Red, White, Blue - Photo Booth Fun, Who Knew?

My cousin, Jonathan, had the BRILLIANT idea of putting a photo booth up for Pop's birthday party.  I would say 98% of the guests came by and had their picture taken at the booth.  It was great!! Here are some of the best pictures from the day.

Mom, Pop, RoRo
(Pop with his girls)

Even the older one got into the spirit of things - Mrs. Shutt (Pop's across the street neighbor)
and Ruby Nell Brewer (lifelong friend)

Poppy Maness and his daughter, Cathy (who made the cupcakes!)

The Bloomingburg Family hamming it up!

The Grandkids that could come - we missed Richard and Amy so much, but
know they had to stay home with sick baby Walker!

Pop with his grandkids that were there

Charles (the baby of 9), Walker and Zelma (the oldest two of 9)

The guest of honor

Pop with 6 of his 7 great grandchildren

Kudos to you, Jonathan!!! This was awesome!

Red, White, Blue - the Guests Who Came For You!

Pop was so excited to welcome the 200+ people who came to wish him Happy Birthday! People of all ages, from all walks of life, from all over the south came to wish him a Happy 90th Birthday!

Pop talks to some of his friends from Jackson

The Meeks family holds  a special place in all of our hearts.
Marsha (the mom) was Pop's interpreter on one of his trips to Russia.
He baptized her and later performed hers and Chester's wedding ceremony.

These men equal 180 years of life and over 150 years of preaching together.

Some of the kids enjoying the kid area!

Carter and Damon made it to the party after one of his
baseball games.

Sweet Andrew - the third great grandchild of Pop's

Our LB & MB love playing together.

We were all so blessed to see all the people who love our Pop ALMOST as much as we do!  They will never know how much their presence meant to us!!!!

Red, White, Blue - for 90 Year Old You!!!

Plans have been in the making for close to a year to celebrate my grandfather's, J. Walker Whittle, 90th birthday.  Yes, I said 90 years!!!!!  He is still amazing -walking 2 1/2 miles every day, has a home Bible study each Monday night in his home, traveled to Russia last summer (his umteenth trip), etc.  He is a MAJOR people person and we knew others would want to help celebrate him.  We choose to go with a patriotic theme since his birthday is around the fourth of July and he is a proud WWII veteran.  Here is how we tried to transform the gym . . .

A guest table greeted the guests as they arrived.  A Snapfish book that contained pictures
of him throughout his life served as the guest book.  My cousin's wife, Jenny, did all the
flowers for the party as seen on the table and a basket for cards was left on the table as well.

12 round tables served as a place for the guests to sit and enjoy the food.
Oriental Trading was the spot to go for these items.  I used the red, white and blue
ribbon to go down the center of the table.  In the middle of each table was an
Uncle Sam hat turned upside down.  We cut floral foam to go down inside the hat.
A wooden block picture holder was in the middle of each hat with two pictures from
Pop's life secured in the holder.  American flags waved on the side with patriotic colors basket filler
spilling out of the hats.

Jenny's flowers gracing the center of the food table.

Our friend, Kayla, made the cake to resemble Pop's navy uniform when he was in the service.
Didn't she do a wonderful job?

My friend, Cathy, made the cupcakes for the kids to enjoy.
I used the Cupcake Wrapper Cricut cartridge to make the wrappers around each cupcake.
I used the Independence Day Cricut cartridge to make the cupcake pics on top of each
cupcake.

A glance down the food table.
Fruits, vegetables, Grandmama's Chicken Ball, and cheese balls were among
the cakes for the guests to enjoy.

Because of the 7 great grandchildren, I made a children's table for them to enjoy.
Uncle Sam hats held patriotic boxes of crayons for them to use as they
colored different patriotic activity books that graced the table.

I also chose children's books that went along with the theme of the party
(as well as baseball books since Pop loves baseball)
for them to enjoy at the party.  Each great grandchild got to have a book to serve as
a reminder of the special day.

Even though red, white and blue were everywhere, pink roses adorned the drink table to help
us all remember Grandmama Whittle who is no longer with us.  The picture seen is their
engagement picture.
The 2 gallon pitcher held "Estes" lemonade for the guests to enjoyed.
I used the Jasmine Cricut cartridge as well as the Accents Essentials Cricut cartridge
with vinyl to decorate the pitcher.

We also had a pineapple sherbet punch for the guests to enjoy while they were there.

We had a wonderful time planning this special day for a special man!!! More to come celebrating our Pop!

MSYC Junior Week: More Than Conquerors

Carter was so excited that he FINALLY got to go to MSYC for Junior camp.  Now, I don't know how he will be about spending the night when that comes because he does not like to be away from home at night.  He was pumped to know it was HIS time to go!!! He loved being at camp all day with so many of his friends. 

Singing their silly camp songs

Getting his award for Fastest Boy in 100 meter dash.

We love counselors Billy, Amy and KaKole!
Amy has now had the "pleasure" of having both my kids as campers at MSYC!

A bunch of us moms got together and sent all our kids to junior camp the same week so they could have a week with their friends.  BOY did they have a good time!

Carter and Tucker

Carter, Cade and Lawson

Carter and Pearce

Caraline, Connor, Rachel Grace and Carter made themselves a little family.
I would take all these kids home with me!!!!

Thanks for all the great work, Mrs. Ally!  What a wonderful week in the sun learning about the Son!

