Christmas Beauties

The girls are definitely in the Christmas spirit.  Sophia received a practice CD from her choir director on Sunday and has been blasting it every day. To get in the mood, she found a couple of holiday dresses that my mom picked up for her when she's older....but, get this... THEY FIT now.  They are size 12 and the only thing that is a little too big for her is the length.  Unbelievable!  She's not even 5 1/2 yet. 

Lilly also wanted to wear a holiday dress...and still fits in the ones she wore last year. She's been taking care of her baby, Baby Jonas for a few days now. She switches between being obsessed with baby dolls and purses filled with anything she can find.  Here she is wearing her Christmas dress and holding Baby Jonas. 

Spooky Spider Web Woman

Puzzle time

 Last night before bed the girls and I put together almost every puzzle we own.  Sophia is really obsessed with learning how to spell...so these word puzzles were really fun to do.

Read to a dog

 We went to the library again yesterday morning so Sophia could read her school book to the therapy dogs. She loves reading to them. She was ultra confident compared to the first time we went. She absolutely loves bonding with the dogs.  

Lilly looked simply stylish! This is the outfit that she picked to wear.  Jeans, tutu skirt, flip flops, shirt, sweater, jacket and, of course, her purple sunglasses.  As she strutted through the library I could hear the comments from the older ladies.  They loved seeing her!

 

 

Just looking adorable

L I L L Y

Go TEAM ABBY

Team ABBY's goal was $2,000.  We successfully raised over $4,250!  Go team!  Sophia and I exceeded our goal of raising $100 each.  Together we raised $238.45.  Thank you to all of our supporters!  


We had a really fun time tonight, although Sophia didn't "walk" a single step.  She rode in the wagon and I pulled her and Elizabeth the entire time! Elizabeth's mom, Carolyn, and I chatted the whole time so it wasn't so bad.  We met at Starbucks before carpooling in our van to the ocean front.  The girls both got hot chocolate and Carolyn brought chocolate marshmallows too.  HUGE HIT!

It was extremely windy, but not frigid cold. We wore hats and mittens...that helped!

Abby (the girl in the blanket below) was really cold....and tired tonight. She had several days of chemo this past week. What a tough cookie to be out for the walk tonight.

We all wore red TEAM ABBY shirts (except Abby, she wore white).  The back is really touching.  It's a pair of angel wings and reads:  She believes in fairy tales. We believe in a cure.  
 

 

 Sophia's teacher, Mrs. Faulker, and her family were there.  Allison, a fellow classmate and Daisy was there with her family. And, Grace, from our Daisy Troop was there with her mom.  We all wore TEAM ABBY shirts.  The back is really touching.

 

Big Daddy came for a Halloween visit!

The girls had a great Halloween this year.

It started a week earlier when they went Trick or Treating at our Kohl's shopping center and came home with enough candy to last a few weeks.  Then, they both had parties at school in addition to their Halloween show. 

On Saturday, we celebrated Trunk or Treat at our church (an event that I was responsible for and turned out fabulous....with over 100 children making an appearance!).  

And, the grand finale of the month, Big Daddy came on Halloween day and went trick or treating around Mulberry Loop with us.

The girls didn't quite make it around the loop, but they almost did. I'd say we skipped 25 houses.  There are 88 on our loop, so we already had a ton on of candy anyway!

Videos from the school Halloween show

Here are Lilly's songs:




Here's a few of Sophia's songs. Notice she's the tallest...





Here's the whole school singing together.  Sophia is still in the top row. You can see Lilly to the right of the teacher/conductor.

Be kind to others

Sophia's Cherub choir sang at the 8:30 service in church on Sunday.  It was a cute song, but not very loud. I could pick out her voice a few times, but mostly the little guy, Gabe, carried the group. 

Sophia is on the far right in the front row.  Make sure you watch her. She cracked me up.

Halloween show at school

On Thursday Will and I went to the Halloween show at Beach Manor.

All the kids wore their costumes and there were some really good ones.  Lots of princess fairies, Buzz Lightyears and Spidermans. 

Sophia's costume was definitely recognizable and there was only one other little girl dressed in a Jesse costume, but she was in the 2-yr old class. 

Lilly dressed up like Little Orphan Annie, minus the wig, which I'm going to attempt to return.  It did not look right at all and was more of an auburn color than a bright red.  It's a good thing she actually has red hair. 

Some of the moms I talked to recognized Lilly's understated costume, but for the most part nobody realized who she was supposed to be.

Later that day we were running a few errands and one lady stopped me to tell me that she loved Lilly's costume.  

I love the wolf costume in this picture. His name is Davis and he's in Lilly's class.  Next to him is Olivia, then Lizzie (Lilly's best friend), Lilly and finally Victoria. 

I'll try to post the videos soon....

 

Thanks Aunt Carole

The girls received Halloween cards with Target gift cards in them this week from Aunt Carole. They literally dragged me out the door so they could "spend" their gift cards.

