Birthday Bash!

The Diva's

"I got an ipod?!?!"
"I knew I saw a bike in that room earlier!"
Judy Lynn (aka JJ) and the birthday girls

Well, we survived! I guess I shouldn't make it sound that dramatic. Everything really went off very smoothly thanks to Paw-paw's handy work that was done ahead of time. We had a little bit of setting up and decorating to do but no more than your typical party. I think everyone had a great time, including all the little diva's and one little stud muffin. We had music and dancing, wiener roast (the diva's quickly found out that cooking a hotdog over a bonfire was not for them)a hayride and of course, cake and presents. I am posting some pictures of some of the highlights (thanks to Judy Lynn, my impromptu photographer that day) and a video of the girls dancing.

Happy Birthday Alyson!!

Can you believe that she is 5 years old today? Wow, how time flies. We have a big weekend planned with birthday parties and other fun things to do. Check back in a couple of days for an update on the party. I am sure there will be plenty of pictures and stories to tell as well (you know we are never short on those).

Clarkdale Homecoming

Well, we have survived our first homecoming experience at Clarkdale and I must say we thoroughly enjoyed it. The entire school really gets in to the spirit of things for the entire week leading up to the big game. I have even heard of a few parents who really got in to the spirit of things as well and chauffeured their children as they T.P.'d some yards! I will refrain from divulging names though. The community support behind the school is pretty amazing as well. They held a community wide pep rally Thursday night. I have included a few pictures of the night.

The cheerleaders wrapping teachers. This was quite interesting and I am not sure that everyone understood all the rules.

The Bonfire!

This thing was huge once it got going good. They had stuffed all the t.p. from the previous game inside and lit it which resulted in a spout of charred t.p. that shot out the top and showered all of us. It was fun for a moment but then the heat from the fire became so unbearable that everyone had to scatter.

Natalie with Bully

This is where most people ended up after the heat ran us off. This is a Volvo that had been "decorated" for the students to abuse. I am not sure who came up with the brilliant idea of using a Volvo - the destruction was painful slow and quite unimpressive, despite the fact that they were using an axe to work on it. Yes, I said axe.

We didn't stick around for that very long. A bunch of jocks swinging an axe is not my idea of a safe activity.

A blue raspberry ring pop!

We went to the ballgame last night and got Alyson a "snack" from the concession stand. Thus the blue mouth. She had licked a lot of it off before I could get my hands on the camera and the picture really doesn't do her justice. The entire lower half of her face was blue. We were still scrubbing it off of her lips today.

We enjoyed our first official football game here despite the rain.

PJ Day

In keeping with the crazy customs of Homecoming week - today is PJ (pajama day)!

Kerri, recognize the hairstyle.

Cowgirl Up!

It is Homecoming week at Clarkdale and like most other schools they have many activities to pep the students up. Each day this week the students have a different theme and today is ..... cowboy/camo day. I just thought Natalie looked so cute in her little ponytails so I thought I would share. We also have pajama and hippie day coming up.

Fun, Sun and 2 very tired little girls!

Sorry for the long stretch between posts. It's not that life has been boring lately but there just hasn't been a whole lot of excitement either. Between that, my trecks back and forth to Columbus and Frankie being out of town for a good part of the last 2 work weeks, the post just got moved to the back burner. I figured I better find something to write about and some pictures to post before some grandparents get irrate with me ;).

Fortunately, it has been a relatively quiet couple of weeks. About the only excitement has been Natalie and her stomach, which unfortunately creates more excitement than we would like at times. Nothing major - most everyone is familiar with her stomach upsets related to her food allergies. She did have an episode last week, somewhat out of the blue in the middle of the night, where her stomach flared up suddenly. We got to the bathroom where she promptly fainted on me! She came to pretty quickly and was fine the rest of the night. I am afraid the fainting may be a black cloud that is going to follow her. This was the 3rd or 4th time she has done this in the past couple of years. I am hoping she grows out of it - quickly.

We have really enjoyed the mild weather lately. Although the temps have still been fairly warm, we have had a pretty consistent breeze (thanks to all the activity in the gulf), which has made being outside very enjoyable. The girls have really taken advantage of it and many days have played until they were just shy of collapsing. Tonight is no exception. It was all I could do to get Natalie through her shower. She was in bed and asleep by 7:30 and Alyson wasn't far behind. That is certainly a rarity on the weekends. Although these pictures were taken last weekend, tonight was almost a carbon copy.

Lexie came home from school with us yesterday afternoon and the girls stayed outside most of the time. They enjoyed some time in the sprinkler. Natalie and Lexie bailed out on Alyson after just a few minutes but it didn't seem to bother Alyson one bit.

Following the sprinkler, they spent a little time "practicing" their gymnastics. This move is called 'Rock the Baby' or 'The Elevator' - I was never clear on which one it was. I was shown so many. Alyson only landed on her head once.

They spent a little more time late this afternoon working on the trapeze bar. Alyson managed to land on her feet this time (with a little help).