Erin's Bridal Shower

Sunday, Stacey and I hosted Erin's bridal shower at Jeeves & Co. in Scottsburg. As Brian and Erin's big day gets closer, we get more excited!
Cassidy was there wearing a new Dora dress that she got from her Grandma Noble at her birthday.
Grace was a Junior Hostess. Let me tell you, this chick worked her booty off at the bridal shower.
Aunt Stacey claims that she's not crafty, but I saw the scrapbook page she made. It was good.
Erin showed off her cake.
Grace helped Erin open every.one.of.her.gifts. I told you she worked hard.
She also held the gifts up for everyone to see and gathered the wrapping paper so Aunt Stacey could put it in a trash bag.

October 22nd isn't that far away. Soon we will officially have a new member of the Holdaway family.

Cassidy Turns 4!

We went to Cassidy's birthday party Saturday afternoon. It's hard to believe that she is 4 years old already.
Cassidy's party was a dress-up party. Dan forgot his costume so he borrowed one from Cassidy. Nice, Babe!
Dora the Explorer was the theme of Cassidy's birthday party. There was an obstacle course for the kids to go through in order to find hidden treasure. Good thing they had a map!
Gabriel made it through the obstacle course!
After the obstacle course it was time for the pinata. Grace and Kayla waited patiently in line for a turn to pull the string on the pinata.
All of the kids, except the birthday girl, dove for the treats from the pinata.
You have to have CAKE at a birthday party, right?
After cake, the sugar rush moved Grace to racing around the house wielding balloons. Where were her parents?
Gabriel found some cool binoculars to use. I'm not sure that they are quite as effective when you use them backwards.
Cassidy opened some really cute presents.
Grace watched Cassidy open her presents while munching treats from the pinata. The only that could have made this party better was if the presents had been for her.

Kindergarten Work

Monday last week (Yes, I'm behind) Gabriel brought this drawing home from school. I wanted a few samples of his work at the beginning of the year so I could use them to compare later in the school year. This is (l-r) Daddy, Mommy, Gabriel and Grace. We are in our house, and the blue circles are the windows in our house.

For my teacher friends and for my own documentation:
Gabriel took a reading test with his teacher today. He read the books Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Sock is on the Floor, and Cars. I'm guessing that means his reading level is RB. That surprises me because I really thought he'd be a B. He is reading environmental print and short words like crazy. He knows a good number of sight words too. I really want to e-mail his teacher and ask for details, but I don't want to be a high maintenance parent. I know his teacher is very busy. Inquiring minds want to know . . . . Heck, I wanted to bring the kid to Bridgepoint and test him myself!

Fun Saturday

The kids and I have had a great day today! We started our day with some cartoons, breakfast, and cuddle time. Then we headed to Grandma and Papaw's house. Grandma and I had some shopping to do. Grace wanted some "girl time" with Mommy and Grandma. Gabriel wanted to play Grandma's Wii.

Shopping done . . . check.
Girl Time, Including a Starbuck's treat . . . check.
WAY more Wii Time than normally allowed . . . check.
Chick-Fil-A for lunch . . . check.
New coloring book and twisty crayons . . . check.
Kids playing together like angels for the entire evening . . . check.
Dinner provided by the neighbor . . . check.
A wonderful Saturday . . . check!

Here is the rest of the day:
Grandma went next door to water the neighbor's plants for her and somehow the kids ended up getting watered too.
I love their expressions in this picture.



Grace had asked first thing in the morning to go to the park, and I assured her that we would make time later in the day. I'm a mommy of my word, so after a good soaking, we went to the park to play.
Grace's skirt was a little too big, so she spent the entire day pulling it up. At the park she was swinging on a bar, and her skirt fell completely to her knees. It was pretty funny. Even a little boy laughed at her. Luckily, Grace is a good sport. She pulled her skirt up while laughing at herself and kept going.
At the park Gabriel was pretending to be a warrior who was protecting Princess Grace. I was the bad guy. In the picture above Grace was pretending to be dead.
We had a few last moments at the park.
Both kids decided to spend their last few minutes swinging. Then something suddenly called to us . . . .
What got them so excited, you ask???
An ice cream truck of course!!! Yes, we all (Grandma, Papaw, me, Gabriel, and Grace) had an ice cream from the ice cream truck! You know, summer won't be here forever, so we're going to enjoy it while we can!

Big Boy

Last night we went to Frisch's with Grandma and Papaw for dinner. As we were walking toward the door, Grace raced down the sidewalk to the Frisch's Big Boy and said, "Mom, take our picture!" How'd she know I had my camera with me? Ha!

