Back-to-school in August?

We old folks often say: “I remember when………..” But it’s true; we do remember when school didn’t start until after Labor Day, a more appropriate time. Anything before September just seems outrageous and wrong, and yet, for most of our own children’s lives and definitely our grandchildren, it’s been back to school in August----even mid-August for those in Tennessee.

I started a tradition when my own children were school age to have a big party the week or so before the kiddies were to go “back-to-school.” So naturally that tradition kept going once I had grandchildren living by me who were school age. It started out small with just Trey and Allie, but it’s grown and grown. The type of activity changes through the years. Here are a few pictures from “some” of the “back-to-school” parties we’ve held. Starting with the most recent one.

And hey, we haven’t had a giveaway for a long time. So make a clever comment including the word SCHOOL, and you may be the winner of a Target Gift Card so you can buy those school supplies. Everyone is welcome to enter---you don’t have to belong to the Barber family to enter. Here’s hoping the air conditioners don’t break at the schools this month. This giveaway will end Monday, August 16 at 12 noon. School starts in Knoxville on August 17.

Everyone who attends the party goes home with a

gift bag full of school supplies

2010

2009

A few of the party-goers: Allie, Emma, Jonah, Carter - 2005

Part two of Barber Family Reunion

Here are a few more pictures, as there were just too many to limit to one post. After all, it only happens once every two years. Thanks to you children who shared some of your pictures that I used in my last post.

Grammy, Grandpa and Afton by pool

Cake Walk: everyone going the right direction except for Afton

Gathering to bless baby Sam - July 4th

34 people are in this pix - Watts joined us for this special day

Thanks, Brad, for sharing the blessing pictures.

And then there were 33..................

The 2010 Barber Family Reunion was held in Knoxville, TN. The three west coast families joined the three east coast families making a total of 33 of us. We did so much and had such a good time doing it that Russ and I were totally exhausted as we fell into bed each night around 1 a.m.

Here’s a quick rundown of planned events: boating and swimming at Langfords, professional family photos (which were actually much easier than we anticipated), basketball, softball, golfing, family talent show, watching the World Cup, dinner in the park, “4th of July” parade, performing for the residents of NHC and visiting with them, eating in and eating out, blessing Susan and Brad’s baby, Sam, celebrating Brad’s birthday and Cruzes’ anniversary, doing Dan’s original cross word puzzles, and trying our hand at family and ancestor trivia. The last day was the big event: doing the Virginia Creeper. See Lori’s blog for a great replay of that event. Throw in some movies, free time, more swimming, sprinkler parks, paper games with 14+ playing, visiting, laughing, wonderful food---home made and not. Plus---Russ put together a Barber Family recipe book and presented one to each family. The Cruzes designed this year’s t-shirts and we thought they were just perfect.

Here’s just a small sampling of the photos from this year’s reunion. Perhaps a few more in next post.


Clever Reunion Tees (all names included)

Three-on-three basketball

Boating at Langford's

Time out for eating dinner

Cool pool at Langfords

Softball at the park

We've got talent?

Singing "America the Beautiful" at NHC

Dinner at Peerless

Celebrating America and Brad

Virginia Creeper 17 mile bike ride

Lydia and sleepy Hale in tagalong

Grandchildren are given certificates of achievement by Grammy and Grandpa. Some grandchildren are missing from the above picture.

Here's our professional picture taken at Portrait Innovations ... with all 19 granchildren

A sad day in June

There’s this huge Elm tree in our neighbor’s yard. It’s about 25-30 years old and rests against our fence---offering wonderful, cool shade from early June through the fall when the leaves begin to fall. Our swing set/play fort, etc. is just a few feet from the fence that divides our yards and so we’ve enjoyed year after year of our “neighbor’s shade.” The tree is huge and so much a part of our yard that we’ve almost felt the tree was ours. But on June 30, we lost our tree. Our neighbors cut down “our” tree. Yes, it was a very sad day at our house. We snapped pictures of the workmen as they fulfilled their duty. We are sad. No more shade. I guess we’ll have to plant our own tree. But by time it’s big enough to shade the swings for our grandchildren, they will be all grown up. Sigh.

Wonderful shade given to us by our neighbor's tree -- the "before" pictures:

The work begins and the tree comes down.

Our neighbor's tree is totally gone as shown in this picture. We are sad. ):

I Often Go Walking

Hydrangea grow prolifically in the south. We should have bought one 28 years ago. But instead we bought our first one three years ago. That first year, we had a few sparse blooms. The second year, we did not really see any blooms, but this year. Voila! We have bloom after bloom. They are so beautiful, I cut some stems to bring indoors. We also have a pretty pink one, gifted to me by Julie. It bloomed for the first time this year and is a beautiful pink. We hope it grows up to be as fruitful as our purple/blue one. I've always had a love affair with flowers and flowering bushes. I wanted to post about a billion pictures of the many varieties of flowers in my yard, but Russ restrained me.

My favorite primary song has always been, "I Often Go Walking." I'll just post the words to that song. That will suffice.

"I often go walking in meadows of clover, and I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue. I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over; Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you.

O mother, I give you my love with each flower to give forth sweet fragrance a whole life-time through; For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking, I learn how to love them them, dear mother, from you."

Thank you, dear children, for singing that song to me over and over and for gathering flowers for me. Even today, I receive flowers from my children. Brad accompanied himself on the guitar and sang the song to me this Mother's Day. I will never outgrow the love of flowers and that song being sung by my children or grandchildren.

Hydrangea Bush in our backyard

New little pink Hydrangea in front yard

Cut stems brought inside for our further enjoyment

Hydrangea blossoms up close

The Birds

I guess it should come as no surprise that birds love our big pillars. They’ve been building their nests there for years, as long as we’ve lived in this house. It’s high up; it’s protected. While we enjoy these cute little creatures, their poop has been slowing destroying our front porch. I guess it’s the acid that eats away at the cement if we don’t get it washed off immediately. But with so many birds, sometimes we are neglectful.

I took pictures through a screened window last week. In one of the four nests there are five, yes, count them, five baby birds. As I watched in fascination, all five little mouths would open wide the minute the mother bird flew anywhere near them. It reminded me of my grandchildren—when I walk by with candy in my hands. I have to admit, the quintets are so darling that I’m forgiving of the mess they make on the porch.

From the two upstairs bedrooms and bath room, we can view all four nests, and it’s delightful.

Quintets (in Nest #1)

Nest #2

Nest #3

Nest #4

The mess below