Church Fishing Day

Today our church sponsored a youth fishing day at the Macon Fairgrounds. There is a nice pond at the fairgrounds, but it is heavily fished. You will notice there are no pictures of us with any fish. The only thing we saw were snakes...no fish. I still got some cute pics though!

All of the kids who showed up got a prize. Ella loves her new Disney Princess fishing pole!

Gracie and Quinton were the only kids in their age group. Gracie was excited to get a new pole to add to her fishing gear, but she was awfully sad to not catch anything. We are already making plans to take her tomorrow so she can try again.

Fall Fling and Spring Art Show

Tonight was Gracie's spring music concert at school. The kindergarten and first grade classes sang some really cute updated nursery rhyme songs.

Gracie and her teacher Miss Gott. Gracie has really like her teacher, but is also excited to move up to first grade since her friend Shelby's mommy will be her teacher.

All around the gymnasium they had the kids artwork displayed. Gracie's picture got the blue ribbon for her grade, so she was very excited.

The proud artist with her ribbon. There were a lot of cute pictures, so I'm sure it was hard for the judge to choose. Gracie is very creative which I am thankful for since I don't feel gifted in that way. Her picture had some very unique details, so maybe that was what helped her win.

Gracie with one of her best kindergarten buddies, Mati. Mati is probably the shortest girl in the class and Gracie is still one of the tallest so this picture shows both ends of the spectrum as far as height goes in the kindergarten class.

Rock Star

When Gracie is at school Ella loves to "borrow" her guitar and rock out. She is currently stuck on the song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" which the guitar plays automatically. Once in a while she switches to "Hot and Cold" from "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel." It's pretty funny to hear her slightly jibberish version!

I guess I should explain that we were in the midst of a wardrobe change thanks to potty-training when I took these. She doesn't walk around in the buff all day long!

How Will She Eat?

Last Friday Gracie came home from school with a tooth necklace around her neck. Inside was her real tooth that she lost that day. It had been bothering her, so she and 3 classmates went to the nurse and asked her to pull their teeth. The tooth fairy was busy that night, I guess. Well today she came home with another necklace. That makes 4 holes in her mouth.

She looks a little wild with her front teeth gone and a lingering goose egg bruise on her forehead! It looks like she got in a dandy of a fight!

Ella continues to show us her loose teeth in her own mouth. She is certain she will be losing some soon! This is a case of "monkey see monkey do", I guess.

Gracie's Day of Adventures

We headed to Moberly today to eat lunch with my mom and grandma for Mother's Day. After lunch we made a last minute decision to let Gracie stay in Moberly for a while since Brent and I still needed to work on the deck. We knew we could count on Ella to take a nap, so while Ella napped, we labored away on the deck. My parents took Gracie over to my mom's boss's house and they did some exploring. His pond is prettier than most, as you can see in this picture of Gracie.

Rob helped Gracie cross the pond on some rocks. She thought that was pretty cool and talked about it for days.

Rob also let Gracie pet the baby ducks. Since she is a fan of feeding ducks and geese, she also enjoyed this part of her day.

Rob found Gracie some crawdad shells and let her bring them home. She had never seen a crawdad, but we have told her about them when we have seen their holes. It was good for her to actually see one.

Rob let them feed his fish. Apparently they really jump up to the surface and fight each other for food. Gracie found that very entertaining.

What a cute little duck!

After their adventures at Rob's house, my parents took Gracie to ride the train that runs through the park.

Since they were already at the park it only made sense to let Gracie play for a while!

I don't remember the exact wording, but Gracie made some comment to my parents about this being the best day of her life. She needs one-on-one time periodically, and it must have been that time again.

My Mother's Day Present

I got a huge surprise when Brent told me he was going to tear down our old deck and build a new one for my Mother's Day gift. The existing deck was old, painted green, and partially rotten. This is a gift I will really enjoy!

Brent enlisted the help of Eric, our brother-in-law who is very handy and his Uncle Don who somehow eluded the camera!

You gotta love demo!

Stay tuned for pictures of the new deck once it's finished.

Prizes

Gracie wanted me to make a post about the prizes she received when many of you ordered magazines for a school fundraiser she contacted you about. She earned this awesome glow in the dark t-shirt that she would wear everyday if I would let her, and she also earned these fun light-up glasses. The glasses scare Ella so we have to use them with caution. Thank you for the purchases you made to help Gracie get these prizes but more importantly, it helped the school.