Sophia picked out a Rapunzel doll and Lilly choose a beauty salon kit complete with hair bows, a stylist tool belt and fake makeup.


Lilly loves copying me and there is a straightening iron in her kit which she knew exactly how to use. The blow dryer takes batteries and actually makes noise, but doesn't blow any air.  They've been fixing each other's hair and playing "patient" all week.  I think it's hysterical that they call it patient instead of client or hair salon or anything else.  How cute.

Lilly actually came with me earlier in the week when I got my hair cut. She was on her very best behaviour and sat quietly in the welcome area eating her lunch and looking through the books they have for little kids.   

Off to school...

Just looking cute...

Lilly's turning into quite the artist lately. 

Sophia loves playing with her doll house these days.

 

We are soooo ready for Halloween!

I finally got my van back!

Actually, I got it back yesterday after not having it for a total of 8 days!  I didn't mind driving around in the Explorer, but dealing with the girls struggling to get in and out of the back doors solidified my decision to buy a minivan with power, sliding doors!  Believe me, I didn't need back-up proof at all.  I still love my van. For one thing, it doesn't driving like a truck. 

Seriously, the only thing I will miss about cruising around town in the Explorer is the awesome sun roof!  Instead I think I have a built in luggage rack on my van.  Blah...who needs that with Stow-and-Go storage anyway?  And, it's not like we take a million vacations (I'm seriously counting down the days until we go again - only 792!) Does anyone want to come with us?

Save the Sea

I donated to a charity last year to help "Save the Sea".  The girls are wearing their shirts today since it's going to be a bleary, dreary, muggy, day.  We're supposed to have severe storms this afternoon...

They wanted to be twins and both wear pigtails in their hair too. 

I had to take a photo.  Forgot to wipe the powdered sugar off of Lilly's mouth. 

As you can see from Sophia's hands, we painted their fingernails this morning too.  Lilly has already picked all of hers off.  Sophia is trying to preserve hers until her first Girl Scouts meeting tonight. 

Another Lilly-ism

This morning I saw Lilly picking at her eye. I asked her what she was doing.  She said something was in her eye and she showed me.  I could tell there was a sleepy eye booger in the corner of her eye. 

When she finally got it out. She announced:  Oh, it's just a seed!

Ha ha ha 

Little Hams

The girls asked me to take their picture yesterday before church and again today before school.  Perhaps it's because today and tomorrow are fall picture days at Beach Manor.  Sophia's scheduled day was today and Lilly's scheduled day is tomorrow. 

They are each wearing a cream sweater for their photos so I can place the photos side by side on the mantle.  

Sophia told me that Ms. Sue grabbed Lilly from her classroom when it was Sophia's turn today and they took a sibling photo.  I can't wait to see it because their outfits definitely did not coordinate.  We'll get to see the photos before we buy them. I love that part.


When we had their dance studio photos taken last year, I was required to purchase the day of the photo shoot and didn't get to see any proofs. Oh well...of course they looked great!

Here are some photos from yesterday morning and this morning.  The last two pictures are Lilly from this afternoon. She asked me to take her photo right before we left to pick up Sophia from school.  She ran right out to the sidewalk and posed for me.  What a great smile!

Jungle Golf

We went to play miniature golf on Saturday at the beach. It was Jungle Golf and the girls got a kick out of all the enormous animals scattered throughout the course. We saw a gorilla, an elephant, two rhinos, and a few giraffes. 

Sophia got a hole in one!  It was awesome. She was so proud of herself and I have to toot my own horn.  I got a hole in one - twice!  Will always gets a little bitter when we play mini golf because I always beat him. This time the score was 35 to 33 in my favor.  I chalk it up to my years of practice working at Putters, my aunt and uncle's mini golf course. 

Here's some cute pictures that I took.  

 

Halloween

The girls have settled on their Halloween costumes.

Sophia is going to be Jesse from the Toy Story movies.  We already have Sophia's costume. It's cute...complete with red cowboy boots. 

Lilly is going to be Little Orphan Annie.  I found the perfect dress today.  I had to order a wig and the heart locket from amazon and they should be here next week. 

Sorry, no pictures...no sneak previews....

Let's wipe out blood cancer together

Sophia and I are going to walk in a fundraising walk** on November 5th to support her friend, Abby. Abby is a fighter and is going through some really serious medical treatments right now to help her blood cancer stay in remission.  Click here to meet Abby on our team page and read a little about her amazing strength.

We'll wear red that night (a team ABBY shirt, actually) because we are supporters.  Abby will wear white, the color for survivors. I can't help but think that the girls (who may be a little too young to fully understand what they are participating in) might just think it's similar to Rapunzel's story and the lanterns.

We're raising money for a very important cause, through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk:  finding better treatments and cures for blood cancers so patients can live better, longer lives. I'm asking you to help by making a tax-deductible contribution!  Please use the link below (or click here) to donate online quickly & securely.  You will receive an email confirmation of your donation as soon as it is made. We thank you in advance for your support which will make a difference in the lives of thousands of patients battling blood cancers.

