All About Katie

Katie World
Katie finished her last Summer gymnastics class this week. I think she did so well and she seems to really like it. Now, she can do a backbend in nothing flat. Her skin-the-cat is good for a beginner. She just needs to remember to not let go of the bar so quickly. She doesn't get hurt, she doesn't allow her feet to touch the ground and she ends up falling on her knees. She gets in too big of a hurry that's all. Her coaches have got her in the beginning position of doing a cartwheel.

We hate for her having to pick between ballet and gymnastics, but Doug and I feel that it would be too much on her and us financially. Katie has thought it through and decided to give ballet a rest this year. She wants to try out gymnastics instead. CGCA has their Fall registration on July 18th. Katie is so excited that she finally received her first gym leotard. She's been begging me to buy one from the cheer academy all month. While we were at the Academy store the other day, I had her pick out one that she liked. It's pretty and very very SHINY. LOL!

Below are a few videos of Katie during her gymnastics class. She is in a bright pink and black shorts outfit. In this class, she did a little tumbling along with bars and trampoline. Doug and Colton got to come to this class. Katie was so happy to have her family there watching and supporting her.

Sorry the video is a little shaky and there are so many of them. I have an old Adobe Photoshop software for videos and it doesn't support MP4 videos. I told Doug that I'm going to have to break down and purchase an update.

Katie tumbling




Katie on Trampoline


Katie on the Bars




Katie's New Room

Click here to view these pictures larger

I started painting Katie's room on Thursday and was able to do the finishing touches by Saturday morning. We decorated her room Saturday night and Sunday afternoon with all of her new things that she picked out at Hobby Lobby. It's a good thing that we got the picture when we did because I went back Tuesday night and they were gone. It must be popular this year for young girls'. The peace valance didn't fit on the already existing white rod over the windows.  I tried clipping wooden rings on them to see if that would work.  Nope.  I'll have to get a smaller rod because I don't like the way it looks right now.   I didn't stick the mirror wall decals above her bed because Doug and his parents were talking about getting her a head and foot board. 

While I was moving Katie's room decorations into her new room, it killed me having to pack up her babified decor.  It nearly brought me to tears.  Doug loves to remind me that we don't have babies anymore.  They are just growing up too quickly.  They'll always be my babies. 

Doug took the week off and we've spent a lot of quality family time together.  I'm sure he'll be ready to go back to work next week.  LOL! 

Movie Review

Movie Reviews
I haven't done a movie review in a long time. I had to share these with you.   You know,

Laughter is the BEST Medicine


Just Go With It
with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler
I had this movie on my Netflix queue for some time, but it wouldn't be available until the first of July.  Doug couldn't wait.  He brought it home from Redbox.  Oh my gosh!  This movie is hilarious.  Doug and I laughed so hard, I guess it's a true testiment to our twisted humor.  I have to admit that Doug and I enjoyed this movie so much, we went the next day and bought the Bluray for our library. 


Just Friends
with Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart
I think Ryan Reynold is a great comedic actor, so I couldn't believe that I let this movie slip through my radar.  "Just Friends" came out in 2005 and it is a funny romance comedy.  I turned this side splitting film on the television the other night as we were getting ready for bed.  I couldn't force myself to turn it off.  I stayed up until midnight just to find out if Chris would ever end up with the girl of his dreams.  So funny!

VBS "Panda Mania" 2011

As you know, this past week was our annual Vacation Bible School at church. I think it was a great success with 34 souls saved. I don't have a count yet as to how many children attended. Speaking of salvation, please pray for Katie. We've been talking quite a bit about God, Heaven, Jesus and Salvation for the several months. Of course, Katie wants to go to heaven and meet Jesus. It's what she has told me that she wants. Katie was so excited about M professing her faith the other day. That night Katie told me to pray for her to be saved.  We talked about it and she believes completely that God is real and alive. She believes in Jesus that he walked the earth and died for our sins, so we may be with God for all eternity in heaven. Personally, I don't know if Katie is ready (age) to receive Christ just yet. I think the whole M being saved, might have confused her a bit. We prayed about it. I do feel that God is working in her heart.  Last night, Katie and S wanted to talk to one of the counselors about salvation.  I knew one out of the two counselors.  I explained to Delaine and the other counselor about what we talked about the other day.  I also expressed my concern about her confusion.  Bottomline, Doug and I feel that a little peer pressure might be in play and we know that's not the proper way to salvation.  As a  small group, we all gathered and prayed because S wanted to go ahead and do the sinner's prayer.  I'm so happy for S and her decision to receive Jesus into her little heart.  I think after Delaine and Chelsey talked with Katie, I think they agree with me a little bit.  Delaine gave me a "Becoming a Christian" booklet to read with Katie.  She said it is great at explaining what's going on in her life and how to become a Christian on her level.  I can't say that Katie isn't saved, it's not my place and I'm not in God's way of working his blessings.  We just want to make absolutely sure Katiebug understands fully what it means to become a Christian. 

I think the girls had fun last night during the VBS celebration. There was music, face painting, food and inflatables. Here is a video of Katie and S singing and dancing to one of the songs that they learned this week. Katie is on the right side of the little girl with black hair. The little girl with black hair is S. I thought they did so well, especially being on stage singing in front of a large crowd.

