Elser Family Blog

Rockwell’s last first day of k-12.

It had to happen sometime. Rockwell is a senior at NAHS. I wish him well. He will do great.

Summer Fun at Arthur’s Pool

Rockwell knows how to use a diving board… I think? lol.

Hey, whats Larry looking at off in the distance?

Skating at the commons in Augusta

It was a small rink, but it’s fun.

Not that the kids are pro’s at skating, but it is just a little funny watching all the southerners that have never been on skates trying it for the first time.

They stayed on the ice for two hours.

Visited Melinda at her Summer camp (SCGSAH)

Anyone that prejudges or underestimates Melinda is going to be surprised. I visited her at the Governors School today, and I watched her Interact with other students and people. She does this thing where she puts on a front that is not representative of her actual knowledge at all. I’m not sure why she does it, but I am entertained by it. She will act completely ignorant of a subject when I KNOW she is quite knowledgeable of it. She has a very silly/goofy side, that I know has real purpose.. I’m just not sure why she does it. But it clearly has purpose.
I love watching you Melinda. You are a force to recon with.

Holloween Halloween this is Halloween.

After COMPLETELY disappointing the girls, and missing a chance to see a intimate live performance of Rocky Horror Picture show Thursday. (We were 6,7,8 in line, and there were only 5 tickets left.. grrr.)
We tried to do some fun stuff anyway. Friday night, I took the older girls to a couple of abandoned houses. One was formerly a house of a wealthy local individual that died a year or so ago.. the family has not emptied it out yet, and its becoming decrepit.. paint peeling and wood rotting.. yet not a single window is broken. It is still a house. And therefore we were hesitant to go in. But we did anyway,,, just to check out the library! We took nothing and did no damage,, just looked around. We did not want to use much light, as to notify the person in the garden (guard) house that we were there…. So we did not get to see much. But it was still fun!

A little reconnaissance.. here is the library during the daytime though a window.

Then we decided to go to an old confederate cemetery in the woods in Beech Island. It is the private plot of the people that used to own the Redcliff Plantation.. sorta’ spooky!

Then we came back to North Augusta and went into the house down the street at 813 Georgia.. It’s been abandoned and gutted all the time we have lived here.. But you can’t tell from the outside! (Otherwise all the neighbors would have complained by now, right?)

Ghost call, it’s for you!

Then, Saturday night, after we all went to the biggest Jack-o-lantern Jubilee EVER! (38 special played.. what a crowd. First year they sold alcohol helped I am sure.) Melinda went to a Halloween party at a friends house. When I went to pick her up, a friend of ours, Chris Flecheck, was picking his daughter Raven up too. He decided we all should climb the huge dirt hill that is across the street from the party. I think he might have been drinking.. lol. But I am glad we did! It was fun!

Melinda was the first to the very top..

Friends join in.

All the girls gather, (or should I say stumble, because I don’t know if they ever got to a full standing position..) on the smaller hill. They were cracking up the whole time.

Fall things.

The ginko tree dropped ALL of it’s leaves in a 24 hour period.. It was weird watching it. The weather was perfectly still, but leaves would fall. If they where high and hit other leaves, they would cause a cascade. I sat and watching it for a while. Next year I would love to catch it with a time laps camera.

The kids messing around in the back yard, making a dreary fall day a little less dreary.

Took some of the kids to go see (fill in this space). The chipmunks have been around for ages. Figured we would take a pic with them.

Yah, Europe really knows how to do a Advent calendar right. Their Advent calendars put our lame selection to shame.

November Activities

Last weekend was the North Augusta Elementary Fun Fair. Arturo borrowed the Cotton candy machine and represented the young Makers. It was fun!

Of course we attended!

And, I saw my life flash before my eyes… My chain fell off my fixed gear bike, locked up the back wheel while I was going fast.. downhill. fast enough that the tire popped from the skid before I stopped (!)

The Clubhou.se also had a sumobot competition that we attended. It was fun. We probably should have participated.

