Ten Take Tuesday

Ten of the latest happenings....

1.  

Two of the sweetest, most adorable girls babysit Emma for me during Bible Bowl practices twice a week.  They are beyond words.  Last week, they planned a "Hooray, You've Been Good!" surprise party for Emma, and they spent the entire night celebrating Emma's goodness.  Guess who loved that?

First, the girls got the room all set up with stations.  Then, they called Emma in to surprise her.  There was a craft station, a book station, a toy station, a dress up station, and a MAKE UP station.  I'm hiring these two girls as my personal assistants to come live in my house and run my life.

They even decorated with a "good job for being good" banner and some balloons.

My prediction is that these two girls will one day go into business together running a special events company, will make a trillion dollars, and will have a reality TV show about their business on the TLC network.

This was after "dress up" and "make up" stations.  Seriously, they also choreographed a runway routine for her that I video taped on my phone.  She was on cloud nine.

At the end of the night, they called me in for the "crowning ceremony" when they crowned her a good girl.  First time that had ever happened - ha!  Emma ran out in the hallway and told me she was "so nervous!"....probably because she was worried lightning would strike right there in the church!  Ha!

Queen of goodness.

And very spoiled by her first class babysitters.

2. 

We went to the minor leagues (in the rain) to watch one of Hayden's favorite major league players bat as designated hitter.  It was wet.  And fun.  Napoli struck out every time at bat.  You know, the rain and all.  :-)  But the next night, when he was back up in the majors, he scored a three run homer!  Too bad we weren't at THAT game.  The one where it wasn't raining.  :-)

3. 

Hayden played in a dodge ball tournament with some of his church buddies on Saturday night.  Hundreds of kids turned out for this event.  He had a fabulous time.

4. 

I finished a book bag for a birthday gift.  I made up a new kind of flower for it.  I'm a regular fabric botanist.

5. 

Penny got spayed yesterday.  I was oddly emotional about dropping her off.  The house was a little too calm without her.  Jeff announced that we were "Pennyless"....hahaha...and I confirmed that we indeed would be after I paid the vet.  I was surprised that she got to come home yesterday afternoon.  This is her on the ride home.

She was completely loopy all day long, and hasn't fully recovered yet today.  A Dingy Doodle.  Oh that face.  She has such a comical look....even when she isn't on pain killers.  Watching her weave around here like a little drunkard has been pathetic....in a hysterical sort of way.

6. 

We made a Starbucks stop before big girl school today.  Pumpkin spice latte for me, vanilla scone for her.  I was making great strides in my Starbucks habit....had weaned myself to rarely going except to meet up with friends, but now pumpkin spice is back on the menu and I feel myself falling off the wagon.  It's a seasonal struggle.

7. 

The iphone 5 is here.  Maybe you've heard.  Or maybe you live under a rock.  ;-)  I'm not normally on the cutting edge of technology, but my iphone 3 is looking a little elderly these days.  I'm thinking about a visit to the AT&T store in the name of "research".

8.

I think I forgot to mention earlier that Hayden attended a Junior Police Academy this summer.  It was a fantastic experience for our future cadet.  He LOVED every minute of it.  This was him on his first day.  (Thanks, Kim, for the awesome shirt!)  This week we found out that he has been accepted to do a second academy this fall with another city.  The more of these he can get on his resume the better!  He is dead set on being a police officer some day!

(And he already has a dashing K9)

9.

I don't know where this picture came from.  It showed up on my iphone when I downloaded, which means one of my boys took it.  I love it.  Makes me think of fall, and getting all my fall decorating boxes down from the attic. This is my absolute FAVORITE time of year, and I'm starting to feel it in the air.

And see it on the Starbuck's menu.  :-)

10.

Emmie goes to big girl preschool two days a week.  On the days that she is home, we are doing kindergarten in homeschool.  We are a year early, so we're taking a slow and gentle start, but she is ready, so I figured we'd play around with it.  She loves having my undivided attention, and I love a reason to play ABC games and do crafts.  I'll be posting soon about our kindergarten days so far.

Yesterday, RED and YELLOW made ORANGE happen.  :-)

I do love a good pop of orange.

We also made a sun dial.

On a cloudy day.

We got one mark at 10:30 a.m., then another at 6:30 when Daddy came home from work.  We checked it a dozen times in between, but found only shade, prompting my budding philosopher to wonder how the Mommys knew when it was lunch time on a cloudy day in Biblical times??

I can only come up with a certain number of answers per day, so I had to let that one go.  Maybe they skipped lunch on cloudy days and drank pumpkin spice lattes instead.  That would be my bet.

Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!!