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.

Picture Results

And the results are.....

#3!!!! I just got back from Bedford's store where I ordered the 20 x 24 of #3. I get to pick it up tomorrow, so I can't wait to get it up in our hallway. Thanks for all the input.

Please Vote

We are going to be hanging a 20x24 family picture in our hallway. I need your help choosing which one would look the best. Here are the four options. Let me know what you all think!!!

-Audrey, I know you already did. Thanks!

Well, today's the big day... Megan started back to school. She is now officially a 1st Grader!!! Of course, she was totally thrilled to be going back to school and never seemed a bit scared. But me, that's a different story. It's just so hard for me. Especially when I leave the school. That's the hardest because I feel like I'm walking away a little emptier. Luckily, some of us ladies got together for breakfast and prayer. That was fun and eased my sadness. And, it certainly helps having my sweet Sissy here with me. I've got one more year with her to enjoy. Next year, I'll be crying buckets of tears I imagine!

Anna and I made a "Crayon" cake for Megan and some of the neighborhood kids as a surprise when they get out of school. Plus, it helped the day pass more quickly. :)

Here's Megan with her teacher, Ms. Griffis, at the open house Monday night.

Cruise

We left on the cruise Monday afternoon. As you can see, the girls absolutely loved jumping from the window down to the bed. They'd pull the shades and hide out in the window area saying, "Let's go to our privacy!" They'd change clothes in there, play with their toys, write in their journals, just about everything in about a 1 x 4 foot area. It was hilarious.

After all the luggage was delivered we headed straight to the pool. Here are Jason and Megan getting ready to go down the slide. Anna wasn't quite tall enough yet.

Next, we headed to the putt-putt course. Which we must have played about 4 or 5 times. It was one of their favorite things to do on the boat. Putt-putt, 24-hour soft-serve ice cream, the bunk bed, and towel animals were BIG hits!!

That night we dressed up and headed to supper.

Bed time at last! They're both laying on the bunk bed in this picture. There was only one bunk bed in the room, so they had to take turns each night. They never argued about it, which was nice. You can tell they're very happy up there.

Here's one of the towel animals. I'm not exactly sure what it is...maybe an elephant.??..

Tuesday night was the formal night. We were on the boat all day.

Wednesday we finally made it to Cozumel. We had previously arranged to have a dolphin encounter, but it wasn't until later that afternoon. So, when we got to Cozumel, we rented a jeep and headed to a kid-friendly beach. It was wonderful. There were hammocks, a bungee trampoline, and big water toys out in the ocean. Plus, we snorkeled quite a bit and saw lots of fish and two lobsters.

After playing, we grabbed some quesadillas and Pepsi at the outdoor hut area, then headed to the dolphin encounter.

The dolphin encounter was amazing. We all four stood on a platform down in the water and met "Leesy." We got to hear her sing, watch her dance, jump, and swim. We got to kiss her and shake her fins. She kissed all of us too. She did all kinds of cool things right in front of us. We were up close and personal for at least 30 minutes. It was great and very educational too. Here's one of the MANY iguanas we saw while there.

After the dolphin encounter, we hunted for iguanas and then went snorkeling again a little down the beach. Lots of fun and pretty fish. We went pretty far out where there was some coral and tons of beautiful fish all around us. Anna actually touched one as it swam by.

The next day we ported in Calica, Mexico. We went to ExCaret. We first went on a walking tour and saw tons of iguanas, deer, a monkey, and wild boar. Then we went on a boat ride along a river with iguanas hanging off rocks all around us and beautiful birds. It was neat to watch the iguanas crawl into the crevices along the cliffs or see a tail hanging out of a hole.

We went to a butterfly palace, saw tigers, aquariums full of all kinds of creatures, sea turtles (even babies), fish farms, sting rays (the girls even got to pet them), an alligator, and all kinds of stuff.

We snorkeled for quite a while in a beach area as well as these cool inlet areas where the waves crash over the rocks on top of you. Amazing!!!

My favorite part of the day was snorkeling through the caverns. It was about a mile long underground with lighting along the way and openings as well where you could exit if you wanted to. It was quite fun and very unique.

The trip was wonderful. We made lots of great memories together and had lots of fun.