Sydney Kate's first day of preschool

Okay, for some reason this darn blog is not letting me post pictures but I still wanted to go ahead and write about Sydney Kate's first day of preschool. So, first of all Sydney has decided that she now wants to be called Sydney Kate. That is what she wanted monogrammed on her lunch box and that is what she wants Ms. Barbara and Ms. Benita to call her. She has always called herself that when someone asks her name, but I do not usually call her that. So, I will try!
Sydney Kate has been kinda back and forth about preschool . She was very excited when we went and registered her several months ago and even more excited when we picked out her lunch box. Several weeks before she started getting nervous and didn't want to go. She even cried when Ms. Nikki from the gym asked her about it. So, ofcourse I am having second thoughts. Monday night we had open house and that totally changed her for the better. She has been excited ever since.
Friday morning comes around and Maw Maw (my neighbor from our old house) comes over to keep John Evan. Sydney Kate and I get to school and we are still in the car. I suggest that we say a prayer together. As I am praying, Sydney says "Momma don't forget to pray that I won't be nervous about leaving you." So, I'm like oh great-I have made too big of a deal out of this! We walk in and she is a little clingy to me. The teachers say good morning and show her where to put her lunch box. She just walks off and starts playing. I take a couple of pictures then I'm like what now? I didn't want to leave! But I did and as soon as I walked out of the classroom I lost it. I saw my friend, Katrin, out in the hall and she hugged me and I just boohooed! She came out to my car and we talked for a while. She definately cheered me up! But, I still cried all the way home and on and off all morning! Poor John Evan thought I was pitiful! I just could not believe that my best friend was old enough to go to preschool. I want her home with me. But, I know this will be good for her and me. Ofcourse i have all these doubts about am I am good mom? Does she love me? Is she going to miss me? Is she going to love her teachers more than me? After looking at the clock 100 times it was finally time to pick her up. She looked so cute and was smiling so big! She got in the car and said she had a great day and she loved it and she wants to go everyday! But mommy can only handle Mon. Wed, and Fri. from 8:30-12:00!
I hope she does just as well in the morning and I hope I do a little better ! Wish me luck and I will post pictures of her cute outfit and lunckbox soon!

We bought a GPS and it is wonderful! I love it-maybe now Chris will let me drive more by myself! HAHA! We have been to several birthday parties lately but I seem to always forget to bring my camera. These two pictures are from Paige's party. This is a little girl that we knew from Fitness One (where I used to workout). We also went to a fun swimming party for Sarene Archibald, an awesome "wild rapids" water slide party for Taylor Williams, and a cute little lady bug party for Olivia Martin. You should have seen how cute the cakes and cupcakes were that Cheyenne made.
Sydney and Paige
Sydney will be attending preschool at Valley View (right down the street from our house). Monday night they had open house where we met her teachers and saw her classroom. She was very excited! There will be 9 boys and 5 girls and 2 teachers. She just walked around and checked everything out.

On the way home from Huntsville we stopped at the Galleria to ride the carousel.

Last weekend Sydney had "tryouts" for a dance Holiday show. It will be on November 22nd at the Bama Theatre. They will post the results today but I am pretty sure that everyone in their age group will make it. She is very excited to do another recital!



Sydney is also going to be playing soccer for Upward Soccer. She had an evaluation last weekend. She was so cute in her little tennis shoes and ponytail. She did really good running, kicking, and dribbling the ball. Practice starts in two weeks and games are on Sat. mornings starting in September. I don't know how I will keep John Evan off the soccer field. He wants to play so bad!

John Evan has mastered riding his scooter. It is the cutest thing seeing him push off with one leg. He is growing so fast! He is now way into Thomas and other "choo choo" trains. He talks non stop and I can pretty much understand most things he says. His eating is getting a little bit better but still only includes diced peaches, manderine oranges, yogurt, chicken nuggets from McDonalds, and milk. Better than nothing!

Huntsville

My little family went to Huntsville to visit the Messervy's. Kim and I are great friends and I really miss them being in Tuscaloosa. We mainly just hung out. With 5 kids (4 of them being 4 and under) that's really all you can do. I pretty much felt like we were in the kitchen the whole weekend. Ofcourse that would be Kim cooking and me supervising or doing a little bit of cleaning. Kim and I did get to sneak off to Wal-Mart with just Kate which was nice. We also got to go running Saturday night. We went three miles and made it home covered in bugs! Anyway, the kids had a blast.

