Gobble Fest

Last week Lilly and I skipped Kindermusik and went to the Gobble Fest at the rec center. The program was cute. When we arrived each kid was asked to go on a scavenger hunt in the search of a turkey. There were tons of them taped all over the walls and the floor and you wouldn't believe how many kids just walked right by them. Even Lilly. Once she found a turkey she got to exchange it for a goodie bag which literally contained a bunch of junk and 2 pieces of candy. Great, just what we need, 2 more pieces of candy!

There were a few tables set up with Thanksgiving color pages set out for the kids to color. Lilly sat down a few times to color a bit.

The very first thing she wanted to do was get her face painted. I gave her a few options of what to get and she picked a turkey. Gobble gobble.

After we got back from the restroom...we had to go so she could see the turkey on her cheek in the mirror... When we returned Lilly played a few games of corn hole by herself, bounced a bit in both bounce houses, and then got really excited when she saw one of her favorite friends from school. Evan!

She talks about Evan all the time. We usually see him in the parking lot and she always says THERE'S EVAN, MAMA. I guess we run on the same schedule. She doesn't talk about any girls in her class or any other boys for that matter. It seems like Evan is her favorite. He's really shy and doesn't talk in class, but neither does Lilly if you can believe that! (I just got a report today that she came out of her shell during circle time! Yay, Lilly!)

I've asked her before who are her friends and she usually repeats me and says MY FRIENDS with a big grin on her face. Then I start naming the ones that I know. Evan, Grace, Quinn, Sophia, Maddie, Hawkin (and I think there are 3 more)

Anyway, back to the Gobble Fest. I think the last thing Lilly did before we had to leave to pick Sophia up from school was pin-the-feather on the turkey. She peeked the whole time. (smile)

Queen for a Day

Sophia got to be Queen for a Day last week at school. Her class just finished up a unit on castles, dragons, unicorns, kings, queens, etc. and they had a party to celebrate.

At the beginning of the unit, Sophia came home from school and said that she wanted to be the queen and her friend, Paige, was going to be the princess at the party. We didn't have a queen costume so I quickly went to my new favorite store, ebay.com, and found the perfect one. She looked so regal in it. When I dropped her off at school the day of the party I noticed that most, if not all, of the girls were wearing Disney princess costumes. Sophia definitely stood out...and she looked awesome! See the front view and the back.

Mrs. Peeler and Mrs. Rogers definitely overdid themselves with decorations. They had a perfectly prepared table complete with a princess hat and wand for each little girl, red water goblets, and place settings for 17 kids. So cute.



Next month the class will study holidays - Christmas and Hanukkah.

Strike a pose

Yes, we're going to get rid of Lilly's paci...just as soon as we buy her a big girl bed. She'll be 2 1/2 on Saturday. Sophia was exactly 2 1/2 when we took her pacifiers away. So, I guess we better get on the ball and find her a bed! I think we'll have to look next weekend and see if there's something we can live with.

We've been telling Lilly for a few months now that she's going to have to give up her paci. We told her the Paci Fairy is going to give them to baby Jonas. She knows and acts as if she'll be ok with it, but somehow I don't think it's going to be a total piece of cake. We'll see.

More fun with paint

The girls love to do crafts. I think painting is their favorite because they get soooo messy.

Happy Birthday, Cameron!

Two weekends ago we went to Cameron's 5th birthday party. It's so hard to believe that some of Sophia's friends are already turning 5!

The party was at Young Chef Academy. We had never been there before so we were really looking forward to it, plus it was my time alone with Sophia and she always loves that.

She had a ball at the party. They made ice cream and cookie cups. The ice cream was a concoction that was shaken for 7 minutes and then presto chango! it's ice cream...or some cold pasty ice cream knockoff. Sophia refused to eat both the ice cream and the cookie cup. Instead she opted for the dwarf cupcake and, come to think of it, I don't even know which dwarf cupcake she got!

The cake was Snow White and seven little plastic dwarfs sat on top of green "grassy" cupcakes. It was really cute. My friend's sister always makes the cake(s) for Cameron's parties and they are always awesome.

Another favorite outfit of mine

I just love Lilly in this outfit. It's made from a few different fabrics, including one that resembles fake fur...(maybe from a wolf or something. hahaha) It's very coarse and shaggy.

Anyway, I just had to share how cute she looked on her way to church one Sunday.

