Our first soccer game of the season

Sophia promised she would play. She was even allowed to eat a piece of candy with the promise that she would play.

She didn't play. In fact, she didn't stop sobbing the entire time. It was a fake sob and that made it 1,000 times worse. She did at least sit on the sidelines where the rest of the team waited to be substituted into the game. When any of her teammates approached her she immediately put her face in her hands and started sobbing harder. I was thinking that maybe it was her embarrassment that was making her cry harder...or maybe that's just me projecting.?

Actually, I'm immune to it at this point, but Will gets absolutely mortified when one of the girls (usually Sophia) has a meltdown in public. It really gets under his skin. Today was one of the last straws with Sophia acting like a baby like this. She was doing this at practice on Thursday too. For no reason. Well, no reason that Will and I can come up with and when we ask her it's always a different reason. I guess maybe she doesn't like soccer, but she's always really excited at home and over the summer she asked to play.

Maybe Spanish will be her thing. She begins Spanish class in 3 weeks. She'll be eating lunch at school and then she'll have Spanish I until 1:15. Lilly and I will have an hour to kill between the time we have to pick her up. I predict lots of trips to Target in our future.

Our cat and our dog

No, we didn't get a cat, but Sophia dressed up like one today. I got out our Halloween decoration bins and found all of our old costumes. There was a particular one that caught Sophia's eye. It was a cat costume that she wore 2 years ago. When she put it on it looked like a belly shirt with short capris pants. She crawled and followed me all over the house and when I would stop she would rub up against my leg. It was cracking me up. She and Sadie had a fun time playing "cat and dog".

Speaking of Halloween, I got costumes for the girls today. Sophia is going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Lilly is going to be Raggedy Ann. Done! One month early. I even have the shoes for Sophia's costume...and, just like Dorothy, she will not remove from her feet (as evidenced in the photo). She absolutely loves her new sparkly red shoes.

My latest rant

Shame on me. Shame on me for not investigating Lilly's preschool. I heard so many good things about this school. They are accredited to offer Kindergarten. Our pediatrician even commented that Kids of Grace is a good school. At this point, I'm trying to figure out what kind of "school" it actually is! It doesn't seem like school to me at all.

The philosophy's of the school seem to be a bit different than mine. I am way more interested in having Lilly learn things (like colors and shapes) rather than play all day. It seems like this school is way more focused on open, free play and...chapel. Lots of moms have different opinions on preschools and mine is not necessarily the best philosophy, but I think for my girls it's the way I want their social school engagements to go.

This is what I know they do on a daily basis:

• Open free play. When I drop her off all the kids are playing with toys scattered around the room. I don't think the room has nearly enough books to hold Lilly's attention for very long. As a coincidence, Lilly's teachers sent home a Scholastic Books fundraiser catalog and order form. It was NOT accompanied by a note of any kind. I thought that was pretty poor. I don't even know when the deadline is. On the order form it reads something like "If you place your order online then your classroom will earn a book". I will definitely be placing my order online.



• Go outside and play on the playground. I must confess it's an awesome playground. When Will and I used to attend service at that church we donated to the playground fund so it's nice that Lilly can take advantage of our contribution.



• Free play...yes, more free play. Sometimes they will get out play doh so I'm told.



• Circle time. I think the teachers read a story to the kids. I'm not really quite sure what goes on in circle time other than that.



• Potty/wash hands.



• Snack.



• More open play. When I pick her up at the end of the day she is again playing with toys scattered across the room.



• On Wednesday mornings they have chapel. I think they are a little too young to be marched down to the chapel and forced to sit quiet and still for 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for learning to say a prayer before snack, but I just think the chapel part is a little too much. Instead of chapel, I would like to see her do a craft of some sort, any sort. She's gone to school for 3 days now and has yet to bring home any artwork or craft. She did bring home a small fistful of homemade blue play doh on Monday, but come on!



