My Eight Year Old

She looks so serious, doesn't she? 

Right after this was taken, I handed her a dollar of her birthday money to give at church today.  She said, "Yeah.  I'm giving this so I won't be totally selfish."

We all cracked up.

One Sunday Morning in Our Backyard

First Parade

This was Luci's first parade experience. We got up oh-so early to make it there by 8 a.m.

Curls before the parade, after an hour and a half drive to the site...

LOVE the coloring in Luci's hair! It's all natural, by the way.  I was very pleased that Luci's curls looked very good in comparison to the other girls'.  The only ones whose curls looked better were two who had wiglets.

The whole crew.

 Rain! It poured before the parade began. Luci and I prayed for the rain to stop so everyone could enjoy the parade. Guess what happened? The rain tapered off soon after our prayer, and the parade went on with good weather.

Huddling for warmth during the rain.  We had a nice area to stand in; we were not wet at all!

Luci and Lusiana.  They loved that their names are so similar.  Lusiana's mother calls her daughter "Lusi!"

What followed us:

Our great leader, Mrs. Branden

Don't look if you are faint of heart:

 Here is a little video showing Luci and her friends--be sure to notice the bouncy curls at the end!

Heard Today:

JT was watching his driver's ed DVD today.   One of the comments on the program was this:

"One of our goals is to produce drivers who are competent and confident."



Luci, who hears everything, looked at me out of the corners of her eyes and said,

"Yeah.  I don't think so."

Autumn

I am loving all the color this season brings!

Neighbor's goofy dog

Purple.  The leaves are actually purple!

Love that pop of orange on the hill behind our house.  John is working in the backyard today, improving our fire pit.  He's in the photo somewhere--bonus points if you find him!

And, these two squirrels having fun during lunch time in our "school house."