Ahh, it's been a long time.....

Sorry for not posting in quite a while - lots has been going on and there is so much to tell. I promise to update this week - hang in guys! Much love and happiness to everyone in the new year! Keep seeking out our awesome God - it will bless you more than I could ever say in words!

Turkey Food Drive Boxes and Operation Christmas Child

The kids this year had a wonderful time showing love to others by collecting toys and food that could be given to kids in need this year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. What a blessing to hear the kids so excited to want to give to others that don't have much. We collected food such as gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, corn, and then the church was donating a turkey to go along with the food boxes to hand out to families. All in all, the kids at the school brought in around 800 boxes of food to go to those in need. It touched my heart so much!
Another thing we did this year was collect shoeboxes of toys for Operation Christmas Child. These toys go to kids all around the world that do not have anything for Christmas. We gave things such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, slinkies, crayons, pencils, stuffed animals, dinosaur toys, and balls. The kids were so excited the day we went out to get the things for the kids. Here is a picture of Kira with her shoebox - unfortunately I did not get a pic of Andrew :(

K-5 Kindness Program

This past Thursday, I got the privilege of going to chapel for Kira's class. She was doing a special program on kindness and very much wanted me to be there. Each week one of the classes does a program relevant to what the kids are dealing with now. This week it was about showing kindness to others. There were scenes of children with some of the groups not being nice and kind to their friends. Then it would show the right thing to do with another group showing kindness to a friend. It was a great message for me as an adult as well. At the end, the class finished with a song. What a blessing to our hearts that our kids are being grown in the way God would want them to be.

Charles Towne Landing

November 11th was not only Veteran's Day which I thank our men and women all over the world that have served to protect me, but it was a day for Dave and I to spend with Andrew on his field trip. It was a blessing b/c Dave got to be off that day and enjoy a rare time of going on a field trip! We had such a great time, looking at animals, and all the history and treasures of the past here in Charleston. A day filled with a bunch of second graders always makes for a truly fun time! On of the highlights for Andrew is when he found a large spider and just had to show us - ewwww, I am certainly not a fan of spiders - what are little boys made of??? We could not be more blessed for the kids to be at Northwood Academy - it is truly a wonderful school and we are so grateful to have the privilege of having the kids go there! Btw, yes, lots of pics from this trip :)

A day at the park and yummy lunch too :)

It is always a great time when the kids get a day off from school. I always like to try to do things that are just fun for them and that we can enjoy together. Park, lunch at Chik-fil-A, playing the Wii, and watching a movie snuggling together on the couch - what kid could ask for a more fun day or for that matter, what parent? :)

Visiting Sydney

It has been a pleasure getting to know Jason and Kristina's little bundle of joy! She is a sweetie - poor girl has had some reflux issues but we pray they are finally getting under control. She is simply beautiful and I have fallen in love with her! It is awesome for me to get to spend a little bit of time with her so Kristina can run errands and just enjoy some time to herself. Of course I had to take lots and lots of pictures! Enjoy - she is too sweet for words!

Coastal Carolina Fair 2008

Not too many days after we had gone to the fall festival at church and Andrew's field trip, we headed to the Carolina fair on Halloween. We had such a blast and got to spend the night with our good friends, The McGaha's. It was so fun - Andrew and I went on almost every ride that was there - Of course, I am the one screaming on most of the rides and he is just calm as calm can be, saying "that ride was grrrreeeeaaaaatttt!!!" He makes me laugh all the time. Kira was just under the height limit for the bigger rides but she was able to get one some of those as well as the kiddie rides - she had a blast but was somewhat disappointed when she could not make it on some of those larger rides. It was wonderful that her friend Jessie was there and she got to spend time with her when Andrew and I were on the "big kid" rides. Dave went but he is not really one for rides unless they are rollercoasters so he just enjoyed spending time with us all as a family. We were able to pet the animals at the little petting zoo as well. That is always so much fun. One of the highlights of the fair for all of us was when Andrew got picked to take part in the elephant show :) He held the trumpet and the large elephant blew it - he thought it was great. What was truly funny is that they had trained the elephant to "miss" the trumpet and "spray" all over Andrew -- he thought it was the greatest thing, getting slimed on by the elephant!! Thanks Amy for making sure we stopped for the show - it gaves us some great memories and photo ops! We finally left around 10pm but not before we had some true fair food. The kids and Dave shared some great mini doughnuts and I had a fried s'more! So yummy!!! We all came home and slept so great that night. You could not ask for a more perfect Halloween night! Enjoy the pics - they are so funny!

Andrew's Field Trip to Legare Farms...

Another fun field trip was planned for Andrew to Legare Farms for school. Yes, I jumped at the chance to go! We had a blast. We went through a corn maze and got lost! That's what happens when you let the four 2nd graders in my group take turns deciding which way to go! It was so fun, hearing them giggle and laughing. Nothing makes me smile more than kids laughing. While we were in the maze, some of the kids in the group said they heard a cow and we did see some cow patties - Now, being the calm chaperone, I said "Guys, there are no cows in the corn maze - they must just be allowed to roam the grounds at night when no one is here". Much to my surprise when we finally made it out of the maze, we had heard that one of the cows escaped and was bucking and going crazy through the maze! Praise God, no one was hurt and the farm owners were able to capture the cow and lock him up! How awesome to be in a christian school where everyone prayed and thanked God for His protection! Next we headed off to the hayride and were able to feed the "calmer" cows again - Andrew kept hoping he would get slimed on from the large tongues of the cows and sure enough he did! I cannot even begin to tell you how much Purell we used that day. After the hayride, we headed off to feed the goats and see the horse and animals in the little petting zoo they have. After a great lunch and a fun time of playing in the play area (and many of the kids saying "Mrs Bernetich, Can you push us again on the tire swing?) we headed home. One of the greatest blessings of the day was for me to be able to carpool with some of the other moms and get to know them better. It was such a great time to be there with my son and get to know these ladies more! These are the times I will treasure most in my life - the times I spent with my family!

Fall Festival Continued....