• Blue (do they study it on a daily basis? I'm not sure.) They are supposed to be studying the color blue this month. Lilly does not know her colors. (Sophia and I are working with her, but everything is either YELL WOAH or GEEN.) Each month they will focus on different color. What a great way to have them learn colors. I feel like they could take it one step further and at least provide color pages and blue crayons if not a craft of some sort (are you seeing a pattern here). She has been to school for 2 weeks and hasn't brought home a single thing. When Sophia was in her 2-yr old preschool program she brought home a craft and a color page every day. They practiced things like pasting and eventually cutting. As a side note, I have dressed Lilly in blue every day to help her to learn the color. The teachers haven't said anything about it. Oh well. Perhaps I'm expecting too much.

Get this Pavlovian trick! I'm not a big fan. Why not just teach them with words...? When the teachers want the kids to clean up they ring a bell. They said that by the end of the year when the kids hear the bell they automatically clean up.

When I went to orientation I asked if they have parties and celebrate things like Valentine's Day and Halloween. The teacher, Ms. Brenda, looked at me like I was a little nuts. She said they do things for those holidays. I hope they make a big deal out of it because Sophia's school does and I would hate for Lilly to feel excluded from all the fun.

I have yet to receive a class roster. I'm not sure if I'll ever get one.

Every day when I pick her up I ask how she was. They always say Good! That's it. No more no less. I have no idea if she's actually using the potty there or not. (I keep forgetting to ask, but you think they would tell me or at least give me a hint.) She always has on a new pull-up when I pick her up.

As far as I can tell, they do not have a computer to play with or to even use once a week. Bummer! Sophia had computer time in her 2-yr class. She also had music once a week. I'm assuming Lilly is getting some sort of music because they will perform in a Christmas show.

I can't wait for next year until she's in Beach Manor and I hope this year isn't a waste. I know she's going to learn socialization (and cleaning up) and will make some new friends which I'm thrilled about. I've been scoping out the moms and I see two that have little girls (Gracie and Quinn, I think) in her class and I think I would mesh with them. The moms look to be about my age, maybe a little younger. They are already friends so it might be kind of hard to crack that shell, but maybe Lilly and their girls will do it for us. I would like for Lilly to have a set of friends just like Sophia does.

OK. It's 8am and both girls are still sleeping so I need to take advantage of this quiet time.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Fishing

The other day I took the girls to Kohl's and we spent some time in the toy department. We came home with yet another Ariel figurine (for Sophia) and a puzzle (for Lilly). Lilly's puzzle came with a fishing pole and each puzzle piece has a magnet on top which can connect to the end of the fishing pole.

She was so proud of herself when she first figured out how to "catch a fish".

She's starting to get really good at crafts and art work. Her fine motor skills are really improving in the way that she moves objects across the paper now. She's scribbling circles and tonight she even painted a tiny stained glass princess art thing for the window. I told her to paint Jasmine's shoes and, by George, she did! She also painted her hair. I noticed tonight that she was painting with her left hand. I wonder if she'll be a lefty? Uncle Rob is left-handed.

A stroll around Mulberry loop

We took a stroll around the loop tonight before bedtime. It seemed to be the perfect ending to a long, packed day. The girls went straight to bed tonight without any struggle or last minute requests.

Sophia rode her "big girl" bike the whole way. It's the first time she's been on this bike. It's a tricycle with training wheels, but it also has back pedal breaks. The breaks were tripping Sophia up every now and then because she wouldn't mean to back pedal, but the bike would stop on her.

Lilly rode on Will's shoulders for a while and eventually walked on her own. She's so cute when she's "running" down the sidewalk grinning ear to ear.

First week of school

Sophia and Lilly both marched right into their classrooms and started playing. Neither of them even looked back at me. Sophia began playing with some sort of puzzle. Lilly quickly found a book and plopped down on the floor and began looking through it. I used my 2.5 hours wisely and hit 4 stores to take care of some returns and to pick up a few things.

Today was a different story when I dropped Sophia off at school. I had to physically dump her into her teacher's arms as she cried crocodile tears. After school she told me why she was crying. I felt bad that her little plan was ruined, but she didn't tell me that she expected to go into Mrs. Harden's classroom to say hello to her. We did that on the first day and now I think it's going to be part of her AM routine at school.