Heat wave

Well, it's not exactly a heat wave, but we've been having some extremely nice weather over the last 2 weeks. Today it got as high as 75 degrees. It's no secret that I loathe the cold weather so this is a nice way to end November and coast into the holiday season.

Truth be told, I've already decorated our house for Christmas. Yep, I put up the tree earlier this week and Sophia decorated it for me. I've also started my Christmas shopping. I still have to adorn the front door with greens and hang up some outdoor things, but I didn't really want to jump the gun too much and be the talk of the neighborhood.

Furniture shopping

I was trying to take advantage of the Veteran's Day furniture sales and find a new, big girl bed for Lilly, but I didn't have any luck. I didn't find a single style that I liked and that also came in the right size/color. We need a full size bed and most of the kids beds now come in twin and queen, but not full.

I managed to keep the Sophia and Lilly's attention for a few hours while we browsed through five stores. Of course, the two of them immediately ran for the bunk beds in each store. It was cute. I think Sophia would love to share a room with Lilly. Maybe when they're older and out of the napping stage, but by then they probably won't even want to share a room.

I thought Lilly looked adorable sitting on this big girl bed so I snapped her picture with my phone. She looks fantastic in red!

I'm not quite sure what we're going to do about getting her a bed. I guess we'll have to branch out and try some stores in Chesapeake or beyond.

Look at what Lilly does

You've got to watch this video to see what Lilly's new habit is. Talk about gross.

Soccer is almost over

Our last regular season game is today at 12:45. We have a make-up game next week at 12:15, but Coach Gary said that every time he has a make-up game at the end of a season it's always a rain out. (Will and I think that would be GREAT!)

Sophia had her last practice on Thursday night and following practice was the end of season soccer party. During practice (much like the last 3 games) I was out there on the field with her in order to get her to play. She did let go of my hand and chase after the ball alot, but is not in soccer shape and kept complaining that her belly hurt from running. Only when the ball hit her shoe did she kick it, but I have to say she has a powerful kick when she's willing to show off a bit.

At the party the girls were served pizza, cupcakes and pink lemonade. Sophia thought the cupcakes were awesome and each one had a plastic soccer ring on top so every girl got to take home a ring in addition to their trophies and certificates. The trophies are bobble-head girls. They're really cute.

As the holiday toy catalogs arrive in the mailbox (almost every day) I let Sophia browse through them and circle things she would like for Christmas. We've already got a list going, but that's a different topic. Ironically, yesterday she found a series of dolls, much like the American Girl doll series, and circled the girl doll wearing a soccer outfit! --- NOT A CHANCE, GIRL!

Will said no more team sports until she is ten. I hope we don't have to wait that long. I hope she want to play a team sport at some point, but she might be better suited in a solo sport like tennis or swimming. She wants to take swimming lessons again so we'll look into that at the rec center again. It's so cheap to do it there and she's really comfortable in that pool. Should turn out to be a positive experience. (smile)

Puzzle jumping

Sophia can put this giant puzzle together in a snap. While I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off on Thursday so we could get to the gym at a reasonable hour in the AM, my girls decided to puzzle jump.

It started out as simple as walking over the puzzle, then it turned into running over the puzzle and, soon they were jumping over the puzzle. I had to take some pictures, but I made them stop as soon as I was done because I didn't want them to fall down. I'm a party pooper!

Just going to school

It was a rather pleasant morning so I asked the girls if I could take their pictures before school today. Sophia jumped at the chance to pose for me, today. Lilly is still acting a bit camera shy, but I think I got two cute pictures.

Sophia's report card

Last week Will and I met with Sophia's teacher, Mrs. Peeler, for our fall parent/teacher conference. Mrs. Peeler, much like Mrs. Harden, confirmed for us that Sophia is exceptionally bright. She excels at her reading tasks and is breezing through her second phonics book. She will be starting math concepts soon (probably at the beginning of the year).

Mrs. Peeler couldn't stress enough that sending Sophia to public school Kindergarten would be doing her a disservice. She told us that Sophia would be bored and that she'll already be reading! In public school Kindergarten she will NOT be reading and will be learning things she already knows.

I'm all for sending her to private Kindergarten and really want her to go to Beach Manor for all day K next year. Lilly will be there next year too. Let's hope that Digital Fulcrum continues it's upward momentum.

