Hopkins Family Matters

Alpine Village

2009-12-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

We attended the Alpine Village at Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova, TN. This is our second year to attend. They transform their recreation center into a Swiss Alpine village. The village consists of several shops where kids can make ornaments, cards and crafts. There is a candy shop, a book shop and a little church with stained glass windows. They also have an area where kids can play in the "snow"! It is really an awesome experience and the kids love it. After visiting the shops, you can also see Santa!

2009-11-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Liberty. Luke and Andrew loved being there with Mimi and Poppa. Luke especially loved going to the "forest" (as he likes to call the woods) and helping his Daddy and Poppa move a deer stand.

Fall Leaves

2009-11-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

Michael decided to go out and rake leaves in the front yard. Luke and Andrew wanted to go and "help"! I'm not sure how much help they were, but they sure had a great time! (And yes, they were dressed in their pajamas!!!)

Weekend Getaway!

2009-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Michael and I were able to go away for the weekend. We arranged for Luke and Andrew to spend the weekend with Mimi and Poppa, and we went to New Orleans. We really enjoyed our restful time away & the boys had a great time with Mimi and Poppa!!

Fall Festival

2009-10-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

We had our annual Fall Festival at our church. Michael has entered the chili cook-off the past several years. This year he was trying to defend his 1st place winning from last year. He didn't place 1st but he did get a 3rd place award! The kids had a great time dressing up, jumping, riding on the hay ride and trunk or treating. Our car won 1st place in the best decorated trunk. We used all of the kids art that they had made from Parents Day Out! We had a long day of fun. Later, we all went trick or treating!

JAM 2009

2009-10-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Michael and I are co teachers for the RAs and GAs. We took the kids to JAM (Journey into Adventures in Missions) 2009 in Jackson, TN. The kids had a great time getting away and learning about different missionaries.

Andrew's 2nd Birthday!

2009-09-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Andrew turned 2 yesterday. We celebrated with cake, ice cream and presents. Andrew was a very excited birthday boy!

This was the little Thomas cake that I did. OK, so it didn't really look like Thomas, but the birthday boy loved it!!

Luke helped Andrew open his present. This is the reason for the Thomas themed party! Andrew was very excited to see his train!Here's the tracks all set up!

Luke's swimming lessons!

2009-07-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

This was Luke's first year to take swimming lessons. He did great and even swam by himself some! We loved his teacher Ms. Christy.

Luke's class.

Luke swimming with Ms. Christy.

Swimming through the rings!

Weekend at Pickwick!

2009-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

We spent a great weekend at Pickwick! We were there with Michael's brothers Paul and Mark and their families. The boys really loved seeing their cousins and being on the water. Andrew had his first boat ride.

All aboard!!

2009-07-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

This was my first year to be co-VBS director at my church. Our theme was Lifeway's Boomerang Express. It was a lot of hard work, but I had a great time organizing and decorating! The boys really loved the train decorations.

Andrew riding the train!

Luke on board the Boomerang Express!

Ice Cream Day!

2009-07-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

We made ice cream at Parents Day Out today. The kids all loved being able to make their own ice cream. They especially loved putting on the toppings and eating it!

Here's the recipe we used for making ice cream in a bag, it was taken from the website www.kaboose.com

What you'll need:

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

How to make it:

Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

Tips:

A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don't increase the proportions more that that -- a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.

Luke and his class making ice cream

Luke eating his ice cream!

Andrew and his class eating their ice cream!

Aunt Fran & Uncle Roy

2009-07-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Luke & Andrew love their Aunt Fran and Uncle Roy!

Weekend with family!

2009-06-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend with family! Jennifer and Mitch Miller Miller and their children Heather, Emily and Joseph along with my parents came for a visit. All of the girls went to see Wicked. We had a great time at the Orpheum! The next day, we all went to the Pink Palace. They have a new dinosaur exhibit that the kids enjoyed checking out. Luke & Andrew also really liked the old country store! The boys loved seeing their cousins! Heather & Emily need to come back and stay with me, they were great taking care of the boys!!

Jennifer, Heather & Emily at the Orpheum!

Andrew & Luke checking out the old country store!

Luke & Mimi

Emily, Heather, Andrew, Joseph & Mitch

Father's Day!

2009-06-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

We spent Father's Day weekend in Liberty. Michael picked blueberries. He had a little help from Luke and Andrew!

RA/GA Family Pool Party

2009-06-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

We started June off by hosting a RA/GA Family pool party. Michael and I work with another couple at our church. We have been teaching the RA's and GA's for a couple of years now. Here's some pictures from our year end party.

Julia

Danny

Andrew & Sophie

Luke, Sophie & Andrew

Austin & Dalton

Cupcakes I made for the party

Car Wash

2009-05-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

The boys helped their daddy wash cars this evening. I don't know how much help they really were, but they had a lot of fun!
Luke was in charge of the water hose. He's a little dangerous! Andrew got hosed down several times!

They each had their own wash rag. Andrew had fun dipping his in the soap bucket!

