Sarah's First Published Work

A few weeks ago, I posted that Sarah had entered a poetry contest and written a poem about Earth for the Birmingham News. Every day I've read the paper, wondering when (if?) they would publish the winners. Today was the day!
Out of over 300 entries, Sarah won Honorable Mention and had her poem published in the paper. Only 11 poems were published; the other winners just had their names listed. And she was the only Kindergartner! I'm so, so proud of her. Here's her winning piece:

Earth
We plant trees
To help the Earth
To give homes
To little birds.
The Earth needs help
to get it clean
What can we do
To help be Green?
We can plant trees
We can give an animal a home
We can pick up litter
Now that is the end of my poem.

Quick Trip

The girls and I went down to Mobile for a few days. It was great to see everyone and hang with Mimi & Pop. I also got to spend some time with old friends, which was great. There's something about old friends, the ones who've known you since you were young and stupid but love you anyway...

They have a beautiful new baby boy and I got to hold him and love him for a long time. Their older boys call me "Aunt Janet," and it made me a little sad to think that the baby probably won't think of me that way.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Or, when Memorial Day weekend brings rain...

Jubilee Festival

This weekend we set off on a little adventure. We drove up to Decatur (Alabama) with Grandmother and Grandfather to check out the hot air balloon festival. I'd read about it and wanted to go, but we really didn't know what we were getting into. And, the weather forecast called for rain from Friday evening through next week, so it seemed unlikely we'd really get to see any hot air balloons. Still, it's only about an hour and a half drive, and we didn't have any other plans, so we all decided to give it a try.
We really had a great trip. Our hotel had a small indoor pool which the girls loved. Friday night we ate at a local BBQ place whose BBQ chicken with white sauce is listed on the 100 dishes to eat in Alabama. It was good, but we like Full Moon better. After dinner we let the girls swim awhile. Saturday morning we woke up EARLY to head to the field for the hot air balloons. This was one of those occasions when I was thankful that my girls are early risers: according to the schedule, there was a balloon race beginning at 6:30am. We parked and started walking down the street when we started to hear people saying that it might be cancelled. It wasn't raining, but the winds were starting to pick up so the pilots decided not to launch. We were disappointed, but a lot of the pilots went ahead and inflated their balloons which was an awesome sight. After a big breakfast and another swim, we headed back to Birmingham. So, it was a quick trip, but it was fun and I'd certainly like to try to go again. I heard that they didn't launch last year either; I suppose the weather needs to be perfect in order for things to go according to plan!

Hooray for Sarah

Today, on her last day of Kindergarten, Sarah's tooth finally came out! Well, it didn't just fall out, I pulled it a little, and then our friend at school gave it the final tug. (This woman is the tooth-pulling expert - her record is 7 teeth in one day!) Sarah really wanted to lose it at school so she could get a cool tooth holder from the nurse, so I was really excited for her.
As you can see in the picture, her big tooth is already coming in. (The red mark on her cheek is a temporary tattoo from a birthday party, in case you were wondering!)

Field Day

Today was Field Day at S&A's school. Perry and I went up there for a little while, but I'm feeling cruddy (strep throat, maybe?) and didn't stay long. A friend of mine snapped this awesome pic of the girls after they got their faces painted. They were in two separate lines and didn't see what the other was getting - and they ended up with the exact same paint! As my friend said, "It's a twin thang!"

Notebooks

I bought notebooks for S&A to keep in their rooms. I write them notes, and they write back. It's really sweet, it's good for their reading and writing skills, and it's fun to look for notes! Tonight, Abby wrote:
"I cant belev wutt a good mom you are. Love Abby"
Priceless.

If I Had a Boyfriend...

His name would be Nick.

Tennis

This Week

This week,

• Abby lost her second tooth. Another bottom one.
• Sarah was bummed that her tooth still hasn't come out. It's close, though.
• I hugged Nick Saban. (picture to follow)
• Abby got hit in the face with a plastic baseball. I'm thankful that it wasn't a hardball, but it still left a big circle on her cheek!
• S&A finished ballet and gymnastics, so our only remaining activity is tennis. Have I mentioned that they love tennis? Yea!
• S&A enjoyed their very last Friday as Kindergartners. Time really flies.

Recital Videos

I just wanted to post the videos from S&A's dance recital. I didn't do a very good job with the flip camera, because I was trying to watch at the same time, but I refuse to pay $38 to get the DVD!!

Ballet

The girls' dance recital was Saturday afternoon at the BJCC. The entire show was awesome; there were some great dancers and the choreography was amazing. S&A were in two dances - they tap danced to Yankee Doodle Dandee and did a Tinkerbell ballet dance. They remembered their dances and did a great job! They also each got two trophies, one for perfect attendance and the other for 3 years of dancing, so they were really excited. Thanks to Mimi and Pop for coming up to see the show; we had a great weekend and a wonderful Mothers' Day, too.

Because It's Good to Laugh...

Talent Show

The girls performed in their school talent show tonight. I was surprised that they wanted to be in it, surprised that they practiced enough to learn their routine, and surprised that they had the guts to get up on stage in front of all those people. Surprised and impressed. They did a great job, even when they were stopped in the middle of their dance so that the tape in the video camera could be changed! They just got right back out there and started over! It was a fun night and they were really proud of themselves.