Gracie for Mayor part 2

Here's the speech you have all been waiting to hear! (Sorry it's sideways - I couldn't get it to turn around!) We have worked very hard to support the campaign. Gracie and I decorated the Pringle's cans, attached "Have a Ball with Gracie" flags to pencils, and added "Gracie for Mayor" stickers to Hersey's bars, and Gracie's Gran Gran helped by making buttons with Gracie's picture. It was all lots of fun for us!

Now, after a long mayoral race, the candidate decided that if she loses it's okay because there's a banker position available in the class....I just hope we don't have to get her elected for that one. :-)

Kellye

Gracie's Baseball Schedule

Here's a list of all of Gracie's baseball games for anyone who would like to see her play...The first game was last Saturday and Gracie's team, the Braves, won 6-4! Gracie played a great game.

"Little Bit" AKA Caroline

Here's a little about Caroline - I feel like I've mistreated her because I've posted stories about Gracie lately...

Caroline's dad, Josh, nicknamed her Little Bit when she was just a tiny baby (no one knew about the heart defect at that point.) The name, which was and still is very appropriate, stuck and everyone knows her by that name still today. I think that's a great gift from her dad!

She is such a special girl! She doesn't really like sports, but give her some paper and scissors or glue and she's in good shape! We are getting ready to start taking her to art classes. Maybe she's the artist in the family...

My daughter, the baseball player

Here is a pic of Gracie in her new baseball uniform! We signed her up for girl's fall softball, but they called and said there weren't enough girls to have a team. So, they gave us the choice to get a refund or let her play on the boy's team....obviously Gracie chose the boy's team! She thinks this uniform is awesome! I think it will be better when we add the red ribbons I am going to buy today. :)

Her first game is this Saturday at 10:30! GO BRAVES!

My First Tomato Pie.....YUM!

Let me start by saying that I am not a HUGE tomato fan. I eat them, but not by themselves (unless they have been prepared with that yummy Feta cheese and balsamic vinegar). So, several months ago when my friend Alicia came to work telling me that her mom made tomato pie I was really not interested in trying it. Alicia went on to say how much she loved to eat it and that I should try it sometime.

A couple of weeks ago, Alicia and I were talking again and she mentioned that a friend of hers had posted a tomato pie recipe on her blog complete with pictures and helpful tips. This sparked my curiosity because I had never seen tomato pie before, so I visited the blog. The post was great. It gave step by step instructions on how to make the recipe and had pictures of each step. This is good for me because when I'm cooking from a new recipe, I always wonder if I'm doing it correctly.

Last night, I made my first attempt at tomato pie. My mom grows tomatoes, so I had homegrown tomatoes. However, I didn't have all the fresh ingredients like fresh basil and green onions, so I substituted dried basil and onion powder. My tomato pie was awesome, if I do say so! ;-) I have added it to my favorite recipes now. It would have probably been even better if I had the fresh ingredients....

Here's the link to the recipe - Tomato Pie

Gracie for Mayor! and other projects...

Last week, the first week of school, Gracie came home with a couple of projects to work on.

One of them was to collect pictures of herself from birth through now. This sounded easy enough, so we got started looking through all the pics we have of this child! UNBELIEVABLE! Since she was born, I think we have taken about a million pictures of her! It was bittersweet to go through the pictures with her, but I am glad we had the opportunity. I am looking forward to seeing the final product of her work on this project.

The big announcement is that Gracie decided to run for mayor of 3rd Grade! How exciting, right? When I asked Gracie why she decided to run for mayor (it was optional), her response was "Because the mayor gets paid the most money." I thought that was probably a typical 8-year-old response, but I did explain that being mayor includes several responsibilities including being fair and considering the needs of the people while making the best decisions in your town. Gracie understood this and I hope if she is elected mayor she will do a good job.

As with any other election, oponents are needed to make it a real competition. Well, this election definitely has some competition! My best friend's son, Colton, is running in the race as well. (Colton and Gracie have known each other since birth.) On Monday, as I was waiting in the drop off line at school, I noticed Colton's mom, Jen, getting out of the car and taking in a large rubbermaid container. I thought she had probably made something nice for the teacher (the teacher is a good friend of ours). So, I sent her a quick little text message saying that she was kissing up to the teacher....Later in the day, she responded with a message explaining that she made cupcakes that said "Vote for Colton". Because I think of myself as a very supportive mom, I was suprised that she had thought of this sort of bribery before I did! My response explained that the competition had begun! ;) Gracie came home all out of sorts explaining that we must do something! Colton brought cupcakes!!!!!

Today, Gracie took her first of several campaigning favors in to class. She chose individual servings of pizza flavored Pringles for her classmates. I made labels for the cans that said "Vote Gracie Hall for a Fair Mayor". We do have a couple of other tricks up our sleeves to help win the popular vote for Gracie, but I can't tell you about them yet!

Back to School...in a Mustang

The girls started back to school on Monday of this week. WOW! I can't believe summer break is already gone! We had a great one though! Back to the world of schedules, practices and early bedtimes.....


Grandad picked the girls up in the Mustang on Monday morning! They were super excited! I have a picture....it's coming soon!


So far, Gracie absolutely LOVES 3rd grade. She was a little weary of going back into class with all boys for the third year in a row. Much to our suprise there is one other girl, Mya, in class. She has kept me up for the past week telling me all about the things they are learning. I'm so glad she loves school.


Caroline on the other hand would have been okay with staying home and cleaning the house instead of starting back to school. It is so funny to me how different these girls are! She has told me that she likes her class. I think she was relieved to know that Mrs. Bowlin was her teacher again. Caroline gets nervous about changes like that. I have already been suprised at her reading. She is doing great!

Church Camp in our new (old) camper

Here it is - our first camper.

Jon and I decided this would be the year to buy a camper for family camp week at our church. Yes, we have a beautiful camp ground where we stay for one week every year. Little did we know a camper is a ridiculous amount of work! We started out with a broken toilet and ended the week with a leaky pipe that ruined the carpet. Next year we will be better prepared....maybe!

The kids look forward to this week all year long! There are crafts and games during the day, plenty of crawdads and frogs to catch in the creek, and more fun and games at night!

This year I had to work 3 out of the 8 days that we camped. :( It was a little harder than I planned for it to be, but all in all it was a great week.

Gracie and her friend Erin played in the kid's horseshoe tournament. They won first place!!!! Way to go Gracie and Erin! My friend, Jen, and I played in the women's tournament and we won first place too! Gracie and I both brought home trophies for our accomplishments!

Camp week has been a family tradition for our church for several years. We are so blessed to have a beautiful and safe place to enjoy with our family and friends.

Vacation 2009

School let out on May 21st around lunch time, and we left for Santa Rosa Beack, FL that afternoon! The forecast was mostly rain and we were a little bummed about that, but God smiled on us and sent the sun for at least part of the day every day...We had a great time, made lots of pictures, and ate some delicious seafood! These are a few of my favorite pics from the trip.

Jon and I were both snapping pictures of them. I have been taking pictures of the girls all their lives. I just knew my pictures would be better than his. Much to my suprise, his turned out better. These pics are from Jon's camera! LOL!