Next came sweet Anna's 5th birthday. Hard to believe. She had a houseful of girls over to celebrate. If we had a "theme" it would have been butterflies. But mostly she just chose games/activities she wanted to do. And most of them seemed like carnival-like games. We had face painting, a scavenger hunt, a treasure hunt, pin the antennas on the butterfly, fishing for candy, and a hayride.

Here they are all gathered in Jason's truck for the hay ride. And although you can't see it, there really is hay in there. :)
Here are all the girls lined up fishing for candy.
And they all got butterflies painted on their faces. It was a very fun party.

Anna has been so blessed to be involved with a play group from our church. About once a month we all get together. This one of the fall play dates. Yet another pumpkin patch and hayride..

This is one of her sweet friends, Avery.

What would a hayride be without throwing some hay?

Well, I certainly have a WHOLE lot of catching up to do with pictures. So, in the next week or so my plan is to briefly update the blog. We've had a whole lot going on since the last post, including a brand new niece, a trip to Disney World, Halloween, and many others ... pictures to come.

We'll start off with a quick recap of our fall activities. Anna and Megan started dance. It's Anna's first year, and she has loved every minute of it. They're both in gymnastics too.

Megan was old enough this year to participate in the fall parade dance float. She really enjoyed it. Plus, Anna got to gather all the candy as we watched the parade.

Megan also got to be a tiny cheerleader this year after going to a "cheer camp" at her school. The rain came in slow and steady that night, but it didn't dampen her excitement or fun.

Then came the school fall carnival including face painting (which I got to do), rock wall climbing, fishing for candy, hay rides, and too many other fun things to write all about. It was lots of fun.

And, of course, we had to go to the Arkansas State Fair. The girls love going and riding the rides and checking out all the animals in the petting zoo. The past two years we've taken Megan out of school for half a day to go to the fair, then we take her to lunch before taking her back to school. It's just a special day for the girls and us too.

Both girls are in choir at our church. They've had two or three performances so far this year. It's been a good experience for them to perform in front of the congregation. And they've enjoyed all the fun that goes along with being in a choir. Megan and I got to go to the Monticello Baptist Children's Home during the Christmas break with her choir group. The children from our church distributed gifts to the kids at the home, sang their songs, played games with them, and had refreshments. It was a blessed time of sharing and ministering. I was so glad we got the opportunity to go.

We were able to go to a pumpkin patch right down the road from our house this year. That was so nice. They had a hay ride and everything.

Both girls played softball this fall. Anna had a difficult time when she felt like she made mistakes, but it was so good for her to learn how to cope with the situations and keep going instead of "shutting down." She was a trooper, and grew to love it. Her and Megan are both ready to play again this coming fall. They got to be on the same team, so that was great.