Cheer Competition

Would you believe Channing has already participated in her first cheer competition? I was really worried after the last practice where parents were able to see the routine. Channing pretty much just stood there and held her pom poms. Craig looked at me with that look of..."we are not signing her up for this again, right?"

We were able to video the routine and practice at home though that was like pulling teeth. Already at 4 she feels like her mom doesn't know anything! If it's this bad at 4 what's it going to be like in the teen years? We practiced some but she did not know the music routine before the competition.

Her competition was Saturday morning in Jackson. After being glitterfied with blue eyeshadow, body spray and lip gloss, the girls were ready to cheer. Collierville young champions were the 1st team to go. Surprisingly, Channing did pretty well. She started the routine very well, just lost some steam during the routine....but she never stopped. I was very proud of her and she looked awefully cute.

Channing's cheer group won 2nd place in the large division which means they can now compete at the State level in Nashville in January. After all was said and done, she did enjoy the competition. We haven't decided yet if she'll go on to compete in Nashville. Starting in January, she will be advancing in gymnastics to a group called Gym Cubs. This is an invitation only group getting these young girls ready for gymnastic competition. We can only do one thing...cheer or gymnastics and I really think she enjoys gymnastics more right now. I am a little worried with the new level at gymnastics though...it's 1 1/2 hour practices 2xs per week which may be a little tough with her attention span. I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

I think it's funny that every child that competes gets a trophy...no matter how good/bad they are. The kids that placed also got a ribbon.




Yes, I'm a proud momma! I made my shirt to support Channing and the Collierville young champions.



This is Channing and her coach Jen.

Dalton's Music Program

My sweet Dalton had his 4th grade music program Thursday night. All the 4th graders are required to learn the recorder, but since that instrument can't be played with one hand, he plays the xylophone. He performed for the school and many of the kids were talking about how great he did. I couldn't wait to see his little part. He had a little solo part to Up on the Roof Top. When his time came to play, he was so excited, I was afraid he would mess up but he did great! I was so proud of him and he was proud of himself too.

Happy Times Farm

Channing's school had Happy Times Farm come one day for the kids. My future veterinarian loved it!

She loves all animals and was in her element. Even with the baby pig squealed loudly, Channing held her arms out, she was ready to hold him. All the other kids backed away, not Channing.





She held every animal there to hold. The poor baby chicks. I'm not sure she's mastered "soft touch" yet.




I think she liked the bunny the best though she really liked them all.





She was even lucky enough to feed a calf a bottle of milk. The bottle was pretty heavy so lots of classmates helped.


After petting, holding and feeding the animals, she got to ride on the train and ride a horse.



She wasn't scared at all. Maybe it's all the animals she's been around with Dalton riding horses.



She looked like a natural!

Fitness bootcamp starts today

No before pictures...too scary. Just FYI I am starting fitness bootcamp today (2xs/week). I'll let you know how it goes but I must admit I'm a little nervous. I was sore after doing the basic warm up exercises. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Dalton's Party Pics

Finally, Pictures of Dalton's party. It was a great party and the kids that came were absolutely great. The food was fun. Mummies in a blanket, fingers made of cheese and carrots, bones out of breadsticks, and eyeballs made of white chocolate oreo balls.



We played a mummy game with toilet paper. Taylor and De won.









This was my favorite part. Having the kids put their hands under a blanket and guess what body part it was. There were fingers and toes (mini hotdogs), skin (dried out lettuce), eyeballs (peeled grapes), brains (spaghetti) and the best one...the heart (stewed tomatoes). The faces were pricesless!

Trunk or Treating

This Halloween was filled with lots of candy. Every where we turned we were getting candy. Not good for me because I love candy.

We started Halloween by meeting the Whitfields and Ormans at Bartlett Baptist for some trunk or treating. This was the debut of the kids in their Mario characters halloween masks. I thought they were awesome. I found them on ebay and couldn't resist. Craig and I even had a mask to wear.

Sullivan wasn't crazy over all the attention he received with the Mario mask so it was a real battle to get him to wear it. Dalton LOVED all the attention so no problems there. Channing
wanted to make sure everyone could see her so she opted to wear her mask on top of her head. All in all the masks were a huge hit. No one else had masks that cool! Bartlett Baptist was way crowded so we didn't stay long.

The following weekend we attended Faith Baptist's trunk or treating. We got there early and really racked up on the candy. Craig was afraid people wouldn't recognize Dalton with his luigi mask on but everyone knew who he was! Dalton loved it.

Would you believe we had a house showing right before leaving for trunk or treating! Wow, what poor timing! Anyways, we cleaned up best we could, got the kids dress and went to Faith.







We didn't stay long at Faith so we could get home, maybe do a little trick or treating and hand out candy. On the way home, we stopped at a neighbor's haunted house. I was being nosy and not really thinking. We took the kids through, and let's just say it wasn't a good idea. Can we say nightmares?

Once home, Dalton was the only one who wanted to go door to door trick or treating while Sullivan and Channing stayed behind with Craig handing out candy. By the night's end, we were loaded in the candy. Would you believe then uncle Todd and aunt Marie sent the kids some yummy candy and the next door neighbor stopped by and gave us their left over bag of candy! Anyone need some candy?

