MORE BIRTHDAY PICS

LILY IS 7!!!!

Getting ready to blow out her candles.
The gang. She had 13 show up out of 16---not too bad-3 of the boys had baseball games.
Skeeball.
Playing volleyball with her new net.
Lily and Jess.

Lily had a great birthday. It was action packed. Her party was at 11 and she had a wonderful time. She had all of her friends there and it was a nice party. It was at Ben and Ari's which is a local arcade type place here. Very easy-they provided the cake, pizza, drinks, tokens---I didn't do anything but the goody bags. That's my kind of party!
Her friend Leia ended up coming home with us and they played volleyball and badminton with her new set, played with her new bubbles and of course, with Jess.
Then we took Lily out to dinner. She REALLY wanted to go to Cheeseburger in Paradise, but we just didn't have time before Wyatt's game, so her second choice was O'Charleys. They brought her a whole cake and sang to her--she loved it! We promised to take her to Cheeseburger in Paradise soon.
Well, I need to finish getting ready for church. I'll post more pics later!

SUMMER FUN

The boys were into their magazines.
Lily's class.
Having Happy Birthday sung to her by her class.
S'mores.

S'more s'mores!

Well, it finally feels like summer---even though it's supposed to get down to 39 or 40 tonight! We had our first cookout with the neighbors---something we do a lot in the summer. We always do s'mores and the kids love it. Wyatt ended up sleeping over at his friend Thomas' tonight. That always seems to happen after these get togethers.

I can never get my pictures to be in the order I want them on here--any trick to that??
The 2nd and 3rd pics are of Lily at school today having her little class birthday celebration. She was having Happy Birthday sung to her and was all shy and embarassed---yeah, right!! She went home with her friend Nick after school today. She has been so excited about it all week. He can't come to her party tomorrow because of a baseball game, so he wanted her to come over.

It was a great day--I felt like I accomplished something at school with the girl I'm mostly working with--and that felt really good. I feel like she just needs a positive role model and someone to care about her--and I'm trying to be that person. I'm finding it really hard not to think about these kids outside of school, though. I could NEVER be a counselor or psychologist! It's just too hard to turn it off when the school day is over! I hate to think about the homes some of them are going home to---very sad.

On a happier note, Lily is SO excited about her birthday party tomorrow! She is getting American Girl Doll Jess and I think she will be thrilled! My mom went overboard as usual and got her Jess's PJ's along with matching ones for Lily, another Jess outfit and a badminton set. She will love that!

OK, these are out of order. I found these when I downloaded the pics on my camera. I was like, what in the world is this? Then I figured out Wyatt had had my camera again. He was also very proud of his spelling test, I guess, because he also took a pic of it----below.
Well, Wyatt ended up with a splint all the way up to his elbow which is not what I was expecting. All for a tiny broken bone in his hand. Of course, since it's not a cast, it's also not waterproof--no fun! Here he is doing his homework with his left hand. The funny thing is, his handwriting is better with his left than with his right! I guess he's kind of ambidextrous like me. At least he'll get it off just in time for swimming this summer. Baseball season's pretty much shot, though. He might be able to play the last couple of games. Oh well, there's a bright side to everytihng, I guess. Less running around for us!!
The doctor said there is definitely nothing wrong with his bones. They look very healthy in the x-rays and he is very healthy. He's just had bad luck.

BROKEN BONES

Well, it happened again. One of our kids running around with a broken bone and us not knowing it! Wyatt went to an ice-skating party on Sunday. Jeff and I joked that he would break a bone. Well, guess what? We don't THINK it even happened while skating. He is very unclear on how it happened---or at least he says he is. We get the feeling there is something he doesn't want to tell us. He just keeps saying that his friend Jake jammed it. Oh, it's his hand that is broken--didn't mention that yet. He has been saying it hurt since the party but it wasn't discolored and maybe just a tad swollen. Jeff took him today and sure enough. It's the bone that extends up from his ring finger and it's broken almost all the way up by his wrist. Anyway, he goes to get a cast on tomorrow. I guess baseball is out. He still wants to go to all of the games, though. Man, seems we've had our share of broken bones in this family!!!
Working is going well so far. It's almost too easy and not really busy enough for me. There are times when I don't really have that much to do. I'm kind of surprised they hired someone else for in there, but what do I know? I'm glad they did! It's very flexible-I'll still get to take goodies to Lily's class on Friday for her b-day. I get to eat lunch basically when I want so I can eat with either of the kids if I want to. I still feel like I'm subbing--but everyone keeps telling me congratulations and welcome-they sent an e-mail to all the teachers about me starting. How embarrassing. Anyway-it's kind of cool to feel like a working woman again---I really do enjoy working. I'm sure it's easy to say that when I only have a month!!

