Snowpocalypse

This has been a CRAZY week!  On Tuesday they predicted some light snow by mid afternoon.  But at 10:30 it started snowing early and I got text messages that the schools were closing early.  I got the girls home and we enjoyed playing in the snow that was continuing to fall:

 

 

 

Little did we know that all of Atlanta was on the way to being in a grid lock on all the interstates and highways.  Lots of people didn't make it home and spent the night on the interstate, kids spent the night at schools because the buses couldn't complete their routes or their parents couldn't get to them.

 

Joe left work at 2:30 to head our way and didn't get home until 11:00 p.m.  He only has to drive 10 miles and doesn't get on the interstate.  There were several hills that cars got completely stuck on so Joe (and lots and lots of others) walked the last 3.5 miles to get home.

The next day there was nothing to do but play in the snow some more.  So thankful our family was all together:

 Abigail asked me to get her beach chair out so she could keep working:

 The girls were out of school the rest of the week. We were able to drive to Joe's car on Thursday morning.  So for January the girls were out of school 5 days due to weather!

Chili and Bingo Night

Last night Emily's school had their Chili and Bingo Night.  I cooked Chili for the event and won 3rd place!  I got a $25 visa gift card:

 

Emily loved playing Bingo:

 And she won at Bingo and got a prize:

Today we spent the morning getting Emily's American Girl Boutique together:

Birthday Party

On Sunday afternoon we had Emily's Birthday Party at Monster Mini Golf.  Julia had her party here earlier and Emily loved it and wanted to go back.  The kids played hot potato game, had cake, opened gifts, and then played putt putt which gave them a 40 count ticket bonus.  After that we handed out quarters for the kids to play arcade games and earn extra tickets.  They could use the tickets to purchase toys which we used at their party favors : )

Tara once again did a wonderful job making a "Frozen" cake for Emily:

 

 

 Rachel brought neon face paint so the kids faces would glow under all the black lighting:

 

Getting ready to play putt putt:

 

 Riley with her purchases from her arcade tickets:

 The group minus Tessa and Abigail.  They were both over putt putt by then:

Emily is 7!

Emily is 7 years old today!!!!!!!!!!!!

She woke up extra early because she was excited about the day.  We had gifts for her from us, PawPaw and Dee Dee, Grandma, and Aunt Chelle:

 

She wanted to spend her American Girl gift card and $ from the grandparents so we got dressed and headed to the store.  She picked out an outfit with shoes and bracelet for her doll and a book on running a cafe:

 The pink dress is the outfit she bought:

She also requested Mac n Cheese pizza for lunch.  Luckily she wanted to go back home so we ordered it to go.  This allowed Joe and I to eat something else other than pizza : )

 We sang Happy Birthday with cupcakes:

Happy Birthday Emily!  We love you so much.  We are very proud of how well you are doing in school and love to see your imagination come to life when you play.

Shopping Day

Today, the First Grade had their shopping day to spend the "money" they earned all last semester for behavior.  Each day they got a stamp of a penny, nickel, dime, or nothing depending on their behavior.  The teachers counted up their money and gave them a card with the amount of quarters they had earned.  Then each classroom had a station where you could spend your money.  I did face painting for 50 cents.  They also had cookie decorating, hair glitter, nail polish, tattoos, and a store with school supplies like fun erasers and cool notebooks.  I had a blast helping with this:

 

 

After Emily spent all her quarters she hung out with me trying out the face paints:

Because it was so close to Emily's birthday I stayed to have lunch with Emily and we passed out cupcakes that she helped decorate:

I really enjoyed myself.  This was the first time I was able to help out in the classroom.  Before lunch I laminated and cut out some things for the teacher and then after lunch I helped the kids count their "jungle tickets" to get items from the treasure chest.

Starting in January I also start teaching the 4 year olds/PreK class at church for the winter semester.  We have a big class this year and were brave enough to let them paint one Sunday!  Abigail is in the class with me this year: