Treasure Hunting

Recently I have been introduced to the world of Geocaching. While we were in Idaho, my family had a free day, so we decided to try out some geocaching. We had so much fun (Even tho we did not find the first one we looked for)! However, we did find our second cache, and from then on we were hooked. We found a few caches in Utah, and now in our hometown. On Father's Day we found a few caches in Kevin's hometown, Elba. Yesterday we went out with a fellow geocacher Beverly Brown and logged 6 caches. I even found my first Geocoin! We have plans to go geocaching in Birmingham on Thursday, and Tallassee on Friday!

Liv finding "The Crabby Turtle"

Lauryn Elizabeth's Bday!

Today my youngest turns "double digits!" We took her out on Friday, since Sundays are so busy, to Joe's Crab Shack. But first, we took her to get our "double digit tradition" done--ear piercings!

In our family, the girls have to wait till they are old enough to actually take care of their ears before they can get them pierced. It is a rite of passage to get earrings in the Dewberry house. So, 10 is the age of privilege. She was actually, more nervous than I expected her to be. She was so afraid it was going to hurt. I thought, for a few minutes, we might have to cancel the tradition, or at least postpone it, as she flinched and showed extreme fear. We had to stop the process a few times, while she got her breath, but in the end, she came away with earrings!

BEFORE: Naked Ears :)

AFTER: Dressy Ears!!

Afterwards, we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. Lauryn-Elizabeth has been craving crab legs for weeks, so she was VERY excited.

For dessert, the girls got to paint their own rice crispy treats, which I will admit, looked so fun, I wish I could have painted some too!




While we were there, the Cotton Eye Joe broke out (I was so disappointed; I had run to the restroom and missed it.) Apparently, the workers were dancing incorrectly, and the girls had to instruct them the correct dance ;)

Joe's Crab Shack has a birthday custom of making the birthday girl do something fun (read: embarrassing). They had Lauryn-Elizabeth dress as a fairy princess and run around the room with her wand saying "Yippee Cay-yay! It's my birthday!"

On Sunday, her actual birthday, wanted her to have some fun too, so Liv and I schemed together to make Lauryn-Elizabeth a scavenger hunt. She started just after lunch. Here is the video of that. She was running SO fast! I was REALLY struggling to keep up.

It's Lauryn-Elizabeth's Day!

May 24, 2011, was really Lauryn-Elizabeth's day to shine. It was Awards Day for Eden, as well as the breakfast for the Top 25 in 3rd and 4th grade. She brought home 9 certificates and awards. We were so proud!

I was so pleased to see her get in the Top 25 in 4th grade, as well as the Top Average in her class, but I think the award that I was the most proud that she received was the Principal's Award. This award is perhaps the most coveted award, and only one is given out for each teacher's class per grade. Before the Principal's Award is presented, a paragraph is read about that student.

This is what was said about Lauryn-Elizabeth.

In a class full of phenomenal students, it is very difficult to choose just one for this award, so I asked the students to choose. This is what her classmates said about the student they thought most deserving: She is extremely intelligent, she always does her best, she never gets in trouble, and she never has to be told something more than once. She is helpful, inspiring, unique, trustworthy, sweet, responsible, and caring. She always goes above and beyond what is expected. She loves school and all of her friends. Her manners are perfect, and she is silly, fun, and funny! She treats everyone exactly how she would want them to treat her. Lauryn-Elizabeth Dewberry is one outstanding girl! Thank you for being a joy to teach, a true ray of sunshine! Thank you for praying with and for your class, and giving us such a beautiful example to follow! You’re amazing!

I'll admit, I was extremely teary after hearing such sweet things about my youngest baby. After she received the award, I went to Mrs. Smart to thank her for being such a wonderful teacher, and she told me that she asked the students who they wanted to give the award to, and told them to write it on a sheet of paper and explain why. She said they overwhelmingly picked Lauryn-Elizabeth. They all thought she deserved it most. She said the paper stack was thick with reasons why she should have the award. She also mentioned that as the paragraph was being read about Lauryn-Elizabeth, the whole class was pointing at her!! They knew it was going to be her!!

Later on, some of her former teachers thanked me for sharing her with them.

This is the stuff that makes a Mommy proud.

(I am attaching the video I made of Awards Day. I shortened all the talking so that you can see most of her awards in less than 5 minutes. I tired to add music, but for some reason it was causing the video to be inaudible. So I finally gave up. Don't forget you can enlarge the video by clicking on the arrows that point out on all four corners at the lower left hand side of the video.)