November: 30 days of Thankful

Today, I'm thankful for:

November 8: Knowing how annoying crunching on gobstoppers and ice really is to other people.
November 7: Schedule changes out of my control.
November 6: Tomorrow, because the end of today can't come quick enough.
November 5: Sarcasm, it gets me through the day.
November 4: Knowing the football players on the other end of the television CAN, in fact, HEAR ME!
November 3: Being able to pick my nose in public.
November 2: Only 5 days left to hear/see this political crap on the tv, radio, mail, etc etc etc.
November 1: My ability to freak-out over things I can't do, and doing it anyway.

Karate: Moving on Up - Junior Class

Terri is excited to be able to move up to the Junior class and continue on her black belt journey.  She turns 7 in less than a month, so Sensei thought it would be best to move her up before summer ended.  She did really well the first 2 classes and I can tell she will learn very quickly in this new environment.

Before we left for class, we needed to capture a picture to text to Juan as a quick "thank you" for the present.  She loved it. Jumping up and down, squeezing out its stuffings, loved it.  Note: This picture is also significant because at her first junior class, she learned how to tie her belt (all by herself) and successfully completed it this week as well.

Here they are "jumping the gap."  She had difficulty with this task, but kept trying.  (Even trying not to cry because she couldn't jump that far without falling down.)

At the end of class, she wanted to climb the rocks.  A happy girl!

Mama note: It was HOTTTTT! in the Dojo this night. 65-70 outside, but 90 inside (with no A/C).  I tried to wait in the car, but Terri said to me, "I'm not settled unless you're there watching me."  How could I not stay and watch her after that heartfelt comment?

Tattle Tongue

"Josh  had a bad case of tattle tongue when he.....

told on a girl for not haring (sharing)."

Soccer 2012: 1st Game

This is Terri's first year playing soccer.  This was her first game - EVER! (And we could all tell, as she payed a lot of attention to what was happening on the sidelines instead of the game.)  But she had fun (I hope!).

Getting ready to warm up with her Team.

And 1....2....3 Stretch!

Toe Taps

And the game begins.....

A little defense with the elbow?

She hops in the air when she kicks the ball!  HA!

Defending the goal!

Her favorite part of the whole game - sitting on the sidelines talking with her friend, Jaaden.

3rd quarter kickoff

This is what I call, stop and watch the ball.

Dribbling.....

Kicking it up the field.

Keep your eye on the ball......because

Ooops, she missed.

Smiles afterwards. Good job green team on the win.

All smiles afterwards...but don't let it fool you. All I heard was, "I'm hot and sweaty, MOM!!"

Walk like a ??

Walk Line an Egyptian a Platypus?

1st Grade: 1st Day

It's dark at 6:45am 'round these parts.  The bus picks her up at 6:53am and she was STOKED to get to ride the bus this year.  I didn't want to permanently blind her, so I only took a few pictures before school.

Here she is with her card from Grandma and Grandpa. This year she's a Newton Indian, so the card was red. Grandma did an awesome job on this, despite the inside of the card's minor misspelling.

And the bookbag - PURPLE! With PUPPIES!  She was so excited for her first day.

Stay tuned for more "after" school pictures when the sun was up. :o)

1st Grade: Newton Open House

We got out of the car - and she wanted to run into the school.  She waited patiently for everyone to squeeze out and pulled me towards the sidewalk.  "This is going to be my new school forever, Mama!"

She was just thrilled to meet Mrs. George, her 1st grade teacher.  Her first teacher in her new school.  We ran into Candy and Deanna on our way into the classroom. She didn't want to stand there and WAIT!, as the anticipation was KILLING! her.  Finally, I gave into the arm tugging.  "Ok, let's go!" and off we went into her new class. 

Her new desk. Jaaden, from her soccer team, is right across the table, so she will be fine on the first day.

We'll need to add ALOT of hair to this figure (used for the behavior scale).

Robbie, he was impressed with all of the cool things he could explore in the room.  (PS: What's up, Sophia? Do you like Robbie's shirt?)

Wordless Wednesday: Learning Skylanders at an early age

Darke County Fair

Daddy took us to the Darke County Fair again this year - mostly so he could play games and ride rides with Terri. :o)

Robbie entertained himself with his trains while we waited on Daddy and Terri to ride the bumper cars. (And I got nervous with all the people crowding in around us.)

Bumper cars: Terri pushing the gas, Daddy driving.

She popped 2 balloons on the first try and won a tiger.

2nd try - she didn't pop any balloons, but did stick one in the hanging moons (see above her head).

After about 10 tries and Daddy demonstrating what to do, she did ring the bell and won a pink inflatable dolphin.

As we were walking to the Rabbit barn, we ran into Deanna and Aunt Brenda. Then we headed into the barn, where Terri thought we were going to buy her a rabbit.  Ummm, no dear.  (I got yelled at for taking pictures in this barn, so we left.)

Somewhere after this, we finally did run into Seth. {Mostly because he found us.} We couldn't find the right tent for the Park District.

SNAKE ATTACK! Robbie was yelling for Daddy to help Sissy.

Another dart game, where she won a penguin when she hit both times.  Sadly, she would not share this prize with Amy.

The wiffle ball toss where Mommy won a mini-giraffe, that Robbie snuggled with for about 2 seconds and then threw on the ground.

The "Happy" swing.

And then we went to find our Giant Shaved Ice and headed for the exit.  Our feet hurt!

Miami County Fair

We were only able to make it to the fair 1 night, for about 3 hours.
Robbie wasn't scared of any of the animals, and actually wanted to pet each and every one of them.  He even tried to pet the turkeys. ha!

Grandma's favorite animal - the jersey cow.

We watched the 5 hot air balloons take off over our heads.

Then we watched some of the bands in the Grandstand.  Miami East had Robbie clapping. But Newton - had him dancing in circles.

They rocked it out with solos from several of their kids. Nice job, Newton!

Wordless Wednesday: This is where I work

Ten on Tuesday: Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Gatlinburg, TN Girls Weekend August 2012

On Friday, we dubbed ourselves the "Purple Girls!" 

1. Posing with a real bear.

2. Downtown Gatlinburg horse back riding (The Village)

3. She wanted to throw a penny in the fountain. Posing with Mommy was not first on her priorities.

4. See? Girls just wanna have fun!

5. Beaner blinding herself.

6. Who will fall asleep first?  (Look closely, matching PJs on 2 girls, and we didn't even plan that.)

7. Swimming in the pool. Not chlorine, salt. Yuck!

8. Dixie Stampede. She loved it!

9. BFF Girls. Lava Blue Girl (Audrey), Shark Purple Girl (Terri), and Ice Pink Girl (Sophia) all wearing their new necklaces. (They talked all weekend about their super powers and how they would save the world.)

10. KY rest area. See? Girls just wanna have fun! {again}