I'm just a little sad.....

Truthfully, I wasn't ready for her to head to school today! I enjoy her being at home so much. I don't think it would take much for her to talk me into Home Schooling.....Just saying....LOL


Last year we had just found Scatter, the cat and she had her picture made with him on the first day of school, so this morning, she wanted him in our photo, but he was squirming, so I held him...Plus he does better with me holding him...She loves ole' Scatter cat.

Our first day of 4th grade....Wow, where did time go?

 Ariel's first day of school. This is the cute outfit I made her and hopefully more new outfits to come.

 Ariel was SO ready to go this morning. Even though we missed "meet the teacher", she knew who her teacher was and was very excited to get up this morning and go. Last night she burned her fingers on her "easy bake" oven and was complaining this morning, but she was a trouper and was excited to get going.

...and her cute little book bag I made her. She loves it!

 Ariel and her 4th grade teacher (wow, 4th grade already? It literally seems like she just started Kinder last year) Mrs. Burch. She didn't have many of her friends in her class this year, but I know she will still do great. She is a very positive girl and I don't think it will bother her a bit!

 and here she is sitting at a desk...she couldn't decide which desk she wanted to sit out, but I think she finally choose one on the front row of the class..

and she kissed and hugged me as I was ready to leave. Here she is outside her new classroom.

Vacation time...Perdido Key Beach

 We arrived at our Condo and the weather was beautiful. We were so excited to come to Perdido Key again this year.

 They love to build sandcastles. I believe some of them LIVE to come here and build a sandcastle. They changed it up almost every day this year.

 Ariel taking in some sun and floating in the Ocean. The water was quite different this year. It was more like a lake.....NO waves...We didn't see many stingrays this year, but MORE crabs than last and a new creature called a "Skate". It didn't have a stinger or barb, but would give you a little jolt if you touched him or stepped on him. Ariel was stung this year by a "jelly". There was days we saw quite a few of them and some days we didn't see any.

This is the beach side of our Condo. We stay
on the lower level, and just walk across the
boardwalk to the beach. It's awesome.

We went to the Naval Museum there also. This was a new hanger that was opened this year. If I remember correctly, this was the Helicopter than President Nixon rode on the last time.

 Ariel and me soaking up some rays on the beach. The water was beautiful, other than no waves this year. We did actually find some oil, from last years oil spill. We found clumps of it in the water. It's pretty gross.

We stopped off at the USS Alabama on our way home. Here is my nephew, Dustin, me, my SIL, Karen and Ariel setting in some seats on the battle ship. It was quite hot walking on this ship, but we all had a good time.

Splash End of year Swimming PaRtY!

 Ariel with her swim trophy. She had a good year and even improved. Last year her best stroke was the butterfly and this year is was  freestyle. Even though we missed going to All-Stars this year, seeing the last Space Shuttle launch was well worth missing All-Stars. There is always next year! :)

 Here is the cake Ms. Annette ordered. It has the swim team's picture on it.
....How awesome does that look! And it not only looked good, it was WONDERFUL to eat!

....and ALL the trophy's. They were awesome as well. Another trophy to add to her collection. This is her 3rd year of swim team and she loves it!

School Bag-4th grade

Since I discovered that 4th graders couldn't carry back-packs to school, I had to put plan B into action. So, Ariel picked out this brown bag and material.
I flipped through my book of embroidery designs and came up with this.

Then I knew we couldn't have a plain bag, so I added the ruffle trim to the top.

Now, that looks a little more girly for her! She LOVES it. She can't wait till the first day of school to carry it. (okay, well maybe Mamma can't wait to see her carry it, but by NO means am I ready for school to start)

Monster Jam-Austin, Texas (Cedar Park Center)

 So they say he done 50 rounds of donuts in this truck? Really, how could he walk when he got out, because he had to be DIZZY! (Marc McDonald is the driver)

It was a bad ending for Grave Digger!  But, it was the last show and he was the last truck to do Freestyle. (Pablo Huffaker was the driver)

Racing time...Austin, Texas

Drew in the front on a Blue Quad and Bobby going inside of him on white quad. There is Dustin in there also.

Here is Drew and Bobby.