The 7th birthday invitation photo shoot

Little Miss's birthday always sneaks up on me.  Just as I'm starting to recover from the holidays, getting back into the swing of school then BAM!  I've got to get the invitations out NOW so there's at least close to two weeks' notice.  So, despite the fact that she's been under the weather today, my little trooper agreed to at least try to cooperate and get one one non-goofy face picture.  I'll let you judge if we succeeded.  Obviously the lighting needed some adjusting in the first one.

 The she lapsed into bug-eye stare face.  At least they weren't crossed.

This was my personal favorite.  Just the right amount of impish-ness to hint at her personality.

Lighting not so good.

Pretty close.  Smile's not quite...normal.

Clearly getting bored with this.

Nuh-uh.

About to call it quits.

Holy cow!  A normal face, natural expression.  This was my first runner up.

She was determined to get a picture with the dog calendar.

I went with the third picture.  The invitations should be ready at 2:47 tomorrow morning.  But I think I can wait until the afternoon.  I'm not in quite that big of a rush! 

What happened to the weekend?

The Nockinbirds were a busy bunch this weekend.  Friday night we had to go to a Girl Scout meeting to talk to the girls about how to behave and be safe at the table sales.  By the way--one gross of Girl Scout cookies SOLD!!  I got rid of the last four boxes at the end of school Friday.  Who knew 144 boxes could go so quickly?   After the meeting, we had a birthday party to attend at Chuck E. Cheese's.  How we've managed to go almost seven years without attending a full-on Chuck E. birthday party, I don't know.  But the streak is broken and Little Miss has been reminded how much she loooooooooooves Chuck E. Cheese. 

Saturday was the second cheer competition of this season, so back we went to Fort Worth.  It's the closest, and cheapest of these we've been to.  We even got to catch a little of the parade for the opening of the Stock Show and Rodeo.  Little Miss was her typical cheerful self at a cheer event.

That makeup!

At least Loverboy was able to make this one.  It makes it a lot more fun when you have someone to people-watch with.

There's Little Miss, second from the right.

Despite the proximity and cost, this was by far the lowest end of the competition spectrum as far as awards.

Little Miss was not impressed by the CHEER! pin.  I'm not sure why they would go with a 50 states license plate theme for cheer...

At least we got to take a picture of her with the team trophy.

The most fun was the elevator ride in the parking garage.  Great views.

But by far the most delicious event of the day was our first trip to the In-N-Out Burger in Fort Worth.

Double-double animal style and heed my advice and go for the french fries animal style as well.  You'll thank me.

It was Little Miss's first In-N-Out.  She seemed pleased.

We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home and who happened to be strolling about but everyone's favorite grocery bag...H E BUDDY.  The excitement never ends when you're a Nockinbird!

Molly and I took a short Sunday drive together today and happened upon this business...which one of these is not like the other...I hope.

I would like to say that this week will, hopefully, be a little more quiet, but who am I kidding?  I pick up 200 boxes of cookies Thursday!

Ask not for whom the bird poos...

Something that certainly goes into the catagory of "stuff I never thought I'd take a picture of" would be that.  Bird poop.  On the molding around a doorway.  In my house.  A little wren decided to visit, how she got in, no one seems to have an explanation for.  Loverboy tells me she was quite taken with the Christmas tree.  As he and Little Miss were trying to shoo her out the patio door, she detoured to visit all the upper windows in the kitchen dining area.  While I would have liked to have watched this ballet choreograph itself (Loverboy, Little Miss and the wren), I'm glad I missed a bird hopping around on my Christmas ornaments.  Anywho, in all the excitement, a poo occurred.  This all happened yesterday.  When we sat down for dinner tonight was the first time I noticed the aforementioned poo.  Loverboy said he kept forgetting to clean it up as he bebopped (my word, not his) around the house today, no doubt cleaning multiple other surfaces.

Enter the ever helpful Little Miss.  She is much enamored of these sticky notes Molly gave her at Christmas.  "Blah, blah, blah" is one of her favorite sayings of late.  So she jumped from the table to write her father a to do list: to do poop bird.  I'm not sure what else I can add to that.

And she made sure to put it where he'll be sure to see it.  Such a smart girl. 

Funny/Fuzzy

I don't know how Loverboy could doze during Little Miss's dramatic reading of a comic book.  Every character had it's own voice and was filled with emotion.  That little girl is hi.lar.i.ous.

On the fuzzy side of things, Emily has taken to her fluffy bed as a cold front blows in tonight.

Meanwhile, Mama is still slogging away to get holiday decorations packed away.  Judge me as you will, I worked too much getting them up, I'm willing to take my time taking them down.  Shnnah.

It would have been a pretty picture...

So, I was passing through the living room and saw a bright gold streak in the tree line down by the river.  It was really eye-catching since it's been a overcast day, and it was just running along one "row" of tree tops parallel to the river--a gold line sandwiched by dark gray.  But by the time I hoofed it out the end of the drive way, the sun had gone back behind the clouds...so here's a picture of gray, leafless pecan trees.  Enjoy.

Still selling cookies, by the way.  In fact, we've sold out of several kinds.  The Caramel deLites went quickly, followed by Peanut Butter Patties.  And I sold all the Lemonades before I got to buy a box.  I'm able to sleep because I know there will be many more boxes coming in the next couple of weeks.  Whew!

Cookie sales: day one

I am shocked at how quickly these things move.  I almost sold everything I took to school with me.  Loverboy and Little Miss sold several boxes to the carhops at Sonic when they got their afterschool beverage.  I'm sure the new will wear off, but people have seemed excited to get their annual fix.

The Pecan Pickers

Despite the drought, and the really long time they took to fall, it looks like we have a pretty good crop.