Mary Carole Strother & PTA Family Reading Night

Every year our PTA works together with the Reading Vertical Team to host a family reading night complete with a visiting author! This year's author was McKinney's own Mary Carole Strother who published a book titled Collin McKinney: Texas Patriot and Statesman. It "is a biography of Collin McKinney's life and highlights his contributions to Texas by signing the Texas Declaration of Independence and Texas Constitution". Mrs. Strother spent all day at the school talking with each class about her book and the steps she took to get it published. All of the kids really enjoyed meeting with her and hearing her book. Hayley came home all excited and telling me about Collin McKinney! Mrs. Strother has a wesbite that she would love for all to visit at http://www.mckinneymatters.com/. You can learn about McKinney, her book, and more about Mrs. Strother. And if you have read her book, please feel free to send her comments as well by clicking on the "blog" link!

For the evening portion of the author visit, we conducted a very short PTA business meeting while the children (all dressed up in their pjs and slippers) enjoyed story time with our Principals in the library. Afterwards, they headed off to classrooms to hear even more stories told by our Reading Teachers.....of course they had to grab their cookies and milk on the way!


Hayley made a picture for our Principal who was so excited about it, she and Hayley posted it on the front door for everyone to see as they came in. The picture said, "Tonight Reading Night. Wear your pjs and slippers. Plus you also get milk and cookies.". So cute!

Picture Day

It is class picture day at school today and we amazingly made it through the morning without any tears! YAY!! Of course, this time I didn't bother Syd about her hair, I just let her do her own thing. I am sure that made a HUGE difference!! She did a great job, and I think they both look so cute! Say Cheese!

Playtime with Emyley

Today, Emyley showed me that she could jump rope "because Hayley showed her how". So, we decided to make a short video of her jumping rope. But, her very favorite thing to do is bounce on her bouncy-bouncy ball, so we had to to make a video of that, too! Now, we want to share it with all of you! Enjoy!!!

Drumroll please....Announcing the New Mullen Darlings

Well, guess what else we did while Dad was away??? We all got new 'dos. Well, except for Em since her 'do was still kinda new and looks cute. Sydney and Hayley have school pictures this week and were badly in need of trims. They wanted to leave their hair long, but I started teasing them about getting a "cute and sassy haircut for spring", and before I new it, they had a new 'do all picked out. They went with a cute 'do that we saw Kelly Clarkson with. It is a bob that is longer in front than the back. So cute and very sassy! So, here ya go.....

Hayley Before:













Hayley After:

Sydney Before:

Sydney After:

And so while our wonderful hairstylist, Chelsea, was cutting Syd's hair she said, "So, Mom are you next?". Of course I laughed because who in their right mind would get their haircut with 3 little girls hanging around at the beauty shop. LOL! I mean, come on, really. Who would do that? Well, I have never claimed to be completely sane, and so I did it!! I don't have any before shots, but I think most of you know what I looked like before. Here's the after....same haircut as the other two girls. Of course, I'll have to post a new pic after I have had time to fix it right, put on make-up, some fancy duds, etc...... LOL! And since Bill had no idea what kind of haircut the girls were getting and especially no idea that I would be getting a cut, not to mention how short it is, I will keep you posted on if he has a heart attack or not! ;o)

When the Dad is Away, the Girls will......

.....sleep in our room! Yep, I have a hard time sleeping when Bill is out of town, so the girls all sleep in our room with me. Actually, Em sleeps in the bed with me and Hayley and Syd sleep on the futon in our room. It helps me get much needed rest to get through the days when he is gone! We usually make a big production out of it by watching a movie up there on our big screen and eating popcorn. But our sound system decided not to work for me, so we have had to settle for watching tv in Chloe's room downstairs and then going up to bed like normal.

So, where did Bill run off to this weekend? Well, I am not sure if you all heard about the explosion at the oil refinery in Big Spring, TX that happened last Monday. The company that Bill does the computer networking for owns that refinery. Everyone has been down there helping out to get the refinery back online. They have been working 12 hour days and this weekend was Bill's turn. I am so glad that he will be getting home tonight! The girls can't wait, either!

Africa Presentation

Each year our elementary school has an African presentation. It all started because Hayley's teacher lived many years in Africa (in Nigeria and Mali). Back when she was Sydney's first grade teacher in a different elementary school, the program was much smaller. Only a handful of children from Syd's class participated, it was held during a PTA meeting, and the students only sang one song and spoke a few words. Since moving to our new elementary school, the program has grown to epic proportions....okay that might be a little exaggeration, but it really has become something special for every child to participate in. This year was no different and Hayley got to be in it. We were very happy that she was chosen to play a drum and had a speaking part. This is very new for us! Sydney likes to perform, but she is so shy that she doesn't usually get these more prominent roles in a program. Of course, I was also very excited to test out my new camera (which also does video) in the gymnasium. The new camera worked perfectly (although the video lost some of its resolution in the compression when I uploaded it to blogger, so it is kind of blurry) and the show was outstanding! Many kudos to Mrs. Parham along with the 1st grade team and the specials teachers for putting on a great show!

The video below is around 7 minutes long. I don't expect anyone (except grandparents) to sit through all of that, so just fast forward as much as you like, but I promise you will enjoy any parts that you watch!

Merry Christmas....er, I mean Happy Valentine's Day!

My parents came down this weekend for a little visit. They had planned to come in January for Bill's birthday and to go to IKEA. But I got sick, so they delayed their trip until Valentine's Day. We all went out to eat at Boston's for dinner then came home and exchanged gifts. We got each of the girls a Webkinz and my parents gave them stuffed bears and Hershey Kisses...yum! I didn't get Bill anything (I'm mean), but he got me a Webkinz (it was free at Hallmark for buying 3) and a game for my DS (we are so romantic). And then, Sydney gave my parents their Christmas presents! You see, she had bought them gifts at the Colt Corner Holiday Shop at school, we took them with us in January when we went for Christmas, but they came right back home with us! LOL! So, they finally got them. And then, I gave dad a Christmas present from me, too! The one I had given him (a handheld Kakuro game) didn't work well. So, this time I gave him a huge flashlight that sits on a tripod. Much better! And he will be able to use it while he is redoing their house. So, we had Christmas and Valentine's Day all in one! Not bad! We spent the rest of the evening putting on a SingStar concert for mom and dad....so fun! ;o)

Good Morning to Us!

We were awakened at 6:45 this morning to the sound of rain, thunder, lightning and HAIL! It sounded like someone was throwing baseballs on our roof! Bill woke up and said, "Is that hail? The poor cars.", then went right back to sleep. I, being curious, had to get up and check it out. As I was walking downstairs, I met Sydney in the hallway, and then Emyley and Hayley followed right behind us! My dad was already up and in the front room and told us that it had been hailing for awhile. Then he went back to bed. Then a couple minutes later, my mom joined us downstairs! I guess hail is a "girl thing" since we were the only ones interested while the men-folk were sleeping! LOL! And since I had just been awakened by the storm, it took me a good ten minutes to think to grab the camera, so actually, there was a lot more on the ground before I took the pictures...the road was completely covered when we first got downstairs. But it is melting fast and at least we finally got some rain.

Bed Hopping

We recently did some bed hopping in our house.....long story. Basically Sydney bought a bed canopy with her Justice gift card from Uncle Steve and Aunt Keri, and I didn't like the way it looked over her twin bed. So she got our old Queen sized bed that was in the playroom. Her bed was going to go in the playroom as a daybed-style bed, but the headboard & footboard had to stay attached to the frame since they were the feet. Emyley's bed was the top bunk of the bunk beds and had rails all the way around, so we put hers in the playroom as the daybed-style bed and gave Sydney's bed to Emyley. Told ya it was a long story. Anyway, with my new camera, I just had to take some pics! LOL!!

Emyley's new bed....Sydney's old bed.

Playroom with "daybed"....Emyley's old bed.

Hayley's bed....no changes, just didn't want to leave her out! ;o)

Happy Birthday to Me!!! (well, yeah, a little early)

While we were out and about this weekend, we stopped off at Best Buy to just look around. Anyone who really knows us, knows that we don't "just look around" very well! We eventually ended up in the camera section. I have been wanting a new camera, but I wanted a fancy one....SLR, I think they are called. However, that was not in our budget and probably won't be for a few years. The camera that we have now doesn't hold its charge very long and takes horrible pictures inside the school gymnasium (where all the programs take place). Anyway, I found a camera I liked (not an SLR) while we were at Best Buy, but I didn't buy it! Yay me! LOL! I did write down all the info about it, so I could look it up online and make an informed decision. Of course, the first thing I did when we got home was look up the camera! LOL! It had excellent reviews, so off Bill trots to our new Circuit City, which had it on a really good special. An hour later I am holding my new camera and was told that it was my birthday, valentine's, anniversary, christmas presents! LOL! I really am in love with it. We had a moment of panic when Chloe decided to chew threw our vacuum cleaner cord, and I thought my camera would have to go back so we could get a new vacuum. But Bill fixed the cord....YAY! Anyway, told ya we aren't very good at "just looking around"! Here are some pics from my new camera!! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Nana!!

We went to Sherman this past Saturday to take Bill's mom and her husband, Joel out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. Since a new Cracker Barrel opened up there recently, we decided to eat there. I just love the atmosphere...wonder why? ;o) We all had a great time and was happy that we got to spend some time with Nana and Joel!