WEE Center Family Night

 
After the parade, we went out for a quick dinner & then headed to the WEE Center for family night. We got to see Laura Ann's classroom & all that she has been working on in the past few weeks. We also got to visit with Mrs. Ashley and all of her Crayon friends. Mrs. Ashley had out supplies for them to make scarecrow cookies & those were a hit! We are so thankful that Laura Ann has gotten of to a great start in 4K!!! She is LOVING it!

Husky Homecoming

 
We look forward to Husky Homecoming every year, solely because of the parade & the candy that we collect during it! And doing this with friends makes it even better! It was a super fun afternoon & we do wish the Huskies all the best in their game tomorrow night! Go Huskies!

Card Games......

.......are all the 'craze' at our house right now!
 

Bird Watching

This post is for you, Pop, our family bird lover!
 
Daniel got all into watching the birds in our trees this afternoon. Armed with a notepad to take notes & binoculars to get a close up look, he may just end up like his Pop!

Just Hanging Out......

.....in a Go-Go dress!!!
 
Laura Ann is LOVING all of Merrill's old dance costumes!
 

Happy Birthday Gran & Papa

 
We went to Sam & Heather's today to celebrate Gran & Papa's birthday. The kids had a ball playing (mine didn't want to leave) & of course, loved blowing out candles & enjoyed big slices of birthday cake. Happy Birthday Gran & Papa!! We love you!

ROLL TIDE!!!

 
After Daniel's game this morning, we took off to Ttown to watch the Tide play Arkansas. Nanna & Big Daddy came with us & we had a great day! Daniel L.O.V.E.S going in the stadium & watching the game. He can kind of understand what is going on now & that definitely makes the game more fun for him. Big Daddy bought a program & I think he memorized every single page! Laura Ann doesn't get the game yet, so we brought along her crayons and she drew pictures of the football players, band members, cheerleaders, Big Al, and her latest craze.....the 'Sparkle Girls' (aka majorettes)! No surprise that she loved all of the pregame & halftime shows! They also enjoyed all that the concession stand had to offer. It was a super fun time in Bryant Denny & we can't wait to go again! ROLL TIDE!!

CARTOONS

 
These two love to snuggle up in our bed & watch cartoons!

Build A Bear Fun

 
One of Laura Ann's oldest & most favorite friends, Alleigh, had a Build-A-Bear birthday party today & it was a hit! Laura Ann came home with 'Butterfly', whom she is totally enthralled with! Happy Birthday, Alleigh!!

Cowboys vs. Raiders

Love this one of my 2 favorite guys!
 

We played the Raiders a tough game today, but fell just a little short. It was a great game & the boys all had a good time. Daniel's friend, Braden, from his class at school was on the Raiders & after the game was over, he came over & gave Daniel the biggest hug & told him good game.....this was after the teams had already lined up & congratulated each other. I just love seeing good sportsmanship!!!

Brown Day

Laura Ann loves special days at school. This is 'B' week, so today she got to wear brown & bring her favorite bear to school.
 

And I'm just throwing this one in.......this girl literally has a crayon/marker in her hand ALL OF THE TIME!!!
 

More Homework

 
Laura Ann always wants to do homework like Daniel, so I bought her some workbooks. She loves them & pretty much finished an entire workbook in one sitting! Ha! Anyway, Daniel decided to do his homework in the fort today & she was thrilled to join him with one of her workbooks!
 

Fury & Feathery Friends

 
Dan was in his office a couple of weeks ago & heard something hit our garage door, when he went to check it out, it was a baby deer & it's mom! He ran to get his phone & took this pic, but they were already in the Bettis' yard. He said the baby was brand new because it was still very wobbly! So sweet!

Since then, we are seeing lots of deer all over our street & have snapped a few pics. The kids LOVE watching them! In addition to the deer, our humming birds are eating fast & furious, I guess getting reading to migrate. Dan is filling the feeder 2 & 3 times a day. A lot of the day, there are 4-5 birds swarming around it, with even more waiting in the background for a turn.

Our old neighbor in Douglasville LOVED animals & birds. He always referred to them as his 'fury & feathery friends'. So, this blog post is dedicated to good, old Mr. Lovvorn!

