Whew! It's been a crazy week!
Big Girl is finished with 8th grade and has celebrated her 14th birthday! 
Happy Birthday Mandy...I'm so proud of her. After being homeschooled for two years she adjusted incredibly well to her new environment and made Honor Roll for three straight quarters. Mandy's school offers a mentoring program for new students wherein upperclassmen take on the role of Big Brother, or in our case, Big Sister, to an underclassman. Here's our Big Girl (on the left in the brown dress) on Awards Night with her "Big Sister", Chelsea (who graduated Cum Laude this year, thank you very much!). 
Little Big Girl is also in full swing. Here she is celebrating her communion class graduation with her friends Madelyne and Emily 
...and she was the shining star in not one, but two class plays! There are 2 fifth grade classes at her school and they both did the same play...Guys and Dolls (without all the "grown-up" parts, as Allie would say). The girl who had the same role as Allie in the other 5th grade class could not be there for her class performance, so like the trooper she is, Allie stepped in and played both roles. The kids were so dang cute!
And guess what? I received two magazine comp copies the other day...I had 2 cards published in Take Ten, and my "Little Women" mini book was published in Gallery. Pretty cool mail surprise!
