Rachel's Spring School Pictures

Soccer Team Pictures

This is Rachel's soccer team. She's playing in the U8 division, even though she's young enough to be still playing in the U6 division. She really enjoys playing soccer and is pretty good at it! (In case you don't know, Rachel is on the far right.)




This is Katelyn's team. She plays in the U5/U6 division. The kid in the middle is 4 and the rest of the kids are 5. Katelyn is the second youngest on her team. She played a great game on Saturday and scored 2 goals!! She's getting better each week! She's a little bit scared to get in there where the ball is when there are others around her. She makes that comment that she's the smallest out there. We've tried to tell her that size doesn't mean everything! This past week she did really well and even went after the ball when there were other bigger kids around!

Rachel Playing Soccer

Rachel has had 2 soccer games the past week or so. She is doing so good!!! She's really not quite old enough to play in the division she's playing in, but we thought it would be best to go ahead and let her "play up." She has played so well each week! This past week, she scored a goal!!! The league she's playing in is boys and girls 8 years old and younger, which means some of these kids are almost 9 because the cutoff for turning 8 was like August 1st of last year. So Rachel is the youngest on her team, and probably the youngest in her league. But she is doing super!!! Here's a slideshow from the past couple of games.

Katelyn Playing Soccer

Katelyn has had 3 soccer games over the past week or so. Unfortunately, Katelyn's team is pretty much terrible! There are 5 kids on the team - 3 girls and 2 boys. The girls are definitely better than the boys. This league is for 6 and under. Rachel could've actually played in this league because she didn't turn 6 before the cutoff date, but we moved her up to the 8 and under league. Anyway, Katelyn's team is all 5 year olds and one 4 year old. They teams they've played have been mostly 6 year olds, and they've had some really good players! They don't keep score, but it's pretty obvious that Katelyn's team is getting beat like 30-3 every week. It's not the fact that they're "getting beat" but it's the fact that Katelyn's team is almost scared to get out on the field because the other teams have been so much better. Needless to say, this league doesn't do a very good job of dividing up the teams. Oh well, 3 more weeks is all we have left! Katelyn actually scored a goal Saturday before last! Here's a slideshow from the past few games.

8 Time National Champions!!!!

Lady Vols win their 8th NCAA Championship!!!!

Way to go Tennessee!!!!

Katelyn's 5 Year Check-Up

This morning Katelyn had her 5 year/kindergarten check-up. She did a great job! Her vision and hearing test she passed with flying colors!! And developmentally she is well above her age. She was a very brave girl having to get 4 shots (1 in each arm and 1 in each leg) and a finger stick. And let me tell you - she didn't even cry until after the last shot, then she cried for just a minute. She's not afraid of needles at all - she WANTS to watch the nurse stick the needle in her arm or leg! She watches and grits her teeth. The nurse told her she was the best patient of the day! She did SO WELL!!!

Her stats are height = 40 inches and weight = 32.5 pounds! That puts her in the 9th percentile for height and the 4th percentile in weight!! The doctor doesn't seem concerned because SHE IS GROWING. He expects her to be at least as tall as I am (I think Robert & I would be pleased if she makes it to my enormous height of 5 ft. 2!!!). He said she's just quite petite, but that he wouldn't be surprised if she continues growing after most other girls have stopped. We'll just have to wait & see. Regardless, it really doesn't matter. The important thing is she's healthy and doing well!!!

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again!

Last night before bedtime Rachel lost yet another tooth! This is the 8th one she's lost!!! As is customary at our house, the tooth fairy left 8 quarters for Rachel. Rachel woke up at 5:30 this morning and came running into our bedroom to show us what the tooth fairy left for her! Robert was like "Yeah - that's nice. Now go back to bed!!!"

Our Saturday

Our Saturday was pretty jam-packed! We started out by Robert dropping me off at church to check out the consignment sale for a few minutes while he and the girls went to the library and then to Home Depot. I found a couple of things at the sale and called Robert to see where he was. I thought he'd probably be on his way to pick me up. However, the girls had been sidetracked just a bit. When then went to Home Depot it turns out it was the kid's day at Home Depot and they were making flower pots that morning. The lady stopped the girls and asked them if they wanted to make a flower pot. How could Robert say no? Since it wasn't busy at that moment, the Home Depot lady was able to help one girl while Robert helped the other one so that they could get it done quickly. In the mean time, I had hitched a ride to Home Depot so I got there as they were getting ready to check out. After that, we were headed to Rachel's soccer game. But once again we got sidetracked for a few minutes. The guy pulling out in front of us onto the main road had a truckload of new decking. When he pulled out, everything slid out the back of his truck and spread out across two lanes of traffic. So Robert pulled over and helped the man clear the road (after all, it was blocking all traffic that was going our direction!). After that, we did make it to Rachel's soccer game on time!! Here's a slideshow from the game. A BIG THANKS to Lloyd & Wendy and Puddin & Papa for coming to watch the game!!!

