First Day of School

Today was the girls first day back to school! They were so excited. Well, Morgan & Kelli were at least.





Adrienne wasn't too happy about it as you can see. She was not happy that Kelli was going without her. But she perked up eventually. Dance starts tomorrow for Kelli. Morgan starts Wednesday. I know they can't wait. I can! I'm not looking forward to the drive every week.

I've been off since Thursday afternoon and have to go back tomorrow. I am not looking forward to that. I would much rather stay home and be here when Kelli gets off the bus again. She loves riding the bus home. I wish we could do it more often.

Well, It's late and I need to get in bed. I've been filling out the girls forms for school. I've finally finished, so I'm off to bed to try and get some sleep. I'll try to post tomorrow night after dance or Wednesday after McDonald's night. I'll explain that one later. I'm running out of battery power on my laptop, so I'm going to sign off before it dies.

Well a week is better than 8 months

I know I said I was going to update from April until now last weekend, but I got into cleaning up my craft room and I've learned that when you get on a roll like that, you don't stop for anything!

Now, on with the update! - I'll add pictures later. I don't have them with me at the moment.

April - We didn't have a whole lot going on in April, just school, work, softball and dance. Well, and working on the pool. Yeah, I know we thought we were done with that last year. We still had a leak, but the good news is we figured out where it was and it wasn't too bad to repair it. The bad part was that we had to dig up part of the patio around the pool and replace the return line. So we did that and repainted again and filled it up and we actually had the pool up and going by mid June. It took a while to dig out all the dirt and concrete as much rain as we had for April and May. But the good part is that we shouldn't have to do anything next year, but add the chemicals to open her up and enjoy!

May - Well, May ended up being a busy month. Between working on the pool and our anniversary (can you believe it's been 9 years!) and softball and dance, we stayed very busy. It got really crazy at the end of May. Jeff had to go to VA Beach the last weekend of the month for the Guard. Turns out that it was the same weekend as Kelli & Morgan's dance recital, plus Kelli had a softball game the same day that they really needed her to be there for because several of hte other girls weren't going to be there. And to top it all off, Dusty and Astacia got married the same day. Believe it or not, I managed to pull it all off. The recital was at noon. Mom, Anita & Jess took Adrienne for me so I didn't have to fight her the whole day. Christie & I took Kelli to her recital (Morgan was with her mother, thank goodness). She was in the second act. As soon as it was over, we took her to meet her friend Hannah's dad. The Mixon's were nice enough to take her for the afternoon to her softball game and even invited her to spend the night with Hannah. The girls had a great time. They took her to a show similar to Cirque de Solei. She loved it. After we met Hannah's dad, Christie and I took off to Smith Mountain Lake for the wedding. We met mom, Anita, Jess & Adrienne there. It was a beautiful day and the spot they picked to get married was perfect. We had a good time. There was a pair of ducks at the wedding and the reception that everyone was enjoying. They hung around the whole time.

June - It ended up being a fairly quiet month. Daycare and work were about the extent of it. Well, and crafting. I have gotten into sewing lately, and have been really enjoying it. Of course, my dining room table was a lost cause - it was the only place I really had to spread out and do anything. But I had to pack everything up and start clearing it out around the end of the month so we could get ready for Kelli's birthday coming up the first of July.

July - Well, for Kelli's birthday this year, she chose Littlest Pet Shop for the theme. All I can say is I had WAY TOO MUCH FUN planning that one! Let's just say that is one of the easiest themes to get carried away with. One of the kids invited was Kelli's friend Keegan. He is a diabetic, so I wanted to make sure that I had some things that would be ok for him to munch on that weren't going to throw is bloodsugar completely out of whack. So I had gotten some fresh fruit and vegetables for the kids. Well, while shopping for party supplies, I had come across this cute "doggie" dish with kibble and a bone. It was actually kibble shaped graham cookies and a candy bone in a little plastic dog dish. It was kind of expensive to order one for each kid (we had invited like 14 kids). So the brilliant mind that I am (or creative - take your pick) bought these cheap bowls at Wal-mart. They were 4 for $1, so I got like 4 sets thinking I would do one bowl for each kid. We ended up just using them to put all the "pet food" on the table. We had bird food (sunflower seeds and gummy worms). There was rabbit, cat & dog treats - those were cookies cut out in carrot, fish and bone shapes. Then I made chocolate cookie dough and rolled it into little balls for the kibble. The kids loved it. All the parents thought the pet foods were great. Her cake was just a sheet cake that I put a Littlest Pet Shop set on that I had found at Wal-Mart and it was a birthday set. It started raining after lunch, but the kids didn't mind at all. They thought it was fun to play in the pool while it was raining. when it started thundering, we made them get out and go inside for cake and ice cream.

