Season Opener

The swim season is here again! Practice or lessons almost everyday, with a meet each Tuesday night for the next six weeks. If you are looking at it from Ann's perspective... what fun! If you are looking at it from Stiv's perspective... what a drag! And if you are looking at it from the kid's perspective... we get to stay up until 10pm on Tuesdays!

Catie improved her swimming over the winter to the point that she has graduated from the Jr. Penguins to the regular swim team. She is the only 5 year old on the team and did a great job swimming freestyle and backstroke in the meet. She even scored a point for the team and earned the coveted Penguin of the Week Award! Above, Catie and the girls getting a pre-heat pep talk from Coach Steve.

Catie making a big splash as she "dives" in for the start of her 25yd freestyle.

Catie showed great determination in her quest to reach the wall.

After a hotly contested race, Catie shows her sportsmanship by congratulating the winner.

Coach Joel is obviously excited for Catie after her first event.

Let us not forget Jackson. He had probably his best meet yet, taking 2 seconds off of his 25 yd breaststroke PR and hitting for the cycle. He earned a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place ribbon for the meet.

The BIG Sleepover!

Before we get to the big sleepover, the prior week was the annual Tucker Days with a parade down Main Street. The kids love to go watch the parade and chase down all the candy from the floats.

Later in the day, Jackson and Catie decided to break out the Halloween costumes and play superheroes. Abby felt strongly that the Cat in the Hat qualified as a superhero... who are we to argue.

Jackson's last day of 2nd grade was Friday, and we took our annual picture in front of the house to compare with the one we always take on the first day. Unfortunately, we can't find the first day of school picture??? To celebrate the end of the school year, we agreed to have a sleepover for two of Jackson's friends and Catie's friend Bella. It was quite a night!

The boys had a great time playing the Wii and PS3 before settling in for a Lego movie.

As usual, we put food out for the animals and they showed up at their normal 8:30pm time. The kids were excited to see a giant raccoon and opossum, side by side, eating our leftovers. Several hours later and countless trips upstairs to settle them down, everyone finally fell asleep around 11:30pm.

Of course, the natives were up and ready to play at 6am. Stiv treated them to delicious warm cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

The sleepover finished up with a good run through the sprinkler as the temp rose quickly and everyone was ready to cool off. By this time, Catie's friend Bella had gone home, so we imported another friend (Issac) to fill in.

Shake your booty!

Settling into Spring...

We have started our summer season early with family events seemingly scheduled every weekend with no end in sight... what fun! The last two weekends we had our first triathlons of the year. The first was a nice local sprint called John Tanner that in spite of the rain, was a fun course and a good way to start the season. Ann, Steve and Donovan represented the Stien Mountain Triathlon team. Ann had another good race finishing 3rd overall masters, beating Donovan by 3 seconds and Steve by 15 seconds! Then we spent the last weekend in Hiawassee with the McGee's and did a team triathlon due to lack of a sitter to watch the kids. Ann swam, Donovan biked and Steve ran. Team Stien Mountain is now 6 for 7 in team triathlons as we took first again. This one was kind of a hollow victory as we were the only team!!!

Ann before her big swim. She was the first swimmer out of the water!

It was tough racing against no one, but we managed to pull it off. Team Stien Mountain proudly accepting our awards.

Jackson was excited to have a sleepover at the cabin with his buddy Matthew and brother Connor. He and Catie loved showing their friends the triple bunk beds, the creek and especially FUN WORLD! They had the "best" time riding the go carts, putt putt golf, video games, skeet ball and ice cream... does it get any better?

Abby loves her PJs, so we let her enjoy them all day, even at the beach.

After the "race", we took everyone out on Lake Chatuge for the afternoon. Even though the sun only showed up for about 10 minutes, everyone had a blast goofing around on the boat. Everyone even got a turn driving the vessel.

Catie happy to receive her $1 bribe for getting into the cool spring waters of lake Chatuge.


Abster and mom munching goldfish...

The boys went on a nice hike through the deep forest and thick brush near the cabin. Look closely, Jackson is wearing a cool hunting hat complete with a camouflage veil.

Everyone loves the stuffed bear.


Oak Grove CDC had their annual ballet recital this week. The girls spent the better part of the winter practicing for the big day.

Catie really hammed it up for the big show and loved being on stage.

Happy Easter!

We had a busy weekend with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sandye visiting for Easter. Grandma and Grandpa were tired of sitting around the house on their visits and decided take the bull by the horns and purchased tickets for the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center Easter Egg Hunt. They had three separate egg hunts for three different age groups and other cool activities for the children.

The egg hunt for Abigail consisted of 100 other 0-2 year olds and 3oo parents and grandparents elbow to elbow picking up eggs. The eggs were filled with candy and after picking up two eggs, Abby was distracted trying to get the candy out.

Our three Amish children waiting in line to meet the Easter Bunny.

"Jackson, Easter is really the celebration of Jesus' resurrection." "Yeah, I know that is wonderful, but you need to focus on the eggs over there!"

Nothing says Easter like face painting a cat on your cheek!

The pillow pets are such a big hit that each of the kids now have two. Why can't we invent something so simple?

We spent part of Saturday swatting our carpenter bees with tennis rackets...one of Stiv's favorite pastimes...Catie got a new habitat for Easter and decided to capture the maimed bees as pets.


Catie enjoyed the kiddie Sky Hike, especially the zip line!

Father and son time on the Sky Hike ropes course at Stone Mountain. It's kind of difficult to look cool when your harness fits like a massive wedgie....

At the top of Stone Mountain.... Below, the girls in the neighborhood playing dress up.

ING Fun Run

The kids all participated in the ING fun run on the Saturday before the half marathon and marathon. Jackson and Catie were very excited about the race and practiced the night before by running sprints thru the house. Jax and Catie were enamored with a chinchilla prior to their big races.

Catie is currently BIG time into lions and wanted to keep the lion balloon as a decoration. Just in case you are wondering, the fun run took place next to the zoo... hence the animal theme.

Abby warming up before her big 0.1 mile sprint.

Abster was very proud of the medal that she won (for having Ann carry her the 0.1 mile!)

Catie was all decked out in her lion outfit ready to take on the stacked field of 5 & 6 year old runners. Catie is kind of heavy-footed, so we did not know how she would take to the 0.25 mile run. It turns out she is quite the competitor and finished near the front with most of the 6 year olds.



Jax was excited for his 1/2 mile run with the 8 & 9 year olds. He started at the front and planned to go out fast and hold the lead....

He's looking strong with a couple hundred yards to go....

Ooops we spoke too soon! The wheels came off with about 75 yards to go and Jax had to dig down deep to hold on! He remarked after the finish, "My heart was about to explode!"

Everyone was proud of the effort they put into their race and loved showing off their medals.

Last week, we celebrated Stiv's birthday with a delicious ice cream cake that he tried to hoard from the rest of the family by handing out tiny pieces to everyone else!

It was a big weekend as Jackson was tested in Taekwondo by Master Taylor for his green belt. He had to demonstrate his forms, kicks and punches, and sparring. He also had to break a wood board (see below). He passed with flying colors....