Baylor Cheer Camp '09

At camp this year, Katie was again the youngest one there and she still watches very closely and looks like she isn't participating much. But, she was doing the cheers at home and practicing what she remembered of the dance (the 1st 8 count). I think she likes it, but she's pretty reserved about performances.

Katie and Camden after her performance Friday:

This is a picture of Katie with one of her favorite Baylor cheerleaders, Hunter. She met Hunter last summer and was so excited that she was back again!


Here is Katie doing an extension. I missed the beginning of it since it was the very first thing and she was the very first one (and I was slow on the uptake!) But here she is...

In this one, Katie was in front for the Go Fight Win cheer, holding the FIGHT sign.


And here's the dance! The song is We Got it Going On. Katie is in the front left until the end when she runs in to the middle stunt.



Hope you enjoyed it! At Baylor, you can try out for cheerleading after 8th grade, so maybe after she's gone to this camp for the next 7 years, she will feel a little more comfortable in front of people... if she's still interested!

And summer's finally here!

Ben's camp is finished, and I'm done with workshops and the lower school makeover for a while. We've gotten to spend a little bit of time on the boat, and here are some pics from it.
Katie "climbing the anchor rope" Camden got in the water with Daddy today. The first moment she was skeptical, but as we thought, once she got used to it, she didn't want to get out!

This is the fun part... seeing the girls laugh and hang out and play together in the "playroom". Of course, what they like about going on the boat is getting to eat snacks!
Here they are, not causing any trouble at all! Can't you tell by Camden's expressions?
And here we are, enjoying some sun. Actually this pic was from a week or so ago when we got out without the girls.
Hopefully you enjoyed the boat pictures, because that's about all we have planned for the summer. If you're coming to visit us, we'll get pics of you in the boat with us. :)

Funny Camden story.... last week one day she says "I be right back, in 1 minute." Then she goes into the bedroom, turns around and comes back to the door and says "I'm pooping. 2 minutes!"

Dear Matt & Adam...

This is probably going to be one of those things that as a parent, I'll look back on and say I shouldn't have done. (Like locking Camden in her room so she will go to bed...but more on that later!) But I just have to! So, if you read this, I hope you enjoy it, and then remember NOT to tell Katie that I put it up....


Ben's cousins Matt and Adam are here this week helping him run Baylor's first ever team and competition wrestling camp. They stayed at our house one night, but are staying on campus the rest of the time. When Katie found out that she wouldn't get to spend much time with them, she was a little disappointed. She wrote them a nice good night note and left it for them to read the first morning. But we really didn't know how attached she was until we found these notes all taped together into a poster the next day.If you can't tell in the picture, here's what our future Dear Abby letter writer had to say: (by the way, I typed it just like she wrote it, spelling & all! I think you'll be able to figure it out!)

Dear Matt & Adam,
I wanted to play with you all week. But I can't. I will have fun with Antty Dian. PS. I will miss you.
Love, Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
Sometimes after school I play with my friend Lindsay. But I'm not shir if she likes it. What should I do?
r.s.v.p.
Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
Sometimes I feel like I don't know? like evryone pays atenchun to sompting else and nevr has time for me. What should I do?
r.s.v.p.
Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
I want to know do you get meny letters? Let me know if you don't I'll send you lots.
r.s.v.p.
Katie
PS. Can I have your adress?

Dear Matt & Adam,
I never get to play with you this week. But I want to. When's the right time?
Katie

Hope you enjoyed these as much as we did! Remember, top secret! No telling!!

Happy Birthday Camden!

We had Camden's party the weekend before her birthday this year. We can't believe how old and grown up she is getting. She is 2 years old already!! We ended up having a Very Hungy Caterpillar party. Here are some highlights of the party:
These really showed up in reverse order than I wanted them to, but you'll still see the fun that was had by all!

The kids wore themselves out so much that they put themselves to bed Saturday night!
The kids in the WonderPets boat (... a.k.a. Ben's favorite obnoxious big gift from Korisa!)
You can see Camden loves it!
Don't they look so sweet reading a book?
Camden, Katie & Darby eating their cupcakes...yum!
Camden's really looking seriously at her cupcake. She got the caterpillar's head!
Katie and her friend Darby dressed like twins at the party.
And here it is... the Very Hungry Caterpillar itself! One of Ben's cutest cake creations, I think!

Camden turns 2... (soon!)

This morning we took Camden to get her pictures made, since she will be turning 2 very soon! Every time we take her somewhere, we are reminded of how different she is from Katie! The way we remember it, we could take Katie almost anywhere and she was fine. With Camden, you have to time things perfectly and they can't last too long, or she's off. Last night, Katie had a sleepover with 6 girls (not at our house!) and they had a pajama party at the Learning Express toystore downtown. We were to pick her up at 9:30, so I scheduled pictures directly afterward. Let's just say Camden was iffy, and definitely not happy by the time we got back in the car. BUT... the whole session including selecting pictures took 35 minutes, so we were moving as quickly as possible!

Here are some previews of Camden's 2 year old pictures! She definitely has some lessons to learn from Katie in the having-your-pictures-made department, but I think we ended up with some cute ones! Be looking for ones like these to show up on your doorstep soon:





And for those of you wondering, Katie went straight to bed as soon as we got home and slept for 3 hours straight. Sleepovers usually take the whole weekend out of her!

Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo!

Since she was a baby, Katie has always been interested in books and stories. She's always loved to have people read to her and she especially loves all the pictures. (She is an artist!) She's always had quite an attention span (for the things she's interested in...she could draw or write for days on end). So, we always thought she would be a good reader. She was an early reader, but she still wouldn't read much on her own even though she could. Katie likes to have other people do the work! This year has been good for her. She came in reading at a 1st grade level, but motivation still was an issue for her.

2 weeks ago, that all changed! I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up some books for 4th grade and I told her I'd get her a book too, but it had to be a chapter book that she reads on her own. (You know she wanted to get a journal with a fluffy pen... I think we have 73 of these already at home!) Looking through the selection at B&N, we found a series called Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo! What do you know, a book with her very own name in the title! Apparently, that's all it took. She started reading it in the car on the way home and didn't stop until she fell asleep that night. She got up in the morning and finished the whole book before she came out to breakfast!

Too bad we had to wait another week to go back to B&N. (It's all the way on the other side of Chattanooga). This time, I thought I'd be proactive and get the next two in the series, #2 and #3. Well, that didn't last long. She started reading in the car again on the way home and finished #2 before bedtime. Sunday morning she started book #3. They even went out on the boat Sunday and she spent the whole time in the cabin reading until she finished that one! These books are written on a mid-3rd grade level. I am so thrilled that she is so excited about reading. It probably doesn't hurt that the main characters are Katie, her best friend Suzanne, and their friend George. Just waiting for a Ben and Camden to show up in one of the other books. There are over 30 in the series, so if anyone wants to send a donation to our local bookstore in Katie's name, we'll be sure to use it! :)

Spring Break Pictures