Hannah and Lauren (her bff)

Hannah and Lauren get along so well and love playing together all the time. We've opted to not have a "birthday" party for and to invite ONE friend to the Great Wolf Lodge and she chose Lauren ;). We took a tour the other day with the girls and WOW O WOW I am just as excited as they are!
She's growing up so fast - this year has been the beginning of crazy "tween/teen" attitude AND fun conversations. I remember being that age and wanting to play barbies with my little sister (of course - THREATENING her if she told ANYONE I was playing barbies I would beat her up! :) - love you Patty! ) but wanting to be part of the grown-up's conversations too! It's a tough age and I am trying really hard to be patient with that ;). All in all... she is such a great kid. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know! She loves her family so much! One of her favorite things is "family playtime" (as she calls it). That's when we play a board game or go for a walk (almost every night) or just watching a program together in my big comfy bed! ;). I wish I could capture the love she has for her little brother on camera. Their relationship is the sweetest thing ever. I am very blessed to have the 2 best kids on the planet. I love my family so much and count my blessings all the time! ;)

I love all of you... near and far (that means you Dottie - my South Carolina peeps). You all have such a special place in our hearts!

"Wii" were having lots of fun!

The senior of the school...

Today is Hannah's first day to be a senior in her school! :( For some reason I was emotional when I dropped her off this morning? This summer has been so awesome - I just didn't want to let her go! I can't wait for 3 o'clock!

She looks like a little lady! No more little girl! :(

Hannah was the first student there!
Her teacher is awesome and voted "teacher of the year" by the DISTRICT!

Twas the night before school starts...

I'm so sad to see the summer end! Hannah and I have had so much fun together. It's my first summer with her since she was 1! She is all ready for 5th grade (OMG)! She loves her new teacher and has friends in her class, so all is right in the world. Her are a few pictures of her tonight.

This weekend we "moved" not houses, but 3 of our bedrooms. We switched Hannah's bunk beds for the guest queen. Put the bunk beds in Lucas' new room - which was the old guest room, and made Lucas' old room the craft/computer room. WHEW! We're worn out! Hannah loves her new bed and Lucas will "learn" to like his new room. He woke up SCREAMING last night and we think it's because he didn't recognize anything??? Who knows? I will put up pictures of Lucas room when it's complete.

Hannah with her new pet "Nosey" the hamster

NO boys allowed - that's an understatement!
Her new bed! Good night "boo" (my nickname for her)
of course, Bailey loves the new bed!

What's our "goal"???

Sorry for the "non-blogging" this week. It's been crazy around here (in a good way)!
Soccer season is just beginning and we're trying to decided what's best for the little princess...

Rec vs Select?
It's a tough decision, but we're trying to do what's best for her. She needs to be "pushed" to learn, so that's why we're leaning towards Select? She has endless energy, so that will not be a problem. Although, she does have the "tween lazy factor"! Matt is committing himself to getting her (AND HIMSELF) up early every morning to go run around the block a few times. Hopefully that will help. She's had 3 practices on 2 different teams and by the last practice on Friday she was about to cry walking off the field. It's time to get in shape! :)
She's about 1/2 the size of the other girls, so we're switching to whole milk (for Lucas too!) and doing Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes for her etc... whew, it's been a long week! We're looking forward to Mammy coming over tonight, so mom & dad can go to celebrate Tim's birthday! :)

whatcha doin' there Lucas???

rrrrreeeoooowwwrrrrrr

Hannah's home!!!

Well, thank goodness Hannah's back from camp! I missed her so much! She had the best experience though. It was so much better for her "emotionally" this year... Last year she just had wayyyy too much going on. She made several new friends and even saw a friend from our soccer team - completely unexpected! A VERY pleasant surprise to Miss Allie! :) She was awarded the most "bold and enthusiastic" award from her counselor... both titles fit her well. I think she is glad to be home - She pretty much laid around Monday - didn't do much of anything, but today she's back to her old active self again. :) WELCOME HOME MY SWEET GIRL!

Hannah & Allison
Hannah & Allie (and Allie's bro sneaking in the pic)

Summer Camp

Well, it's that time of year again. We took Hannah to Pine Cove summer camp yesterday. Last year, she had a rough time with it. I think she had way too much going on personally, so it was pretty hard on her. This year - it's a new camp and she is going with a friend... and they are cabin mates! :) yay! We've heard countless good things about Pine Cove and are so excited to hear all of her amazing stories! Thank you so much family for taking time out of your busy lives to write her a note for her care package. It will mean so much to her everyday she is there! I miss her already!

Here we are arriving!

Her counsler's "camp name" is CABOOSE. She is super sweet!
Hannah in her bunk
Puddleglum - Matt and I wanted to go and play so badly!
Our greeters... they were cheering to us as we were driving in. It was a very welcoming experience!

Hannah about to jump in Puddleglum.
The front of Hannah's cabin (on the right).

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!!!

Mammy & Papa gave Hannah 3 tickets to High School Musical - the musical for her birthday. She could take a friend or... her mom - she chose a friend :(. Hannah, Lauren & Mammy had a blast! They went to Chili's to eat (a Mammy & Hannah tradition before ANY ballet or musical) and had the MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! They had a blast! Lucky girls!!! :)
Oh wow! The cell phone's have begun (they do not have service - it's our old phones). They love to take pix and video's... (sigh)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hannah's 10th birthday party was held here at the house... along w/ 10 girls sleeping over (sigh) most of her family was present. It was an American Idol party, but the girls decided to go in the back and use themselves as target practice w/ the big water gun. Needless to say - they were all soaked! So while they were drying off they played "spin the nail polish". NO KISSING :). If the nail polish landed on you - you got your nail painted. Then we came in so Hannah could open gifts (which they were all so amazing!). After all of that chaos they played the game I was most excited about - THE TIN FOIL GAME. They got in to 2 teams on opposite sides of the house and had TONS of tin foil and they had elect a model. After that was decided they had to create an outfit along w/ at least 3 accessories using ONLY the foil. They were awesome! All the kiddo's like it so much they did it again (both winning one). The 2nd time around one of the teams had a dog on a leash - very creative!
THEN THE CAKE EATING CAME................ we made the girls eat outside (for obvious reasons) and they took it upon themselves to "wear" the cake .... (sigh). Not so much fun to clean up (still doing so actually).
I think the girls liked their party favor - I bought fabric pens and pillow cases and let them draw and autograph them... Jaycie is such a talented artist! Her butterflies were awesome!

Around 11pm ish we all went outside for some friendly "flashlight tag" and ended the night w/ a couple of movies. I think the girls finally gave in and went to sleep around 2am (Hannah was the first to give in:) )!