This past weekend we went to my dad's house for the annual end of summer get together. We usually do August but we could not get together in August so it was pushed to September. My dad has a pool so luckily the weather was still great for swimming. We had a great time.
We did not get to do this last year since my dad was in the hospital so it was good to do it this year.
Okay...first things first - I am the WORST aunt in the world because I don't think I have given my new niece, Sloane Elizabeth, her Stringfellow blog debut. I know I blogged about my sister being pregnant but no "baby news" or introductions of my new niece. I guess if you aren't royalty these days, no one fusses over your birth. She was born June 27th and in a nut shell - she is awesome! We all love her to pieces. She is 10 weeks old (ish) and she was able to spend the weekend at my dad's with her crazy family.
First order of business - dressing her in this UT garb (of course) to cheer on the Vols as they played Western KY.
Next order of business.....putting her in this ridiculous swim cap that my sister and I bought for her when she was a couple of weeks old. Long story short, but we were at Babies r Us with way too much time on our hands and Nell walked away with this beauty off the clearance rack. Sloane didn't seem to mind it - it's pretty funny!
The older girl cousins....Elaina, Celia, Sadie, Alexandra
Nell and Dave and their sweet baby girl (still content in the swim cap)
As the dipped her feet in the pool, her mood progressively got worse....
See....
Okay, she's calm again...
I seriously could not take enough pictures of her this weekend.....
My dad with all his grandkids - now totaling 6
More Sloane pictures - previous pictures did not show it, but this is what her head looks like :)
Elaina wanted her picture taken with Sloane - Elaina likes being the "big" cousin for the first time.
Elaina took the next round of pictures........as you will be able to tell.
And, before the girls left - one final shot of Elaina with her favorite people in the world....
And, as I end my blog most every time....it was a great weekend! My family is awesome, but I am a bit biased. Love them all!
Elaina attended Cheer Camp at her school. It's a week long program at her school to help raise money for the HS school cheer leading team. They have this every year and last year she did not go. For 2 weeks afterwards last year, I heard about how she did not go and she wanted to go. So, this year, she was telling me all about it long before sign ups even happened. So, we went for it. There are a million stories/reasons this is not my ideal thing for her but she is only 6 and it was only 1 week....so we went for it.
Turns out.....it was pretty cute and very fun for her. I was glad she did it. She got to stay after school a couple of hours all week with her friends (which she loved) and learn some cheers/dance that they did at halftime of the football game that Friday. As long as she had fun, that is all that matters, I suppose.
She told us little to nothing about what she learned so we were totally surprised and didn't know what to expect. Check her out here....the video is just okay, I was dodging other people's heads/arms trying to get video of Elaina...She is the one in the middle, just to the left of the blond High School cheerleader on the left.
She was a "flyer" so they call it which means you are on the top (apparently). I don't know cheer speak. She loved it. And, they did a dance thing. It was cute. Again, I was glad she got to do it - she did love every minute of it.
Before the game they had a family fun night complete with inflatables, face painting, games, food - what's not to love about that. We went with her friend Gracee and her mom
Gracee and Elaina doing a pre-game pose - Go Rams!
Minutes before her big debut ;)
Elaina and her teacher, Ms. Caris
Elaina in front of the Ram
One final pose with her buddy Gracee before we headed home.
We didn't stay for the whole game since it was late but the Rams won. That's a good thing.
Running a little behind on my blogging these days....No reason. Just have not made time to sit down and do it. Labor Day weekend and the weekend prior to that, we made time to spend at my mom's lake house. This was the first full summer of having this place to hang out at. The weather was not kind to us so not as much time was spent down there as we had hoped. But we spent the official last 2 weekends of summer down there. Swimming, skiing, canoeing...fun.
Sadie and Celia brought friends from Nashville - Camilla is on the right
Sadie and Chloe
Sadie skied
Celia skied
Elaina did this thing....called a Bob sked. Half knee board/half float thing. She loves it, it's a great way to get used to being pulled by a boat. You can sit/kneel and even stand on it. These pics she just laid on her belly but the 2nd weekend we were there she got up on her knees.
Super proud of her for being brave. She apparently did this when she went camping this year with my mom and Gale but this is the first time I saw her do it.
Here is a video....this is the kind that will make you woozy - sorry. And, it's a bit boring...
