The Blondie Fairy

In all fairness, grandma got busy making Blondie a fairy too.

The Cheesie Fairy

My mom is a photographer, and has been playing around with some of the images she has taken, as well as photoshop. Cheesie tends to be the one that both my mom, and husband take the most photos of, mainly because she jumps into the middle of them. Cheesie is quite pleased with this one, although I think next time we'll have to dress her up a bit more. Nice work mom. To see more of my mom's work you can go to www.photoblog.com/widcat or www.redbubble.com/people/widcat/art The second link allows you to buy certain pictures in various sizes. You'll see Cheesie in a bunch of them. Enjoy

Before and After

A big day for a teenager....

She was only able to get the top ones off, and has to wait until Dec. for the bottom braces. The retainer is great though because it is perfectly clear and you can't really see it - really beats the wire across the teeth that I had to wear.

Pumpkin Patch

Brian took the girls to a great church pumpkin patch. They found a pumpkin with warts and a great gourd that is shaped like a swan (sort of). Great pictures of most of the girls - T-Rex doesn't tend to jump into pictures, so Brian is going to have to work on getting some more of her, but the others are usually game.

Festival

Blondie's PT had another festival today for her clients. She has two of these a year, and my kids always want to go. Cheesie and Blondie had a great time, while Big Al and T-Rex helped out with making masks and delivering water around - even in October SC has some HOT days.

This one had a fall theme, and the kids decorated pumpkins with sliced vegetables. They decorated masks, played games, and ate a lot of snacks. There was a pinata for the little kids, and then one for the older kids.

Horseback riding was the big hit with my little girls! They both went a couple times. The hardest part was getting Blondie up because she had to step up with her weaker foot, but once she was up she was fine. Cheesie was all smiles and enjoyed it so much.

Delivering acorns to squirrels in need

Yep.... thank goodness for facebook. I keep up with an organization called Carolina Wildlife Care, and my mom mentioned that they had posted on facebook that they needed acorns for squirrels that they are rehabilitating. Blondie had a great time looking for them in the yard, and my mom took them over to the place, and while very grateful, they needed more.

So, today at the end of my Brownie girl scout meeting, Blondie, Cheesie and the other girls, all went outside and gathered 10 or 15 pounds of acorns from under our oak trees at school as a simple community service project. It only took them 15 minutes because they were VERY engaged with the whole idea of helping injured animals. I was going to just hand them off to my mom tomorrow, but Blondie and Cheesie really wanted to see the place, so I drove across town, in rush hour traffic to deliver them in person.

This place runs on a few donations, and a whole bunch of volunteers, and they take in any wild animal to try to rehabilitate. I was NOT prepared for how many cages (about 50-70) of squirrels (several in each cage) were in one room. Honestly, squirrels are a bit of a nuisance for our family because try as we might, we can't keep them out of our attic in the winter, and we can hear them running the walls on really cold nights (creeps me out). Blondie and Cheesie however, are planning on going back out to the schoolyard tomorrow afternoon and pick up some more acorns - although I'll definitely hand those off to my mom to deliver on her way home.

Around the house...

Nothing specific has been happening.... just a lot of the same. I did manage to make a few Christmas presents this weekend for the little ones. I went to a few garage sales and found some great legos for the classroom, some more books for the kids (my daughters and my students), and T-Rex got a barely used bike and some nice shelves. So here are random pics of the kids for the weekend.

Big Al: Self portrait. I think these are about the only pictures she takes, unless its one with her and a friend. Big Al went with her friend to a charity walk for her friend's cousin. He has tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) which is when the body grows tumors in major organs. Big Al and her friend volunteered for about 11 hours, and I was quite pleased that she decided to do this on her own.

T-Rex: No idea what she's thinking here...... She is still on "Dawson Unplugged" which is our term for grounding - nothing that plugs in except the hairdryer. If you have time for the other stuff, then you certainly have time for studying math.

Blondie: played a lot, rode her bike. I love the sleeping picture. One night a weekend they can sleep downstairs and watch tv late. Blondie made up a special area and promptly fell asleep.

Cheesie has been keeping the tooth fairy busy this week (two teeth lost and one more loose). I would take a picture and share with you, but she is passed out on the couch from a very busy day in second grade (and if I don't post something soon, I'll be hearing from my father-in-law).