Orlando, Florida Trip!

2009-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

We were in Orlando from May 3-10. Michael attended a conference where he was a presenter. The boys and I tagged along. Michael's mom also came with us to help me with the boys while Michael attended his conference.

We took the boys to Disney's Magic Kingdom one afternoon. Luke was very excited! He loved all the rides. As soon as we got off a ride, he would say, "I want to ride something else!"

Here's Luke and Andrew reading the map and planning what they wanted to do first!!
Luke loved seeing Mickey and Minnie. While we were waiting in line he told me he wanted to give Minnie a big hug! He got his wish, and he got to hug Mickey!Andrew wasn't too sure about Mickey and Minnie. He needed his daddy to protect him!Luke and Andrew loved riding the horses on the carousel..
We also went to Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. Michael Lynn and family were able to go with us. We had a great time seeing them!

Luke's birthday at school

2009-04-14T09:35:00.001-07:00

Luke got to take cupcakes to "school" (parents day out) for his birthday. I made Mickey Mouse cupcakes. He loved them and so did all of his friends!

Easter!

2009-04-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

Andrew and Luke loved dying eggs. Luke's favorite were the purple ones. Purple is his favorite color right now. Andrew had some help from Poppa dying his eggs.
The Easter Bunny was good to the boys. He brought a chocolate bunny of course, some new movies, hats and sunglasses, and a new shirt to wear to church with their new Easter outfits Mimi made.
Andrew really loved his chocolate! I'm sure Luke and Andrew's Sunday School teachers loved us. All they ate for breakfast before church was chocolate!

Easter Egg Hunt!

2009-04-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Our church had its annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Here are Luke and Andrew waiting to go find eggs. Luke wanted to wear his basket as a hat!
Andrew knew exactly what to do! He had no trouble filling his basket with eggs. Here he is finding an egg in the tree.
Luke loved finding all the eggs. His favorite were the eggs that had chocolate!

Happy 3rd Birthday Luke!

2009-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday was Luke's 3rd birthday! He had a Mickey Mouse theme party. His Momma and Daddy surprised him with a bounce house. He loved it!
Mimi helped me decorate his Mickey Mouse cake. I thought it turned out really cute!!

Train Cakes

2009-04-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some train cakes I made for a friend's baby shower. The shower was a circus train theme. It was really a lot of fun. I also did some train cookies.

Vacation at Tybee Island & Savannah GA

2009-03-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

This past week we vacationed at Tybee Island, GA. Tybee is just outside of Savannah. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Savannah. Savannah has a huge St. Paddy's Parade, second only to the New York City parade. It was a lot of fun dressing in green and seeing the sights that day.
We also toured the historic district and river street in Savannah, saw the lighthouse at Tybee, and played on the beach at Tybee. We dined at lots of good places - The Crab Shack in Tybee and The Pirate's House and The Lady & Sons in Savannah.
We had a great visit with Mimi & Poppa & loved being able to see the Holley's - Michael Lynn, Ryan, Makenzie and Rylan! The week would have been even better if the kids hadn't of passed a stomach virus around! Poor Luke is just today feeling better after 5 days of being sick! Lets just say, it was not a fun car trip home on Saturday!

Bedtime Story

2009-03-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

The boys were being unusually quite tonight. I went to check on them, and this is what I found.

They were tucked into Luke's bed, reading a bedtime story! Luke was telling Andrew all about the book he was reading. It was really cute, so I had to grab the camera!

We got snow!!

2009-03-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

It started snowing yesterday around 3:00 pm and continued into the night. Luke was so excited when we got him up from his nap so he could go play in the snow. Luke kept saying he was making "paw" prints in the snow instead of footprints. Andrew didn't know what to think at first. He looked like a little Eskimo all bundled up and had some trouble walking at first!! The boys really loved playing in the snow and didn't want to come in to warm up. We bribed them in with hot chocolate!

Oreos are yummy!

2009-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

Andrew really enjoys food. After lunch today, he and big brother Luke, asked for a cookie. Here's what Andrew looked like after eating his!!

Valentine Train Muffins

2009-02-26T12:05:00.000-08:00

Luke had a Valentine Party at school. I made a Valentine train for his class. I used strawberry muffin mix instead of a cake mix since they were going to eat it for morning snack. The kids loved it!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-26T11:49:00.000-08:00

Luke and Andrew loved Valentine's Day. They especially loved waking up and finding that there were presents waiting to be opened! Here's Luke showing off his new Mickey Mouse Crocs.

Mimi and Poppa also spent Valentine's weekend with us. Mimi made the boys new pirates outfits.

Horsin' Around

2009-01-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

New Blog!!

2009-01-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to create a blog to keep up with things the kids do and say. This will be a place where I can share pictures of the kids with our family and friends. Since I don't write in a journal, I thought I would try blogging. We'll see how it goes!!

Here's one of my favorite pictures that was taken during the Christmas 2008 break. Aunt Sandra invited us to come out and let the kids ride the pony. Luke and Andrew had a great time riding Fred!