Soccer Camp

Just thought I would throw in a picture from this past week of soccer camp. Sara took the week off, and Nick had his turn working for a change. Hayden was their to have fun with Trey (center) and Michael (back right) at the camp. Trey and Michael are both neighbors and the boys all "hang" together on a daily basis. We have to drag them in at night to eat, and then for bed. We have named all the kids on our street "The Red Drum Raiders" since we live on Red Drum Road. There are 16 kids on our street, and several from the street at the bottom of ours. They all hang out on a nightly basis, and last night I took 7 of them to the soccer game at Charleston Battery. So if you watch Fox Soccer Channel and see that game, watch for us waving. We had sideline seats and made a point to wave at Grandpa Mel, since we knew he would be watching eventually. What a great bunch of kids.

View from couch in family room

Sorry guys but I forgot to turn off the flash on the camera so this will have to do. I was sitting down on the sofa when I took this picture. It's out through the french doors, onto the patio and out to the pond. There's a great breeze in the early morning, and then again in the evening. This is also where the deer run through our yard on a daily basis.

About a week ago, we heard what sounded like a baby crying in the woods next to us, then this past week we found out that the deer had given birth to 2 babies. They are now joining their Mom in running through our yard. It's a great sight to see - if only they were a little slower, I could get a picture, but they waste no time cutting through.

Hayden's Hockey Room

This is Hayden's room. This was actually an "accident room" it was not made to be a bedroom, but the roof trellis was so high that the builder decided to make it a room. The two doors on either side are attic storage areas that I plan on closing in and making closets out of them. I believe that I just need some insulation, sheet rock - learn to do it, and I have two closets. Should be pretty straight forward. There are also two additional shorter doors that you don't see to the right and left at the bottom of the picture. Those are smaller attic storage areas. The round window you see is the only light into the room. It actually gives off too much light and it wakes Hayden up in the morning. As you can see, he is starting a collection of hockey pucks and using them to block the light. He also has "wallbangers" on his wall. To the right, you will see a hockey player named Ovechkin. This is Hayden's favorite player. Any ideas on this one too, would be much appreciated.

Nick's bedroom.......... #1

This is a picture of Nick's room from the doorway. I think I missed the big dolphin on the right of the wall. but for those of you who don't know, Nick caught the fish himself when he was younger. His dad had them mounted so that he would always remember.

Obviously, you can see he has a "fishing" room. Right now, we are in the process of finding him a real fishing net that we can hang on his wall too.

Nick #2....

This is the view from the far side of Nick's bed. To the left of his dresser is the doorway coming in, and behind the door is his walk in closet. The door that you see open is to his own bathroom, and the door to the right leads out to his own private, huge balcony that looks out onto the pond. It's amazing to see the deer running through our back yard, and "gary the gator" sunning himself on the grass.

Nick .... #3

This is the wall that Nick would be looking at if he was in bed. I think I may change it around a little bit to add a little more character.

If any of you have any idead on his room please feel free to let me know. Any help is appreciated.

Janet

Well, here I am .......... the blogger lady! I never expected to post a picture of myself, as I am 99,9% doing the picture taking. Hayden got a hold of my camera at the Citadel field and took one of me. Enjoy it, 'cause there may never be another one! I think he did a halfway decent job too. Way to go Hayden.

Mum..........

Well, I know I didn't put any pictures of our cruise (in January) on the web site, so I just thought that I would add this one.

Mum and I both were fighting over who was the "island boss" but as you can see, Mum won out.

We had a great time on our cruise, but I was still getting over the stomach flu and I think Mum could have used another person with her to enjoy all the "late night partying" that she was revved up for!

Way to go Mum..... you rule!!!!

Fishing on the Wando........

As you can see here, Nicholas has a weekend chore........ mowing the lawn. He was hoping to go out and get some business mowing other people's lawns, but I think he really needs to get some meat on his bones first. Pushing this "push mower" is hard work for a skinny 11 year old. Hopefully, after doing this a couple of times he will have been able to build up some muscle and get a job doing it in the neighborhood.

Of course, once he has finished his mowing duites he heads straight for the Wando River.................. He caught this "Red Fish" from the dock of someone else's house. The neighbor gives them (Nick, Hayden & Michael) permission to fish as long as he is home - this way he can keep an eye on them from his house. His dock is about a 1/2 of a mile long - I can verify that one, since I had to ride my bike to the house and run out to the dock just to take a picture. It felt like 10 miles long really! Anyway, the boys love to fish (as most of you know) and their summer days are spent either fishing, golfing, making a tree house, or swimming....... oh yes, I forgot about raiding my pantry too!

Pond....... & Gator

This is the pond right outside our back door. We have a resident who loves to join us in the morning on his way to his favorite landing spot. He is about 3 feet or so long, and is quite afraid of people (thank goodness) The boys went out to fish yesterday, and he was sunning himself on the lot next door - suddenly the boys heard a huge splash and saw that he had just gone into the water and fortunately away from where the boys could bother him.

When we go out into the yard to look at him, he slowly goes under the water. I was very fortunate to get this shot of him.

Family Room

Okay Mum, finally another new picture. Well, as I said earlier we went out and purchased a couple of nice new rugs. We also bought a sofa and two chairs to match. There's not a whole lot one can do with this room, as you can see that the kitchen is at the end where I am taking the picture from. When you open up the french doors to the porch, there's a lovely breeze coming right at you while you sit on the couch. The view is great too, that's why we chose to put the couch there instead of where it was in the first picture. Hope you like it.

Mocha...

Wow, the life of Riley!! Well, not quite. Poor Mocha can't run around in his own backyard like he did in Florida. I think that in this particular picture he had been shocked a couple of times and needed to "destress" and relax. He has a blue collar on right now, with a contraption that will "shock" him if he goes to certain parts of the yard. He has a perimeter that he must stay inside of. Up here in SC. they have what they call invisible fence. He has to be trained to know where he can go and obviously where he cannot go. Poor Mocha, he has to be shocked to learn. Of course, Bob is out there with him - I don't want to be the bad guy, so I stay inside and when I go to see Mocha, he loves all over me. He gives Bob a look and tries to hide his head under his own body. I am sure he will get the hang of it soon though.

Sara & McKenna...-

This is Sara and her new friend McKenna riding around the neighborhood on McKenna's golf cart. It seems as though everyone in the "hood" has one except the Winches. No worries, we don't mind thumbing rides from the neighbors. They are all very kind and willing.

Sara will be taking a babysitting course this Saturday, and we all hope that she can fill in her loooong summer by earning some $$. She really needs to, because she loves the mall and loves shoes and purses - I hate to shop, so any of you "girly girl" shoppers out there.... come on by for a visit and Sara will take you to the mall with her eyes closed. I know Grandma "B" would jump at that one, I also know that Maria would love it. Only thing is, I would probably have to pay for a pedicure for their exhausted feet. Oh well!

Also, I just wanted to spread the word that Sara did so very well on her FCAT exams. We are so very proud of her. She worked really hard this year to bring up her math grade, even taking time to stay after school to learn, and she even got a couple of visits in with a tutor (thanks so much Sandi :) The boys did well also, scoring above grade level on everything. Way to go Winch Kids!!! Sorry, I don't brag about them too much.

living room.....

Okay, here's the living room. You may be able to see the kitchen island in the bottom right corner (if not, go buy some glasses) - so this is really all one big rectangular room. The double doors to the left, of course lead out onto the large screened in patio. The doorway to the right is the dining room, and the hallway you see straight ahead leads to the master suite. I have another chair coming on Tuesday to match the one in the left corner, and the TV will go right smack on the wall where you see the picture over the fireplace. Up here, they put the wiring in the wall because they expect you to buy a flat screen, lcd tv. Now those of you who know me, know that I am clueless on this kind of stuff. So the way I figure it, the picture will stay there for quite some time to come.

Volcano

Now this is a really good view. I am not sure of the name of the volcano in the background, but I certainly am going to do some research on it. It looks like it is ready to blow it's top!

Bob looks great in this picture. He always knows where to go and how to get there. If you want an adventure, you can call Bob and he can find all the history and culture you could handle.

View of the bay.......

Now I know this picture is a little way off center, but I really don't know who Bob employed to take it for him. At least they are both in the picture.

What a beautiful view. I don't think you could ask for a better trip, especially when it is paid for by someone else.

New Mom..........

Bob and Hayden met this lady when they went on their travels on a moped. She thought Hayden was so cute and pale, she wanted to adopt him. The people were all so very nice, but not in a rush. It may take them a while to bring what you ask for, but there is no stress for the people in St. Kitts.

Schoolgirls.........

Well, finally here are some pictures from the trip to St. Kitts. The actual modelling pictures should be sent to us in about 2 months or so.
This one is a picture of a bunch of schoolgirls coming home from school. They fell in love with Hayden and wanted to to take him home to meet Mum and Dad. Fortunately, Bob wouldn't have any of that. Very nice bunch of young ladies though. Way to go Hayden, you know how to pick them.

Golf news........

Well, we're back with some new updates on the golf. Sara has completed her two shifts of standard bearing (carrying the scores around with the golfers on the green) and has thoroughly enjoyed it. It is hard work though, because the signs are quite heavy to say the least. She was rewarded by one of the players (Hye J. Choi) with an autographed glove that she had worn during the tournament. I really thought that a very nice thing for Choi to do for Sara. The ball with the smiley face was given to her by another one of the players, but I am not sure which one.... Sara has all that info. The 2nd young lady in Sara's group was Silvia Cavalleri from Italy - her mother was her caddie, and was talking to Sara most of the way around. I think she was trying to hook Sara up with a boyfriend. Thank goodness the walking scorer was looking out for her - he informed Mrs. "C" that Sara was only 12 and way too young for a boyfriend! Mrs. "C" informed him that Sara won't take too long before she is really interested in the boys! The 3rd young lady Sara had was Christina Kim - a very colorful lady indeed, and I don't mean her choice of clothing colors! Sara learned quite a few new swear words yesterday! I am sure the ball and club were ignoring Ms. Kim, because she swore at both of them quite a bit. She wasn't shy and did not hesitate to let people and objects know exactly how she felt about them. Bob was with her group the day before, and he felt so badly for the girls who were in the group with her. She was really nasty to them both. Hayden and Nick both did their share of work also. Nick went out once as a standard bearer and said he did not want to do it again, as I said before it is very hard work, walking 18 holes carrying a sign and almost being blown off a bridge into the marsh. Although, if you are lucky you will get to see alligators crossing the walking path (as I did) and Nick has the good fortune to have one on one of his holes and it hissed at the players. Nice! Hayden took up a spot on the 9th hole being a score runner. He had to take the scores from the 9th to three different locations all in opposite directions. He finally got tired of running and was smart enough to use his bike! Way to go Hayden. Anyway, he was so tired today that he slept until 10:30 am. Well, that's all for now......... gotta get some pics of Hayden before he thinks I don't love him anymore!