Cookies for Sale 2012

Wow! So, I never updated you on the delivery of the 2011 cookies.... or anything in 2011 for that matter!

We have had a blast selling cookies again in 2012. This year, punkin busted out her momma's 1980's circa brownie dress & updated it with a scarf and some uggs...

A new feature for Kailey’s troop, if you’re on a diet and don’t want the cookies, you can purchase to have them sent overseas to Afghanistan! (Someone in our troop has a connection) Exciting stuff!

On January 2 we went around the neighborhood, nothing cuter than seeing Kailey recite her little sales-pitch (with help from her dad of course) & Cason chiming in with awkward and funny stuff, (Some examples “Why is your house messy?” and to a neighbor where they had recently been to their house “you cleaned your house!!!”)

I do love how we picked the COLDEST day of the year to go selling;)

More on the delivery later.... because as I'm writing this, we have one last delivery to Tennessee this weekend...

Cookies for Sale!!!!

Yep, it's the start of a new year, and who knew that girl scout cookies only sell for two weeks, and you're only 'officially' allowed to sell them starting December 31 - kind of silly if you ask me, with new year's resolutions and all!

Nonetheless, your favorite little brownie from troop 290 was some kind of fired up about selling them!!!!

She started out the day with telemarketing calls and SKYPE to family and friends, and rounded it out by going up and down our tiny little street. She was SO overjoyed that not a single person turned her down, well 2 houses didn't answer, but who could refuse a speech like this one:

"Hello, I'm a Girl Scout and my name is Kailey. My personal goal is to sell 50 boxes of cookies. Our group goal is to sell 750 boxes of cookies so we can benefit our community. We also will ue some of our money to benefit our troop. Cookies are $3.50 a box, would you like to buy some cookies?"

We had a really fun time selling cookies, of course baby bro was in tow b/c he was also selling cookies! We forgot our pen and had to borrow one the entire time. Cason said "sissy even smells like cookies!!!" Kailey asked if she could put the cash into her piggy bank. Cason pointed out the loveliness of one of our customer's eyebrows. Who knows how many times your doorbell rang because the assistant salesman was fascinated by ringing it!!! ...and if you didn't answer, in unison, Kakes and Wild man screamed "Cookies for Sale!!!"

and well that's a wrap! until we deliver the cookies, look for that post in February;)

How Do You Crash a Playdate?

Note, girls playing making friendship bracelets:

Add a brother and a teradaktyl & insert your best "Roar!"

& you've successfully crashed a play date! No doubt, baby brothers are the single-most easy way to crash a play date.

Photography School Drop Out

Appropriately titled, if I do say so myself.

For the record, I'm just learning and a little hard on myself

Hilarity! At some points - please keep in mind that I have one of the most talented, patient mentors in photography who was willing to give up her and her daughter's time on a HOT Saturday evening!!!

When we arrived at the Botanicals, guess what I was missing.

1. This,

2. and a little of this,

3. and a whole lot of this:

BRAINS!

But, Debbie pressed on and being a Canon person, was able to figure out the Nikon settings in a jiffy. We headed on our shoot - only made it to one garden - Due to the missing items above, we ran out of a little of this:

Sunlight!

Like all good photogs do, Debbie and I had discussed what I wanted out of these pictures. Well, by golly, these are some of their most precious summer outfits and at Susie's wedding I got a picture of them like this:

AND This:

AND don't forget this:

Not so much one really cute one that I might want to frame. So I told Debbie, ultra traditional, ultra southern, gates, gardens, columns, you know straight out of a Southern Living and well I forgot that my kids are crazy and here's what that will get ya:

But look at some of the good ones we did get. And I say we, because Rickey got most of the better pictures. And who is in photography class, but yours truly!? Urgh!! I am going to keep learning because at the end of the day, no matter what you set out to get, if you get a little of this:

who can complain about that?

And as an update, I learned more about applying some skillz in our two hours with Debbie than ever! And during class tonight, I thought of more questions and more ideas.

So, it is forever the learning process.

And in the meantime, I still will insist on hiring my favorite photographers, www.southernsoulstudio.com & www.clickphotodesigns.com!!

Beach 2010

"Why aren't we packing snacks?" cms

"b/c we're eating at the beach." mom

"Oh, the beach has enough food for everybody!" cms

Makes sense to me, Let's go!

Took a different approach to the blog for this trip. Since, I'm old school and also absent minded, I took notes for the Beach 2010 Edition of the blog. ha!

Tally:

Punch Bugs: 25 *note we live near the VW dealer in B'ham, so that was at least 6

Bruiser Cruisers: 16

**also note, when I drove home, rickey wanted NO part in writing them down! everyone was sleeping**

How many minutes til we get there? at exit 235

Have we been on the road an hour? exit 231

How long til there is a potty? 2 one at 194 and 189

Is this the beach? Montgomery, exit 172 (Cracks me up! How precious is that, that AW montgomery as a beach!!!! EH EH!!)

What are we going to eat for lunch? exit 170, 151, 135

Is this the beach? 130

I want to go to beach, NOT HERE! cms at cracker barrel exit 130

How long til we get there? Hwy 31 Mobile

How much longer? South AL 55

Bathroom adventure for Cason and Daddy complete with beetles, ants at a gas station, might as well say, modern day out house!

Finally!!! Naps on Hwy SR 185

Well, forget the naps, now it's:

How long was I asleep?!! ha ha

To you, the reader, you are thinking this is hilarious, annoying or cute. Well, to the parents it is all of the above, and I must urge you to try this with your family, it gave me relief and happiness to hear one of the questions coming from the backseat drivers rather than being grumpy about it!! I was eager to write them down and to see the variations as we drove!

Here are some memorable and not so memorable moments at the beach inbetween association dinners/Rickey's meetings:

Kailey running into the sliding glass door window and hitting her nose HARD!,

pool time,

beach time,

wakeboard lesson,

and WOW! from the looks of Cason in the picture below, I think the lesson was money well spent for him as well!!! Those are some skillz if I've ever seen any! Sorry Honey!!

family breakfasts, lunches and dinners,

dramatic incident with cason and sunscreen in his eyes,

another dramatic incident of CMS yelling that the seaweed he was seeing was 'poo poo' on the beach! urgh!!!,

Kailey jumping waves so hard that the lower portion of her bathing suit about came off!,

purchasing mood rings and boogy boards,

Cason shouting "look what NUMBER I found" every time we would pass a FT. marking in the pool!,

being the best darn kids at Kids Krew Kamp - Kailey said it was "because they were shy!",

hot tub,

taking pictures (but of course that's one reason I HEART the beach!!),

Fudruckers,

Holding Brad Pitt the aligator, who they briefly renamed to Nick Jonas!,

I need to scan the one of them with Brad Pitt and also disclose, that myself, the Mom barely touched Brad - after I made the kids do it and pose all cute-like for the photo op!!! You know how they got me to touch him "Come on, it's like a nice leather purse!" - "Well, okay, when you put it like that . . . "

ZOO!

Meet our friendly Giraffe, Gordon. The kids had a ball trying to give him treats!!! Who knew their tongues were so freakalicious!?!

And now Meet Daisy. The kids were so excited to ride the camel - that they even got their official camel riding attire, cowboy boots!

Oh the lorikeets, how I do not heart birds - but I finally (after all our years of zoo memberships) allowed the kids to go in there! and I went as well. It was a fun experience and everyone but me successfully fed the birdies!! Tweet That!

It's Summer!!!

Last Day of First Grade May 2010

First Day of First Grade August 2009

And everything inbetween! We've lost a lot of teeth and learned a lot of things!!