Mary Catherine Rawlinson, CPA/Accountant-- Maybe????

A few nights ago, Mary Catherine was almost ready for bed and we heard her in the office area doing something. When I went in there I caught her with her Dad's glasses on typing on his adding machine. It cracked me up and I quickly grabbed the camera. When I asked her what she was doing she said..."being a counter and counting our money like my daddy!" So maybe she is going to be a CPA like her Dad. I do know when you ask her where she wants to go to college, she quickly replys..."Presbyterian College!" Guess she better start counting our money so we can afford to send her there. LOL! She is my daughter after all....GO HOSE!

Last Day of 3K---See Ya Later Perky Puppies!!!

See Ya Later Alligators...was the song the Perky Puppies sang at the end of the year program. They wore cute little Alligator hats. They looked so grown up. Mary Catherine is really going to miss Mrs. Laura Lee Justice and Mrs. Mary Crouch. They were awsome teachers! They adored all of the kids and the kids adore them!

We had an end of the year party yesterday out on the play ground. We had popcicles, chips and cool aid. Vicky's mom helped us make a cute puppie plate and mug for Mrs. Justice and Mrs. Crouch. We make Puppies out of our finger prints. Then Vickys Mom put our names on them and added, ears, eyes etc. They were sooooo cute. Mrs. Justice and Mrs. Crouch LOVED them. Issie's Mom brought the bubble machine, Austin's mom bught everyone balls. Gracie Howard's Mom brought popcicles and Mary Catherine and her Mom painted freezie cups with everyone's name on them and perky Puppies 2006-2007 and brought coolaid to go in them. It was such a FUN day!!!

It seems like just yesterday the Perky Puppies were starting the school year. They have all grown up so much. Meme & Mel Wright came up for the end of the year program. They took Mary Catherine back to Charleston with them for a special weekend. While in Charleston, Meme & Mel got Mary Catherine a new Bike to keep at their house. She really enjoyed learning to ride it. She enjoyed going out to lunch with Meme, Mel and Aunt Pam for Meme's birthday. Mary Catherine impressed Aunt Pam by writting her whole name on Meme's birthday card. She also payed a surprise visit to PopPop Rawlinson. Mary Catherine and Aunt Pam too Pop Pop to the mall and played on the frogs and had ice cream. What FUN! She also attended church with Aunt Pam and helped celebrate the birthday of the church she attends and Mary Catherine's Daddy grew up attending- Aldersgate Methodist Church.

Shrek, Chucky Cheese Hell & CiCi's Pizza

Today, I took Mary Catherine and RJ Lee to the movies to see Shrek 3. They loved it. It was okay but I am not a big cartoon fan. I only watch them because I am a Mom and it is my obligation at this point. I live for the day I get to go to the movies and see a real movie with "real" people who are not green or not wearing a cartoon princess crown in it. I am trying to think of the last "real movie" I saw in a theatre. I think it was WILD HOGS---which was SOOOO FUNNY. Anyway I picked the Kids up from All Saints and of course they wanted to go to one of my favorite places to have lunch---HAHA--- we all know better than this. Other than Chucky Cheese (which Flo, Jay, Kevin and I affectionately call...Chucky Cheese Hell) , Ci Ci's pizza is my least favorite eating establishment. I think that would be in the whole wide world as described in Cinderella. I don't know if it is because these places serve cheese (which I don't eat), I have watched too much CSI (where kids are snatched in places like that) or if CiCi's combines all of that with a Germ Buffet (which according to the abundance of the news programs I watch is just disgusting and a germ fest). I rarely eat at buffets or salad bars because it simply grosses me out. I really can't stand either of these locations. I really try to be positive about going with the kids but it is like torture to me. Every time we get a birthday party invitation to Chucky Cheese I run to my palm pilot praying I have a conflict. If I don't I then pray that Jen Jen doesn't have a conflict on her calendar as she LOVES to take kids to Chucky Cheese. If anyone ever gets an invite to a b-day party from one of my kids that is going to be held at a chucky cheese...you will know it is because I am in a mental hospital, have been kidnapped by aliens or am dead. LOL! Anyway we survived the CiCi's pizza and Shrek Day.

WHO AM I .... MARY CATHERINE RAWLINSON

We recently took Mary Catherine and Ella to see the Clydesdale Horses at Redbone Ally. What a huge horse! Mary Catherine wanted to ride him.

Mary Catherine is really growing up. She is a very smart girl with a delightful personality. She is afraid of silly things like bandaids, shadows, loud noises, frogs,worms, lizards and the dark. She isn't afraid of things that normal people are afraid of like heights, big animals and rides at carowinds. She is learning to use good manners. We require her to say, yes mam, no mam, thank you mam, please and excuse me. She is doing well with these things but still sometimes has to be reminded. We also are working on the correct way to ask for things and using correct grammer this Summer.

