Fall Weather

Just a quick post to brag about how wonderful it feels here today. Hopefully Fall has finally arrived and the long, hot, humid dog days of summer are behind us. As a matter of fact, I think I may take the girls to the barn to ride a little this afternoon since it is so nice.

Also, I almost forgot to post about my tennis team's trip to the state tournament last weekend in Gulf Shores. We took 8 people down there, but Jennifer and I had to play every match for our level because we were the only ones down there. Jennifer have definitely had better days on the court than this past weekend, but I will say that I think we ended up 3rd in our flight despite the fact that we (Jen and I) only won 1 match out of 5. We should have (and could have) won more, but just couldn't get it together. Thanks to our team for the other wins! Regardless of the results, we all a FABULOUS time and it was a great girls weekend with lot of laughs and memories!

Painful Learning Experiences

I apologize for the lengthy post, but this one is priceless!

I'm sure we are not the only parents that battle the cleanup issue with young children! Let me just say that this little lesson MM learned this past week was almost as difficult on Mom as it was on her. I call her my tornado because she can come home to a perfectly clean room and within minutes she has pulled everything out and scattered it all over the floor. For those of you who have never been to our house, we have a great playroom, I mean a fabulous playroom that is huge and full of anything and everything that any child could possibly want. To say we have been over-indulgent when it comes to toys is a huge understatement. It is actually embarrassing to me! But, with grandparents who buy them whatever they want (and if they buy one child something, they have to buy the other child something as well), a daddy who travels a good bit (and always promises to bring a surprise - I keep telling him that they would be happy with a pack of gum or candy, no need for extravagant gifts), and well, yes I admit it, a mom who loves to buy stuff (anything!). Our playroom is strategically located off to the side of our kitchen so that I can keep an eye on them and continue my job as a referee without being too far away. With that location, it is really hard for me to NOT complain about the mess because I do have to look at it EVERYDAY.ALL DAY! I always said that I could just close the door and ignore it, BUT WHO REALLY DOES THAT ANYWAY?

So, with all of that said, I have been threatening my oldest tornado MM that if she didn't start keeping the play room clean that I was going to throw anything and everything away if it was not in its place, at a moments notice! Now picture this, I've made a deal with MM that she could wait and clean up after dinner: 1) so that Anna can help because she was napping and 2) she thought it would take FOREVER! (her words). Dinner comes and goes and I remind them both that it is time to clean the playroom. You would have thought that I had just sentenced them to solitary confinement for life! I go and get a huge yard size trash bag and go in the playroom instructing them to put anything that is on the floor in the bag. Ok, so I may have lost my cool a tiny bit, but I was determined to make a point here. MM breaks down into a total meltdown complete with real tears, sobbing, etc. She tells me (between sobs) that I was throwing away her favorite Hanna Montana doll and Miley Cyrus doll and Bluejeans the horse. . .oh my! After making a clean sweep of the toys on the floor, I marched that trash bag right outside to the . . . third garage! It broke my heart watching her have to throw away her truly fave toys - I actually got a little teary-eyed watching her so distraught. I know, we/she shouldn't be that attached to "stuff" and I try not to make a big deal.

Anna, on the other hand, thought it was just great fun to throw all of the toys away. She actually got waaayy too much joy out of it. I'm not sure why: 1)she is a tiny bit of a clean freak and likes to have things neat and tidy 2)none of the toys being thrown away were hers or 3)she just enjoyed watching the torture that her big sister was experiencing. I'll let you decide that one, but I'm leaning more towards the 3rd option.

You ask, how long did I let this charade go on before giving all the toys back? Oh, a whole day. I know that doesn't sound like a long time, but if you could have seen my normally happy-go-lucky child moping around, you would have done the same. But, I did turn it into a learning experience and one that we can always refer back to as a threat for future issues with a clean playroom. I betcha she never forgets this one! It was quite traumatizing for her, but if you could have seen the smiles when she walked in from school the next day and all of her thrown-away toys were on the kitchen table! And, you better believe she was more than happy to take all of her toys and carefully put them in their place in the playroom - one at a time! She was so cute later that night. She looked at me out of the blue with her little grin and said, "mom, you were just pretending when you threw my toys away, weren't you?"I sweetly replied, "Yes ma'm, but next time I really will let the garbage man take them away!"

Happy Parenting!

Roll Tide Roll!

This past weekend we took both girls to the AL game. Granted, it was a night game and I was not sure how long we would make it, but we forged on regardless, knowing that if we had to leave early, this would be an ok game to leave early from. So we dressed in our loyal colors and the excitement was gradually building as the day went on. Sam was busy that morning working in the deer fields (yes, it's that time again!) so we were a little late getting to campus and did not have time to let the girls play on the Quad or take them to the A Club room. We did, however, get a chance to see the new "look" of the Alpha Chi house and it looks FAB! We loaded up the double stroller and left it at the sorority house while we walked into the stadium. Both of our girls have a "thing" about loud noises (must be genetic) so I packed our headphones in my bag, just in case it got loud - thank goodness I was thinking ahead because they were used the whole game and they fit right in with all the crazies who are at the game but still feel it necessary to listen to the radio broadcast! We finally got to our seats, Dip N Dots in hand, and of course MM had to go to the potty - never fails! So back down the stairs we go and the video below is what we found when we got back to our seats: Anna loving every minute of the game, the people, the music, etc. Hope you enjoy! Sorry for the poor quality - this was taken with Sam's phone.