S, Katie and M after their face painting - Red Pandas and Snow Leopard (characters from the VBS theme "Panda Mania")

Outside in the parking lot - 4 inflatables

Katie waiting in line to get up the double slide

Sorry this is a little blurry, my camera phone is very touchy.

While I was standing, watching the girls have a blast on the inflatables, I ran into an old acquaintance, Johnny J. Our dads use to work together many years ago. We use to visit Johnny's parents a lot while I was growing up. Johnny is much older than me, so he didn't give me a second look. I loved going to his house because they had a big orchard and always had animals. They use to have these bee hives by the orchard. I thought they were so neat.  His parents were always so sweet to me. I was shocked that Johnny recognized me because I haven't seen him since 1993, I guess. We both have changed a lot and he had more hair. LOL! Either way, it was good seeing him. He said he went to school with my husband, so it is a small world. I couldn't believe how much he knew about me these past few years. HAHA! I guess his parents and my parents have been talking about us. I got to meet his baby girl, Sarah. He told me that his family has been visiting our church for about a month. Doug doesn't remember him, so I guess I'll have to introduce him Sunday. 

My New Project

We've been so busy going to Vacation Bible School. The theme this year is Panda Mania "God is wild about us" (something like that). I think it's been the best one thus far. I've got to take my camera to church tomorrow and take pictures. They've got it decorated so cute with live bamboo, lotus flowers in the fountain inside the atrium and of course the character pandas all over the place. Our little neighbor girls have been going with us every day. I'm so proud of M, she's 9 years old and she received Jesus as her personal Savior today. YAY! She didn't tell me until we were all in the truck and heading out of the parking lot. Normally, I don't pay much attention to what the girls are saying in the back seat, but this time I hear her. "I got saved today," very non-challantly. What? I pulled over before getting out into the traffic, turned around and asked her what she said. She said it again and I began congratulating her, patting her on the leg, and telling her how happy I was for her. M is a beautiful and sweet little girl. I'm so thankful that God has come into her life and hopefully great things will become of it. The sad part of it is, M told me later that when she told her mom, she didn't say anything. She said that she just looked at her. I gave M a big ol' hug and told her that I was proud of her decision. M has two older siblings that I got to meet this afternoon. I hope God will do His work through M. We will see.

Tomorrow night, the grand finale to this year's VBS, there is supposed to be all sorts of inflatables in the church parking lot. The festivities begin at 6PM. Poor Katie continues to believe that they mean 6AM instead of 6PM. She reminded me for the hundredth time today that she has to get up really early, in order to get to church at 6 o'clock in the morning. Ugh!

Today, I began painting Katie's room. She was so estatic to finally getting her pink room. She is funny. This afternoon, all I heard from her was "oh my gosh, mom. My room is so beautiful." HAHA! She is pretty dramatic. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of Doug, Millard and Peggy. The men helped me move furniture around, while Peggy watched the kids for me. Shew! I have two walls completed and I've got two walls to go. I plan to start as soon as I drop Katie and the girls off at church in the morning. I hope to get it finished. Don't worry, I took pictures. LOL! I nearly forgot to take before pictures. I still have a couple of shelves to put up and then Katie can finally start unloading all of her stuff. It's amazing what one person can accumulate in such a short lifetime.

Road Rage

My son suffers from severe road rage and he's only 2 years old. I've noticed his rage for a couple of months now. Today's rage helped me to remember that I haven't posted this story yet.

At this time, when I'm stopped at either a traffic light or sign, Colton will point and holler "go, momma, go!" If I'm waiting to pull out into traffic, he begins yelling at me "go, momma, go!" If I do not follow his command, he will scream and holler so bad that he will eventually begin crying. Yeah. Heaven help the car in front of us because Colton will tell the car or truck in front of us (on the road) to move. Today the rage was very bad because I made the mistake of telling him that he will be seeing his paw-paw today. Yeah. For some reason, he believes that as soon as I tell him that we will be seeing someone, he thinks we'll see them like NOW. He was pretty disappointed when we turned off the road that leads to his paw-paw's house. In fact, he had a nice BIG melt down.

The Gang and Father's Day Weekend

Meet the Summer Gang

I'm at the point of thinking that this group needs a name. W is spending lots of Summer days with his grandma, so he's been coming over. It's so hard to believe that he will be 10 years old. It doesn't seem that long ago when he use to come over and see us. As soon as he learned to walk, he loved to run back and forth on our front porch for some reason. Now, he's a yellow belt in Karate, likes to listen to hip music and loves to play video games. LOL!

I got tickled at Katie and S teasing W and M. The older boy (W) and girl (M) in the above picture are both the same age. Katie and S (giggling) said that W and M were boyfriend and girlfriend. I think they got a little embarrassed. It wasn't long before W and M were sitting in my glider talking, while K and S were running around the yard having a good time. Sweet!

