Easter Bunny Babies!!!

When Chad was weed-eating near our backyard fence he came across this...

It doesn't look like much, but that stuff that looks like dryer lent is actually fur!

What you are looking at is a baby rabbit that is snuggled underneath "hare hair" with it's sisters and brothers.

PSIA (Private Schools Interscholastic Association) Winner!!!

This is our Cami when we arrived in New Braunfels at 9 a.m. Her first competition for storytelling was at
10 a.m. They split the first graders up in 2 groups of 6. During the first round Camille was advanced to the finals which were held at 2 p.m.

Chad, Cari, and I were in the audience during each event, and I was so nervous for all the kids...especially mine! It is very difficult! The children are told a long story and then they have to take turns standing up in front of the judges and audience to retell the story.

They were judged on several different criteria.

We had to wait around for several hours and then she competed again with the final group of 6. At 4 p.m. they handed out the ribbons and that is when we found out that Camille placed first and will be going to State May 1st to represent our area. We were so proud of her because this was a very tiring all day event, not to mention her very first time competing in anything like this!

There are 3 other children that also qualified for state from our private school. This district meet had around 300 kids from 11 different private schools. I am a little nervous about the next round, but we have decided to make a vacation out of it and enjoy our time in Fort Worth.

(This is a picture of Cami with her First Grade Teacher and long-time family friend, Ryanna Reed.)

Red Rooster Antique Co.

One of my favorite things to do is to go antique shopping...or even just antique looking!

A couple of weeks ago we were in New Braunfels painting pottery and afterwards went across the street to one of my new favorite stores, The Red Rooster Antique Co. http://www.redroosterworld.com/.

(Indian Lego Man with the girls. Carigan with her puppy and Camille with her purse - typical)

As we were walking around, my strained neck was forced to turn all over the place as Camille, Carigan, and Chad wanted me to see everything that they did, but the store is literally stacked floor to ceiling with old stuff! I was glad they were enjoying it as I was, but I was on a mission to find the perfect something that needed to go home with me. I was on the hunt and needed to make my escape for a few minutes.

(Water fountain from the Houston Zoo)

To my great surprise, I found a little amber bird nesting high on a shelf with no other birds around. I snatched it up so fast and turn it over to read W Ward 1993. I have a 1999 "Bluebird of happiness" at home, but had never seen a yellow one!

(The store is also a resturant...but not this one)

Needless to say, I felt like I was the luckiest "chick" in that store! It was just the thing to Spring-up my kitchen window seal!

I saw plenty of other things I wanted such as vintage table clothes, old Kodak cameras, and the cutest green glass juicer. Oh well, Camille is competing in New Braunfels tomorrow and just maybe we can make our way over there...and rescue another pretty thing that wants to live at my house!

(I guess I need to clean my windows)

Snow Day in Texas

We have been so jealous of Dallas lately getting all of our Texas snow.

Well, finally we saw some!

It was not piled up thick on the ground, but we experienced an actually snow day.

 We all stayed home.

The kids played and Chad and I caught up on all our DVR shows!

 And then...we realized the flakes outside were prime for playing and we ran outside with coats over our pj's and pretended we were in Colorado again.

It was a lot of fun and just what the kids have been begging for.

We did not even care that we created a huge pile of wet mess when we came back in the house because it was totally worth it.

We even made a new freezer friend because Cari could not bear leaving behind her snowman.

and...Cheeto got a new bed for the day!

Smart Camille

We were eating dinner one night last week and were reviewing Camille's spelling words with her. We kept asking her one of the words on her list, and they were words like "glad, can, ect." They were very simple 3-4 letter words typical for 1st grade work.

Well, Carigan wanted to ask her sister words too and started looking around for things to ask. She began to ask her, "How do you spell ... window?" Without hesitation, Camille says, "WINDOW." This makes her father gasp, "Oh my gosh!" Cari asks her several other things to spell such as plate, table, tea, chair and Camille spells them all saying that they were too easy.

(She loves video games and spelling words...well, at least she looks like me!)

As a joke, we began asking her harder and harder words, one being the word, "tomorrow." Camille nails it and we are both are floored!!! We could barely spell that darn word, and she did in one try.

This has sparked us to challenge her spelling abilities, and she loves it. She has learned many other new words to add to her ever growing spelling list. Next year she can compete in a spelling competition with her school and surrounding schools. Until then, we will keep preparing her...for college.

Silly Carigan

Cari has had some crazy dreams lately...

This was a bad dream she told me while she was about to cry....

"I had a bad dream, Mommy. I dreamed that you turned into a doggy and all you could say was, 'Woof, woof.'"

While trying not to laugh, I reassured her that I could never turn into a dog. Later she told me that I went into a machine, and it was what turned me into a dog.

(This is her in her superhero costume with her superhero dog...that is plastic icecream cone for his hat.)

A couple of days later she told me that she had a funny dream.

"I dreamed I smelled a stinky hand."  She went on to say, "An adult lady slapped a mouse, and she told me to smell her hand. She told me that it smelt good, but I thought it smelt bad."

She also told me one day as we were leaving to pick up Cami that she knew what throw-up meant.

"It means, smells weird."

This child is so funny and so much fun!!!!

Coming from a 7-year-old...

The other night I was putting Carigan to sleep, and she mentioned that she was afraid of being in the dark. Camille was standing next to us listening to her sister. Just as I was about to encourage her to not be afraid of the dark, her big sister began to speak.

"Carigan, listen. I have something very important to tell you. You do not have to be afraid because God is with you. He will not let anything happen to you. He sends his angels out to protect us. There are probably angels here in this room right now, but we cannot see them. You have nothing to be afraid of, but if you do get afraid then just come into my room, and I will pray for you. Okay? I love you."

With that, she kissed her goodnight as I froze in awe of the little woman of God that my 7-year-old had become. Carigan smiled with a new sense of confindence that her sister had instilled. I held back my proud tears and found that there was nothing else to say. She had said it all!