Panther Fans.

Despite the way the Panther season ended, Shawn started out the fall with just as much hope and anticipation as any of the other Charlotteans. And he had two of the cutest fans right alongside. Reilly LOVED watching football games with daddy this fall and could even tell whether the team she was watching was the Panthers or not based on their jerseys. She liked to yell "Gooooo Panthers!", but unfortunately, she didn't get to do that too often :( Better luck next year!

1st day of 3yr. old Preschool!! (9-8-10)

Reilly was super lucky to get into the 3day/3's class this year at Stonebridge after a lottery draw. I so wanted her in this class, with these teachers, because I knew it would be a more challenging set-up for her, which she so needs! She was super excited for the first day, but I was super anxious after the DAILY drop-off fits we went through last year at preschool.

her buds Jack Green, Cayden and Lindsey

I was very relieved that all went perfectly well on the first day :)

Minnie Mouse!!!

Oh boy did we have so much fun with something so special to Reilly!! I found an advertisement in a Family Fun (Disney) magazine one day about some random pasta company running and special that you could go to a certain website and sign up for one of the Disney characters to CALL your child. There were many different options you could click on to personalize the phone call, from "Congratulations on...", to "Hope you feel better..." to "Good luck at..." and many many more. You even put in your child's name and the character would speak directly to them on the phone!! So, we decided to sign up for Minnie Mouse to call Reilly and wish her a good first day of school this year. When the phone rang, I answered and it gives you a few seconds to put the child on the phone. I called for Reilly and told her the phone was for her.



She was a bit confused at first but then after she put the phone to her ear and Minnie Mouse started talking to her, she was absolutely floored!!! It was just precious to see her expression while "talking" to Minnie on the phone!!!


And after the call was over, Reilly wanted to call her back to talk some more!! And the funniest thing is that for the next day or so, anytime the phone would ring, Reilly would say, "Oh Mommy, it might be for me! Go check, quick!!" SOOOOO adorable. Too bad it was just a short term offer and not an on-going thing you could do!!

Labor Day

We started the day on Labor Day with a fun picnic to a really cool "new spot" that I found up in Davidson, called Fisher Farm Park. A gorgeous open expansive "field" that rolls down and around lots of trees and other natural areas. It really is a cool spot. We decided to have a picnic out there with our friends, the Ferrells. The kids had a blast running around and playing softball and picking up all the things they found laying around (leaves, flowers, gumballs, bamboo pieces, etc). It was a gorgeous day and we had lots of fun.






Then, we ended with a black party back on our street! We have the best neighborhood ever and always have such fun when everyone comes out to hang out! We set up the projector for the kids and showed "Toy Story". The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever! They couldn't get over how BIG Woody and Buz were on the garage door! We were all completely exhausted at the end of the day. But, of course, the guys couldn't let the projector set-up go to waste once the kids movie was over...so they decided to have a late night showing of the "Die Hard" movie on the driveway. And since the movie is based a lot at night and in dark scenes, the street light that sits right by our property was bothering their viewing. This didn't stop the men! They just climbed up a ladder and stuck a huge black plastic bag over the lamppost. No worries. All was well :)

The Dreschers walked over to join us for the evening....Reilly and Ava:

me and Caroline

Eavn and Reilly

the projector. 9-04-10

One of Shawn's favorite things has been the introduction of the projector as a way to show movies, or better yet, football games, on the garage door. Yes, the garage door. And let me tell you, it looks like the most red-neck gathering of all time, but it is pretty stinkin' cool!! The idea came from a Family Fun magazine I read where a family projected a movie on the garage door for the kids in the neighborhood and it became a monthly thing for them. I suggested we do the same thing, since YoungLife has a projector we could have access to. Well, not only would we set up the projector on Sunday for the block party/movie night, but Shawn felt it was necessary to have a "run through" on Saturday night just to make sure all worked well. But even better, on Friday night, he couldn't wait until Saturday and wanted to go ahead and figure it all out so that Saturday's showing of the football game would be just right :) Love my husband's perfectionism. So, sure enough, he had it all set up, complete with bose computer speakers. It drew quite the crowd!


And, leave it to a few men to sit around and talk about how BIG a tv screen is. It didn't take too long for them to realize that if they moved the projector back some, they could gain at least a few inches all the way around the "screen". Thomas and Shawn had to get out a tape measure just to confirm the size of the biggest screen ever....110".

my brown little boy

I couldn't believe how tan my boy got this summer!! His brown eyes and dark skin made him just the cutest little summer boy ever!! Just love this little one!

Lake Day - August 21st

Now that I am on my "holiday break" from work, I thought it would be a great time to fill in for the last 4 months that I have not blogged. I know it seems kinda crazy to go back to August, but for the purposes of having our blog printed as a book, it has to be done! So, here goes....

We decided at the end of the summer, before Shawn started his school session and to have one last hoorah for the summer, we should spend the day on the lake!! So that's what we did. We rented a pontoon boat and went out on Lake Norman with some friends for the day. And, as a spur of the moment decision, we also tacked on two jet skis to play with!! And boy were we glad we did! We left Braxton at home since the Lake isn't really a place for a toddler, but Reilly had a BLAST! Especially since her best buddy, Evan, was there too. We packed lunch and snack food and just anchored the boat over in a little cove. And that's where we spent an entire 3 hours! It was awesome. So relaxing and so much fun. Reilly LOVED the jet skis and it didn't take her too long before she was ready to "GO FAST!" It was a really fun day and, as always, lead to many conversations (aka, dreams!) about the possibility of maybe owning a boat one day.....not happening :)

Reilly actually took this next picture from the boat! she was on the boat eating a snack and told her to grab my camera and take a shot of all of us in the water. Not bad for a 3 yr. old, huh?!