Lilly doesn't have school on Fridays so she and I headed off for a fun morning together. We took a Kindermusik class and had fun with a few other kids.

Last days of summer...

Here's a link to all the pictures. It's hard to believe that summer is over for us. It's only over because school starts tomorrow! We'll be out the door at 8:25. Sophia's day starts at 8:45 and Lilly's day begins at 9. I will have a whole two hours and 45 minutes in between picking the girls up again (11:45 for Sophia and noon for Lilly). What will I do?? I plan on cleaning tons of things that haven't been touched all summer - like my bedroom closet, Sophia's room, Lilly's closet, the carpet throughout the house, etc... All the fun projects that "back to school" means for a mom of preschoolers.

The last few days of summer were pretty uneventful and we wanted them that way. We basically putzed around the house on Saturday. I washed some window and Will made his monthly trek into the attic. Believe me, he hates it in there. The entrance is a tiny little hole in the ceiling in Sophia's room that you have to climb up a ladder to enter...and it's really hot up there. He's had to go up there a few times this summer and has done his fair share of complaining about it. He didn't say anything this time. Must have been a little bit cooler in the attic. (laugh) It was only in the mid 80s this weekend so it was considerably cooler than the rest of the summer.

On Sunday we went to the beach for lunch and then Will took Sophia to soccer practice. Lilly and I stayed home to make dinner. Sophia cheeks were really red when she came home so I knew she was tired and probably a bit overheated, but I sent her with a drink.?.? Then Will jumped in and scolded me for sending her with a "little kid" cup instead of a regular water jug/sipper with ice that holds much more! Wowso...I just got slammed with my first soccer mom lesson. He thinks that Sophia may have noticed that she was the only kid on the team with a "little kid" cup with a straw. Just wait until next time. She'll fit right in with the rest.

On Monday afternoon after Will cut the lawn we went over to a neighbor's house for smoked chicken. This guy loves to cook...grill, bbq, smoke, sushi. You name it. He can make it. We took coleslaw and hummus with crackers. I mostly took the hummus because I knew Lilly would eat it. Sophia ate only a brownie. Come to think of it, that's all Lilly had too. I guess they really weren't hungry because I half fed them before we left. They tend to not eat at all when we're out with friends and I like them to at least have full bellies so we don't have any meltdowns.

Today was the first day of dance class for the girls. Sophia and Haley are taking a ballet/tap combo class and Lilly and Carlie are taking a "mommy and me" class. The big girls did awesome on their first day. I think they are two of the more mature/older kids in the class. Lilly started crying half way through her class. She jumped into my arms and then refused to get down. We still participated in the class. I have a feeling she'll warm up at the next class. Before her meltdown she was doing all the moves and wasn't shy one bit. She was a bit of a ham I thought.

Anyway...school begins tomorrow! I get a bit of my sanity back. Will gets a little extra peace and quite during business hours and the girls get to have fun making new friends and learning how to share. It's a win win for all of us.

More pictures

Here's a link to more Jonas pictures.

Here's a link to more Hurricane Earl pictures.

Baby Jonas

Baby Jonas is adorable. He's a stunning little boy. I loved holding him. It made me remember how little my girls used to be...although it's harder to remember Sophia than it is Lilly (or Aubrey, I should say).

I flew down to meet Jonas and to give some moral support to Claire and Craig after Jonas returned home from his stint in the hospital. I was there for 3 days. I did a bit of this and a bit of that to help them out. Seriously, they barely took me up on my nap suggestions. Also, Claire's work is calling her and has come by twice to drop off a laptop and some cds & paperwork. Crazy. Jonas just celebrated his 7 day old birthday while I was there. Come on, people.

The girls were glad that I was home, but I wasn't! It looked like a whore-i-cane ripped through every single room.

