To get back in the swing of things here are some things we did this summer
nothing grand but simple and fun!

We tried to attend Star Wars Weekends at MGM Studios in May
but this is all we saw.
Who new that Star Wars Weekend actually means just the weekend part! Ha!

In June I attended our National Thirty-One Conference at Disney!
Mickey, Minnie & Cindy opened the event in a Magical Way of course!
And I got to walk across the stage as a New Thirty-One DIRECTOR!!! Woo-Hoo!!!
(that's me with Cindy Monroe -founder & President of Thirty-One)




In July we celebrated the 4th in grand style.



And all summer long we introduced Tank Marie to the beach!
She absolutely loves it!




And here is what we are working on as we start fall.....

Changes are a coming!

Well as you can see here at the Halfmann Huddle we have gotten a facelift! What do you think? A more lengthy post is coming but till then this will have to do!

Sundays Comin

Pirates in St. Augustine?

We went into St Augustine for the day last Saturday.

Little did we know that the pirates had come to town! Did you know that in 1668 the English buccaneer Robert Searle attacked St. Augustine? The raid killed approximately 60 people and the buccaneers threatened to return. The inhabitants were so fearful of a repeat that they petitioned the Spanish Crown for funds to build a more solid masonry fort. Four years after the raid, construction was begun on the Castillo San Marcos, which stands to this date as the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.

Spring Time

It’s springtime here and up at the preschool that means we are hatching things. This year we went with ducklings. The last four years we have hatched chicks but never had very good luck (we would only get one or two) so we thought we would try ducks this year. We charted how many days till they would hatch and the kids really enjoyed checking on the duck eggs while they were in the incubator. Once they hatched the children enjoyed watching them in their crate. We got four ducklings and they are just the cutest things!

Even Tank Marie got in on the action. I brought the ducks home one day so we could keep an eye on them. John and I placed them up on our counters so that Tank couldn’t get to them. She was very curious about the ducks. She would just sit watching them for hours. When they would wake up and start cheeping (they don’t quack till they get bigger) she would come get one of us, crying till we would go in there and check on them. Even though we have taken the ducklings back to school she goes looking for them every once in a while.

Speaking of ducks we have quite a few in our pond out back. There have been two mallards chasing a female duck for days. They will chase her in the water and then she will come up on the banks and walk around. The boys will then come up the bank and when she thinks they are too close she flies away to the other side of the pond and the chase continues. Well they have lately been chasing her into our yard. It drives Tank crazy! She sits by the back door just watching them. One day last week I had a bunch of stuff to do in the kitchen so I let her lay in the backyard on her lead. And of course what happens? Those silly ducks chase the female right into our yard! The first time I happened to walk by the door right before the female climbed the hill into our yard. So I brought Tank inside. The next time I grabbed my camera and well you can see foryourself what happened.

So I had this great idea!

So I had this great idea. Now there is a loaded sentence! But really it was a great idea …it just wasn’t a simple as I thought it would be. John’s sister Christan and her hubby Jason had their baby on February 18th, a little girl. They named her Kaitlyn Paige and she is just so gosh darn cute!!! Thus where my great idea comes in to play. In high school loved to sew and I was pretty good. So I thought what a better baby gift then a good ole’ homemade baby blanket? A blanket that's simple...just straight lines I can do that!

Well come to find out my mom’s machine was no where to be found. The machine that my Granny gave me was broken and it was cheaper to buy a new machine then to have hers fixed. Who new that they didn’t make sewing machine parts from the 60’s anymore? After a couple months of research and a then quick look at the calendar and bank accounts I finally had to settle on the Singer Simple model. Yes! That's what it's called...Simple...it's endorsed by Martha Stewart. Can't do wrong with a Martha Product! I love it! It is so easy and simple to use and very user friendly.

When we were at Christan’s for Thanksgiving we had gone to this really great fabric store. She was looking for fabrics for KP’s nursery. Which was our project for that weekend (click here to see how the bedding turned out). After she left the store I ran back in a got some yards of two of the prints that she had liked. I found a pattern that also included a bib and hat that looked really simple. After a few practice stitches and stuff I started and well I think I did pretty good.

Snow in Florida?

I love teaching 3 year olds! I have ever told you that? Well I do and here's just a glimpse of why:

Precious 3 year old: Ms. Catheleen...Ms. Catheleen!! Guess What!?!

Me: What?

P 3yo: It's snowing this morning! It's snowed!

Me: I know I saw the frost on the ground and the trees this morning too!

P 3yo: no it's not Frost! It's snow! We need coats and hats and Glubs!!! Mommy let me where my glubs today... do you have glubs?

Me: Why yes I do have gloves but I didn't bring them with me today.

P 3yo: Well you should have! Your hands will fall off without your glubs!

I guess next time there is frost I should wear my glubs!
My hands might fall off don't you know!




John was ready for the frost!



Tank? Well she just wants to lay in the sun!



And how to you end a frost day?



With breakfast of course!

You can't really read the text very well here, but if you first, watch the slide show. It is short. To watch it, push the little triangle in the lower left corner. When it is over, a black screen appears with Replay at the top. Under that it says URL with http (etc.) in a box, then it has a copy button. Click the copy button. Open a new web browser window then "paste" into the address box at the top of the web browser and hit enter!

I think it's worth watching on a bigger screen but that could be because it took me 4 hours to create this!! But I enjoyed it every step of the way! It's a great website! It's super easy and fun to use! Thanks Melinda for posting one on your blog and getting me addicted to scrapblog!

I did it... I'm finally caught up!

I did it... I'm finally caught up! It took me most of today but it's done. I am the worst blogger in the whole world! That is one of my many goals this year is to be a better blogger and a more savvy blogger. We will see how that goes! Thanksgiving - January 12th is below! Nothing has happened since then but as soon as it does I'll let ya'll know. Read below if you care to be caught up with the Halfmann Huddle!

ThirtyOnderful

On December 31st I DIQ'ed which means that I am now a Director in Qualifying! Whoo Hoo! I started with Thirty-One in February of 2008 and in December I DIQ'ed. I am so proud of myself, I just had to toot my own horn, as Cindy says. Because of this I got to participate in our Thirty-One Leadership conference in Atlanta. We had an awesome conference and I learned so much more about the awesome company and ways to help build & strengthen my team. I got to meet Cindy Monroe the founderr and president of Thirty-One. And I got to network with a lot of other great ThirtyOnderful women. I received lots of great tips of the trade that I can't wait to put into action! We got to see a sneak preview of the new Spring/Summer line. And we found out that in April we are launching a new line called 31Kids! It will be a special catalog filled with great baby and kids products. And in June we are launching out new Tween & Teen line called Directions.

I can't wait to see all the new stuff!

The View from our room of Atlanta// Julie Moorehead, Me, & Cindy Monroe// Courtney Hawkins & Kim Washington


The home office staff// Me, Kim & Penny Evans

The week after we had spring regionals in Tampa. I had the great privilege to help with this meeting. My director Kim and her director Courtney asked me to present the way I do my Thirty-One home shows. I was extremely anxious and nervous about it but I did it and will it couldn't have gone better. Well that's what I was told. Me being me I can think of about 6 things I should have done and about 5 things I shouldn't have but they don't know what I left out.




Some of gift Ideas using products from the new Spring/Summer Line.
Sneak Preview..... Just for YOU!!!