Doug and his dad and our kiddos

My dad and Colton

I hope you had a great Father's Day weekend. It was wonderful and very busy for us. We went to Millard and Peggy's for lunch and later headed over to Kevin and Maryann's for supper. I have the hardest time getting a picture made of just me and my dad because everytime we get together, it's crazy. The men are usually in their comfort zone, watching sports and us ladies are visiting in a different part of the house. Have you ever tried to get a man pulled away from a ballgame just to have his picture made? Not easy in my household. LOL! So, I had Colton climb up in dad's lap during a commerical. Of course, dad's dog, Snickers, had to be a part of the photo opp. Haha!

I made my chocolate pies like I made apple pies.  Do you remember This Post.  I made them for Father's Day.  I ended up with 10 chocolate and 10 apples pies.  We served them with vanilla ice cream and toppings like hot fudge sauce.  They must of been a hit because I brought home an empty container.  I'm not going to post the chocolate pie recipe that I came up with just yet because I want to tweak it a little bit.  I think I need more butter.  Susan told me that it reminded her of her chocolate gravy that she makes sometimes for breakfast with biscuits. 

Sitting around planning Whitney's baby shower

Whitney looks so darn cute pregnant! Her and Zayne have picked out their nursery theme, but haven't quite decorated yet. They have plenty of time though, no rush. She's showed me her nursery set from Babies-R-Us online and it is so cute. They are going with a jungle theme. She thought it would go great with the soft sage green color that they planned to paint on the walls. The comforter's animals are a 3D. Too sweet! Natalie and Maryann found a baby shower theme to go along with the nursery "King of the Jungle". The invite and most decorations have an adorable lion with a crown on his head. Sweet! We have at least 8 ladies down to host the party and at least 50 people invited for the big event. YAY! So far we have the food, specialty items all equally divided among us all. I'm responsible for making animal print ribbon trees for the tables and making the spinach dip.  Stay tuned as I begin making them. 

VBS

This week is our church's annual Vacation Bible School.  This  year's theme is "Panda Mania".  I've been busing in our neighborhood kids along with my little girl.  They are having a ball!  The two girls, S and M do not attend church, so this is good that they are having fun and are learning God's word.  Please pray that God will do His magic, like always.  I've accepted that we are on a mission possibly from God Almighty and I just pray His Will will be done through us as his tool.  I hope we don't miss a blessing in the works. 

 

Colton

Colton looked so darn cute with his new hair cut that I had to take his picture.  I've failed so many times, taking photos of the kids and especially video.  I'm such a slacker!  Here are a few of my favorites.  Enjoy!

As you know, last week we had some friends over for our Pirate Party. Colton cracks me up.  Ever since the party, he has been playing pirate. He definitely has the language down pat. He'll grab his blow up sword, point it at you and says "arrr!" Sometimes, he wears his pirate hat and hook to go along with his sword. It's just too cute. He is at that fun age.

Katie

This week will be busy, not only with Vacation Bible School at church, but I hope to start painting Katie's room this Thursday.  The plan is that Colton will spend the night with Millard and Peggy Wednesday, so as soon as I drop the girls off, I can start in her room.  The paint is bought and my my it is PINK!  Katie picked out the color.  Surprise, surprise.  She is so tickled that she is actually getting a pink room after all.  I think once it's done, it will be adorable.  Stay tune for upcoming pictures. 

Katie has one more gymnastic class for the Summer.  She will not start back until school starts back.  She absolutely loves it and I can't get over how well she's done thus far.  Yesterday was balance beam and bars.  The only thing, I could tell was her arm strength wasn't as good as her leg.  She has to use the big thick mats in order to jump up on the bars, to straighten her arms up on the bars.  I don't know the language, so I hope I'm describing it well for you to understand.  Most important that I can tell, if she can't do a specific position perfectly, she'll try and try in order to get it right.  So she's eager to learn.  I think she's doing GREAT. 

After class last night, we decided to have a little mommy and daughter time.  We wandered over to Books-a-million and checked out the latest.  I've had my eyes open for a chapter series just for Katie. Well, I found the fairies series for 6 years and up.  I remembered that Katie bought one of these fairy books during last year's book fair.  One book jumped out at me and I had to get it.  It's called "Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade".  It's about a little girl's, Posey, experience starting the first grade.  How she was so nervous and her imagination got carried away with her. How was first grade really going to be like when her mom has to drop her off instead of walking her to class?  It's a chapter book and I think so far Katie likes it.  I had her read the first chapter to me tonight.  At the end of the story, we talking about what happened in the story.  She seems excited to find out what happens next.  I had to help Katie with a few words in the story, but overall I think she did well. 

Speaking of school, I've never seen a kid so eager to start back to school.  She absolutely. can. not. wait!  I figure with her being a little older, she might be nervous or not excited about going back.  Nope!  Not her.  I'm so glad, especially after me having class every now and then with her. 

With Katie's hair cut so short, she keeps it back with a headband now all the time.  It kills me how big and growny she's become.  Every now and then, she can still be such a little stinker or have selective hearing.  I hear it just gets worse every year.  YAY!  She is so prissy.  Yesterday and today, she insisted on wearing a dress because she has to look pretty for VBS.  Ugh!   

Ahoy Me Mateys!

Me Little Pirates

A family that we've come to know these past few years, will be moving away due to the job. Allison and I first met right here on my blog about 3 years ago. I remember, she was surfing the net to find a suitable place for her little girl to take swimming lessons. I blogged about Katie's swimming lessons and Allison left me a message. From there we built a wonderful friendship. Now, they will be leaving our community for yet another great adventure. They may not be a hop, skip and jump from our front door, but we always have Blogger. Love ya girlfriend!

In honor of our friendship, Katie and I wanted to host a little party. We thought a small Private Pirate Party. I've never thrown a pirate party, so this was going to be different. I have to say that I had a lot of fun, preparing, decorating and enjoying the company.

The girls started their party by having a Scavenger Hunt.  I made it special just for A and Katie.  Once they were able to check everything off of their list, they received a goodie bag filled with all the necessary items any pirate would need. An eye patch, hoop earring, small prism spy glass, and compass.   

I didn't buy loot bags because I wanted to create my own.  How do ya like them?  LOL!  All I did was draw a map on a brown paper bag, punch holes and tie ribbon through it.  Voila!  All good pirates have to have a spy glass and binoculars, so I made some using cardboard from toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  My kids have enjoyed them.  Of course, I had to pick up a few blow up swords, to fight off the eneme pirates.  Aargh!

I practiced piping cupcakes this time. I've never really been very good at piping, but it was fun trying it out.   I tried the new trendy cupcake piping and accented with white sugar pearls. 

Arrgh!

Katie's Pirate Ship/Play House

Treasure Hunt Map

I made this map by wadding up a piece of computer paper; pouring tea over the paper; once dried, draw out a map where the treasure is hidden. Yo ho, let's go!

Treasure Chest -

filled with diamond rings, gold coin pieces, necklaces and glow in the dark bracelets

I had planned to print out each child their own treasure chest to create, but forgot to do it. Oops! While we were watching Disney, I noticed that the new children's pirate cartoon, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" had a printable treasure chest that you put together. Here's the link to treasure chest. 

Science Experiment #2

Yeah, you didn't miss Science Experiment #1 because it was a FLOP! We tried to make snowflakes from pipe cleaners sitting in Borax detergent. The instructions stated that you could leave it sitting in the solution overnight. We started the experiment in the morning. I think we just got too excited and lifted the snowflake too early because it was a big blob of mess. YUCK! It never created the snowflake that we were anticipating.

Science Experiment #2

A Tornado In A Bottle

What You'll Need:
small empty water bottle
water
liquid soap
glitter

1. fill the bottle almost full of water
2. put 2 drops of soap inside the bottle
3. sprinkle a little glitter inside the bottle
4. screw the lid on tight and go to shaking your bottle

Katie thought it was cool to see the glitter whirling around inside the bottle.  I told her it was the debris.  haha. 

Pen Pals and Gymnastic week

Wow, great minds think a like. In order to keep Katie exercising her writing skills, I've had her write to a pen pal. She wrote one letter (1 page) to her cousin, Alise. The page didn't say much other than she liked gymnastics and she missed Alise. I thought it was a good start, but guess who else is suggesting pen pals? None other than one of my favorite blogs that I love to follow: Eighteen25. They've got a cute Pen Pal Kit suggested on their post.  I've got to get Katie motivated to want to write a little more in her stories and letters.  Today, she had to write a story on "why she likes to dress like a pirate?"  She gave me no more than "she wore a pink pirate costume and it was beautiful."  After reading this, I asked her if there was anything else that she could give me.  (whine and complain).  Have I told you lately that she'll be 6 years old in about a month?  Of course, you know this is written with sarcasm in mind. 

Latest Studies
This week of studies is themed "Pirate".  To end Pirate Week, I plan on throwing a small get together for our friends Allison and A.  They will be moving away soon and we wanted to throw them one last party before they leave us.  :(  I'm having a hard time keeping Katie and Colton out of the party favors.  One of my ideas got foiled.  Aaargh!  Okay, I've started teaching Katie to count by 5s.  I figured this would be the best way to get her to tell time a little better.  She knows her o'clocks and thirty minutes, but nothing else.  Basically, we repeat it over and over aloud.  She'll get it.  It will just take time.  (haha) 

Gymnastics
Tonight's gymnastics was encouraging.  As predicted, Katie was on the mats.  I did notice the group tonight wasn't as big as last week's.  Hmm.  Her little group worked on jumping up on the stacked mats by the spring boards.  They also learned to do somersaults, cartwheels, backbends, springing up on their feet with the trampoline.  She did great with her foreward and backward flips.  Her backbends have greatly improved.  Katie worked so hard and I think that she would have continued practicing, if her instructor had not have called it quits.  On the way home, I told Katie that she would need to practice a lot at home, not just at the academy.  She showed Doug how to do a backbend.  She did great.  I tried to show her how I use to practice flipping over, while in a backbend.  Again, it will just take time and practice.   

Photosite Notice
We use to have a photosite with Phanfare.  Last week, they sent us a message stating that Carbonite has merged with them and they will no longer be offering the lifetime membership.  Instead, we would have to pay a yearly fee.  Yuck!  Doug and I discussed it and I've gotten to where I forget to update the photosite.  So we've decided to cancel our membership.  I'm writing this to you just in case, you visit our site.  I don't want y'all to be shocked when there is no longer an account.  Sorry!  It's getting harder and harder finding tools online to document photos or writings for FREE.  Everyone wants a piece of the pie.  Oh well. 

Katie's Bedroom Update - Nada
I didn't have the opportunity to paint Katie's new room last weekend, so I am hoping to tackle it this coming weekend.  We just had so much going on and no air to breathe last week.  Please pray that I would be at least a little bit enthusiastic to get it DONE.  I've already lost my mind with Katie because she LOVES to drive me CRAZY.  Of course, anything Katie does Colton soon follows.  Can you say CALGON?  ~take me away~

Our Anniversary Weekend

Doug and I had such a nice anniversary weekend. If you don't know, we are celebrating our number 16. We started it off by getting my hair styled Thursday afternoon (I have to get pretty for my hubby). Katie also wanted her hair cut as well. Oh my gosh! With her hair cut short, she looks so much older. She's not a baby anymore. I've got mine cut just below my shoulders and I had to wash away the grays - YUCKY!

Friday, Katie and Colton went home with Millard and Peggy for the night. They absolutely love spending the night with their grandparents. My parents took us to the Red Lobster for supper. Oh, it was sooo good. I had the wood grilled salmon and snow crab legs. Yum! I was stuffed. Afterwards, we drove to Doug's work to show dad the Mariner and a plant (building) that practically got blown away from the April storms. Back at home, we visited for awhile and they left around 8PM.

"Celebrate Cullman" went on until 10PM that night. We debated if we should check it out or not. Why not? I have to say that it was a lot of fun. We arrived in downtown around 8:30PM. We saw about 3 bands playing on a few street corners, while we were walking the streets. People were everywhere having a good time. There were a few shops still open, so it was fun getting to look around, finding deals. Monograms Plus had a few items that were 50% off, but you could tell that they had been picked through. The things that I would have liked, didn't have the size or style that I wanted. Ugh! We did go ahead and get a couple new Tervis lids for our cups. I had the opportunity to check out a couple new stores, "Healthy Wellness" (I think that's the name) and "Etc, by Nikki". "Healthy Wellness" is a new organic shop, filled with unique items such as sweet potato corn chips, which was pretty good. I've been looking for pine nuts. Yeah, they had them. "Etc by Nikki" is a great little shop and I will definitely be back to visit them. They have everything from jewelry, shoes, some clothing, knick knacks and lots of unique University of Alabama merchandise. I didn't get to look over everything, but from what I did see the merchandise was priced very reasonable. The shop owner went on and on about how well they did in sales that day. I hope our little town will have more of these little festivities.

Saturday, Doug and I went to Cracker Barrel for some hot cakes (on my end) for breakfast. From there, we did a little shopping. Visited a few shops in town that we haven't visited in quite some time. We just had a wonderful time overall. I was in the mood to cook. If you like pork chops, may I suggest having the chops smoked. We got ours from Smith Farms. They have the best smoked pork chops that melt in your mouth. All we had to do was slap those babies on the grill and do it's magic.  I made my Squash Casserole , boiled new potatoes and mini apple pies for dessert.

What gave me the idea to make apple pies at home was seeing them at Smith Farms. They had a section filled with individually wrapped mini pies of all types. My favorite of pies would have to be chocolate and closely followed by apple. If you've been keeping up with my blog, you should know that I'm all about semi-homemade. I love shortcuts in cooking, so I may spend more time with family. Here is the way I made the apple pies.

Mini Apple Pies
Ingredients
Can of your favorite pie filling
Cinnamon Sugar spice
Roll of Pie Crust
Confectioners Sugar
Egg Wash
Flour of dusting the counter top

• Roll out the pie crust onto a floured surface.  Cut out 4x4" squares.  Re-roll the trimmings.  I was able to cut approximately 10 squares from one box of pie crust. 
• Place one teaspoon of filling in the center of each pastry.  Sprinkle a little cinnamon sugar spice on top.
• Dip your finger in a little water and get the edge of two sides of the square moist, not too wet.  Fold over one point over the filling in to shape your pastry into a triangle. Gently press the moist sides together.   
• Dab your fork into some flour and make teeth prints with your fork along the edge of the pastry, sealing the pastry together. 
• Make slits on top of the pie for vents.
• Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash.  Bake on 350 degrees for approximately 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Dust baked pies with confectioners sugar.

These pies were real good serviced with your favorite ice cream. 

Peggy was telling me how her mother use to make chocolate pies like the apple pies that I made.  She described the process to me.  Of course, good cooks in that day and time didn't go by recipes.  So, to the experimental kitchen we go.  I have plans to succeed in baking chocolate pies.  Wish me luck!

Last night was the Tornado Bowl at Cullman High School, City vs. County Schools.  The football game was played by former student players from ages starting at 25 years and older.  My niece's husband, Zayne, played as well.  Whitney and Zayne are expecting their first baby (boy) this October.  She's been concerned about him playing because her baby needs a daddy.  We've all been teasing him about playing.  Whitney's made sure to have Zayne finish all that he needs to be done before the game.  LOL!  We drove by the football field to find out that the City won 46 - 14.  Natalie and Whitney let me know that Zayne did play and he didn't break anything.  LOL! 
 

Katie's First Day at Kindergym

Here are a few photos of Katie's first day at Kindergym

Katie on the balance beam

Katie preparing to go around the bar.  I wished I could have gotten a picture of her doing the skin-the-cat, but her instructor was in my way.  That's okay, I would rather the instructor be in my way and Katie do it right.  Maybe the next time I try to take the picture, she'll do it without any assistance. 

Katie's dismount from the balance beam

The blur is actually Katie jumping on the trampoline

There she goes again!

This time she had to do the splits as she's jumping

I think next week, they'll put her on the mats.  Like any dumb mom, I didn't bring Katie anything to drink during breaks.  Oops!  Honestly, I didn't know to bring it.  Plus, I had her wear tenny shoes because I didn't know what to expect.  On my list - bring Powerade Zero and wear flip flops - CHECK! 

The Event of the Year

They call it the "Event of the Year" and I believe it. Our community comes together several times throughout the year with festivals and special events, but this event will be the one that you've got to be there.

Event: Celebrate Cullman
Date: Friday, June 10th
Time: Starts at 2PM-9PM
Where: Several areas located at most downtown merchants

This event was brought to my attention by my friends from Facebook. It is an effort to help the merchants that have been affected by the April 27th Tornado. I perused the list of many activities and live bands. You will have to check it out for yourself.
Celebrate Cullman Event

Just a few special activities available:

Street Performers spread throughout downtown

LIVE MUSIC Includes:
Traditions Bank Stage:

Little Memphis	9:00 pm
Noah Guthrie	8:00 pm
Three Leaf Clover	7:00 pm
Hope Cassity (Nashville Recording Artist)	6:00 pm
CHS Fine Art Showcase	3:00-5:00 pm

First Avenue Stage:

Mean Seeds	5:00 pm
Alaysin	6:00 pm
WESK	7:00 pm
Braver by the 2nd	8:00 pm

Kid Stage:

Two for you

4:00-8:00 pm

Docks:

Tela Washam Band	5:00 pm
Crosshaven Church	6:00 pm
Desperation Church	7:00 pm
Smith and Western	8:00 pm

Street Performers:

Wes Duren	3rd St Promenade
Jim O’Dillon	???
Stan Wakefield	???

Also Performing

Exit 310	At Carlton’s – 5:00pm (this is my doctor's band)
Bimini Road	Berkeley Bob’s 7:00-9:00pm
Brandon Boike	The Downtown Grill 4 :00-6:00pm
Tela Washam	The Downtown Grill 6:00-8:00pm

Food Concessions

5K Group Run at 6:30

Shops and Restaurants open till 9:00pm

Candle light historic walking tours

The Cullman Art Guild selling art at the 3rd Street Promenade, to raise money for tornado victims, and pencil profile portraits by Pam Willingham

Busy Bee selling food, t-shirts and booths from the restaurant

Hero Row at Depot Park to honor local Fire and Police Departments

Kid Activities

Cutie Patooties – Face Painting & Balloon Twisting

Balloon Bazaar – Mini Manicures

Bubble Gum & Blue Jeans – Big Wheel Races

Painting and Crafts

Clowns and Characters

Games for the kids, croquet, horseshoes, hulahoops, jump rope

Bouncies

This is an event you don't want to miss!

I would love to have a pencil portrait of the kids by Pam Willingham for $15.  She is very well known in the community for her work.  She is an awesome artist!  She will be at The Shops at 3rd Street Promenade.  If you want to be there to see her talent, but don't know where the store is located.  Here's the address:

216A 3rd Street SE
Cullman, Alabama  35055
(256) 338-3117

Pam is the mother of Laura Walker, a wonderful book illustrator and art teacher.  She owns an art school called Shop Around The Corner .  I've been wanting to take a class there for some time, but never found anyone serious enough to want to go with me.  Does that make sense?  We would talk about it, saying yeah I would like to take a class, but that's all that would accumulate.  Actually, Laura was Katie's art instructor when she was in preschool at Covenant School. 

I hope to attent this event, even if it's just for a couple of hours. 

I'll see ya there! 

Katie Hearts Gymnastics

We had a very productive day. June had the day off and was bored. She called me to check my agenda. After I told her to come on over and help me switch bedrooms, I figured that I'd scare her off. Nope. She told me that she'd be here within an hour. When she got here, the first thing out of her mouth was "where do you want us to start?" HAHA! Good question. We both looked at each other and laughed because I had no clue where to start digging. I knew we couldn't put up shelves or wall art in Katie's new room because it wasn't painted. The closet! We drug out, ripped out, and threw out. There's one thing June and I know is "PITCH IT!" We did throw out a lot, but I wished we could have thrown out more. I had to run a few things past Doug first to make sure it was alright to pitch. I had a few Fall/Winter dresses and coats of Katie's that I wanted to put in storage. While June watched Colton for me, Katie and I bee-lined it to Wally World. She took a buggy and I got one as well. We filled those two carts to the top with storage boxes, the next coolest organizational gadget ever by Ziploc the XL storage bags. It holds up to 10 gallons of stuff. I also love to keep in my cabinet - the Hefty 2 1/2 gallon bags. They are WONDER-FUL! June found a few blankets that we couldn't fine a nice cozy home for without getting all messed up, so I grabbed a box of Space Bag Cube. If you've never had a Space Bag, oh it's awesome to keep your blankets and clothes all nice and neat. Perfect for keeping your home nice and tiddy. June and I got all of Katie's special things all nicely organized. We'll see how long she'll keep it organized this time. Ugh! Minus the paint and decorations, Katie and Colton both seem to really like their bedrooms.