Sad To See Summer Come And Go

Summer is one of my favorite times of the year. It should be a time to relax, unwind, sit on the porch watching the girls play, grilling out, going to the lake, going to the beach, etc. etc. etc. It seems though that lately, summer is just as busy as the rest of the year and it FLIES by in the blink of an eye. So here we are, getting back to the daily grind and our usual fall activities. . .school, gymnastics, and FOOTBALL of course! I was certainly excited to see Tide roll over Va Tech this past weekend and really looking forward to our first home game this weekend.

As for last week, thanks for all the prayers! We made it smooth sailing with no sickness and with everyone being out of town and having to come up with hundreds of ideas to keep a 2 year old and 4 year old entertained for 5 days while it rained outside! I have to admit that I got really creative and we all had a blast! Saturday, my SIL and I took all 4 of our girls to McWane Center in Bham. They all had so much fun and I'm not sure if we even got to do everything that was available. Considering that both my SIL and I are a tad bit germaphobes, we carried around hand sanitizer in our hands the whole time and just laughed at how ridiculous we were. I really don't care what people thougt about us, but we did make out of there without Swine Flu! Another fun part of the weekend was getting to watch the new Hannah Montana Movie about 5 times! I had purposely saved watching this until Sam was gone. So Friday night, I bought mini pizza crust and all the "makings" of pizza (or at least what I knew the girls would eat). They both got to make their own pizza and then we watching the movie on a pallet (for those of you not from the South, this is just several layers of blankets on the floor) and watched the movie together and ate our pizzas! I have to admit that I even really enjoyed the movie too! Yes, it's one of those things I said I would never do or watch, but we had such a fun "Girls Night" and it was all worth it!

Monday was the last day that the Country Club pool was open for the season and the girls were very sad, but we certainly took advantage of the last day and swam until we just couldn't swim anymore (and the water was freezing from the rain all weekend!). All the kids were having a ball having a water fight and running around screaming and I guess the lifeguards (and parents for that matter) just let all the rules go out the window since it was the last day!

A funny Anna story (well, maybe it shoudn't be funny, but I just couldn't help it): with Sam out of town during the game Saturday, the girls "tried" to watch it with me, but it was kind of late and it had been a long day already. So I was watching the game and apparently I had made several comments like "Ugh!" and "Geez!" when the team was struggling a bit. Not really thinking about it, I took Anna upstairs to rock her and put her down for bed and turned on the game in her room while I rocked her. Well, something happened in the game and I just kind of moaned out of frustration and Anna sits straight up and yells, "Jesus!" I laughed so hard (I know I should not have laughed because now she thinks its funny to do) I was crying. I guess I really need to watch what I say, even though I was only saying Geez.

Oh, and sorry for the poor quality of the picture, Sam took my camera on his trip and I was camera-less all last week so this was with my iPhone. This was on Friday - they have Fan Day every Friday at school during football season. BTW, MM was not excited (contrary to her smiling face), that she was having to wear a dress! Also, please ignore the lovely tennis shoes MM has on with her dress. We no longer have a kids shoe store in town and she has outgrown her Keds. Anna, on the other hand, only loves dresses!

What are we up to?

So, you ask, what are the Collins Clan up to these days? Well, let's just say that I am enjoying this little bit of a break between shows. I am taking full advantage of not being tied to my desk and able to go get the girls early from school and spend some quality time with them. We have played at the park, played with the puppy, cooked yummy goodies, taken our first (first for Anna) gymnastics class, etc. etc.

On the subject of gymnastics: I had signed both girls up for the preschool class at the same time to save me only trip. From past experience in this class with MM, I thought that they would break the class up into age groups so that they wouldn't actually "be" in the same class, but when we got there, they had put them both in the same group. Poor MM was so much older and bigger than the other little girls (who were all Anna's age); I kind of felt bad for her, but she seemed to enjoy the class none the less. Well, being the tiny bit competitive mom and watching the other classes going on at the same time, I decided to go and have a talk with ladies up front about moving her. Well, of course, as I suspected, her teacher told us after the class that she DEFINITELY needed to move up to Level 1 because she could already do most of the things that the girls in Level 1 are learning! Yea! MM was so excited and so was this Proud Momma!

Anna had the time of her life in gymnastics. Everytime she would do something, she would look to the see if we were watching and just grin from ear to ear! I think the part she loved most about gymnastics was her sparkly leotard! She was so proud of it that when I was picking her up from school, she would not let me put anything over it so that she could "show" everyone! She is such the girly-girl! I'm not so sure about her athletic ability, but she likes to "look" the part for sure!

Wish me luck and prayers for patience this week. As you all know, I am very fortunate to have so much family close by to help me anytime I am in a pinch. BUT, this week may be the test for me. Sam left this morning to go to Texas on his annual hunting trip with his dad, brother, and uncles. My parents are leaving today to go see Tyler, Molli, and Blake for the weekend. And Sam's mom is supposed to be going to Baton Rouge to help Sam's sister with the triplets while my BIL moves his office. So, yes, that leaves me and the girls for 5 days - they have already planned the whole week and weekend. And you better believe that a couple of those items on that list is to watch the Hannah Montana movie, have a pizza party, and sleep in Mommy's bed! I'm just praying that none of us get sick this week. I know, I'm spoiled to have so much help and to be worried about our week alone! I'm really looking forward to having this "girl" time with my girls!