Household Item Day

This week is Homecoming at Brooke's school.  They have "Spirit Week" all week long with different themes each day...

• Mon. - twin, superhero day
• Tues. - Household Item day
• Wed. - Gender Bender day
• Thurs. - Cowboys & Indians day
• Fri. - Trojan Spirit day

Yesterday Brooke choose to play it safe and was twins with Kenzie, they just wore jeans and a matching zebra tank with a cheer jacket.  But from what Brooke said and the pictures I've seen on facebook, some of the kids went all out with the superhero theme!

Last night Brooke and I stayed up until almost midnight completing her outfit for today, using gray & white trashbags and duct tape...

Brooke was scared going to school today that she looked stupid and would be "the only one" to dress up...even though all the cheerleaders were required to do it :-)  From the pictures I've already seen Brooke looked almost normal in her trashbag/duct tape skirt and duct tape headband and bows on her shoes.  Some of these kids really go all out, so far I've seen trashbags, newpaper, syran wrap, paper clips, duct tape...I can't wait to hear more when Brooke get home!  When I was looking online for ideas yesterday I came across a dress made of yellow rubber gloves...hmm maybe an idea for next year!

Gender Bender

Cowboy/Indian Day
Kenzie, Cassie, Cristy, Mert & Brooke

Mama's Birthday

Seems I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures on my birthday, here's all I got...

 

MY DAY:  Mike tried to get me biscuits & gravy for breakfast but our convenience shop down the street was already out :(  so I had to make myself toast.  But it got better after that :-)  Mike, the girls and I did a little garage selling and then headed off to a craft festival (my favorite!).  After we left that craft festival...we went to another one :).  Papa & Grammy met us at the second festival and after walking around we headed to my favorite BBQ restaurant for dinner.  After dinner we headed to Wal-Mart where Brooke got me some new smell-um-good sprays and Mike got a cake and ice cream for later.  I was also given a slider grill from Papa & Grammy...I can't wait to use it, how fun!

The next day my mom (Mammaw) took me shopping for my birthday!  It was a little hard at first to allow her to spend money on me (just not used to that anymore) but by the end of the day I got real used to it!!!  I ended up with 4 shirts, a pair of jeans, a necklace, a pair of pajamas and a pair of workout capris...plus she took me out for lunch and dinner!  I'm thinking I could handle doing that more often :-)

Gray Team

Lexy had her first game of this soccer season on Sat. morning.  Lexy is on the Gray team this time (she's been on a different color each time).  Her team did a great job and won their game 3 - 0!!  Lexy absolutely LOVES soccer and is so excited each time she has a practice/game.  It's fun to watch her grow as a player and team mate.  She's definately one of the players on her team that gets in there and really plays the game!

16 years, 16 roses

Friday Sept. 17th was Mike & I's 16th Wedding Anniversary.  Mike had these beautiful flowers delivered to me to celebrate the occassion.  I can't believe we've already been married for 16 years (together for 20 yrs!).  We didn't get to do anything big to celebrate since Mike was on call for work this week but we did go to Applebee's for dinner and on Sat. we even got out of the house alone (Brooke watched Lexy) to browse around the "junk" stores in town.

RIP Dolly

1999 - 2010

Dolly was a great dog and a loved member of our family for 11 years.  She came to us as a pup when Brooke was 3 yrs. old.  She and her siblings were being given away at Wal-Mart just after we moved into our house.  Papa saw the puppies and took Brooke over to see them, Dolly was the first one to crawl up into Brooke's lap and lay down.  Brooke named her and has loved her dearly since.

A few weeks ago we noticed that Dolly was not wanting to put pressure on one of her paws.  The vet looked her over and said that nothing was broken and that it was probably arthritis.  On Sat., Sept. 11 Brooke came to me and said that she thought Dolly was dead, she couldn't see her breathing from the window.  Mike went and checked on her and discovered that she was indeed gone. :(  She'll be missed very much!

Birthdays

This past weekend Mike celebrated his 47th birthday!  We had his favorite breakfast, french toast, did a little shopping, went to eat at Pizza Hut and then I baked him his favorite cake, strawberry with white icing.

The next day we were invited to have lunch with Mammaw and Grandpa Tom and take a peek at their new RV.  After that we all headed to CJ & Jess's for Ashley's birthday party.

Cheer Photos

Before the game on Friday, we had a few minutes so I told Brooke that I would take some photos of her in her cheer outfit.  I'm no photographer but I think some of them turned out really well!

The Fun Begins

(Brooke cheering with the littles from Little Girls Cheer Camp)

(Lexy's first day of soccer practice)

Fall seems to always be our busiest time of year now since both girls are involved in activities.  Brooke has Dazzler (cheer) practice some mornings at 6AM, she cheers at least one time a week and she has drama rehearsal four evenings a week and last night Lexy started her soccer practices that are twice a week in the evening!  I remember thinking when Brooke was little "why do those parents do that to themselves" when they were running all over the place for their kids' activities.  And while I still don't believe in overbooking activities for kids, I do see why parents sacrifice their time and energy...to see the enjoyment their kids get out of participating.  We are definately not a competitive family and you would never hear one of us yelling at our kid (or the team) for doing something wrong but we do really enjoy seeing the girls get excited to be part of a team and focusing on doing their best!

Proud

I'm so proud of Brooke.  Yesterday she came home from school saying that tryouts for the school musical were last night (and the night before).  Brooke went back and forth all evening trying to decide if she would face possible humiliation to be one of the very few freshmen to tryout.  She has loved being in school plays for the past two years but the combination of being a freshmen this year and this being a musical...where she had to sing to tryout was a little overwhelming.  In the end she overcame her fears and went to the auditions with a friend.  When she got home she said that she had to...

• sing a song on the stage by herself with a spotlight shining on her.
• perform an unrehearsed two person skit out of a book with someone she didn't know.
• make up and perform a one person play with a beginning, middle and end based on a scenario that she was given on the spot.

Brooke sang Mary had a Little Lamb for her song and said that she did good for most of it (even with her allergies).  She said her skit went well.  The scenario she was given for her one person play was "you're making a sand castle and someone knocks it down".  From what she showed us, she did a really good job.  She said she had everyone laughing so that's a plus!

They had to mark if they wanted to be considered for a lead, support or chorus.  Brooke marked support and chorus.  She said that there would be an announcement today on who made it.  She was nervous that she wouldn't hear her name...

SHE MADE IT!!!  Brooke is officially in the cast of "Leader of the Pack".