County Fair

We went to our county fair tonight. First stop were all of the animal houses/barns. Miss Stella did not like the animal houses at all because they were too smelly. In all of the pictures of Stella inside the barns, she is holding her nose and she was begging Mama to leave because she couldn't stand the "stinky smell".

Des, the animal lover, didn't complain about the smells. He thoroughly enjoyed seeing the bunnies, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, and cows.

Two bunnies kissing........................................................Fat pink pigs.

Stella really came alive once we left the animals and moved onto the rides.


Des didn't want to ride any rides (we asked him) and was content to watch his sister.

At the Driving Range

We took the kids to the driving range after naps today. Dada had a great time hitting some golf balls and the kids had fun "golfing" which included lining up the balls, getting balls for Dada, and putting balls in buckets and dumping them out.

One of their other favorite games was to put the golf balls in the cup holder of the folding chair we brought.

After Dada was done hitting all of the balls, we moved onto the putting green.

Des thought it was fun to pull the flag out.

Stella's First Group Piano Lesson

Mama took Stella to her first group piano lesson today. There were about 20 kids (plus their parents) there ranging in age from 4 to 6. I don't know who had a better time, Mama or Stella. Stella thoroughly enjoyed the experience and Mama thought some of Stella's antics in the class were so funny and cute.

Normally, Stella is a shy girl in public, but these days, she has been more social among kids her age. Well Stella continued to be very social in class today and can even be dubbed the class clown based on some of her antics.
First thing the teacher asked the kids to do is to sit in a circle. Well, instead of sitting as a part of the circle, Stella went and sat in the middle of the circle. She later told us the reason was because she wanted to make a flower =;) The teacher explained to her that if she sits in the middle, she wouldn't be able to play the game they were about to play and so she relented.

Then the teacher had them all hold a ball while each child sang "Hi, my name is ___" and then pass the ball to the next child while singing "What is your name?". Well, when it was Stella's turn, she sang "Hi, my name is Stella" in a deep, raspy, husky voice, which made everyone laugh. Stella often does this when she is being shy and reluctant to say something. The teacher then said very nicely, "Stella, can we try that in a nice voice?" and the second time around, Stella sang her name very sweetly and beautifully.

Then the teacher asked if any of the children wanted to go up and play a piano piece they knew or if they didn't know how to play a piece, they could go up and show everyone their recital bow (one of the first things Stella was taught during her 1st private lesson). Stella volunteered to go up and showed the whole class her recital bow and when everyone clapped, Stella just got so happy that she started jumping up and down like a monkey. She looked so funny doing this that the whole class just started laughing. There were more antics like this from Stella that kept Mama laughing throughout the entire class. But to see how much Stella enjoyed the class and to see her come alive like that was such a treat for Mama to see.Despite her comics, Stella did very well in her first group class. We are so very proud of our little girl.

p.s. Mama forgot to take the camera, so there are no pix from the class. Sorry!

Satisfying Our Sweet Tooth

After dinner tonight, we headed over to the grand opening of a new frozen custard place where they were handing out free sundaes to one and all. Stella didn't want any toppings on hers, just plain vanilla. Even though Des could have gotten his own sundae, we thought it would be best if he just shared from the 3 of us. And share he did. Des would get a spoon of custard from Mama and then from Stella and then from Dada over and over like an assembly line. He had his system down!

The frozen custards were yummy and the weather was so gorgeous...in the 60s and breezy. Perfect fall like weather.

Stella's First Piano Lesson

Stella waiting outside the building before her 1st piano lesson, giddy with excitement.

Stella had her first piano lesson today and she loved it. She has 30 minute private lessons once a week along with 1 hour group lessons (lessons with other students) once every weekend. She is receiving her private lessons from the Director of the Suzuki Music School of Arkansas and he follows the Suzuki philosophy in teaching a child music. She learned today how to take a bow, sit correctly on a piano chair, the music alphabet, and how the fingers are numbered in the context of playing the piano. She is SO excited and we are SO happy to be encouraging her love of music.

One of the components of the Suzuki philosophy is total parental involvement, so therefore, a parent must be present with Stella during her lessons so that we know what was taught during a lesson and then help her practice the new skills at home. Stella chose to have Mama stay with her.

Stella posing with Dada and Des before going in for her 1st lesson.

We all went inside to meet her teacher and then Dada left with Des while Mama stayed. Since Mama knows nothing about music, she is learning a lot too...2 for the price of 1!

Painting Outside

It was another beautiful day here and so we went outside as soon as we were done with breakfast to enjoy it. Mama brought out the easel onto the deck and the kids had fun painting with watercolors and drawing with chalk on the chalkboard. Since we were outside, Mama didn't have to worry about the kids making a mess...if they spilled anything it was no big deal.

As you can see from the concentration on Stella's face, she takes her painting very seriously!

Stella painted a beautiful rainbow circle.

She also filled in colors if Mama drew the outlines of flowers for her.

Des started out painting the watercolors and his definition of painting meant dipping the paint brush in the water and then the paint over and over without much painting on the paper.

Des then thought it was fun to paint his sister.

After that, he moved onto the chalkboard.

Then he got the brilliant idea to paint the chalkboard with water. So silly, but it kept him very happy and that's all that matters.

Weekend Fun

Beautiful weekend here with temps in the 70s during the day with no humidity and temps in the 50s at night. Just perfect. Early Fall weather. We were outside a lot this weekend. Went out to brunch Sat morning and dined al fresco atop the second floor balcony. Then we went to the library, which is always fun. After naps, Dada took the kids to a nearby driving range and they had fun "hitting" golf balls, lining them up, counting them, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera anywhere so no pics to share. It was a great weekend.