More Homework

Cassidy got another homework assignment in her backpack today. I read the instructions to her and she quickly got down to business.

1. Trace the dotted lines.

2. Color the main picture and the smaller pictures below.

3. Cut out the smaller pictures.

4. Paste smaller pictures into the basket on the main picture.

5. Write your name at the top of the page.

I set her down at the kitchen table, made sure she had all the supplies she needed, and turned on the classical music.

Here's Cassidy, hard at work...

And this is what she ended up with...

It's perfect, of course. You couldn't have possibly expected any less from my angel.

A Most Annoying Habit

Ok, I've finally learned the downside of having kids of all ages riding the school bus together. Cassidy is watching and learning from them, and some of the stuff she comes home with is most annoying.

Example #1: She has asked for an mp3 player for Christmas. She's FOUR YEARS OLD! Luckily, I got a smokin' hot deal on a bunch of tween-styled electronics a while back and one of the items in my stockpile is an mp3 player. I honestly thought I was going to hang onto it for a few years, not a few months!

Example #2: Her new favorite saying is "Duh!". Even better, it's said with two syllables... "Du-uh!" AND it comes with a hand gesture. I was NOT excited about this new addition to her vocabulary, so I asked her what "Du-uh!" means. She said she doesn't know. Fantastic.

I can hardly wait to see what else comes home this year.

Cassiby Aced Her Homework

There was homework in Cassidy's backpack yesterday. Real homework!

Luckily, it was an easy coloring assignment, and Cassidy was excited to get started. The homework went back to school in her backpack this morning, and came home this afternoon with a check-plus AND a smiley face!! Go Cassidy!

Yes, it really says "Cassiby". She's been writing her name flawlessly for at least a year, but Mrs. M has asked that we remind our child to form the letters properly - starting at the top and pulling down. I suspect Ol' Cassiby was concentrating so hard on starting her letters at the top, that she lost focus on getting the arc high enough on that D... turning the D into a b.

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Luckily, it didn't seem to affect her grade.

No Jacket

It was somewhat chilly at the bus stop this morning. The temperature was around 68 degrees, which wasn't bad until the wind started blowing. Cassidy put on her jacket before we left the house, but I had a hard time getting Campbell to wear hers. She left the house sans jacket.

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The longer we stood outside, the chillier it got. I decided it was time for Campbell to put the jacket on, period.

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She won the battle, but I won the war.

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It reminded me of something my brother [who I will affectionately refer to as "Butthead"] did a very long time ago. He also had a jacket aversion, and absolutely refused to wear them. He was about 10 years old when he was walking into a store with Mama and asked (in a very loud voice), "Mom, can I please have my jacket back? I promise I'll be good!" Poor Mama was mortified.

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There's a good reason why I call him Butthead.

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So it looks like Campbell takes after her Uncle Butthead. This should make the next 20 years VERY interesting!

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Lunch with the Fam

Uncle Matt is home from Iraq for a short visit, so Gramma Kathy got everyone together for lunch today. It was so much fun to have everyone together, and the food was DELISH. Sergeant Sexy and I will definitely be making a return trip to that deli!!

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A Day In The Life Of A Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to me!

I did a TON of running around today, and decided to document my birthday activities with pictures. A few people asked what I was planning to take pictures of. A Birthday Girl can take pictures of whatever she wants, right?

I'm sure this will be a thrilling read.

Stopped at the post office twice to drop off eBay shipments. The graffiti on the mailbox really adds class, doesn't it?

Campbell and I visited her new school and then I took her to her regular school. Took The Chuckwagon to the shop to have the DVD system checked out. Completed a stack paperwork for Campbell's new school while I was waiting.

Went to Dr. Ped's office to get Campbell's shot record and stopped at the grocery store on my way home.

At some point during the day, Hello Kitty was impaled by my antenna. Sorry, Kitteh.

Stopped by the DMV but the line was out the door. Drove to Rite Aid instead and got 4 KitKats, one composition book, 1 Glade candle tin, 1 pack of Glade refills, and a box of Finish Electrasol tabs for $5.58!!

