Abney Elementary Fall Festival

We attended the fall festival at Bridget's school on Saturday, Oct. 6. The weather was fine and the girls had a great time. There were lots of activities including face painting, temporary hair color, pony rides, large inflatable "jumpy things" (Bridget's term), and sand art.

Here are the girls "before" the festival:



Here they are "after" getting their faces and hair done:



Here's Bridget on a small pony:



Here's Tessa on a rather large pony:



Not sure why tiny little Tessa was placed on the big horse. She was a bit scared she'd fall off, so I held her hand as she rode.

Anyway, we all had a fun time at the festival -- it was pretty cool for an elementary school shindig.

Bridget's 6th Birthday

Bridget celebrated her 6th birthday on Thursday, Sept. 13. It was a school day, so Tessa and I took cupcakes for Bridget and her classmates. We got to hang out in the classroom for snack time -- it was lots of fun. Bridget got a little bit embarrassed when the kids all sang Happy Birthday to her. I picked her up from school that afternoon and we went to get her ears pierced. She was nervous about it because a classmate had told her she cried when she got hers pierced. Bridget, brave as ever, shed nary a tear, even though we had a long wait in the doctor's office (which gave her lots of time to get nervous) and the doctor had two "false starts" on one ear (the "gun" wasn't working right, so she wound up switching guns). That evening, she opened gifts from me and Papa and we had more birthday cupcakes.

This make-up kit was Bridget's favorite gift from us:



Here's Bridget with her birthday cupcake:



She celebrated with a house party on Saturday, Sept. 15. Her friends Hannah, Olivia, Alyssa, Hayden and Lily attended with their moms. Aunts Sandy and Martha also came. We played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Tessa was the winner, pinning the tail almost exactly where it should have gone. Olivia was the winner of the Hot Potato game. The girls also played with Bridget's new Dance Mat. It's a simplified version of Dance Dance Revolution and allows for head-on competition. It's pretty fun. After the games, we had cake and ice cream. She had a Hello Kitty cake shaped like a purse. Here's the cake:



Here are Bridget and Lily and the cake:



Here's Bridget opening a present. Shown are (l-r) Hannah, Tessa, Bridget and Hayden:



After gifts were opened, we headed outdoors to the pinata hanging from a tree in the front yard. Here's Bridget getting ready to hit the pinata:



Here are the younger kids watching Hannah hit the pinata. Shown are (l-r) Alyssa, Olivia, Lily, Hayden, Tessa and Bridget:



If we ever have a pinata again, I will make sure to "soften it up" first so that the kids can easily break into it. Those things are hard to bust open. Hannah was able to knock it down, but the candy didn't fall out. That didn't bother the kids, though. Once it was on the ground, they all rushed for it and ripped it open. So, our pinata activity didn't go exactly according to plan, but it was funny watching them tear into the thing.

It was a great day and a good time was had by all.

Tessa's 1st Day of Preschool

Tessa started preschool on Wednesday, Sept. 5. I was a little bit worried about how she'd do; she is more of a homebody and a mama's girl than Bridget. I was nervous when I took her in. Her teacher, Ms. Heather, is the same teacher Bridget had last year, so she knows Tessa. I think that helped. She showed Tessa where to hang her book bag, then I asked if she'd pose with Tessa for this photo:



Right after the photo was taken, Tessa said, "Mama, are you going to go bye-bye?" "Yes," I warily replied, wondering if this was a good thing or a bad thing to her. "Go ahead and go, then," she said. I was so relieved!!

When I picked her up after the first day of school, she didn't look too happy. When we got home she said, "Nobody talked to me or played with me." I felt so bad for her, because I've been there myself plenty of times. I tried to sound upbeat and said, "I bet you will make some friends very soon." When I picked her up on Friday, she was all excited about her two new friends, Cassidy and Audrey. Things have gone smoothly ever since. She is happy and excited every day when I pick her up.

Yesterday, she had her first day of ballet class. She was at school till 2:00. That's a long day for a little one. I really missed her -- it was weird being home with no kids for most of the day. She looked so cute when I went to pick her up -- she was still wearing her ballet clothes. She wore them for a few hours after we got home, too. She was so excited about what she'd learned, she had to show me as soon as we got home. She really is a graceful little girl and looked just beautiful showing me her steps. Here she is in her ballet outfit:

Bridget's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday, August 6, was Bridget's first day of kindergarten. She was very excited the night before and didn't go to sleep till about 10:30. Despite that fact, she got up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45 Monday, very excited about her first day of school.

