Double A soccer

This fall Double A played soccer for the first time. She had a great time and says "I am very good at defense" which means they stuck her in the backfield alot. All the other kids had played at least one other season before. She did great running after the ball but actually kicking the ball when it got near her was a bit more of a challenge!

Halloween

The kids had a Halloween parade at school where they got to dress up in their costumes. Bumblebee had a hard time deciding what to be. It changed almost daily up until a few hours before we left for trick or treating. So, for his school parade he was "evil" spiderman. He was regular spiderman a few years ago and the costume is reversible. Double A said she wanted to be a waitress. We found this car hop costume and she loved it.

Halloween night came and Bumblebee chose his pirate costume to wear for trick or treating. He looked adorable and like a very mean pirate!

Unfortunately we had a slight accident while trick or treating. Bumblebee got so excited he was running in his flip flops in the ocld with frozen feet and he tripped and fell. He scrped up his knee and toe and put a hole inhis pirate pants. I think they just look more pirate-y. His sister went to a few more houses and was nice enough to get him candy from those houses Bumblebee missed due to injury.

Double A was so excited to wear makeup. She had on eye shadow, mascara and lipstick. She must have commented twenty times on how "freaky" her eyes looked with mascara. She has absolutely no need for mascara as her lashes are crazy long and dark on their own. She designed her own pumpkin and drew it on the outside and I carved it.

SOUTHERN MISS FOOTBALL

This fall we had our second season of Southern Mississippi football season tickets. We drove down for three home games. It is 10 hours each way. Two of the games hapened to fall on weekends when the kids were off of school Friday so no school was missed. These photos are from homecoming. Bumblebee did not want to come to the game with us, which was fine since it was late and he really doesn't do well much past his bedtime of 7:30-8pm. Husband #1's brother shares the tickets with us and he was able to make this game also. Double A was soooo excited for him to be there and to go to the game and stay up late.

Horse Show

I have been very remiss in posting updated photos and stories here. I will blame my computer. It has been acting up in a variety of ways and my photo processing/editing/storage software keeps freezing up and blah blah blah. So I have tons of photos in my computer that I cannot get out unless I fix this program. (I can get them it just takes WAY too long).

On top of all of that drama, Double A had a horse show and I *GASP* forgot my camera! Thankfully her teacher from first grade came to see her ride with her own camera and took pictures for me. Getting them has been a process of me continually forgetting the USB drive for her to put them on!

ANYWAY...that brings us to these fabulous photos taken by Chris, first grade teacher extraordinaire!

Bumblebee amusing himself at the horse show (lots of waiting) with barn dog, Osco.

I just love this photo...something about the way she is sitting...She finally seems relaxed and more natural on the horse. This was taken while riding Dolly in the "walk trot horsemanship on the rail" event. More on that later.

This is Jake and this was the musical stalls event. Double A placed third and got a white ribbon!

Enjoying other events in between her own. There is a lot of waiting around at horse shows since you are not in every class. And, at this barn the students ride lesson horses (those who don't have their own horses) so they have to share and thus re-tacking and what not needs to occur.

Double A and Dolly the horse after Little Squirts Western Walk Trot Horsemanship on the Rail. Double A placed first and got her first ever blue ribbon!! She was so excited and so was I! This is the first time she has ever been in this event and I had no idea how they judged it. Apparently they tell you to walk or trot or turn around and you are supposed to keep your horse along the rail and follow directions and they look for slow and steady speed, etc.

Double A is not a very emotionally demonstrative child, especially with revealing her inner feelings through words. However, after she won I was telling her how proud I was and she said "I almost started crying!" and that is when I said "me too!"

She also got a red ribbon for second place in Little Squirt's Walk Trot Trail riding Zema. This is an event basically like an obstacle course where they look for how much control you have of the horse while you weave it through poles, next to items to pick up, etc.

This was the first show in 2.5 years of riding that she has seemed really relaxed and comfortable and confident in what she was doing. She rides all different speeds and sizes of horses during lessons and even rides bareback! She rides Western now but I think soon she will have to decide if she wants to stick with that or switch over to English. English does jumping and Western does barrel racing.

