Reading

Lilly read a book to her Kindergarten class at the end of the year. She didn't even tell me that all the kids were taking turns reading books to the each other while sitting in the teacher's chair and sharing the pictures on each page.  One day she announced she was taking this book to school.  It wasn't until the next day that I found out she read it to the class. It was no big deal to her, but I was so proud.  It's still her favorite book to read to me.


The rest of this post is simply pictures of Lilly that her teacher took throughout the year. Mrs. LaSalle had a Shutterfly website that she updated quite frequently with photos and class news.

The morning of Sophia's actual birthday

I decorated the kitchen table with a few presents for her to open when she woke up -- which was around 6:00.  She was excited. Of course she didn't want to wait for anyone else to get up.
 She just dove right in.

I bought this when she was 7, but it spoke to me.  

I was in tears at Hallmart when I read it.  

We have had quite a journey and I can't wait to see where it takes us. 

Sophia displays it on her dresser, but breezed right past it to the wrapped things.  

From here until the end of this post you will see nothing but blurry images. 

She was constantly moving.

So excited.

This book was the "behind the scenes" ultimate guide to getting to know the Frozen characters.  They each have an interesting back story. I think we've already donated the book because she doesn't like Frozen anymore. I have a sneaky suspicion she was over it before her birthday party.

I have no idea what other presents were wrapped up for her.  

I think she got a few shirts from Justice.

Sophia's Frozen Themed BirthdayParty

Sophia's Frozen birthday party:  I literally spent all week decorating for it and I highly doubt any of the girls noticed.  It seemed like all they wanted to do was eat pizza & cake and then jump around picking each other up while listening to the Frozen soundtrack and stumbling into the couches.  We played a few games before cake.  The game that was the most fun for everyone involved a roll of toilet paper.  The girls paired up and used one whole roll of toilet paper turning the other one of the into a snowman.

Here's our neighbor Kaitlyn and ?? 

I have no idea.  

Riley and Haley

Lauren & Hannah. 

Both were in Sophia's 2nd grade class. 

Hannah moved away this summer.  

er dad got stationed to Connecticut. 

Fun game, but a mess to clean up. 

 Sophia's not in this photo.

Someone is hiding behind Paige, the one in yellow.

Sophia's in this one. 

Lilly's Graduation

Lilly's kindergarten graduation was a tear-jerker for me. I was so proud of her for having a great year, but I was incredibly sad at the thought that my baby is growing up.

She walked up first to receive her medal and her diploma.  The necklace medal was inscribed with the word kindness, because that's the class award she won.  Cute.

Grancy and Jonas drove down a day early and spent the afternoon with Sophia and Lilly at the beach.  After we all went to graduation and the reception which followed Grancy and Jonas played at our house for the afternoon. I let Sophia stay home from school.  Lucky girl.

So, Lilly finished up school the week before Memorial Day which meant that she had a couple of weeks of down time until Sophia finished school for the summer.  So...at the beginning of June Lilly got to spend a few days at Grancy and Big Daddy's house all by herself (without any of us). Jonas kept her company. She had a wonderful time, but really missed me. That's what she said when she got home. I missed her so much too. More tear-jerking moments.

Lilly couldn't stop smiling!!  

Her friend Allie is all smiles too.

Wish I hadn't been crying 10 minutes earlier.

Lilly's Teacher, Mrs. LaSalle

Assistant Teacher, Mrs. Leonard

Lilly and Claire, her best friend in school

Cookies!  Yum.

Grancy and I met 1/2 way in between Va Bch and Northern VA so I could pick Lilly up from her vacation.  We spent a super fun day at Kings Dominion.  We mostly stayed in the water park.  Lilly spent a lot of time swimming in the wave pool.  Don't have any pictures...bummer.

Wizard of Oz

Lilly and I went on a field trip with her class to see The Wizard of Oz performed by a high school really close to our house.  It was a great show in the brand new school which literally just opened it's doors this year.  Impressively, the theater even has an upper level which really does offer great seats.

