Never too old for a first day of school pic!

Mike had a great first day of his sophomore year at FSU:

Tea party (the good kind)

Annabelle and I went to a tea party yesterday at the home of our British neighbors. We decided to wear dresses just in case the queen was there (she wasn't, but one never knows). Annabelle looked so pretty that I had to stop on the porch and snap a picture:



The party itself was wonderful, with finger sandwiches and scones (oh, the scones!) and these adorable miniature apple pies. And Pimms! Did I mention the Pimms? So yummy! One of my fellow tea-partiers (again, the good kind) described it as British sangria, which seems about right.

Tally-ho!

Fred and Mike left at the crack of dawn this morning to take Mike back to FSU for his sophomore year. The last report I heard had them somewhere north of Birmingham, but I suspect that by now they are at or getting close to Fred's parents' house.

They put in a long day on the road today so that they can roll into Tally by early afternoon tomorrow. This will give them tomorrow afternoon, all of Friday, and then Saturday morning to get Mike settled in before Fred flies home Saturday afternoon.

Surprise!

Annabelle came home from school today, did her pre-calculus homework, ate a quick supper, opened birthday presents, and left for marching band practice, thinking that her birthday was pretty much over. Nuh UH!

Little did she know that we've been scheming to bring cupcakes to the end of band practice. As soon as we dropped her off at the school, Fred and Mike and I went over to Walmart to pick up the goodies. We set up shop at the end of the stadium and enjoyed watching the last 20 minutes of practice. We caught the kids as they were coming off the field, and they stopped to sing "Happy Birthday." One girl even chimed in on her saxophone:



Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the celebration:

Tra la-la-la-la la-la-la-la

Where have 16 years gone?! I would swear this photo was taken just a few years ago:



But no, it was 16 years ago and marks the arrival of Annabelle and the completion of our family.

We've been celebrating for several days now. Mike gave her the DVD of Tangled on Friday so that we could all watch it together before he left for school. And then on Sunday the 4 of us went to Kansas City (where everything's up to date) and watched a film of Stephen Sondheim's Company, followed by supper at California Pizza Kitchen. Presents this afternoon!

Happy birthday, Sweet Sixteen!

Happy first day of school!

Today is the first day of Annabelle's junior year! Here are a couple of shots as she left this morning:





She got off to kind of a rocky start. schoolbus procedures changed for this year, and the kids are supposed to have a card that they scan to get on the bus. Somehow we failed to get that memo, and the driver wouldn't let her on the bus this morning. I have visited the transportation office and been assured that she should be good to go for the ride home this afternoon.

I can't wait for her to get home! Mostly so I can hear about the rest of her day but also because I am looking forward to our traditional first-day-of-school cookies. (These are not to be confused with brownie Friday, which is going to be brownie Wednesday this year due to a change in my work schedule.)