Mrs. Paula and Mrs. Julie have been all over the city with their lovely kiddos this fall!  Enjoy the pictures of their adventures below!

 

Daddy went on a field trip in October with Anna Kate to the farm!

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Finding marbles!

 

 

Anna Kate has been looking forward to the Curious George exhibit at the Science Museum since last spring!  She loved it!

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

Collecting their art mediums!

 

  

Green’s Produce field trip!

 

 

Mrs. Paula is so funny!  Anna Kate is the sweetest knuckle head there ever was! 

 

 

  

Mrs. Paula has rocked out the art lessons this semester! 

 

Fire drill… stop, drop and roll… and snuff out the fire because it takes oxygen to breathe.  Not only does Mrs. Paula go through what to do in case of emergency, she teaches the science behind it to keep the kids safe where ever they go!

 

Ceramic art!

  

Sorting and measuring

 

It’s zoo day for AK!

 

 

 

 

 

I love this picture Mrs. Paula took of Anna Kate’s reflection in the window with the bird!

 

 

 

So fierce!

 

Yet still a kitten face!

One of Mrs. Paula’s specialties is giving her students the opportunity to play in the leaves!  She rakes big piles for them to dive in; I remember doing the exact same thing below my grandmother’s pecan trees.  So thankful Anna Kate has this memory from her falls in pre-k with her friends!

  

 

 

Mrs. Paula told me Anna Kate has turned into mother hen this year, always watching over and loving on the new students; so sweet!

 

Anna Kate’s hand print letters are absolutely fascinating to me!  Mrs. Paula has a book full of thousands for the kids to choose from each time they work on a new letter.  She also does a scrapbook filled with pictures and their art throughout the year!  I can’t wait to see her book from this year.  I don’t know how Mrs. Paula does it!  She’s simply amazing!

 

Every child should get to experience playing in the leaves.  There’s nothing more freeing than this right here!

 

 

During the week of Thanksgiving each year, Mrs. Paula makes homemade pumpkin pies with each of her students, two at a time, for them to take home and share with their families for Thanksgiving.  Anna Kate is always so proud to share her pumpkin pie with us!  I don’t know how Mrs. Paula and Mrs. Julie do all that they do with the kids during school, but we are just beyond grateful and feel so blessed for Anna Kate to be going to such an amazing school!  I mean, who gets to cook a pumpkin pie for their family at school!?!  That is crazy cool!  Here she is cracking an egg!

 

 

Smelling, measuring and pouring!

 

 

Stirring and… voila!  Time for the oven.  This was the best Thanksgiving pumpkin pie I’ve ever tasted!  Go Anna Kate!

Cheers to a happy fall of learning and fun!

  

Our Santa was in the most amazing rendition of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, as Father Christmas in November!  It was literally the best performance I’ve ever seen, including Casa Manana plays and even Dallas Theater.  It was absolutely captivating!

Here’s Father Christmas passing out his gifts of weapons to the Pevensie children.

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver with Peter and Father Christmas.

 

Susan and Lucy receiving their special weapons to keep them safe from the White Witch!

 

Noelle wanted a picture with sweet Lucy after the play.  This was our favorite play ever!!!  When we were driving home, Noelle said, “I didn’t realize kids were so talented!!!”  I didn’t either!  Of course, Father Christmas was as amazing as always. 

Go Bobcats!  We won it all!  The girls had a blast cheering their team on to victory this year! 

 

I’m not going to lie, the championship game was absolutely miserable.  I attended every single football game back when I was in high school, and I never experienced weather like this!  I kept telling Noelle to hold out and that she could do it, but I was aching inside to see her struggling.  It was freezing, raining, and when we got to the car, her fingers were so swollen that she could barely even bend them.  They were completely white (it scared me to death).  We went over to a friend’s house who is a physician, and he massaged them under luke-warm water until the swelling started going down.  And then, when we got home and she took off her shoes, her socks were soaking wet.  I won’t make her do this again.  We aren’t quitters, but this was way too extreme.  I’m glad we stuck it out, but at the end of the day, I learned an important lesson too; It’s not quitting when your safety is at stake.  Noelle has extremely sensitive skin, but I just didn’t realize.  I gave her hand warmers and everything.  That car ride home was awful, and I was full of regret, but you live and learn.

Noelle was smiling because I had just gotten to the game in this picture, but I promised her I would be there!  It was a crazy day juggling all the girls and their busy social lives, lol!

Seeing the trophies helped a little bit!

Our team got the UTA drum line to come out and drum for the Bobcats!  They were so much fun and SO talented!

 

After handing out spirit sticks, our job here was done. (she left her big fluffy jacket at school; I should’ve bought a new one… woulda shoulda coulda, ugh!)

Noelle and Emily being great sports!

 

Go Bobcats!  Although today was rough, Noelle is already asking how long she has to wait until her next game.  She loves to cheer, but we don’t start back up until August; Always something to look forward to around here!

