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.

Family Celebration

Look at Abbie's creation!

Abbie's soccer team after their final game.

cousin time!

what a cutie-little Monroe!

Abbie, Sophie and Matt-Sophie's got her new music stand.

the birthday "girls"

Abbie in her pretty dress.

The weekend of Sophie and Nana's birthdays was quite busy.  Friday night we had Sophie's friends' party.  Saturday morning, Sophie's GS troop was doing a little booth at a garage sale for a little while.  Then, Sophie had a violin recital.  Nana and Paw-paw were able to come to that.  Sophie did a great job but she was really tired from staying up a little bit late the night before.

Our family ate some lunch and then, Abbie had her last soccer game of the season.  Afterwards, she got a new trophy and they had cookie cake.  Then, we went home to get cleaned up before going to Nana's house.  We were all able to be there-Uncle Phil, Nana and Paw-paw, Aunt Martha's family and our family.  We celebrated Nana's birthday that day (April 30) and Sophie's birthday on the next day.

On Sophie's birthday, she was able to open some gifts from us, we went to church and then we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  We were able to sit outside and we really enjoyed that.  That afternoon, our family went for a bike ride since the weather was nice.  Unfortunately, I think Sophie enjoyed it least of all because she got hot and sweaty.  Afterwards, we got some cold drinks from Sonic!  That night at church, there were having a special separate service led by young ladies and Sophie did a great job reading a scripture.  The girls had some cookies and snacks afterwards.  Whew, it was a busy weekend!!

Sophie's 11th Birthday

Sophie and Carley getting their nails done!

Lots of fun with "Minute to win it" games

Abbie vs. Allie on a challenge

Go, Sophie!  Get those ping pong balls out of there!

Another "minute to win it" challenge.  =)

We tried a face mask-here's the girls chillaxin'-Abby B., Anaiah, and Ellie

Here's Abby C. and Allie

Abbie, Sophie and Carley

Here's Jessie with her pyramid.

Allie and Sophie-BFFs since 1st grade!

Sophie, Anaiah, and Carley-we made bath bombs!

All of the girls watching a movie.

Did you know plastic stacking cups provide hours of entertainment?

I really can't believe it but Sophie turned 11 earlier this week on Sunday, May 1.  It seems crazy that she's already 11 and she's almost as tall as I am.  On the Friday before Sophie's birthday, we had a birthday party at our house.   Six of her friends were able to come so it was a great turnout.  I made poppyseed chicken casserole, rice, rolls, and then we had a tossed salad and strawberry pretzel salad that mom made.  (Sophie had requested no pizza this time.)  Our theme this year was a spa party and put on the invite that the girls could wear their p.j.s if they wanted to.  After the girls had dinner, we painted their nails and then, we played several "minute to win it" games.  The girls had a great time with these.  Then, some of the girls tried the face mask that I made (it turned out kind of runny).  Just for fun, they put some cucumber slices on their eyes.  Nana was able to come to the party and my friend, Jill, was nice enough to help me with painting nails, etc.  Carley's sister, Jessie, also stayed and played with Abbie.  After playing some games, the girls had some cookie cake and ice cream.  Then, we made some bath bombs that the girls could take home after they dried.  Sophie opened her gifts and then, they watched part of a movie called Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal and Marisa Tomei.  It was pretty funny!  After watching part of the movie, it was time for the girls to go home.  I think that all of them had a great time!

Funny Stories on Abbie

I had a couple of funny stories that I wanted to share about Abbie.  The first one has to do with Abbie's frequent sleep walking habits.  She usually goes to bed about 8:00 at night but she frequently gets up around 9:30 and we have to walk her back to bed.  Sometimes, she says things and other times she does not.  One night when she was sleep walking recently, Matt got up to check on her and help her get back to bed.  Before she got back in the bed she asked, "Did Sophie get baptized tonight?"  Matt just responded with a "yes".  We thought it was funny because Sophie was baptized last summer.  It's better not to argue with someone when he or she is half asleep though.  =)

A few days ago, we were driving home from church one Sunday night.  We had celebrated Sophie and Nana's birthdays over the weekend so we had been eating a lot of dessert (they had also brought cookie cake for Abbie's last soccer game on Saturday.)  Anyway, Abbie asked if she could have some cookie cake when we got home ( I had made some for Sophie's birthday cake).  I was a little bit distracted but I said, "well, you don't really need more dessert but maybe you can have just a bit".  We had also eaten lunch at Cheesecake Factory that day for Sophie's birthday and shared a piece of cheesecake.  She said, "what is a bit of cake?  I don't know what a bit of cake is.  Can I have more than a bit of cake?"  I said, a bit of cake just means that you only need a little bit."  She had also eaten cookies after church so I didn't really feel sorry for her.  We decided that both of the girls had already eaten enough dessert for the day!

Another story on Abbie that was cute happened this past Sunday morning.  Abbie usually takes some notes on our Sunday morning sermon.  She does a great job with it.  This past Sunday she was taking notes because normally her age group meets on Sunday nights and we review the scriptures from that morning's sermon.  Well, this Sunday she was taking notes and our preacher started talking about some recent health problems that he had.  He recently dislocated his hip and he was talking about he had to go back and look up his precautions from that surgery.  On one of the slides it listed some hip precautions.  Our preacher was tying that in to a Biblical point but Abbie busily copied down the precautions.  I just thought it was cute!

A few more party pictures...

the whole "Waggoner" clan (can you find Morgan?)

another shot-it's hard to get a decent picture of this many people!

The party planner extraordinaire-my awesome husband, Matt

Here are just a few more pictures from the birthday party.  It was a lot of fun!  I'm glad that my friend, Ruth, took some pictures of various people and  I was thankful that we got some family pictures.