First Day of the 2009-2010 School Year

Yesterday was Emma's first day of third grade at Huntington Place Elementary, Abby's first day of second grade at Northport Elementary, and John Brady's first day of Pre-K at Northport Elementary. It was an exciting day and no tears!! Yay for John Brady!! Yay for me!!

We took John Brady to his classroom first.

Emma helped John Brady get started with a puzzle. She's a great big sister!



A kiss for mommy!

A hug from daddy!

Abby put her backpack and lunch box away and sat right down at her desk. Abby has been so excited to start back to school!

Emma didn't want us to walk her in so I was able to talk her into a walk to the sign for a picture. My baby is growing up too fast!

After the pictures, it was a quick wave from Emma and then she entered the school and to her third grade classroom all by herself.

Look who was waiting on the kiddos when they got home!! It had been about a month since they had seen Lawson, so they were tickled!

It was a great first day of school!

My Frugal Child????

This morning I gave Emma, Abby, and John Brady the job of separating the school supplies and writing their names on them. When they were finished, there was a pack of colored pencils left.

Emma: Who's are these??
Me: I thought the colored pencils were on your list, but they weren't.
Emma: Mammmaaaaaa, you wasted money!!!

Wish he slept this good in his bed!!!

I will apologize in advance for the length of the video and for the vertical view! I forget that my camera only videos horizontally, so I am very sorry for the crick you might get in your neck! ;)

Silliness!

This is the kind of silliness I get when I try to get pictures of my own kids!!!

Abby's Showcase Performance at Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre Camp

Abby was a sheep in The Gingerbread Man and she literally left her mark all over the stage!!! You will see bits and pieces of Abby's costume in a lot of these pics. Abby made her grand performance in this first picture. When she jumped out onto the stage, puffs of white flew all around her in the air. Notice the big grin throughout most of the pics!

During a short intermission, one of the instructors got the audience to participate in the song called Little Cabin in the Woods. As you can see, Emma, MeMe, and Pop had a fun time with this!!

Next up was a song and dance to "Posituvity". This is the song that Scuttle and his friends sing on The Little Mermaid. Aren't they adorable in their Scuttle headbands???

Yay Abby!! You did it!! We are so proud of you!!!

Wish her luck!!!

For the past two weeks my little Abby has been attending Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre Camp. It's been amazing to see her go to this camp without knowing a soul there!! I can hardly believe she did it! Abby has always been glued right there next to her big sis, Emma. I guess she's spreading her wings!

I've had the best time on our little walks from camp each day. Her camp was in The Rowand-Johnson building on UA's campus, which was the very same building where I spent about 3 1/2 years taking classes! The Speech and Hearing Center was housed in the basement of this building so it was like going home for me!! Each time I've told Abby a little story about when I was there, she would get this cute little grin and a little skip in her step. So cute! It's been so much fun showing the kids where Brady and I took classes, where we used to live, etc. I even went a little too far one day and told Emma that I used to sneak up the side stairway of Brady's all male dorm for little visits!! Ooops! Hope she forgets that one! Anyway it's been a great experience for us all! Our little Abby Claire is growing up way too soon!

Tomorrow morning Abby will be performing in her end of camp showcase on stage! Abby's class will be performing The Gingerbread Man and Abby will be a sheep. Please wish Abby luck!!!

Ok, I just threw this in for fun! Each day we walk by this Pepsi machine and each time I think it is the coolest thing. (I am easily amused) Just look at Denny Chimes, standing beautifully in the background in this pic of the Quad. Man, if I could only get Pepsi to put one of my pics on a machine!

Did you know??

We have a special dog. Her name is Lucky. She was a pound puppy that I hand picked as a Valentine's gift for my children. Life with Lucky has been quite interesting since we got her about a year and a half ago.


She often "buries" her milk bones in the house. She has several burial spots. For example, Lucky likes to bury them under the pillows that we stack in the floor when it's bedtime. Sometimes she does this "imaginary" digging in the carpet and then uses her nose to "cover" the milk bone! Many times I have pulled out my backdrops to find a little surprise Lucky left! The funniest thing I've found was the big ole ham bone she had buried in my backdrop. Talk about yucky!!!

When I got Lucky, I decided to crate train her and I was pretty darn successful! She now gets in her crate all by herself when she wants to rest, or if she senses we are about to leave the house. I trimmed Lucky's nails the other day and she got so upset with me that she ran to her crate and wouldn't come out for hours!

Lucky protects us from lots of yard varmints, too!

Lucky likes to dress up from time to time! Hey, she's a girl and what girl doesn't like a little bling??

Lucky is also a huge help in the kitchen!

I do have to mention some of the trying times! Lucky's wrath included dolls, straps of any kind, computer cords, speaker wires, sweet little girl flip flops, my photo client's croc type shoes, belts, stuffed animals, pencils, pens, crayons (that was a nice display of colors when that passed!), puzzles, quilts, Brady's flops........

and this poor AFLAC duck!!

Now that the bad part is out of the way, let me just tell you what John Brady discovered the other day!! Lucky is a very, very special dog, and I now know for sure she belongs in our family without a doubt!! Lucky is a descendant of the mouse! Yep, that's right! Mickey Mouse, the one and only. I can prove it, too! Just look at her special birthmark.



It's fate, I tell you!! It was destiny that Lucky became a part of our Disney-loving family! Ok, so you say, there's millions of Disney loving families, so what's the big deal?




The answer is in the next picture.



Lucky ended up in a home where she gets tons of love and care and in return she will hold your hand while you fall asleep. Both hands to be exact.