We're really proud of all the hard work she is putting into her reading skills. You can just see the curiosity in her eyes as the words start to come alive on the pages of her books. Nana gave Sophia a Leap Frog "reader pen" handheld computer that allows her to drag the attached pen across the words and the system reads the story out loud to her. I really hope I can find some compatible books/cartridges. I need to take the system with me so I know exactly what I'm looking for because every time I'm out and I think of it, I can't remember what we have. Some refer to this condition as "MommyBrain". (smile)

She's afraid of eating a grape

THIS POST IS BEING WRITTEN IN REAL TIME SO FORGIVE THE MISTAKES.

Sophia has always been a picky eater, but lately she won't even eat an apple. She tells me that it could be poisoned like in the apple in Snow White. Sounds like a new lame excuse to me.

Right now she is afraid to eat even a grape. She been sitting on the couch for 2 minutes licking the skin, deciding whether to take the plunge or not. Um....the skin doesn't have any flavor, does it?

Picture me laughing my head off because as I write this she is currently gagging over the grape and yelling that she can't eat grapes. Please note that initially she asked for them! I gave them to her in spite of my better judgment. She didn't eat any dinner. An hour lately and she's hungry. I offer her a banana. She reluctantly eats it (only complaining for the first bite).

And 1 minute later - It's over. She gave up on the grapes and she just told me that she's hungry. I'm ignoring her, secretly laughing.

She has been on a carrot kick lately. She's never been overly enthused by carrots (and will only eat them raw), but lately she asks for them when I tell her she has to eat something healthy. I'm ok with that.

About 2 weeks ago I got her to eat 4 or 5 tiny pieces of ham. Her very first! She actually said she liked it, but hasn't touched it since.

We all know that Lilly, on the other hand, will eat most of what is offered to her. She also got a bowl of grapes just a few minutes ago and there are only 2 left in her bowl plus I think she's still working on them. She also shoveled in an entire bowl of spaghetti only an hour ago.

Now Sophia is mad at me because I ATE MY WHOLE BANANA SO WHY CAN'T I HAVE A PIECE OF CANDY?

Me: Because you didn't eat your dinner.

Sophia: OH SHUCKS. YOU'RE A LITTLE BABY THEN. MOMMY, CAN WE PUT UP OUR CHRISTMAS TREE TODAY? MOMMY, WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? MOMMY, I'M A LION.

Now she is singing:
Happy birthday to you
You little kazoo
You burp like a monkey
And you smell like one too!

Now she's fighting with Lilly about why Lilly is turning the light on and off. (I usually try to let them work it out on their own these days and if the fighting gets really bad then I step in.)

OK, Gotta go step in.

I love this outfit

This is one of the back to school outfits that I got for Lilly. The little ruffles on the bottom are simply adorable. Of course, she wasn't in the mood to pose for a picture. I snapped one of her running up the stairs to get away from me so you can see the cute back pockets and bottom ruffles, but I also caught her as she was walking out of her room a few minutes later. You can get a better view by clicking here.

Halloween Day

I took Lilly and Sophia to the gym yesterday morning to meet Snow White. Sophia was too shy to even say hi to her. She even told me she didn't like Snow White anymore and that Ariel was her favorite princess now. Lilly was also acting very shy (and I think she was a bit tired), but at least she let me hold her long enough to get a picture taken with the princess. I hope they won't be so shy when we go to Disney this summer.

After we stopped in at the gym we high-tailed it back home to get ready for our "Halloween party". A few of our neighbors and Haley & Carlie came over at 4:30 for pulled pork (and all the fixings) before we headed out for trick-or-treat. We ended up trick-or-treating around our entire loop. We were out from 6:00 - 8:15. WOW! At least I was smart enough to bring the wagon for the girls to take turns riding in along the way. And I was also smart enough to bring a plastic goblet and some wine too.

Sophia and Haley each spilled their candy sacks one time. Sophia on the sidewalk and Haley in the wagon. The little girls moved very slow, but they were definitely troopers and made it to every single house. We came home with tons of candy and also had some left over from what we were passing out. I definitely need to ration out the candy for the girls or they will want to eat all of it in one day. I think my policy (for all 4 of us) will be one piece after lunch and one piece after dinner. The picture below is missing an entire bowl of candy that I just couldn't fit into the frame. Talk about calories...