Sidenote: Whore-i-cane is how Sophia says hurricane. She knew that our town was freaking out about Hurricane Earl. I guess it was pretty bad at the beach, but at our house it drizzled all day. I think we got some heavier rain overnight though. The girls went outside with their umbrellas today


I spent the entire day yesterday cleaning the house! I hired a babysitter to watch the girls during the days (from 10-6) and then Will took over the nightly routine.

Anyway, back to Jonas.. He's still sleeping all the time and he's just a little bundle of warm, cushy baby. So sweet. (Can you tell it made me kind of want another baby, but now that I'm home I kind of like the fact that Lilly is almost potty trained?) I warned them that at two weeks he's going to be awake a lot more. (smile) and need constant attention. I also warned them that life kind of stinks when babies start crawling.

I was able to help out with his first bath and that was quite interesting. He decided to poo and pee several times. Um, yucky.

Jonas is a good eater and sleeper right now. He doesn't wail out at all. He might give a small whimper once a day, but not much more. He's definitely what you call an easy baby, but I wonder if that means that they will have a hard toddler? Gosh, I hope not.

Yay Lilly!

Lilly went pee pee in the potty! She took off her diaper this morning so I pulled out the potty seat and told her that if she had to go she needed to sit on the potty and go. And she did. Right then and there. We all cheered and jumped up and down. What a big girl.

What a disaster!

Addie and her 6-week old brother, Aiden, came over this morning for a playdate. Their mom, Amy, and I had a great time catching up, but while we were busy chatting Sophia and Addie tore the house apart. They literally pulled everything out of Sophia's dresser and threw all her clothes all over the floor. They came downstairs wearing underwear on their heads and layers and layers of clothes! If that wasn't bad enough, they pulled out four board games and mixed all the pieces together. They played marching band and marched around the house shouting and playing kazoos, harmonicas (thanks Uncle Mike!) and tambourines. Lilly followed them around copying everything they did...especially the shouting part.

Lilly was also very curious about the baby. She rocked him in his car seat, covered him with his blanket and tried to give him his paci a hundred times.

The girls had a great time, but man the house was a wreck. When they left I sent Sophia to her room for quiet time and told her to clean everything up. She actually did! I was really proud of her.

Her robot

Lilly has a cute little robe that she calls her ROBOT. It used to be Sophia's when she was younger, but now it belongs to Lilly and she loves wearing it after her baths. It's so cute when she says I WEAR MY ROBOT, MOMMY.

Body painting

Sophia begged me to get out the finger paint this morning before we went to the gym. I obliged. I got both girls set up at the kitchen table. They had blue, red, yellow and green paint. Sophia was mixing blue and red to get purple and red and yellow to make orange. The next thing I knew she was covered in paint. Everything but her face was painted! Luckily Lilly didn't follow Sophia's lead.

Sophia was thrilled with herself because not only did she get to paint all over herself, but then she got to take a shower which is her new favorite thing to do. She's turning into quite the shower hog.

All alone at the botanical gardens

The botanical garden has story hour every Wednesday and since there are only a few Wednesdays left before school starts I took the girls today. It was just the three of us and we had a fun time without anyone else tagging along.

We didn't spend much time in the sprinklers, but instead walked around the grounds trying to "rescue Snow White" (a made-up game of Sophia's) and then spent some time in the Enchanted Storybook Forest.

They have seven houses for the kids to play in:
The Three Little Pigs
Little Red Riding Hood
Huck Fin
Alice in Wonderland
The Crooked Man
The Old Lady Who Lived in the Shoe
Old MacDonald

The girls liked exploring every nook and cranny of the houses since there wasn't a whole lot of people there today. At the very end of the day they finally made a friend and had a tea party with her for 1/2 hour in the Alice in Wonderland house.

Partners in crime

Lilly has a PAPPY (paci) in her crib. It's supposed to be used only at night, but she often runs up to her room and tries to reach it in the crib. Sometimes she succeeds. Sometimes she doesn't. She asks me for it and I always tell her NO! When I don't give in she immediately calls out Sophia's name to see if she'll cave and give her the PAPPY. Sophia thinks she's clever whenever she helps Lilly out with the paci.