A few days later Lilly and I went back to see the show again...with Will and Sophia.  The second time around I thought it just dragged on and on.  Three hours of Wizard of Oz is a little much.  I have to give a big thank you to my mom for sitting through hours of the Wizard of Oz when I was a senior in high school.  Holy smokes - that was 22 years ago!  And....I can still remember the lines.

Lilly's favorite song was the Jitterbug.  It was silly and choreographed really cute.  She sang it for days.

Ancient Egypt and Ancient China

The second graders studied ancient Egypt and China in March and concluded their lessons with a small song performance in early April for all the parents.  They all decorated an over-sized white t-shirt with Chinese characters on one side and Hieroglyphics on the other.  They switched sides half way through the show.  

At this show I also saw that Sophia is the tallest kid in all of second grade at her school. She also led the entire group of kids onto the stage.  

Here's Sophia wearing her Egyptian hair and crown.

Here she is wearing a dragon mask.  

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Sophia's class just finished reading the book and Lilly & Sophia just watched the Johnny Depp version of the movie about 100 times.  When we found out that one of the local high schools was performing it as their spring musical we simply had to go.

Lion King

Rising Stars Vocal Group 

After 10 weeks of rehearsals the girls performed in two shows on March 18. The first performance included songs from popular Disney movies. Sophia had a few solos and stood in front of the group a few times. Then they both starred in an adapted version of the musical Lion King. Sophia was Scar (the antagonist) and got top billing in the cast list printed in the program. Way to go, Sophia!  Lilly was Sarafina, mother of Nala. 

Both girls worked so hard to memorize their lines and both had great performances. Poor Lilly -  one of her scenes was completely skipped over and she didn't even know it. She came out on stage for the second time thinking that she would act out her second scene lines, but the rest of the cast were acting  Lilly's third scene. Like she should have...she started saying her second scene lines and was corrected by the director, Ms. Samara. Ms. Samara was hidden behind an accordion-style folding wall reminding each and every single member of the cast of their lines. Honestly, I think Sophia was the only exception.  

Thanks for the manes, Nana!

Surprise! Surprise! Grancy arrived just in time for the shows and surprised the girls! Lilly just beamed throughout the entire Rising Stars vocal performance. Just wait until you see the video.

After the shows we went to Red Robin for dinner. Grancy spent the night with us and had a little bit of time to talk to Sophia before she went to school.  Lilly was lucky enough to have the day off because of a teacher work day so she got to spend some "alone" time with Grancy.  I don't think there has been a time when Lilly was the only grandchild around...maybe, but I don't think so. They read one of Lilly's school books together while our breakfast quiche was baking. 

Bravo, Lilly!

You killed it, Sophia!

Check out these new renditions of the Mona Lisa

MONA SOPHIA

MONA LILLY

Perfect attendance so far

Sophia received a certificate because she didn't miss any school days during the second quarter of 2nd grade. She's aiming for perfect attendance this year.

This coming Saturday she has Saturday school and two days later (on Monday) she begins a 2 month stint where school will be extended for 20 minutes per day.  This, apparently, makes up for the snow days.  

A style of her own

It's official. Lilly will no longer wear the outfits that I pick out for her. She either hates them or tells me they're not stylish. Then in her very best Valley girl impression she'll let me know that she only wears popular clothes. She prefers to wear leggings and a short sleeved t-shirt - every day!

This photo does not depict the type of stylish clothes she likes to wear, but it does depict a defiant Lilly on her way to school one morning.  She absolutely refused to take any of her winter accessories off.

Dominoes

For a few days Sophia was really into setting up Domino trails. Each time she got closer to using all the dominoes in a single trail she would accidentally bump into one of them. A real bummer!

She set this one up before school one morning and only had a few pieces left to finish the trail. I was waiting in the sidelines to record the big moment. I snapped this picture and then it was all over. She bumped one of the pieces and the trail took off. This was the last one she made and a few days later I put the Dominoes back in the closet.

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.