After Rachel's game, we stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up Katelyn's birthday cake and then headed home to get ready for Katelyn's birthday party!!! We weren't sure if we were going to be able to have the party outdoors as planned, but the weather cooperated and the rain held off for us! I was busy cleaning off the outdoor tables, setting up tables & chairs, carrying stuff downstairs, etc. while Robert was drying off the swings, slide, etc. and working on the sandbox. Rachel had to have a bath because she was covered in mud from the soccer game. We got everything ready just in time for Katelyn's friends to start arriving. Katelyn had a blast with all of her friends and their families! As you can see from the pictures, she enjoyed pushing Jacee on the swing. I think she likes it because Jacee is actually someone who is smaller than she is!!! The kids played outside for a while, then we took a break to eat pizza. One of the funny things is that the girls found an earthworm, and then they would almost fight over who got to hold it! Isn't that hilarious? After pizza, it was more play time and then time for cake & ice cream. After that it was time to open presents. After that, I set up a couple of tables in the basement and we went inside and did some crafty things. We made heart magnets, book marks, colored our own puzzles, and decorated little foam notebooks. I think they enjoyed that. Before long though, everyone would start heading home.

Here's a slideshow from the party:

While we were cleaning up, I suddenly remembered - we were supposed to go pick up my items from the consignment sale that didn't sell!! Robert took off up to the church. We were almost an hour late, but luckily they had just put our stuff back in a room.

The girls and I planted some flower seeds in a little "greenhouse." We'll see how they grow! We planted 5 different kinds of flowers. I got the seed packets from Dollar Tree for $0.10 each, so I'm not sure how well they'll do. But we'll see!

Katelyn's Birthday

As I posted yesterday, Katelyn turned 5 YEARS OLD yesterday! She started out her morning by opening presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Rachel. She had seen a Little Mommy doll on clearance at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, and decided that she wanted one of those for her birthday. And of course, she got it! But who can resist it if it's on clearance?!?!? Anyway, this doll is supposed to make lifelike baby sounds. When you get the doll and put the batteries in it and turn it on, it asks you to name the baby. Katelyn named her Jaycee. Now the doll calls Katelyn "mama" and responds to her voice! She "drinks" her milk bottle and sometimes burps when she's finished; she says she's sleepy and asks for her blanky; she also asks for teddy; she says I love you mama; she plays peekaboo; and a few other things. Katelyn really does like this baby doll! I'm glad we got it for her.

Another thing that she had asked for is books - lots of books! So books were a gift too! Rachel got Katelyn two mini Barbies. One was from the 12 Dancing Princesses and the other was from The Island Princess. This is very appropriate for Katelyn because she decided she wanted an Island Princess cake for her party with friends!!!

Another gift that Katelyn got from us was a 3-drawer desktop storage tray full of a variety of paper, tape, and glue sticks!!! You see, Katelyn loves to make things out of paper! She is constantly making little books for people. She loves to cut the paper, and then glue or tape it together to make something! So I got her a ream of white copy paper, some colored cardstock, and some other colored paper in a variety of sizes!

Last night we had a little birthday party with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. Wendy's birthday was Monday, so we combined and had a birthday party for both Katelyn & Wendy together. Wendy likes turtles, so I made a cake and tried to decorate it with a turtle. I think it turned out kind of cute with the mini M&M's on the turtle's shell! What do you think?

Katelyn got some cool stuff from Mamaw & Papaw, including a new shorts outfit, some color by number coloring books, an outdoor adventure kit, and money! Katelyn also got some really neat stuff from Lloyd & Wendy, including Backyardigans books and figures, a really cool skort outfit, and a potholder making kit!

We had a good evening eating steaks, cake, & ice cream!

Katelyn's party with friends is tomorrow afternoon. It's supposed to be an outside backyard pizza party, but it's looking like rain, so it may be an indoor party. Last year it rained out Katelyn's outside party too and we had to move it indoors. We've got a backup plan though. If we have to move inside, we'll set up a craft studio in the garage. I've got stuff to make necklaces & bracelets, paint pictures, make foam bookmarks, make fairies, decorate journals, color pictures, and play with play-doh! I really hope we can do it outside, but if not, we'll be fine! I'll post about her party with friends after it happens.

Enjoy the slideshow from Katelyn's birthday.

My Baby Girl is 5!!!

Today was Katelyn's 5th birthday!!! It's hard to believe that she's now 5! She has been bouncing off the walls today because she's so excited to be FIVE YEARS OLD!!!! It's late and I have a tennis match tomorrow, so you'll have to wait until another day to see pictures. But I just wanted to say that I'm so happy to be Katelyn's mommy and I hope she had a wonderful birthday today! I love you Katie Bug!!!!

Another Funny Story Gets Published!!

If you or your church gets the ParentLife magazine by LifeWay, check out the April 2008 edition. We have a funny story published in their "Funny Life" section. I'll have to scan that in later - I'm more interested in getting back to the Rutgers vs. UConn game right now! Anyway, I blogged about the funny story several months ago. Click here to read that post.

This is the second time we've had a funny story in ParentLife. I can't remember when the other one was published - I'll have to look that up and maybe post it on here too because it was a funny story!