Ferrell Family - Best of 2011

Before the end of 2011, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the year and pick out the best of 2011 for our boys and family.  This post highlights the first 6 months of the year.

January:

We started the year out right with great friends, Jason, Laycee, Jacey, and Kaylee Higginbotham.  We brought the New Year in with fireworks, great food, and fellowship.

Loved those fireworks.  It was raining so we could only shoot the fireworks off the patio, but the children loved it!

Especially Shane.  You can see Jason's arm sticking out where he was shooting Roman candles.

I love how happy Alex looks in this picture.  He embraces all things with such enthusiasm.  Such a sweetheart.

Of course, the biggest part of any January is Zach's birthday.  In 2011, Zach turned 8 years old.  Dave and I let him have an all boy spend-the-night party with a hunting theme.  It was wild.  We had 13 boys spend the night. 

You can read about it HERE if you want to see all the pictures from the party.  Zach had a blast and that's all that matters to me and Dave.

Of course, January of 2011 will always be remembered as the month it snowed and snowed!  We had so many snow days from school that I wondered if I would ever get a break from the boys.  (Just kidding)  But for Mississippi, it was a very different kind of winter.

We loved playing in the snow.

And "camping" in front of the fire for coziness during the snow.

And feeding the cows.

And making snow ice cream.

It was the very best of snow days because they were all spent in our new home on the farm together.

 February:

 Of course, we all got Valentines during February, but the most memorable moment was during the Beauty and Beau Pageant at the boys' school.  All 3 boys participated in it.  Don't they all look so handsome?

Shane on the stage:

Zach on the stage:

Alex was certainly in his element on stage.  He hammed it up for the judges, waving to them and bowing.  So cute.

Alex won Most Handsome in his age group. 

 

March:

In March we went with Cleve and Martin Coleman to the Monster Truck Rally. 

They were celebrating their 8th birthday by taking all the boys in their class to see the monster truck show. 

Alex and I tagged along.  Alex did not like the loud noise the trucks made.  Thank goodness for the ear plugs! 

I had a fear of Zach getting lost amongst the hoards of red-necks and truckers that surely go to these shows . . .

I was a little off in my perception of monster truck shows . . .  I didn't see anymore red-necks and truckers at the monster truck show than I see on a Saturday in Tems Food Market! 

I'm glad I went.   I would definitely go again!  Which is a good thing since having nothing but boys in my life, I figure I have a few more monster truck shows to go to anyway!

The boys came home from school one day in March with "free" tickets to a Circus in Louisville.  From that moment on, all Shane could talk about was going to the circus! 

I knew I would have to pay my way in, but I figured it wouldn't be much. . . . I was wrong!  $30 - wrong!  We had spent $75 before the circus even started! 

The boys enjoyed the circus although I was disappointed with it myself.   They had mostly clowns and Asian acrobats.

They did have a boxing kangaroo which did a performance with the clowns.

But of course, the highlight for the boys was when the elephant pooped in the ring! 

It doesn't take much to meet their expectations!

March 28th is Shane's birthday.  This year he turned 3 years old.  He wanted a dinosaur birthday party.

I made the cake.

Since Shane's birthday falls so close to Easter, I planned an egg hunt -- a dinosaur egg hunt!

Shane and Nana hunting eggs.

W.K. on the hunt . . .

Lex and Mary Beth enjoy the chocolate.

We had some cool dinosaur masks.

Shane had a great party! 

April:

Easter is always a favorite for the boys, but it was especially wonderful this year because it was our first Easter at the Farm! 

The Easter egg hunt at the farm was especially fun . . . I hid over 100 eggs all around the front yard.

 
May:

We had May Day at school . . . an annual event that the boys look forward to every year.  This year Zach placed 1st in the Sack Races. . . .

Here are the top 3 winners in the sack race:

And Zach placed 3rd in the 50 yard dash . . . .  He's getting ready to run again . . .

Here are the top 3 winners racing back to their class.

Their classes went on a Field Trip to the movies to see Rio.  Here is Zach with his friends wearing their 3D glasses for the movie.

And Alex with his friends:

Before the end of school, Zach had his second piano recital .  He started taking piano lessons in the fall of last year and has really enjoyed learning the piano.

His duet with his teacher, Martha Blackwell:

Then we ended the school year with the academic awards ceremony.  Alex got his reading certificate from his teacher.  He read 142 books in the 1st grade.  He read the most books of all the boys, and he came in second for reading out of his whole class.  I am very proud of him.

And Zach got a reading certificate for reading 121 books in the 2nd grade, a certificate for being on the Headmaster's List all year, and an "almost perfect attendance" certificate.  No one in his class had perfect attendance, but Zach had only missed 1 day so his teacher felt he deserved some recognition for that effort.

His art teacher displayed her student's artwork at the awards ceremony.  Here is Zach with his artwork that was displayed. 

I guess you can't help but notice the boys' haircuts.  They got their first "buzz" cut and loved it!

June:

With the end of school, we focused our energies on coach pitch ball.  This was Zach's second year on the Braves team:

It was Alex's first year to play coach pitch.  He and Zach were on the same team.

The Braves -- The 2011 League Champs

This summer Dave bought the boys an above-ground swimming pool.  They spent so many hours in the pool that summer.  The boys loved it, and I loved the peace it gave me with the boys so easily occupied!

June 23rd is Alex's birthday, and I had a swimming party for him and his friends.

I made Alex's cake.

I ran out of icing on two sides of the cake, but Alex didn't seem to care.

He and his friends had a blast swimming.

As you can see, we had a great first half of the 2011 year!  The second half of the year was just as great.  Read the next post to see how the rest of the year was for

                           the Ferrell boys and me.