Got Cassidy off the school bus and spent the remainder of the afternoon packing up summer clothes and making sure the girlz had clothes for the fall.
Sergeant Sexy got me the perfect birthday cake... exactly the right size AND it had a candle that played "Happy Birthday"!

Campbell loved the cake.

Correction: Campbell REALLY loved the cake!

College Day

Today's Spirit Week theme was College Day. Cassidy wore her Notre Dame cheerleading outfit to school. She even wore her Power Cheer shoes.

She was one cool cat. Quite a departure from yesterday's outfit!!

Nerd Day

Big Girl School enrolls kids from 2.5 years old to seniors in high school. We really like how the girlz will (hopefully) be at the same school from the beginning of their school career until the end, and grow up with most of the same kids. Very cool.

One thing we weren't expecting was to go from Day Care/Preschool activities to High School activities in the blink of an eye. This week is Homecoming, and the entire school participates in Spirit Week. 4 year-olds and Spirit Week? Somewhat disorienting, but I guess we'll get used to it.

Monday was Fairy Tale Day and we chose not to participate for two reasons. 1) Long poofy dresses and steep school bus steps are a scary combination. And 2) I just broke Cassidy of her "Fashion Don't" dressing habits. I'd really rather not backtrack when we've made such good progress.

Tuesday was Camouflage Day. I wasn't sure what we would do for that, but I did manage to find a cute camo skort in Cassidy's drawer, so she rocked that.

Today was when it really started getting good. Today was Nerd Day. And do you think I dressed Cassidy up in full Nerd Regalia? You bet I did!

Future mainframe programmer!

Campbell dressed up as the Nerd's cute-as-a-button little sister.

I took the tape off the glasses after school, and Cassidy wanted to keep wearing them. I think she really looks like me with the Smart Girl Glasses.

Tomorrow is College Day. Stay tuned for pictures!!

Visiting Pop and Lydia

After church and naps, we met Mama and Papa at Pop and Lydia's house. We stopped by Fort Fun on the way to let them run off some of their energy (for safety purposes).

Hyper children + old people wandering around the old folks home = broken hip

We had a blast, and it was really nice to let the girlz visit with Pop and Lydia. Lydia really didn't do much visiting, but we didn't mind since we were really there to see Pop.

And when we were ready to go, we got the most wonderful surprise! Mama and Papa took the girlz with them, fed them dinner and gave them baths. They came home a few hours later with full bellies, clean bodies, and sleepy eyeballs.

Mama and Papa are AWESOME!!

4 generations!

Hello Kitty's House

We were at a loss of things to do after dance class today, so we took a trip to Hello Kitty's house. Unfortunately, our computer died a few weeks ago and I lost all of our emails... including the one with Hello Kitty's schedule of visits. We took a chance, but we missed her this month (she was there last Saturday). Cassidy still doesn't understand why Hello Kitty wasn't at her house. We told her Hello Kitty was probably grocery shopping. Kitteh needs food too, right?

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We still had fun, and the girls had a great time at the mall's play area.

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And I even got a Hello Kitty antenna topper for the Chuckwagon!

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They LOVED this slide!

And Campbell was even brave enough to go by herself!
I'm queen of the world!
Sisters!

Hiding Behind The Polka Dot Rock

We were concerned it would start to rain while we were waiting for the bus this morning, so I grabbed my umbrella as we were heading out the door. It never really started raining, but we felt a drop or two... enough for Cassidy to declare it time to break out the rain gear!

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After a few minutes of playing with the umbrella, Cassidy turned toward the street and held it straight out in front of her.

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"Mommy? Do you think the people driving by are wondering who's hiding behind the polka dot rock?" she asked.

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I think the chicken legs probably give it away, huh?

I never would have thought an umbrella would double as a rock, but she's right - it looks like a big polka dot rock from that angle.

I love seeing life through her eyes!!

The Room Parent Meeting

At Cassidy's Big Girl School Orientation, I signed up to be a Room Parent ("Room Mothers" must not be politically correct anymore). This should not come as a surprise, as you know I'm a hopeless overachiever and prefer to be as involved as possible with my children's education.

