Fun at the Fair

Abbie and Jessie, Sophie and Carley

Abbie with performers from one of the shows.

Abbie got to be part of the "band".  

They made this area look like an old timey wash station.

It's a tradition!  It's hard to get all of us with a decent expression on our face.  

Here's Abbie up in the tractor!

Carley and Sophie on the midway.  The X-Factory ride in the background was one of their favorites. 

We saw Lady Houdini, an escape artist perform.  It makes me nervous just to watch.

Just after school started, our family was able to go to the Williamson County Fair and meet up with the Gray's.  I wasn't sure if we were going to get a chance to go this year or not.  School started back really early this year.  We decided to go on a Saturday and get there during the day kind of like we did last year.  I didn't know if the girls would still agree to go to the Little One's Farming this year because they've about outgrown it (sniff, sniff) but Abbie still wanted to do it.  They get to do all these little tasks like a farmer and they trade in their fake seeds, eggs, veggies, milk, etc at the end for an ice cream sandwich or another treat.  I think, as much as anything, they like the treat at the end.  Abbie does enjoy seeing all of the animals in the big barn though.

Abbie wanted to ride on the ferris wheel and that is just not her Mama's thing so Miss Jill was kind enough to go with her.  The kids had a great time riding the rides.  It was pretty hot to start off.  We also saw a couple of shows.  Abbie got to participate in one about recycling that had music in it.  Lady Houdini was really entertaining because she's an escape artist but it's hard to even watch her do her stunts.  We had a good time overall.  A heavy shower came up right about dinner time and we decided to go ahead and leave.  

Labor Day Weekend Fun in Alabama

Paula and Matt with the little waterfall behind us

Our girls with the waterfall

Sophie, Paula and Abbie with Ivy Green, Helen Keller's birthplace and childhood home.

waterfalls at Spring Park

train at Spring Park

the well at Ivy Green where Helen Keller first signed "water".

Paula (being silly) and Matt

an old safe at Rosie's Cantina in Florence, AL

Our family decided to take advantage of the three day weekend for Labor Day.  We took a day trip and headed down to Tuscumbia, AL so that we could visit Helen Keller's birthplace.  It's about a 2 hour drive from Franklin.  Abbie did a little report on Helen Keller last year at school so she was really interested in her.  Thankfully, the weather wasn't quite as hot and humid as it has been for the weekend but it was still pretty warm.  Our family stopped in Florence for lunch before visiting Helen Keller's home nearby.  We had a great Mexican lunch at Rosie's Cantina in downtown Florence.  Our food was delicious and the service was good.  Our girls appreciated it that free ice cream is included with your meal.  =)  Then, we walked around a little bit.

After that, we drove over to nearby Tuscumbia and toured Helen Keller's birthplace and childhood home, Ivy Green.  I (Paula) had been there as a child because, I was also fascinated with Helen Keller when I was little.  After we toured the home and grounds, we visited Spring Park nearby.  There was a pretty little waterfall, a carousel, a train that went around the park, a big playground, a small roller coaster, and a little pond with ducks on it.  It was a neat little park and we spent some time there doing everything.  The girls really liked the roller coaster.   On our way home, we stopped at Sonic for Happy Hour.  All in all, we had a fun but tiring day.  

New Beginnings

Sophie and Miss Liz, her favorite violin teacher so far!  =)

Sophie with her beautiful new violin!

Sophie (on R) with some of the girls in her new Girl Scout troop.

I guess you could say that I took a summer hiatus from the blog.  Things just always seem to be busy around here but I do like having this to come back to so that I can remember special times and special things we've done.  This fall, Sophie has embarked on a new journey, middle school!  I think I was just as nervous, if not more so, than she was.  It's a big step up when your child goes from elementary to middle school.  There are so many changes from the earlier wake up time, earlier school start time/dismissal, and for Sophie it meant almost starting over too with tons of new kids because her school is one of five elementary schools that feeds into the middle school.  Her middle school is quite a bit farther from our house and she has to catch the bus at about 6:39 A.M.  (yikes!)  This is when we were usually starting to wake up at our house in the past.  

She's been back in school now for about 5 weeks or so now so she has had some time to adjust.  She's making new friends, getting used to the schedule, her new bus, etc.  Sophie's done great with adjusting to getting up early, setting an alarm, etc.  I'm really proud of her!  This summer, Sophie decided to try contact lenses instead of glasses and she's done great with adjusting to them too.  She also had braces put on her teeth.  

In May, Sophie tried out for the Williamson County Junior Orchestra and she made it!  She has taken violin lessons since she was in the first grade.  She will have rehearsals with the orchestra one night a week.  She was so excited about this opportunity!  The violin teacher that Sophie has had for the last three years was only going to offer violin lessons in her home.  We did that a little bit this summer.  We love Ms. Liz but since she doesn't live close to us, we are starting with a new teacher this week.  She will be coming to our home which I think will be wonderful!  Since Sophie has grown taller, we realized that she needed a bigger violin.  We had been renting one for a while but we decided to buy one this time.  It came in a couple of weeks ago and it is beautiful!

Since Sophie was changing almost everything else in her life-new school, new bus, new friends, new violin teacher, new orchestra opportunity, why not go ahead and change Girl Scout troops too?  Sophie decided to join a new Girl Scout troop that has girls in it from her school.  They seem like a really neat group of girls.  One of her friends from her old Girl Scout troop, Grace Dalenberg, also switched to the new troop.