Happy Halloween!!!

We ended up having a really fun Halloween. I got the girls ready and my mom came by to see their costumes.

Caroline was a butterfly...

Kayla was a cheerleader...

I thought I would try to get a picture of them together, but Caroline was not wanting to sit by her sister at that particular moment.


She did a little better after she was given some candy.

Jennifer brought Patick and Jackson over. For those who don't know, we met KC and Jennifer in childbirth class when I was pregnant with Kayla. We have all been good friends ever since. The kids have really grown up together, and Halloween has always been sort of a tradition. Last year was the first year we did not trick-or-treat with them.

We went up to the Fall Festival at our church. We had never been before, and it was a blast. We ended up staying at the church a lot longer than we had planned.

There were fun things for the big kids...

Fun things for the little kids...

There were lots of carnival style games...

And Caroline sat there so patiently waiting for the big kids to finish. Now that I look at the pictures I am pretty sure she was half asleep.

And a Fall Festival would not be complete without face painting, lots of candy, hot dogs, chips, lemonade, and sno-cones.

Here is a group shot of all of us.

We did come home and do a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. It was pretty late so we only went to three houses. The kids had a great time. It was good to spend that time with our friends. Schedules are so busy all of the time so we don't get to see them very often. It was a very successful Halloween.

First Grade is Good

Kayla is having a good year in first grade so far. She got her report card last week and she made the A Honor Roll. Today she came out with a Student of the Month ribbon. She was chosen by her teacher to be the Student of the Month for September. She will have her picture in the newspaper soon. (They took the picture today).


A while back she was interviewed for the school newspaper. This is what it said:

"Kayla is a 1st grader in Ms. Walton's class. She would like to be a teacher when she grows up. Her favorite color is pink and she has a talent for gymnastics, cheer and piano. Kayla's favorite food is spaghetti and her least favorite food is asparagus. Kayla likes to drink Sprite. She has a fish and dog. Her favorite subject is Reading and she has 100% of her AR goal. Kayla has a sister."

I am not sure when this interview was done, but we have not had either one of those animals at our house in a really long time. You can't always believe everything you read!

Anyway, Kayla is having a great year and we are really proud of how well she is doing.

Fun Picture Tag

Here's a new tag that is actually pretty simple to do.
Open your pictures folder
Go to the SIXTH folder
Go to the SIXTH picture
Publish it to a NEW POST and tell the story of the photo

I got this from Jenny a long time ago. I am finally getting around to it. This is a picture of Kayla as we were heading to her first day of preschool. She is holding her star from the Dora stage show we had taken her to a few days before. That was a tough day for me. My baby was going to school. Now, my second baby is almost as old as Kayla was in this picture. No pigtails for Kayla, but still just as adorable and precious. I love my girls!

Amy and Brandy you are tagged. I want to see your pic.

Caroline

I was trying to get a cute picture of Caroline in her pumpkin shirt and hairbows that Aunt Jenny gave her. That is a difficult task with a two year old that is always moving and who thinks she is really funny. I think they are cute and the 2nd and 3rd ones make me laugh.

The Greatest Show on Earth

I had thought about doing this, but changed my mind. After reading Darlene's comment this is the summary of our day:

Tickets - $198
Programs - $30
Chicken and Water - $16
Popcorn - $7
Sno-cones - $27
Great Birthday Memories - Priceless


ORIGINAL POST:
We have finally finished celebrating Kayla's birthday. We took her and Libby to the circus last Saturday. They had no idea where we were going until we got there. They finally guessed it and were both very excited.

I am not used to having to buy 2 of everything. Before we even walked in the door it cost us $30 for 2 programs.
We went to the pre-show. We got to go down on the floor and watch some performances and get autographs in the program from the performers. Good thing we splurged for the programs!
We had great seats for the show. We were in the front row so the girls had unobstructed views of the entire show. We were within a few feet of many of the acts.
We got to buy 3 sno-cones. I could not come home without a clown cup for Caroline. Did I forget to mention those were $9? Each.

