Happy Birthday to my favorite nephew Cody!
He's smart, funny and very creative. He's one of Paige and Megan's favorite cousins, he's never too busy to hang out with them and make fun memories.

Because of him I have been an Auntie for 24 years....I love you Cody!

Paige's new ballet shoes.
They are so new that she had to tie the straps together. I forgot to bring my needle and thread, I'm such a bad mom. We tried to get them last Sat. but they did not have her size in. Then on Tuesday the order had just come in and they had not unpacked it all yet. So we picked them up last night about 15 minutes before class. The dance studio has a new dance wear shop next door, so that is handy. I guess I will have to put "sew ballet straps" on my things to do list...before next Thursday.

Only one girl went to catch the school bus this morning.
Megan was kind of pooped out when she came home from school yesterday. Then at dinner time I felt her forehead and she was warm and her sparkle was gone from her eyes. I took her temp and it was 99.8, I gave her some ibuprofen just in case. She went to bed and fell right to sleep. I checked in on her an hour or so later and made sure she had a fresh sippy cup of water. She slept until almost 7 a.m. I am keeping her home today for some extra rest. Her fever is gone (for now) and she ate some cereal and juice for breakfast. She had brought a paper home from school on Monday saying that one of her classmates had either strep throat or scarlet fever. Hopefully she is just worn out and trying to fight something off. Usually it is Paige that gets a fever in the first week or two of school.
This morning Paige said "I am probably going to jinx myself, but I have not been sick for a long time".

Back To The Future!

Yesterday while we were hanging out in between dance classes. There is an hour wait between the end of Paige's tap class and the beginning of Megan's ballet-tap class, I heard this young dancer say to her friend come on out and see my dad's new car. Since I was sitting with my back to the window I turned around expecting to see a Hummer or a Mini Cooper or something, but no it was a 1982 Delorean. I went out and asked the guy if I could take a picture, I knew Mike would get a kick out of it. Then he said hop in and I will take your picture. So here I am...back to the future.
The first time I ever saw a Delorean was about 1984 I was a teenager and it was in the parking lot at Sunrise Mall. You would have thought a space craft had landed, everyone was checking it out. I guess after more than 20 years they still have that effect on people.

My post for Tuesday 8-26-08

First day of dance for the 2008-2009 season was today. The girls are still dancing at the same studio only it is new and improved. Over the summer they moved down a few doors in the same building. Now they have so much more room. Bigger dance studios, larger and wider hallways (where the moms, dads and siblings hang out). Better seating and more of it. A large girls bathroom with 5 stalls, two sinks and two dressing rooms. They had outgrown the previous space so this was a welcome change.

Paige has Miss. Rachel for the 3rd year in a row for tap. It looks like all the girls are back with maybe one or two new faces, oh and they have a boy in their class this year too.Megan was doing her warm up exercises for her ballet-tap class with Miss. Krissy. So far Megan only has two other girls in her class. Last year there were at least 10 of them. It is still early in the season so I am sure their class will get bigger. Sorry the photo is so dark. The studios are so big it's hard to get a good shot from the doorway.

The kids are back to school (5 days in a row this week!) and summer is winding down. I decided last night before I went to bed that I would get rid of my "summer hair" today. So after the kids got on the school bus and I had my breakfast I snapped a few before pictures of myself. I wanted to remind myself just how bad it looked. I don't know if you can tell from the photo above, but my hair is very light not even near natural for me. If I were to pull my hair back off of my face you would see that I have a good 2 inches of dark/gray roots. After a box of Revlon's Color Silk #51 Light Brown I am back to looking like my old self. The me before I went a little wacky with the do it myself highlights back in May. I wonder how long it will take Mike and the girls to notice the change?

Well we got a little rain when a thunderstorm rolled in around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Then a cold front followed so we are enjoying cooler weather today. I think I will take the pup for a walk, I'm sure it would be good for both of us to get some fresh air and exercise.

My post for Sunday 8-24-08I went out to water the flowers on the back patio the other day and I found this praying mantis under the pot of fuschias. I had to take his picture since the kids were at school and Mike was at work. They enjoy this sort of thing, I think they are cool too.