Well, my first day went well. It was actually really easy and the other 3 ladies I work with are really nice and fun. Very busy day. After school I had to type the PTO minutes(May snuck up on me) then Lily had art and I ran several errands in the hour she was there. Then I came home, cooked a quick dinner and am getting ready to head out to a PTO meeting. Man, I think I'll sleep well tonight!

Well, I'm a full time worker now. Just for a month. Still, it's kind of scary. I got a job as an intructional assistant in the Emotionally Disabled room at school. It's everyday just until school is out. I'm pretty excited--I'll get a couple of good paychecks before summer. Plus I do really love being at the school. It's just kind of weird, knowing I won't be able to run errands and such during the day like I'm used to. I'm thinking it'll probably force me to manage my time better. It'll be a good test anyway--maybe I'll want to do something more full time next school year if it works out well---who knows. At least I know most of the kids already and there are currently no "dangerous" ones. The principal did ask me if I would have a problem wrestling someone to the ground if I had to. He wasn't joking either! Hopefully it'll never come to that! I've subbed in there and it wasn't bad at all. Well, off to pick Lily up from dance!

BUDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

Check out Wyatt's blog for some pictures he took. We were up at our neighborhood playground a couple of weeks ago and he got hold of my camera. Before I knew it he had shot several photos. When I looked at them, I was actually pretty impressed with his eye. I didn't crop or edit these at all. He also named them all himself. Oh, the picture of the boy on the ground is Wyatt's friend Thomas. I think he's playing dead. They are so goofy!!

BIRDS AND BLOOMS

Finally, my lilac bush has bloomed. This was a start off of the lilacs that were in my grandmother's yard long ago. My dad has kept them going in his yard(he's quite the gardner--guess that's where I get my love of gardening). He gave me a start a couple of years ago that I forgot about and left in the starter pot too long until it looked totally dead. It was nothing but a stick. I stuck it in the ground anyway and it has flourished. It has gotten larger every year and this is the first year it has bloomed. Nothing smells better than lilacs! I also have Lily of the Valley that is getting ready to bloom for the first time. That smells great, too!
These are the happy little goldfinches that I have in my yard. At times, there will be 4 or 5 of them on my feeder all at once. They are so pretty and sing the most beautiful song. I always thought you had to feed them thistle, which I do, but they really like the black oil sunflower seed, too. Since our trees and other plants are getting bigger, we are starting to see lots more birds. At our house in Tennessee, when I was REALLY into bird feeding and watching(no kids, of course), I documented over 30 kinds of birds in my yard. It was cool. My neighbor here did say she has been seeing some bluebirds back there, so I'll keep a watch out for them!

PINK EYE :-(

Well, Lily has pink eye. It was a tiny bit red last night and I thought it was just allergies. This morning it was so red and swollen, but still didn't look like pink eye to me. It was more red around the eye than in it, like I've seen pink eye before. This is how it looked when I got home from school today---lots better than this morning!
I subbed today, so I made a Dr. appointment for 9:30 and took her in for the school nurse to check out to see what she thought. She said there is a form of conjuctivitis that's been going around that looks just like this. So, Jeff took her to the Dr. and sure enough it's pink eye.
Lily was SOOOO upset and cried all morning. She had a big day planned. They had a puppet show in her class that she was in and had made her own puppet and everything. It was a big deal to her and she was very upset to miss it. She was also supposed to go over to her friend Leia's house to play after school and was just so upset that she couldn't! I felt so bad for her that I went at lunch to get her McDonald's along with a hot fudge sundae. She seemed happier at lunch time.
At least it wasn't next weekend, which is her birthday! I really hope none of us get it! The good news is, she shouldn't be contagious anymore by tomorrow.

WYATT'S SPRING PROGRAM

Wyatt had his school spring program tonight. It was cute. He, being one of the tallest in his class, was in his usual back row. My pics didn't turn out very well.
I have to say, Jeff is the BEST daddy. He had meetings this week that he planned and is leading for his GM's. He planned it all before he knew when the program was. He drove 3 hours home tonight for a 20 minute performance and is driving 3 hours back at this very moment. He gets back home tomorrow night. He asked Wyatt if he would be upset if he didn't come. Wyatt said yes and that's all it took.
I'm subbing tomorrow in 2nd grade. It wasn't the easiest class last time I was in there. I hope it's improved! Wish me luck!

