Girl Scout Camp

Mary Frances and I went on a girl scout day camping trip a few weeks ago with a few other Daisies in her troop. It was a gorgeous day to be outside!
I'm in love with this picture of her!
The younger girls went to the horse farm and "groomed" the horses with all types of special brushes!
This horse made me wish I was getting my hair brushed! She was really enjoying the attention!
After a long day of hiking, grooming, playing games, singing, and crafts, the girls crashed in the car.

We are so excited to be involved in scouts and to have all the opportunities that come with it!

...next up...GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!

School Christmas Parties

I spent several days this week at school parties! We had a blast. The elementary school had a fun festival-type event for the kids. They brought in blow-up slides and had stations set up in the gym for a candy-cane walk, snack time, tree decorations, and this precious photo op! I was so impressed! Thank you Warner PTO and Mr. Maness, our Principal!
Maya and Mary Frances are always up for a picture!

Payton and Mary Frances enjoyed their popsicles from Frosty the snowmen even though it was quite chilly outside!Mr. Maness even got in on the rides - in between classes!!
Chase's class sang some precious Christmas songs to us and then invited us to their room for snack time. We are really going to miss Foundry next year when Chase goes to kindergarten!

This is Chase with his teacher, Mrs. Zarazee who was out earlier in the school year from cancer surgery. She is now cancer FREE and having her last radiation treatments next week! Merry Christmas, Mrs. Zarazee!

I love my baby! Now that I've been substituting, I was afraid that I'd lost him to daddy, but over the last few days, I've had LOTS of unsolicited and surprise kisses! I needed them more than he could know!!

Camping

We went on our first Boy Scout camping trip last weekend at Fairfield Lake State Park My parents bought us a tent for Christmas (and gave it to us early)! We bought a few other essentials - like chairs for hanging around the fire, a percolator for coffee, and a single burner stove - to make our trip a little easier!

We had a great time being out there, and we're looking forward to the next trip!

We were so excited that Jessie was able to come with us! Hopefully, she'll send me more pictures to add to this post!! :)
UPDATE: Here's one from Jessie..aren't they cute?

Christmas Tea Party 2010

What a fun afternoon! Mary Frances and I had our 3rd Annual Mother/Daughter Christmas Tea Party, and it was a hit!

We had delicious food and hot tea in real china tea cups! I imagine that Mama Taylor (my great-grandmother) would have been so proud to know that her tea cups were being used by all these precious girls each year! Here are a few pictures from our afternoon!

Santa shops at Office Depot, too!!!

12 Days of School

This is a song Thomas made up this week. I asked him to write it out for his teacher, and to my surprise, he did! We made copy for the principal too! :) (Window panes are their math technique!)

On the __ day of school , my teacher made me do…

A bunch of spelling home work.

Two window panes.

Three bench marks.

Say four states.

Draw five shapes.

Name six presidents.

Read seven books.

Write eight stories
Recycle nine bottles.

Ten science projects.

Correct eleven mistakes
Stamp twelve cards.

On My honor...

Thomas and Mary Frances joined scouts this fall. We are all so excited about the fun events to come and the life lessons to be learned!Mary Frances is a Daisy Scout. It comes before Brownies! We really can't wait to sell GS cookies in January!!!The scouts were in the Veterans' Day Parade at the school last week.

We have already been to one Girl Scout outing where the whole family got to play outside for a few hours and picnic. It was a nice change from our normal activities!

In response to a picture of my dad with his deer, Mary Frances said, "when you lose your job, you should do things you like more often - to make you feel better!"

Detective Mary Frances

I bought Mary Frances this cute trench coat, and she loves wearing it because it makes her look like a detective!I just couldn't resist taking her picture before I sent her off to school the other day! She is so cute! And, I love her taste for the fancier things like adding a ribbon to a regular headband! She is so creative -- reminds me of her Aunt Jessie!

Halloween 2010

Hannah Montana, Batman, and Indiana Jones all showed up at our house this weekend!
We had a blast trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I think we had at least twice as many trick-or-treaters as last year! It was so much fun!
Our neighbor, Marilyn, always has a good time at Halloween, too! We had to get our picture made with her!
Even Curly and Sugar had costumes to match the boys. Sugar didn't keep hers own for a minute, but Curly did great in his Batman costume!
Hannah's hair was a little too itchy. So, it didn't stay on long, but she still rocked all night long!
Indiana kept his candy in his satchel and had a hard time controlling his whip!
And Batman....
well, when the Joker showed up across the street from our house, he ran over and defended it! It was a fun night choc-full of candy, scary costumes, and fun! Not my favorite holiday to celebrate, but we had a good time!

Chase's First Pep Rally

Chase finished his first football season this weekend, but we started the day with a pep rally! It was fun, but the best part of it was explaining to him what a pep rally is - that it was all about team spirit, etc. They ran through a run through...
watched the cheerleaders perform some cheers...
and even joined them for their typical half-time routine!
We decorated the cars, and everyone got into it!
Then, we took off in a caravan of purple and gold - ready for the game! It was a fun season, but I'm ready for a little break!!

Hope Fun Run

Mary Frances and Thomas ran their first race last week! I was so proud of them.

Thomas ran a half mile...
and did great! I was crossing my fingers the whole time hoping he would just keep running! I guess I was worried that he might not stay motivated without me encouraging him along -- I guess he proved me wrong! He finished running! YAY!! I had tears in my eyes because I was so proud of him!


Mary Frances ran a quarter mile! I felt the same about her race! I was so excited that they were getting into something I've recently been enjoying! She finished - running, too!

YAY!!! I'm a proud mommy!