Anne through the years... Click on the link to see Anne's video!


For my favorite brown eyed girl...

My girl is six... When did this sweet, helpless, adorable baby...



become this smart, funny, beautiful six year old girl...



Happy Birthday Anne. I love you!

The world's smallest potholder... So Anne found out that my cousin Melissa from Wisconsin will be celebrating her birthday with us up in Atlanta this weekend. As soon as she heard that, she started digging out every single homemade gift so could possibly make for her. Melissa will be bombarded with homemade keychains, bracelets, and posters. Anne also decided that Melissa really needed a potholder. About 5 minutes into making it, Anne realized that making potholders really kind of sucks and left the rest of the job to me while she went on to something more fun like a homemade jewelry box that Melissa couldn't possibly live without. Okay, now I certainly never claim to be crafty but I do know how to make a damn potholder... or at least I thought I did. It all started out fine. It took me a while but I finally got the hang of using that stupid hook thing and then figuring out how to loop the ends over each other to finish it off. I was pretty proud of my potholder. Until I took the last one off and discovered I ended up with this.



Here is another shot so you can see just how small this thing really is.



What the heck?

So Melissa, if you ever need to just heat up a fork or something, you have the perfect potholder!

Anne's birthday party... The party was a huge success! Anne wanted to have her party at the gym where she does gymnastics this year and she had a great time. They played in the gym for an hour doing the hot lava game, jumping in the foam pit, walking on the balance beam, and swinging on the rope. After playing in the gym they had pizza and cake and opened presents. She had a good time!
The Birthday Girl!

The three cousins!

Swinging on the rope! That was her favorite thing to do!


YIKES! The gift opening got a little crazy!

Allison was super excited about all the Floam!

Troy made Anne a gymnastics cake as requested! It turned out so cute! That is Anne and Mrs. Teresa on there.

Face painting... has become a new favorite activity in our house since our trip to Disney. But Anne wasn't at all happy when she realized Daddy gave her a beard and moustache. Poor thing! This picture was taken before she saw herself in the mirror. She took one look at herself and burst into tears. That naughty old Daddy!

Mommy washed off the boy face and redid it in pink with hearts. All was good again.




Gammer and Chelsea got in on the action too!

Creatures in our yard today... The armadillo kept to himself in the back yard but that black snake was right up on the back porch. Troy was like 10 year old boy trying to catch him for a good 20 minutes but he got away in the bushes. The joys of living in Florida!

Weekend in Orlando... We decided to take a quick overnight trip down to Orlando this weekend. We have stayed at the French Quarter resort in the past and it is the girls' favorite place to stay! They love the little dragon waterslide at the pool. We didn't do any theme parks this time since it's so darn hot and we have the limited season passes so they are blocked out right now. But the girls would have been happy even if we had never left the hotel. We did a whole lot of swimming, dinner at night with Cinderella, and a quick trip over to Downtown Disney. We had a really good time and the girls can't wait to go back!





Throwing in a penny!

I swear I didn't tell her to pose like that! She's a natural.... lol

Daddy helped the girls make homemade crowns and wands to take along on our trip. They looked so cute! And it took Anne a while to figure out how Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother, and every waitress we ever had on the trip already knew their names were Anne and Allison.

Saturday night...

Riding the monorail on our way to have dinner with Cinderella. I love this picture because it is so typical. Anne is ready with her biggest smile and Allison looks like she is ready to tell me to f-off! Seriously!

"No really Mom, gimme a break"... that kid is such a stinker!

Having dinner at 1900 Park Fare! The girls loved it! Cinderella, the Prince, the Fairy Godmother, and two mice were there. They came around to talk and take pictures while we ate dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was good too!

Sunday...
After spending Sunday morning in the hotel pool, we headed over to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Allison was not too fond of the indoor thunderstorm or when the apes went wild.


The girls got their faces painted at Downtown Disney. Anne got a heart mask and Allison wanted Tinkerbell. Allison just couldn't get the hang of closing her eyes and relaxing her face. She made the girl's job a little difficult!






Poor girl was asleep before we even hit the interstate!

Making progress... Anne and Daddy have been at it all week and she is making some good progress. He has been able to let go for a few seconds and she has finally realized how to put her feet down if she thinks she is going to fall. We still have a way to go but she is working at it!

Allison wanted to wear as many colors as possible to go out and watch.

Learning to ride... So we took off the training wheels and we are trying to learn to ride! Oh gosh. Anne really wants to learn but she is scared to death of falling off and hurting herself. Any of you that have been around Anne when she has gotten a cut or a scrape know exactly what I'm talking about. So we are practicing and she is slowly getting a little more sure of herself. Poor Daddy, it sucks being over 6 feet tall and trying to help your daughter learn to ride her bike! His back was hurting for sure! Hopefully it won't take too much longer.

And check out our little 4 year old neighbor boy. He had to jump on his bike and starting doing circles around Anne as soon as he saw her out there!