Girl Scout Cookie Booths

Between both of my Girl Scout troops I managed 6 cookie booths between Fed 23 and March 9. It was a crazy couple of weekends. We survived, but just barely.

Seen above: Alyssa, Carlie and Lilly at a cookie booth in front of Panera Bread. 

Alyssa is my co-leaders daughter. They also live on Mulberry Loop so we take turns hosting the troop meetings in our homes. We meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. Sophia's troop meets the 1st and 3rd Wed of every month. There are a few months through the year when a 5th Wednesday rolls around and that is my favorite day of the month!

Seen below: Lauren, Carlie, Lilly and Eleanor in front of Farm Fresh. 

Vocabulary Parade

On the first day of Saturday school Strawbridge Elementary had their very fist Vocabulary Parade. Students were allowed to dress up like any word from the dictionary. Sophia chose grapes. Her costume was very easy to make, thank goodness.

Click here to see her on stage.

She can ride a bike

OK.  So a few weekends ago Sophia came in from playing with her friends and announced that she had taught herself to ride a bike. I didn't really catch the meaning of what she was saying. It's not that I didn't believe her, it's just that it kind of went in one ear and out the other. She didn't pursue the topic with me either.

Well, the very next day both of my troops had a park clean up at one of the elementary schools close to us. Our friend, Kate, had her bike and Sophia grabbed it. A N D . . . she started to ride it!  Here she is on only her second ride of the day. I was so proud and couldn't stop smiling for a while. 

The truly amazing thing is that she taught herself. We're definitely getting her a new bike for her birthday!

No snow this week

For the past 3 weeks it has snowed.  This week it will not snow and I'm jumping for joy. Today we enjoyed temperatures in the high 50s.  The nice temps should last at least through the weekend, but it's supposed to rain all week. Sounds like spring weather!  I hope.

And it's snowing again...

So unfair

Well, the Virginia Beach school system has identified three SATURDAYS as make-up days for the missed school days during the last two weeks. The first one is in February, then one in March and then a third in April.

Boo Boo Boo

A second winter storm

The girls were released early from school on Tuesday due to an impending winter snow storm.  Here's what it looked like day after day from Tuesday night until today when the temperature was in the high 40s and it started to melt a bit.

All bundled up for a day in the snow

This is what we woke up to:

Two other cute photos from Hilton Head

Carlie and Lilly

Sophia and Haley

Family Photo

This picture was taken in May 2013 when we were in Hilton Head for the week. Oh how I would give anything to be there right now.  The news reporters are saying we got between 6 and 10 inches over night.  I plan on measuring our snowfall when the girls get up.  

Thank you, Grancy!

Grancy worked her magic and removed the stray piece of yarn from Sophia's hair. 

Woo hoo.

Pictures of Lilly at school

Lilly's teacher publishes a share site on Shutterfly.com. She does a journal entry every week in addition to posting pictures of the class.  

The middle kid is Lilly.  They studied The Three Little Pigs at the beginning of the school year.

Learning how to spread peanut butter and jelly.

Wrenn, Lilly and Caroline

Wrenn and Lilly

This photo was taken the day that the class was visited by the Aquarium.

Zoey and Lilly.  This is table that she sits at now. We give Zoey a ride home every day except Friday. Her house is on our way home. Lilly was supposed to go over for a play date tomorrow but can't because of the snow storm. We'll try again another time. 

Claire and Lilly.  Claire is her new best friend. She came over for a play date a few weeks ago and they had a blast and got along really well. Part of the reason that Lilly signed up for acting class is because she found out that Claire is also in the class.

Allie and Lilly

Will was the Mystery Reader

Will was Lilly's "mystery reader" at school. Each mysterday reader submits three clues to give away his/her identity. Lilly said she guessed it was Will even though she only knew two of the three clues.  The clue she didn't know was: I lived in Germany when I was a kid.

