else. They did a great job and planned the whole thing. 

(Ashley did give me an assignment though)





Taylor went on vacation to a time share with his friends Brandon and Parker. I told him to make sure and take some pictures. He took a picture of all the stuffed animals and toys they won from the crane game. 






Then I got pictures of his adventures with his stuffed chicken...




Looks like they both had a great time, even though I don't see anything but Taylor's feet in them.






After our family vacation we got back and the next day Jacob had freshmen first day at the school. Him and his buddy decided they were going to have a theme for their group and I had to go out and get some camo for them. They even made a flag for their team for unity. 


He had a good time and a friend of mine whose Freshmen son actually ended up in Jacob's group was very happy. 







The first day of school for these two. Jacob is a senior and Ashley is in 8th grade. You can see how excited they are.






Even though school started we found some time to do a couple of fun things like go to the drive in movies.






Jeff took his scouts to a baseball game.




And on Labor Day we decided to go and rent a hotel down at the beach for one last beach day. 

We made a stop at Mama D's our favorite Italian place down there. 

Because it was Labor Day weekend the lines were long so the boys passed the time by playing some ninja.  





Once we got in and were waiting for our food Taylor did his toothpick balancing trick. 




From this angle it doesn't look too impressive but it amazed the waiter.




We celebrated my birthday...because it was close enough.







Then it was my real birthday. I celebrated by taking a sub job and then going out with my family for dinner. 






Taylor was sweet enough to get me a present all by himself. Aaaahh I was so impressed. 




We went to Benihana on a school night...

Good food and happy to spend it with my family.








Now that school is back in Jacob is doing the mascot thing. This year they have quite the crew of mascots...usually the mascots take turns but I guess nobody wants to sit out a game. 



Ashley loves the games as long as she gets to go with friends. 



Jacob is having fun 


and has gotten to know the new boy mascot named Jaden.






Another game, more friends...they don't want me to take their picture. Notice all the snacks ;)





This game Jolene, Steve and Caden and Zander came to watch and see Jacob. 
A great time with cousins.




Zander was super scared when they went to see Jacob up close during half time and didn't want anything to do with him but when they were walking away he called out "Bye Jacob!"




Caden liked Jacob though. It was fun to have them with us.






A couple of weeks ago for mutual we make baby blankets to donate to Parkview hospital.




The girls had them on display at our Young Women in Excellence Program.





I went with these girls to the Women's broadcast. Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen and took them to Sears where they all bough footy pajamas that are going to double as Halloween costumes. (Hopefully they don't get heat stroke in them)




We found out that Jacob was nominated for the top 5 Seniors to be on the Homecoming Court!

He found out at the dance and then had a week of fun activities that he participated in during lunch up until the Homecoming game. 



He performed at the pep rally the day of the game, he got yucky stuff dumped on him during a game show competition and more. 

The only down side was the voted ended by 3rd period on Monday. Jacob and his friends didn't even get to vote because there was an error on the website and it wouldn't let him vote. Most people didn't even know what was going on until after voting was over.  He said he didn't mind if he didn't win it was fun to be part of it all week. 






I found out that I was escorting Jacob on the field that night and Jeff and I were going to be sitting down on the field. We assembled Ashley's crew of friends to go to the game with...





Got them a seat and waited for Steve and Jolene and Taylor to come sit with them. 




Once we got to the field we found out that Jeff and I were both escorting him. Jeff wasn't dressed up as nice but he was fine. Another dad who didn't know that he was escorting his son was wearing jeans.




Jacob didn't win but he got this cool name sign...






got to be escorted on the field with his favorite teacher Mr. Brubaker which made his day, 






and we were so happy to be there with him. 




This is Jaden who won for the Freshmen class. He is the other boy mascot even though both of them weren't wearing their suits that night. 




Jacob's good friend Mark Werely was on the top 5 with him. 




All the guys. 




What a fun experience for Jacob. 




Jeff and I flew out to Miami the next day for New York Life's council meeting. I was so glad we didn't miss Jacob's Homecoming.