Here's the photos taken at the Botanical Garden earlier today. Once again, we had a great time. Lauren (10) and Olivia (8) came with us. Lauren also brought her friend, Randy.

Sophia got to plant a flower seed in a bio-degradable flower pot (basically it was newspaper rolled up to look like a flower pot). Lilly planted one too, but her pot fell apart before we left.

Take a look at the photos. Lilly had a great time playing and running around with Olivia. Sophia was really brave and actually went into the big sprinkler this time.

Botanical Garden

We're off to the Botanical Garden today with the neighbor girls, Lauren and Olivia. I ran into their mom, Michelle, yesterday at Walmart and since we have barely seen each other this entire summer we decided to take a trip to the sprinkler garden today. Look for some photos later today.

A visit to the doctor

Both girls had to visit the doctor yesterday for their annual appointments. We were there for exactly 2 hours. Boy was Will irritated that it took so long.

Both girls had to get shots. Lilly didn't even cry when she got hers, but Sophia screamed bloody murder and is still limping around the house complaining that her leg hurts.

Sophia is charting at the size of a 6-yr old, but we already knew that and the doc predicted that she'll be 5 ft 11 inches tall. She currently weighs 51 pounds and is 46 inches tall. After her shots she got to pick out a few stickers. She took every single Snow White sticker in the bin (seven in total).

Lilly is in the 90% percentile in height which surprised us. She had a major growth spurt and grew 4 inches since her 18-month appointment. She weighs 29 pounds 3.5 ounces and is 36 inches tall. Lilly picked out a Thomas the Train sticker and I grabbed a few Hello Kitty ones for her too.

Lilly has to go back at 2.5 years old. Sophia doesn't have to go back until she's 5.

Both girls enjoyed receiving their free book or BOOKY, as Lilly called it. Lately she's been adding the EEEEE sound to the end of everything. BOOKY, DRINKY, BLANKEY, etc.

Birthday Party

Sophia was invited to a birthday pool party yesterday. All four of us went since we know the whole family.

Will spent the entire 2.5 hours in the pool throwing the girls around and was exhausted when we got home. He also got a lot of color from the sun reflecting off the water.

Sophia was like a fish in the water. She got to play with Haley the entire time too. The two of them swam their little butts off, ate pizza and cake, and squirted each other with a bazooka water gun.

Lilly had two pieces of cake. She swam for 1/2 hour and then ate lunch. After that she didn't want to get back into the pool, but she didn't mind sitting on the steps.

I got to talk to Haley's mom, Michelle. We haven't seen much of them this summer because of our busy summer travel schedule.

My family...they're so cute

More pictures

Here's a link to many, many more pictures that I took when we were in Pennsylvania.

Out for the night

Will and I recently had our 6th wedding anniversary. Tonight we're going out to celebrate. We've got a sitter coming to watch the kids and we're going out to dinner and a movie. Aren't we lucky?

______________UPDATE_______________

We're back from our night out. It was really nice to have some alone time, adult conversation and a beverage or two. We tried a new Greek restaurant (thumbs down) then walked to the movie theater. We saw Inception. It was a fast paced drama with tons of twists and turns. We really enjoyed it. - Will a little bit more than me.

The sitter, Amy, told us that Lilly helped herself to the dinner that she brought for herself. She thought it was hysterical. Lilly ate her fries and her pickles. Cute.

Another first

No, I'm not writing about any of Lilly's firsts, but Sophia made me very proud this morning when she took her very first shower. I've offered countless times before for her to join me, but she's always seriously been too scared to take me up on it.

This morning she decided it was time for her to take a shower. She announced that she wanted to take a shower and then marched right upstairs into her bathroom, got in the shower and then asked me to leave the room so she could have some privacy! I didn't, of course. She even washed and rinsed her own hair.

