Dining with Royalty.

Almost everyday, during lunch, I remind the kids

that one day they might get the chance to

dine with the president.

If that ever happens, they need to make sure

and use their best manners.

Well, Monday was their chance to practice!

We had lunch with a QUEEN!

Katelyn Goodman is the reigning

Miss Carroll County 2011.

She came to visit the kids and dine over a

gourmet meal of Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches.

lol.

We were mesmerized by her beauty

AND her crown!

This little girl holds a very special place in my heart.

She spent many hours at my house with my girls,

as did my girls at her house.

It is so unbelievable to me that she is 18 years old!

The GREAT part is that this beautiful young lady will

be hanging out with us a lot more!

She is going to be my sub when

Miss Misti or myself have to be gone.

We love you Katelyn Joe and look forward

 to seeing you more often!

With Love,

Ms Melea

Sweet Lane.

 I don't think anyone fully understands

 how attached I get to these kids.

Every summer's end is bittersweet.

Even though some days are hard,

I love these little guys like they are my own.

Truly.

Lane Allen,

You are precious.

You are FULL of life and joy.

You and your mom made me a promise that

you would come visit me.

You said you would everyday!

lol.

I will miss your little smile.

You always kept me on my toes,

thinking, "Did that REALLY just come out of a

4 year old's mouth?"

You are wise beyond your years.

Too smart.

You are always the life of the party!

You also have some awesome dance moves.

Those moves were your show n tell

many Fridays.

We LOVED it!

This is us on his last day.

Poor little guy.

His momma brought him in and right

away I could tell he didn't feel well.

You didn't get to stay long because you

were under the weather.

 Made me sad!

:(

He came in with beautiful flowers.

As soon as I saw them I started to cry!

And his momma brought Misit and I the cutest

Razorback Tshirts!

(From FloraCraft, by the way!)

So cute.

Oh! And she brought these BEAUTIFUL cupcakes!

We were so spoiled!

I love you Lane!

 I love your family!

I'm gonna miss you SO much! 

All these little guys are getting ready to start

BIG SCHOOL!

I wish them all luck!

I am so proud of all of them!

With Love,

Ms Melea

Got Dirt?

I was always taught growing up that

a little dirt won't hurt.

You too?

Although, I was the little girl who liked to play

with my babies...inside. And play school...inside.

And the occasional "rearrange my closet

to match new outfits kind "of fun.

INSIDE.

I grew up on a farm,

but my mom says I swore it

belonged to the neighbors!

haha.

The next few pics are a throw back

to what I should've been doing as a child...

Playing in the dirt!

We can't keep the little rascals out of it!

So we learned to embrace it.

Let them get filthy dirty.

They can wash.

Eli.

Evan.

Dane.

William.

Beckett.

Cadyn.

Vivian.

Emmalyn before her digging spree:

Emmalyn after.

lol.

Grady.

Austin.

Tead.

This is their project:

A hole to China!

Guess who came to visit today?

SCOTT!

I was so happy to see him!

He is so grown up!

Made me teary eyed.

Sniff.

His grandma brought him to visit

and also brought a few little toys to play with!

SO sweet!

Be happy.

Count your blessings.

With Love, Ms Melea

Happy Monday!

I am now feeling a little back to normal.

After my surgery, then our family worked

a fireworks stand, which is a WHOLE other post

in itself, I have felt rather BOMBARDED.

Except that Kaitlin had a terrible terrible round

of the stomach bug that literally lasted 5 days

and Kodee had all 4 wisdom teeth cut out on Friday.

I feel like I have newborn twins all over again!

lol.

Major lack of sleep.

Ms Melea needs her sleep.

Anywho-

today we did fun little game.

I packed a little bag full of things I would need on vacation.

I gave the kids a packing checklist.

They had to mark the item off the list

after I pulled it out of my bag.

We then found which items I had forgotten

and decided there were some things the list

had forgotten!

They did so well and I think they enjoyed the game!

:)

Kirklyn found a grasshopper!

One word: trouble.

lol.

Nah, Sweet trouble is more like it! ha!

Our pretty girls!

Sweet Adria.

Sweet Emmalyn.

Handsome boys.

This tree is their favorite hangout!

The weather was SO much nicer today!

We were able to spend more time outside today!

We hope you had a great day!

We sure did!

With Love, Ms Melea

Happy Birthday Tead and Mattie!

This handsome little boy turned 5 Friday!

For such a little guy, he has a HUGE heart.

His mom made this super cool cupcake cake!

It looks like a race car!

How awesome!

All the kids were OBSESSED with it!

It was super yummy too!
Thanks, Crystal!

Happy Birthday, Tead!

This sweet little girl turned 6 on Friday!

We celebrated earlier in the week!

Miss Mattie, I hope your day was as special as you are!

I love you! 

I love them both so very much!

We spent a lot of time inside this past week.

The temps were over 100 degrees!

Sweet kids.

We sure missed Miss Misti this week.

I'm pretty sure she enjoyed her week off, though!

A huge thank you to Kassie and Nancy for filling in!

You two are GREAT!

********************************

We did a neat little craft on Monday to

celebrate the 4th of July:

The kids always love getting their hands dirty

with paint!

Happy Birthday, America!

With Love,

Ms Melea