Halloween Party at the Rec Center

After Sophia's Halloween show I took Lilly to the rec center for a Halloween party. I took Sophia to this party when she was two and three. It took Lilly a little while to warm up to the crowd of kids, but eventually she went on the slide and then she went on the slide again and again and again. She was really having fun. We eventually moved on to other games and she asked me to get her face painted a little too late. We were next in line when the director announced that it was time to begin the craft.

The craft was fun for the moms. Lilly sat there and watched me tie two tissues around a Tootsie pop to create a ghost. Then I drew two eyes and a nose.

Lilly really liked interlocking these puzzle pieces together and then jumping on them. She also got a kick out of her first Sit and Spin ride. Take a look at the rest of the pictures.

Sophia's school Halloween program was on Friday. Here she is standing with Adrianna, her friend from last year.

Sophia was dressed up in her Dorothy costume ...and she was the best Dorothy there. There was at least one other. (There was also a Raggedy Ann costume, but Lilly's blew that one away.)

Will ended up being a little bit late so he missed her class doing their 3 songs, but he was there in time for the group finale where they sang The Safety Song:

Orange/Halloween pictures

I've been desperately trying to get a good picture of the girls wearing orange this Halloween for a frame that I have. Each year so far I have a great one of the girls and, of course, want one for 2010. Here's all the photos I've taken so far. This is the one that I ended up putting in the frame. I will have several more opportunities to take photos since Halloween isn't until Sunday, but I wanted to share before the holiday.

Here's the other ones I took.

Lilly's Halloween Party @ School

Lilly had a fall festival at school yesterday. Since I'm on the parent/teacher committee I was in charge of 85 pumpkins, hay bales and corn stalks. Not to toot my own horn, but I have to admit that the decorations did look great. (smile)

Here's a picture of Lilly with one of her teachers, Ms. Brenda. I didn't see her other teacher, Ms. Tina, or I would have asked for a picture of her too.

Lilly really had fun playing some games, picking out a pumpkin (I think she picked the one with the biggest stem) and getting a pumpkin painted on her face.

There are a few more pictures to view. Click here.

Halloween Party @ My Gym

Last night we went to a Halloween costume party at My Gym. We met Haley & Carlie and Cameron & Trip (all kids) there. Afterward we went to Haley and Carlie's house for pizza and cupcakes.

As you can see, the girls are dressing up as Dorothy and Raggedy Ann. Lilly doesn't like to wear her wig, but everyone says she looks like Raggedy Ann without it because of her red hair. I disagree...I think the wig makes the costume.

The girls had a ton of fun in the ball pit and on the trampoline. Sophia played all the games they offered and Lilly hung out with Will in the background. It might have been a little overwhelming for her because she only had an hour nap instead of her normal 2 hour nap.

There are more photos...but they are mostly action shots of the girls. Take a look.

Here are a few movies that I took of Lilly tonight while Sophia was at soccer practice with Will. As you can see, Lilly has marker all over her mouth. She thinks it's lipstick.

In this video she is doing the Hokey Pokey.



In this video she is making animal sounds (and then I have no idea what she sings, followed by Pat-a-cake and Row Row Row Your Boat).



In this video she is singing/reciting all of the nursery rhymes in her new favorite book. They include: Humpty Dumpty, Pat-a-cake, Row Row Row your boat, Hickory dickory dock, This little piggy, Itsy bitsy spider, Ba ba black sheep, Jack and jill, Little Miss Muffet, Little Bo Peep and Polly put the kettle on.

Sibling picture day

Lilly got her school picture taken yesterday. She looked so darn cute when I dropped her off and I can't wait to see the photos. We practiced how she would smile at the camera and she showed me her pearly whites each and every time. When I picked her up after school her teacher, Ms. Brenda, told me she was a bit difficult and didn't want to smile for the camera. This doesn't surprise me at all because lately she's been pretty camera shy.

And today was no different! The school offered the chance to do pictures with a sibling. I dressed both girls in coordinating outfits and we headed to our 9:15 appointment. Well, Lilly absolutely refused to let me put her down to get her picture taken. She was screaming bloody murder every single time I attempted to place her next to Sophia. Even though Lilly didn't cooperate, the photographer still took a few pictures of Sophia (and her toy cat).

Even when we got home, Lilly still refused to have a nice picture taken of her. I tried. Oh, how hard I tried! Take a look....but notice that Sophia was also being pretty difficult too.

