Kindergarten Cinderella Ball

The kindergarten classes at Bridget's school held their annual Cinderella Ball on Feb. 15. Cinderella, Prince Charming, Snow White, Fairy Godmother, and Fiona (Shrek's wife) were all in attendance. The kids dresses as princes or princesses. It was so cute!! Here are some photos from the ball:

Shown dancing with Cinderella are (l-r): Bridget's friend Lily, Tessa and Bridget:



Bridget (she's to the right of the girl in red):



Tessa met up with Natalie, a friend from preschool, at the ball:



The girls took their turns trying on Cinderella's slipper to see if it fit:




Tessa with Fiona:



Bridget and her friend Lily with her teachers Mrs. Hurst (l) and Mrs. Russell (r):

Bridget Ditches Her Training Wheels

On February 4, 2008, after only one day of help from her Pops, Bridget rode her bike without training wheels! She is so coordinated; she's good at everything she tries. That is so amazing to a natural klutz like me. That same day, she was also riding around in circles!! I remember it took me weeks and weeks to learn to turn a curve on my bike without falling over. Here is a short movie of her riding her bike on that auspicious day:

Snow Days

We had not one, but TWO snow days in the same week in January. It started snowing in the afternoon on Wednesday, Jan. 16. I was alerted to this fact by a squealing Bridget, who was outside swinging at the time. It was the first snow we've had since the girls have been with us -- they were very excited!! I was so happy that they got to see the huge snowflakes falling and got to play in the snow until it got dark. Here are some pix of the girls in the snow:




It snowed again on the following Saturday, Jan. 19. When we got up that morning, sleet was falling. I really didn't think we'd get any snow, but it warmed up a few degrees from 32 to 36 and the sleet started turning to snow. It wasn't the huge flakes we'd had on Wednesday, but it snowed much of the day, so the accumulation was actually greater. We had about 2 inches fall on Saturday, enough to make a snowman.

Here is Bridget with the snowman:



Here is Dwayne with the snowman:



A good time was had by all throwing snowballs and making snow angels.

Halloween

As I write, Bridget is going through her Halloween candy, trying to choose her ration for the day. It's a tough choice because she has a ton of candy. We trick or treated through our subdivision last night and the girls made out like bandits. Add to that the fact that they were still working on eating all the candy the received at our church's "trunk or treat" party on Saturday, and it's apparent that I'll be doling out candy rations for days and days to come -- yippee.

Tessa dressed as a kitty cat this year and Bridget was a bunny rabbit. Here are some photos:





Once again, Dwayne outdid himself carving our jack 'o lanterns. This one is a "mad doctor":



This one is a "conjurer" with his crystal ball:



The girls are being very thoughtful about giving me Butterfingers and Reese's from their candy, since they know they are my favorites. What a couple of sweeties!

The Sunflower Patch

After we left Hayden's party, we traveled a few miles north on old Hwy. 411 to see two very large sunflower patches. Several cars were pulled to the side of the road and people were wandering through the fields and taking photos. That's what we did, too.

Here are Bridget and Tessa in the patch:



Here's Dwayne with a sunflower:



It was really cool!

Hayden's First Birthday

We attended a birthday party for my great-newphew Hayden on Oct. 13. He turned one year old on Oct. 10. He is the cutest thing!! He reminds me so much of his dad, Matthew, and his auntie Miranda when they were little. The party was held outdoors and it was a lovely day. Hayden was given a small chocolate cake all his own to dig into. The results were predicatably adorable.

Here he's still nice and clean and just looking at his cake:



Here he is getting very chocolatey:





Here's the "official" Elmo party cake, made by his granny (my sister Sandy):



Hayden cleans up well. Here he is after getting the chocolate scrubbed off him:



He seemed puzzled by getting lots of gifts, but I'm sure he'll have it figured out by birthday number two.

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.