Happy 16th birthday, Hannah, and Lucy as Annie

Yesterday was a BIG day! My precious Hannah Banana turned 16 and my precious Lucy was in her very first dance recital!





Lucy's class danced to TOMORROW from ANNIE. She did an excellent job - no stage fright at Robinson Auditorium! Both Jenny and I cried a good bit as she was finishing. Jenny is my dancer. I am not being biased one bit when I say that she is very talented. Dancing was such a large part of her childhood and youth; she even managed to take a dance class while she was in medical school. To have her little girl begin dance, and so obviously enjoy it, has made my Peach very happy! Lucy's dance was the second one in the recital and we all thought she would be ready to bail as soon as she finished; not so, she sat mesmerized watching number after number, when she was through. We grown-ups had to say it was time to leave. I took this picture on my phone on the way out of the auditorium. I decided this is what Grace Kelly would have looked like if she had modeled an ANNIE costume as a child.

I don't have any pictures from Hannah's birthday but I need to tell about her huge surprise present! Tanya got the idea a few weeks ago to take Hannah to New York City to a Broadway play as a 16th birthday gift. First choice of a play would be Phantom of the Opera because Hannah absolutely loves that musical! Well, things have fallen into place and the two girls will head out on June 11. Hannah knew nothing of the plan until after ten last night. I still don't have all the details of the delivery of the news but I understand it was very exciting.

Terrible weather in the South

All of us have been blessed to escape the dangerous storms hitting the South in recent weeks. Our families in Little Rock spent a large portion of a two week period hidden in their shelters. Here we see the Pauls staying safe in their tiny powder room.

Kate Kate wins gold at the Special Olympics!

I am so frustrated!!! I posted this picture and the information about it yesterday and it has disappeared!!!! I know I won't be able to word it as well today. What is up with Blogspot?!


Here is my precious Kate Kate with the gold medal she won in the Special Olympics. Look at that proud, happy girl! I am not positive which even she won but I know it was a dash of some sort. She also took the silver in the long jump. She was so cute demonstrating her form for us last week, explaining how she used her arms.

DanMan's birthday present

DanMan gave me an over-the-fence GRAND SLAM homerun for my birthday!!!




Here he is with THE ball and his teammates!

Here he is with THE ball and the pitcher from the other team, Leighton Turbeville. They are teammates on the El Dorado Power Cats, the eleven year old travel team. DanMan will be pitching Monday night when we play this team again and Leighton's mother expects DanMan to return the favor!

Going to Gamble!

I have been so upset by the photo fiasco that I have not been posting to my blog recently. This morning I decided to try again and I am using this set of pictures posted by Jenny to her Facebook as my test.

We have been busy and I have lots of tales to tell but, first, I am going to see if this works - and if the photos stay put!!! Have a great day!

Even more frustrated!!!!

I have edited and reposted the previous entry THREE TIMES now! I have been trying to use paragraphing and spacing but have not been allowed to. I am so disappointed! I have so enjoyed keeping this blog but my enthusiasm is waning. If anyone has any advice, please send it on!

Frustration! (and Hattie is one!)

I am REALLY getting frustrated by this disappearing pictures act! I deleted and redid the last three entries because the photos had all disappeared - and - POOF - all the pictures were immediately gone again! I did go to HELP and found out that others are having the same problem but that information did little to alleviate my frustration! I am not even going to try to upload any pictures today - even though I have a series on birdhouse building that is adorable! I'll just save them until it seems as if this glitch has been solved! HAIRSPRAY is a wrap and it was a tremendous success! I am so proud of everyone involved! Way to go Ms. Gates, EHS Thespian Troupe 42, adult performers, and my Hannah girl! I am going to try to copy and paste an e:mail I sent my sisters yesterday. Let's see how this works. Well, it didn't! Here is what I wrote: Hattie's birthday party last night was special. There were a lot of families there. Jenny and Eric had ordered BBQ and trimmings to feed the crowd. (They had to have the party in the evening on Sunday because they were BOTH on call. Since it was supper time, they felt obligated to feed folks.) There was a (very popular) jump castle. When it was time to cut the cake, Jenny decided not to call everyone in from eating or out of the jump castle. She wanted to be sure Hattie's parents, sister, grandparents, and Kate were there because we were the most excited. Naturally, there were many others but that is not important. When everyone was looking at her and began singing, Hattie looked a little unsure but then a huge smile spread over her face and she loved it! Kate was right next to the high chair and, as soon as the song was finished, she leaned in and said, VERY loudly and VERY clearly, "WE LOVE YOU!!!"! Gosh, it makes me cry again this morning. It was spontaneous and UNDERSTANDABLE!!! We get to do the birthday thing again next Sunday; this time for Kate. She will be nine on the 7th. I need to be sure to organize a "WE LOVE YOU!!!" for the end of her birthday song.