Well, I am glad I have finally gotten at least something posted. Double A has another horse show tonight. It is a gymkhana, which is a fun show and there are no "points" for the national level of competition. Not that Double a is doing any of that yet, anyway. The high today is only supposed to be mid-forties so it should be horribly cold by the time the show starts tonight.

I have so many more things to post about, such as all the football games we have been going to in Mississippi, Double A's soccer season, Halloween and more!! Stay tuned!

First Day of School

The kids finally started school today. All other kids in our area started about two weeks ago. We were all VERY ready for school to begin. Double A even told us over the weekend that she likes school more than summer vacation.

They were both excited last night and this morning. We got Double A to her room, found her cubby in the hall, met her teacher and then Double A told us "You can go now." So we did. She was beyond ready for school to begin today.

We had gone last week to meet Bumblebee's teacher and see his new classroom. Kindergarten is a big deal and quite the transition. When we got there today he seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the activity. He sort of clung to me a bit but after a while we said we had to go and he sat with a friend who was very chatty. By the time we were walking out Bumblebee had warmed up and was smiling.

The after school reports were the usual struggle to pull information out of them. Both kids are getting hot lunch so they reported on that and the recess report is always popular. They were both tired and went to sleep easily tonight. They are both glad to be in school again...and I am glad they are, too!

All We Need Is Love

So it is our last week of summer before school starts - FINALLY!! We are all ready to have a break from each other, I do believe.

Anyway, we were on our way to the school yesterday to visit the classroom and meet Bumblebee's new teacher. On the way he asks me "Mommy, what is the most important thing in the world?" How the hell do I answer that? So I stammer a bit and go with "I guess it depends on who you are but some people would say water so we could live...or AIR! We can't live without being able to breathe."

He just sat there a bit and then I knew as I said it I was getting too philosophical but said it anyway (Hey, I was navigating a traffic jam and trying not to get run over while answering questions of the universe from my mini Dali Lama) "Some people would say LOVE is the most important thing." He laughed and said "Love isn't the most important thing!"

That's when I launched into all the ways love makes the world special and how life would be without love, what would it be like if we didn't have love for our parents or for him, etc and on and so forth.

That's when Double A finally pipes up with "Love is the gooey stuff that makes the family stick together."

That about summed it up.

Double A's 8th Birthday

Double A celebrated her 8th birthday this month. Doesn't seem possible. No way 8 years have passed since she came to us all rosy cheeked, dimples bursting out from almost before her first breath. She was a beautiful baby, an adorable toddler and she is becoming a beautiful little lady...quicker than we would prefer. She starts second grade next week. She reads like nobody's business and loves to do "arts and crafts" as she puts it. This summer she has started to enjoy video games and beats her mother consistently at Wii Mario carts - even grabbing the controller from me and doing it herself when I seem hopelessly unable to complete a track!



We had a family celebration on her actual birthday. She chose to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. They let her wear the sombrero while we sang and then brought her fired ice cream! We opened gifts when we got home. This year she asked for and received tons of books. She is reading things like Junie B. Jones and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Magic Tree House.

This is Bumblebee and Double A pretending they like each other for split second! Actually, I think Bumblebee had spied the new Wii game Double A got and wanted to have a piece of that game playing action so he was being nice :)

A few weeks later (when her daddy could be off work) we had her birthday party with a few friends over. She chose the Hawaiian Luau theme and we decorated the backyard, made invitations and bought palm tree cup party favors. They wore swimsuits and played in the sprinkler in the backyard. We also had a fish pinata. We opened gifts and ate cake. Double A had a great time and thought all of her presents were wonderful!

Her daddy had also gone out that morning and bought her a new bike and a tag along attachment for his (or my) bike so she can practice with no training wheels. Now we have taken several family bike rides around our neighborhood and at nearby parks. Bumblebee just pedals his heart out to keep up!