My little baby is growing up. Yesterday she got her first hair cut that wasn't straight around in the back. Because her hair was getting so tangled and it really hurt her when I brushed it, I decided it was time for her to get her hair cut. I'm thrilled with the results. I took her to her "kid" salon and asked to keep the length in the front, but to have the back stacked with layers. It looks really cute. I do wish I would have asked the girl to cut it a little bit shorter. I'll probably take her back for a trim just before school starts in a month.

Our Visit to Nana & Poppy's House

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and left the following Monday morning. It was a great trip. We managed to pack in a lot of activities while still affording the girls some quiet time almost every day.

Nana and Poppy both went to work on Wednesday so the girls and I were on our own. We ended up going to Target and then McDonald's so the girls could play on the outdoor playground. They really enjoyed it and the weather was beautiful. It was nice and hot. When we got back home my Aunts came for a short visit. Shirley and Donna are my mom's sisters. Sophia performed for them the entire time. At one point she was falling on the ground and Lilly was laughing her head off at the commotion. This continued for a long time..(smile)..making it hard to hold a conversation.

After they left I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but I quickly decided it was time for some "water play" - outside. What kid doesn't like to play in water? I apparently did... My mom saved my old sink (it's over 30 years old and she still has the Christmas photo from the year Santa brought it for me!) and the girls got to use it to wash my old, plastic dishes. They loved filling up two Nana's two watering cans using the outdoor spigot and dumping the water into the sink, or more honestly, on themselves. Once they were almost entirely wet I let them play with the hose and sprinkler. Sophia couldn't get enough!

The following day we went to Aunt Carole's pool. She gave us a tour of her new condo which is really nice. I absolutely loved the openness of the floor plan. After the tour we hopped in my car for a quick ride to the pool which, at the deepest spot, was 5 ft. Sophia could swim around no problem. Lilly liked jumping from the top of the steps into the water. Nana's arms were probably hurting after the day she had playing in the water. Aunt Carole prepared an awesome snack for us (fruit salad, Cheetos, iced tea, and Dots candy). I think Lilly ate half the bag of Cheetos! We stayed at the pool for a few hours that day and Lilly fell asleep in the car on the ride home. Boy was she tuckered out. It really was a lot of fun. We don't have access to a pool where we live so it was really nice to take advantage of Aunt Carole's pool.

My mom took the day off on Thursday and our plan was to let the girls play. We might have originally planned a trip to he playground too, but that didn't happen. Instead we had guests visiting for most of the day. My Aunt Donna and my cousin, Carly, came first thing in the morning. It was fun to catch up with Carly and get the scoop on her 17-yr old perspective. She's an amazing girl, smart, beautiful, athletic, etc. The total package if you ask me and this will be her senior year of high school. She's trying to decide on a college now. I should have plugged Allegheny.

Anyway, after they left, my mom's other sister and my namesake, Aunt Shirley, brought two of her grand kids down for some play time with Sophia and Lilly. Immediately after they left my mom's cousin called and asked to come over for an impromptu visit. We sure did get to see a lot of family in one day. It was early to bed because we had a big day ahead of us. Friday was Idelwild Park day.

I was excited to take the girls because it would be their first time at an amusement park and I was curious to see their reaction to all of it, especially the rides. When I was a little girl my parents took me to Idelwild. My dad also frequented the park with his parents when he was a little boy. Wow. I guess it's some sort of a tradition. Hopefully some day Sophia and Lilly will want to take their children to the park.

I thought both girls would be thrilled about the Story Book Village stroll. Maybe it's because it was the first thing we did and the girls were trying to overcome their confusion about where they were, what they were supposed to be doing, and why there were so many people milling around, but the girls didn't really care for this part. We walked along the path and saw the homes of The Three Bears, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood and walked by or in about 25 other nursery rhyme displays. I was certain the girls would love it. Shows you what I know. Sophia fained a bit of interest, but mostly acted bored/aloof and Lilly wouldn't get out of my arms to look at anything. I thought it was going to be a flop of a day, but it immediately got better when we rode the train and then went to explore other parts of the park.

