Family shots

We really need to have a picture taken of the four of us. We have lots of me with the girls and a of Will with the girls, but not very many of the four of us and definitely not in the last 6 months!

These ones were taken this morning. The girls and I were off to church and Will was off to chop down the fallen tree in our driveway. He was just finishing up as we pulled into the driveway three hours later. Perfect timing!

Sophia and Will went to a neighbors house for the Redskins game while Lilly and I stayed back so she could take a nap and I could putz around the house. Another instance of perfect timing because Lillian woke up a minute before Will arrived home. I immediately left the house to go on a run. I felt like I was kid-less all day. It was a nice change of pace.

Cameron's birthday party

Sophia and I went to Cameron's 4th birthday party this afternoon. We pulled up to an enormous princess bounce house. Sophia loved it and wasn't even scared. (yay!) She's definitely gaining some confidence and bravery the older she gets.

Cameron, Addie, Sophia and Haley all had fun playing in Cameron's bedroom after most of the guests had left. The only way I could bribe them to sit on the bed together for this photo was to tell them each to grab a stuffed animal, a "stuffy", and sit down on the bed with it. All four of them grabbed one and hopped up for a photo. It only took 6 takes.

It's still raining

Day one: It's a warm rainy day. Not too bad.

Day two: The worst of it is rolling through today. Winds of 70miles per hour. Our neighbor's tree fell down in our driveway. Thank goodness the Exploder is in the shop or the tree would have fallen on Will's car because the truck is usually parked in front of Will's car. We lost power for almost 2 hours early in the afternoon and then again at 6:00 PM. It's a good thing I have a million candljavascript:void(0)es. Our entire first floor was fully lit. Will and I finally went to bed at 10:30 and the lights still weren't on yet. (I was bitter that I missed my favorite TV show, Project Runway. Hopefully I can catch it on a rerun.)

Day three: We woke up without power and it's still raining! The lake behind our house is dangerously high on the opposite side from our house. We got our power back on at noon. I drove Sophia all the way to school only to discover that they didn't have power either so they were closed today. In the process we must have gone through a foot of water and past at least 5 houses that got flooded and were sitting in water. It's really flat here.

Will took these photos this afternoon.

The Hokey Pokey

Sophia knows the Hokey Pokey. She was singing it in the bathtub the other day. By the time I actually ran downstairs to get the camera to film her, she didn't feel like singing anymore...surprise, surprise! Here's what I was able to get:



Once she realized I was video taping her she quickly turned nasty and started fighting with Lilian. Take a look:

Coastal Storm Brings Awful Weather

Yep, we're getting POUNDED with rain. A full blown Nor'easter. The schools are all canceled today and it's really miserable outside. On a cheerier note, Sophia loves to play in the rain and yesterday morning she got all decked out in her rain gear and went outside to have some fun. The fun didn't last long and she was back inside within a half hour. I think it was too windy for her.

We had a fun day inside not doing much of anything and today will be more of the same. Maybe we'll make a cake. Speaking of cake, here's a conversation I had with Sophia yesterday:
Sophia: Mommy, do Moms get presents on their birthdays?
Shirley: Some Mommys do.
Sophia: Oh. Will you get a cake for your birthday?
Shirley: Who's going to make the cake? You and Daddy?
Sophia: You're the cooker, Mommy. You have to make the cake.
(I laughed so hard and her calling me the cooker).

In the afternoon Sophia and I played school while Lilly was rummaging though their bathroom drawers. At Sophia's parent/teacher conference last week Mrs. Harden told me that Sophia is ready to get her first phonics book and start learning how to read, BUT she can't put her into the book until Sophia can write her upper case letters. Mrs. Harden must have said it 10 times...she's ready to read! We've been practicing writing her letters at home, but I'm sure she listens to Mrs. Harden better than Mom or Dad. She goofs off every time I try to work with her. I bought her a few phonics story books and we've been reading them to her at night.

Back to our pretend school yesterday:

I wrote the word C-A-T on her chalkboard and she immediately said CAT. Wow, I thought. I said how about this one and I immediately wrote the word R-A-T underneath C-A-T. Sophia shouted out BEAR! HA HA

One more thing about Sophia's parent/teacher conference. Mrs. Harden stated a number of times that Sophia is really bright. She came into the year knowing her shapes, colors, letter and their sounds, and numbers. She can count all the way to 30 (not something a lot of kids her age can do). Mrs. Harden was especially please by her ability to rhyme words too. She said not many kids can do that at age 3. Sophia was described as a sweet little girl with two very opposite sides: One is sensitive "boo hoo" as Mrs. Harden put it and the other side is "domineering" at times. I had to completely agree with Mrs. Hardens synopsis, but all in all I'm so happy that I got a fantastic report about Sophia, my big girl.