There is the prettiest waterfall in the entrance to a neighborhood so we stopped for some photos.




They also had a cute duck pond.


Saturday morning we went and picked blueberries. This was a first for me. The kids were so cute with their little individual buckets.

Jack did more eating than anything. John Evan would pick them and then feed them to Jack. So cute!
We made fresh blueberry muffins. We also made a double batch of brownies.
This is pretty much what the boys did on Saturday. I think Chris M. was asleep in Jack's room. We stayed at Kristen(Kim's sister) and Chases's apartment. Thank you guys so much!

Kim has a great backyard with a swing set and trampoline.

I LOVE this!
Little baby Kate is so sweet. Half the time I would forget Kim even had her on her hip cause she is so quiet!

Thanks guys! We had a great time! Come see us soon!

Lake Fun

A couple of weeks ago we went to the lake for fishing and swimming. Chris's aunt has a lot on the lake but it is rarely used by anyone. So , he has spent a lot of time trying to fix it up. He even made a little "beach" area for the kids. They had a blast and we caught a ton of fish!

John Evan's favorite activity of the day was throwing rocks in the water.

John Evan hated that life jacket. Do ya blame him?

Meg went swimming too!

So You Think You Can Dance

TWITCH , KATEE, COURTNEY, AND JOSHUA

I can't believe that I have not blogged about this before. If anyone thought I was obsessed with American Idol, well I am more obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance. It is so amazing! The dancers are super talented. I have no idea how they learn so much in such little time. When the top 20 was picked I didn;t really fall in love with anyone. But, as time went on I did. I love them all! Twitch and Joshua are untrained hip-hop dancers and they have now mastered every kind of dance there is. The thing I love so much about it is that it is more than dancing-it is telling stories. The finale it tonight and I am PUMPED! Thank goodness for DVR!

UPDATE:

Last night's finale was SO good. All of the judges chose two of their favorite dances of the season. Ofcourse they were my favorite too.

Joshua won! I was happy with the results. Actually, I would have been happy with any of the top four winning. The surprise was that the top girl also won 50,000 which was a HUGE shock to Katee. She deserves it!

I will deeply miss the show!

Kuhlman-Riley
Angela Denise Riley of Evergreen and Christopher Thomas Kuhlman of Waynesville, N.C., were married July 5 at Memorial Chapel in Lake Junaluska, N.C., with Dr. Robert Blackburn officiating the 3 p.m. ceremony.

The bride is the daughter of Thomas and Rita Riley of Evergreen. She is the granddaughter of Louise Salter and the late Richard Salter and Glynn Riley and the late Fletcher Riley, all of Evergreen.
Parents of the groom are Jeff and Lee Kuhlman of Waynesville. He is the grandson of Christine Kimball and the late George M. Kimball of Waynesville and the late Warren and Beverly Kuhlman of McHenry, Ill.
Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore an ivory lace gown with pearl beading, and chapel length train.
The bride was attended by Caroline Sprayberry of Tuscaloosa as matron of honor. Bridesmaid was Valoree Morgan of Tuscaloosa. Flower girl was Jordyn Newell of Waynesville, cousin of the groom.
Michael Lodico Jr. of Waynesville, served the groom as best man. Groomsmen were David Kuhlman of Waynesville, brother of the groom and Matthew Motyka of Aiken, S.C. Ringbearer was Jhase Riley of Evergreen, nephew of the bride.
After a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyo., the couple will live in Tuscaloosa.

Spend the night company

Sydney has been asking me forever to have a friend spend the night. She has had cousins stay the night before, but not friends. So, we did it. One day Anna came home from ballet and stayed the night. They had so much fun playing and did really good. They started out on a pallet on the floor and then Sydney ended up in her bed and Anna ended up on the couch. The next morning we went to the free movie. Thanks Anna for coming!

Look how EXCITED John Evan is to squuze in there!

Another night we had Emma spend the night. They had a blast playing outside in the little pool. Chris made them a "tent" over the dining room chairs. They started out on a pallet and Emma slept there. Sydney went to her bed. They BOTH ended up in my bed! Luckily, Chris was at work so there was plenty of room. Thanks Emma for coming over!

This is the turtle outfit that John Evan wore last Halloween. Sydney was goofing around in it. I thought it was hillarious!