Vacation Bible School

Last week Madeline attended her 1st vacation bible school week at her new school she will be attending in 2 weeks. We had a long and busy week. She was at full-time daycare all day from 9-5, then headed to bible school 6:30-8:30pm everyday. She had a great time and had a lot of fun too. I got some pictures on the last day when they performed some songs with arm motions, had dinner for the parents, and an ice cream party. She met a lot of new people and even some that are going to be in Kindergarten with her.

getting ready to sing..

You can see Madeline was a little embarrassed that I was taking pictures of her (in the green/middle). She kept putting her hands over her face. I got a few of her performing, but the pictures didn't show up too good & were dark.
We have had a busy summer and I can't believe it is coming to an end. Time flew this year and it is amazing it will be August. I hope everyone has had a great summer too!
Check back on Friday for FFF!

Saturday 3D!

So if anyone as a child that likes Hanna Montana you would know that Disney played her 3D movie on Saturday on TV for one night only. You could go and get 3D glasses from Walmart to view the show. So that's what we did with our closet friends! I snapped a few quick pictures of the girls in their glasses. So cute! During the day we went out to Henry's Ark, a free "zoo" like place that you can go and see all kinds of animals from deer, goats, pigs, zebras, peacocks, camels, ducks, roosters, rabbits.........shall I go on. You can bring bread & carrots to feed the animals yourself. I snapped a few pics while we were there. It was so darn Hot and humid that I barely wanted to move to get out the camera.


Madeline feeding the ducks

Zebras love carrots!

And this is the peacock that gave my car 4 pretty nice scratches. I was not happy. They come up to the cars and see their own reflection and will peck and scratch, of course the sign in the background says they are not responsible for any damage. The scratches we not to bad, but you can see them. I got a pic of him before I chased him off.

Over all we stayed very busy this weekend & last week. Madeline had a full week last week of Vacation Bible school and we also attended another birthday party today (Sunday). After that we headed to visit Madeline's Great-Grandpa. Now we are home and getting ready to start another busy week. Hope everyone had a great weekend too.

Favorite Foto Friday #26- Friends

This week's theme is friends and I have posted Madeline with her best buddy Sarah. We met Sarah and her mommy, Michele, a few years ago at the Little Gym when they were in class together. Michele and I quickly became very close friends and of course so did Sarah & Madeline. We have done everything together...the girls both had their 1st sleepovers at each other house, they play for hours and you won't hear a peep out of them. They are just great together. Sarah is 6 and will be in 1st grade this year and Madeline will be heading into Kindergarten. I have posted a bunch of pictures from the last year showing all their fun times together. Enjoy!

Riding rides at Kentucky Kingdom....

Sleepover fun and making gingerbread houses....

Hubers Orchard--the watermelon and the pepper....

Swimming at Sarah's house....

Hubers Orchard....best buddies holding hands..I love this picture!

Napping together after a long day at Huber's


Playing dress up together.....

Taking a bath and playing in the tub together....

Having fun at the drive-in movies together.....

Our trip to the teepee's for an overnight (Wigwam Village) and Mammoth Cave....
http://www.wigwamvillage.com/

Being goofy....

What a fun time these girls have together. Many more fun time are ahead and I know when we are with our friends, we enjoy every minute.....

My Life Changing Day!

Six years ago today my life changed! I knew something was up with my body. I was exhausted and for some odd reason I was "late". One of my co-workers said, are you pregnant? I was like, no way! and then I began to think. OH MY, could I be. All these thoughts started rushing through my head. I am single, not married, away from family, oh my! oh my. I am "usually" so good at protecting myself. After work I ran by Walgreen's and bought a pregnancy test. When I got home I sat the bag on the counter and walked away. I was a bit scared. So I waited until the next morning, as the box said-- best results first thing in the morning.

So I took the test and stood there watching at the stream rolled over the plus/ minus signs... AND WOW, my test was fast....and positive! I was speechless. I called my assistant at work and told her I took the test and it was positive. I still didn't think this could be true. So I did what a lot of women do the first time taking these tests, they go by another test thinking it was wrong. (Of course I hear later there is rarely a false positive). I did it again at work and had my assistant look, and she was like--well it looks like you have a bun in the oven. I started to cry, I don't know why- so many emotions- so much unknown- how do I tell my parents?- the father?- I was 31 years old- I know I was deep down in my gut excited, but didn't picture my life like this. I wanted to be married first with the house, a husband, and then have a baby. God had a different plan for me. A wonderful different path. He blessed me to be a mother. July 24th, 6 years ago. I passed the test with a positive.