My post for Saturday 8-23-08

The girls and I had some errands to run today. We took some old computers down to Anderson's for "Shred it day", bought new tap shoes for both girls (dance starts this Tuesday), took a tour of the new & much improved dance studio, and then stopped at Justice so the girls could spend their $15 gift cards (on Webkinz) of course!
While we were doing our errands Barb and Jim came over. Jim helped Mike put the water filtration system in the basement. I know Mike was glad to get that off his "to do list".
We all went to a late lunch at the club and afterward the girls were happy to get to swim for an hour. Megan is up above doing her version of "the cannon ball" in her new two piece.

It has been sunny here and hot in the low 90's. We need some rain. The only reason our grass is still green is because we have been putting the sprinklers out. I know I shouldn't be complaining about the heat because in a few months we will be griping about the cold. I think that is a past time of folks in the Midwest...griping about the weather, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. Good thing we have 4 seasons cause we are never happy with the current one it seems.

My post for Thursday 8-21-08


The first day of school went fine. The bus was a little late getting home, but that was expected...they have to make sure everyone is on the bus. They don't want to forget any body on the first day. The girls have the same bus and same bus driver. Miss. Deb is very nice, she always waves to me and the dogs, even when she's on her other (Jr. high and High school) routes here in the neighborhood.

When the girls got home after school yesterday I gave them a snack and took them to the pool to cool off. They did not have homework on the first day back. Megan said "Mrs. Harden says it's still summer so no homework this week!". I told Megan to tell Mrs. Harden that she went swimming for homework. Paige even taught Megan how to do the butterfly stroke. Megan was doing pretty good. After a while I told her to practice her backstroke I didn't want her wearing herself out.
I think the doggy boys miss Paige and Megan during the day. The house is so quiet. Rebel likes to spend his mornings on the back porch soaking in the sun and watching the humming birds buzz about.

My post for Wednesday August 20,2008
Back To School!
Paige and Megan put up with having a zillion pictures taken of them before they went out to catch the bus for the first day of school. I lucked out and got some cute shots, trust me they were not thrilled about posing for pictures. You would think they would be used to it by now.



Megan was happy to see Ava at the bus stop. Ava is starting kindergarten today. She is so darn cute with her shoes that match her top. Her mom said "it was her 3rd outfit of the morning!". The kindergarten kids do not ride the bus on the first morning, their parents take them at 10. But Ava will ride the bus home with all of the other kids this afternoon.


Above is a shot of the kids lined up for the bus, it's always a large group because of the cul de sac. Below Paige, Megan and Abigail smile for the camera. Abigail is a 2nd grader, a very tall 2nd grader, compared to Megan.

And their off! My day is free until 3:45, that means I get to run errands without any whining from the backseat, and I have to take the dogs out myself. I bet Rebel will be happy to see the kids get off the bus this afternoon.

I plant Cosmos because they remind me of my sister. The year before I moved to Ohio back when I was 23. My sister and I started planting flowers in her backyard, that was the year I bought her a birdbath for her birthday. I don't remember all the flowers we planted, but I do remember that we had cosmos. They are happy delicate flowers.


My post for Tuesday August 19,2008

We put some humming bird feeders up this Spring. At first we were thrilled when we got a glimpse of a hummer at our feeders two or three times a week. Well the flowers are in full bloom and word must have spread in the hummer community because now it is non stop hummer traffic. They are very bold, and will zoom right past your head. I took theses two photo's with Paige's little point and shoot Kodak and pointing through the kitchen window. Not too bad under the circumstances.

I took the photo below while sitting on the patio. Give it a click for a close up.

Even the butterflies and bees are enthralled with our zinnia's. Paige and I gathered the seeds last fall from ones I had planted in the front yard. Then early this Spring I tossed them in the bed next to the patio before I put the mulch down. They are thriving and attracting all sorts of wildlife. The hummer's love them also.

