Upward Cheerleading

The "Micki Squad" doing half time cheers (Lucy first on left, Carlie is the third)

My Squad on the sideslines.


My Lucy girl :)

Carlie on the right..this is the tunnel the girls make for the football players as they are announced.

What do we do with our Saturday mornings? Well...lots of purple and lots of spirit! We are three games into our eight game season with Upward Cheerleading/Flag Football, and I am having so much fun. Sure, there are the normal struggles with getting 12 little girls doing the same cheer at the same time, but for the most part - my squad ROCKS! The football games are pretty short (18 minute halves) - but it never fails that about five minutes to go, the girls are d-o-n-e. They are ready for snacks, award stars and rest time. Just cracks me up. Both of my girls are enjoying themselves, and I hope that the other 10 are too!

Sample of one of the girl's favorite cheers:

Back To School BBQ

Central had their Back To School BBQ today, and the weather was perfect. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, chips and cookies to start off the day. Then we proceeded onto free games for all - and so many games to pick from! Carlie won a fish, after standing in line four times to try! She threw over 20 ping pong balls to win this one!! So accordingly, the fish's name is "Patience." How appropriate! We went out and bought fish food and now Patience's home is in one of my vases. Anybody want to take bets on how long Patience will live??

Everybody Said It...

When you have a baby, everybody says, "enjoy this time with them, they grow up fast!" And then they start walking, everybody says, "enjoy this time with them, they grow up fast!" And then Preschool starts, Kindergarten and now First Grade, and I think I am beginning to understand just how fast time goes when you are busy with children. Lucy pulled out some of the baby albums today, and I can so vividly remember being pregnant with Carlie, and telling my parents that I was pregnant, Carlie being born, and being so fussy those first several months, and now I am picking her up from school, and listening to her talk about this friend said this, and that friend said that. Carlie has continued to have her good heart that I was so worried would be tarnished by the world. I am praying for that continually. But I definitely see rough waters ahead with some of the girls in Carlie's class this year. But God is in control, right? We have taught Carlie (and continue to teach Carlie) what it like to be a Christian, and now it's her turn to live it out. Oh boy...this part is hard. Nobody warned me about this....

On a much lighter note, Lucy had her four year check up today (yes, I know...I am a few months late...) and she has gained almost 5 pounds since her tonsil surgery! She is up to a whooping 38.2 pounds! She is still so very tall for her age - in the 90th percentile! Everything else checked out right on schedule. We also found out today that she has Miss Linda for preschool this fall (yeah!). Carlie had Miss Linda when she attended Pre K and now Lucy will have her too. Funny...I was very unsure of Miss Linda when Carlie first enrolled in the class, but she did an excellent job of preparing Carlie for Kindergarten. I am excited to see what this school year has in store for both of my children....I know, I know....enjoy this while I can, they grow up fast.

First Day of 1st Grade

Today is Carlie's first day of First Grade! No tears!! (I was talking about mommy here...not Carlie, obviously) She was so excited that she was up at 6:04 a.m. this morning ... only to wiggle and giggle in my bed until I got out to take my shower. I must admit, today was not NEARLY as hard as dropping her off on her first day of at Kindergarten. Perhaps is was because I know she loves this school, loves her friends, and loves learning. That makes it so much easier. Her teacher had the entire day "scheduled" on the board for the kids. I may just like this teacher!! I love her organization already. She reminds me a Ginger when she was first teaching, and that melts my heart too. I'll surely report how the day went when I picked her up!

See how my baby girl has grown....

First Day of Pre - K

First Day of Kindergarten

First Day of First Grade

New entrance at the school - snazzy!

Doesn't she look SOOOO big here?

Another One Gone!

Monday evening Carlie came home with "snaggle tooth." This front top tooth has been loose for some time, and Monday while at lunch with Grandma Barb, she bit into a french fry and boy, did it come almost out! She was terrified to have the tooth pulled and even said that next Monday she wanted to skip Grandma Ringger day because she knew Grandpa would pull it. Every time Jeff and I got close to looking at it, she went spazo on us.

This morning Carlie woke up at 5:20a with a stomach ache. I first thought she was a bit constipated, but as she kept squirming around, we soon found out she was nervous about her tooth falling out! Darn Ringger nervous stomach!! Daddy got up early and they went downstairs to have some breakfast and Carlie got brave and pulled her own tooth! I was so glad because that snaggle tooth drove me a bit batty. I love the toothless smile!!

Adams Bed & Breakfast Vacation

Oh what fun you have when you invite yourself (and kids) to places!! The girls and I took a little mid-week vacation to the Adams' residence. It was so fun to just hang out and let the cousins play wildly for as long as they wanted. Yes, by the end of the weekend, we had four tired kids on our hands (okay..and a couple of tired mommies!) - but it was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again (not too soon, don't worry Lacey!). On Thursday we headed to Lacey's pool and just relaxed for the afternoon. On Friday we headed down to the State Fair for plenty of junk food and stinky animals. The kids all had a good time, but we were all ready for naps come Friday afternoon. I wished Lacey lived closer so we could do this every Wednesday!

Our picture in front of the DNR fishing "catch and release" -- after promising the boys they could fish, only to be disappointed that it didn't start until 4:00p. The kids took that well (no sarcasm noted)

I caught Lucy and Eli in the back yard fighting off dragons. The paused momentarily for this picture, but had to "get busy protecting the princess" soon thereafter.

Our future movie star gents and madams.

Clearly Carlie and Lucy were impressed with the size of the tomatoes here.

And we can't go to the State Fair without having a picture with the Indiana Dairy Princess can we? Hey -- a princess is a princess!

Matteson Lake

Thank you Dustin & Emily! This is our last scheduled lake weekend for the summer, and what a fun one to end the summer with. We were late coming to the party, but ended up staying longer than all on Sunday, which worked out just perfect. I can see many more future visits to the Selking/Ringger lake cottage. Carlie is already talking about skiing by herself next year. I am looking forward to her learning too!

Look real, real close (actually, just click on the picture to enlarge it) and you will see a little girl holding her nose skiing with Dustin - that's Carlie! Although Carlie was a bit too short or was it that Dustin was a bit too tall? Maybe next time Mommy will try to get Carlie up! But she was a trooper none the less! Thanks Dustin, she can't quit talking about her skiing experience...

All kids admiring Carlie's big catch!

The "Big Catch"


What we do when we are done with a super fun lake weekend....

....all of us (except Daddy who has to drive, of course)