SNEAKY READER

I meant to post this pic earlier and forgot. About 30 minutes after I THOUGHT Lily was asleep the other night, I kept hearing noises from her room. I peeked in and saw this. She was reading her Judy Moody chapter book. I give them both reading time before bed every night but it's never enough I guess. She told me that she sneaks the book back out every night. No wonder she has been having a hard time waking up for school-which is not the norm for her--she's an early bird normally. Sneaky girl.

FIRST LOVE

Well, I think Wyatt has his first real crush. A little girl in his class told him she was gonna invite him to her b-day party on Sunday, so for over a week he's been telling us that he has plans on Sunday, so DON'T plan anything. He was waiting in SUCH anticipation for the invite to come in the mail. It came yesterday and he was on cloud 9! It's an ice-skating party, too-which he does not really enjoy. He doesn't care, though. He told me he likes her because she's nice, really smart, and he likes her hair. I thought those were great reasons. He actually calls her his girlfriend. However, I don't think she has a clue how smitten he is. He said he thinks she likes him too because she starts a conversation with him about 50% of the time and he starts it the other 50%---so she must like him as much as he likes her. I love a 9 year old's reasoning ;-)
I have a day off between subbing days today, so I have to get some things done around here!!!
Have a GREAT day!!!!

DANCE

Miss Michele picked Lily to help her demonstrate the next thing they were going to do.
Lily's class--she is by far the smallest one. They are sitting down in the middle back. She's not THAT much smaller!

Shuffle, ball change, step.
At the bar.


It was parent night at dance tonight so I got to go in and see what Lily is learning--and get some pictures, of course. I can't believe how complicated their steps are getting! They go really fast in tap now!
I'm listening to her talking to her friend Anna on the phone right now. She just called Lily to chat. Crack me up. Sign of things to come, for sure!!!!

VARIOUS PICS FROM THE WEEKEND

Lily laying in the crawl space area in the basement that we are making into a cabinet. She loves to find those little nooks to crawl into.
Listening to the coach after the game in the dugout.
Lily at Coppelia with her wonderful ballet teacher Miss Michele. Doesn't she just look like a ballerina? The ballet was great! I didn't know the story beforehand, but I would definitely like to see it again if I ever get the opportunity. The male lead was only 14 years old and was awesome. He leapt so high! I'm sure he's got a big career in front of him! The kids sang in church this morning. They sang "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" with the adult choir and the youth choir. There were probably 50 kids and 100 adults singing. It was really great! Lily was absolutely belting it out-she loves to sing! Wyatt, on the other hand, tolerates it. I think he enjoys it but doesn't want to admit it.
Action shot.

We were SO proud of Wyatt last night. He gave it everything he had in his game and did really well. It was his first time hitting off of another kid. Last year was coach pitch. He was up 3 times and hit the ball twice. The first time he just barely got out at first. His last at bat was last inning, bases loaded and 2 outs. Could it get any worse than that? He hit it on the first pitch, but the ball hit his hand really hard and he was stunned. He stood there for a few seconds before he realized he actually had hit the ball instead of it just hitting him, and then he ran. He didn't make it to first, though. It was a GREAT effort. He was happy with himself. We lost, but that was OK, we tried our best and the team we played had already practiced like 10 times to our 3.
Our neighbor who is a nurse looked at his finger. It was REALLY swollen, but she didn't think it was broken. We iced it and it was fine this morning. He was really proud of himself for being tough. He said he ALMOST cried, but didn't.

BASEBALL OPENING DAY

Wyatt in his Braves uniform.
Lily on the fence-just had to get the close up.
The fly by was neat.
Ready to hit.
Lily's turn at hitting. She did great!

Today is opening day for baseball. We went to the opening day ceremonies this morning. It's the first time we've gone-it was rained out last year. We had no idea what to expect, but it was neat. The teams walked out on the field, they had the national anthem and some planes did a fly by. Wyatt's first game is at 6 tonight.
Lily and I are going to a ballet today--Coppelia--at 2-so it's going to continue to be a busy day.

Another flower picture.
Lily at the playground.
Lily and Lauren in the Barbie jeep-it may be our last summer for this-they're getting a tad big for it--even though they still love it--best $50 we ever spent!!!

FLOWERS

OK, I've found that I really enjoy taking pictures of flowers. I think they look pretty cool all together. I thought they might look neat blown up and framed as a group, too.

WYATT AND HIS TWIN

Well, they say everybody has a twin. I think Wyatt's must just be his good friend Thomas. He came over yesterday to show us his new glasses. Of course, Wyatt has his contacs now, but with the glasses on they REALLY look alike now!! They are pretty much exactly the same size, too! Of course, Thomas has brown eyes and Wyatt's are blue--but still.....there is quite a resemblance!!