Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween Dancer

Luci's dance class held their Halloween party on Wednesday evening. Here is what she decided to be for Halloween...an Autumn Fairy. (Please note...in this picture, her wings are on upside down...not that she really cares!!)



Their beauty never ceases to amaze me!
This is Ellie, one of the girls in Luci's dance class. Her costume was awesome!
This is Claire. She is the daughter of the dance studio owner. She is too cute not to include!
Luci and my neice Sonja are in the same dance class. (Her wings are now right side up!)
Luci's whole class.

Today's quote:

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Celebrations all around!

A week or two ago, a squirrel decided life was no longer worth living and dived into a transformer effectively ending not only his life, but also the power for half the city! On this same evening, we were heading into town to spend the evening with Dean's parents and Dan and Tina to celebrate the birthdays of Earl (14th), Audrey (17th) and Tina (17th). As we live outside of town, we were not affected by the power outage, so we weren't aware that it had happened until we drove past the point where the outage boundary was. We arrived at Dean's parents' house and decided to bring the party back to our house since Dan and Tina were also without power. So explains the pictures below. Drew helps Audrey put the candles on the cake. The little girl beside Drew is Ana, the daughter of Tina's sister, Vicky.



Not sure where Max was for this moment, but the girls gathered around to blow out the candles on the cake.
Grandma is famous for giving gifts to the kids on her own birthday and this year, they each received a handmade hat, scarf and mittens set knitted by Grandma! Drew models her pink set. Luci got a sage green set, but was too busy playing the piano to pose for a picture.
What a ham! Both girls love their sets!
Ana, Max and Sonja playing a trio. If you look closely, you can see Max's rainbow hat and scarf. He looked just like a Rasta mon!
Last week, Drew and Luci's school held their first student recognition assembly. All the students attend to watch a select group of students receive awards for excellence in certain fields. Luci notices us right away and waves wildly.
Drew goes up to receive an award for excellence in writing. She loves to write!
Drew with her writing award and Grace (my cousin Heather's daughter) with her Language Arts award. Drew is in a multi-age class of first and second graders. The first graders receive mentoring from the second graders, and the second graders tend to boost their self-esteem by being helpful to the first graders. Drew and Grace are in this class together, and though you'd never guess it by the picture, Drew is the 2nd grader and Grace is the first grader!!
Meema gives Drew a congratulatory hug for her award! Good job kiddo!
Both me and the girls are looking forward to daylight savings as this is currently how dark it is while they wait for the bus! But the sunrises are pretty!
This past Saturday, Dean and I were invited to a Halloween party. We dressed as a Renaissance couple. Here, Dean and Julie, dressed as a dance hall girl, pose for a shot.

Sorry for the crude pose, but it was the less crude shot of the only two pictures I actually have showing my costume! What can I say, it was an adult party! L to R, Kathy (hippie), Julie (dance hall girl), me and Sue (bride of Frankenstein). It was lots of fun!
Speaking of Halloween, Drew's dance class held their Halloween party on Monday evening. Here is what my little China doll decided to be this year...a China doll! The long jacket we got in China on our adoption trip to get Drew and the hat is handmade by me. It was originally a Mickey Mouse ears hat from Disney. It worked perfectly for this costume!
Gorgeous!
Here she is waiting for her class to go in, posing with a favorite friend from Kindergarten class, Connor. Connor's mom told me that he was just asking her the other night if he was ever going to see Drew again! (He's in a different classroom this year). Too funny!!
Luci catches a ride on an obliging witch's broom as they fly around the waiting room at dance class. She had baton class this night, but her regular tap/ballet class is on Wednesday, so she'll dress up then. I'll post pics of her in her costume, too.
Drew's tap/jazz class.
Today after school, Meema brought the girls a couple of chocolate cookie haunted houses to decorate for Halloween.
Luci needed a little help holding the bag.
Luci growls behind her finished creation.
And now for a little sample! Yummy!
At this rate, she'll have it all eaten by the time Halloween arrives!
Drew poses with her masterpiece.
And for her scary pose...she didn't know Papa was behind her! She laughed when she saw the picture!

I'm hoping to post some pictures of our brand new master bathroom in the next week or two. It's nearly finished, but not quite! I need to tile the countertop, grout it and then trim the edge, we need to add the baseboard molding, add shelves above the countertop and do some touch-up grouting on the floor. Other than that, we're done! Hopefully we can get those few jobs done and then I'll post some pictures of it. I love it already, but you'll have to wait just a little while longer! We're pushing ourselves to get the two empty bedrooms in the new addition finished as we have reason to believe that one or both may be needed next year!! :-)

Today's quote:

"You're fat and ugly" said the pot to the kettle. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!