Tonight was a little better getting Colton to go to bed. We all got ready about 8:30PM. At first, I thought he was going to surprise me and actually go to bed without having to rock. Just when I was about to turn off the light, he said "no momma, I rock. I rock." Oh, alright. I finished getting Katie all tucked in bed and here Colton and I go to the rocker with blanket. I warned him that I would only rock him for just a little bit and then he had to be a big boy and go to bed. His answer was "K." Loosely translated it means "okay, as long as I get rocked just enough of relax." HAHA! Well, we rocked for about 15-20 minutes. He was nice and relaxed when I carried him back to his room. He was still awake, so I was testing to see how this was going to work. He should go to sleep without any problem because we made sure to put his radio and nightlight in his new room. This was the main complaint last night by both kids. Colton didn't have his lullabies playing in his CD player and Katie didn't have her classic rock music playing on her radio. I also have a feeling he didn't like her nightlight and vice versa. Tonight, this momma and daddy made sure that our little babies had their favorite nighttime accessories available for some DEEP sleep. Anyway when I layed Colton down, he told me that he wanted the door open. Ok, I left it open. As I'm getting ready for bed, I noticed he was sitting straight up in his bed. Uh oh. I just knew I was going to have trouble getting him to stay in bed tonight. I told him that he needed to lay down and go to sleep. He mumbled something, so I went into his room to check it out. He acted like he was going to cry, but he never did. He is such a big brave boy. I layed him down again and told him that he had to sleep in his new big boy bed. I assured him that it was alright and I would see him in the morning. He held tight to his blanket. I covered him up and left the room, expecting him to holler out. Believe it or not, he actually stayed in bed this time and fell fast asleep. YAY! This is only day two for him to sleep in his own bed. I just hope that he will feel comfortable enough to do this every night. Wouldn't that be great?

Katie was a little scared to go to her new room and go to sleep. After we all went in her room to wish her a goodnight, she seemed to calm down and go to sleep. I'm so proud of my big kids. They've reached a very big milestone today.

As you know by today's title, Katie had her first gymnastic class tonight. The class is Kindergym for kids 5-7 years old. I was a little surprised at all the vehicles in the parking lot for this class. They have several classes during the week for both morning and nighttime. I picked nighttime class because I thought it would help me out if Doug got home in time to watch Colton for me. I was hoping just a little that maybe these cars were for something else, but what? Katie has a huge class, but what I loved about it the kids broke off into small teams. There were 4 coaches assisting tonight's Kindergym class. At the beginning of class, all the little girls got into a circle and did a lot of warm up stretches. After stretches, each coach got a small group of girls between 5-6 each and went into their area (uneven bars, balance beams, and two different tumblings (back bends, cartwheels, round offs, and flips).

Tonight, Katie's group got to focus on uneven bars and balance beams. I got to watch her do what the instructor was telling her. I thought she did great! I witnessed her do a skin-the-cat and flip around the bar, with ease. The instructor was praising her as well. First time ever for our Katiebug! Wow! No trouble with the balance beams either. I saw her walk straight across and then sideways with ease. I'm so proud of her. The coach even showed her how to jump off the beam with her hands up in the air, as to say "I'm finished, clap for me."

Towards the end of the class, all the little girls got to jump on the trampoline. I guess this is the reward for such hard work. On the trampoline, all the coaches encouraged the girls to jump straight up as hard as they could. They did this a couple of times, then they had to jump and do the splits. Katie was all smiles. She loves it! I mean, she ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! She told me, all give out from jumping, that she loves gymnastics and she wants to come back tomorrow. Then, she told me that she wants to live there, so she can do it all the time. LOL! As I'm getting her socks and shoes on, she asks "now, I can I finally get my leotards for my class?" LOL! I told her that we are only doing gymnastics for this month. When school starts, she needs to decide if she wants to do dance or gymnastics for the year. Unless Doug changes his mine, I think we are only going to do one activity this year. All of these activities are so expensive and I'm not made of money. Katie did tell me coming home that she likes dance, but she wants to try gymnastics this year. I assured her that she didn't need to decide today. I know how much she loves dance. She needs to finish her camp and then decide before school starts back.

No More Babies

Y'all today was so sad for me.  As you may know, my two year old has been straddling the crib side rail.  This was warning to me, it's about time for the toddler bed.  You also know, we've decided that when we bring home the toddler bed, we would be moving the children around.  We have to do this because of our old desktop computer, currently in Colton's room.  We would move Katie into Colton's room and Colton into hers.  Katie has been psyched because I've promised to paint and re-decorate her room.  I'm probably repeating myself because I've already wrote about these plans HERE, in this post.