A few moths later I found out I was having a baby girl. For some reason I just knew it was a girl..I rarely seemed to look at boys names--but then again those first few months are a blur. So much preparing, thinking, dreaming.

So today as I look back and remember those thoughts, where I was, who was with me and I realize I love my life and what it has brought to me. My precious Madeline. She is my world, my love, my rock!

I love you Madeline

Love Mommy.

Happy 96th Birthday Great-Meemaw!

How lucky am I and Madeline to still have this wonderful person in our lives. My grandma (my mom''s mother) just celebrated her 96th birthday on July 20th. Every year we have a party to celebrate another wonderful year. She is an amazing person. She still lives on her own, in her home, and you can still sit down and talk to her about the day she had her own children and all the things she has seen in her lifetime. Through wars, the depression, walking everywhere she needed to go....no cell phones, no electronics, no fast food......... She has seen it all. We beg her to enjoy some of the money she has by buying a new big TV and she insists her 42 year old huge brown wood encased TV is just fine. We tell her she needs a new one because of the change happening next year and she says she will just deal with it then and buy one of those converters....She has lived simple, ate well, and still enjoys life. Are we lucky or what?!!

Happy 96 Birthday Great Meemaw....can't wait to celebrate your 100th in a few years....

Favorite Foto Friday #25- Rest in Peace "Blue"

This week our FFF is to pick your own theme. Our FFF queen and organizer is on a vacation this week and she asked for us to pick our own pictures for the week. I had some pictures I was going to post from our vacation last week at home, but we had an unexpected event today. Our beta fish "blue" that we have had for 4 years passed away today. He was an amazing fish. Four years ago when I decided to give my cockatiel, who I had owned for 10 years, to my friend Kelly, I went out and bought this fish for Madeline and I. I didn't think he would ever live this long!


We would occasionally stop in the pet store by our house where we bought the fish and to pick up fish food. We would stop and talk to the fish guy that takes care of all the tanks. We would always tell him our fish was alive and doing well. He always remembered Madeline because she started going in there when she was 15 months old. She loved going over and seeing all the fish in the tanks. He would even ask Madeline how her fish was. The last time I was in I told him our fish had a hard time swimming and would just lay on the bottom or on top of his little castle. He said that he was probably at the end of his little life...that was over 6 months ago. "Blue" died peacefully today while we were out about our day. About a year ago we got another beta so we have another one to still enjoy, but we will forever miss our first! I asked Madeline if she wanted to flush him or bury him. You should have seen the look she gave me when I said to flush him....she was like, no way mommy. So we decided to bury him right by our patio. Of course I got pictures....the one above is her holding "blue" in a princess bowl before burying him. In the background his Madeline's cousin Zachary.


preparing the tiny grave....and blue waiting for his burial:)

Madeline placing him into the grave


Rest in peace "blue"...We will miss you!

Love Madeline & Lisa

Girls Night Out

It was big girls and little girls night out Saturday night. My friend Shannon and myself really wanted to do something fun with our girls. It was very hot outside so we decided for some indoor fun at Incredible Dave's. This place is a very nice indoor play area with a restaurant, inflatables, bumper cars, etc.. and even a large bowling alley. You can have a nice meal in the restaurant and your kiddos can run and play. It was nice because half of the time Shannon and I felt like we didn't even have the girls they were playing so much. Of course I got pictures of just the 2 of them. They had a ball together!


They have these huge water walls there, like 5 of them, and every kid that walks buy them just has to put their hands in the water....Here they are in front of the water wall...

Madeline's new best buddy- Caitlyn

Watching the bungee jumpers! Caitlyn was waiting her turn..She jumped so high (see picture below of her jumping) Madeline was like, NO WAY! I am not doing that. I will stick to the slide.

Caitlyn jumping...

Madeline sliding...

Overall the weekend was great and a nice end to my vacation. We had a nice week together going to Kentucky Kingdom, the Zoo, and shopping with my mom and great aunt at the Edinburgh Outlet Mall (a huge outlet in Indiana near Indy). It was nice to spend time with my "little" girl before she starts a busy Kindergarten school year on August 13th. (sniff)
Hope everyone had a good weekend! Thanks for visiting our blog.
Lisa & Madeline

Favorite Foto Friday #24- "Red, White, & Blue" (4th of July)

This week's theme was to post our red, white, and blue pictures,or 4th of July fun. We spent the holiday with our best friends- The Graff's. Every year they have a huge cookout. Madeline had a ball playing with all the girls and us adults had fun making some "yummy" drinks in the blender. Our weather did not cooperate with us and it rained cats and dogs around 6pm and off and on until arounf 9:30. We were finally able to set off the fireworks around 10pm. We had so much fun that I forgot to take many pictures. Here are the few I did take of our fun night!


