The Big 10!!!

This past Wednesday was Ellie's 10th birthday. I cannot believe my child is 10 years old! It is hard to imagine that she has been in this world a decade. It has been the fastest decade that I've ever known. Ellie is so special to our family. God completely turned my life upside down the day she was born, and I've never been the same (in a VERY good way.) She still embodies the definition of a little girl even though now, technically(a word she LOVES to use) she is a big girl. She still loves a stuffed animal, can lead a creative play/dance routine/drama series better than most professionals, loves to be in costume, loves anything that has glitter or sparkle, she loves animals, and she LOVES to create. She is beautiful, intelligent, quick witted, compassionate, anxious, intense, fierce, cuddly, and loving all at the same time. Her contribution to this family is priceless. At school, she is incredibly smart and makes great grades. Her teachers tell me how sweet, kind, friendly, and well behaved she is. (I'm just glad this is the case at school because we certainly have our moments at home.) She was voted as her homeroom representative for the student council, she takes dance, gymnastics, and this fall is trying out volleyball. She keeps me busy living out her 10 year old life to its fullest potential. We love this precious gift of a daughter and look forward to many bright years ahead with her!


On a sad note, this week we have had to come to acceptance that our 12 and 1/2 year old cat, Freddie is at the end of his life. He has been struggling with FIV, stomatitis, and some wounds from a fight that haven't healed. We have been keeping him inside more because of his age and illness. On Ellie's birthday, we let him go outside for his morning stroll because it is a little cooler in the morning. When I went back out later morning to get Freddie to bring him back inside he was no where to be found. We searched for him high and low over the neighborhood to no avail. We assumed he couldn't have made it as sick as he was. (He could barely walk.) We grieved his loss and I began cleaning up his food bowl, litter box, etc. Well, I guess all of his 9 lives weren't used up.

Worth walked outside Friday night to get the mail, and found Freddie even smaller, dirty, and pitiful in the driveway. We have kept him inside this weekend and loved on him because we know this is the end. He is no longer eating and can barely move. Just tonight he lost bladder control in our living room. We are sending him to Heaven tomorrow for all his pain to go away. The kids have handled it well so far. Ellie cried for a little bit, but she seems at peace with the decision.  We will miss that sweet kitty dearly, there will never be another one as good as Freddie.

Last week was Winnersville week - another dress up week for the Lowndes/Valdosta football game. I only caught two mornings of pictures . This was Monday morning "Too cool for the Cats" day. The kids wore sunglasses to school. 

Freddie stayed away from all the chaos in the basket. 

Wednesday was Ellie's birthday!!

10 year old Ellie ready to open a few gifts. 

The kids favorite part of the birthday morning is opening their cards and gifts from their siblings. 

The talking toucan - definitely a grandma gift. 

She scored a UGA purse from he grandparents this year as well. 

Mia and E.W. gave her some beautiful pink earrings. 

She was thrilled with them. 

Ellie's birthday was "Plowboy day" - a traditional Winnersville dress up day for 50+ years for Lowndes county schools. In the past the Lowndes county students were the  country, farming kids. 

Mack and I headed to Westside to have lunch with the birthday girl. 

More gift opening when she got home. She wanted to wait in case her daddy got off work in time to see her open the gifts from us, but he got called back into the hospital a couple of minutes after we got home. She was NOT going to wait any longer on him to open those gifts. These were some high top converse sneakers that she has wanted. 

She also got a vivofit jr. watch like her sister's. 

Friday, she headed to Kidzquest with our church. Kidzquest is a weekend church retreat fro 3rd-5th graders. She was so excited about going back to Epworth, this time with several girls that were friends. 

It was VERY hot Friday when we dropped Ellie off at the church to  load up on the church bus. Emma was taking good care of Mack for me while I helped Ellie and took pictures. 

This was Freddie after he showed up from the dead Friday night. We are sure going to miss this sweet kitty. 

Mack was more excited that anyone that Freddie made it back home. I don't think he has fully grasped what is going to happen this week. 

Emma had her time loving Freddie as well. 

This is the PAUMC crew that went to Kidzquest. There were over 500 in attendance there from all over the state of GA. 

All of the girls on the trip. 

The Tooty ta and a 10th Birthday Party

This week Mack had "D" week at preschool, which means a Doughnuts for Dads day at school. Worth can NEVER make it to those because it is at 8:30am, which is a hard time for him to leave the hospital. E.W. filled in this year for Worth and Mack had a blast. Ms. Pendy attended the Doughnuts for Dads and got some good videos you can see here. It looks like E.W. had to join in on the Tooty-ta dance Mack and his classmates performed. Always a classic!

