The Most Precious Song!

I've heard a lot of songs in my day, but this may be one of the most precious ones I've heard in awhile.  Anna just made up this song one day, and I couldn't get my camera fast enough. :)  Enjoy!

Happy Halloween and Homecoming!

We had such a fun Halloween this year!  One of my college roommates and her husband (and three kiddos) just moved to Waco. so because Baylor Homecoming fell on the same weekend as Halloween, we decided to combine the two occasions and enjoy the weekend o' fun in Waco!  We had dinner and trick or treated with our friends on Friday night (Halloween), had a big sleepover at their house, and then woke up bright and early the next morning to head over to the Baylor Homecoming Parade!  To top it off, Baylor won their football game!  Sic 'em bears!  It was such a fun and sweet time with friends!

Taylor (Ninja), Anna (Ladybug), Karis (Doc McStuffins), Katelyn and Jordan (Fancy Nancies)

Watching the homecoming parade!

Happy 7th Birthday Katelyn!

I can't believe Katelyn is already seven!  This year Katelyn opted for something a little different for her birthday party.  We had it at our house with just a few of her close girlfriends.  It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly, very little stress!  She is quite the party planner, and as such, was very specific about the details of her party:

• Fashion show--she picked out the songs she wanted as background music and she also requested that we clear out the toys/clutter in the playroom so as to have sufficient space for the fashion show
• Chocolate cake with homeade chocolate fudge frosting--she even picked the recipe she wanted me to use.  I have no idea where she gets her attention to detail. :)
• Dance party--she picked out the songs she wanted to dance to
• Tea party--we substituted pink lemonade for tea, but still used fancy tea cups...and since its just not as concise or fun to say "pink lemonade party," we still called it a tea party
• Fun Craft--Note: Always test your craft ideas out before you have a group make it
• Fancy party favors--necklace, bracelet, mini princess wand, and pastel lollipop
• Dress up--everyone shows up wearing their favorite party/fancy/princess dress
• Lunch menu--Pizza and watermelon (I also added baby carrots because I'm a mom, and I felt the need to provide a balanced meal)
• Pink and purple color theme
• Game--one she learned from cheerleading camp this past summer
• Open gifts--Note: At all of Katelyn's parties up until now, we have asked people to bring donations to a local charity of Katelyn's choice in lieu of gifts for her; although she would always still receive presents from family that she would then open on the morning of her actual birthday, she was ready to open some gifts from her friends at her party this year!  I'm surprised she held out for as long as she did!
• No boys--Not even Daddy (even though he's technically a man); Dave actually took Anna on a date during the party, so they got to enjoy some special time together, and Katelyn had some focused time with her friends
• No adults--except mommy, of course; this was our first time to do a "drop-off" party, so all of the girls were dropped off at our house by their parents and then picked up when the party was over

At first I wondered how I was going to fit all these things into a two-hour time frame, but being the awesome party planning team we are, Katelyn and I managed to pull it off! In the end, we had a great time, and it was everything Katelyn wanted!  We love you Katelyn Rose McCurdy, and we praise the Lord for blessing our family with you!  You are a source of much joy and laughter for all of those who meet you!

Party favor bags and party agenda (as planned by Katelyn)

 

Katelyn's welcome sign for her guests 

The grand party entrance

Entryway party decor

 The playroom/fashion runway

 Dance party

 Fashion show--they paraded two by two through the double doors

 Video: Fashion Show

A curtsy on the fashion runway

 Group picture!

 Group hug!

 The (failed) craft: Decorating white dinner plates with sharpie markers.  Bake for 20 minutes in oven at 350 degrees and the artwork is set.  Easy enough?  All the artwork washed off the minute water touched it.  Oh well!  Thanks for coming to my party...here's a free dinner plate!

 Playing a dancing/singing game called "Little Sally Walker" that Katelyn learned at cheerleading camp this summer

 Video: Little Sally Walker 

The cake.  Delish! 

Singing Happy Birthday!

Opening gifts!

 Date with Daddy!

First Days of School!

Katelyn is a first grader this year at McAuliffe Elementary, and Anna is a big preschooler at Lakeland Christian Academy (on Tuesday and Thursday mornings)!  Thankfully they started a day apart, so mommy was not emotionally overwhelmed.  :)  They are both loving their teachers, friends, and classes!  Here they are on their first days of school...

Katelyn outside her 1st grade classroom 

Katelyn's locker in her classroom--so grown up!

 Katelyn's first day of school--after school treat with friends at Rita's Italian Ice!

 Anna sportin' her new zebra backpack

 Walking to her classroom with Daddy (mommy trailing behind with the camera!)

Anna's first day of school--after school treat with Mommy and Aunt Brittany at Nestle Toll House (Brittany got her a special gift!)

One Last Trip....

