Someone had a groovy giant frosted cookie for her b.day on July 14th.

Happy 9th Birthday dear Megan,

We love you with all our hearts, Mom, Dad, Paige, Rowdy and Rebel

Here's the story...for years we have had a family joke about the kids getting their ears pierced. I have always been a little surprised that they have not asked me to get their ears pierced because almost all of their friends have theirs done (some of them since they were babies). So whenever we are strolling down the mall and we get in front of "Claire's" I will say in a loud voice "Who wants to get their ears pierced today?" and they would always put their hands over their ears and yell "NOT ME!".

Well about a month ago we were talking about Megan's up coming 9th birthday and I said you should get your ears pierced then all your friends could get you earrings. Of course you will want to do it before your b.day party. So July 7th we were printing out her b.day invites and she said don't forget to put "I got my ears pierced for my b.day" on them. So that was it...in black and white...she had to get her ears pierced. So on Saturday, July 10th we went to the mall and marched into Claire's and our little girl got her ears pierced while Aunt Deb, Paige and I took pictures.

Here is the last picture of Megan with un-pierced ears, (that is her fairy ear...see how it's a little pointy on top...when we were at Disney she showed it to Tink and Tink confirmed that Megan must be half fairy)

She practically squeezed the stuffing out of that poor bear...but she didn't flinch or even get a tear in her eye. Just before she had them done she got a very serious look on her face, Aunt Deb exclaimed "I have never seen Megan look so serious".

Aunt Deb came along for support too. After the piercing was done we went to CA Pizza Kitchen to celebrate and to share our piercing stories from "back in the day".
Like for instance when I had mine done when I was 7 they used a big metal thing that looked like a staple gun...and they only did one ear at a time...AND when they did my first ear the darn thing got STUCK on my ear. So they were yanking it around and finally got it off and then I had to be brave so they could pierce my other ear...luckily without a repeat of the stuck piercing gun. I wonder if they gave my mom a discount for the trauma they caused me? Probably not, but hey what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger...and gives you a good story to tell.

Oh No it's the "croc A gators"!

Here are some picture's from the neighborhood pool at Grandma and Grandpa's in Georgia. I had some fun taking pictures with the new lens as Mike, Paige and Megan goofed around in the pool on June 19, 2010.

This is what happens whenever Mike get's in the pool with the kids. They climb on him and try to dunk him...they should know by now that they will never win at this game.

Then one of them makes the mistake of getting on his shoulders and then this.....


......happens!

Can you tell how frightened Megan is in the picture above...going into the water head first with a big fat grin on her face?
Yep, she's scared!

I wonder at what age they will figure out that when you jump into a pool holding onto a big ol beach ball that the ball will not go under the water with you but pop up like, well a big ol beach ball.. but hey it's fun to watch.

One last smile....we will call it "Megan Spouting Off"!

I don't think I have documented Megan's new glasses on my blog...just on facebook. She got them back in mid May. She just needs them for reading and computer work.
We think she looks adorable in them!

Question) What comes the week after the Spring dance recital?

Answer) The Summer "bob" courtesy of Miss. Melinda.
Yep, it's summer time and Megan loves her new bob...and so do I especially since she can comb it all by herself.
Not only does she look cool she feels cool!

I took these pictures of Paige with our new Nikon last month. She will start the summer lessons next Tuesday. Lucky for her they are in the a.m. so it won't be too terribly hot.

I took these while standing in the arena shooting across the field.
(This camera is so fun!)

Her shirt says "instant message" under the picture of the pup wagging it's tail. We love "Life is Good" shirts.

Look at the confidence in that smile...she's in the zone!

Megan's 3rd grade class had their "Pioneer Day" back on May 26th. We had a warm (85 degrees) day but no thunderstorms at least. The kids had a great time, they are so fortunate to get to pretend to be pioneers it's so much more fun than just reading about it.

Grandma Barb had made the costume for Paige three years ago and it looks just as cute on Megan as it did on Paige. They are lucky girls to have such a talented Grandma.

Megan and her teacher Mrs. H.

I worked at the biscuit making station in the morning and then after lunch I was at stenciling. The kids made their own butter before heading to mix the ingredients, roll out the dough and cut their biscuits. The best part was eating them hot out of the oven!

Megan cleaning the rugs the way they did it before Dyson came along. The moms would sprinkle baby powder on the rugs before they let the kids beat them...smelled like a fresh clean diaper at the chores station!

They square danced!

They did some tin punching with a nail and a aluminum pie plate.

They dipped candles.

They made butter...a little heavy cream, a pinch of salt and a marble in a plastic lidded cup and a lot of shaking makes good butter.

I wonder if the buckets were that small in pioneer days? I doubt it!

They had a good lunch...chicken legs, noodles, corn, fresh veggies, fresh fruit and Megan's favorite pickle spears. After lunch you could pick either a brownie or cookie for desert. "Either" was a hard concept for some of the kids. Megan went with the brownie and deemed it two thumbs up!

Squint your eyes a little and remember back 30 years and you might see a glimpse of Laura Ingles a.k.a. Melisa Gilbert.

They stenciled designs on cotton bags. Some got the concept of a little paint goes a long ways and some just globbed it on. I was helping with the stenciling station the last part of the day.

They helped make rope.