This afternoon, Katie asked me again "when will I get to move into my new room?"  Beings, I've already bought a few items to get us started on her new room, I've pretty much been waiting for other gears to turn.  So, I told her to ask her daddy.  Doug and I were talking about it when I got a call from Whitney.  She was wondering, if her and Zayne could come by tomorrow or the next to pick up the baby bed.  (Their ears must have been burning).  I had told her about Colton being ready for a toddler bed and how we were going to paint Katie's room.  She just wanted to get it out of our way and kind of get a feel as to what they will be doing for their new baby's room.  After I told Doug that they would be coming by tomorrow, I called up his parents to see if we could come by to pick up Colton's new bed.  Wow!  Neither one of us realized that we would be changing out beds, bedrooms and taking down Colton's baby bed.  All in one night just a couple hours before bedtime.  We were so busy working and cleaning that it didn't hit us until time to go to bed that we have no more babies.  In fact, the next time we have a baby bed in our home will be for our grandchildren.  Some day, Lord willing.  Lots of emotions going on right now.  I'm sad that our babies are growing up, but happy to witness the amazing people that God has planned for them to develop into.  I catch myself just watching them because they are my entertainment.  They make me laugh and I'm very happy.  My life seems complete. 

I'm thankful to have gone on ahead and picked up Colton's toddler bed set.  Shew!  I know he would have been just fine with a fitted sheet, but he LOVES his new bedding.  I think it's his manly instict to automatically like cars and sports.  We haven't pushed anything on him, but when he first saw the movie "Cars," he absolutely fell in love with the characters.  Now, when we see any of the "Cars" characters, his eyes light up and announces to the whole world "CARS!"  LOL!  It's funny.  Tonight, he was so excited to climb into his new cars bed and wear his new Cars PJs. 

Colton ready to go to sleep in his new bed.

We have yet to paint and decorate Katie's new room, but she seems to be excited and comfortable with the change.  Honestly, I don't see how she sleeps with all that in her bed.  In fact, before she went to sleep, I had her put the Zoobles and backpack in the floor.  Ugh!  Bless her!

I know it will take some time for both children to get acquainted with their new bedrooms.  I'm glad we decided to do this during the Summer months and not in the middle of school months.  Ugh!  That would be a nightmare.  Lets put aside that I had to rock Colton until he was fast asleep, in order to carefully place him in his bed tonight.  I sent Katie to bed several times, before finally threatening to whip her if she got out of bed again.  I did leave her lamp on by her bed, I figured she couldn't sleep because she was technically in a strange place.  By 10:30 P.M., Colton wakes up, comes down the hall crying, wanting me to rock him again.  No thank you.   So I try to put him back in bed a few more times and when I decide this isn't going to work, I gave him a glass of ice water to drink and send him back to bed.  Nope, nothing.  Here we go.  I put him back in bed, sit down beside him in the bed and calm him down.  Finally.  Now, I remember why I hate transition time with toddlers.  I have to sit by Colton until he is fast asleep before I can make my big break for it.  As I easily stand, my stupid knees and ankles begin to pop.  UGH!  My body is falling apart.  Of course, he wakes up and notices me about to escape.  He will not have it and begins to be uneasy.  This time, I squat in the floor next to his bed and calm him down.  His poor little eyelids kept batting, up and down.  They want to stay open so bad, but the weights are weighing him down to where he can't take it anymore.  Just when I think it's safe, those little boogers (eyes) pop right back open to make sure that I'm still there, right by his bed, safe and sound.  It took until midnight before I could make my big escape.  I'm hoping he will sleep soundly the rest of the night. 

I wanted to thank you for all the great advice and support you gave me yesterday.  I probably sounded like a crazy person, I think I was stressing, but trying to stay calm.  Didn't work!  HELL-O.  Every day that S has been over here, I can't seem to get the things I need done, done.  Colton will not take his usual nap and if he does, as soon as she arrives, it's like a circus.  Waking the baby up.  I've tried sending them outside, but their kids.  They'll go in and out of the house needing or wanted my undivided attention.  If they stay in Katie's room with the door closed, they may have to chase each other down the hall every now and then.  Of course, yelling.  Katie knows the rules of the house, but when she has company, like all kids, rules go out the window.  When Colton is awake, he thinks he's big too and he wants to be right there.  Of course, this causes problems as well.  He is all the time getting into trouble or gets hurt. 

Bottomline, I would feel at ease if we could just have playdates for a few hours (children and moms) maybe once or twice a week.  S called around noon today, wanting to come over.  Hey, at least she called this time.  I was confused because the caller ID read "Pennsylvania." The mother told me, they were from Michigan.  What are they doing with Pennsylvania phones?  I'm sure it's just another piece to the puzzle.  Pleased that S is finally calling before coming over, I hated to shoot her down by telling her no.  My goodness, she was over here yesterday and every day before that day.  When I told her that it wasn't the best time, she asked me the famous "why?"  I had to give her the "because it's just not a good time to play today."  I had to give the kids their bathtime and a little clothes washing.  Doug, nor I felt like watching them outside.  Make sure no one get hurt.  Then we got all involved moving, cleaning, taking down and putting up.  Tomorrow isn't going to look too good either with Whitney and Zayne coming over.  I've got class day set up for this week and she has gymnastics later.  Katie and I need to make time to get our paint for her room.  She's wanting to hurry up and put the rest of  her things in her new room, but we told her to hold off until I can paint.  Maybe Tuesday would be better for S and Katie to play.   

Thanks again and have an awesome day!