Rodeo Queen

On Saturday, Emma had a horse show competition thing. She's only had 3 lessons so far so I didn't really want to put her in it, but she wanted to do it so we entered her in 3 events. Since she's a beginner she was in what they called a "lead line" class, where even though she was controlling the horse, there was a rope tied to it's halter so it couldn't get away from her. They ended up keeping her out there for all 6 of the events, and she actually won the one called a match race. She had to ride the horse as fast as she could to they fence, then get off of it and lead it back to the start line. She came in second in the Pony Express and she was in the top few riders for the Egg and Spoon race, too, so she did a great job.

Em posing in front of her horse's stall. They drew names out of a bowl and she ended up with Ice as her horse for the day.


Getting ready for the next event.


Posting back to the start line after delivering the mail in the Pony Express race. I think she came in second in this one.


Hustling to the finish line...

Dancing with the Stars

Here is a pair of videos from the final dance recital for Paige and Sophia...

Emma's Birthday Party

Last Saturday night we had Em's 7th birthday party! She really wanted a slumber party so we came up with a semi-short list of people we wouldn't mind sleeping at our house. We had 3 girls from the b-ball team, 3 girls from her class, Gigi, her friend from kindergarten that we still hang with and the boys. We had such a great time I can't even believe how smoothly it went. I got to meet some parents of the girls in Em's class so hopefully I can get some play dates going on with them. Emma has really made a nice group of friends so I am happy to have them over. They all had pizza for dinner. I had made some snacky stuff for the adults, but they didn't really eat it and some of the girls polished off the shrimps I had set out instead of eating pizza! Gigi brought her own bologna! Anyway, after dinner they played and watched HSM2, talked to uncle Greg on the computer and before I knew it it was 10 o clock and no one was tired. I brought them into the TV room (by this time ALL adults had deserted me) and we played HSM on the Wii. They all sang one song, which took forever since we had so many peeps. After that they laid down in the bedroom to watch HSM 2 AGAIN and by 1030 3 girls were asleep. By 11 the boys were asleep. By 1130 I turned off the TV and laid down with the last of them.

In the morning...the boys were up first at 7am!!!!....they wanted to start making an art project. I had set out stuff the night before but never got around to it. So we started cutting and gluing and ripping and drawing until we couldn't make anymore art! Here they are all at the table. Notice it is still DARK outside!


Shelby and Em enjoying some cereal on the floor since the tables were being taken up by starving artists. GET IT? STARVING artists? They hadn't had food yet??? GET IT?
Em was very impressed by Shelby because she was the only other one there that sang EVERY word to EVERY HSM song ... WITH feeling! She even did the dance moves while she sang. These two have a lot in common besides their love of HSM so I hope they can hang out more.


Also on the agenda at 730 AM....some twister! Jordan bought this for Em so they ripped it open after eating some cereal. They didn't quite grasp the rule of not being able to rest your butt on the floor!

Several of the girls were big animal lovers and spent a lot of the night and the next morning tracking down our cats. They didn't really care that we had the bedroom door shut because Mike was hiding in there, they went in there anyway and looked in the bathroom and under the bed. Mike gets stressed with all the kids around, so he went to the movies with Chris to see Cloverfield. Here is Gigi, smiling because for once the cat is staying still!


Here is something you probably won't see that often. Me, putting on make-up onto the faces of 10 girls! They loved it though and for one shining moment I was cool mom.


Obviously the boys did not want make-up so I promoted Ethan to be my spa manager. He helped the girls decide which color would look best on them and to keep the crowd under control. I think Shyanne had a little crush on him, she is the one that is getting make-up on is this pic.


And here we are all sparkly! The lipstick and eyeshadow was a present that night and Em was kind of sad that I made her share it. It was a nice set, the lipstick stayed on all night!


My favorite part of the night was when we opened up the 10 pound bag of 2 foot long twizzlers. NICE!

Some of the girls starting to get ready for bed...some were not ready yet...after all, it was only 9pm.


Settling down.


Another view.


Another view..


Sophi was thrilled to be hanging out with all the big girls. She is wearing her medal still from dance class!

MLK Day in the Park

We spent a lovely day on Monday at River Breeze Park. Perfect weather of course! We packed a lunch and ate after playing on the playground awhile. Grandma, Kiki, Hanzie and Loki joined us.


Sophi was very proud that she made it to the top without any help so of course I took her pic.


Em swinging with her new HSM outfit.

Slumber party!

Em had 324 kids over last night for a slumber party to celebrate her birthday. At least it seemed like that many. Here they are all getting settled in to watch a movie...

We Miss You! And Sophi's New Bed!

Our dear sweet Kathy. I'm not sure who took this pic but it works for me! Kathy looks good all the time, even when she is making that face.


And we look good all the time too! Sara and I show off our matching Jack Bauer shirts.



Sophi got her new bed today. It was all she really wanted for Christmas and since we sold her bed at the yard sale in AUGUST we figured it was time to buy her a new one. Much to my dismay I could not find a cheap one at Kmart or Ikea so we had to buy a nice one from a real furniture store. It is an absolutely beautiful bed and nightstand so I'm glad we got it. The headboard is reversable so that it can be all white instead of pink/white. Soph is in love with it too and has already packed the nightstand full of babies....




We are trying something new by putting all the girls in one room and putting all/most of the toys in the other bedroom. She has been sleeping in the green room for about 4 weeks so she has adjusted pretty nicely. We will see how it goes. We still have to move some things around tomorrow, like the TV/table thing.

June Irwin

While we had our visitors from MD in town, we took them for a drive through the wildlife refuge. Below, we see June Irwin, the Alligator Hunter.

Due to the depth of field, the background is all blurry.


Let's adjust to focus on the background area... Look out! It's staring at her like she's a mcnugget.


This is a close up of the same alligator. It was the biggest one we saw that day. We saw a bunch of them and also saw a GIANT wild pig along with the usual selection of birds.

Basketball Junes

Well, many of you know that Emma is playing basketball now and Melissa is coaching. Her team has been practicing for a while now and last night was the first game of the season. Since they are so young, it's a training league, which means they don't keep score. Of course, all of the parents keep score so that doesn't matter much. The other thing about a training league is that they modify the rules to make things "simplified" for the kids. I think that's stupid, because then you're starting the kids off learning the wrong rules of the game... And sitting in the stands with the other parents last night, none of us could figure out what the rules were! There were a lot of whistles blowing, that's all I know. One of the weirder things is that there is no back court defense allowed, which is hard to get little kids to pay attention to. Plus, they only get to practice on half a court so there was no practicing with the back court rules in place. The first time they saw it was in the game. Anyway, even with all of the confusion the kids had fun. Of course, Emma said she'd rather be playing soccer but there's no season going on right now.

And since the parents were keeping score in their heads, I think the game ended up 8-0, with Em's team being shut out!!! Oh SNAP!

Em going for the rebound...


Some blue kid also trying to get the rebound...


And Em leaves him in the dust

This is Em stealing the ball. She played very well on defense and tied up the blue team at least 5 times for a jump ball. They use the possession arrow in this league.

All the way like Dr. J

Looking to block the pass. In this league, if there is no one to pass to the kids just start dribbling again!

Looking to pass... that's called teamwork. There's no "I" in team, and she gave 110%. (Mo might be the only person who knows what that's paraphrased from!!!)

Sorry! No Pics of Girls!

We went to the Ponce Lighthouse today. I am not working most of the week since all the teachers just had a two week break so I am getting in a lot of visiting done. Oh yeah, in case you hadn't heard, I'm visiting with Kathy, Danny and Sara. They drove down last minute on Friday because Danny had a death in his family(lots of his family is down here). We have been having a great week and today was very busy. Danny and Kathy are taking care of Kiki at my mom's house. Danny has fallen in love with her and is taking really good care of her. She is behaving too, while we all went to the lighthouse, I took Bo and Loki down to mom's so they could play in the house instead of putting Kiki in the kennel. Anyway, I hadn't been to the lighthouse in a few years and it was just as tall as I remembered it....

We all made it to the top, BARELY, so that we could see this beautiful view! That land in the distance, across the inlet, is NSB. Infact, that strip of beach is the dog beach for those of you who have been there with me.


And here, our lovely model shows us Disappearing Island. It is viewable right now because it was low tide. It is a popular hangout for boats in the summer.


Barf! That's a long way down!


Looking north with Kathy and Danni.


Wow, your head is as big as the lighthouse!

Em's first riding lesson

Today Emma and Will had their first riding lessons. They are taking them at Marcody Ranch and the people there were really nice and seemed like good teachers for the kids. Em had a great time and wants to keep going, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more pictures along the same lines...

First Em learned about brushing the horse and getting her ready to saddle. She picked Daisy as the horse she wanted to ride today.


Looks like a pro already!


Kicking up a little dust


Sophie and one of the barn cats


Wider angle to show the riding area


Nice!


Getting ready to wrap it up


Daisy back in the stall after the lesson

Animal Pics!

Rat Bauer really likes Soph. She is always cuddling with her.


This is our empty kitchen where our breakfast nook is going to go. Read below...we moved the furniture. The kitties enjoy a rare treat of canned cat food.


We had a fire going almost all day today. It was in the 40s and 50s all day!!! I can't believe how cold it feels! Kitty can't believe it either and begs for more wood on the fire!