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I'm okay with this. It's just a small part of what makes me so charming and lovable.

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Being at today's meeting was a bit of a culture shock. I spend most of my days in well-planned meetings with clear agendas and concise time allotments for discussion and recap. This was not the case with the Room Parent meeting.

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It truly made the Nerd in me cringe. Far removed from the Evil Empire in a small-town country school setting, I was wincing in pain and wanted so badly to stand up and facilitate that meeting myself.

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You can take the Nerd out of the Nerdery, but you clearly can't take the Nerdery out of the Nerd!

Hawt Momma

I got new hair tonight...

It's pretty much the same style I had before, but now the top hair is very blonde and the hair underneath is very dark brown.

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I love my hairstylin' chick! She makes me look HAWT!!

Diva Baby

I took the girlz for a walk today so Daddy could have a few minutes of quiet. We headed down to Mary Grace's house and were happy to see that they were outside!

After we finished visiting with our friends, Cassidy got back on her bike and I pushed the diva Campbell in her car. We had a great time!

Pink-o and Pink-o Go To Dance Class

A new season of dance class has finally started. This year is going to be far more special than last year, because Marissa is taking dance with Cassidy! We've all been concerned about separating the Pink-o's because they have been best friends since they were born (literally). So we all decided the Pink-o's would take dance together.

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They were so cute this morning. They were either right beside each other or holding hands the entire class period. It was adorable.

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I'm Not Being Rude, Mommy

Each night before bed, I pray with Cassidy. Tonight as I was praying, she was fidgeting around and finally ended up with her bottom in the air.

I stopped praying and told her she was being rude. And you know what she said?

"I'm not being rude Mommy, I'm praying upside down".

Nice try, Cassidy!

The Chuckwagon

My new ride lasted less than a month before it was "Momed". Goodbye new car smell, hello vomit. Thanks, Campbell!

I'm considering renaming The Silver Bullet. It seems like The Chuckwagon is more appropriate, don't ya think?

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Baby Campbell Ran Out Of Gas

Campbell is cutting her two eye teeth. Fun times in our house!!!

She spent so much time fussing and crying today, she wore herself out. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard a soft thud. I looked up, and this is what I saw...

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It was so funny, I HAD to take a picture.

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Check out her feet - she clearly got the One Sock gene from Daddy, just like Cassidy. I just don't understand how wearing only one sock can possibly be comfortable. I guess I would understand if I had the One Sock gene, too.

Happy Birthday, KatieBug!

After church today, we had an extra special treat... KatieBug's birthday party!!

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KatieBug's parents are so cool, they decided to have 2 parties in one. The first two hours were for KatieBug's birthday party, and at 2PM the party converted from kiddie birthday to Labor Day celebration. What a cool and practical idea!!

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Cassidy and Marissa haven't seen each other in a week, and I could tell they had missed each other terribly. They were attached at the hip all afternoon.

Almost ready for church!

Enjoying KatieBug's cool backyard toys

Pink-o and Pink-o finally reunited after a dreadful weeklong separation

Campbell has started saying "Dora" but it sounds more like "Doe". She can say "Da-Da" and "Doe", but there's no trace of a "Mommy" in there anywhere. Should I be offended?

Silly Pink-os!

Best Friends Forever

We Wore Her Out

Cassidy decided she didn't need a nap on the weekends about 2 years ago. And since that time, she's never succumbed to sleep during the day on a weekend.

Until today.

The princesses got up this morning at 4AM, and I was able to hold them off until 5:30AM. After getting an absurdly early start to the day and having so much fun at Home Tee-Poh and the Circle Store, she was exhausted. The little bug conked out on the couch this afternoon and missed a birthday party for Auntie's daughter.

Home Tee-Poh Bean Bag Toss

Today was Kids Workshop at Home Tee-Poh. Kids Workshop conflicts with dance, so we haven't been able to get there for a few months. I was really glad we had time to go today. Cassidy had a blast, as always. It won't be long before Campbell can join in the fun!

Building the bean bag toss
Campbell and I did laps around the store in the stroller

Trying out our new toy
She did it!!