Star Student!

At an assembly today, Macy was awarded the Star Student of the 3rd quarter award! We are very proud of her. She was chosen "for showing good character and for having excellent classroom attitude and behavior." Here she is with the others.



I've mentioned before how well she is learning to read and write. She got all 20 words right on her spell-a-thon this week, and here is a story she wrote. The teacher had filled in "The gorilla went to" and Macy wrote:

"Wrlds of fon. and she ridaid the mobo and she loved it so she ridaid it agian and she wit home."

Not bad for a kindergartner! Let me know if you need help translating what she wrote!

Kaylin's first soccer game!!

Spring 2008 soccer season started tonight! Kaylin is finally old enough to play, and has talked about nothing else for days. The girls are playing on the same team. This will be the only time, as Macy will move up a league this fall if she continues to play.
Here's Kaylin during pratice; she was so proud of her jersey, new socks and cleats.

Macy played pretty well. She almost made a goal, but a little girl on the other team came running from out of no where and tripped right in front of Macy, and Macy tripped over her. It was so nice to see Macy playing hard; sometimes she doesn't while playing soocer.

Kaylin's BFF Madelyn was upset Kaylin couldn't play with her, but she sat with us during the game and watched the girls. They are cute together.

At first, Kaylin wasn't sure what to do. She kind of just ran around, and kept hopping up and down. The coach would have to remind her to keep running after the ball. But about 1/2 way through, she figured out what to do. She couldn't really keep up with the other girls, but she tried. Her little legs are just too short! At least she didn't cry, like Macy did every game her first season!!

My two soccer stars!

It will be interesting to see how Kaylin develops this season and grows. It is just a miracle to me that she is able to run as well as she can--she didn't really walk until she was over 2 years old, she had severe hip problems and spent 4 months in a body cast. That's what I kept thinking about as she was running around the field. I can remember asking her doctor if she would ever be able to play soccer, and here she is. I am so thankful.

Over 1000!

Sometime while we were on vacation, the blog went over a 1,000 hits! Not quite as good as the Confessions of a CF Husband blog I follow, which has a million hits. But 1,000 hits is decent in about 8 months time. Now,those of you who check it 6 times a day definately help bump up that number. :)

A week's hiatus...

It's been a busy week! This week was spring break, and we decided to drive to Atlanta to see my brother and his family. We had a really great visit; when they come up at Christmas or Thanksgiving, we have to share them with both sides of the family and friends, so it was nice to have some one-on-one time. We didn't do anything big or exciting, just hung out. Julie made green pancakes on St. Patrick's Day, we played at the park, hiked up Kennesaw Mountain, went on a hike around Allatoona Lake, dyed Easter eggs and had 3 egg hunts. Josh is only 6 months younger than Kaylin, so they had a good time. We got to see the other cousins Lauren and Brandon a little, but they are 16 and 20, and busy, busy people.

My brother kept the kiddo's contained while Julie, Bobby and I hid the eggs in the yard. Here they are about to bust loose in excitement.

Stopping for a rest on the hike up Kennesaw Mountain. It is a national park, as it was a big battle during the Civil War on Sherman's quest to capture Atanta, and his march to the sea to Savannah. The hike is a mile, pretty much straight up. It was very very windy. Especially at the top!

Oh, no! This poor tree was going to fall down if Rod, Kaylin and Josh didn't prop it back up!!

The girls especially had a good time, and didn't want to leave. But we set out for Bobby's dad and grandmother's, to spend some time with them on the way home. Dyed more Easter eggs, had 2 more egg hunts, then headed for home.

During the week, I think we spent far more time in the car than anywhere else. The girls did fabulous, until the last 2 hour stretch from Columbia to home. I have a huge knot on the back of my head from a baby's bottle that was thrown (oh, sorry, mom, I didn't mean to hit anyone!!) and then we can't forget the cooking experiment--they dumped the rest of their fruit punch into an empty tub and poured in their goldfish crackers to see if they would float. Oh, to be young again.

Macy goes back to school tomorrow, but Kaylin and I have one more day. I really want to spend it laying around the house, but I will have to go in to work for a little bit.

I updated the pictures along the right hand side with pictures from our trip. Before we left I also updated the Books Read in 2008; if you click on the name of the book you will be able to get more information.

To keep from going insane...

To keep from going insane on a 14-hour car ride with 2 children, you need the following:
1. Tons of DVD's--Princess stories, Cinderella II,
2. CD's--we listened to Hannah Montana,Hannah Montana II, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana 2, High School Musical 1 and II. And our girls love "Ice, Ice Baby." Strange, I know.
3. Snacks--a bag of food is always good. Then when they whine, give them food so they can't talk.
4. Breaks--when stopping for gas/food, find a grassy area where they can run off some energy.
5. Patience--lots and lots.
6. Naps--take one when they do. Don't try to take one while they are awake. Doesn't work.
7. Equal amounts of toys--we have 2 Hannah Montana pencils each, 2 HSM notebooks each, 2 princess notebooks each, one Barbie each, but only one car. That one car caused problems.

So sad, so sad...

The moment some of you have been anxiously waiting for has finally arrived--when buying socks tonight, I bought a double pack for me and Macy to share. Yes, we can wear the same size socks now.

Edits

Edits to yesterday's post:
We've had Kobe for 8 years.

Two of the students caught with vodka and gatorade were my ads managers for newspaper. One is in the hospital with alcohol poisoning, and one is in juvenile detention. And since last night was deadline night, we had to untangle the post-its and try to figure out they had left to finish. It could have been a lot worse.

My newspaper students collect quotes, stupid things that we all say, and we keep them in a book. I'm in there plenty of times for saying stupid things, but not last night for some reason. Here are the 2 best ones from last night:

(a boy is reading the back of a lotion bottle) "Look, this lotion is made by American Eagle. Oh wait, that's vitamins A and E."

(looking at a picture) Phil: "Who is in that car?" Leah: "That's an airplane."