Bowers Blog: August 2024

August is a busy month with school starting back, Mack's birthday, and all of the fall activities getting into gear.

Mack turned 11 this August 21st and is maintaining his job of keeping us all very busy. (Physically and mentally) Mack is our social butterfly with friends all over Valdosta and a need to make sure he hangs out with all of them. My house has become a revolving door of boys and I love it. They eat all of the snacks and drink all of the sodas out of the outside fridge, but I love that they enjoy coming here. Mack is such a bright kid and he has endless energy. This energy is contagious and it shows with how easy he can make and keep a friend. We love him so much and look forward to what this kid is going to do in life!

Mack had another water slide birthday party this year in our backyard. I think fun was had by all of the boys in attendance. I had to talk him out of a sleepover b/c I just couldn't do a sleepover with 20 boys ages 10-11.

We had good news and bad news this month. The good news was that Ellie found out that she will play the role of Clara in her ballet school's Nutcracker production! We are SO proud of her. She has worked so hard to get to this point.

The bad news is that unfortunately, Daddy's Alzheimers is progressing. He has entered palliative care with Hospice. We are so grateful Mama is taking such good care of him. We are also thankful that before he heads off to heaven, he will be able to spend his last days here in his earthly home which is exactly where he'd want to be.

We started August off with fresh haircuts for the new school year.

I let Ellie get a few highlights for the first time.

Emma enjoyed taking these pictures of Ellie

I think they turned out great and were just subtle enough to brighten up her beautiful face.

The weekend before school started we took Ellie and 2 of her friends to SSI since she hadn't had a chance to take friends yet. It was Ellie's friend, Nadia's birthday. Her mom had said that Nadia had not wanted to make a big deal about her birthday this year. We fixed that. Happy 15th birthday to Nadia!

They are all ballerina's so they took photos of their ballet moves on the water one evening.

L-R: Nadia, Ellie, Sarah (Emma in background)

I honestly don't know what's happening here, but I'm guessing this was an impromptu concert by Emma and Mack?

Ellie scored a 5 on her very first AP exam and her sweet teacher came by to congratulate her and give her the yard sign. This teacher worked her butt off to prepare those kids for this AP (Government) test.

Emma only let me take one picture at her open house. This is her right as we walked out of the 8th grade hallway.

Mack whined about this picture, but it's our last open house at Westside, so I HAD to have this picture.

Hurricane Debby came through Valdosta just a few days before school was supposed to start and backed up our first day along with dropping a large limb in the back yard.

Debby tried to derail school starting, but after a 2 day delay, we finally had our first day of school!

This is all of the silliness they could muster at 6:50am on the first day of 5th, 8th, and 10th grade.

The kids all want me to take them to school on the first day. I successfully got all 3 to 3 different schools on time. Emma was the first drop off

She was way too cool to turn around and wave at us.

Ellie was next!

She won't acknowledge my picture needs either.

I walked Mack into school. I think technically the 5th graders aren't supposed to be walked in, but I did it anyway. It's my 10th year and final first day at WES. I was walking him in no matter what. Also, he needed help carrying all the dang supplies in.

My sweet little boy walking into his last first day of elementary school.

His homeroom teacher, Mrs. Harris, is the best!

I was able to get into the classroom and really embarrass Mack and his best friend, Blake. These 2 crack me up. Yes, Blake is Mack's age - he's actually 6 months younger than Mack.

Ellie drove us in her car for the annual 1st day after school FROYO.

We all survived and I wasn't a back seat driver.

Cute Bowers babies and their frozen yogurt.

Mack and his favorite dinner - steak and rice. He ate the whole thing.

It was time for Mack's 11th birthday party! The slide fit in the backyard even though it burned out an outside outlet of ours when I turned on the hair dryer.

Birthday boy!

Mack and his guests

Time to eat. They had 2 camps of boys. Some outside.

And some on the screened porch

The cake

Once the last party guest left, the girls were waiting in the wings to have their turn on the slide.

And yes, Worth had a go on it as well

Officially August 21st

What happens when you have older sisters

Birthday boy

Not quite awake Emma getting a hug from the birthday boy

Gag gift from Ellie

Ellie even made an appearance for early morning gift opening.

Our sweet 11 year old boy. He's growing up so much!

His birthday gift from us was a shopping spree at Academy for fishing gear. It's his new obsession and he is ALL in with fishing.

Surcheros for dinner before his birthday football game.

The first gift that arrived for our Clara

Mack closed his birthday weekend out with 2 touchdowns and a team win.

Eliie's first costume fitting at the studio

I love the red dress, but the nightgown is so precious.

Nicole and Todd Branch came to see Mama and Daddy when they heard about Daddy. Nicole always had a special relationship with my parents and they both love her so! Amos and Anna were also in town, so we had a great time seeing one another.