Genna's birthday part 3

Grandaddy's birthday is next week, so Part 3 of Genna's birthday included celebrating with him!
We were so excited to have all of our family here with us this weekend. Grandma came on Friday afternoon and Memama, Grandaddy, Andrea, Kevin, Charlie and Mary Frances came on Saturday.

Memama, Grandaddy and all of their grandchildren (including the ones making funny faces)

helping Grandaddy open his presents...

Genna's turn to open presents!

A Leapster!

A beautiful Princess nightgown! (which she has wanted to wear every night since)

Memama gave her 2 little toy dogs to share with her brother. He was trying so hard to "help" Daddy get them open.

blowing out the candles...

Grandaddy had some help blowing his candles out...

These boys think Kevin ("Keky") is so funny!

Great picture of Charlie and Andrea

Genna concentrating really hard on her Leapster game

BEST FRIENDS!

Genna got new bedding for her birthday, so I got my friend, Stephanie to paint this cute butterfly painting to match. It looks so cute in her room! Excuse me, I mean beautiful...Genna doesn't like the word "cute."

Genna's birthday part 2

We celebrated on Saturday with a gymnastics party with all of her class friends. She and her friend, whose birthday is next week decided to share the party!
Here are the birthday girls!


Genna was not at all into having her picture taken...

Mary Frances had lots of fun!

COUSINS!

Reese and Olivia are 2 of Genna's sweet friends.

The parachute game was so cool!

They made a tent with the parachute and yelled "Happy Birthday" to each of the birthday girls

The cake. Sorry the picture is turned. I don't know why.

We had to sing Happy Birthday twice. The first time, Genna did not hear her name since we didn't decide ahead of time how we were going to sing it.

Such a cute picture of Mary Frances and Charlie!

FIVE!!!

I'm not sure how it happened, but my little girl is 5!!!
For her it was extra exciting because #1 her actual birthday was a school day and #2 it was RODEO DAY which she had been looking forward to all month! Those who know Genna well know that she does not really like real animals. She loves to talk about animals, play with "pretend" animals, look at animals from a far distance, but she is very afraid of the real ones. Remember, last weekend, we had the opportunity to go to a rodeo and she also rode a horse, so now she is all about horses and has decided she is not afraid of them.
Back to Rodeo Day...they were to have pony rides, have a (pretend) campfire lunch, etc, etc. Since it was her birthday, while we were at the rodeo, we bought her a cowgirl hat as a birthday present. This picture does not do it justice. It has silver sequins all around the rim, and a crown that lights up (I didn't show this to her until school was almost over). I think her cowgirl outfit turned out pretty cute!

Here is the little birthday rodeo cowgirl while she was waiting to ride the ponies. Oh, yeah, to top it all off, she got to be the caboose in the line all day. For whatever reason, she likes this better than being the leader. So far, all I know about this position is that they turn off the lights in the classroom as they leave.

Riding the pony and holding on to her hat! Apparently, she learned this from the cowboys at the rodeo, she said.

at the end of the ride...still holding the hat.

They had a campfire lunch of hot dogs, baked beans, chips and the real treat...Sprite in a can!

After lunch, it was time for the birthday party! She sat with her teacher while the class sang "Happy Birthday" to her in English and then in Spanish!

Genna and her friend, Reese, comparing My Little Pony cupcake toppers.

The day did not end there! We went to church that night and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her again at the Wednesday night supper (they actually sang it to all of the birthdays for the week, but she was very excited to announce that hers was that day).

Birthday, part 2 to come this weekend!

Spring Break 2011

Meet the newest member of the family...her name is Fashion and Genna will correct you if you call her "the horse."
My parents got her from a friend because they knew the kids would enjoy learning to ride. They were right! Charlie, Mary Frances and Genna were so excited! Andrew...not so much, but he probably will eventually.

On the first day, everyone was a little bit hesitant. The girls would only ride with one of us. Charlie would have gone completely by himself, but isn't quite ready for that.

Take a good look! This might be the only time you see Mama on a horse. She had to say she had ridden her, though. Who knows, she might just surprise us all!


Andrew preferred to play in the rocks...


Andrew thinks "Cha-wie" is great (and he is pretty sweet!).

The girls were much more confident the next day. They cried every time someone else needed a turn and one of them had to get off. Mary Frances was so funny telling Genna, "Remember, Genna, you can't ride if you're frowning (that's what Mama told them). She's working it out, Evie. Just take a deep breath, Genna."

When they were not riding the horse, all of the kids enjoyed lots of swinging...

and playing Play-doh ice cream shop. "We can't stop! This is our job! The poor people will be so hungry if they can't get their dessert!"

We had a great few days at Memama and Grandaddy's house!

Rodeo!

Last Saturday, we met my parents (Memama and Grandaddy) at the rodeo! It was kind of on a whim...my children are very afraid of animals, so I had no idea how they would react to this. They both absolutely LOVED it! LOVED the horses, the cowboys, the cows, really everything about it! I forgot my camera, so we only have a few pictures which came from Brian's phone...I never have my camera when I need it! Here are a few pics, though...


We had to check out the stagecoach after...

Silly Sally Day

A couple of weeks ago, Genna had "Silly Sally Day" at school. She had been talking about it for weeks..."Is today Silly Sally Day?" This was the day that they would wear crazy clothes, walk backwards in line, eat their dessert first, etc., etc., etc....basically do everything different from a normal day. To make things even better, Genna was the line leader that day, so she was especially excited!
Finally, the day came. Crazy as it may seem, it was harder for me to NOT match clothes for her. When practically her whole wardrobe is pink and purple, most things at least somewhat match each other.
So, here she is...

purple shirt (I tried to get her to wear it backwards, but she didn't want to), brown skirt with red leggings, shoes on the wrong feet, one pink and one white sock, one high and one low ponytail with one yellow bow and one orange and blue bow.

She decided that it was only appropriate to act silly for the pictures, too!