The Growing Caldwell Family

Charlie played for the Iron Birds in Majors this fall. The Iron Birds are a real minor league team in Maryland. It was Coach Andrew's team and Charlie likes him as a coach.  Even with a good coach, this was a tough season. Charlie couldn't find his groove for pitching or batting. Definitely hard to go through, but there is a lot to.be learned in losing.  His biggest fans! His season wasn't going so well, especially batting, so he decided this new bat might do the trick.  At a game in October, he was giving it his all in the outfield and then he horribly was hit in the face with the ball. It happened so quick. He was running to get the ball and lost it in the lights. His team was very kind to him. Immediately it was swelling and he started to worry about kids judging him as a poor ballplayer for making that error. I felt terrible for him. His face hurt and his pride was so wounded.  The next morning he could barely open his eye it was so swollen. Thankfully, he had on...

  Charlie dove into school activities and started running cross country. He really liked Coach Lyndy and her son, Anderson was very nice. He did miss Coach Goodwin and Coach P.J. with a smaller team at St. B's.  Their first meet was hosted at Whitefield and it was HOT! Fun to attend a meet hosted at our school! He worked hard over the season and cut his time some, but was disappointed he didn't make top 7 boys to go to the championship meet.  One of the best parts about playing a sport is getting new spirit wear! They can wear any hoodie except on chapel day and on Fridays they wear spirit shirts, so yay for more1

Sarah Graves had fun being part of the marching band! She became good friends with several girls in the color guard and got to know band members better.  The band traveled to most away games and the bus time was fun and she learned a lot about the school from the other kids! In addition to the games, they also competed in a band competition and took hom second place overall and first place for their category!  We all enjoyed going to home games to watch the band perform! Wolfie, their mascot, visited them in band class! It was truly Friday night lights for us and we had fun with it! There was also a fall band concert where we enjoyed hearing them play inside.  They played at the Smyrna Veterans' Day celebration and did a fantastic job! It was really cool that Ms. Kim and Jono were there to hear her play! Ii'm proud of her for having the courage to join band when she wasn't sure if her playing would be good enough, for learning to march and play her instrument, and for mak...

Charlie was excited to learn the 6th grade would be going on retreat and Dollywood would be one of the places they go! He had fun riding rides and enjoyed that the lines were really short. He also got to know some of his classmates better and learned he really likes some and some get on his nerves!  All in all it was a good experience and one of the first times he has been on a trip on his own with money to manage and freedom in public places. Lots of growing up and showing how mature he is!  

The girls used their cookie money on a trip and planned a fun weekend getaway to Callaway Gardens! We rented a two bedroom cottage that turned out to be great for our group! The moms had a bedroom and bath and so did the girls!  The weather was atrociously hot and humid all weekend! We thought for sure we might melt. Sunday afternoon we had rain and the humid went higher.  Their first activity was playing around in the gardens and doing some ziplining! Sarah Graves and Gianna enjoyed it and SG remembered how fun it was to zipline over the water. Having injured my arm the last time we did this course, I opted out and Stephanie and Tricia were not interested.  My favorite part of the weekend was the balloon glow! It reminded me of being a kid and the hot air balloon festival was in Baton Rouge. The cool part was that the hot air balloonists would make the balloons glow in beat with music they played! Lots of fun to see! The girls were eager to try the lake and beach at Call...