I’ve been told Rilyn is a mini-me. She doesn’t look like me, but thinks and acts like me in many ways. One glaring example that I’ve noticed lately is how she is obsessed with scheduling/calendars. Innocently, I put a calendar in the girls room to show them important events that are coming up and incorporate math skills. I ‘X’ off every day to show them how many days til a holiday, etc. I will ‘X’ the calendar day off without fail. I have actually gotten out of bed because I’ll remember that I forgot to ‘X’ out the day, all the while telling myself how stupid it is, but I just need to do it. Crazy, yes.
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| my calendar that I keep up ‘for the girls’ 😉 |
Now, I see all these calendars and schedules popping up in Rilyn’s room that she has created where she, too, is ‘Xing’ out the dates or keeping a schedule. Here are a few examples I’ve found hanging up in her room. She doesn’t even tell me she does this people. Seriously, this girl is hardcore type ‘A’ personality!
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| this looks like another October calendar |
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| this looks like a schedule of what her days should look like. |
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| she got her hands on a free calendar from a realtor, even
though I told her one calendar in her room was enough. |
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| This is her ‘specials calendar’ from school in which she insists on ‘xing’ out the days here too. |
Also, Rilyn has figured out a way to manipulate her little sister! She has created a ‘sticker chart’ for Ella. If Ella does something nice for Rilyn, Rilyn gives her a sticker and when Ella fills it up, (gets to the butterfly), I guess she gets a prize of some kind. Ella loves this, and I’m wondering how long it will take before she understands that she is being ‘played’ by her big sister. Rilyn will say things like, “Ella, can you run in our room and get me that pencil? I’ll give you a sticker on your chart!” Me, being the oldest sibling in my family too, thinks this is pretty genius of Rilyn and allow it to carry on. 😉
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| Notice how long her chart is? It goes in a swirl and looks like Ella has to get 50
stickers before she gets to the butterfly! |
Here is some video footage of our Ella getting her groove on at Rilyn’s Falcon homecoming dance. (About 20 seconds in is where it really starts getting good.) This girl has some moves!
Do you have that photo in mind that you thought was a great idea at the time, and now looking at it today, it’s really not cute? Like really. Like embarrassing. Well, lucky for you, I’m in the mood to humiliate myself again on my blog.
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| October 2005, pregnant with Ella. She made me gain
40 lbs.! 😉 |
And yes, I made James paint this on the side of my belly, he was very opposed, because apparently he had the foresight that this picture would be lame. Do you appreciate the way that I look like I’m actually “holding” the pumpkin? I’m pretty sure my right hand is covering up my stretch marks from Rilyn! 🙂
One of the many things that I love about James is how creative he is in incorporating spiritual matters into everyday events for the kids. He drives Rilyn and her friend to school each morning. The drive is probably only a little over 5 minutes long, easy to veg out or try to wake up for the day, right? That would be what I would do anyway! But James? He devised a memorizing scripture game that he “plays” with Rilyn and Cole each morning. They work on memorizing one scripture passage a week and if they have memorized it by Friday morning, they go to donuts for a quick treat! He started this last year and I thought it was so cool. This year, he is challenging them with harder, longer scriptures. What a way to start off each morning! This is Rilyn reciting from memory Romans 12:2.
The Falcon football/cheer teams had a “dance” Saturday night to celebrate “homecoming” where they would announce a homecoming queen and king for each division. (They draw a name out of a hat for the queen and king, so this has nothing to do with popularity.) I volunteered to take dance pictures that night and the one I took of the girls and James turned out cute, don’t you think?
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| Gotta love Ella’s face! |
James was able to video the big announcement of the night!
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| This is Rilyn starting to get nervous and scared because
she thought winning queen meant she had to dance with the king! Poor girl! |
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| So excited now! |
After the dance, she told me she ‘felt’ like she was going to win. 😉 Both my girls are apparently party animals as they wanted to dance the night away. (They get this from James!) They were hilarious to watch, (we have some video!) and so cute too!
James was such a good sport on his birthday! Having 3 kids, (2 of which are in extracurricular activities), means busy weekends. And when your birthday falls on a Saturday, well, you can just assume the day won’t be all about you, (like I wish it was!) After Rilyn’s game, we took a little time out to have daddy eat some of his favorite Jello cheesecake and open some presents!
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| Daddy reading Rilyn’s card she made for him! |
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| James’ birthday hat courtesy of Rilyn! (The other Mickey
ear collapsed. These girls always have Disney on the brain!) |
On James’ birthday, we attended the Manor Falcon football/cheer homecoming festivities. Rilyn received her first mum, cheered at the Falcon football game at the Manor high school stadium, and went to a homecoming dance where they crowned a homecoming king and queen. Wait, how old is she?!? 6 or 16? 😉 This post will just be the homecoming game pictures. Stay tuned for the dance pictures!
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| I’m the team mom so I get a special pass to be on the track! |
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| Rilyn is at the end cheering for the team. |
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| cheering with her mum |
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| Shouting out to the crowd to get them pumped up! |
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| Rilyn’s fans! Four families came out to watch her!
(And that’s Rilyn’s sign I made, another Falcon homecoming tradition) |
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| Then at halftime, they announced the cheerleaders names as they stood on the field. |
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the paquettes 