Just a few recent photos

Photoless

I have not updated in a while. Last weekend was consumed with homecoming duties at the college, a long day. I thought I would have photos of the girls but they chose to stay with Grandma. This week has been another full one. Evelyn got her very first report card on Tuesday. I meant to take a photo of her with it before signing it and sending it back to school but did not. Oh well. She is doing great in school. We were gearing up for a fun event with 50s day for her class. Mamaw Flora did an excellent job making her a poodle skirt to get her ready for this event. We had recently bragged about Evelyn getting this far in to the school year without sickness and what do you know, she came down with a fever. It lasted about 24 hours with no other symptoms, just long enough to miss the 50s day. We are going to have to just dress up as she would have and take pictures because now I do not have those cute photos to share. Today was Evelyn's first celebration assembly (awards after each 9 weeks) at school. Evelyn got several recognitions and I did take my camera for the event but the photos came out dark just like my friend Angela said they would. Oh well. Emelia has been doing great. She loves us all but is still very much a daddy's girl. She has been putting together a lot of words. She also recognizes many letters that our names begin with. She almost has counting to 10 down thanks to Mr. Duke. I am very pleased with her progress. It seems like quite a while but she has just been with us four months now. The weather is supposed to be very nice this weekend. Maybe we can get out and take some photos to share. :)

Pumpkin Patch

We have had another great but busy weekend. We went to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday with our local FCC families. It was a little warm but a really fun event. They have such a great play area for the kids, a ride through the farm and, of course, an opportunity to pick out a pumpkin. We had a picnic lunch with the group after the tour. I forgot to mention the mazes and the corn pit (a favorite of most all the kids). They had a corn maze, a large bale hay maze and a small bale hay maze. Evelyn like the two latter but not the corn maze. She thought we were lost. I told her that Mr. Ron had it under control. We did exit via the entrance after quite a walk but it was fun. We were all pretty wiped out but once home we did have to play again at our park with cousin Mason who was down for the weekend. The photo of Emelia with the boxes is her making her cereal choice. This is one of her favorite things to do. :) The blue tshirt is a hand me down from Evelyn. It says, "that's it I'm going to grandma's." That fits them both but especially Emelia this last Friday when she did go to grandma's after a week of them being gone. She was quite happy they returned. There is also a photo of Evelyn modeling one of her new bows.

Well lets see, I am sure there must be plenty to tell but just no time to tell it. The biggest thing for the last week has been going to the park. Our park here recently had a long overdue upgrade on the playground equipment. You now have to plan when you go carefully because there are tons of kids there. It is funny how Evelyn and her friends have come home from school each day saying, “Mom, so-and-so is going to the park today and I told them I would be there too.” Who can rebuff that one when it would disappoint a friend? We have now been five times in one week and I am sure there will be pleading again. Evelyn is a monkey anyway and is fun to watch. Emelia is our brave one. She will try anything even if her skill level is not there yet. We have to watch her like a hawk. She did do really well on the big slides on our last visit. We timed that one where it was not overwhelming with big kids. Naturally I did not have the camera. Her face was priceless with the accomplishment. The other events of the week included Emelia going to preschool for two mornings. All of our grandparent caretakers have been on a trip this week. Emelia loved the idea of “Hui Hui school girl” but not the actual experience. She did okay and hopefully will be ready for it in the near future. I think the grandparents have spoiled her but isn’t that what grandparents are for? I need to load pictures from Scott's camera. I did not have many. I thought the one of Emelia giving herself a kiss on our stove was too sweet.

Fun at the Beach

The pictures say enough but I will add just a few notes. Scott was not the only one who pulled the girls on the jet ski float. He joined the fun after Ron and I were maxed out. Notice that Evelyn and Emelia do not both have on their matching dresses. Somehow when we got there, Emelia's dress had not gotten packed. Thanks to Adele, Emelia had a pretty white dress to wear. Again, we had great fun and look forward to future trips.

I remember so well our trips to "the gulf" when I was young. We are now making memories like those for our girls. Scott had become a non-beach person until he saw how much fun Evelyn had at the beach. After the last few days, Emelia now loves the beach as well. We have been able to take three beach getaways with our friends the Smiths and we look forward to this every year. As always I am late with things so I will have to share more about the trip and more photos later. I will post just a few for now. Evelyn cried several times today because she would miss her friend Mallory, because she was no longer at the beach, and because she had to go back to school tomorrow.

Another week has passed. The time does fly by. I intended to post early on but I'll just give a quick recap. We started with the kickoff of PRCC's Centennial Celebration with a parade through town and a picnic at the school following. It was a nice change of pace but quite a warm September day. Evie's school came out for the parade and were on the sunny side of the street for too long, poor babies. We were across from Evelyn on the shady side. Emelia entertained herself with Scott's lens cap during the wait. She also enjoyed her moon pie as we cooled off in the office building where I work. Evelyn is now taking dance and is excited about it. Monday was her first day but she has been looking forward her next dance class. She is quite creative with what she comes up with on her easel. I am very proud of both girls with some of their accomplishments this week. Emelia has only worn pull ups at night since Wednesday. I think we finally hit a milestone with the potty training. Emelia was napping yesterday and I decided to get out some Dick and Jane books we had for Evelyn. Those of you who are old enough know about Dick and Jane. Anyway, Evelyn has been doing well with her letter sounds and a few sight words. Dick and Jane are such a memory to me in those early days of reading. I had to help her just a bit but we were so pleased. Her face just lit up when she realized she was reading all by herself. Watching your little one learn is so much fun and truly amazing.