I was a little worried that Sophia would be scared of the rides. I was actually prepared to spend all day in kiddie land (or Raccoon Lagoon as it was called) just to build up her confidence to ride some of the rides. I thought Lilly would be ready and willing to ride and I was right. She got right on and loved every minute of it. Smiling and waving each time she rode by. What I couldn't have imagined was that Sophia would also love the rides and would get so bored with the kiddie rides so quickly. Well, maybe I could have guessed it when I saw her mocking another girl holding her hands up in the air on the mini roller coaster. Oh my gosh! My head must have done a full 360 when I saw her. Was this child really Sophia? Was she seriously not holding on AND enjoying it? Incredible.

After that we decided to hit the adult rides in "Olde Idelwild". She was tall enough to ride everything with an adult and so was Lilly in some cases so all five of us eventually did get to ride a few things. As it turns out Sophia loves all the rides. She really doesn't have a preference between the spinning rides and the roller coasters. She actually rode her very first "Rollo Coaster". She sat in the very first car with Poppy. I sat behind them. After she tackled that one with ease, I took her on the Log Jammer. That was the last ride we did before leaving the park. I thought we would get really wet, but as it turns out only our legs got wet. Sophia jumped off the ride and shouted I GOT SOAKED! (Ha ha ha) We left the park around 7 pm and got home at 8:30.

Saturday was a lazy day. We let the girls play all day. They mostly played in the water - either in the sprinklers or with the play kitchen sink. Lilly also filled up the bottom of her stroller with rocks and pushed it around for hours with either Sophia, a baby or Lamby on board. Around dinner time my mom and I left Poppy in charge while we went to pick up fish sandwiches for dinner. We weren't gone for very long. When we left Sophia was worn out in the living room watching Beauty and the Beast and Lilly was outside having a tea party. Poppy was chilling in a chair in the shade. When we returned all three of them were in the exact same spots, doing the exact same things they were doing when we left. What a relief!

On Sunday afternoon my mom and I took the girls to the annual church bazaar that I used to love going to each year. I fondly remember the penny candy table which sadly doesn't exist anymore. The girls still managed to get their fair share of penny candy anyway. They also brought home 8 stuffed animals and two plastic necklaces. They literally won a prize for each and every single game they played. Sophia got balloons painted on her cheek and a flower tattoo on her arm. Before we left the bazaar we got to ride in a 1914 Buick that belonged to my dad's brother, Uncle Alan. Sophia loved the fact that the car didn't have any windows or seat belts.

We also briefly ran into Aunt Carole again, but we got separated in the crowds and never managed to hook back up. We bought our bbq chicken and then went home. The girls were completely exhausted from the hot sun beating down on them all day and from waiting in the long line for chicken. Sophia resorted to rolling down a grassy hill and got grass stains all over her pants and then decided it was fun to push Lilly down the hill too. A small price to pay for the hours of fun we had.

We had a great trip and got to spend some quiet time with Nana and Poppy. They loved seeing the girls and vice versa.

On Monday morning we headed back to Northern VA for Grancy's birthday and to see and congratulate Uncle Rob and Aunt Christina. They just got engaged and have asked the girls to be the flower girls in the wedding. I can't wait.

We're glad to be home and don't have any travel plans for a while plus school starts in three and a half weeks. Time for some back to school shopping....and time to sign off for the night.

Idelwild Park

Voted #2 in children's amusement parks. My parents and I took the girls there on Friday during our vacation in Mars.

The trek to PA was a bit of a spur of the moment idea. Will and I were initially heading to Fairfax for Claire's baby shower and I decided to continue on to PA for a visit with my family. We stayed for almost a week. After the shower Will went back to Virginia Beach and was by himself for 7 days. The girls and I were gone for a total of 10 days. We're all glad to be back together.

Here are some pictures of our first few days at my parent's house and a few pictures from our trip to Idelwild Park. Sophia rode her first "Rollo Coaster" as they call it. She sat with Poppy and I sat behind them in the very first seat. I think she was terrified, but she really enjoyed it! She got off smiling and was so proud that she rode it. The last ride of the day was the Log Jammer. We went on it together and barely got wet. She remembers getting SOAKED.