I think the biggest surprise was the Germains coming to Roanoke for her birthday. I knew they were coming, but I didn't tell the girls. Carrie and the kids got her Thursday afternoon. I took them with me to pick up the girls at daycare. All four kids had a blast. They spent most of Friday in the pool. Saturday was the party. Sunday they played in the pool a little bit and watched movies and just played in general. It was a fun weekend. We hated to see them go Monday morning.

The following weekend, Delaney came and spent the night. Well, it was supposed to be just Friday night, but she ended up staying the whole weekend, not that we minded in the least. Our neighbor across the street set up a projector in the front yard and showed movies on a sheet hanging from a tree on both Friday and Saturday night. Friday night, Adrienne didn't want to go. They were watching Hotel for Dogs. Saturday night we watched Big Fat Liar, and she went to that one. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday, we had all the neighborhood kids (David's boys and the Hall's grandkids) come over and play in the pool for a couple of hours. Everyone really enjoyed that. The Kelli & Delaney had an Easy Bake weekend. Both girls had their Easy Bake ovens out and were having fun making all kinds of things. We made pretzels and smore's. It's a good thing we had both ovens or it would have taken forever to get all that stuff baked!

The rest of July was kind of quiet compared to that. We enjoyed the pool whenever the weather would allow. This has been one of the wettest, coolest summers we have had in a very long time.

So here it is mid August already! I can't believe the summer is just about over. Kelli & Morgan start back to school a week from Monday. I've been working on cleaning up and organizing my craft room. I hope to have that finished tonight or tomorrow. Adrienne is swimming in the pool and won't get out. She is my little fish. She loves the pool. She is actually getting really good. We still make her put on a floaty suit most of the time, but she loves to get in with a regular suit on. She can kick really well, we just need to work on her using her arms too.

Well, it is hot out here and my battery is just about gone on the laptop, so I guess I'll wrap it up for now. I'll try to add pictures this evening or tomorrow.



Well, I guess that's it

Woo hoo! 2 days in a row. . .

I told you I was going to do more tonight. It just took me a while to get to it. Let's see we left off with February. I think I am just going to do March for tonight only because there was so much we did. Jeff and I took the girls to Disney World for spring break. We drove down the Friday night before Easter. The girls woke up Easter morning in Florida. And we went to Disney World on Easter. Do you think they were having fun??

We stopped at Daytona Beach on the way down. Adrienne wasn't too sure about the ocean when we got down there, but once she figured out how much fun it was, she didn't want to leave.

We had a blast this trip. We only had one day of bad weather and it poured. There were actually tornados in the area, but we never saw anything. That was the only day of bad weather we have had in all the trips we've taken down there, so I'm not complaining one bit. We took the girls to see the princesses and the fairies. Adrienne loved them. Morgan was thrilled to meet Tinker Bell (her favorite Disney Character).

We went to Busch Gardens Tampa one day. Jeff and Morgan enjoyed all the roller coasters. I'm not big on them, so it wasn't all that great for me. Jeff, Morgan and Kelli rode the log flume

Adrienne and I stayed on the ground. I got this shot as they came off the last drop right in front of us. I wish I could have zoomed in a little more, but you can still tell it's them. Kelli loves that ride.

There were some beautiful animals there. I couldn't believe it when we saw this white peacock. The girls loved watching it strut around showing off for everyone.

We spend one day in Epcot, and the flowers there were absolutely beautiful this year. I have never been in spring and I can honestly say, that I prefer early spring to any other time of the year (with late fall coming in a close second).

