TV Star

Okay, so really it wasn't exactly TV, but Caroline and 3 others from her Kindergarten class got to lead the morning announcements this morning. The annoucments are broadcasted in each of the classrooms via TVs. We had to practice the Pledge of Allegenice, the Pledge to the Texas State Flag and the Carroll Elementary School Constitution. The even got to do the little dance to wakeup CES. Will and I got to sneak into the Dragon Den take a few pictures and video Caroline's first experience with morning annoucements. Here are some pictures from the morning and two videos capturing the moment.

Sunday Night Drama

Caroline has had a front tooth that has been very loose for a few weeks and quite honestly, it just looked silly the way it jutted out. See for yourself.

Sunday night Allison accidentally bumped her elbow into Caroline's mouth. Caroline started to cry and the tooth was bleeding a lot. Caroline was crying very loudly, Allison was crying because it was an accident, and Ray left the room because he is scared (literally) of loose teeth. It was a three ring circus for about 10 minutes, but I finally pulled that tooth out! Then it was all smiles and excitement over the tooth fairy coming. Then it all changed again because Will decided he was scared of the Tooth Fairy coming upstairs during the night while he was sleeping. Is the Tooth Fairy a girl or a boy? Is she nice? What color is she? What if I accidentally wake up and see her with my eyes open? What will she do to me? How does she know to come? How does she know to go to Caroline's room? I don't want to sleep upstairs tonight. In the morning when he saw the money the Tooth Fairy left, he decided he wanted to loose a tooth and go to Kindergarten, too!

A Busy Weekend

Grandma was here this weekend visiting from Kentucky. Friday she was able to go up to school and have lunch with Caroline and then Allison. The girls loved having here there and getting Sonic for lunch. After lunches I took her to see the last 20 minutes of Will's gymnastics class. Later in the afternoon she went to Caroline's soccer practice and then to Allison's soccer game. We were so proud of Allison because she scored a beautiful goal, and it was her first of the season. We celebrated with dinner at Feedstore Barbecue. Saturday brought more soccer games, and we went from Caroline's game to Will's game to Allison's game. They were all in a row at three different fields. After a quick lunch and shower we headed to Dallas to meet Forty and Jack. Brigitte left with them and we head to Katherine's 7th birthday party. It was at ASI Gymnastics. The kids used up even more energy there playing hard and then eating cake and ice cream. We went back to Bill and Kristen's house after the party to watch Katherine open her presents. We had pizza and salad for dinner, and it was delicious. The kids played and played together. We finally headed home after a long but very fun day.

Girls on the Run

Allison joined a group this spring called Girls on the Run. The purpose of Girls on the Run is educate and prepare preteen girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. There were about 15 girls in the group with two leaders. The group was made up of mostly girls from Carroll Elementary, but there were also a few from Westlake Academy. They met starting in February twice a week to run and train. Each meeting had a lesson plan to go with it, and the girls did so many neat things to promote respect in themselves and others. There were also fun things like a scavenger hunt and relay games. Allison worked so hard and looked forward to going to the meetings each week. The program ends each semester with running a 5K with girls all across the metroplex participating in different Girls on the Run chapters. You run with a buddy, and on Saturday Allison and I got up super early and headed to Coppell to do our run. She did awesome, and we had a great time. She placed 6th in her age group out of lots of girls, and our time was 35 minutes. That is great for a first time 5K! After the run, the girls had fun doing the Hannah Montana Hoedown Throwdown. We were so impressed with the program and the values it represents, and we are so fortunate to have groups that Allison enjoys that have such a positive impact on her self esteem. I hope that I get to run many more 5Ks with Allison. I am so proud of you!

Dragons in Paradise

Friday morning was another Dragon Pride Assembly. The theme this time was Dragons in Paradise, and everyone was supposed to dress Hawaiian. The character words studied during this period were Conviction and Hope. Allison was recognized for reading 600 minutes, doing a community service project, and having perfect attendance during this six weeks. The kids all had fun dressing up and dancing to some aloha music. Way to go Allison!

Forget the To-Do List

On Monday I made a last minute decision to take Will to the Zoo after Museum School. We are over there every Monday, and I have been wanting to take him all year. Every Monday either we had something that we had to get back for, or the weather was terrible. This Monday I had a very long list of things to get done this week (although I don't know that it was much different than any other week!), but when I saw the weather and the fact that there were only 5 more Museum classes left for the year, I decided Monday was the day. We had a great time, and it wasn't crowded at all. We only had 2 1/2 hours, but we didn't have any problems seeing everything during that time. Will was a little funny because he would go up to an animal and then almost immediately say, "Okay, let's move on to the next animal." I wasn't sure why he was in such a hurry until I realized he really wanted to get to the train ride. Finally we did that, and he was much happier. We rode the train, had lunch, rode the carousel, fed the birds, ate ice cream, and saw lots and lots of animals. Will thanked me so many times throughout the day for taking him to the zoo. A few weeks from now I bet I won't remember what was on my to-do list that day, but I will definitely remember our afternoon at the zoo.

