School Picture

I've never been a fan of school pictures because I don't like poses. Of course, even if I don't like them, I must buy them to share with my family and keep track of her school years. Last year, her preschool had walk in photos on a day we did not have school so she was not interested at all in sitting down and posing for a picture. We didn't get a single picture! This year, she got to go with her class and her teachers and we did get a picture. I see a little smile peeking through!

I think they are cute but, I am her mom!!!!

Where Have We Been????

Sometimes I don't know where time goes! I think about blogging all the time but, can't find the time! So sorry I've missed the last month! What have we been up to you ask? We are both back to school. Which in case you were wondering, Dawson LOVES her new school.

Here she is after a hard day of school. Couldn't even make it up to bed this night!

Last week she asked to get out the Halloween stuff. I did get one box out and immediately she pulled out her first Halloween costume and "stuffed" herself into it! No, this is not our costume for this year but, she still looks cute as my little pumpkin!

We are packing our weekends full of fun stuff to do including spending a weekend in Columbus to celebrate Breea's 13th birthday. My girl sure likes hanging out with teenagers....she thinks she is one. As you can see from the pictures, she dressed herself for this party!

We had fun helping Breea celebrate her birthday!

Summer Skating

Our days of summer are coming to an end quickly. Each day I ask Dawson what we should do. Today she totally surprised me by suggesting "ice skating." I wasn't sure she really wanted to go but, we did and it was tons of fun. Its a little different digging out the winter clothes to go skating in the middle of the summer but, it worked out!

She was able to skate holding on to me or to the wall. Not bad for a 4 year old!

I just wish that wall was a little bit lower for her. She had to stretch to reach it. As for now, she is still sleeping. After an hour of not leaving the nice, I have a very tired girl! By the way, I'm tired too..it's hard skating for an hour straight...holding someone up!

Meet "CHUBBY"

Our new pet hamster, Chubby, joined the family yesterday. He is better known as a Syrian Bear Hamster. He will live about 2 years (we hope) and will get to be about 5-7" long. I had to do a lot of research to figure out what kinds are best for younger children. Many of the smaller hamsters bite and are much more squirmy then the larger ones. After looking at 4 different ones, this is the one Dawson picked out! He's very cute! Miss Dawson has been begging for a cat so this is what we came up with instead. We didn't think Ella would like to share her house with a cat!

She was brave holding the box and walking out the store for a little while until......he started moving around and scratching the box. Then Dawson decided to set it down for a few minutes!

She wanted to look inside to see what was going on.....

And finally...Chubby. The hamster has to stay in his cage for 2-3 days without being picked up or taken out of his cage. Supposedly, the get stressed easily (and can die) if there is too much trauma too soon. It's hard keeping Dawson away from trying to hold him. One more day of waiting!

Movie Under the Stars

These past few nights have been perfect for an outdoor movie night. We invited a few friends, ordered some pizza and set up our sleeping bags. At the beginning, everyone was watching the movie but, as time passed, some silly friends decided to have some fun on the swing set, mostly the slide. They would slide and slide and sometimes stop to catch a glimpse of the movie. I loved all the giggles and smiles.

Unfortunately, the bugs came out biting us over and over again so we headed inside to wrap up our night. Within a few minutes, I had a sleeping girl!

Summer Vacation

This summer is flying by and we have been so busy, I've really lost track of time. It has been quite a few days since my last posting but, I'm back on it now! We headed down to Florida for a few days of sun. If you can believe this, Florida was 10 degrees cooler than Ohio the week we were gone. It was nice to cool off and enjoy the ocean breeze! We also took in a few beautiful sunsets.

As always, as soon as we get to our hotel, we run to the beach just to feel the sand. This girl loves, loves, loves the ocean and the beach!

The water was extremely warm. It felt like were were going into a hot tub!

The water was so clear we saw reef sharks, eels, stingrays and a lots of fish. In fact, one day the hotel encouraged us not to go in the ocean due to the influx of these creatures. Supposedly there was an excess of algae which causes a lack of oxygen in the water for the fish so they head towards the shoreline to get oxygen. Interesting!!!

Hanging with the teenagers.

Lots of turtles were laying eggs in the sand. They are very protected and always marked off with yellow tape. This one was not laying eggs but, just having a little green snack! We are back home enjoying our last month of summer.

Lemonade Stand

What a beautiful day for a Lemonade Stand! We started by making our signs last week and the cookies and pink lemonade last night. I made some bubble letters for the sign and Dawson did the rest! I noticed a big D and a hand print added to the sign. Of course I made another sign and posted it close by. It included the fact that we would be donating our money to "One of a Kind Pets." This is a local animal shelter we like to visit and play with the kittens!

We had our cash register and pitcher of lemonade ready to go!

Some chocolate chip cookies which by the way, sold quickly!!!!

First, we had to taste the product. Yes, she approved!

Our first customer.......

Putting the cash in the register was probably the best part of the lemonade stand.

And lastly, counting the money. We had quite a successful day! It was surprising how much money we made. We will be taking 90% of the money to the animal shelter this week and putting 10% in the piggy bank. What a great learning experience!!!