Madeline with her friends! (L to R)->Caitlyn, Madeline, Sarah M., & Sarah G.


My closest friend and side kick, Michele (on the right)- me on the left.

Caitlyn and her mom, Shannon enjoying the fireworks!

Michele's neighbor, Chris, playing some tunes for us. This guy is great and we had a wonderful time listening to him play and sing waiting for the rain to go away!

The day after we headed out to Kentucky Kingdom with Michele and the girls for some fun in the sun. This is Madeline taking a break from the pool!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I have been on vacation all this week and it's been a fun week spending it with Madeline and getting her ready for Kindergarten. Thanks for visiting out blog!

Getting ready for KINDERGARTEN!

Today we spent the day shopping for the upcoming school year. I have the entire week off of work and today was "school day". We started out by getting the rest of Madeline's "shots" needed to start school. She wasn't too happy about those. She got upset when she saw the needle, but then didn't even cry when they gave them to her. After that we headed out to buy all her school supplies. We only have a few things left to purchase so it was a good shopping trip. Next we met my mother at the store that sells the school uniforms. This was a big moment more for me than Madeline. I remember every year (12 years of them) that my mom brought me to the same store and I was measured for my uniform. Luckily today the uniform Madeline put on fit her perfect and no alterations were needed. I took a couple of pictures of Madeline in her uniform in the dressing room. She was a bit embarrassed at mommy wanting to get pictures of her in it, but I can tell she LOVED it has she pranced around in the store.


The style of uniform St. Edward requires for Kindergarten must also be worn until 3rd grade, then she may switch to a regular skirt. I love the jumper uniform. It has a stripe of red through it also and a red school logo sweatshirt or sweater can be worn too. The first day of school is August 13th, so it is coming up very quickly. It's amazing how fast time flies.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. It rained here and was pretty ugly, but we were able to set off fireworks by 10pm. We have a busy vacation week planned ahead, so until next time........

Favorite Foto Friday #23- "Dancin"

This week's theme is dancing, get your groove thing! Madeline is always good at dancing and like she says, "shaking that butt". When she dances, to radio music for example, it cracks me up because her arms are "moving" and her butt wiggles a little. It's just too funny. The top 2 pictures below are my favorite. I call it "walmart dancing". We were shopping last year after gym one night and we were in walmart. While Sarah's mom went to look for a few things I took the girls to the toy department. They found a keyboard that played Disney songs and all of a sudden that had it playing and were dancing in the middle of the isle. Of course I had my camera, I always do. They were so cute! It was too funny and they just laughed and laughed.


"Walmart dancing"


At chuck-e-cheese one evening. Sarah and Madeline were getting their groove on

Of course, here is my little ballerina. She loves ballet and tap class.

Again you can tell these girls love to be goofy anywhere we are. I think it was gym class that got them all silly because anywhere we went after that it was all giggles, laughing, and dancing.

Madeline playing with her new Barbie dance mat from Christmas. I will move out the coffee table and let her dance away.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July holiday. It is supposed to rain all day here in Louisville so I am pretty bummed. I will be with friends so that will make it nice rain or shine.

Vallory's Bridal Shower!

This past Sunday we had a bridal shower celebration for Vallory, my cousin. We had a wonderful time at a fantastic restaurant- Olivia's! (By the way if you live in Louisville, this is an awesome new restuarant located in Germantown's antique mall, a must try!) It was nice to just be with all the women and enjoy a nice sit down lunch and Vallory enjoying opening her gifts. She will be getting married on August 2nd, 2008 and honeymooning in Hawaii. .....Congrats Vallory! The big day will be here before you know it. (Picture above is Vallory, with her mother Beverly. The rest of the pictures of our lunch are below.... )

Bridal shower hosts..My aunt Phyllis (Left) & my mother Anna (Right) with Vallory

Madeline & I

Madeline cheesing.....


My mom, Anna, me, and Vallory

Vallory

Vallory, and my sister-in-law, Jackie

The cupcakes

Vallory with her Matron of honor, Cynthia