We really appreciate your generosity!!

If you would like to make a donation or would like more info on the event, please visit http://pages.lightthenight.org/hr/VABeach11/SAlexander

Girl Scouts

I'm officially a Troop Leader of the Girl Scouts.  Sophia is a Daisy Girl Scout (grade Kindergarten and 1st).  We're going to have 12 girls in our Troop and they are all in K this year (and we know all of them).  I worked to get the girls I wanted.  There are 22 others on the "waiting list".  

So far I've been organizing lots and lots of info for the moms and also doing/receiving a lot of training!

It's going to be really fun and I can't wait to get started.  We have our first Troop meeting on the 19th. 

Last weekend (on Sunday) I hosted a Troop Meet & Greet at the AMF bowling alley.  I was able to get free passes for all the girls and even their siblings.  Of course, Lilly was our tag-along.  She won't be able to do everything with us, but I'm hoping she can participate as much as possible.

Some of these names will be familiar, but here's a list of our Daisies...
Sophia
Haley
Addie

Elizabeth

Caroline
Abby
Mia
Allison
Mary Price
Megan
Grace
Maggie

While the cat's away, the mouse...

gets a flat tire.

Will is in California this week. On Sunday night we dropped my minivan off at the Chrysler dealership because it started making a strange squealing sound (it turns out to be a bad shim on the side of the alternator for those of you who understand what that means) and we also had two recall notices about the van to take care of too.  One was on the electronic, sliding door and the other was for the drain tube for the windshield washer fluid.  The verdict was that I won't get my van back until Thursday (tomorrow).  Did I mention that on Friday afternoon I got 4 new tires put on the van and also got oil change?  (not cheap)

In the meantime, I'm driving the Explorer, which Will had to put a new battery in on Sunday when we realized it wouldn't start.  On Tuesday morning when I woke up to take the girls to school, the Explorer had a completely flat tire!  And, the spare was flat too! 

Normally I would have just hopped into one of our other two cars, but Will drove his Diamante to the airport so it wasn't here and neither was the van.

Luckily we have AAA and we were able to get the Explorer towed to the Firestone service center and got two new tires put on in record time!  The girls were only 60 minutes late for school. 

The girls got to ride in the tow truck and thought it was sooooo cool! 

We walked to the local Food Lion grocery store and they picked out a second breakfast (milk and powdered donuts).  I also found some stickers and blank paper in my purse for them use and we had our portable DVD player and movies in the Explorer so they also had that to keep them occupied while we waited for the truck to be done. They were pretty good considering the fact that they kept complaining they didn't have anything to do. 

Fall Festival at the Farmer's Market

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Farmer's Market for their Fall Festival. The girls had a wonderful time. They got to pet a four week old chick (I think it was a baby duck), dance in the center stage to a live band (we all did), milk a fake cow, make their way through a hay bale male, eat cotton candy, make pine cone bird feeders, take a tractor pulled hay ride (we all did), and spend at least 90 minutes in the various bounce houses they had.  WOW!  They were filthy and exhausted by the time we got home.  It was a gorgeous day to boot. 

Hopefully this link will play a slideshow of all the pictures from the day. 

Paws to Read

Yesterday Sophia and I went to the library for their "Paws for Reading" program.  Basically kids between grade K-5th are encouraged to come and read to a therapy dog. There were six registered therapy dogs there yesterday. Lilly stayed home with Will.

Sophia took her school reader and chose a different section of the book for each dog. There is a dog named Pippen in her book so she thought it would be neat to share Pippen's story with the dogs. I think they really enjoyed it too.

She had a GREAT time.  This will definitely become a monthly outing for us.  Maybe Will can take her next time. 

The performers

Here's a few movies starring Sophia and Lilly Alexander:

A pretty blah Somewhere Over the Rainbow:



Halloween Song:



Goofing Off:



Lilly the Ragdoll:

Disney on Ice, Dare to Dream

Sophia and Lilly both had a fantastic first month at school. Sophia received all "green dots" from her teacher which means she was on her very best behavior every day. (smile)

As a reward for a job well done we decided to surprise the girls with tickets to see the Disney on Ice "Dare to Dream" show. We didn't reveal the "reward" until Friday last week, at the end of the month. Our tickets were for Sunday afternoon. The only thing the girls couldn't believe was that they had to wait 2 days to go to see the show. A few days earlier in the week, Sophia saw a tv commercial for the show and instantly knew she wanted to see it so when she saw her ticket she jumped for joy!

We raced home after church so they could change their clothes. Sophia dressed up in her Cinderella dress and Lilly was Belle.

The show itself was AWESOME! We saw three performances...mini versions of Princess Tiana's Princess and the Frog story, Cinderella's story, and for the grand finale, Rapunzel's story. All of us like Rapunzel's story the best.

Click here to see all the photos from the three shows. I ran out of space on my camera SD card and had to delete while we were there or there would have been a lot more.

Even though the venue didn't permit videotaping the performance, I was able to capture a few minutes of Cinderella's performance. Take a look: