Tennis & Gardening

Carson has talked about playing on the Githens Middle School tennis team for months. In late February the coach finally gave details about the team. Carson attended the pre meeetings and made the team. He practices after school each day with the team0- they have had 3 matches so far! His serve is getting much better each week. The team still has about 5 matches to play before the season ends. Carson practices hard and wants to get better each match. Now if he could just have the same level of committment for his piano lessons and practicing his parent would be very happy.

One of the nice things about having a Boy Scout in the family is his requirement to help with some family and service projects. Carson volunteered to help with landscaping the flower bed near the front door. On the right is a before picture. Carson was very enthusiastic with the rake! Doug and Carson planted several flowers and bushes. The final picture shows the completed project. Now Carson will have the task of keeping the area weed free! I think this deserves a Merit Badge of it's own!!!

Criger Catch up - March 2011

Time for a Criger catch up. It has been a cold winter for us in North Carolina and we are ready for a bit of spring. To keep us from going completely crazy we have done a few things. First - Logan is learning to sew. Her first project was a pillow case. Simple straight seams - some pinning and ironing to start with. She did a great job. She made 2 pillowcases - one to keep and one to give to the million pillowcase project. Her next project will be an apron to use while cooking! It is so much fun to have a 10 year old girl!!

Look at me with the FOOD NANNY!! Liz Edmonds - the "Food Nanny" did a presentation in Chapel Hill a few weeks ago. She discussed how important having a family dinner each night is and ways to make planning and preparing them easier. Hey - anything to make dinner time a bit easier is what I need. She shared some good recipes - I even made her delicious pizza crust the other day and it was super easy. I purchased the "Food Nanny" cook book which has some fun recipes. I am sure this will make dinner time so easy - -- just check back in a few months and we will see how it is actually going!!

Can you spot Logan in this picture? You can just see her face in the Creekside chorus group - left side 3rd row back. Back in February Logan's chorus group sang the national anthem at a Duke women's basketball game. This will probably be the only time I will ever attend a basketball game at the Duke Cameron indoor stadium. We were there for about an hour getting ready for the group to sing. The chorus performance lasted about 2 minutes - then we left! Logan had a great time and she really loves singing in the school chorus group! I can't wait
for her next performance at the spring concert in April!

As a middle school student, Carson had to complete a science fair project. He and his friend Kit did an experiment involving how fast different over the counter pain products dissolve

and give pain relief. They spent about a 2 hours one Saturday afternoon in February watching tablets and gel caps dissolve and taking pictures along the way. Then they wrote up the results and posted the results. The boys won 3rd place in the physical science category for the school. This is the second year in a row Carson has placed in the science fair- he will have to come up with a great project next year to make it 3 years in a row!!

October with the Crigers!

It finally feels like fall around here and we are so glad! No more running the AC, and we can now make some warm hot chocolate!

We have been having some fun as you can see by the pictures!

Logan went to a neighborhood fall festival where they were giving horse rides to all the kids. She loved it. Logan would have stayed on the horse all day long if she could. She rode 3 times while were werer at the festival, so hopefully she had her fill of horses for a while.

Doug and Carson have been so busy with Scouts this month. EVERY WEEKEND from the middle of October until THANKSGIVING is filled with some type of Scout activity. There have been 2 Merit Badge colleges they have attended - and Carson has earned 3 Merit Badges Yea! This weekend Doug had a Scout training meeting , next weekend is another Merit Badge college, followed by a campout the next weekend. While Doug and Carson have been at Scouts, Logan and I planned and hosted a baby shower this week we will be getting some things ready for our SuperSaturday at church - I hope we will have time to do a bit of sewing too.

This is something we just had to do! There is a Hotel not far from where we live and for several days as we drove by we noticed the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. How often do you get to see that? We could not resist getting out and taking a picture with the crazy thing! We did not get to go inside - but we noticed from looking through the windows - the seats look very comfortable - I guess if your job is to drive that thing around you better have a nice seat because everyone is going to turn and look at you and your crazy vehicle.
Now the big news - We are staying home for Thanksgiving! After 8 years of traveling and going somewhere for Thanksgiving - we are staying home! Carson and Logan will see what people really do on the holiday. The plan is to make our Christmas shopping list and get all the shopping done the day after Thanksgiving. If you are expecting a gift from the Crigers - let us know NOW so we will pick something up on our hectic shopping spree. We are going to knock all the shopping so we can enjoy the rest of the season!! Wish us luck!!

LOGAN turns 10

Logan just turned 10 years old last week! She was so excited to have a birthday party with lots of friends. I was not looking forward to 10 girls running around my house, so we did a ceramics party at "GLAZED EXPECTATIONS" in Carrboro.

Each of the girls selected their own ceramic piece to paint (there were lots of horses, princesses, fairys and mermaids). The pieces will be glazed and ready to pick up in a week!

I had Dominos deliver pizza right to the cermaic shop so the girls ate right after they fininshed painting. Then Logan opened presents and we played the famous "Criger Present Game". We finished up right in time for parents to come by and pick up their daughters. It wa such a fun party - and the best part was that when it was over we just took a trash bag of pizza boxes to the garbage can and we were done. Logan had a fun time with all her friends and is so glad to be 10!!

A visit to Costco

So the other day we were at Costco and they were promoting full body massage chairs. Of course we could not just walk by- we had to try the things out. As you can tell Carson & Logan totally loved the things. Logan just laughed and giggled the entire time she sat in the chair. The chair massaged your shoulders, back, legs and feet. I was sooooo close to pulling out my checkbook and buying one! I just have to convince Doug to let go of his favorite chair so we can replace it with this one, too bad - I don't think that will happen anytime soon!

End of Summer

I just want to know how where did the summer go? It was just yesterday that the pool opened up and we started swim practice. Just because it has been BLAZING hot in North Carolina all summer long does not mean summer has to end so quickly.
Carson & Logan spent a week at tennis camp in July- it was the hottest week of the summer but they both loved the camp. Every morning they practiced tennis, then played games. In the afternoon they swam then played and practiced more tennis. They would come home exhausted at the end of the day. We drank tons of water and lemonade that week! I had a busy work week and finished up some projects at home while the kids were at camp. Doug just kept going to work each day like nothing had changed
My favorite part of July was the STAR WARS concert. If you have the chance to go to this concert it is a must. The symphony plays all the star wars movie music and it sounds AWESOME! While the symphony plays huge screens show clips from all the movies. It is great to relive all the favorite Star Wars moments while listening to the live music. Our family would definitely go to this concert again.


Our big summer trip was in August. We spent 10 days in Utah visiting family. Every single day was packed with FuN! Seven Peaks water park, Lagoon, Hiking to the Y, shopping at Rod Works and Ti Pan, Cafe Rio, Crown Burger, In-N-Out Burger, playing with lots of cousins, Logan visiting Logan, time with grandparents, Wii games, playing with cute Summer and her Slye brothers, high school reunion, Visiting grandma Nielson who is almost 95, Aunt Helen's delicious roast beast, Uncle Andy's collection, and more!!
Our vacation was a ton of fun packed into just a few short days- we can't wait to go back again for more fun.

It took us all about 3 days to adjust to North Carolina time once we returned home. No one would even wake up in the morning until 9:00. We did manage to get back packs and the necessary school supplies together before school started on August 25th. Logan is in 5th grade and Carson is in 7th grade. After about a week of school we are ready for the Labor day holiday !!

The best news is the last - the new couch was finally delivered. I ordered the couch in May and was told it would be delivered in 6-8 weeks. In anticipation of the couch I made sure we gave the old couch to friends that needed it (that was back in JUNE). I waited and waited for the new couch. The day after we returned from Utah the new couch arrived. I love it!! Anyone is welcome to come over for a visit and sit on the new couch.

Mid Summer Update

Happy 4th of July! It is time for a mid summer update on the lives of the Criger Family.

We had a fun visit from the Goss family (Doug's sister) in June. It has been a couple of years since we have spent time together. Logan and Elizabeth became instant "best friends" and Carson and Josh had fun being the older boys. The visit was short, but we managed to go to the pool, have dinner at Red Robin, and a picnic lunch at the "talking tree trail" in Pittsboro. The Goss family is to much fun - we wish they could have stayed a bit longer and can't wait to see them again.

Our summer vacation officially began on June 10th - the last day of school . Logan was sad to say good bye to her teacher Ms. Dunevant. She has been a super 3rd and 4th grade teacher and we will miss her. Logan was sure to get Ms D lots of UNC goodies and Reese's candies as a goodbye gift. Logan is now excited about 5th grade next year. Carson was glad school was out especially since he did not have to get up so early each day. Waking up at 6:00 am each day was not too much fun. The last day of school was also a bit sad :( Our good friends the Van Drimmelen family moved to Texas the very day school got out. We will miss them - especially since Debbi has been the piano teacher for the past several years. When ever Carson & Logan start playing the piano we will think of Debbie and her lessons!

Once summer officially began we started making some lunch and tote bags out of all our recycled Capri Sun Juice pouches. I guess you can say we are really "going green" The hard part is saving enough juice pouches to make something. We need 10-14 juice pouches to make a tote or lunch box - so anyone that likes Capri Sun - drink up and send us the pouches (do rinse them out first). So far we have made about 7 bags they all look bright and shiny. We even made a tote bag and filled it with gum balls for the swim team fundraiser - hopefully it helped raise a lot of money for our team!

Speaking of swimming - we have been doing a lot! Swim team practice is every day so we head over to the pool to do laps and practice. We have finished all of our swim meets for the summer - our team won 3 out of 5 meets!!!!! Not bad for our small team. It is hard to tell who is happier that the meets are over for the season - the kids or parents! Those meets can be long and hot at the pool - especially for parents trying to run the meet! The swim league championships will be held next week, so we will be practicing again this week to get ready.

Doug and Carson spent a week at Scout camp. They went to Camp Powatan in Virginia. Carson had a great time and came home with 5 merit badges. Carson even made his mom a pair of moccasins which are very comfortable. Carson said the food was pretty good - he even liked the vegetable lasagna and breakfast burritos. Doug spent a lot of time at the shooting range during camp so you know he had a good time!They were both glad to sleep in their own beds at the end of the week - they both slept for about 13 hours straight the first night home!! Our family will probably be doing more camping together - we just found out we won the GRAND PRIZE at our swim team fundraiser - a complete camping gear set including a 4 person tent, cook stove, lantern and other supplies!!!

While the boys were had camp, cousin Emily came for a visit. Emily who is almost 10 years old flew by herself from Las Vegas to Raleigh ( I am not sure Logan is ready to do that yet). Logan an Emily had fun at the pool, shopping and going to movies. They loved staying up late and talking too. Our favorite activity was going to Southern Season (during their annual sale) and buying lots of ZOTS candies. We cannot wait to go out to Utah to visit Emily and more of our cousins later this summer.

So that is a quick update on our summer so far. Now it is time to go watch some 4th of July fireworks!

Criger News

We have had a fun spring and now we are ready for summer!

Carson turned 12 on April 21st. It is hard to believe he is so grown up. He looks sharp dressed in his new suit. Carson officially graduated from Primary and moved up to Young Mens. Now he passes the Sacrament each Sunday -it is fun as parents to watch him! Carson and Doug also went on a Scout Camporee with tons of other scouts. Doug described the camporee as "fun"! They went canoeing, participated in a log sawing contest, threw hatchets and hike a bunch. While they were gone Logan and I went shopping and did our nails. I think we girls had more fun - but I know the boys would argue about that.

A few weeks ago for a family night we took off bike riding on the Old Tobacco Trail in Durham. We had time to ride a few miles on the trail - we all decided we need to do it again since it is so much fun. The kids really liked stopping for yogurt after the ride. We bought yogurt at the Orange Leaf. It is a serve yourself style yogurt. We all tried different flavors and toppings. Between the 4 of us I think there were 18 flavors. I know we will definitely go back for more yogurt again.

Now that school is almost over we are enjoying music concerts. Carson has been playing the saxophone in beginning band. The spring concert was a couple of weeks ago and the band sounded great. They played "New York, New York" and "Over the Rainbow". It is amazing that the middle school band teacher can take kids who have never played an instrument - and within 8 months have them play songs that parent enjoy. Carson wants to continue with band again next year!! Logan joined the school chorus this year and had a bunch of fun. She really loves to sing! Her spring concert was last week. All through the concert she was bouncing and smiling and just loving the whole thing. She is planning on singing in the school chorus again next year.

Can you tell these two are related? While waiting for Logan's Chorus concert to start both Carson & Doug were totally absorbed in books!!!!

The kids have about 2 weeks until they are out for summer vacation. They both passes their end of grade tests, so now there are a lot of parties and fun activities at school. It seems every day there is a note coming home about a pizza party or ice cream party to celebrate the end of school. Luckily practice for swim team just started this week so the kids can have a bit of fun at the pool after school each day.

Spring Break

We have been on Spring Break for the past week. We started on Sunday with a brunch. We had our friends the Condies over for crepes. We filled them with fruit, chocolate chips, peanut butter and Nutella - yum -yum-yum! Everyone had to name their crepe creation before eating it - my favorite crepe invention was "Berry Bonanza - you can tell it was full of berries. After brunch we all watched General Conference together - it really does not get better than that!!

The week started out very YELLOW. The pine pollen appeared on Monday morning - it was all over leaving a yellow dust on everything. Every thing you touch outside is yellow . Even gettin the mail leaves your hands covered with yellow dust. We rinsed the car off one afternoon - but by dinner time the car was covered in yellow dust again. Luckily it rained last night and washed away most of the pollen.

We have done lots of bike riding this week. Logan is now an official bike rider. She has been very hesitant about riding her bike - so Logan Carson and I went riding one morning with Logan on her "party girl bike" which was a bit small and hard to ride.. She was amazing -riding around the parking lot for almost an hour. The next day she rode Carson's old bike and was again - AMAZING. This bike is the right size and easier to ride. She rode all over the school playground. I think she has really been secretly practicing and not letting us know about it. Today we rode over to the school on our bikes and Logan did a great job again. Now we need to get bikes for Kaylene & Doug and the whole family can go on a long long ride - What fun!!

The nice 75 degree weather made a perfect day for a beach trip. Since Doug had to work Kaylene took the kids to Carolina Beach for the day. We packed lunch, drinks and snacks, then hopped in the car for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the beach. The kids watched movies on the way down to the beach so the drive seemed to go very quickly.

The day was great - not too hot, not too cold. It was just a bit windy. The water was COLD, but Carson was very brave and jumped in. Logan said her favorite part about the beach was playing in the water. Both Carson and Logan loved making sand castles and digging in the sand. After about 3 1/2 hours of play time the clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up so we packed up the car and came home. We were all ready for a nice shower when we got home! It really was a fun day and we decided we will do it again in a few weeks when Doug can come with us and the water is a bit warmer.

Criger winter update!

Now that spring has arrived, it is time for an update on what we have done during these cold months. During Thanksgiving break we took a trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte, NC. of course the indoor water park was a perfect 84 degrees at all times. The water slides were tons of fun and the kids loved doing the Magiquest- finding runes and treasures throughout the lodge.The game took over 2 hours during the 3 days stayed at the hotel -there was plenty of running up and down stairs and in and out of hallways - but both kids finished the quest and had a chance to try slaying the dragon! The favorite part of the trip was going down the drop-off waterslide together as a family. We all think that Doug yelled the loudest because he went down the drop-off first and did not see it coming! The kids would have been happy to stay at the water park for a week- maybe we will head back next Thanksgiving.

Once winter arrived - it really came to stay. We even had some snow here in North Carolina - enough to miss 3 days of school (now we have to make up those days during spring break). Of course the kids spent every minute they could sledding and playing in the snow. Logan even went night sledding with the neighbors one evening. We did have a few broken bones this winter. Carson fell one day at school. When he came home his left hand was swollen and black and blue. The X-ray showed four broken fingers in his left hand (and a healed wrist fracture - the wrists were injured just after Christmas - but they did not hurt that bad and they were not swollen - so we never had them checked by the doctor - what great parent Doug and I are!) After a few weeks in a cast/splint, Carson's fingers are back to normal.


