The Potholder Factory

Rachel & Katelyn have brought out their potholder making kits and started their own little business! Last week they would come in from school and go to Katelyn's closet, close the door, and work on making potholders. They used up all their supplies and we had to go buy more over the week-end. This afternoon they moved their factory to the play room! They actually sold 3 potholders today and have orders for more! They think this is so cool!!!

Here they are busy at work

Some of the finished products

2009 Gladiator Games

Today Robert and I both competed in the Gladiator Games. Last year Robert put a men's team together and won the Gladiator Games! You can read about it here. This year, I decided to put a women's team in also. They had said there would be a women's division winner in addition to the overall winner. So, I gathered a couple of other people and entered a women's team. We competed in a variety of events: swimming, kayaking, weightlifting, shot put, sprint, football throw, obstacle course, basketball, and one mile relay. Robert's men's team finished 6th place overall. My women's team WON the women's division!!! We got some pretty good prizes too: season tickets to the Lady Vols basketball, free admission to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, gift certificate to a hair salon, gift certificate for a massage, and some hair products, soaps, and candles. Not too bad!

The men's team: Lloyd, Robert, and Evan

The women's team: Laura, Peanut, and Patricia

Peanut in the mile relay

Evan in the mile relay

Lloyd running the mile relay

Patricia running the mile relay

Laura shooting basketball

Robert shooting basketball

Peanut shooting basketball

Lloyd shooting basketball

Patricia starting the sprint

Peanut throwing the football

Lloyd throwing the football

Peanut on the obstacle course

Laura on the obstacle course

Laura doing the obstacle course

Evan running the obstacle course

Lloyd on the obstacle course

Robert and Peanut in the kayak race

Laura swimming

Patricia swimming

Evan and Robert swimming

Lloyd weightlifting

Peanut weightlifting

The women's division champs with our prize swords!

The Flu Bug Strikes

Katelyn came home from school on Thursday feeling bad and running a temperature of over 102! She stayed home from school on Friday and continued to run a temp of 102. Saturday morning she woke up and appeared to be feeling wonderful! However, by mid afternoon she had a fever of over 102 again. In addition to her feeling bad, I felt pretty miserable all day Saturday. I stayed in bed all day Saturday. Sunday morning Katelyn woke up with a fever again, so I decided to take her to the doctor. Luckily, our pediatrician is open on Sundays. The strep test was negative, but the flu test came back positive. So, Katelyn officially has the flu. Hopefully she's almost over it. She's home from school again today, but so far no fever!! We just hope that continues. I went to the doctor this morning and my flu test was negative. I'm feeling much better.

Saturday when I was feeling so rough Rachel was very helpful to Robert. She told him "I guess since mommy's sick, I'm the woman of the house now! It's a lot of work!!!"

First Day of School 2009

Today was the first day of school for Rachel and Katelyn. Rachel started 3rd grade and Katelyn started 1st grade. They both have great teachers and we are so excited about that! Both girls had wonderful days at school today. Here are some pictures taken this morning before we headed to school. Both girls have new backpacks with their names on them

KidStuf Cast

Our church has a program for the kids during "big church" called KidStuf. Each week the KidStuf crew put on a skit. The characters that the adults portray are mainly a bunch of 10 year old kids that hang out in a clubhouse, along with a mom and a grandpa. The skits are usually quite entertaining! Robert plays a character known as Tyler, and Lloyd plays a character known as Gordo. Here's a photo collage of most of the characters.

Photo Collages

I created a couple of photo collages to decorate Rachel's notebook for school. I decided to make one that consisted mainly of her spring and summer activities, and then a second one that consisted of her summer swim team adventures. Here are the results:

Updates

First of all, I called the dentist Monday morning about Katelyn's tooth and he said it should be fine. He said in a couple of weeks the part that broke off and is still in her gums should work its way up and would come out. So, no need to have to go in and see the dentist!

Rachel started her allergy shots on Tuesday. She did really well. She sat so still and let the nurse give her a shot in each arm. After the shots were done, she did cry a little. But I told her that was okay. I'm sure after a week or two she won't be shedding any tears. She didn't have any kind of reaction to the shots, so that's good! On one arm she bruised just a little bit, but nothing major. She's supposed to get shots once a week.

Registration is tomorrow! It's hard to believe that Rachel will be in 3rd grade and Katelyn will be in 1st grade! Where has all the time gone? They are both excited to get back to school, meet their teachers, and see their classmates.

Our A/C has been acting up this summer. Four separate times the unit for downstairs has frozen up. We called a repairman and he came out this morning and fixed it. Looks like we had a coolant leak. It's working now so hopefully that means it was the only leak and that we shouldn't have anymore problems. The A/C unit is only 6 years old, so you wouldn't think we should have any major problems with it.

The girls and I have taken advantage of our last days before school by spending the past 2 days swimming at Mamaw & Papaw's house! There will still be several more weeks to swim, but with school starting we won't have as many opportunities. So we were swimming while we could! Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week-end and we can get some more swimming in!!!

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again!!!

Katelyn lost tooth #4 tonight! She has had a loose tooth on the bottom for a while now, but it wasn't loose enough to come out. It would wiggle forward pretty good, but it was still attached in the back. Robert was helping Katelyn brush her teeth (since the hygienist told us we should help her at night since she has my problem of lots of build up on her teeth) and brushed that loose tooth right out! However, upon looking at the tooth, I found that it had actually broken off a little bit. It appears the bottom part of the back of the tooth is still in the gums. So, I guess we'll call the dentist Monday morning to see if we need to take her in to let him get the rest of it out. Robert tried a little bit to get the remaining part out, but it just kept breaking off in little teeny tiny pieces. Rachel said maybe the tooth fairy would come tonight and then again when the rest of the piece came out! I told her that the tooth fairy only came once for each tooth, but it was a good attempt at helping her sister out! Anyway, this makes tooth #4 that Katelyn has lost, and all 4 are on the bottom! I think one of her top teeth is a little bit loose, but barely!!

Here are some pictures of Katelyn with her missing tooth! (It's on the lower right side as you look at the picture.)

Home Depot Kids Workshop

This morning we took the girls to the Kids Workshop at Home Depot. They really enjoying these, so we try to go when we're able to go. Today's project was a message board, and it turned out really cute! When we were getting ready to leave, the worker in charge asked us if we were there for last month's project. We told her that we had been out of town and missed it. She said she didn't remember seeing us there, and asked us to wait a minute. She returned with 2 projects from last month for the girls to take home and work on! That was so nice of her to do! The girls were excited because we had seen the project online. It was a picnic box, but the girls referred to it as Handy Manny's toolbox! We were headed to Mamaw & Papaw's house, so the girls asked Papaw to help them with their Handy Manny toolbox! It turned out to be a cute project too! I just love the Home Depot Kids Workshops!!! If you live near a Home Depot, you should definitely check it out. They have them the first Saturday of each month and they are FREE!!!! You can even get online and check out what the upcoming project is going to be. For September it's going to be a beanbag toss - looks like fun!

Katelyn showing off the message center she made.

Rachel displaying her message center.

Rachel & Katelyn with their projectsPapaw being brave by letting Rachel hammer with his fingers nearby!
Rachel smiling for me

Rachel hard at work

Rachel and Papaw working together

Katelyn working on her project with Robert's help

Rachel and Papaw

Katelyn smiling for me

This looks like Papaw is praying that Rachel won't hammer his fingers!!!

Katelyn working on her project

Rachel, Papaw, and Katelyn with their finished projects