Paige's first day of 6th grade...our girl is going to middle school.

Can you tell she has puppy treats in her hands? She wanted the boys to be in the picture and that was the only way to get them to sit together.

She has a ton of stuff to carry to school today...her binder, her lunch and a tote bag filled with extra paper and her locker supplies (shelf, magnets, mirror with wipe off memo board). They are supposed to bring two boxes of tissues for their homeroom class but I told her to take those tomorrow.

Paige and our newest neighbor Lauren. Lauren just turned 11 on Monday. It's nice that Paige has such a sweet friend here in our neighborhood. Lauren reminds me a lot of my niece Chelsea she's a very sweet girl.

Megan our big 3rd grader!

Megan's big purple printed school bag is mostly empty..it has school forms and checks for her lunch debit card and school fees, a clipboard, and 20 sharpened pencils. The school supply list says they need 4 boxes of 24 pencils...but my gosh if she had that many she would have enough for a new pencil each week of school. I told her if she runs out I will send in more but 20 is plenty to start out with. She also packed her lunch...she was not thrilled about the chicken, green beans, pineapple and milk on the lunch menu for school. She is packing a peanut butter sandwich, grapes, cheese crackers, yogurt smoothie, water and M&M's.

Standing in line for the bus...Hunter, Demera, Peyton, Megan and Ayva. They had a new bus driver this year, Mr. Tom. They were all bummed out because they have assigned seats. The last couple of years with Miss. Debbie they just picked their seats and then told her what seat # they were in and she wrote it down.

And theyr'e off....now I need to ge get gas for the lawn mower and get the yard mowed before 3 p.m. (Paige gets home at 3 and the the elementry kids get home at 3:45).

Hey do I get extra points for posting pictures from the weekend on Monday...instead of waiting until the next weekend to get around to it?

We started off our weekend Friday night with a concert at Expresso Yourself Cafe. Paige went to a music class every Wednesday in July and on Friday they had a concert. It was fun to hear her play in public and she was so cool and relaxed. Needless to say we are very proud of her for practicing so hard and for performing so well.

Paige had two duets one with another student Annie who plays the flute and this one above with her teacher Dr. Clark. He is a very nice man and he always has so many positive things to say about Paige. She will be taking private classes with him during the school year. He teaches music at the local music store plus he teaches at a local college.

Paige also had her first sold performance, she played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"...and it was the best rendition I've ever heard!

Aunt Deb and Megan enjoying some blues played by some guitar players (also from the music store).

Me and my girls :) for the camera.

This is what I get when I ask the three of them to go stand by the sign, and you know that it was Aunt Deb's idea.

Not too long until I am the shortest one in our family...unless you count the dogs!

The only casualty from the weekend softball tournament. Oh there were lots of pulled muscles, a few sore backs, a softball to the back of the head while running to first and stitches under one guys chin (that he gave himself). Other than that this was probably the biggest oops!

Ya know it's "Shark Week" on the Discovery channel....do you think she was checking for fins? Actually she has not gone off the diving board since late last summer...so maybe she was just getting herself physced up.

Paige is too young to remember the Nes-Tea Plunge but I'm not!

No she is not being a shark and no she is not saying a prayer before she splashes into the pool. She was playing on the monkey bars at the park all day and she got a BIG blister in the center of her palm and it popped right before we went to the pool so she was holding it out of the water.

Here are the pictures from last Sunday (7-26-09). Lately my blogging motto has been "Better Late Than Never" so this is what we were up to a week ago today:

Spending an afternoon and evening fishing at a park up the road. Megan was the first to catch a bluegill then she was off to the playground just over the crest of the hill. Paige caught a nice size blue gill then she was off "to check on her sister". We were at the park from about 3 p.m. until 9 when it started getting dark. The kids saw a couple of their friends at the park so they were happy and entertained. Another nice thing about this fishing location is it is close to home and they have nice clean restrooms with running water and soap!



