Emily's Birthday

As you all know, Emily's birthday was this past Sunday, the 8th.  She turned 9 years old.  We had a little family party on the day of her birthday. We celebrated by opening gifts first thing in the morning, of course, and then cake after lunch.  For dinner, Emily chose to go to Frankie's, a local Italian restaurant with really good garlic rolls.

We had her party today (Saturday).  She invited 3 friends from school and along with her sisters, we all went to the Tellus Museum.  Tellus is a science museum just north of Atlanta in Cartersville.  (http://www.tellusmuseum.org/ in case you are interested).  The 3rd grade at Emily's school had gone to Tellus on a field trip a couple of months ago and she decided she really wanted to go again.  Apparently on the field trip they did not get to go into all of the galleries.  I must say, it was a pretty neat museum.  There was a lot to do and see.  We had planned to only spend 2 hours there but could have spent at least 3. 

After the museum, we stopped at a Chick-Fil-A on the way home for lunch.  Once home, we had Oreos and hot chocolate followed by ice cream cake.  Then after we got them good and sugared up, we sent them home. 

I think everyone had a really good time.  I even heard a couple of the girls say, "Emily, your party was the best birthday party ever!"  What more can you say??

Now for the barrage of pictures;



One of the galleries was the fossils gallery.  They had some impressive looking dinosaurs. 

This picture was taken in the motion gallery.  LeeAnne didn't care to climb into the giant space suit to have her picture taken but Emily and Abbi were up for it.

They got to pan for minerals in the rocks and minerals gallery.  They got to keep whatever they found.  I know these stones look tiny, but they are treasures to a little girl, even one that is 9.

There was also a bone/fossil dig.  Here, you only get to keep one thing.  Most of the girls chose shark's teeth.

I would have liked to have gotten the whole dinosaur in this picture, but there were other people in the way and I didn't want them in the picture more.

The End. 

Christmas Morning

We told the girls they were not allowed to come wake us up until 7 AM.  So, right about 7 AM, 3 little excited girls came into our room. 

As they walked down stairs, the first thing they saw was their new bikes from Nana and Papa. 



The next thing they saw was their new American Girls Dolls.  Abbi in particular was excited to see that she got the one she wanted. 

And that's it.  That's all the pictures I took on Christmas.

Christmas Pics

I'm starting with pictures from Christmas.  There are sadly not that many.  These pictures are from Christmas Eve. 

We started out the day with a trip to the park.  Emily took this picture of Abbi and me.

Later that day, we walked to the catholic church that is near our house to see their live nativity scene.  It was really neat.  They even had a camel!  For some reason though, I don't really remember seeing a baby Jesus, just animals and shepherds.  Hummmm....  could someone be missing the point???

We ended the day with the kids getting to open 1 gift (a baby pillow pet from Mimi and Papa) and some Bible time.  Paul, Emily and Abbi took turns reading from the Bible about the birth of Christ.  

Then all the girls took turns playing Christmas songs on the piano while the rest of us sang along.  

(LeeAnne played Hot Cross Buns because that is the only song she knows.)

Daddy also got in on the action and played the guitar.  He and Emily even play a duet.  

Next time I'll show the 3 pictures I took on Christmas day.  Ya, I only took 3 pictures. 

Our McParty of Five

To my family,
This blog is for y'all.  It will not be available for public viewing (unlike my other blog; http://www.fishoutofwaterfamily.blogspot.com/.) This blog will be to keep you all up to date on our family here in Georgia.  You won't hurt my feelings if you don't want to read it.  You just may have to act like you know what I'm talking about if I happen to reference something I've written next time we are together. 

In case you have not been reading my other blog (http://www.fishoutofwaterfamily.blogspot.com/), you need to know that I love to use parenthesis and commas and they may not always be used properly.  Just let it go and deal with it.  It's my blog. 

I have no idea how often I may post something on this blog.  You can sign up for email alerts right here on this blog (see there, on the right, look up) so you will get an email any time I post something new.  I generally post on my other blog (http://www.fishoutofwaterfamily.blogspot.com/) about 4-5 times a month.

I had started posting new pictures on our old family website, http://mcelvyfamily.shutterfly.com/# but it can be a bit persnickety to use so I thought, "why not just start another blog but only for family?"  So I did.  And that's what this is.  I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures I post and reading my ramblings.  You may come away from this thinking we are a pretty boring family.  Sometimes we are.  But that's ok. 

This is just the introductory post.  I hope to begin with some pictures tomorrow.  I was kind of behind on posting pictures on the family website anyway.