Bathtub songs

Listen to my other natural-born performer. Lilly does an awesome rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus" in the bathtub and then she shows off some of her words.

My girls

Tried to get a good picture of the girls at the aquarium yesterday when we went for a nature hike. The girls had a blast, but didn't get a good closeup of them together. You can tell they were having "fun" together. Take a look at the photos...

Why am I awake at 4:30 in the AM?

This is completely unlike me, but I can't sleep so I decided to come downstairs, have some coffee and blog about it. The coffee is because I know it's going to be a long day and the blogging is because I need to vent!

Since Will is out of town for the night Sophia asked me to sleep with her in her teeny tiny full size bed. It's actually a great size bed for two people, but she likes to squirm and wriggle all night long. I've slept with her before and never noticed it, but this time I swear I felt her touching me all night long. It was either a foot or a knee or a hand or something. I'm not the kind of person that likes to be cuddled or touched when I'm sleeping and she just wouldn't leave me alone. At one point I woke up to her scratching my back with ONE finger. Strange.

I went into my room before I headed downstairs and I found Sadie sprawled out on my side of the bed. It kind of stinks that my dog gets to sleep in a California King size bed while I'm down here wishing I could sleep. Actually it's pretty nice to be the only one awake enjoying some peace and quiet.

Next I will take a long shower in silence. I can't wait to relish every single second of it. Normally I only have a few minutes in the morning to shower and get ready for the day because if I don't do it while Will is getting ready for work then I'm fighting two kids opening the shower door, rummaging through my stuff and just getting into trouble.

So I say hello to Thursday! Please be a good day.

Sophia jumping in the hay

I just found this video. It was taken when Nana and Poppy were here and we went to Hunt Club Farm. It's cute...you can see Sophia having fun in the large haystack.

I tried...

I mentioned before that I've been trying to get a photo of the girls in their matching purple princess costumes. Well, so far I haven't been able to. This photo is as close as I've come. They both had their dresses on over top of their clothes yesterday, but wouldn't let me snap a shot of them together. I got a few separates. Take a look.

Snow White and the two dwarfs

GRUMPY
HAPPY

A rough day

Not for me. For Sophia. She bit the side of her tongue this morning and literally cried about it all day. Probably every 1/2 hour she remembered that she bit it or perhaps she kept re-biting it, but like clockwork she would cry out that her tongue hurt.

If that wasn't bad enough, Will is on an overnight work trip so she didn't have Daddy to read her stories tonight and tuck her into bed. That's truly one of the high points of her day.

On top of that she suddenly became scared to go to bed. The going to bed process took almost an hour tonight because she was so worked up about monsters, spiders, ghosts, dragons, bats & bad, scary things. I guess I blame Halloween for her new fears or maybe it's just a 3-year old phase.

The only thing that seemed to go right in Sophia's world today was that she was the line leader at school. This is a coveted position and she looks forward to it every M/W/F.

Tomorrow I'm going to her parent/teacher conference at 10 and then we're trying to get to the Aquarium by 11 so we can go on their adventure hike. We've gone once before and she and Lilly both loved it. We've got Sophia's dance class from 4-5 and that always proves to be a fun time. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is a better day or at least her tongue is healed.

Halloween Party

Our party was a huge success. All of the kids had so much fun, in fact each mom emailed me the next day and told me so.

I didn't take very many pictures, but the ones I did take are on flickr.com. You can see them here.

She was the loudest kid!

These videos are from Sophia's Halloween show at school. She dressed up as a ballerina and even let me put her hair into a ballerina bun. Tomorrow she'll be the hula girl for trick-or-treating because it's supposed to be 80 degrees! (Yeah!) The Halloween show was awesome and she was the loudest kid in all of the songs that she was part of. She was really hamming it up on "stage". A natural performer.

Chris is the boy on the left. Adrianna is the girl in the middle. Addie wasn't at school today.

Halloween Festivities

We've got a big weekend planned (again). On Friday morning we're going to the Rec Center for a Halloween Parade. I think the format goes like this: open play for 1/2 hour, snack and craft for 1/2 hour and then a trick-or-treating parade from the Rec Center to the Library. Fun fun.

Sophia's got a parade at school at 12:45 and then a special Halloween party. All of the food at the party will be orange in honor of the holiday. Sophia's bringing Cheetos and Halloween cupcakes that we made/decorated today. She's also giving the three other children a treat bag filled with candy and goodies.

I'm not sure what her costume is going to be for these two parades. If it's nice she wear her hula outfit or maybe her ballerina outfit. I'm leaning toward the ballerina outfit, but we'll see what she wants to be. (Probably a princess)... The best thing about Friday is that Will is going to stay home from work so he can come with us.

On Saturday we're having a Halloween party at our house. We will have a total of 24 people - 12 kids (all ages) and 12 adults. I've got some fun games planned for the kiddos. I put up cobwebs and different types of pumpkins all over the house. It looks very festive and Sophia is beside herself with excitement. The fun starts at 3 and then we're going to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood together.

On Sunday we're going to Zoo Boo at, guess where, the Zoo. We've gone in the past and it's been really fun. Tons of vendors will be there handing out candy and trying to get us parents to sign our kids up for various classes. We'll pass, thank you. We've got enough activities already. This will be an extra special visit to the Zoo because Sophia just finished a month of studying zoo and jungle animals at school. A visit to the Zoo is just what the "teacher" ordered.

Sophia and her "friends"

Sophia is accumulating friends rather quickly. These friends include Lamby, Kitty (the black one from Aunt Carole), Big Dora, Little Dora, Little Diego, three beanie babies, and her brand new cat called Lulu. You should see her trying to carry all of them around the house. All of her friends share one pillow in her bed and she sleeps on the other one.

Yesterday she got Lulu at BJ's and has been grooming, cuddling and talking to her new friend ever since. This cat moves like a real cat and meows like a real cat and even feels like a real cat. This is as close to a real cat as she's going to get.

Someone's a little tired.

What a weekend.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Halloween at various places.

On Friday we went to the My Gym Halloween party. Sophia fell asleep in the car on the way there so her transition into a party mood took some time, but once she warmed up there was no stopping her fun. Haley and Addie were there too. They all looked cute. Sophia was a hula girl, Haley was a cat (the same costume that Sophia was last year) and Addie was Minny Mouse.

Lillian was a Happy Birthday girl. She took off exploring on her own as soon as we got there. This kid has no fear. The opposite of her sister. Lillian really liked it when the staff turned on the bubble machine. I got the girls a bubble machine for the bathtub and Lilly loves it when it's turned on and blowing bubbles all over her.

After dance class on Saturday we went to Taylor Farm with Haley for a picnic lunch and to explore their harvest festival. It was awesome. They had a bounce house that the girls were lucky enough to have all to themselves for a while. They also had several wooden structures for play: a firehouse, a pirate ship, and a cozy house that had a kitchen scene painted on the inside. It was so neat. The girls were serving breakfast to us.

I think Sophia's favorite part was the baby goat pen. You can hold the babies and fee them leaves. Sophia tried to hold one with Michelle's help, but changed her mind right away. We would have stayed in that pen petting the goats all day had I not bribed Sophia out of there.

After Taylor Farm Sophia and I quickly stopped by home to pick up Lilly and Will and headed to Hunt Club Farm. Guess what?!? Sophia actually rode the Ferris wheel. I honestly thought that she would chicken out, but she's been asking to go on it for two weeks now so I guess she knew what she wanted. We seem to drive past it on a daily basis and every time she announces that she's going to ride it. She chose to ride with Will so I sat with Lillian and she loved it just as much as Sophia did. We also rode the helicopter ride which goes around and around and allows you to lift or lower the helicopter "car". Believe it or not the four of us were able to fit into one helicopter (and it's supposedly a kids ride).

When we were done with the rides and after we got some cotton candy we headed over to the bounce house obstacle course. This was perfect for Sophia because they only let one kid on the course at a time. She climbed up the walls, she went under and over and through where she needed to, and most importantly she did it all on her own. She really is losing a bit of her shyness. Her face just beamed when she slid down the last slide at the end of the course.

Lillian was a little tired so she was a tad fussy, but she looked so darn cute in her Halloween shirt. Poor Lilian wanted to do everything that Sophia was doing. She even tried to hoist her leg up onto a step to get into the chicken coop (So gross. I would have been a terrible farmer.)



Today I took the girls to Sophia's Halloween dance party. I bought some raffle tickets and Sophia was lucky enough to win the first prize. Surprise, surprise she chose the only stuffed animal on the table and it happened to be a beanie baby bear called Decade. Sophia dressed in one of her princess costumes. Lillian wore her Halloween costume.
This evening we went to the Harvest Fest at church. Sophia loved all of the games and she won candy at every game station. Lillian even got a few pieces of her own.

So busy..

This weekend and next are jam packed with Halloween activities. We're so excited. At least I am. Here's the run down: (and to be completely honest I'm documenting this so I can take a mental picture and not miss anything this weekend and so that Will will read it and know what's coming down the pike for him.)

Friday
Sophia at school until 3
My Gym Halloween Party at 4:30. Come in costume.
Dinner with Haley
Kickball Game @ 8:30. Come in uniform.

Saturday
10:45-11:45 Make up dance class
Go to Taylor Farms with Haley for a picnic lunch (a new place for us) and their pumpkin patch.
3:00 Hunt Club Farm with a group of friends (again)

Sunday
9:45 Church (this may be the thing that we end up skipping. Halloween only comes once a year!)
12:30 Meet Haley at Pizza Hut for lunch before the Halloween Party for their Dance School. Party starts at 1:00. Come in costume.
5 - 7 Harvest Fest at church and I signed all of us up for it. Sophia will love it. Come in costume.

A new play ground

Yesterday we went to a new play ground with Haley and Carlie. Haley and Sophia had a blast running around together. They thoroughly enjoyed every inch of the play ground especially the slides, swings and climbing things. Even Lillian and Carlie had fun together.

After our picnic lunch a few more kids arrived and one mom also brought her dog with her. This dog was fantastic around kids and it was off the leash (and NOT running away the whole time. Sophia made a beeline for the dog so Haley followed suit. They must have run over a mile trying to keep up with that dog! He was really soft too.

You should have seen Sophia and Haley hugging each other to the point of falling down on top of one another. It was probably two weeks since the girls had an official play date and they are best friends so I can see how they would have been so excited to play together. In fact, Sophia told me that Haley was her cousin and her best friend. Cute.

Up and Down

Here's Lilly showing off a few of her new tricks.

Friday was a full day

Our weekend sure was jam-packed.

I signed the girls up for a Bounce House Carnival at the Rec Center on Friday morning. It lasted from 10 - 11. They had two big bounces that Sophia thoroughly enjoyed to the fullest extent. She was one of the biggest kids there, although not the oldest by far. I saw the sign in sheet and there were several 4-yr olds there. Lilly didn't care for the bouncy thing at all. She preferred walking around and scavageing for food. She found my bag of "bribery" animal crackers - the ones I bust out when in dire emergencies or to prevent tantrums. She also found Sophia's bag of carnival popcorn. Nobody messes with Sophia and her popcorn. It's one of her dearly beloved foods.

The carnival also had face painting. I stood in line forever and the when it was her turn Sophia got a cat painted on her face, of course. If it's not a cat, it's a dog. (Maybe she'll be a vet). A coloring station was set too. I really think this was Lilly's favorite part because she's feels like such a big girl sitting in the chairs.

Then I dropped Sophia off at school and Lilly and I ran a few errands and then finally picked Sophia back up from school at 3:00. We had a kickball game that night too. I failed to mention earlier that it was the dreariest, rainiest, darkest, dampest Friday that we've had in the long time! It was a gross day. Anyway, the rain picked up just as we pulled into the kickball field, but we played anyway. It was cold and wet and miserable, but our team won. Sophia slept away the entire game in the car. Lilly watched through the car windows.

On Saturday it didn't rain, but it was frigid and windy. We went to the Harvest Fest at the Farmer's Market. A few years ago when Will and I went to visit Mike and Misty, my parents took Sophia to the Harvest Fest. It really was some "down home" fun...mud, pigs, bees, pumpkins, hay rides, honey, tractors and all. As soon as we got there Sophia wanted some cotton candy and then she was afraid of it when it was handed to her! Lilly took that as her opportunity to pounce.

Sophia got her face painted next. Guess what she chose? If you guessed cat then you were right. Then we made a few crafts, ate some lunch, braved the cold weather, rode on some tractor tricycles, milked a cow, held a baby duck, and froze our butts off. But we did it in the name of family. I loved every minute of it.

After we left the Harvest Fest Sophia and I went to Cameron's house for a play date. We left there around 4 because the Guthrie twins were coming at 5 for a few hours so their parents could go out to dinner.

The fun didn't stop with Saturday. Oh no, the fun continued well into Sunday. For Will it started at 4AM because he and his buddies drove up to DC for the Wash Redskins game. For us girls it didn't end until 4PM when the Contemporary Art Center closed down the Free Family Fun Day activities.

See all the photos.

Next weekend is even more jam-packed with festive activities. Shhh...don't tell Will.

Just singing in the rain. . .

Sophia got a new pair of galoshes. These ones are Hello Killy and pink! She loves them. Here she is singing in the rain. Yes, she's sitting on her umbrella.

Her future's so bright. . .