At our house we use a reward system for good behavior. At the end of each day we evaluate her behavior for the day and discuss ways we could change our behavior and do better tommorrow. She really seems to want to do her best and earn her reward at the end of the week. She is eager to please. We struggle with some sassing but we also know there are absolutely no warnings at our house for sassing, spitting, hitting, kicking, biting or ridding on the dog. Those are immediate No! No's! She is very careful not to cross the No No line. We also struggle with clean up time. We often hear...but I can't put it up by myself. We only give in if she didn't take it out by herself. I think that is a stage they all go through. My mother seems to think my sibblings and I are still in this stage...I know my husband is. Mary Catherine doesn't like and has never liked bath time. It has always been a nightmare. She has a thing about getting her face wet. We are starting to put she and Ella in at the same time and it seems to be helping.

Mary Catherine has a bubble gum pink bedroom with white wicker furnishings and green and pink accessories. She also has lots of disney princess stuff in her room. She loves the princesses. Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White. Her favorite movie is Snow White. Her room is a sweet but she has out grown it. We will make changes in the next house.

Mary Catherine is learning to read small words and loves her books. Her favorite book continues to be Ariel and her favorite color is light blue. She loves to wear her disney princess pj's. Her favorite food is Fetticini Alfredo. She loves white noodles. For now Mary Catherine's favorite toys are... her swing set, outdoor bouncy castle, her barbies, Big Baby, Big Boy, Flo Bunny, Boop Boop (the pillow), blankie and pink blankie. She also enjoys her keyboard and her ariel castle for the polly pocket size princesses. Her best friend continues to be RJ Lee.

Currently, Mary Catherine has an obcession with cutting paper and things up into tiny little shreds. They get all over everything and it drives us nutz. She makes list for everything. She also likes to keep junk. This includes tags off of new clothes, ribbons off of packages, paper that she has made list on months ago and anything broken. She thinks GAGA can fix anything. Any thing that is broken is taken or given to Gaga to fix. A number of items given to her later have to just disappear from her house as they can't be fixed.

MCR's Photo In The Scoop

Recently, Mary Catherine's photo was in the Scoop Magazine when she attended a horse show with Sissy and Gaga in Lexington South Carolina. Her Aunt Jenny writes for the paper and takes photos at horse shows. In the magazine, the photo was from the shoulders up so you couldn't tell she actually already has on her tootsie roll pj's! She likes to go to the horse shows. After a lot of contemplation, Kevin and I sold her pony Prince Charming. He wasn't exactly what we wanted for her and we really didn't have anywhere to keep him that it wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg. Thou she is a very good ridder and sits a horse very well, we felt like it was too expensive to have a horse that she didn't ride everyday. We have told her that when she gets older and wants to take lessons, we will lease a horse for her and she can take lessons. We are in the process of selling our house and farm in the country and moving into town. That plan just doesn't go with owning a horse.

On the way home from the horse show, there was a pretty Carolina moon. Celia was telling Mary Catherine to look at it and if she concentrated very hard she could see the whole moon. Celia said Mary Catherine was very quiet for a moment and then she asked, "Sissy, do you think you could teach me how to concentrate real hard?" Celia about fell out the car. Mary Catherine then proceeded to tell her about how when she was three (anytime she is telling a tale...it takes place when she was three) that her Daddy was holding her outside and the moon waved at her. Whew...we have a BIG imagination!

Mothers Day Program

Today the perky puppies performed a Mothers Day program. They sang 3 songs for their Mom's. We were then invited to their room for muffins and juice as a special Mother's Day Treat. It was a very cute program. Gaga McLaughlin, Aunt Flo and Uncle Jay joined Mommy and Daddy in the audience for this program. We had parent teacher conferences with Mrs. Justice this week. Seems Mary Catherine is exelling in all academic areas. She knows her address, birthday, can count to 36, knows all of her colors, all of her shapes. can cut a straight line, knows all of her letters, and can spell her name. She is really doing well at All Saints. We have been very impressed with the school, the program there and the teachers. She will be attending full day 4K next year from 8am-2:15pm. They feel she is ready to move up to the Fast Cheeta class with Mrs. Bennoit who was teacher of the year this past year. Mary Catherine took swimming lessons at the YMCA this month. I wish I could say she did as well with Swimming as she did with school but she did not. She does not like to get her face wet. She didn't pass the pikes swimming class and is going to have to retake it this Summer. I worry that we are going to struggle with our swimming skills. We are going to try again in July to get this first class under our belt.