A New Toy

For my birthday my parents gave me a Flip Video Recorder. It's tiny and so much fun to use. I carry it around with me in my purse and hope that I use it to take more video. Here is my first real video that I did of Will after his soccer game last Saturday. He is loving soccer and it doing so well with it. He scored three goals in this game and 9 the game before. I guess all the time he spent watching his sisters' games is paying off! Enjoy the video and hopefully there will be more to come.

Easter 2009 - He Is Risen

We had a lot of fun with Easter festivities this year. We had our annual Easter decorating party, and the kids each had fun decorating their own eggs.

On Easter morning, the kids could hardly wait to get up and hunt their eggs and see what the Easter bunny brought them. Here are some pictures of their baskets and of them hunting eggs. It was a little bit of a disappointment that the Easter Bunny felt like it was too cold and rainy to hide eggs outside, but inside was fun, too.

Easter Sunday just happened to be my 41st birthday, and after hunting eggs, the kids and Dad made biscuits for breakfast for me, and I got to get back into bed and be served. It was a wonderful treat. Then we got ready for church. Thursday we all went to the Maundy Thursday service at church, and it was an incredible experience. It was moving and beautiful, and it really set the stage for the whole weekend and especially the anticipation of the Easter service. We met Gram and Grandpa there (actually they saved us seats), and we had a wonderful time together.

After church we headed to Dallas to Royal Oaks Country Club. Uncle Bill, Aunt Kristen, Katherine, and Libby belong there, and they had a great brunch and fun Easter Egg Hunt and Petting Zoo. Will has a love for all characters, and the Easter Bunny was no exception. After he talked to him, he kept going back over there trying to get his attention again. It was so cute. Here are some pictures of our time there.

Good Friday

On Good Friday the kids were off from school, and I decided to take Allison to Tyler for Jillian Dunbar's 9th birthday party. Allison and Jillian have been friends since they were babies, and since they have moved to Tyler, we don't get to see them as much anymore. We took another friend from the area, Macy, and headed out right after lunch. It was fun for me to get to see the whole Dunbar family and their new house. The party started at their house with cake, ice cream, and presents. Then we all headed to the movie theater to see The Movie - Hannah Montana. It was a great movie and even got a few tears from the girls and mom's! After the show, we went back to their house and let Jillian, Macy and Allison play and put on a performance for us in the backyard. Then we had a delicious and very healthy dinner before heading back to the DFW area. It was a super fun day, and we were so happy that the party ended up on a day that we were able to come.

Will's Easter Party

Will was super excited about his Easter party at school, and luckily the weather improved during the day, and the sun actually came out in time for the hunt. I had sent in 14 pre-filled plastic eggs with his name on them for him to find. Once he had found all 14, he had to take his basket over to his teacher, dump them all out, and put them back in counting them correctly. After the hunt, we went back inside for cupcakes. I love watching him enjoy these special activities!

Girl's Weekend

I am so fortunate to have the most awesome group of High School friends. We have stayed close for so many years, and I always look forward to and need my time with them. We try to have one weekend a year that we get together and just spend talking. We can talk for hours on end, and even after a weekend of talking non stop, it never feels like enough. This spring we had the perfect place for our weekend - Marci's new lake house at Cedar Creek Lake. Marci and Ray bought a house right on the lake last summer, and they have done so much decorating, and the house looks wonderful. The six girls met in Canton on Friday and spent several hours shopping for all the good bargains. We left Canton and stopped to have Mexican food on the way to the lake. Once we got to the house, we were there to stay. We spent all of our time talking, eating, and just enjoying relaxing and being together. It is such a pretty area, and we had wonderful weather. We spent several hours on Saturday sitting outside and playing the domino game Mexican Train. Sunday came too quickly, and we all had to head back home. I left there having eaten too much and having stayed up too late, but I felt so refreshed and ready to get back home to my family. I am so grateful to these friends that I can truly be myself with, and I know we will always remain close.

1st row from left to right - Kristin, Becky, Kelley, and Beth

2nd row - Susan, and Marci

Kindergarten Fun Night

Caroline was invited to the Kindergarten Fun Night at CES a couple of weeks ago. Her good friend, Lauren, won the chance to go at the school fundraiser silent action, and she was able to bring a friend. There were 20 kids there in all, plus the 5 Kindergarten teachers. They ate pizza in the teacher's lounge, had ice cream, went on a scavenger hunt, ran down the halls yelling, danced on the tables in the classrooms, colored, and played games in the gym. Needless to say, it was a big hit, and Caroline was so in awe from the evening that she said there were just too many good things to talk about. She ended up telling about it all over several days, and it was definitely a night she will remember for a long time. There is just no place Caroline would rather be than Carroll Elementary.