Here's a photo of her before we left home:



Dwayne, Tessa and I took Bridget to school and went into her room with her. She settled in just fine and started playing with some Play Doh:



Tessa enjoyed being at school with her sis. Here they are at Bridget's desk. The lady behind Bridget wearing white pants is her teacher Mrs. Hurst. The little girl sitting across from her is Alyssa. She just lost her two bottom front teeth, so she and Bridget have matching smiles. The little boy to the right is Garrett. He is quite the character. He made a play doh snake that spans the width of his desk. You can see if in the photo. When Bridget came home yesterday, I asked her if he was nice. She said, "Yeah, he talks a lot." I said, "You like to talk, too, so you two will probably be good friends." She agreed that he is nice.



She rode the school bus home. I had a minor freak-out when I saw a bus come through the subdivision at 2:40 and turn around and go back out without letting my daughter off! I nervously waited and hoped another bus was coming through, but I really didn't think there was more than one bus that came through that early. I was planning to call the school if she wasn't home by 3:00. I had brought my camera outside to take a picture of her coming home, but I left it in the house when I went back in to see what time it was. At 2:50, the bus arrived and she came running up the driveway, and I realized I didn't have my camera . . . She was supposed to get off the bus at our next-door neighbor's house, to save the bus making an extra stop, but I guess there was a mix-up. I could have gotten a really good photo of her coming up our driveway if I hadn't been worried about her and forgotten my camera. Oh, well, I don't need a photo to remember her big smile and excited run up the driveway.

She had a great day and was very excited that she would get to go back today.

The Great Outdoors

We spent July 14 through 17 "living outside" (as Bridget called it) at Enota Mountain Resort in North Georgia. It's about a 2-1/2 hour drive from our house, but feels like another world. The girls had been asking us to take them camping for quite some time. It all started when they saw the Brady Bunch episode where they go camping, then they saw Hannah Montana and Zack and Cody camping on their favorite TV shows, so the "Let's go camping" onslaught continued.

Neither Dwayne nor I are big on the whole hunting/camping/fishing thing, but we do both enjoy getting away to the woods and mountains. We'd prefer to be staying in a comfy cabin while we're doing it, but we didn't really have money for that kind of vacation and what the girls really wanted to do was tent camp, so we decided to try it out. We all had a good time, especially the girls.

There were lots of things for them to do. There is a working farm on the premises and kids can help feed the animals, gather eggs from the chickens and milk the cow!! The girls loved this because they both love animals of all kinds.

Here's Bridget milking the cow:



Now it's Tessa's turn:



Here they are with the eggs they gathered:



They also got to ride a pony. Here's Bridget on the pony:



Ride 'em Tessa:



There was a playground just across from our campsite. They had three in-ground trampolines; two set into the ground and one set into a deck. The girls loved jumping on them and we loved that we didn't have to worry about them falling off and getting hurt. Here are the girls with a couple of teenagers they befriended. The older girls were teaching them to do flips on the trampolines. They were so nice.



Pops played on the trampoline with the girls, too:



On our last morning there, the ducks swam by our campsite. We were feeding them bread, so they hung around for a while. They even left the water at one point to scarf down more bread. Here are Bridget and Pops feeding them:



Camping got the thumbs-up from everyone, so I'm sure we'll be going again. I'd like to go back this fall -- the mountains are so pretty when the leaves are turning. Yes, we survived, even thrived, in the great outdoors, but I gotta admit I was very happy to hit the hay in my big, comfy bed when we got home.

Another Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Bridget lost another loose tooth on Friday, July 13. Once again, she pulled it out with my tweezers. Here she is posing with the tooth and showing off her new smile:



The tooth fairy didn't bring her quite so much money this time (see previous tooth fairy entry), but she didn't seem to notice. We were leaving to go camping that morning, so she was focused on that excitement rather than the tooth fairy. Whew!

July 4, 2007

We went to see fireworks in Acworth. The fireworks were shot over Lake Acworth and were really pretty. I didn't get any good pictures, but here's a kids-eye view of a firework taken by Bridget:



Yes, we should have sat on the other side of the fence. We had what we thought was a good seat until they started shooting the fireworks and realized that our view was being blocked by a huge tree. We had to move to the best available spot quickly. I had never been to Cauble Park. It's a nice facility, and not too far from our house. They have two playgrounds, lots of picnic tables, and a "beach" area on the lake. We'll have to go back there again sometime.