Boo! Happy October People!

Yeah, I don't know what happened here. I know Mike bought the girls some great HSM makeup and they love to put it on when I'm not watching....but don't ask me what is on her fingers!


Today the girls opened a surprise from Aunt Karen and Uncle Greg. They got some Halloween shirts and some bags to be decorated. Karen bought all these cute little stickys to glue onto the bag and the girls went crazy! I let them do it all by themselves....I'm becoming so trusting.

They're maniacs on the floor, and they're dancing like they've never danced before.

While Emma is getting her fall activity by playing soccer, Paige and Sophia were lucky enough to have gotten a special present from Grandpappy Greg. He got them dance and gymnastic classes at the Lil Gym. Or Little Gym. Not sure if they use the cutesy spelling or what... Anyway, the girls had their first official visit to the Gym on Saturday right after Em's soccer game. They don't let parents in the room for the classes, so these pics stink since I had to take them through windows...

Paige is posing. Gymnastic posing. Or maybe she just stuck the landing. I'm not sure...


Okay, I know that Soph is posing.


Here is the instructor helping Soph-a-doph on the balance beam.


Here another teacher has Soph on the uneven bars.


This was from the dance portion. They do Tap and Ballet. This is the tap... toe, heel, toe, heel.


Paige had a lot of fun warming up for gymnastics.


Clearly it's a good time.


Unless you're Emma, who is mad that she can't do dance as well. She tried dance a few years ago and hated it, but maybe she'd like it now that she's older. Too bad for her that she's so good at soccer and we'll keep making her play that until she gets a scholarship.


Paige's turn walking backwards on the beam. Hopefully they'll come out of this a little more coordinated!

Emma's first games of the fall soccer season

Most of you already know that Melissa is coaching Em's soccer team again this year. This is her first time in the New Smyrna Beach league and they have a pretty good team. The first game was yesterday morning and (even though we aren't supposed to be keeping score) Em's team won 2-0. Melissa has some stuff for me to do so I'll post the pics of Paige and Sophia at dance/gymnastics later.

Em on the attack


We need to practice having her shoot from farther out!


Some other kid trying to send Em back to the other end of the field. She politely ignored him.


The defense can't touch her! Until she dribbles it directly into the goalies hands, as she did on this occasion as well.


Yeah, the kids were a little bored when they were playing defense.


Warming up


Team on the bench just after the pre-game pep talk from Coach Melissa


Ems' going to start off in goal, so she has her jersey on to let everyone know she can use her hands. I didn't include any shots of her playing goal becuase there wasn't much action down there.


Throw in


This was funny... The other team was supposed to kick off when the whistle blew. They kind of just stood there so eventually Em just ran up and kicked it!

Dawn launch and some other stuff

NASA launched the Dawn mission this morning. Here are the ever exciting pictures.

Dawn is an Ion propulsion system spacecraft that is going to travel 8 years to go study asteroid belts.


Our favorite space nerd , Greg McFly Fissell, was one of the lucky peeps who got his name listed on the Dawn craft. You could sign up online while it was still in development.


A couple of nights ago Melissa and Jen went on the "countrified" bike ride down the dirt road Volco and out Cow Creek Rd. I drove out to take pictures of them riding their bikes, but missed them on the dirt portion, so here they are on Cow Creek .


This road has a high speed limit of 50 mph but there aren't many cars on it.


And finally, on Monday night Sophie didn't want what everyone else was having for dinner so she got a ghetto pizza. She ate 2 bites of that and then switched to eating some of Mom's nachos. That was a first time for any of the kids to eat nachos and she says she likes them. we have a hard time getting the kids to use their brains about food. It doesn't matter if the girls all like sausage and they all like pizza. None of them like sausage pizza. This was the first time we were able to get one of them to understand... You like beans, you like chips, and you like cheese. You like nachos!!!

Beach visit

The tourists are gone and the storms we've had over the past week have pushed some of the sand back up onto the beach. I read that NSB got as much as a foot of sand back that we had lost during the hurricanes a few years ago. So today we went and hit the beach. Melissa picked up Emma's friend Gigi on the way and then I met them up there a little later. The Schraders also made it to the beach this morning. There were no huge crowds so we had plenty of space. There were some rain clouds moving in from offshore and we packed up and got out of there just as it started raining.

Em using the Schrader's skim board.


Paige had a good time running around.


Soph getting a little splash in the tide pool.


Will took a sand rake and made a line way down the beach. Then he and Paige ran up and down the line.


Paige doesn't like seeing those clouds moving in.


Chocolate granola bars and juice boxes. That's what Florida does!


Rain is getting closer!


Still some sunny spots in the sky.


Yes! The sand rake!


It's all smiles until the rain gets here.


Beach bunnies.


Playing in the tide pool.


A little cool off session.


I don't think she's peeing, but you never know.

You Say She's Just a Sub! Oh Baby You!

Today I finally found out that I will not be getting either of the jobs at Read-Pat. They are both going to displaced teachers. I was pretty pessimistic but held out hope until I heard a definite name. Then the principal gave me HER name and that was it. It was over. I'm so depressed. My last day in that classroom will be Tuesday. She will be there on Monday. This weekend SHE will come and decorate HER classroom. As long as she doesn't mess up MY stacks of paper! I'm just a tad jealous, can you tell? Actually, I'm not really jealous. I just feel this was a bad decision on the county's part and no one stood up for the kids. I'm sure the new teacher will be great .... I'm just so pissed. To top it all off, I am going to back to school night so the parents can meet me. I volunteered because at the time it seemed like the right thing to do since we didn't have a time frame for a new teacher. Hopefully I can keep my emotions in check when I tell the parents what a wonderful time I have had with their children for the last month. You all know how emotional I can get!

More pictures

I forgot to post pics of Em without the tooth that came out last night. So here are some more pictures I just took.

Nice smile!


Sophie wants to take some pictures, too.


Laying in the bed but still acting goofy instead of going to sleep.


Since Paige and Sophie weren't quite ready for bed, Em was nice enough to read them a coupe of books.


She even showed them the pictures.

Bzzzzzz

I went out and took a new picture of the bee hive in the oak tree next door. This branch is just on their side of the fence. When we first noticed the mass of bees in there, I sprayed an entire can of bee killer at them. No effect! They're super bees! They haven't been a big deal since it's been so hot that the girls aren't playing too much out back, but when it gets cooler they'll have to be dealt with. The new neighbors have said they're going to have the whole tree removed, but it hasn't happened yet.

Uh oh!

I'm working from home today so I went up and grabbed the pre-school girls at 12:30. Melissa needed me to drop off a camera with her at her sub job too, so I left early and went and got the girls a little sooner than normal. When we got home I had them finish up their lunch and then told them it was nap time. Paige was okay with that, but Sophie wasn't too happy about a nap.

These are the first pics posted from my new camera.

Looking relaxed... Nap time? Fine with her.


Why be happy when you can be sad?

Pics from the weekend

I forgot to post the pictures from Saturday. We went to the Dudley's house for a visit and to drop off the presents we had gotten for Sophie Dudley's b-day. We (by "we" I mean "Melissa") spaced and forgot to go to the party, but I heard there were about 60 people there so at least we weren't missed!

One of the things we (this time I really just mean "we") got Sophie Dudley was a giant bubble machine. To clarify, the machine isn't giant. It makes giant bubbles. The girls are waiting for the next big bubble so they can pop it right away.


Here comes one now!


Quick! Don't even let it get out of the machine!


It started raining and there was some thunder so the ladies had to exit the pool. Mo looked out at the water...


...while the girls played in the swing.