Here is one of the video clips I took.

We all had a wonderful day. The girls spent the entire car ride home looking through the programs at the signatures that they got and the acts that they saw. The day was worth every penny. And Kayla FINALLY feels like she had a party. This was fun, but I think we will go back to BounceU next year.

Slumber Party

Kayla and Libby were invited to their first slumber party at their friend Megan's house. This is a very brave mother. She invited 24 six and seven year old girls. I can't imagine. Both girls were extremely excited. They were counting down the hours all afternoon until it was time to go.

I am sure the mother was thankful that not everyone showed up. Here are all of the girls when I dropped Kayla off.

They had a blast. It was constant running and screaming while I was there last night. This morning, they were all more mellow. Megan's mother said they were up until 3 am. Kayla actually came home and took a nap! It was a great first slumber party!

Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

Where has the time gone? My baby girl is now seven years old. It has been a great seven years. She certainly keeps us on our toes. I have never seen a child with more energy. I am very proud of her. I hope that I have enough energy to keep up with her for a few more years!

Here is my 7 lb 14 oz baby girl born 7 years ago.

Here is my baby girl today.


She had a great birthday. Her PawPaw and Grandma Sue came and picked her up for a day on the town. She got to eat shrimp at Red Lobster and do a little shopping. And no day at the mall is complete without some TCBY. She had a great time.

For her birthday dinner she chose to eat at Ted's. Her Grandma Nancy and Uncle Russ joined us.
She was less than thrilled when they put the sombrero on her while they sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She leaned over to me when they were done and sternly said "I did NOT want to wear that big hat!"

She gets to go to the circus tomorrow with her best friend Libby. She does not know where we are going, so it should be fun. After that the birthday celebrations will finally be over.

Happy Birthday Kayla!

My Christmas Present

As part of my Christmas present I bought tickets to see the Tour of Gymnastics Superstars. I have always loved gymnastics. I love to watch it that is...I was never that great at it. I took Andy and Kayla with me, and we all enjoyed the show. It was so much fun to see the gymnasts enjoying themselves.

The list of gymnasts we saw includes:

Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, Jonathan Horton, Alexander Artemev, Kevin Tan, Justin Spring, Joseph Hagerty, Raj Bhavsar, Chellsie Memmel, Alicia Sacramone, Paul Hamm, Shannon Miller, Blaine Wilson, Morgan Hamm, and a few others.

They put on a great show. There was live music and a lot of fun. Here is a sample clip of what we saw:

We had great seats down on the floor. I loved every minute of my Christmas present. Here are some more pics:

Cousin Time

Nanny and Papa brought Caleb and Carter with them to Oklahoma for the weekend. This is the first of several birthday celebrations for Kayla. I can't believe my baby girl is almost 7! The kids had a great time playing together. They spent a lot of time playing outside and making crafts for Nanny to take home with her.




We put the kids to work right away cleaning up the yard. We figured that we might as well make use of all of the extra hands! They actually started this on their own. They built the pile up in the afternoon...

...and took turns jumping in it that night. I wish I had recorded all of the laughter that was coming from our yard both Friday and Saturday night. They had a great time running around in the dark.We had a little birthday celebration Saturday afternoon. Kayla got new bedding from Nanny and Papa. She got some really cute butterfly earrings from Aunt Jenny, Uncle Steve, and the boys. She will be able to put them in November 1.

Kayla chose to celebrate her cousin birthday at Incredible Pizza. They played a round of miniature golf.

Caroline did not actually play, but she carried her ball and putter the entire time.We had a lot of fun racing go-carts.

Kayla won the go-cart race. I am sure it had nothing to do with me kindly reminding Andy that I had his daughter in my go-cart and we were there for her birthday celebration. I am pretty sure we would have passed him anyway!

Thanks to Nanny and Papa for making the trip up here. Thanks to Aunt Jenny for sending her boys. I know it was rough for her being home all weekend with no kids. Kayla really enjoyed her weekend.