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.

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.