{More Homestead Pictures}

Here is the mining... they give you a huge bag full of sand & stones, and you have to wash it all away and sift for the stones... or what you *think* is stones

Katie finds a stone

Maddie tries to make corn meal

Our friends, Ally & Reese MacArthur, standing outside an Indian teepee

Here is another picture of Maddie petrified over the goats. Jenni is trying hard to get the goats out of Maddie's face.

This is a letter Maddie wrote to her friend Ainslea... Papa Rod finally told her to sound out her words with letters, and she wrote the rest of the letter on her own! (the only help she got was Dear B & A). Can you read it?! Amazingly we could the first time!

{The Homestead}

Katie is feeding the baby goats by bottle

Last week we enjoyed one last trip to the Deanna Rose Homestead. I had promised the girls weeks ago we could do the mining part of the farm, as well as feeding the baby goats. Our dear friends, the MacArthur's, invited us to go one last time, and we had a great time!

Maddie is starting to feed a baby goat... there is HOPE!

Still feeding the goat, but look at her face... not very happy

Get me out of here! Sob sob (and she's hysterical at this point) One would think I am a concerned mother and rush to comfort my daughter, but no, I stop and take a picture for all posterity to know that Maddie, at age 6 is deathly afraid of baby goats & is crying her heart out. Do you think I qualify for a Mom of the Year Award? But just know that as soon as I snapped that picture, I did rush out of the pen to save the day and comfort Maddie. :)

Early in the summer, Maddie tried to feed the goats at the farmstead, but they were instantly drawn to her sweetness, and jumped all over her, and proceeded to bite her hand, which held their food, and which in return, she clamped the food even tighter in her hand, refusing to give it to the goats.... I was hoping that by now she would be brave enough to try the baby goats this time .... with a bottle instead! But no, it wasn't meant to be.

Reese appears to be afraid of the goats too

But not Owen! Owen loves the goats!

Ahh.... relaxing on a tractor trike, and it's PINK! The goats are safely gone from her mind at this point.

Sadly, I didn't upload the pictures of the girls mining, so as soon as I download more pics, I'll be sure to add that picture.

{It's So Hard To Say Goodbye}

Katie & her betta fish, Henry

Maddie & Ainslea

Last night of dance was Thursday, and these are our final pictures of our friends.

Katie + Bryn = Best Friends Forever (BFF)
(or so they tell me) & yes, they're sweaty b/c this is after dance

Katie took it really hard as she left one of her dearest and bestest friends, Bryn. In fact, in the car she broke down and exclaimed "I don't want to move anymore!". Then at home, she had a full breakdown. Broke my heart. Bryn & her family took Henry, our betta fish. They don't promise that he'll be alive long. {{giggling}} I'm just surprised Henry lasted this long too!

This is Stephanie, mom of the two girls. We were trying to be as cheesy as the girls were (cheek to cheek). Didn't really work well, but I'll miss this girl as well!

and one more hug for the road...

{Oh Mamma Mia!}

Tonight one of my best friends Jennifer and I had our last "GNO" (girls night out). We had dinner together, and debated which movie we wanted to see. She didn't want to see Mamma Mia, and I did. We both wanted to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which came out today. Course, we couldn't get tickets, so we saw Mamma Mia! instead.

Let me tell you... IT WAS THE BEST MOVIE!! We were dancing in our seats and singing out loud! We were laughing at Pierce Brosnan's horrible singing and imagining him saying "Bond, James Bond"... well, James Bond singing, and it wasn't a pretty picture. And oh, my favorite Colin Firth.... the poor thing! He was done injustice with HIS storyline! But, his voice wasn't bad at all...

But, if you haven't seen this, go.. no, don't go, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! to the movie theatre! Go with your best friend! The one you can laugh at anything with! You'll be dancing in your seat and laughing so hard you'll pee your pants.

We walked out of the movie theatre, and Jen was thanking me for telling her we have to see it. I told her "The entire time we were watching it, I was thinking... this is High School Musical for adults!". ::giggling:: Sadly, I can't get the Lycra scene out of my head... that was wrong on so many levels, but oh so funny!! Again, poor Colin Firth.... but, if anyone wants to see it, I'm GAME!

{Maddie~isms}

Never in my life would I imagine saying these words:

"Maddie, please stop cleaning"

She has been on a nonstop cleaning episode since this afternoon! She'll wet a rag down, and start wiping everything... walls, doorknobs, the floorboards, PICTURES (had to tell her to stop on those). She finally stopped, then just now, she decided to clean again. Oh well... whatever floats her boat, right? **thinking of her desire to be a cleaning lady when she grows up**

Another Maddie-ism:

Tonight I took the girls swimming and we came in from the pool. They took showers, while I made some brownies. After their shower, and while the brownies were baking, the girls decided to eat a banana. Here is my conversation with Maddie Rose:

M: Mommy, I decided from now on, I'm going to eat healthy.

Me: Oh really, well why did you decide that just now?

M: From eating my banana.

Me: Oh, well then I guess you can forget about eating brownies, because those aren't healthy.

M: Oh, that's OK. I can still eat one.. THEN I'll eat healthy after that.

