A Very Merry Christmas to all.......

Garrett's Christmas drawing

What a wonderful Christmas we had!!! After being woken at 4:30a.m., presents were opened and the kids made out like bandits; getting LOTS of new toys and clothes and electronic stuff, a fluffy lamp, chairs and much more. Whew, it makes me tired to list even just some of it! We had a nice quiet day after presents and breakfast and ended the day at Ben and Kritin's house for a WONDERFUL prime rib dinner and MORE presents!

Caroline made an EXCELLENT Santa this year......

Emmy, that professional opener of presents......careful, don't try this at home!

beware, here there be dragons......

Sweet Peri, patiently waiting to be unwrapped......

What time is dinner?



Christmas giggles!

Happy 12th Emmy-Lou!!!!

We marked the wonderful occasion of Emmy's B-day with a slumber party as well as a family dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Feast. The girls had a great time at the party without being too rambunctious and we all enjoyed the movie, "Enchanted". All in all, a successful birthday!

oooooo, what'd she get?????

birthday snuggles are the BEST!

Gotta love a good burger.........

We've Elfed Ourselves.......

Check out this crazy link where Caroline, Emmy and Garrett boogie as elves!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1254671819

Happy Thanksgiving......

We have so much to be thankful this year, topmost is of course being back in Georgia with family and friends! Thanksgiving was held at our house this year, and it was a smashing success with lots of delicious food all of the family gathered together for the first time in years!

The week before, Caroline and I collected leaves to make prints with Cooper. We used them to create a "tree of thanksgiving" for everyone to write they were thankful for this year.

make sure you cover the WHOLE leaf with paint......

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the tree in all it's glory. It WAS beautiful though, and is definitely a tradition that will be repeated in the years to come!

The young artist anxiously waits for the paints to be mixed.....

Halloween

Well we survived our first Halloween back in the states and it was a major success! We allowed the kids to go out alone for the first time ever accompanied by Caroline's cell phone. Bill and I manned the homefront with candy duty and a good time was had by all.

Happy Halloween!

Emmy checking out this year's haul

Beware, the blue eyed ninja is afoot.....

And they're off!

Our First Annual Pumkin Carving Party

YUMMY, want some?

To honor our first Halloween back in the states and Bill's homecoming, we had a pumpkin carving party. What fun!!! We got to gather together so many friends, new and old, and family to catch up on old times, snack and of course carve our pumpkins for Wednesday. It was a fun party and everyone, kids and grownups seemed to have a good time. I'll definitely do it again next year!

Garrett giving specifications for his design


Caroline and Alex are totally absorbed in carving their pumpkins

Emmy and friend Emma working their groovy gourds, work it girls!

Lots of pumpkin goings on......

So we're goin to the mountains and we're gonna pick some pumpkins.....

Dad, CC, Emmy, Garrett and me

So my Dad told me about a great place to go see a pumpkin patch with games and fun stuff for the kids in the mountains. We went this Saturday and Dad's friend Kathy was able to go as well. We LOVED the pumpkin patch- actually planned on buying ours there but they were WAY too big to carve so we just enjoyed browsing

Emmy with "Fred" the pumpkin

This one's mine!

Miss Caroline & Pumpkin

We also got to do really fun things from painting pumpkins, finding the way through an amazing maize (corn) maze and, Garrett's personal favorite; apple vaulting.

All in all, it was a really good day!

"Apple Vaulting"

Simply Amaizing!

You belong in a zoo.....

Look carefully. See the elephant?

Because this entire Summer has been based on all the things that go with moving, we haven't had a lot of fun. So when we had our first school holiday, my sister in law Kristin and I took the children to the Atlanta Zoo along with the other million people who had the same idea!Kristin, Cooper and Porter on the train

Climb every mountain.....

Discovering Dunkin Donuts

The kids were seeming kind of down after a long week at school so I decided they needed a pick me up. I started thinking about things we could do and realized they'd never been to Dunkin Donuts in Georgia! Anyway, I loaded them up and off we went! Not that it was a religious experience by any means, but, you would have thought we'd gone to heaven!
Caroline Consuming a Chocolate Crueller

Garrett hits the big "8"!

So, for the first time since turning one year old, Garrett celebrated his (8th) birthday in the states. Bill was able to fly down for a quiet celebration which included presents, an outing to "The Simpsons" movie and a dinner with our entire family including his Grandparents, cousins and his Uncle Ben and Aunt Kristin. As hard as it is dealing with so many changes in our life, having the family connection on a daily basis again means SO much to us!

Pony Club Farewells

So for our last ta-daa before Anita and I move away, we painted the leopard jump that I'd been promising for more than a year. This being a typical pony club meeting, we had SO MUCH FUN! Many hugs and few tears completed this bittersweet au revoir with promises to get together again soon.

Melissa, Anita and myself; note the beautiful jump standard behind us


Our favorite instructor, Miss Melissa

Caroline and Leica sitting in a tree.......

Pony Club Power!

Sundown at Rainbow Beach

Our good friends Jim and Kelly invited us to meet them for a sunset dinner at Rainbow Beach tonight. It was lots of fun because we got to see Miss Vicki and Lance and Eileen and their beautiful baby Gwen....Caroline, Emmy and Garrett got to play with Jim's kids Courtney and Justin and eveyone had a blast!

Garrett and Justin exploring the tide pools

Our good friend Eileen and Miss Gwen

Caroline and Courtney doing the "Rock Hop".....

It's so hard to say goodbye.....

So we're down to the barrel now and have begun our final get togethers with island friends and families. It's so hard to say goodbye to these people! They have made our lives here on St. Croix so rich and full. I'll be adding photos as I take them over the next ten days.

Here's Caroline and Emmy with Emily

Garrett and Andrew have been friends since they were babies!

Emmy and Kristina sharing a last playdate......I KNOW we'll see you guys again!
Save the last dance for me.....

AZ Academy's End of Year Show.....

Wow I can't believe that this school year is over! Like all of our years, it's been quite eventful! The school year ended with the annual end of year show composed of a series of short plays and skits.

Here's Garrett and his class singing the national anthem!

As for Emmy, she did a wonderful job as a fairy in her play "A Dragon in the Mix"

And to finish the end of year show, Caroline was VERY dramatic as Snow White in

"The Happily Ever After"

As always, the end of year show was a fun night to see all of AZ's talented students. It was rather bittersweet for me, as I knew it would likely be the last show we, the Corders would attend on St. Croix. During the show, AZ's director (my boss and friend) gave out teacher and volunteer awards. I was amazed and touched to recieve an award for my art program! Like I said, truly a bittersweet night. We've been so lucky in finding friends and family on St. Croix, I really can't believe it's time for us to move on.

Why use a float when you have a horse?

So Melissa finally came home from her cruise; we missed her so much I felt like a kid waiting for the Daddy to come home from a business trip! For a special welcome home treat, (I suspect she missed us as much as we missed her, but I COULD be wrong...) she took the girls swimming with their ponies. Is this paradise or what?

Follow ME, I know the way!!!

Like a boat on the ocean; a ship on the sea.....

HOW NIIICCE!

See, it's not so bad living in paradise; you get too hot, you go swimming and it's alll cool!