Finishing up Camille's birthday party

All the birthday party kids after lots of bouncing.

Cake time!

After bouncing at Camille's birthday party the kids were ready for cupcakes!

Camille's party at "Pump It Up"

Camille had a blast at her birthday party at "Pump It Up." These were the kids ready to start at the beginning. Other kids came a bit late.


Watching a safety video before getting to play. This slide was one of the kids favorite parts, but there were many different inflatable things to play on.

Yes, that's Matt with Camille and Lily coming down the slide a few pictures down.

Camille's birthday pictures

Yes I do know that Camille's birthday was on September 19th. I can't believe she's already 6 years old! She was very excited about this special day. It was nice to have her birthday fall on a Saturday! Camille felt like a birthday princess all day! Grandma and Mommy both bought her birthday ribbons.

Both girls loved helping decorate 48 cupcakes to feed party guests and parents. We had quite a few left over.

For lunch we took Camille to Chili's. She was so excited to have her first time at a restaurant where the waiters sing Happy Birthday to her. She was all smiles (not shy a bit)!

Camille loved the excitement of the dessert, but Lily loved the dessert itself!

Saying goodbye

Camille and Lily had to say goodbye to their neighbor friend Daniel today. His family is moving to Lampasas this weekend. We'll miss them!

Camille's homework

Camille was very enthusiastic to do this (one of many) kindergarten homework projects. In this project she adopted a tree in the yard to watch throughout the year. She studied the tree and drew several different required pictures about the tree, plus doing a leaf rubbing. I moved her table out into the yard so she could face the tree (and not the sun) while doing her art.

Camille's first day riding the bus to school

Camille getting on the bus. I had to yell at her to turn around so I could get a picture, though as you can see not the best one. Then she bounded on the bus. She didn't even wave at me from the bus. She feels so big!!

Here she is driving away on the bus.

This picture is the girls waiting for the bus to arrive at the bus stop on the 2nd morning of Kindergarten. In the mornings I put Lily in the stroller and we walk Camille to the bus stop.

Camille's first day of Kindergarten

Camille started Kindergarten last Monday. She was very excited, not nervous at all. She goes to Kimberlin Academy, a gifted and talented magnet school in the Garland ISD. It's not in the most affluent part of town. Matt and I drove Camille to school on the first day. She wanted to ride the bus to school on the first day, so after lots of talking we compromised on letting her ride home from school on the bus on the first day. The school assigned her a 5th grade bus buddy who picked her up at her classroom, took her to the bus, and sat with her on the bus. That was comforting for both her and me!

On the afternoon of her first day of school I drove over from work to the end of our street and parked to wait for the bus. When her bus arrived arrived, Camille asked me why I didn't just let her walk home by herself. She actually refused to get in the car, skipping down the sidewalk to our house while I followed in the car. Since then she's been agreeable to get in the car.

Camille was excited to get into her classroom and put her supplies into her new pink supply box. She hardly looked back at us as we left her classroom.

"I stink"

I wouldn't have guessed it, but Camille and Lily's favorite book to listen to on Bookflix is called "I stink." The whole story is told by a garbage truck. They love to squeal about how gross it is!

Lily put her pink blankie on her head. She said "I'm Mary and this is God." How cute!

Cats and pigs and fish, oh my!

Since we adopted Hot Fudge, I've felt like I'm living in a pet shop with the cat, the guinea pig and the fish to think about. Well, recently I've felt more like a veterinarian. Kady cat got sick with a respiratory infection of some kind. She goes around the house sneezing and snorting, and I have to hold her down for medication twice a day. Yesterday the guinea pig got sick with an upset stomach. The bad thing about guinea pigs is that if they get sick, they can die pretty quickly. Last night I pretty much thought he was a goner and I made sure to have the girls hold him and say goodbyes. Well, the pig made it through last night but wasn't looking good at all. I've been giving him water and dissolved food by syringes multiple times today. While he doesn't look normal, I have to say that he's now fighting the feedings more (which seems to be a sign of strength). I also got him some medicine to slow down his system. Today I bought him some Timothy Hay, which several people on the internet recommended. He was interested in sniffing but not eating. I'm hoping the pig will be able to recover.

Kady cat, on the other hand, was very interested in the hay! In fact, while I was trying to syringe feed the pig, Kady decided to get all the way in Fudge's cage to get his hay. When I got Camille to come over and hold the pig for me, Kady wanted no part of coming out of the cage. She grumbled and stiffened up when I tried to pull her out so that I couldn't have gotten her out of that little opening. She did pretty soon come out after some heavy scolding! Kady doesn't seem to have any instinct that the pig would be food, but I certainly wouldn't leave her alone with him.

Here is a picture from last week when Fudge decided it was okay to eat food that Lily was holding. Lily thought this was just the best!

(From last week)
We have a little fence that we set up on the tile, and we made him a little house which he loves to hide in.

Summer fun

Lily and Camille love to paint! They were very excited to paint bird houses. We even used stencils, but the finished products are not so impressive because the girls painted over the stencil work. Oh well.

Camille wanted her picture taken here. Doesn't she look grown up here?

Lily got her first set of stitches last week after an encounter with the coffee table at Nana and Papa's house. It's something of a miracle that my active (wild) children haven't needed stitches before now! Lily has done well with them. Hopefully the tape will fall off soon so we can go back to the pool!

Our newest adoption!

Meet our newest adopted furry friend. His name is Hot Fudge. He is the sweetest baby guinea pig! Camille and Lily adore him (especially Camille). We decared adoption day to be his birthday, and we had a hot fudge sundae party to celebrate!

dance class

Camille has taken her first dance class this summer, just for 6 weeks. They did ballet, tap and tumbling. I think Camille likes getting dressed up the best. She doesn't want to wear the tights because they make her too hot. We got to sit in on the last class, but it was difficult to take pictures. I mostly videotaped for Matt, who was out of town. She's thin and looks like a dancer all dressed up, but like anything else it would take a lot of work to get good at it.

I'm concerned about over-involving her next year when she starts kindergarten. Camille told me that she wants to do Gymnastics, church choir, ballet and piano. I think we'll just stick with the first two and then see how the year goes. If she did all those things, she would unfortunately be eating a lot of quick dinners like PB&J and scrambled eggs. I'm not sure the rest of us would like that meal situation!