Summer Social

We went to the Summer Social at Holy Rosary and Ruthy was so excited that she was tall enough to ride most of the rides. She associated this with being able to go to Holiday World!

Ruthy and Daddy getting ready to go on the big, tall, yellow slide that made mommy a nervous wreck (which is why Daddy had to accompany her the first trip). She loved and went by herself the next time.

I know the picture is blurry but this slide was the highlight of her week. You can almost make out the look of pure excitement! She told everyone that we ran into for the next 3 days about her slide adventure!

High School -- the next frontier

Choir competition medal!

Day of 8th grade graduation

8th grade graduation party

opening her graduation cards

Colleen is an official high school student. She will be attending Harrison High School as a 9th grader ( I can't bring myself to say the "F" word -- just too grown up for me)! She graduated 8th grade at Plaza Park receiving the Presidential Award for Academics. It was a struggle for all parties involved. During her 8th grade year she and the other members of the female select choir placed first in the state choir competition for middle schools. She was nervous and begged not to go. The competition was held at University of Evansville. The smile on her face (of course smile disappeared when she saw the camera) said it all. She isn't too thrilled about uniforms at Harrison but she survived with uniforms at Plaza so she will survive high school uniforms.

Destin 2010

We spent our 6 year anniversary in Destin, Florida with the girls. Since it was in September, we had to take Colleen out of school for two days. We spent the majority of our time on the beach. We spent a day at the aquarium and our favorite part a dolphin cruise. We saw a lot of dolphins-- the look on the girls faces was priceless!

Our sunset dolphin cruise. A memory I hope the girls keep forever. Both the girls wanted to sit on the edge. So they compromised and Colleen held Ruthy. The cruise was more then we could have asked for. The crew go around the very large boat and offered soft drinks, wine, and water to the passengers. Ruthy thought it was great because the boat had a bathroom!!

Ruthy loves the beach. The moment we loaded into the car to drive home she started talking about our next Florida trip.

It's been a year??

I can't believe I haven't blogged about our family in over a year. So I suppose I need to give a quick overview and then I will go into detail about a few specific moments.
1. Colleen started 8th grade at Plaza Park with UNIFORMS
2. Colleen turned 14
3. Ruthy had surgery twice!
4. Ruthy turned 5
5. Ruthy switched preschools.
6. Kelly moved to night shift
7. CAR PAID OFF!!!
8. We went to Destin, Florida
9. We found a new church
10. My mom celebrated 1 year of remission!! Take that cancer!!

These are our top 10 moments during the past year.

Ruthy is 5

Ruthy's 5th birthday party was at Acros Gymnastics. We all had a blast. Once mommy stopped crying about her turning 5. Our theme was "A star was born" which explains the hair clips that I had made for the girls!

The whole birthday gang! We had to make a silly face!

Our birthday Princess! We can't believe that she is 5. She has grown way too fast. Luckily her heart has gotten as big as she has. We have such a caring and helpful daughter. We hope she continues to care about people and thier feelings.

Did I mention that we celebrated all weekend? Ruthy had a sleepover with her best friend Riley. Her cousins came to play outside on the first pretty day we had in many moons!

The highlight of Ruthy's birthday weekend was her make-over at Club Tabby. The fake eyelashes didn't last very long. They were off before we left the store.