What do you think of Megan's fishing attire? When we got there she had a long scarf around her neck but I told her she had to take it off if she was going to play on the playground. Don't you just love her rock and roll gloves?

Mike waiting for "Walter" to bite!

Paige's hair looking messy just out of a ponytail. This is a rare photo...because I can't stand it when my kids hair is in their face!

Last week we incorrectly identified this fish as a bass...but after looking at the fish guide on line we think it is a black crappie. Anyways it was fun to catch...and release.

Gosh I just can't seem to get caught up posting in a timely manner...maybe it has something to do with our crazy summer schedule. So these pictures were taken last Friday evening when Paige, Megan and I went to "Jungle Jack's Landing" with Sydney and her family and friends to celebrate her 8th b.day. They needed me to go along so they would have enough drivers to get the kids there and to have enough adults to help watch the kids and ride with them too.
I managed to get this cute shot of Megan on the bumper cars. She looks pretty fierce!

I almost missed Paige as she swung around on the "Gibbon Swings" above.

Then in this shot below I have the back of Megan but what I really love is Delaney and Shae are holding hands in front of Megan, oh and the sky is the perfect shade of blue.

I like the picture above, we are riding in a parrot swing and you can steer a fin to make the car tilt. That is why you can see cement below us, I also like seeing my kids profiles in photos too. It's not always about the straight on smile just right pose.

Hey there's Megan a few cars ahead!

Miss Drama Face above...she's really looking frightened!
Then in the picture below is the "I am so tired of getting my picture taken ALREADY!" face that she has perfected!

Well it is Thursday 7-30-09 a week after Megan's Rock Star 8th b.day party...the house is a lot quieter this week. Last week at this time we had 11 little girls ages 6 to 12 running around singing, laughing, screaming and playing air guitar. They all got along fine, they made up some fun games and nothing got broke and no one got hurt.....but it was still a great party! (Ya know how "they say it's not a party til something gets broke or someone gets hurt" well that is so overrated...at least in my book!)

Paige and Megan ready to rock the house!

Meghan, Paige and Megan...."Music Makes Her Dance!"


All of the girls each received an "ECHO Microphone" so they could sing loud. I'm sure their parents were thrilled!

You may notice that Paige and Megan's outfits keep changing. Before the party they put together outfits for quick changes (something they learned during dance recitals). So they had lots of costume changes...and my only request was that they not put the clothes in the laundry unless they got them dirty i.e. spilled food or drink on them.

Our sweet little neighbor girl Joci came down to help with the party and to be the tattoo artist.

Megan and Cameron strike a pose in front of the three dollar shower curtain that we transformed into a photo backdrop with star stencils and acrylic paint. It turned out to be a big hit...the kids pretended it was the stage. We had it hung on the shower curtain pole inside the double doors of our den. When they were playing "rock star" Megan was Hannah Montana and Cameron was her body guard. The other kids would have to show their backstage passes to go behind the shower curtain to get autographs.

Megan says "Girls Rule"...they also rock and roll!

Delaney looks like a star!

Megan " I might even be a ROCK STAR!"

Ayva sporting her fancy glitter tattoo!

Caitlyn strikes a pose!

Megan and Macie rock the house!

Megan prepares to make a wish!

The audience-judges for the dance competition.

Sydney, Lily and Delaney perform their dance.

Ayva, Joci and Meghan perform their dance routine during the dance contest.

Paige on drums and Lily on guitar...giving Guitar Hero a spin.


Sydney did a great job on guitar, she is pretty talented she also plays the piano.

Cameron and Megan B.F.F.'s Cutest little rocker chicks on the block!

Opening gifts...notice that Rowdy is right in the middle of things as always.

The whole gang...back row l to r: Macie, Meghan, Paige, Birthday Girl Megan, Joci, Lily and Sydney. Front row l to r: Delaney, Caitlyn, Cameron and Ayva