Friday, October 23, 2009

A fond farewell...

Today, I lost my last remaining grandparent, and the girls lost their only Nana. She lived to the ripe old age of 91 celebrating her last birthday just this past August. She had been failing for the last several months and it wasn't wholly unexpected, but sad just the same. As I write this, the girls are still in school and don't yet know...the job of telling them I am not looking forward to. This will be their first experience with the death of someone they loved very much. RIP Gram and Nana. We'll miss you so much! Millie F. 8/28/18-10/23/09
The girls and Nana on her birthday, 8/28/09.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The world's most beautiful children!

It's been a while since I had a photo session with the girls, plus some grandparent birthdays are coming up, so I thought I'd set my stuff up and take some shots. They were due! Here are the world's most beautiful children! (I'm allowed to say that because I'm the mom...also, it happens to be true!)





Today's quote:

Generally speaking, those who lead an honest decent life rarely need sleeping pills.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Moooooo!

In September, my niece celebrated her fifth birthday at our local Pizza Hut. Here is the majority of her Kindergarten class along with Drew, Luci and a few other friends. Earlier that day, Drew's brownie troop participated in our town's local Harvest Walk to help feed the hungry and happily got her picture in the local paper!



Here's the birthday girl, Sonja! Happy birthday sweetie-pie!
My cousin Heather spent a few days in the warm south and while she was away, her two youngest stayed with me, much to the delight of Drew and Luci as well as them! They had so much fun! Here, Papa takes them all on a hayride through our back field.
Papa took off quickly and little Hannah's feet were in the air! (Click on the picture to get a closer look!)

For the last several weekends, we've held campouts in our back yard. Dan and Tina and Jim and Julie have both brought their campers at different times and we've had some cool campfires and a great time! While waiting to capture a picture of our resident fox, Dean rounded our camper riding this! It's actually my dad's bike, but Dean makes it look very "special"!! Ha ha!
This past Friday night, it was too rainy to have a campout, so Dan and Tina brought the kids over to our house for a night of movies and dominoes. While the other adults set-up the dominoes in the kitchen, the kids and I were busy setting up the "theater" in the livingroom. Drew and I went upstairs to gather blankets, and while I was in their closet, I heard someone trip on the stairs and go tumbling down. The end thud was large and very painful sounding! Then the crying started! I flew down the stairs and Drew was in a heap at the bottom! She had tripped over the blanket she was carrying! Anyway, she was lucky enough to walk away with just a sore tailbone and this lovely shiner! It actually got a LOT darker after this!
The next day, Drew's brownie troop went to a local farm to get a guided tour of how a dairy farm works and the technical aspects of rasing cows and other animals.
The first animal, a horse. Obviously the electric fencing was OFF!
While our group waited to go in the barn, this guy poked his head out and gave the girls a big laugh! When we made it in, the guide explained that the trough behind the cows was for taking wastes away. The instant she finished her speech, the cow closest to the girls lifted her tail and gave way, to which the barn was filled with eleven little girls yelling, "EEEEWWWWWWWW!!!" Perfect timing!
Out in front of the barn, was this model cow which everyone could try to milk. Drew gives it her best shot!
Luci takes her turn.
Next up, were the calves. This little cow was just 2 weeks old! It loved to lick the girls' hands!

There were several other stations, from nutrition, to veterinary care, to the pig barn, and even a country band. This station was a tent in which our local dairy princess was explaining the importance of milk in our diets. The girls all got some milk, cheese and yogurt to take. This plastic pool was also set up in the tent filled with corn. The kids loved it, and it's not as messy as sand!
Drew and I on the hay ride! Luci was too busy polishing off her yogurt to get in the picture!
The hay wagon dropped us off across the street where they had a corn maze set up in the field. Drew makes it out alive!
The rest of the gang follows close behind!
Luci in the calf barn, getting her hand licked yet agin! Calf spit is VERY slimy!

And another quote:

Why do bad things happen to good people? Because it helps them to see how to make this world a better place. Because that's what separates the truly good people from those who only think they are good people. Bad things happen to good people because it is a necessary part of making a good person great.

And so ends another post. On my way to greatness! Take care!