Happy 11th Birthday Miss MM

11 things I know about Miss MM

1. she loves all things fury, slimy, and scaly (except maybe sharks)
2. she has a pet snake
3. her favorite color is orange
4. she really likes jewelry, purses and shoes
5. loves fair rides and rollercoasters but is scared of riding in a boat and going over bridges
6. she is a feisty tennis player
7. she likes Rafael Nadal
8. she loves to sing especially Train or Miranda Lambert
9. she is truly concerned for everyone
10. she demonstrates a faith and love that is well beyond her 11 years.
11. she is a really good friend

Miss MM had a swimming party and invited the best group of girls.

Carly is lucky to have such a wonderful set of friends. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you Miss MM!

too many choices

Our first attempt at making homemade pizza was a big success. We bought raw dough balls from a local Italian restaurant, cut them in half to make individual size pizza, and then tried to decide what we wanted to put on ours!

Here's mine on the grill.

It had pesto, chicken, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, onions, peppers

and I added a little blue cheese to top off the pizza cheese blend.

We had a lot of fun together in the kitchen making a big mess and ending up with really good pizza. There was lots of talk about the pizza we ate in Italy - love that super thin, crispy crust. There will definitely be more pizza nights in the future.

Carly is working on hers. First, she requested her crust be a little thicker than the others.

Then she added red sauce, meatballs, spinach,

cheese and topped it with diced fresh tomatoes and basil.

Thanks D for a super pizza paddle. It worked great! Carly's hot off the grill and ready to eat!

But not before she gave it a little drizzle of olive oil.

Kenny's was beautiful. He chose red sauce, bacon, artichokes, fresh tomato slices, spinach, and pineapple.

the trees actually have leaves

First, she tried to convince me for months that she could really see just fine. Then, she told me the reason that the spelling was so bad on her social studies notes was because she couldn't read the board. After that she worried that people were going to know that she couldn't see. When we made the eye appointment, she started stressing that she "really couldn't see" like it was going to be a test and she was going to get a bad grade.

(pair #1)

She had her first "ah-ha" moment during the eye exam when the doctor showed her what it looked like with and then without glasses through the little machine. With "Wow, I can actually read those numbers" and then without "It's just a big blurry blob".

After we FINALLY picked out frames and went back to pick up the finished product, she has only taken them off to compare what it looks like without them. All the way home, she was "oooing and ahhhing". Quote "Is this the way you have been seeing all the time?"

(pair #2)

wordless wednesday :: theater

the things we do

[Carly and her newly decorated locker]

Carly came home from school with a backpack full of text books and a book inspection form to fill out. The new thing, I guess, is for the kids/parents to do their own inspection and document damage so that you don't have to pay a fine at the end of the year. I clearly remember the teacher sitting at the front of the room checking books and writing your name in the front. After we finish the inspection and the form, Carly asked me "hey mom, have you ever heard of wrapping your book in paper?" They have always used book socks to cover their text books. She thought she had heard about a NEW fad! So now she has a newly papered locker and newly covered textbooks. Maybe she is ready for actual school work next week!

can you believe it? 5th grade

{Carly didn't want to take a "before" picture,

this self portrait in the car was the best I could get}

{The first half-day seemed to go fine, although Carly said that listening to the teacher was stressful? She also informed me that I had homework as she passed me a big stack of forms to fill out.}

{After they finished their half day, a few friends came over to eat lunch.

Carly chose the menu - macaroni & cheese, chicken strips, and fruit.

She also wanted AnnOlivia cupcakes for dessert.} {I love that only 1 out of the 9 didn't wear their blue uniform shirt today. Do you think they planned that?}

{We had 2- 7th graders, 4- 5th graders, 2- 4th graders, and a 2nd grader.

Even though there is a wide range of ages, they all get along really well.

They all ended up playing hide 'n seek together - in the house!

The only downfall was it was too hot to play outside after they ate lunch (heat index 115).}

{They talked about their teachers and who was in their rooms. The 4th graders talked about their lockers because this is their first year for them to have lockers. They talked about what their teachers said. The older ones gave pointers to the younger ones. They exchanged locker numbers (so they can slip each other notes).They talked about the fact that the 7th graders had homework!}

{They laughed and giggled and squealed like only a group of girl-friends do.

What a way to kick off a new year!}

white trash

{choose dry ingredients...we like Chex, Cheerios, pretzels, cashews}

{melt the vanilla almond bark}

{pour into the dry ingredients and stir gently} {pour onto a cookie sheet to harden} {and if the cooks do not eat all of the finished product...}

{then you can package your white trash really cute

and you are ready to hand out on the first day of school}

tip toeing in mom & dad's garden

wordless wednesday :: paducah