{Mike's Going Away Party}

Last night Mike's company threw him & his property manager a going away party. We met up at this awesome place that has bowling, laser tag (which was broken), and mini golf all in one. Best of all.. the place was NON-SMOKING! No hazy clouds to look through and choke through!

We all bowled two games. The girls and us were in one lane. What was really neat (can you tell we don't bowl much?) is that it's all computerized to the point that we tell the front desk when a kid is playing, and they add it to the computer so when Katie's or Maddie's name came up, the rails for the bowling alley went up, so they could bowl straight down without it just going in the gutters.

We had a blast... both girls did a few strikes & spares. Mike did a few strikes and spares, as did I. BUT.... what was shocking, was how well I did. Yes, ME! At the end of game 2, where we're on the final 10, and you have to bowl 3 times (sorry, I don't know my bowling lingo), I did THREE strikes IN A ROW!! Wahoo! I wished I had a picture for Mike's jaw that was on the ground. But, I did take a picture of this miracle for all to see, and to KNOW it wasn't a tall tale! (to see what I'm talking about, on the top row, it says A... go all the way across to the right, and you'll see XXX and recognize my final score?! Now, go down to the bottom M at the very bottom, and you'l see Mike's score. Bwah-hahaha!) Let it be known that Amy finally beat Mike at SOMETHING!!

{Bon Voyage Party}

The girls are approaching their final weeks of dance classes with their friends. Katie has been dancing for 4 1/2 years, all with the same girls. Maddie has been dancing 1 1/2 years now... amazing it has been that long! They've really made some long lasting friendships with these girls (as I have with their moms). This summer Carla, their teacher, had an extensive Highland Dance class for all the girls. Katie danced for 2 hours, and Maddie danced for 1 hour. They learned so much this summer!

Sadly, it all has to come to an end with our move to San Antonio. Thursday night the girls (and I) were surprised by our friends with a going away party! Every family came loaded with gifts (travel gifts) for the girls, a cake & cupcakes and a lovely card with a gift card inside for me (OK, for the family). We are so blessed with wonderful friends!!

{My Lil' Baker}

Maddie loves to help out in the kitchen... she always is eager to do anything that is asked of her, whether it's emptying out the dishwasher, setting the table, or stirring anything consisting of food. One of her favorites is to help me make her favorite: chocolate chip pancakes. She stirs the batter (sometimes measures it out for me, with some help, of course), and once I pour it on the griddle, she loves to add chocolate chips to her pancakes.

On this particular morning, she found a shower cap, and came to help me... guess she doesn't want hair in her food. ha ha

{There's a WORM... in my FOOD!}

When we got ready to leave San Antonio on Sunday, we realized we had forgotten to get some little gifts for the girls.

So, at 7 a.m. both Mike and I perused the Texan gift shop, looking at all the margarita gumballs one could love, margarita chocolate balls (filled w/ liquor I'm sure), jalapeno chocolate, dead rattlesnakes... nothing caught my eye, until we saw these: a worm in the middle of a lollipop. What kid wouldn't love THIS?!

Then, I got to thinking about this. Why isn't PETA fussing about worms (dead worms, that is) in our foods? What about the scorpions in tequila? Why aren't they fighting about those? I mean, SURELY these little worms & scorpions have feelings, right?! *snort* Surely, these worms were killed so they could have a wonderful spot in our suckers, right?

I also found little red/yellow/black snakes in the form of gummy candy to give the girls. I know, I'm trying to scare them to death about this move to Texas, right? Nah, it was just the cheapest thing I could find in the store... we didn't need another shirt, and I sure as heck wasn't buying a rattlesnake!

So, we give them to the girls, and their expression... "EEKS!! Mom! There's a WORM in my sucker!" "Quick, Katie! Look! There's a worm in it!" "Oh, there's a worm in YOURS too?!" "OH, MOM!! This is a snake! And guess what? They're made of CANDY!?!!" Yep, out of the mouth of babes....

The girls were VERY careful about not touching the worm on their sucker... Maddie very carefully ate around her worm, and Katie, heaven forbid her tongue touched that worm (which it did... and she freaked). Mike kept trying to tell the girls "oh, that worm is made of candy it's OK to eat!". Yeah right DAD!

{Our New House}

This is .... THE HOUSE!

Where you see Mike, that's the door to get in the house. :) The front room has plantation shutters on it from the inside.

This is the first room you walk in, it's a large living room complete w/ fireplace.

Where Mike is standing, this is the opposite side of the living room, looking at the dining room area (it's all one room), and looking into the kitchen. The French Doors is to the right of this picture, to go outside.

The Kitchen, isn't it gorgeous?!
Our bathroom (actually, both bathrooms look like this)
Master Bedroom (again, French doors leading outside too)
Girls Bathroom

Girls Bedroom, complete w/ walk in closet (which I don't have).. lucky girls.

Girls bedroom

Going outside, has a covered porch, and a little tiny backyard.

Mariachi band singing "La Cucharacha"... imagine me remembering my fond Wiggles memory and singing along in my *uh-hum* broken Spanish ... if you can call it that. :)
More singers in the background (that's Mike's district manager on the left, and another property manager on the right)

The Riverwalk .. gorgeous! However, water is ugly b/c of Hurricane Dolly. It rained horribly a few days.