In addition to D week, it was homecoming week for the Lowndes Vikings, which means a daily dress up theme for the girls. Monday was Hawaiian Day, Tuesday was dress as your favorite game board day, Wednesday was Nerd day, Thursday was Senior Citizen day and Friday was Viking Color wars Friday. Ellie and Emma love dressing up for these days despite it being slightly exhausting for me. I think if I didn't enjoy it so much there would be no pressure for me to help them have the best costume. I used to love this kind of stuff when I was in school. Little did I know at the time, God was prepping me for the same enthusiasm for school spirit in my kids. I felt like I was going to collapse once they finally got out of the car every morning for school - Emma, don't fall in those heels. Ellie don't loose the monopoly money or give it to anyone. Emma - senior citizens don't always just wear pajamas! Ellie, pull those socks higher!, Emma, let me get some more baby powder in your hair, it's not white enough. Ellie, I can't get this ponytail any higher on your head - you need to grow your hair back out! I wish I would have recorded my comments each day. I'm sure it was hysterical from the outside.

The finale of the weekend was Ellie's 10th birthday party. She is still 9 until September 19th, so I'm not referring to her as a 10 year old yet. I. Just. Can't. Worth came up with the idea of having a limo ride party. The limo would pick them up at our house, take the girls to have their nails done, then to lunch at the Valdosta Country Club. It ended up being a great party. All the girls there had a great time and Ellie felt like quite a princess, I think. 10 is a big birthday, so we really wanted to do something special for her.

Emma had her first soccer game of the season during the party. Thank goodness Worth was off this weekend. He handled soccer games while I handled the birthday party. Emma was able to ride in the limo with us to the nail salon, but Worth had to pick her up there to head to her soccer game. She caught up with us for lunch at the country club though and caught a ride back to our house in the limo. It all ended up going smoothly.

Dubs and Mack

Mack's portrait of his dad. I have to mention that Mack has recently had the black crayon removed from his coloring box at school since he would only use it to color everything. I do like his use of different color in this picture, although it does look like he snuck a black crayon from somewhere. 

Doing the Tooty-ta!

The tooty-ta with the Dads (and Dubs!) So funny!

I missed getting a picture for Hawaiian day, but here is Emma on Day 2 of Homecoming week. Favorite board game. Emma is Mrs. Peacock with the candlestick in the library form the game Clue. 

Ellie was the Monopoly man. 

They looked so cute.

Nerd Day!

Senior Citizen day. Since Emma took my coffee cup that says "I just want to drink coffee and be left alone." Does that make me a senior citizen?!

Viking color wars. 2nd graders had to wear gray, 4th graders, crimson. 

The guest of honor waiting for her party goers to arrive. 

Hayden was the first to arrive! Freddie still loves to photobomb. 

The limo driver was a tad late, so the girls pulled chairs up to the window to wait for him. 

He made it, and we had 7 excited little girls. 

You can't hear the squeals in this picture, but they were there. 

Rock stars!

Emma sat by me in the limo. She seemed a little intimidated by it all initially. 

Spa treatments in session!

Sweet girls getting their mani and pedis. 

Allie was the most experienced nail spa person. She looked at ease in the nail salon. Clearly, this is not her first rodeo. 

Drying those fabulous nail polishes

Ellie went for a glitter polish with a red and black flower on her index finger (which is really hard to see in this picture.)

Toes in cute sandals

Limo riding while jamming out to Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, and Imagine Dragons

Arriving with class at the VCC. Hayden was first. 

Nest up was Allie. 

Then, Anna Clark made her arrival. 

Taylor was exiting with style. 

Anna Beth was leading the birthday girl out. 

Finally, the birthday girl made her grand entrance. 

Grandma and Mia came ahead of time to throw some decorations up in the room we were using. It turned out so cute! I was beyond thankful that they were able to help me with that. 

Without fail, a cookie cake to mark the occasion!

On the lunch menu was chicken fingers, french fries, and fruit. 

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Anna Clark and Ellie have been buddies since they were in 2 and 1/2 year old preschool. 

The girl chat at this age is really fun to listen to. 

Singing Happy Birthday. I got a great video, but Youtube is not cooperating.  I'll have to try to add it next week. 

One cute almost 10 year old and 2 very tired parents that love her beyond words. This picture will not center for whatever reason.

The girls all wanted Ellie to open her gifts.

She was so excited with her fun gifts. Sorry for my finger being in this picture. 

Meanwhile, I overheard Mack sitting game to Anna Clark. I heard him say, "Hey, I sleep with my night light off."
Anna Clark just stared at him like, "what?" He has a long way to go with his pick up lines. 

Emma killing it at her first soccer game of the season