Despite Carson's broken fingers he managed to complete his science fair project. He completed the experiment and typed up the project with one hand. Using the paper cutter and gluing things seemed to be the most difficult part. Carson was surprised and thrilled when he won 2nd place in the physical science division for his project. He brought home a big red ribbon and a big smile!



Finally - we have completed a couple of projects around the house this winter. I was going crazy with shoes and coats scattered everywhere so - we had a coat rack with shelves and a shoe storage bench built in right near the door! It is a great solution. Everyone loves stopping to hang things up and put shoes away as they come inside. I just hope this lasts a long time! The other project was the dining room. The chairs have been recovered, window treatments made and hung. Now it is time for a nice dinner party to celebrate!

The Good - The Bad - And The Shiny

The best way to describe last week end is The Good - The Bad and The Shiny!
First the Good - We have been looking for a dishwasher for a few weeks. On Saturday morning I went to Lowe's and purchased a nice new dishwasher. Free delivery and haul away of the old dishwasher was included. Doug disconnected the old machine and installed the new one on Monday when it arrived. The machine has room for lots of dishes - it is nice and quiet and has a delay function. This is all GOOD. Even better news. Lowe's has a low price match guarantee - so if the item you purchase is advertised at a lower price they will give you the difference plus 10%. Today in the Lowe's ad all dishwashers were 10 % off. So Lowe's gave me the 10%+10% off . This makes it REALLY Good. We have already washed a full load of dishes.

Now for the Bad - Well the picture pretty much says it all!! Doug was going out to do some Home Teaching on Saturday afternoon. He had been gone for about 30 minutes when he called and said he had been in a car accident and needed a tow truck. The picture pretty much tells it all. The car looks bad. Luckily Doug only had a few scratches and the other car did not have much damage. The insurance company it totaling the car since it is 14 years old and had 168K miles. We are now looking for a replacement car for Doug - one that will transport scouts and camping equipment since he is the new assistant Scoutmaster. I think Doug is almost sold on a Volvo wagon - a safe car and plenty of room for scouts and their stuff.

Finally for the Shiny!! Carson just started middle school band and will be playing the saxophone. We picked up his saxophone and he immediately started making noises with it (maybe this should be noisy instead of shiny). The instrument is very nice looking, bright, lots of buttons, knobs, keys, etc. Just what a curious boy wants and needs. The biggest issue to day was where to keep the saxophone during the school day since band class is his last period. I did assure Carson that the band teacher has a place for students to store their instruments each day so they do not have to carry them around all day. We cannot wait to hear some real music in the next few months.

We are hoping for a nice quiet Labor Day weekend.

Summer Update

So much for blogging this summer!! We did have a lot of fun - but summer was way too short.
June was spent with our swim team the FIVE OAKS STINGRAYS!! Carson & Logan practiced everyday and swam in 5 meets. They did a great job at champs.
We always have a great time with all our Five Oaks friends and we miss not seeing them as much after swim team is over.
In August we vacationed in Denver and Utah. All of our Ostler cousins got together in Denver when Eli was baptized. Paddle boating on Soda Lake was Carson's favorite activity. Logan loved the Butterfly Pavilion where she attracted several butterflies We flew from Denver into Salt Lake City so we could spend time in Utah visiting grandparents and more family. Every day of our vacation was packed with fun - ice blocking, water park, and a trip to Park City really made the trip exciting. We all enjoyed meeing our newest cousing Summer Slye - we hear she is even more adorable now !!

Summer officially started last Wednesday when school let out. Carson graduated from 5th grade and elementary school - so it is off to middle school in the fall. Logan was voted "Happy McSmiley in her 3rd grade class! I think I should have received the award for "Mommy

McWalker" since I walked to school with the kids almost every day! I will miss the walk to school every morning- but I am glad to get a break from packing lunches every morning.

We are right in the middle of swim team. We have practices every day and 2 swim meets this week. It seems that we are living at the pool for the next couple of weeks. Just keeping up on laundry with wet towels an swim suits seems to be the biggest chore I have each day.

Once swim team is over in July we have tennis camp and a trip to Denver & Provo planned. I am really excited for all the fun we are going to have this summer.