Friday, August 15, 2014

My Campers Are Back!

Marvin & Paris are both home from camp!  Marvin was obviously at Panthers Training Camp and Paris went to Student Takeover Camp hosted by our church.  Sophia and I had some nice one-on-one girls time, but we both were so happy when Paris & Marvin came back home!

Paris had so many stories to share from camp.  I'm so happy that she had such a positive and inspiring experience.  Our church is awesome, so I wasn't surprised that their youth camp was just as amazing.  It was her first overnight camp though and I was a little nervous having her away from home.  I was able to follow the camp using their hashtag, so I stalked checked in from time to time.  There has been a noticeable change in Paris since attending camp and I'm excited to see how God works through her this upcoming school year!

Speaking of school, I can hardly believe that summer is winding down.  We have been slowly crossing off items from our McNutt Summer Live List, but still have a ways to go to finish it up.  Our goal is to have it complete before the first day of fall.

While Paris & Marvin were at camp, Sophia and I had breakfast on the patio, hung out at the pool & park, attended the first Panthers preseason game, and had an ice cream date.

We welcomed Marvin home earlier this week & jumped for joy in rain puddles that he was home.  And this mama has finally caught up on some much needed sleep!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Love Week & Other Happenings

This week has been life changing for me.  Our church kicked off their 5th annual Love Week this week.  Love Week is a great opportunity to serve in our community for those in need.  Last year there were 11,000 volunteers and 58,720 volunteer hours logged.  This year Love Week is on track to be even bigger, so I can't wait to hear the numbers in the coming weeks!  Originally, I had signed up for one event and before the event had ended, I knew I would be serving all week long and that's what I did.  Many of the volunteer opportunities were family friendly, so Paris and Sophia were able to serve alongside me.  It has been such an incredible feeling serving with my daughters.  Marvin also had a break from Panthers Camp and was able to join me for an event and Paris signed up solo for an event with her youth group.  Tonight we are celebrating our week by attending our church's live album recording at Time Warner Cable arena!  It will be the girls first concert, so we are very pumped!  Love week has allowed our children to understand that there are people around us that need our help and not to be selfish.  Love Week has given me so much life and I will be forever grateful for my first Love Week!  I encourage you to find volunteer opportunities in your community to give back.  It changes the lives of others along with changing yours.

In other news... Marvin is in Spartanburg, SC for Panthers Training Camp!  Which means I can practically feel the rumblings of Bank of America stadium when kickoff begins!  I can't wait for the first preseason game on August 8th!  The girls and I drove to Spartanburg to watch one of Marvin's practices this week. It was great to watch him in his element and the girls had fun at the Play 60 event that was happening.  The girls did some football drills and we indulged in huge snow cones!  They also knocked out another activity from our McNutt Summer Live List: Find a big hill and roll down it.  They giggled all the way down and then itched for the entire hour and half ride home.  They both broke out in hives immediately after they were done rolling. A couple days later Paris said, "Mom, that rolling down the hill wasn't really one of my favorites on our list..."

Memories, sweetheart, memories. :)

We also celebrated Christmas in July!  The girls had so much fun with this!  I made frozen hot chocolate, we watched Christmas movies, and changed into our Christmas jams.  I even cranked up the AC for a bit, so the girls could snuggle in blankets like we normally would during Christmas time.

Frozen Hot Chocolate Recipe:

2 cups of milk

5-6 packets of Hot Chocolate mix

4 cups of ice

Blend all ingredients.  Swirl glass with chocolate syrup and top with whipped cream and marshmallows.  I also added powdered mini donuts to the straw.