SMHG 2010

Stone Mountain Highland Games 2010.

Wow, what a beautiful weekend for a Scottish Festival. We could not have asked for better weather, especially after last year's experience (click here to read about it). We weren't even sure if we would be able to make it to the games this year because of all the schools P has to go to, but thankfully it worked out beautifully. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

P and his mom are the only two that have their full dress so far. Ben's kilt is being made right now and I finally ordered a peasant dress. Now all I have to do is order the tartan fabric to go with it.

Rodney was able to join us at the festival this year. He made it to the GMHG, but only for a short amount of time. This festival he was able to walk around and enjoy a lot more.

Clan Hay tent.

The rest of the pictures are just random pictures of the crowd. I just wanted to show how many people were there and give a general idea of what everything looked like.

Stone Mountain Highland Games were AWESOME this year!!! We had a blast!

More from the Hays girls' photo shoot!

Such sweet sisters! They really are so kind to each other. I see other siblings interact that aren't so nice to each other and it makes me so thankful that they are so good!! I just know they will grow up to be the best of friends! (At least in mommy's head they will be!)

Now these are some keepsake photos (and probably some good ones for blackmailing later in life!!) of the girls showing off their dance moves. Gotta love it!

Camping out

Last week was my school's fall break. Unfortunately the girls and I don't have the same schedule this year so they didn't have a break. That didn't stop us from keeping them home one day to camp out and enjoy the weather though....oops! (I think it was okay for Miss Priss to miss one day...she made A/B honor roll, so she's not falling behind!;)) The weather was too perfect not to go camping! (Sorry for the blurry pictures, that's what happens when you try to take pictures in the dark!)

We surprised the girls by having the tents, chairs and fire ring set up and ready to go when they got home on Wednesday. They were so excited. Papaw and D joined us for hamburgers, hotdogs and smores. We couldn't talk them into staying overnight though!

P's newest "invention". He took an old pitching machine, cut the top off, turned it upside down, concreted it into the ground, attached some angles to the sides and bolted a piece of expanded metal to it to make a campsite grill. How cool!!! These things are very expensive in outdoor catalogs and P didn't spend a dime on it! He's SOOOOOO creative!

I was a little worried about the girls and whether or not they would be okay sleeping outside. Thankfully Little Bit fell asleep in D's arms in front of the fire and then slept all night. Miss Priss stayed up to drink some hot tea with us for a while then crawled in next to Little Bit with no problem. The only one that whined in the middle of the night was poor little Shelby! She just wanted to get in the tent too!! 

The next morning we packed it all up, rode the golf cart back to the house and enjoyed the rest of the day. All in all I think they enjoyed the experience. This was actually Little Bit's 1st time to camp and only Miss Priss's 2nd time. I was quite relieved to know that they are ready for the great outdoors. (Even if it is just in the woods behind the house!)

Homestead Hollow Fall 2010

It's that time of year again and boy am I glad to see it. Fall is everywhere around us, especially at Homestead Hollow. This past Sunday we decided to make our annual trip up the road to walk around Homestead Hollow. Even though we have been every year and seen everything there a million times, we still look forward to visiting. I like to go for the food myself, but the crafts and pioneer demonstrations are pretty cool too. I love that the girls are able to see the way people used to have to do things like make soap and candles.

Unfortunately P had drill this weekend and wasn't able to join us. But we had fun walking around with Papaw and D for the day. Hopefully he will be able to join us next time.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but I just didn't want to lug my big camera around all day!!

Posing when we first arrived. It was a little chilly that morning, but man did it feel nice!!

 The girls think they have to ride the ponies every time we go. Miss Priss even saved up all her tooth fairy money so she could spend it at Homestead Hollow.

Papaw riding the wagon with the girls.

Autumn Leaves

Fall is FINALLY here! Thank heavens! It seems like we've had about 6 months of summer this year and I am thrilled to see the signs of fall all around! The leaves are falling, the weather is cooling off and I swear I can already smell the candied apples and funnel cakes at Homestead Hollow.

Because the weather has been absolutely PERFECT this week, the girls and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and snap a fall photo shoot. I've been taking pictures of other people for a while now, so it was time to do a photo shoot with my own girls. Here are some of the precious shots we captured while playing in the leaves.

More from the rest of the photoshoot to come!