And of course, more BMX! Rockwell concentrating on the gate. He is getting faster every time he goes.

And here are the girls. Melinda has been improving too.. when they started, their track time was almost 2 minutes. Now they are right under 60 seconds.. that is only 15 seconds slower than the pros.

Rockwell wanted me to wrap him up in some packing wrap.. I wrapped his head instead!

Hmm. I guess Rockwell’s Hair is getting sort of long.

And we had the Elections recently.. Do ya’ think I live in a republican area?

Our Friend Raven had her Bat mitzvah! It was an impressive ceremony, and we had fun afterwords.

Melinda Practicing her Violin!

The girls just being silly. This was the night of the Sumobot competition.

Melinda on her Monday night Horse riding practice.

Melinda has been going to Confirmation.. The pre-class game was where you put shaving cream on your face and try to catch the most Cheetos in it thrown by your teammate from at least 2 feet away. Harder than it seems!! She won though…

Melinda has been taking Art classes on Saturday Morning. This Saturday morning Rockwell and I went to a BMX race in Lexington County while Melinda wen to a friends Birthday party. I managed to Crash hard into Rockwell’s back wheel while practicing.. and messed both of us up. Hard enough to untrue his back wheel.. uugh.

Ridiculous amount of activities. Halloween activites.

So, I couple weeks ago when I said we couldnt beat the amount of activities we had that weekend? It appears we did, we have, and might even again next week. What a fall season! We started by going to the SEED event at the Aiken Tech Ruth Patric Science center. We participated with a table about Technology and 3 D printers.

My Friend Vinnie was showing some kids how his “Usless machine” works here.

Then we went to the Greek Festival

…and Purchased some “Feta Fries” Our favorite thing at the fest, a few years running.

Then we went to a BMX race, later that day. There was something else sunday I want to say.. I will edit this when I remember it. 🙂

Then, the next weekend, we went to the Plantation Blood Haunted house with some friends.

And met some new friends I guess…

We purchased some Pumpkins for a party we where going to later that night..

And one of the spinning ride at the Jackolantern Jubillee

And here are some of the finished products.. Rockwell’s is on the left. It’s a ghost.

Playing with the haunted fountain…

THen we went to another Haunted house, here in North Augusta.

All of us being silly in line.

This weekend, Melinda went to a Halloween party at a friends house with her friend Raven. Check out the crazy eye makeup!!

And then went to Plantation blood AGAIN.. This time it was for a tech walk though where we taught the young makers how the inner workings of a haunted house works. This was the group that went with us.

Then later that night, they where invited to come back to go though the haunt again.. This time, Melinda knew where all the cameras where hidden, so she posed in front of them while everyone else was scared of stuff jumping out at them. I think this is HILARIOUS.

Yet more zombies hugging my 13yo. Raven’s mom went with us.

And finally, a couple non Holloween related things..
First, Melinda was chosen to be the mock election campeign manager for Vincent Sheheen, the democrat candidate in SC.

Yet another picture I caught of her reading.. I like these because.. just because.

Summer of Motorcycles.

I think this might be remembered as the summer of motorcycles.

I broke down and purchased a used Honda XR100R.. The epitome of starter bikes. You almost can’t find a better bike to learn to ride on. Melinda and Rockwell will have a blast on it. Got it for 500$! Could not pass it up.

And Hannah has expressed interest in rebuilding the old Honda CB175 that has been hanging around (Literally and figuratively.. lol) for 25 or so years. (Got this one free on the south side of Chicago in the 80s! (NO its not stolen!))

Misc. cell phone pictures

Hannah was so enthused to have her picture taken at the soup kitchen this Sunday. I will give cudos to Hannah though.. She has been going to the soup kitchen once a month for over three years now. I think when Melinda gets back, she can join us.

A Winter Rose in the Garden. Just one.

There was a guy that brought his tortoise to the local park. Not sure why… but it was interesting all the same. These people where just passers by to the event also.

Acknowledging this strange date of 12-12-12 today.