The Love Dare

Tim and I are participating in the Love Dare Class on Sunday nights at our church. The class is based on the movie "Fireproof." By the way, if you have not seen this movie, you really need to see it. We loved the movie. I either laughed or cried pratically the entire time. Anyway, the class is great. We meet on Sunday nights for discussion, to watch some clips from the movie and to follow the workbook that comes with the class. In addition to that, each couple should do the 40-day Love Dare challenge. Today was day 10. We were asked to do something or buy something unexpected for our spouse. I had a hard time thinking of something. I took a friend from work out to lunch today for her birthday. When I was checking out, I noticed they had big, homemade cookies for sale. Tim loves those, so that's what I got him. Here's the good part: Toward the end of the work day, the door to my office opens and in walks Tim with fresh flowers for me. Not only was I touched to receive the flowers, but it was definitely unexpected that he would come to work to deliver them. I thought it was really sweet and special. Tim liked his cookies too!

Trojan Pride

Check out our sweet girls in their school colors. Tonight is the high school's first home football game, so they were excited to support their school. Emma couldn't wait to wear her cheerleader outfit to school for the first time. She wore it some to daycare last year, but this was her first time to wear it to "big school." Hopefully the team will win tonight. I understand a bunch of the players had the flu earlier in the week. Maybe they are well by now. We love supporting the high school sports. Tuesday night we watched the Lady Trojan softball team win. Anna Kate wants to be just like them when she grows up. She has her first fast pitch softball games next weekend, so we were out in the yard practicing last night with the pitching machine.

Caching

I haven't posted anything in a while about Tim and Anna Kate's geocaching adventures. A few weekends ago they made a run in Natchez and found 62 caches. Anna Kate is up to about 800 total finds. Tim is up to...well, read more about Tim's total further down in this post.
Anna Kate loves going with her daddy. She is always up for an adventure.

You just never know what you will come across.

Here's Anna Kate with an old fire engine that she thought was neat.

Now, for more about Tim's geocaching numbers...Tim went to Marshall, Texas, with three fellow geocachers last weekend. Their goal was to get as many geocaches in one day as possible and set a record. The previous record for geocaches by a Mississippian in one day was 142. I am proud to say my awesome husband and his friends blew that record out of the water! They found 70 on Friday, 270 on Saturday, and 61 on Sunday for a total 401. It took them 20 hours to get the 270 caches on Saturday. That just shows how much he loves this sport.

Here he is finding his 2,000 cache. He is well past that now with 2,073 caches.

Finding 401 caches wasn't an easy feat. It took lots of determination, some luck, and even some deadly measures. Tim had to kill this cottonmouth snake to get to a cache while his buddies stood back and took pictures. Yep, he's crazy!

First Homework

As you know, Emma started kindergarten this fall. She is so excited to be a "big kid" like her big sissy. She thinks it is so cool that Anna Kate has homework, so she was so excited when her teacher gave her homework. Her assignment was to decorate this bag and put three special things in it with one being a family picture. She picked a picture from our family vacation. Another item was a Disney Princess book about dancing because she loves Disney Prinesses, books and dancing. Her third item was a small pink dog carrier with a stuffed dog in it because she loves pink and she and Anna Kate love playing with "pets." If only homework was always this fun and easy!
Actually doing the homework.

Taking her homework back to school.

First Day of School

The girls had a great first day of school. They were little chatterboxes this evening telling Tim and I all about everything. They love their teachers and are excited about being with their friends and making new friends. Here's Anna Kate walking into school for her first day of 5th grade. I didnt walk in with her. I just dropped her off because, of course, she is a big girl!

One last picture before she walked in the building. This is her last year of elementary school. Next year is middle school.

After dropping Anna Kate off, I took Emma in for her first day of kindergarten. She was so excited.

Here she is hanging up her Tinkerbell bookbag. By the way, Anna Kate's bookbag is Wizards of Waverly Place.

She wasn't nervous at all. She went right to the puzzles and forgot about Mom. By the way, I am proud that I didn't cry at all. That says a lot because I cry at everything.

Here are some sweet pictures I took of them before school.

5th Grade Open House

Anna Kate had her open house tonight. She met her 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Long. She also got to meet her other two teachers. I can't believe it, but New Hope will have the 4th and 5th graders changing classes this year. Anna Kate seems excited about it, and she seemed to like her other two teachers. I know she will have a great year.

Kindergarten Open House

Tonight was open house for the kindergarten. Emma was so excited to meet her teacher and see her classroom. I think she and Mrs. Campbell are going to have a great year.

The PTO sponsored a "Fun Night" with jumpers and face painting.

Anna Kate didn't want to do the jumpers, but she enjoyed a snow cone because it was so hot and humid tonight. We will meet Anna Kate's teacher tomorrow night at the 5th grade open house. By the way, you may be able to tell from these pictures that the girls got their hair cut today. Anna Kate went for a shorter look getting about three inches cut off, and Emma got her first big trim with about 4 inches cut off. We thought they both look so cute!

All Star Party

Anna Kate's all star softball team had its end-of-the-season party this afternoon. They had so much fun, and they deserved it after the awesome season they had (17-0 record and 4 tournament championships).
Anna Kate's coach brought all the trophies with him, and I brought all five of Anna Kate's medals with us. I thought it would be neat for her to take her picture with all of it. She has on the World Series shirt we bought for her at the tournament. So proud of this girl!

They had this cute cake for the party. It had all their names around the sides and their numbers on the balls on top.

Anna Kate signing the World Series Championship game-winning ball.

They had a great time swimming with each other.

They also had fun with the wet slide.

Here goes Anna Kate...

with a big splash!

And here goes Emma...

with a big splash too.And another splash for Emma. I bet she went down that slide a hundred times. She was exhausted tonight and fell asleep before bedtime.

It was such a great day spent with friends. I know these girls have made friendships and memories that will last forever.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

Anna Kate and Emma had a great time at their cousin Natalie's 4th birthday party Friday night at the Splash Park. It was hard to get them all together and to be still. Then my camera battery died, and I a stupidly didn't have backup. Luckily, my SIL Amanda had her camera. Here are the few I did get. We will definitely be making a return trip to this place. It was fun.