Health and Safety Fair

I think I can breathe now. I finished with Red Ribbon Week at school so hopefully things will get back to some semblance of "normal". We'll still be busy just not crazy! Red Ribbon Week was a success if I do say so myself. Our theme for the week was "Growing in the Right direction, Staying away from Drugs". Playing off the "RIGHT" in our theme, the kids wore different items during the week in support of staying drug free.
R-red ribbon week starts today, wear red.
I- I am a "jean-ius" because I'm drug free-wear jeans.
G-Going to put a cap on drugs-wear fav. hat.
H-Heroes say No to drugs-wear camo or red/wt/blue.
T-Team up against Drugs-wear fav. team jersey.

I was so excited every day I was at the school and saw how many kids participated with the theme.
We, ok not really me (I was the supervisor)....Stephanie and Suzanne made me a tree for the cafeteria. Do I get props for it being my idea? Playing off the "Growing" part in the theme, we made a "I pledge to be DRUG FREE, TREE". Every child was given a leaf and if they made that pledge, they added their leaf to the tree. It looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

Then on Thursday was our Health and Safety Fair. I was so pleased with the exhibitors we offered this year: United Way, Fire dptmt, McGruff, Agricenter Poison Display, Traumatic Brain Injury Association, Beauticontrol, Arlington Family Chiropractic, CSI, Fitness Premier, State Farm, Relay for Life, Shriner's, Primary Eye Care, Leath Chiropractic, Sovereign Rehab, Identikid and Shots on the Spot. We had over 100 people come through which was outstanding. The biggest draw was we were offering the H1N1 flu mist. Just by chance a shipment came in right before our fair so we lucked out! Even though many probably came for that, at least 75 people went around and visited the exhibitors. How do I know that? We did passports that had to be stamped by every exhibitor and then those passports were turned in for door prizes. I think everyone was pleased.

Of course things weren't completely smooth, near the end of the night, Dalton tripped on his feet


and fell head first onto the hard floor. He had a pretty bad bump on his head but the firemen quickly came up to him and made it all better with a personal tour of their firetruck. All in all, a great week at AES.

Finally, Dalton's birthday party!

We haven't had an "official" birthday party with friends and everything for a few years now. As he gets older and older, I find it more difficult to find "themes" that both he and his classmates would find interesting.

Last year, we got off easy. We went to Disney on his birthday. Of course, that was one of the best times ever. He received a birthday button and any time a Disney employee saw the button with his name on it, they wished him a happy birthday. Of course, Dalton just thought that was the most awesome thing ever. He wore the button the entire time we were there and would proudly exclaim to everyone...even the ladies in front of him while we waited in line, "Today's my birthday!" Now, that wasn't exactly true 3 days later but he still enjoyed saying it and getting all the birthday wishes!

Sullivan gets quite worried that we haven't celebrated Dalton's birthday appropriately because we didn't have friends over. So, after some debating, we've decided to throw him a birthday party today with a Halloween theme. Not too scary. My kids get freaked out at the beginning of the Cars movie because the car wrecks. So, this is a not so scary Halloween party but maybe universally "cool"with the kids?

I'll post pictures after the party. Wish us luck (and Happy birthday to Dalton!...even though is birthday was a couple weeks ago. The boy can milk a birthday!)

Sullivan's half mile

Sullivan participated in a 1/2 mile training program for 6 and 7 year olds. He really enjoyed the training sessions.






To cheer him on, me and the kids made him a sign to encourage him during the race. He did such a great job.

He finished in the top group of runners and all the kids that participated received a medal. He was so proud of himself, he wanted to wear his medal to school. I think Craig was able to talk him out of it and the last minute.

Disney Pictures, finally!

This is sad I know, but I'm just now getting around to writing about the Disney trip. Part of the reason was I just found the camera! Probably on one of the house showings, I threw the camera in the garage with a bunch of other junk! Selling a house is no fun, but that's another story!

We all had a great time with our girls weekend. The start was a little bumpy with a roach found in the room (on property at the All Star Music Resort). Then a mix up with the number of park tickets but all went well. This was Tonya and Amanda's first visit to Disney and it didn't disappoint. The rain made a few of the days kinda icky but the lines were minimal. We were able to ride Everest back to back! It was awesome.







Here we are at Chef Mickey. All the characters came around and took pictures with us. The food was nothing to brag about. The best part about the buffet was definitely the desserts but I could see how a child would absolutely adore the personal attention received by the characters! We sure did.






Annette chickened out on the tower of terror but the rest of us enjoyed the ride...most of us 2xs. The only ride I wasn't able to do was some spinning space one. I didn't chicken out, but I know my limitations! Here we are in our princess shirts. Many people stopped and asked us about our shirts and even Tonya was spotted telling a perfect stranger all about our Princess shirts.

We were also caught watching the Hoopty Do Review. We had a good time but I do not recommend the show. It's very slap stick and very silly with much of the comedy missing the mark. I think us girls can have a good time anywhere but I would say save your money and don't see this show. We did laugh hysterically when Amanda was pulled up on stage...if you don't know this, Amanda seems to have made this a tradition. Her first "acting" experience happened in Gatlinburg when we were celebrating mom's 60th birthday. We had tried to get mom pulled up on stage but Amanda was the one selected. Now on this trip, we were celebrating Chantal's birthday and who gets pulled up on stage, yep Amanda!



On this trip, we did "coin" a new term for our trips...G.A.L.S. A.C.T. So what is it? It's now the name of our group and our girls weekend trips. It's the initial of our first names, including the one who started it all....mom! I know you can tell from the pictures but mom started a good thing!