Christina's visit

Christina came to visit us for a few days. She came in on last Wednesday and stayed through Sunday. We had a great time. It was like a mini-vacation for me too. We ordered pizza the first night. We went to a bounce house (see pictures) on Thursday for a few hours with Haley and Carlie. On Friday I hired a sitter and we went wedding dress shopping. Christina looked absolutely gorgeous in a few of the dresses. If I were her, I might have a hard time deciding on which one is the "most" perfect. We took pictures, but since Dear Uncle Rob is a follower of my blog I won't post them. (smile)

On Saturday Sophia had a soccer game. Of course, we were all dreading it because she usually doesn't play and sits on the sidelines crying. This game was different! Maybe it was because Christina was there or maybe it was because I was allowed to go out onto the field with her and play. You should have seen me running up and down the field holding her hand. She had some contact with the ball too. She got in there and kicked it a few times. I was so proud of her...and so was she.

On Saturday night we had our semi-annual neighborhood block party. We all attended, but it got cold pretty early so Christina and I headed back with the girls and called it a night. Of course, we stayed up talking until I fell asleep mid conversation. Sorry, Christina!

She had to leave on Sunday to get back to Northern VA to prepare for the new job that she was starting on Monday. When she left Sophia said I MISS AUNT CHRISTINA.

Silly girls

The girls were playing "Go down to the Bay" the other day so I just had to take their picture. They had a large blanket spread out on the floor and were pretending it was their boat. Cute.

More pictures from the wedding

Here are more photos from the wedding. Will's Uncle Rick took them.

Lilly likes to read

I found Lilly in her room the other day just babbling away, reading a book to herself. She loves to get cozy in her bean bag chair and look through books.

A fun-filled weekend for all!

Where should I start? Over the weekend Will and I went to his cousin's wedding in Texas and the girls stayed home with Nana and Poppy. Nana and Poppy arrived on Friday afternoon so Will and I actually got to see them. Our flight out was at 6 am on Saturday and our flight back into town arrived at 11:30 pm on Monday and they left at 4:30 on Tuesday morning so our paths didn't cross on the back-end of the trip. The girls had an absolute blast with them... you can tell by looking at the pictures.

They went to a fall festival on Saturday and went to a pumpkin farm on Sunday. The pumpkin farm has lots of activities. A petting zoo, bounce houses, amusement rides, pony rides, and much more. Sophia wouldn't go on the Ferris wheel this year even though she did last year. Nana said she spent most of her time in the bounce houses.

Will and I had a great time sans kids at the Lakeway Resort. It was a beautiful place and provided the perfect backdrop for an elegant wedding. We arrived in Texas on Saturday morning and left on Monday afternoon enjoying gorgeous weather the entire weekend.

In between we went to a rehearsal dinner, had lunch out with family, spent time at the outdoor pool, attended a wedding, and ate a breakfast brunch. Again, the pictures can tell the story better than I can.

Sophia at dance class

The last dance class of the month is open for moms to watch. Since Lilly is enrolled in a Mom and Me dance class, I missed the ballet part (which they did for the first half hour). When I joined them, ballet was wrapping up and the tapping was about to begin. My friend told me that during the ballet part Sophia turned around and announced that she was bored.

Just wait until you watch these two videos of Sophia in tap class. She's having an absolute blast. You have to watch the second one all the way through even though you might think it's a little long. The ending is worth it. On the way home she told me she loves tap class. So maybe ballet isn't her thing.

more pictures

Pictures from the Neptune Festival last weekend. Click here to see them.

Painting vanities

I found two really cute small jewelry box vanities on sale at Michaels. They each came with paint, stensils, a brush and a couple of stamps so the girls set up camp at the kitchen table and got busy painting. Incidentally, I found several crafts at Michaels for the girls thinking they would last me a two days. Well they ripped through them at the speed of light in one morning.

(With Will being out of town all week I was trying to come up with something a little different than playing Cat. When we play Cat, Sophia is the cat and I am the lady who doesn't know she has a cat! (Sometimes I have to pretend to call my husband and ask him if we can keep the cat. Other times I have to give the kitty a bowl of milk. And we play the same thing over and over and over and over.)

Back to the vanities. Sophia took her time and methodically painted hers all different colors. Lilly quickly blurred a few colors together on hers and then turned to painting something way more exciting (busted!).

There are a few more pictures. Click to see them.