KINDERGARTEN

Thursday was Gabriel's first day of kindergarten, and Grace officially moved to the 4-year-old class at preschool. It was a big day for the kids, and a big day for this mama.
I bribed the kids with McDonald's for breakfast if they posed for pictures for me. They did the best they could, but their excitement was getting the best of them.
They wanted to pose in a "cool" pose. Is this cool?
I love this picture of my little girl.
Gabriel was so excited and nervous too. On the say to school, Gabriel said, "Mom, I can't wait to see my teacher." That was music to my ears.
So . . . here's the scoop . . . Gabriel's teacher told us at orientation Wednesday evening where the kids were to go when they arrived Thursday morning. When we arrived at school, the gym was wall to wall people. About 4 staff members kindly offered to help us to the appropriate area, but we truly didn't need help finding his class. There were just WAY too many people between us and where we needed to go. When we got to Gabriel's class and saw his teacher, Gabriel started to back up. I put my hand in his back and told him to go to his class. He looked up at me, a little scared, and said, "But, Mom, there's no place to sit." He was right. There really wasn't room for him to sit with his class. Luckily, his teacher heard him and offered to make a seat for him. Again, as luck would have it, the seat that was made for him was right next to a boy he knew from daycare and behind another boy he knew from tee-ball. He immediately started to talk to his friend. He and I exchanged thumbs up, and I was off. No tears for either of us! YES!

When Dan picked him up from daycare in the afternoon, he told Dan that his day was "AWESOME!"

Here are some important points about his day:

• He was very excited that there were "little Legos with wheels" in his classroom.
• He was also excited that school serves breakfast, though he doesn't know what to do yet when he goes to the cafeteria in the morning.
• He was disappointed that he didn't learn anything yet. . . all they did was color. Blah! He hates to color . . . so he says.
  
• They ate a sack lunch for lunch that had a ham sandwich and milk. He got to dip up his own peaches and pears at lunch time.
  
• He was disappointed that his teacher only gave him 4 animal crackers for afternoon snack.
  
• When he got off the van at daycare, he was STARVING. He could not talk to me until he had a snack. When he got home, Dan ordered pizza for dinner, and Gabriel ate half a pizza by himself. Ha!
• Finding out that his friend from daycare was in his class was a highlight for him.
  

Momma's Broken Hearted

When I picked the kids up at daycare yesterday afternoon, the first thing Grace said to me was "Mom, you missed the recital!" Her ballet tutu, balloons, and flowers were on a table near the door. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I had been looking so forward to her ballet recital ON WEDNESDAY. Apparently, the ballet calendar had changed, and the change was e-mailed out. I just didn't know it. I felt terrible!
I am so grateful that Grace's teacher took some pictures for me. I think she looks so sad in this picture. I can't imagine how she felt with no one to see her dance recital.
She looks so pretty and so petite in her little ballet outfit. I wish I'd been there to tell her myself.


On the way home today, she was holding the pictures saying, "Awww . . . I look so cute." Then she kissed her picture. She is such a nut!

Back to the Grind

After getting up to the alarm clock again, spending a whole day at work and at daycare, the kids and I were pooped last night. The three of us cuddled on the couch last night for more than an hour. I miss them so much while I'm at work. I'd love to say that it gets better once we're back in the routine, but it never does.

Pucker

I've said recently that Gabriel is getting more independent all the time. He has been fixing his own drinks a lot of the time.
Sunday afternoon he pulled the bottle of lemon juice concentrate out of the refrigerator and asked if he could have a drink of that. I think he was expecting it to taste like lemonade. Of course, we let him try it, but wanted to take pictures for our own entertainment.
After one big drink, he puckered and shivered a little. Then he asked if he could have more. Goofy kid!

Party for a Princess

Darbi had a birthday party Saturday evening. Being an August birthday, she celebrates with lots of fun water activities.
Grace enjoyed the slip-n-slide.
Then Jake and Grace played in the inflatable pool.
There was a giant water slide to play on.
Darbi looked like quite the princess in her tutu and tiara.
Gabriel enjoyed shooting his friends with the water gun.
Looks like fun!
After getting her fill of water activities, Grace convinced Amy to push her on the swing.
After about an hour outside, thunder started and a storm was upon us. All of the kids came inside for the remainder of the party. Pretty soon the wind started to blow and the rain came down hard. The Lewis family lost power, but the party went on. When the rain stopped, there was a full rainbow visible from the Lewis' backyard. It was beautiful!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Darbi! We hope your birthday was perfect, just like you!

Chocolate

Friday afternoon I made chocolate mousse for a dessert I was making for a cookout. Once I had it all mixed up and whipped up, someone had to help me clean the beaters. Gabriel was a willing volunteer.
Thanks for your help, Buddy!