Caterpillars and Cacoons

Once upon a time there was a little girl that loved caterpillars.  She loved them so much that she traded TWO Blowpops for two caterpillars at school.  She brought them home and played with them all afternoon.  She lovingly took care of them, feeding them and making them a home in her deserted hermit crab cage.  After she tortured her mother a few times she finally put the caterpillars to bed for the night right next to her bed.  She slept peacefully and had sweet dreams filled with caterpillars all night.  But alas in the morning she awoke to find......................that one of her caterpillars had mysteriously turned into a cocoon overnight!! "I've been ripped off", she shouted!  "I didn't get to play with this caterpillar long enough for it to be worth a Blowpop!"  Hopefully the promise of future butterflies will make it all worthwhile!

And there she is............Olivia the caterpillar princess.  Yes ONLY my child would go to school and trade candy for caterpillars!!

And her new toothless grin!

Last but not least, her latest portrait! I think this is my new favorite!

Haven't Updated in Awhile............

So I thought I would do a quick update from then til now by posting some pics taken over the last few months!

Here's one of my favorites of the princess from our last trip to Mexico Beach! Look at those rosy cheeks! she wiped the sunscreen off her face as fast as I could apply it!

This one is probably my favorite! Gotta do a little Photoshopping to it though!

Love this one also!

 She's such a little DIVA! She would literally POSE for HOURS if I could last that long!

Sam the cowboy!

And the cutest little cowgirl of them all!

Getting ready to embark on what would turn out to be the horseback ride from HELL!

And the next time I saw them they were WALKING back down the beach horseless! The horses decided not return and there was no convincing them otherwise so the princess and Sam had to walk back!

First day as a 2nd grader in Mrs. Goddard's class!

The cutest little Japanese doll ever!

Two little hooligans ready to go out and terrorize the neighborhood.....also known as trick or treat!

Beautiful roses for a beautiful ballerina before her performance in The Nutcracker!

The most adorable Marzipan Lamb that ever existed!

Two little lambs ready to steal the show! This was Olivia's dance partner, Kelsey!

Pajama day at school with her new PJ's and her much loved Heffalump.  Her newest nutcracker is there also!

Could it be the much anticipated and longed for Kaya doll??

Of course because Mommy makes sure that all Christmas wishes come true!

She's not quite so worried about being on that NAUGHTY list now that the big man already put in his appearance for the year!

And last but not least, one of the NUMEROUS snows we got this winter!  The first one was nice...couls have lived without all the others! This IS GEORGIA still after all!

An update from Mexico Beach

The princess in Apalachicola (and I apologize profusely to any Apalachicolans who are offended by my poor spelling! LOL!)
She has him wrapped around her little finger and he KNOWS it! : )
Brotherly love

My new boyfriend

Can you see the family resemblance?? This is what you get when the two of them are asked to pose for pictures!

I don't know WHAT it is about this picture that I love so much but hey I'm the mom so I guess simply seeing my babies walking hand in hand is enough.

Shrimp Gumbo, Shrimp Etouffe, Shrimp Creole.......

Adorable as always!

Apalachicola is SUCH quaint little town. Wish we could have spent more time there!

This is what Olivia thought of the singer at Sharkey's in Panama City Beach. Yeah he was THAT bad! The food wasn't much better!

Marching to the beat of a different drum.

Fun in the sun.

How sassy is she??

My apologies for the untouched straight out of the camera pics. Too busy doing beach stuff and not enough time for photoshop! LOL! We are in Mexico Beach again this year and it is as beautiful as ever. The weather has been hot but wonderful. Practically not a cloud in the sky! This is definitely one of our favorite beaches. We spent an afternoon in PCB playing miniature golf and stuff and the crowds, traffic, tourist traps reminded me why I hate it there so much. One afternoon on the Redneck Riviera was more than enough!

Happy Birthday Olivia

I don't know WHAT this was but she obviously loved it! LOL!
Webkinz of course
And MORE Webkinz!

And even MORE Webkinz!

And the grand finale...........the Mia doll that she has wanted for a YEAR and thought that she wasn't getting because she was the limited edition doll of the year LAST YEAR! : ) Lots of Mia stuff to go with her also!

Posting pictures a little bit late of the princess's 7th birthday. Since she had ALREADY had a trip to Disney AND was leaving for a trip to the beach the very next morning, the birthday celebration was very low-key this year. I STILL can't believe she is already SEVEN! When and HOW did that happen so fast! It seems like just yesterday that I was bringing her home from the hospital and now she is a seven year old SECOND GRADER!! I can't take it! My baby is growing up too fast.

One More Day

Only one more day until school is out. This has quite possibly been the longest, most difficult school year I've had since I started teaching and that, my friends, is saying A LOT because I've worked in some "interesting" schools. A student made a list of things he would miss and not miss about middle school I thought I would make a list of my own.

Things I will miss this summer:
My friends......you know who you ar
A few students who have brightened my day consistently all year long

WOW! That was a really short list!

Things I will NOT miss:
Being bullied
People who do not have the ability to see the big picture
No discipline
Pointless assignments
Lines in the hallway
Phone numbers that are not accurate
Parents who are unsupportive
Teachers who are negative
Nosy people
Lines in the hallway
People who don't know how to pick their battles
Complaining

There is more but that's enough for now. : )

First Grade Awards Day

Look Mom!!
Olivia won the "Miss Encyclopedia" award. Is that Mrs. H's polite way of saying she's a know it all?? LOL!

Today was Olivia's first grade awards day. She was THRILLED to get the award and medal for all A's all year!! She is SUCH a smart cookie!! First grade has been a tough adjustment for her but she is so tenacious that she has grown and learned SO much! I know that with her eagerness to learn and her sweet spirit she can accomplish ANYTHING she sets her mind to!

The Magic of Disney

We surprised the princess with a weekend at Disney World. Her response when I told her we were going was priceless! She literally looked around the car as if to say "where's the camera?" or "is anyone else hearing this?" Needless to say she was NOT upset about missing ballet on Saturday!

Pluto was a little weird and kept going nose to nose with the princess.
She mastered chopsticks when we lunched at Nine Dragons in Epcot's world Showcase.
She was actually quite dangerous with them!
Sneaky too!!
She HAD to have a full Chinese ensemble to do pictures in China! LOL!

She is a precious little China doll!

Mulan was a definite hit!

As was Snow White...........although she did think she SOUNDED like Giselle!

How she has grown!! I took a picture in this same spot on her first visit to Disney when she was 2 and her head didn't even come up to the edge of the fence!

How cute is she??

My favorite Nemo character and my favorite princess!

Day two began with a wonderful character breakfast at the Disney Hilton. Those Mickey waffles were DELISH!!

Pluto is SO silly!!

Minnie's house was awesome BUT she definitely needs some AC installed!! Come on Mickey help her out!! We all KNOW you can afford it!

Mickey's house on the other hand was a MESS!! Now we know why Minnie wont marry him!

We took a spin on the teacups!

Met Pocahontas

Went to the Conservation Station and in general just had a blast!! We didn't get to stay long enough to do everything we wanted to but that's okay! There is always next time!! Olivia wanted to do Hollywood Studios and of course the "HELL" of Presidents!! LOL!! That's the Bush administration right??