Dance Company Photo Shoot

Hannah had a photo shoot today for her dance company. I took a couple of pictures of her when she was done with her individual photos. The professional ones will be ready in a couple of weeks, but here are the ones I took.

What am I Reading?

I have not been doing much reading lately. I've been distracted....by cupcakes. And Bingo Blitz. (a game on Facebook)


Since I last posted my reading updates (which was July 6th!), I read Swept Off Her Feet by Hester Browne. It was a light, romantic story that took place in Scotland. I really enjoyed it. It was the first book I've read by this author.


I also read the 2nd book in Stephanie Bond's Southern Roads Trilogy, Baby Come Home. I must wait until August 1st for the final book to come out.



I've been reading Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. It was this month's book club selection. We met for book club this week, but I hadn't finished the book. I went anyway. And I am still working on it. I'm enjoying it, but there were those distractions this month. Like cupcakes. And Bingo Blitz.

I started To Kill a Mockingbird, but haven't made much progress. I may not finish it by the end of July. As I said, there were too many distractions. I may have mentioned something about the cupcakes and the Bingo Blitz.


The cupcake battle is over for the time being, so that distraction is out of the way. Though there's still Bingo Blitz.

I know I've mentioned before about my stack of books in the bedroom. Here's a picture. That paisley ottoman is also full of books. The pile leans to the left a bit. These are all the books waiting to be read. I have another pile of books that's not pictured of the ones I have read.

Well, happy reading! I think it's time for me to play some more Bingo Blitz.

The American Girl Store

Hannah gave one of her friends a homemade gift certificate good for lunch and a trip to the doll hair salon at the American Girl Store for a birthday present. Yesterday was the day we made good on the certificate. I also brought along my friend, Sue. She has a son and doesn't normally get to do girlie things like this.

Each girl brought one doll to the store with us. Here are the girls with their dolls standing outside the American Girl store.



We had lunch reservations, so after a few minutes of looking around the store, it was time for lunch.

Here are the dolls - Kaya and Alexandria.

The dolls were given their own beverages.

Hannah and her friend both ordered the mac & cheese. Sue & I ordered different chicken entrees, but they didn't look as cute as the mac & cheese.


The girls were pretty full after lunch, so the shared a mini dessert plate rather than have their own.

After lunch, the dolls had appointments at the hair salon. Hannah used some of her own money to pay for spa treatments for the dolls, too. The spa treatment included a face cleaning, "mask" and "cucumber" stickers for the face, nail stickers, a spa gown & slippers.


Here is Alexandria with her finished hair-do.

Hannah with her doll.

While the dolls were at the salon, we did some shopping. Hannah's grandmother had given her a $50 gift certificate for Christmas, plus some birthday money. Hannah had also been saving her money for the last several months. She ended up buying Kanani, the American Girl doll of the year. Here are the girls posing in Kanani's Snow Cone Shack.

Hannah and her friend are posing with their dolls.

Looking at some of the doll displays in the store.

More doll displays.

Hannah and her friend had a fun time.

Cupcake Wars - Battle 1

Last night was the big Cupcake War that my friend Sue hosted. I had been practicing for the last few weeks. And to be honest, I am SICK of cupcakes! OMG! I could not even taste any of the cupcakes last night.



The rules: no cake mixes and no premade frosting. The theme was summer.



Here is my entry. I ended up with Butter Beer cupcakes. I got the recipe from the Cupcake Adventures blog.


Lemonade cupcakes made by Sue

Blueberry-Lemon cupcakes

S'more cupcakes


Corn on the cob cupcakes


Peach Bourbon cupcakes

A Day at the Beach cupcakes - pumpkin with orange cream cheese icing.

The judges had the fun job of tasting each cupcake.

Hannah & Tyler were special "kid" judges.


The kids choice award went to Jennifer for her S'mores cupcakes.

The winner of the "Best Tasting" cupcake went to me & my Butter Beer cupcakes!

Best Cupcake Appearance & Overall Cupcake winner went to the host, Sue

Sue graciously gave up one of her prizes so it was given to the 2nd place winner which was the Day at the Beach cupcake made by Susan. I didn't get a picture of Susan with her prize.

It was a fun evening! Though I am in no hurry to make any more cupcakes.

Back from Girl Scout Camp

On Thursday, I was in the basement at my computer. When I went upstairs, my cell phone chirped, notifying me that I had a voice mail message. I had my phone with me in the basement, but phone service is quirky unless I'm on the main level of the house. Anyway, I listened to my message and it was someone from camp telling me that "Hannah was alright, but she had fallen off a horse". I panicked a bit. I envisioned my baby girl with a broken leg or something. There was a second message which gave me a phone number to call back. I called back and spoke with someone at the horse barn and she said that Hannah was at the nurse's , but reiterated that Hannah was alright. She said that Hannah had wanted to get back on the horse again, but they had insisted that she go be checked out by the nurse.

The next 24 hours passed by slowly. I had missed Hannah, but now I wanted to see her even more. Finally, Friday late morning, it was time to drive up to Armuchee, GA to pick up our girl. The camp staggers checkout times so they are not rushed with all the parents at the same time, but luckily for us, Hannah was in the first group to be checked out.


All of the horse riders got to "demonstrate" their horse skills for the parents before they left camp.


Hannah is riding Cody. She said she had to change horses a lot. She was riding a horse named "Little Man" when she fell off. She had ridden him in previous years.

Here's Hannah's camp buddy, Callie, riding Velvet.

Hannah loved riding the horses! She would have her own horse is she could!

It was a 90 minute drive back home from Camp Misty Mountain. For the first 30 minutes or so, Hannah talked nonstop about camp. This is what she did for the rest of the drive home.

We are glad to have our baby girl home!

Band Camp

While Hannah has been away at Girl Scout camp, James has been attending the Cobb County Middle School Band Camp at McEachern High School this week. They had their end of camp performance on Thursday afternoon.


The first half of the concert was devoted to assorted group ensembles and solo performances. James participated in an mixed ensemble that performed "Don't Stop Believing". He's the lone tuba player on the far left. He also participated in the low brass ensemble.


Here's part of the brass section. James was second chair tuba for the week.

James with his fellow tuba players.


After the solo and ensemble portion of the concert, there was a break. We joined him outside.


Here's the whole group performance. They did a great job!


And here is James with his tuba. I am one proud mama!