They came and went

My parents were here this week for a short, but sweet visit. They arrived on Sunday afternoon and left on Wednesday morning. Sophia was in her glory, as usual when she's with a grandparent. Sunday evening was very laid back. Sophia entertained us the entire night. Here she showing off her pirate costume and playing the piano.

I had a few meetings on Monday and Sophia had school so Nana and Poppy had a lot of Lilly time. They came with me to drop Sophia off at school. They took her in and met Mrs. Harden. Sophia was so proud.

In the afternoon Nana took the girls around the block a few times. Sophia was on her tricycle and none of us could believe that she made it around once let alone two times.

Lilly enjoyed being pulled in the wagon. While they were out Sophia met some kids who had baby kittens and she got to hold a few of them. She couldn't wait to tell me and Daddy about it.

Tuesday was the really fun day.

We went to Hunt Club Farm which is basically a mile down the road from us. They offer hay rides, a petting zoo, four or five different wooden play grounds, an enormous mountain of hay, a couple of pumpkin patches and many wonderful settings to take great photos. I think I took 300 pictures and literally didn't get a good one of both girls looking and smiling at the camera! Same old story.

Anyway, Sophia really enjoyed the play grounds and there was one slide in particular that she kept sliding down. Her hair got more staticky the more she rode it. It was the kind of slide that was covered and tunnel like. You could see her smile beaming each time she emerged from the slide. Her favorite thing by far was the tire swing of which she became quite possessive!

Lilly enjoyed going down the slide a few times all by herself. She grinned from ear to ear. She really would have enjoyed the tire swing if she was welcomed to ride it. She had fun pushing around a big yellow toy dump truck and playing in the giant mound of hay.

We went to a pizza joint for lunch and then headed back to catch the hay ride which departs every hour. We took the 2:00 hay ride and then went back to the play ground, saw more animals, pet a cat, jumped in the hay, rode on the slide again, etc...until Lilly couldn't take anymore. She was practically falling asleep in my arms and I knew I had to get her to bed. Sophia and Nana stayed for another hour and then came home and crashed on the couch with some popcorn.

Nana and Poppy put the kids to bed that night while Will and I went out to eat. It sure was nice to get away for a little bit.

There was one point on Tuesday evening when Sophia and Nana were rolling a big ball back and forth. Lilly was in the corner of the room appearing to be interested in a toy, but when Sophia walked away for a moment Lilly made a beeline to play ball. She plopped down in the same exact spot that Sophia was sitting in and begged for the ball. It was so cute. Of course, the minute that Sophia realized that she wasn't the center of attention she was immediately back and demanding to play ball too.

When it was time for Nana and Poppy to leave Sophia got very quiet and shy. She didn't want to hug anyone good bye. About 10 minutes after they left Sophia told me that she was sad. I sat with her for a while until she felt better.

There are tons of photos to look at, but I really must edit out the bad ones before I publish a link.

I'll take Words & Phrases for 1,000, Alex

Lilly is starting to talk a bit. She says THANK YOU (and uses it in the right context), COOKIE (surprise, surprise), GOOD GIRL (I think I mentioned this before), DOGGIE (of course), SHOE (what can I say, this girl loves shoes.

She can make animal sounds too. She can ROAR and she can act like a monkey and say OO OO AH AH.

Norfolk Children's Festival

On Saturday we all went to the The Children's Festival at Town Point Park in Norfolk. The whole time we were there Will was nudging me that he was ready to leave and that we should wrap it up. I guess that's what the dads do - complain about being there because Haley's dad . We met Sophia's three best friends (and their families) there. It was raining when we arrived so we met Haley and at the indoor "Mermaid" area. The girls got arm tattoos, colored a few pictures and then danced on the pageant stage before the Little Miss Mermaid show began. We were literally in a sea of mermaids of all ages (1 - 65 yikes!). When it did eventually stop raining we headed outside for some more pandemonium.

Once outside we spent a lot of time in the Princess area where the girls got to dress up and have their pictures taken. This was the best photo I got of the four of them (Carlie, Lilly, Haley and Sophia). We also spent a ton of time having tea parties at the Alice in Wonderland area. The girls absolutely loved it.

We stood in line for about a half hour waiting to get Sophia and Haley's faces painted. They both chose to get dogs.

There are 124 photos to browse. I have to admit that I didn't have a chance to edit out the "bad" ones. Sorry there are so many to go through...

Isa & Pirate Piggie

Just for the record....

I've always thought that Sophia looks like Will and that Lillian looks like me.

Not very many people (in fact I can only think of one right now besides Will) agree with me.

In these pictures I hope you can see what I'm talking about a little bit.

Sophia looks like Will and Lillian looks like me.

Where are your feet?