Book Review: Love Finds You in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Summerside Publishing and author Annalisa Daughety were kind to send me a complimentary copy of Annalisa's new book Love Finds You in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  I really have loved every book I have read in this series, so I was eager to start this one.  It picks up with some characters you met in the book Love Finds you in Charm, Ohio, and while it helps to have read this book before, it is not necessary.  (I would recommend it though because it is a great book.)
Set in the heart of Amish country, you meet Lydia Ann who is visiting her dat, who lives in Lancaster County, after her quilt store was destroyed in a tornado in Charm, Ohio.  Lydia Ann is a 21 year old widow raising twin girls.  Throughout the book, you see Lydia Ann develop relationships with her dat, her stepmom, Leah, Caroline and others throughout the book.  After losing her mom in a tragic accident and her husband to cancer, Lydia Ann is very cautious when it comes to developing relationships that might take the place of those she has lost.  While in Lancaster, she discovers that she has more in common with her stepmom than she realized she would.  She also develops a relationship with Simon Zook - one that she never dreamed she would have after losing her husband.  When tragedy strikes her life and life altering news comes to Simon, she realizes that it is a risk in loving someone you might loose, but it is worth it!
Escaping to the Amish world, Englisher, Caroline DeMarco, wants a break from the spotlight always being on her.  Trying to escape from the paparazzi and her nightmarish former life, she arrives in Lancaster to get a break.   While here she develops friendships with the Landis family as well as Lydia Ann and her girls.  She toys with staying in Lancaster or returning to Atlanta.  As she decides, she rents and reopens a gift shop with Lydia Ann where she learns the value of true friendship, renews her faith in God, power of forgiveness, and the possibility to love again. Michael Landis helps her learn many of these lessons as well as the lesson of trust.
I have read every book Annalisa has written and with each book she gets better and better.  She does a great job developing her characters and bringing you into the story.  I would recommend this book to anyone!

It Only Took 5 Times!!!!!!

I hate that at 7 years old my son and his teammates already have a Goliath.  A thing that just always seems to get in their way.  A thing that really has them defeated before anything starts. It all started last year in District Championships.  We had to play Bolivar two times within days and lost both - one a big loss; the other a close game.  Just this past Saturday, we played Bolivar again - once a big loss.  We turned around 5 hours later and played them again - a lot closer but still a loss.  Coach went to the Regional Tournament meeting on the next day only to find out who did we draw for the first game - Bolivar again!!!!! The boys were just defeated before the game began.  Did I mention that we will play the game at Bolivar, too?  Off we went giving the pep talk - "You CAN beat them!!! You have come so close! Don't let them get to you!"  However, before we could play, we had opening ceremonies.

#22 - Carter Welch
He felt like a BIG time player being called out and then having the National Anthem played!

Then we played . . . . . We started off well.  Carter had a 3 run home run. 

the swing . . .

The slide into home . . . 

Then we played not so well . . . We had a lot of errors and were down at least 12 runs!!!

But the team did NOT give up.  We kept chipping away at their lead and were able to hold them!!!  Finally, in the last inning we were able to go up 3 runs on them.  We held them to 2 runs as they got the last at bat to GET THE WIN!!!!!!  The boys were so excited!  The parents were in shock!  Carter said he was in gladness!!

Check out Carter on the far right of the picture!!!

The face of a boy still in gladness over the win

Way to go, Chester County!!! 

So proud of your not giving up. 

So proud of your hard work. 

So proud of your sportsmanship!!!

Tournament Season Begins

Anyone who knows my son, knows he can play baseball year round, so when he was selected for All-Stars again this year - he was ready.  We began the tournament season this past weekend in a small All-Star Bash tournament with some of the teams we will see in our sub-district tournament next weekend.  The team won Friday night, and was ready to play two games on Saturday.

 They played very well - lost the first game to Bolivar (who always plays well) and won the second game against the team that put us out at state last year!!!!  Whoo Hooo!!

What brothers and sisters do while the games are going on - my LB holds story time!!!

Well, two games turned into 3 games in a matter of 6 hours - Carter was in HEAVEN!!!!  We came out with the runner-up title losing to Bolivar - the team that beat us for district last year.

Considering the team has only been playing together for two weeks - we did not think this was a bad outcome!!!!

Carter was excited and now we are ready for sub-districts this weekend - where we play Bolivar in the first round!!!!!AAAHHHHH!!!!

MSYC Week 3

Laura Beth saved up her birthday money so she could go back to MSYC for another week with Anniston.  She and Anniston met a year ago December when Anniston was here visiting grandparents.  They hit it off and have planned to go to camp together for a year now!!  They had such a wonderful time with each other and new friends.

With counselor Brittany

with Counselor Sara - never had her but we loved her!!!

An added blessing of the week was having Hayley there.  You might recognize realize she looks
a lot like our college kids Hunter and Whitney. Hayley is their younger sister who will be at FHU
in the fall.  She and LB hit it off BIG TIME!

getting ready for camp sing along!

 When LB went to camp first week, she won second place in the model walk.  We never saw this walk - she REFUSED to show us what it looked like.  However, this week she won FIRST PLACE in the model walk and had to do her walk going up to get her award!!!!!

So proud! We work hard on that at home!

I guess being Sam from the Streets and winning first in the model walk is worth it when your child also receives the Bible Student of the Week award!!! Of this we are proud of her. I have seen so much personal growth in her from her time this year at MSYC, and just could not be prouder!!!

As camp comes to a close, the campers gather round and sing A Common Love together.  I love that she and Hayley are together for this song!

One of the biggest things about camp - FRIENDS!!!!

Hope, LB, Kristin and Anniston

Katie, LB and Claire - I remember when these Morris twins were born!!!

Blessed beyond measure to have Miss Brittany again!

A big hug and an "I love you" from Miss Sara

LB's amazing Co-Counselor for the week - Miss Staci!!!!

Thank you to everyone who made her weeks at MSYC the very best they could be!! You have touched her life in a way you will NEVER know and we thank God for each and every one of you!