 

Happy Birthday, Brylee!   

 

 

What a fun day!

The girls were so excited to go to an autograph signing by this season’s The Voice star, Brandon Chase, Thursday night after Noelle’s play!  Brandon premiered his talent on this season of The Voice with an awesome rendition of Hunter Hayes’ “Wanted.”  Ever since he made Blake Shelton’s Team Blake, the girls have been dying to meet him!  Fortunately, one of our BFFs, Kara, is his sister!  So Miss Kara helped break the ice, and we got to ask him lots of questions about The Voice and his original songs.  His first album, Country Enough, is a huge hit in our house!  If you haven’t heard it, you should.  He’s got really great messages to his catchy songs, and we are cheering him on all the way!  Go Brandon!

 

Noelle couldn’t wait to get to school this special night to show us her “line monster!”  She and Brianna were all smiles and ready to go!

 

Noelle got a speaking part this year, yay!  To say that she was excited is and understatement!  She has been wanting a speaking part ever since her kindergarten musical, and two years is a long time to wait for a little one.  Her music teacher said whoever smiles, participates, and listens every day will get a speaking part.  She is always on her best behavior anyway, but she was super motivated to work her hardest to show that she really really wanted a speaking part this year!  The musical was called “Go Fish!”  Noelle was a sea horse, so she was asked to wear cowgirl attire for her speaking part (get it, sea horse).  Lol!  So cute! 

There were lots of different types of sea creatures who had speaking parts.  They all had personality plus and did a super great job!

 

Noelle was in her element in this picture with Hannah and smiling with her friend Nyla (the angel fish) in the right picture after the show.

 

Their ending number was so cute!  Hopefully Mike will put a couple of videos up for you to see tomorrow. 

 

Noelle and Jake got to be sea horses together tonight!  Jake is Noelle’s only friend that has been in her class with her every year since kindergarten.  They are the sweetest little buddies!

 

Anna Kate, Emily, Noelle and Brianna had so much fun tonight!  Awesome girls!  Noelle’s mentor and friend, Mrs. Arnold, brought her “Good Luck!” balloons tonight before the show.  She was on Cloud 9; Thank you, sis!  Noelle absolutely loves to perform and have an audience, so tonight was a total blast for her.  It’s so great seeing her confidence grow and watching her totally have fun doing things that she genuinely loves!  Where I used to enjoy performing but would be a nervous wreck, she is so giddy and happy-go-lucky.  I’m not sure what Noelle will enjoy doing most in life, but so far, the arts are definitely at the top of her list! 

We are so proud of you, Bella!  We love your winning spirit and lovable attitude for others and life.  Your enthusiasm tonight was precious!  You make us smile every day and are growing into such a lovely little lady.  Thank you for being so sweet, kind, and thoughtful in everything that you do.  It means the world to us!  We love you baby girl, Mommy and Dada

We were so honored and blessed to witness Victoria and Andrew’s big day on November 9, 2013!

 

Rara came into town to celebrate Victoria’s wedding day with us!  Rose was a very sick baby, so Mike had to stay home with her.  She is much better now!

Victoria’s daddy is the best floral artist in the world.  His creativity knows no bounds!  This was the entryway into the beautiful fall sanctuary of yellows and greens.

 

After the sweetest ceremony, so unique and special to the bride and groom, it was party time!

Victoria was cracking us up, as usual!

 

Watching the first dance, and Anna Kate cuddling with Aunt Sharon!

 

Dancing, dancing!

 

Victoria caught my bouquet, so the girls were all about catching hers!  Anna Kate caught a tiny flower off of the bouquet and held on to it so tightly for the rest of the night, lol!

 

Victoria asked the girls to be her “Sparkler Girls.”  It was very sweet and thoughtful.  Aunt Sharon even let them use a basket mom had given her when I was a child.  They loved passing out sparklers!

 

And then it was time for the big send-off!

 

 

This was the first time the girls have ever done sparklers.  They had a blast!

  

Bekah and the big girls were still partying!  Anna Kate was so excited Aunt Sharon let her take all the popcorn home that she wanted!

We’ve been family friends with the Prince family forever, and it was so very special to celebrate Victoria and Andrew’s big day together!

 

Miss Emily talked her Daddy into a little “Funky Chicken,” or as he said, I “volun-told” him by setting Emily up to begging her Dad to cheer with her.  Ahh… fun Bobcat memories!  To the right, sweet Noelle still smiling after a long windy game!

 

Little sissies, Anna Kate and Sydney can’t wait for kindergarten together next year (good grief, this year needs to slow down)!

Come on mighty Bobcats…

Awesome huddle after the game that kept me smiling all day!  This is a really special team, and I don’t see how kids this young can play football as good as they do.  It’s been an amazing season to watch!  Championship game comin’ right up, after a few more exciting November PondFam5 adventures to post. 

 

Happy Turkey Day!