At one point, we were sitting on a wall with these geraniums behind us. Look who came up to us to say hello. The kids were having a blast watching him run around. He was a friendly little guy.

While we were in Hollywood Studios, we ran into one of the girls I work with at Grand. She was there with her husband and 2 kids. It was funny to see somebody I knew so far from home. Although we found out later that there were like 3 or 4 families that we knew that were down there the same week we were. I took the girls to see Playhouse Disney. Adrienne was up dancing around and having a good time. She was at a good age to be down there this time.

There was a new ride there. It was from Toy Story. The line to get in was almost as much fun as the ride itself. All the stuff was like being in a playroom. All the "toys" were huge. Mr. Potato head was telling jokes. The whole set up was neat.

Every time I go back to download more pictures, I think of more of the stuff we did and all the fun we had. I could go on and on, but I know you all don't want to read all that.

Kelli started softball again in March. This was her 3rd year. This year, one of her friends from daycare that she has known since she was a baby started playing and the girls were able to be on the same team. She loved having Hannah on her team.

So between dance, softball and a trip to Florida, we had a very busy month.

I think I am going to wrap it up now, it's late and I have a feeling that Adrienne is going to have me up pretty early in the morning.

I'll be back this weekend at least once (probably twice) more to finish catching everyone up.

I know, I know

Well, so much for doing better about posting in 2009. Here is August already and I'm just now getting it updated. To keep this from being a long post, I'm going to only do a couple of months tonight. I'll do the next couple of months tomorrow. And the rest this weekend. January & February were not to bad, but March, May and June were busy months. I think it will be easier to get everything posted if I break it down. I hope you will bear with me over the next couple of days while I get everything caught up. I am going to try VERY HARD to update every week. Well, lets get started.

January - Well, we started out the new year by getting Adrienne's ears pierced on New Year's Day. That was an experience and half. We went to Wal-Mart, and she was all set to do it. I filled out all the paperwork and we were good to go and then she decided she didn't want to do it. We stood there debating it with her for 15 minutes. Finally, Jeff and I decided we would just leave. So we started heading for the front door and she asked where we were going and I told her home. She yelled, "No, I get my ears pierced first!" So we turned around and went back. I sat down and held her in my lap and Jeff kneeled down in front of her and held her hands. There were two ladies there, and they got one either side of her and did both ears at once. She screamed and cried and carried on. She was so loud, that other shoppers were turning to look at us like we were torturing her. We got her home and I got her to lay down and take a nap. When she woke up, she was better. Now she loves them and loves showing them off to everyone.

February - Well, February didn't start off all that great. My grandfather passed away on the 2nd. I'm going to miss him very much. We all are.

As you know, the Germains moved back to TN last August. We had not seen them since they moved. Well, Carrie and I started talking about mid January about meeting about half way (they live 7 hours from Roanoke). So we arranged to meet in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. We also kept it from the kids. It was a big surprise for all four of them. I told the girls we were going to pick up some cookies and it was kind of a long way to meet the lady. I didn't lie, we were going to pick up Girl Scout cookies from Carrie. Well, we got to the exit about 5 min ahead of Carrie. We went to the McDonald's and went inside. I saw Carrie pull into the parking lot and she parked so the kids wouldn't see my van. They walked in and when the kids saw each other, it was great. They were all so excited to see everyone. We ate and went to the hotel. They got to go swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel. They thought that was lots of fun.

On Saturday we took them to the Ripley's Aquarium. It was lots of fun. They had a great time. There was so much to see. I wish I could have spent more time looking at everything.

Adrienne wasn't having such a good time. She went through most of the aquarium with her hands over her eyes, and peeking over them at everything. As soon as she realized we were watching her, she would cover her eyes again.

Afterwards, we walked around for a little while and we took the kids picture at a Gazebo on the way back to the van. It was a really pretty day.

We woke up Sunday to snow! Can you believe it. The kids loved the snow almost as much as the aquarium. We all loaded up and headed home.

We were all sad to have to say goodbye after such a short visit.