Homework

 
One of the new things about 1st grade is homework. I have been dreading having homework because I knew it would be a battle to get my busy, active boy to sit down and do it. Well, I have been pleasantly surprised!! He usually initiates getting started himself and there is no battle! Yay!

Flag Football

Daniel & Nigel.....ready to play
 
I have to share this funny story.....The Smileys were in the car on the way home after the flag football draft a couple of weeks ago & Renaldo proudly says to Nigel, "Guess who your coaches are going to be?" Nigel asked who & Renaldo responds, "Me & Mr. Dan!!!" Nigel says laughing, "Who are my REAL coaches going to be, Dad?" I mean, everyone knows that Dan & Renaldo can't be the REAL coaches! :-)

Daniel heading for the endzone!
 
Huddle Time
 

Daniel is playing flag football this fall & Dan is coaching. Two of Daniel's good buddies are on his team, Nigel & Carson. They are the 'Trussville' Cowboys, so of course, Daniel is now all into the pro Cowboys team! They have had a few practices over the last couple of weeks & had their first game today. Sad to say that they didn't win. But they did play a great game. Daniel had a blast! He loves playing football (I think even more than baseball) & would really love to play tackle football, but mama says no to that until he is a lot older! It is going to be a fun season!!

Laura Ann's First Manicure

 
I rarely ever treat myself to a mani/pedi, but Dan surprised me this week with a giftcard, so I took advantage of it today. I didn't get finished before time for the guys to go to football practice, so Dan dropped Laura Ann off at the nail salon with me on the way to their practice. She was in awe of the whole place & everything going on. She had no idea that such a place even existed. A whole 'store' devoted totally to nails just blew her mind! She L.O.V.E.S. to get her nails painted & daddy was happy to throw in a manicure for her too! She picked the hottest pink she could find & sat very still to get her nails done. It lasted until bathtime tonight when she peeled the polish off every single nail!

Hopscotch!

We enjoyed a visit with Gran today. After supper, Daniel decided to draw a hopscotch on our driveway. He & Laura Ann were quite entertained by it. I guess some games are timeless, because that one has been around forever. After several rounds of hopscotch, we took Gran on her first ever trip to Yogurt Mountain. She loved it, but didn't get a single topping on her yogurt! What is up with that??!!

Oh, and Daniel brought home his progress report today. They seriously never change......he is doing GREAT (Yay!!)......needs to work on handwriting and talking. Way to go, Daniel!!!

Wash Out!

Or at least it felt like a wash out!

The same tropical storm that shortened our beach trip passed through Birmingham today & it rained literally ALL day long! Most people consider themselves 'stuck' inside for this kind of weather, but not Daniel & Jeb. They thought it was great & went outside about 10:30. I had to force Daniel inside at 4:00 because he was shivering & his lips were turning purple! They played and played and played and played! For awhile they were army men, for awhile they were pirates, for awhile they were superheroes (yes, our street is well protected), for awhile they were Steve Erwin (they caught lots of frogs today and their 'commentary' was hysterical about the "habitat of the frogs".....from the porch of course), and they ended up using the wet grass on our hill as a slip & slide. While they were having all of that fun outside, Laura Ann spent her day 'cozied up' inside watching movies and coloring. She also made cookies which we used to coax Daniel inside.

Before the news even broke, we knew from past 'monsoons' in Trussville that downtown had to be flooded, and it was. Looks like school will probably be canceled for tomorrow. That's ok with the James' family.....we LOVE rainy days at home!!

Labor Day Weekend in Santa Rosa

 

We met Big Daddy & Nanna at Santa Rosa Beach and enjoyed a long Labor Day weekend with them! Daniel and Laura Ann were beyond thrilled to be at the beach and had a blast playing in the ocean, as always. They also loved the pool, their bunkbeds (there were 2, so Laura Ann got to sleep on a top bunk this trip too!), old Disney movies in the house we stayed in, multiple trips to the Sugar Shak and a trip to Wal-Mart's toy department (thanks to Big Daddy). We got to enjoy a few days of glorious sunshine before Tropical Storm Irene hit, but our last day was spent inside, in front of the tv watching football, which is where we probably would've been even without a tropical storm. We watched the TIDE & celebrated our team's first victory of the season. It was a GREAT trip (even if it did end a little soggy), and we can't wait to go back!