He read two books to the class. I selected them and intentionally choose gender neutral books. Lilly was mad at Will for not bringing her two favorite girly books.

It's snowing...AGAIN!

It seriously was 65 degrees yesterday.  Sophia had a planned 1/2 day of school and changed into shorts and a t-shirt when she got home to play outside with Riley. This morning the temperature was only 25 degrees. 

The weather reporters were calling for the snow to start at noon.  As a result Lilly's school closed at 12:30 instead of 2:20. The weather people pushed the ETA of the snow to 2:00, then 3:00, then 4:00.  Big flakes finally started coming down around 4:45.  Sophia was lucky enough to be dismissed from school an hour early.  

The last I heard the weather people are calling for 8-10 inches of snow in our area.  It's supposed to snow overnight and then through the morning. We're ready for the storm. We plan on staying cozy and warm over the next couple of days, with the occasional trip outside to play in the snow. 

We're hoping for the rest of the week off from school too.    

It snowed!

Ok. This is weird.  Around lunch time yesterday the temperature was 60 degrees.  By 6 p.m. it was raining and the temperature dropped thirty degrees. 

The weather forecasters were predicting snow and there were tons of closings and delays scrolling across the bottom of our tv screen all afternoon.  Sophia's school didn't announce their Wednesday closing until 8 p.m. when it actually started to snow.

As soon as the first flakes fell the girls were dressed and out on the deck.  

Look how excited Lilly is.

Sophia gave up pretty quickly and came back inside, but Lilly took a few extra minutes by herself outside trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

Just before bed we let them go out and play in the now a little bit because it was coming down so quickly.  They thought it was great for two reasons.  

1)  They got to play in the falling snow

2)  They got to stay up late

The picture below is what it looked like outside when we woke this morning.  Lilly actually woke up first and ran into Sophia's room and woke her up to look at all the snow. They both came running to my side of the bed to tell me to look out the window.  I offered to make pancakes, but they were already shoveling cereal into their mouths by the time I came downstairs. They quickly dressed and went out in the backyard to play.

After they got sick of being outside they came in to dry off and get warm. They drank hot chocolate, watched a program and snuggled under blankets. I threw all of their wet clothes into the dryer. When the dryer was finished I suggested we take our sleds up to the "big hill" at the entrance to the neighborhood.  They thought I had a great idea. 

I didn't take my camera with me, but you should have seen how much fun they were having. They each had at least one really long run. Right before we headed home I took a ride down the hill too.  Fun fun!!

We came home, had lunch and then Riley came over to play. Eventually they went outside again, but didn't last very long because poor Riley didn't have any snow pants or boots.  They were completely exhausted by the time I put them to bed at 9:30 p.m. They were allowed to stay up so late because they have another snow day tomorrow!   What???

Lilly's first spelling test

Lilly had her very first spelling test.  Her words were all party of the "at" family.  

She passed with flying colors. 

Lilly's artwork

Lilly created these three pieces of art in school last year when she was in Ms. Debbie's class.  I was planning to hang them up in Lilly's room, but the girls were goofing around the other day and fell over onto them. Lilly ended up poking holes through two of them while trying to catch herself.

I guess I'm not going to save them anymore.

Lilly - Student of the Week

Lilly and I created this poster to be displayed in her classroom because she was the "Star Student of the Week". Doesn't she look so proud and happy? She absolutely loves school and is starting to spell and read. She shrugs her coat off every morning and races to the classroom. Sometimes I don't even get to give her a kiss good-bye.      

Sophia did it!

She got her ears pierced.  To the left you can see the that she's been crying, but see how happy she was a moment after she got pierced.  

She was terrified and cried for about ten minutes while sitting in the chair with the purple dots on her ears.  Finally she said OK.  I squeezed her hands and had her feet trapped in between my knees so she would sit still.  

She chose her birthstone, the emerald, as her piercing earrings.  She's been faithful about cleaning them two times a day and can twist them all the way around. Good for her!