My post for Monday August 18,2008

Monday was "M.T.T.D." Meet The Teacher Day! at school. The kids were excited to go say hi to their teachers and see their new classrooms. School starts this Wednesday, boy the summer just flew by, especially after we got home from California.

Megan will be in Mrs. Harden's 2nd grade class this year. We have known Mrs. Harden since Paige was in 2nd grade, back then Paige had Mrs. Black. Mrs. Black and Mrs. Harden were team teachers so Mrs. Harden would see Megan when we would come to the class parties. Mrs. Black now teaches at a new school in the district and she will be jealous when she finds out that Mrs. Harden has Paige's little sister in class.
Megan is holding the class mascot, it will be fun to hear what kind of name the kds come up with. The class mascot will take turns going home with the kids and the kids will write about their adventures with the class mascot in a journal. When Paige was in Mrs. Black's class it was "Melman" the giraffe. Paige ended up winning Melman in a drawing at the end of the year. Now Melman hangs out with Buddy on Paige's new headboard.

Paige was excited to meet her 5th grade teacher, since Mrs. Ramono is new to the school. She seems very nice. Paige was also excited to get her locker number and combination. The 5th graders have a locker in the 5th grade hall, a little practice for when they go to middle school next year. How did that happen so fast?

It took a few tries, but she figured it out. She had the combination memorized by the time we were back in the car. Her teacher gave them a little "test" for the first day of class. She had them put a book in their locker and they are to bring it to class on Wednesday.

Oh and look at that, we ran into Cameron while we were there.
Snap! another cute picture!

My post for Sunday 8-17-08
Sunday was a day of parties for Megan. We started at Aunt Terry and Uncle Steve's with a cookout and birthday party for Grandma Barb and Uncle Dave. Then I had to take her home so she could go to Cameron's swim party.
Barb and Jim came up on Saturday so it was fun to get everyone together. It was also nice of them to drop Mike and Paige off on their way back over to Dave and Jei's, Paige was not ready to leave after just two and a half hours, she never wants to go home, it's always fun at Aunt Terry's.

It was also nice to have Jei with us to celebrate Dave's birthday. She just moved here from Chicago so it will be nice to have her join in at the family parties.

My Post for Saturday 8-16-08

We were all up early on Saturday. Mike had to get to the baseball diamonds at the park across the river. He was playing in the "1st Annual Haunted CuldeSac Softball Tournament". They raised over sixteen hundred dollars for "Firefighters 4 Kids". They also drank a lot of beer and had a lot of fun, so I hear. I had to work all day and Paige and Megan were invited over to Brittany's to play all day. It all worked out well. When I got home I did a little crafting for Megan's best friend Cameron's 7th birthday.

You may click on the photo's for a close up.
I made the birthday card above, I sort of stole the birthday cake idea from my sister, and she probably stole it from Stephanie at www.papergarden.com
Then I made a "C" for Cameron, I added a few sparkles to it just for fun!

I picked up this cute little notebook at "Hobby Lobby" for two bucks, then I fancied it up with rub on letters, scraps of ribbon and some sparkles and glitter. Everything's better when it sparkles!
Then I made this little picture mobile to hang from the ceiling, it is double sided. I used 3 pages from a flower chip board album. I had to punch a few extra holes so I could hang it in a row. I covered the flowers with fun paper, added the pictures, a few embellishments and lots of ribbon and that was it. Megan loves it and has requested one for her room. I have to give my sister some credit, since she gave me the idea for this project. She bought me some chipboard albums while she was here in Feb. and told me they make cute wall hangings. So thanks Sis!

This is the whole front side, please ignore my feet in the picture. I have no idea how that happened.

Megan and Cameron have been the best of friends since they were two. Their older sister's met at kindergarten registration. When Paige and Jordan started kindergarten Megan and Cameron were lost without their big sisters to play with. That is when Gayle and I started getting these two together about once a week for play dates. The rest is history, they have been B.F.F.'s ever since. They are sweet little girls, they have very similar taste and temperaments. Oh, and they take the cutest pictures together too! Like two little peas in a pod.
Here is the other sides, and my darn feet again!