I am proud to tell you that my mom was awarded to the "Hall of Fame" for the Texas Association of Home Care and Hospice!  Since the awards ceremony was at the Hill Country Hyatt in San Antonio, we decided this would be a good opportunity to not only celebrate with her but also enjoy one last family vacation before school started back up!  We enjoyed an outdoor movie at the hotel, ate at the Rainforest Cafe on the Riverwalk and also spent some time at the Alamo (which was especially neat for Katelyn since she has learned about the Alamo in school!).  Other favorite activities at the hotel (not pictured) were tubing/swimming around the lazy river, going down the water slides, and having smores around a campfire! 

 

Way to go Mom! We are proud of you!

 

Alamo!

Rainforest Cafe

 Riverwalk

Movies on the Lawn (popcorn and blankets provided!)

Anna Is Three and a Half!

We celebrated Anna's half birthday on August 9.  We now have a half birthday tradition of going to get frozen yogurt.  She chose TCBY and enjoyed every bite!  We love you Anna!

2nd Annual Summer Lemonade Stand

We had another lemonade stand this summer!  Katelyn's charity of choice this year was Compassion International.  The children we sponsor through this organization all have August birthdays (like Katelyn!) so she wanted to raise money to donate for their birthday gifts.  We raised plenty of money for the birthday gifts and even had extra donations come in after the lemonade stand (thank you Mamaw and Peepaw) that she used to buy school supplies for kids through Communities in Schools, a local organization with which our church partners.   When all was said and done, we raised $100.44!  I think this is one of my favorite parts of the summer....I love being a part of something bigger than me.

 Katelyn signing her receipts

 A business lesson from Daddy.  Calculating Expenses, Revenue, and Profit!

Kindergarten Reunion

So when you go from seeing the same kids every day at school to not really seeing them at all, you kind of start to miss them during the summer.  Rather than planning 17 different playdates for Katelyn this summer, we decided to work smarter, not harder (as my sister Brittany always reminds me).  We sent out an evite to her class for a kindergarten reunion party at the community pool!  We had everyone bring a snack, and made a super fun morning of it!  About half of the class came, and the kids seemed to really enjoy seeing one another (and the parents enjoyed catching up too!). 

 Katelyn is on the far right of the bottom left picture

Since her teacher couldn't make the party (I totally didn't even think about checking her schedule when planning it...I was more focused on the kids seeing each other!), we planned an afternoon smoothie date with her later in the summer!  Another boy in Katelyn's class joined us, and it was a fun and special time for them!

Our First Pet!

We also had a very exciting addition to our family this summer!  A fish.  For those of you who know me...I love animals, just not in my home. :)  I think Dave and the girls have different feelings, but up until a few months ago, we have not had any pets in the McCurdy home.  That is, until our sweet neighbors across the street found out they were moving to New York and their fish, Sparkle, was not going to be able to make the trip with them.  So sad, I know.  So here's how it all went down.  

I'm cooking dinner one evening and have eggs on the stove (it was breakfast-for-dinner night), pancakes on the griddle, and bacon in the oven, and I hear a knock on the door.  Katelyn runs to the door and sees that its the little girl from across the street.  Katelyn says, "Mom, Valeria has a question for you!"  I'm really hoping its a quick, easy, yes or no question because, at my age, it's hard for me to keep up with lots of stuff going on at the same time, and I'm confident that my pancakes are going to burn if I turn my attention elsewhere, even for a second.  So she says, in the sweetest voice ever, "I was wondering if you would like to take care of my fish when we move because we can't take her with us.  Her name is Sparkle."  I took a deep breath and said, "I think we could do that, but can I come over after dinner and talk to you a little more about it?"  She agreed, and then I asked an even more important question, "how often do you have to feed her?"  She told me how she only has to eat once a day (six super tiny fish food pellets=cheap to feed), and she also has these special pellets that you can put in her tank when you go out of town which allow her to eat on her own and not have to be dependent on someone else feeding her. SOLD.  We went over to her house after dinner and got some general instructions, and I'm happy to report that Sparkle is still living (and thriving!) in our home today.  But I would be amiss if I didn't tell you the absolute sweetest part of this story....when we went to get Sparkle and bring her to our house, Valeria's mom told us that her daughter thought very carefully through her list of friends who she could ask to take care of Sparkle.  She said that when she thought about Katelyn, she told her mom that she knew she could trust Katelyn to take good care of Sparkle, more so, than any of her other friends.  Thank you, Jesus, I thought. This is just a small picture of a greater characteristic that I pray the Lord develops in Katelyn.  May she be a trustworthy friend who walks in Jesus' example of trustworthiness.

Meet Sparkle.  She's cute, I know.

Schlitterbaun Bound!

So my last post was about Katelyn's graduation from Kindergarten, and now we're just over one week away from her starting First Grade!  We had such a fun summer!  

We started off the summer with a family vacation to New Braunfels!  The focus of our trip was two fold: 1) Have fun 2) Conquer Schlitterbaun.   We went with another family from our church, and they have two daughters about the same ages as Katelyn and Anna.  Their family is a lot of fun!  We laughed, we tubed, we ate, we swam, we laughed, and we laughed.  Did I mentioned that their family is a lot of fun?

Our little vacation home