Busy, Busy, Busy

As you can tell by my lack of posts, things have been extremely busy around here. Fall is such a busy time for everyone, but when you have football games every weekend, it is really hectic for us. Last week I was busy helping prepare for our school's fall festival. It is a HUGE fundraiser for the PTO. I was asked to volunteer to help with the first grade cake walk. There were 5 classes (out of 12) that were in charge of the cake walk. The fall festival was an Olympic theme and our cake walk was a swimming theme. We all worked really hard and guess what? We won best overall!!! So, the kids from those five classes get to have a special party. Here's a pic of our booth.
It is hard to tell, but the outside was made to look like water. On the water we had "swimmers" which had each kids picture on it. We also had purple and gold (school colors) medals with each child's picture on it.

One of my most precious friends, Dorothy, flew in from St. Louis to visit for the weekend. It was ACU's homecoming, so she came to take part of all of those festivities. It was great to catch up with her, but she was just as busy as I was that weekend!!

Saturday, I left at 9am and did not get back home until 9:30 that night. We set up our cake walk booth that morning and then each of the kids had birthday parties that afternoon. ACU also had a game (we won!!!) and then the fall festival that night. The kids favorite activity at the fall festival was the huge air castle slides and obstacle courses. Here's a pic of them on the top of the slide.
Okay, now I am caught up until tomorrow!!! :)

Fall Pics

ACU 52 WT 35

This picture was in the Abilene paper today.
There were over 19,000 in attendance (and about 17,000 of those were loud WT fans)

Me & LeAnn
We stood up in basically the same spot the entire game. When the game was over, we decided to get a picture of us in our "spot"

Ken's mom came up on Friday night and brought my niece, Molli. Jackie stayed and kept my kids while me, LeAnn, & Molli took the buses to the WT game in Canyon. It was an awesome game (even though I was a nervous wreck the entire 4th quarter!!). We got back to Abilene around 3:30 this morning. I am exhausted!!!

Anna's birthday party

We had Anna's party last Friday (10th) at a paint your own pottery studio here in town. It was such a great party! The kids were so focused on painting their pieces of pottery, you could have heard a pin drop in that room!

When we were discussing her party, I asked Anna what she wanted on her birthday cake. She decided she wanted to "design" it. So, she drew of picture of what she wanted (with lots of detail) and I took it to a local bakery. Here's the finished product:

This is EXACTLY how it looked on the paper Anna drew! The paintbrushes said "happy birthday". She was very specific about the color of the paint splatters and the placement of the brushes.
Here is Anna working on her project. She painted a mermaid.
Opening presents
All of the sweet kids
At the end of the party, they placed her hand print on the wall. Here is Anna next to her hand print.

Happy 7th Birthday Anna!!

Today at 6:38am Anna turned 7 years old. I can't believe how fast time flies. In just three more years, she will be in double digits!! She woke up this morning to some balloons and breakfast from AM donuts. We also had a HUGE surprise for her. Normally, we do not give big birthday gifts due to spending money on a party. Well, she has wanted this Nintendo (just like her cousin's) for several months. We had been telling her that would be a good Christmas gift. We decided to get it early and truly surprise her (grandparents bought the games and other accessories). She was SO EXCITED. I was so glad we went ahead and bought it for her because she was not expecting it!

Layne and I went to her school and ate lunch with her today. Then, my parents came from Arkansas to visit. She was excited that Mimma got to pick her up from school. We later made a trip to Wal-Mart. Anna had wanted my mom and dad to get her a fish as part of her birthday present. We went and she picked out a beautiful blue betta fish. She named her Lily (I don't have a pic yet, but will get one). As we are walking out of Wal-Mart, I turned to my mom and said "when we get home I will have to look online to see how to take care of this fish". Layne said, "Just go to bluefish.com". Is that not hilarious!!

That evening, she got to pick the restaurant where she wanted to eat. She picked El Chico. We had a great dinner and then it was back home to get ready for school the next day.

Anna with her Nintendo
Anna loves these ham and cheese croissants from AM donuts

My sweet girl!!

Now that she is seven, she has lost seven teeth! She lost her latest one in the middle of the last home football game. She was eating some M&M's and it just popped out!

She loves school and never complains about going or doing her homework. Her teacher told me a funny story about her the other day. She said they were coming in from recess and she heard some of the students saying "Anna's going to kiss a boy" and they were all laughing. Mrs. H went over to see what was going on and this is what Anna said, "The only way the boys will leave me alone is if I tell them I am going to kiss them. Then, they run away." I told her they won't always run away!!

She did the sweetest thing the other morning. She was in her room by herself listening to some praise and worship music on the CD player in her room. It is not unusual for her to turn it on while she is reading or falling asleep. Ken went in to check on her and saw the most beautiful sight. She had her eyes closed, a hand in the air, and was dancing to Jesus!! She got embarrassed when she realized he was watching her. I asked her later in the day what she was doing. These were her words, "I was just thinking about God in my mind and I was also thinking about the Bible." WOW!! God was using her to praise Him in her bedroom. I don't think I have ever been so proud! I pray she continues to "think about God in her mind" and praise Him.

Catching up

Wow, alot has happened since my last post! We have been extremely busy in the Collums household. Football has consumed all of our weekends. The kids and I met my parents two weeks ago in Sherman, TX. We got to have a quick visit and short stay (one night) together. They also got to go to the ACU game in Durant, OK. Then, last weekend, we made the trip to Portales, NM for the game. Spent the night in Lubbock after the game. So...I am REALLY glad there is a home game this weekend. Other happenings:


**Anna has lost two more teeth. She has now lost a total of 6 teeth. This is the funniest story. She came home from school telling me that she had lost her tooth during snack time and swallowed it. She wrote the cutest note to the tooth fairy to leave under her pillow. It said (and this is her spelling) "Dear tooth fairy, my tooth fel in my stomok. It was my 6th tooth! But I swolod it. From: Anna". Well, that night, Ken went to tuck her in bed and actually "saw" the tooth. It had fallen out in the middle of the night, but she didn't notice it was gone until snack time at school!

**Layne had another fall at school yesterday. There is a bar above the slide on the playground at his school. He was swinging on the bar and fell. He fell straight back on the metal platform. He had a huge knot on the back of his head. With his history of concussions, I took him straight to the doctor. He was fine, but had a pretty nasty headache last night.

**We are staying busy with football and school activities. Both kids attend AWANA at church and gymnastics. Anna is in musical theater (singing & dancing class) and imagination station (acting class). Our weeks are full, but fun!