From one extreme to the next

The girls didn't have school last Friday so they were really able to enjoy our 1 inch snowfall.  They loved every minute of it.

Lovely weather

It's January 9th and it was a whopping 70 degrees outside today!  I took Lilly and Summer to a playground this afternoon for an hour before Sophia got home from school.  It's supposed to be nice through the weekend.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

On December 10th it was in the 80s!  It was so warm the girls felt the need to wear their bathing suits out in the front yard to play.  

Hello from Sadie

Christmas Town

We took the girls to Chstimas Town at Busch Gardens during winter break. Sophia loves the rides.  Lilly still only likes the really slow baby rides.  Even the tram is a little scary for her.

We took a break for a while to grab some dinner in the Germany area and saw a great holiday musical.  The girls were in awe at all the singing and dancing going on around them. 

They wore their new hats that Uncle Rob and Aunt Christina got for them.  Those hats kept them so warm. 

Christmas in Virginia Beach

My Aunt Carole came to visit us for Christmas this year.  We had a great time.  She arrived on the Sunday before Christmas and stayed through Thursday.  We shopped til we dropped....especially the day after Christmas in the pouring rain, but it was fun!  I ended up finding the perfect rain coat...inspired by the downpour.

One evening we took the girls to Hung Club Farm for their Winter Wonderland Adventure.  The girls had an ok time.  I think it was less fun for them than I originally thought.  They mostly wanted to play on the playground (which they have open all year round).  They didn't really care much for the holiday lights and Santa's Workshop displays.  We ended the night be roasting a few marshmallows on the open fire.  We all came home in need of a shower because the smell of the firepit lingered in our clothes and our hair - and Lillys coat was ooey gooey with smeared marshmallow.  Aunt Carole had the brilliant idea of putting the coat in the freezer and then when it was completely frozen she whittled away at the marshmallow and IT ALL CAME OFF!  Yay.   

The girls sang with their choir during the 5pm church service at our church on Christmas Eve. Anut Carole got to see them in their robes and their green dresses.

We spent a quiet Christmas at home.  It was perfect.  The girls absolutely flipped over everything Mom/Dad, Santa, Aunt Carole, Uncle Mike, Uncle Rob, etc...... got for them.  The girls seriously screamed in joy at every gift.   Our tree was definitely decorated with tons of presents.  We were very blessed.  

Santa brought Lilly an American Girl doll.  She wanted McKenna, the 2012 girl of the year.

Santa brought Sophia a karaoke machine which she is obsessed with still.  She's turning into a big kid.  She loves music.  Will made her a mix CD and she listens to it over and over.  She loves to sing along with Justin Beiber.  She's totally into him and told me just yesterday that she wants to get a poster of him to hang in her room.  When I told Will he scowled....NO WAY!























Thanks Aunt Christina and Uncle Rob!

I love this face 

Christmas with Nana and Poppy

Will and I attended his holiday party in San Fransisco in mid-December while my parents watched the girls.  They arrived on a Tuesday afternoon just in time to walk with me and Lilly to the bus stop.  Sophia was giddy with excitement when she jumped off the bus.

On Wednesday morning I gave my parents the quick run-down of how our mornings usually run like a well-oiled machine (yeah, right!) and we all managed to get out the door on time.  I was just hoping they were paying attention because they were going to do it by themselves on Thursday and Friday!

Lilly's school holiday show was on Wednesday morning so we all got to watch her "not sing".  She smiled quite a bit, but I didn't get any pictures.  Mine are all dark and mostly blurry, but a lot of them would have been really cute if I had a better camera.  I think I was using my phone for these.

 
 I left on Wednesday after lunch and arrive in San Fran. around 8 pm (pacific time).  The hotel was very nice and was in the downtown area. It was within walking distance of tons of boutique shops, an indoor mall, and tons at least two dozen Starbucks.

I explored a while on Thursday by myself while Will went to work for the morning. 

The party was a tad over the top - in a good way.  There were drinks and appetizers for a good hour before we sat down to our choice of beef or chicken.  If you can't already guess, Will picked the beef.  I opted for chicken.  Both meals were superb.

After dinner the CEO and other two founders gave away recognition awards.  They literally handed out small statue awards that look just like the B in their logo.(Notice the "bean" shape.)  Will received the MVP award (Most Valuable Programmer).  He coined them the "Beanie Awards".  So, Will officially has a Beanie.  Woo hoo!

 

Our flight was cancelled on Friday morning, but Will worked some magic and soon we were on a flight back to the good old state of Virginia.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Saturday morning.  Sophia got an Easy Bake Oven which she loves and Lilly got a Princess and the Popstar Castle Bedroom Combo thingy.  She loves it.  They also love the new coloring books and books that Nana brought with her. 

I heard about Sophia and Lilly's time with Nana and Poppy from all of them....so it was just like I never skipped a beat in their lives.  It's amazing how much I actually missed them -- the minute I got to San Fran I was terribly homesick for the two of them.

Click here to see all of our Christmas photos.

Nana and Poppy went to Sophia's school every day to have lunch with her.  Believe me, that really spoiled her.  Either Will or I still go to Sophia's school every Friday for lunch.  It's Will's turn this week....

Nana and Poppy and the girls also took a walk every evening and checked out the Christmas lights on our street.

They decorated Christmas cookies.

They had a fashion show.

Sounds like they had a ton on fun.

It was very nice to see my parents and come home to some lovely surprises too.  My dad fixed two broken drawer handles for me and also replace the stove light bulbs.  Thanks, Dad!  

Happy New Year

I still need to go back and publish a few blog entries about the last couple of weeks, but for now I just wanted to log on and wish everyone a happy new year!

The girls both lasted until the ball dropped on new year's eve and then we quickly ushered them home and into bed. Next year we'll put them in their pajamas before we go to the neighbor's house.

I asked Sophia her favorite part of winter break.  And believe me, there are many things to choose from...and her answer:  STAYING UP UNTIL MIDNIGHT!  I guess that's what a 6 year old brain thinks like. 

The choir show: Starry, Starry Night

Lilly was in her very first Cherub Choir musical this weekend.  She was a chicken...can't you tell with those bright yellow feathers!?  (All the chickens were supposed to wear white dresses or something white). 

In my opinion (and a few agree with me) Lilly stole the show.  Her smile was priceless.  It was like she was flirting with Will for the first part of the show because she kept smiling at him and reacting to him enjoying the show.  She yawned two times in the second part, I think.

You can watch the whole thing (broken into two parts below for a total of about 30 minutes).  You can also just watch a few short clips of Lilly "singing" along. 



Here's a video of Lilly entering the stage at the beginning of the show.



Here's a video of the opening number.




Sophia, was Mary's donkey named Clip Clop, and she had a 5 speaking lines that she aced!  Sophia was supposed to wear either brown, black or grey and they were all supposed to wear Sunday dresses so we had to go with black because that's all she had in the color palette.  It's not my favorite dress at all, but she really likes it for some reason and she was comfortable in it..  She wore a fringe mane in her ponytail as her costume, but you couldn't see it at all.

The night before the show as I was tucking Sophia into bed she admitted that she had stage fright and I could tell she was going to work herself up into some sort of whiny cry.  I told her that there was NO WAY she could possibly have stage fright because nobody gets it the night before!  Impossible!  -- She actually believed me.

The morning (Sunday) of the show came and went and she never mentioned another word about stage fright.

But, I have to say, she really did her part great.  So many ladies told me that she did a great job when I was at a meeting earlier this morning.  I'm so proud of her!  And I'm proud of Lilly too, especially because she doesn't care much for Cherub Choir and actually complains that she doesn't like it.

Just yesterday she and I talked about her taking a drawing class or some sort of art class.  She's always coloring and stenciling and drawing on things, including closet doors!









This is PART ONE of the show taken by my friend Jen.  Her children were two of the cows if you can't tell, but those are the girls that Sophia recites her lines with.



This is PART TWO

Don't the girls look pretty in this close up shot?

Ella's party

Lilly was invited to a holiday party yesterday afternoon from 2-4.  I was thrilled when we opened up the envelope and it was an invite for just Lilly.  She's been left behind a few times lately with all the Girl Scout events that Sophia has been going to and it was finally Lilly's turn to enjoy an outing with mom!  (Sophia also enjoyed a walk to the park with Will - lucky girl!)

Ella, a little girl from her class, invited all the girls in the class, but only 3 were able to join in the fun, Lia and Olivia (both were in her class last year too).  Lilly had a really fun time.  It didn't take her long to warm up to the group and then she was off and running and I had to basically beg her to leave.  Ella has an older sister in first grade at a different school than ours, but Ella's mom suggested that we might have a playdate.  We'll see.  We're so busy and so are they with gymnastics/dance/and other activities...

I was one of the moms that stayed and was able to help with a few of the crafts.  Each little girl placed her white handprint on a blue ornament as a keepsake.  I love it and Lilly immediately placed on her Christmas tree when we got home.  The girls also made foam door hangers, foam snowmen ornaments and bags of reindeer food.  

Bonus:  I really liked all the other moms too....so it was fun for both of us. 

Home Depot Workshop

I organized a Girl Scout outing to Home Depot this week so the girls could each make a bird house.  We're talking a serious bird house -- made a real wood -- which needed to be hammered and screwed!  I had both girls with me so I rushed from one step to the next and somehow managed to finish both houses before most people were finished with their one.


Sophia did some of the hammering herself, but Lilly couldn't because her wrist really wasn't strong enough to lift the hammer.

Here's what the finished products look like.  This is a picture of the girls in my troop who were able to come.  A few had to miss.   

The Three Amigos

Sophia, Lilly and Summer before going to school one day. 

Visits with Santas

Sophia and I had a "girls night out" as she calls it.  It was last Friday night and I needed her help in picking out her angel tree gift for an 8 year old girl.  The girl requested a long sleeved shirt and/or sweater.  So, we got her both.  Sophia enjoyed helping me pick it out too. I also had to find Lilly's angel tree gift for an 8 month old boy so we hit a few stores looking for his request.  After we were done shopping she asked me if she could visit Santa.  Of course!!!

Here's a picture of her visit with Santa at the mall.

One day this past week when Lilly got home from school I took her to visit with Santa at the mall so she could have her photo taken. She told Santa that she wants the McKenna America Girl Doll.  (Thank goodness I had already ordered it for Sophia before she changed her mind to a karaoke machine because the dolls are on back-order until after Christmas.)


Here's Lilly's photo with Santa.

This morning we attended the Pancakes with Santa breakfast at Sophia's school.  We each at a pancake, gathered up some reindeer food for Christmas Eve night, and Sophia wrote Santa a wish list which included on the very last line:  1 of everything!

Right before we left Sophia decided to pose for another picture with Santa.  This time Lilly was too frightened to even say hello!

 

A trip to the zoo

Since we're studying animals in our Girl Scout troop this semester, the troop treated all the girls to a day at the zoo.  10 of our 14 girls were there last Saturday.  The weather was glorious and we had an amazing time.  We even managed to travel around the zoo as a pack of 35 because all the girls brought their families too. 

Growing Up

Sophia has learned how to tie a knot.  I told her that once she learned how to do it she would never forget.  I'm not sure if that sparked something in her, but the very next time she got it right.  Way to go, my 6 and a half year old!!

Strawbridge Elementary Fall Festival

I took the girls to Sophia's school tonight for the Fall Festival.  They dressed in their costumes.
Lilly - The Popstar from The Princess and the Popstar (A Barbie movie)
Sophia - DracuLaura from Monster High and
Don't they look super cute?

They played some games, got their faces painted and ate a few cupcakes.  Lilly had a rainbow painted on her cheek and Sophia asked for hearts all over her face.

They each came home with a bag of goodies and small plastic trinkets which they love.  Lilly emptied the contents of her bag onto her bed when we got home and refused to let me move any of it when I tucked her in tonight.

Neither of their wigs lasted very long. 


This is a picture of three of the kids in Sophia's class.  We all waited in line for the Haunted Stage together.  Natalie, Jacob, Josslyn, Sophia

Hunt Club Farm, more fall fun....

Last Saturday we went to Hunt Club Farm and then Sophia had her very first birthday party slumber party!  (More about that in a minute)...

Sophia loves this Candy! NOW! shirt.  The monster is fuzzy.  I think it's a little obnoxious, but she's becoming her own little person with her own sense of style.  I only help a little bit in the mornings before school these days.  She usually picks out her own clothes...or at least has an opinion if I pick out her outfit.





Lilly, on the other hand, wants to wear a "pretty dress" every day and seriously gets mad at me if she has to wear pants!

At Hunt Club Farm the girls got to go in the bounce houses, feed the goats, ride on a hayride, and then
we purchased a few tickets to the carnival rides.

Here's a video of Sophia acting a little crazy before we left.



A GIANT PUMPKIN!!!!

Yes, real men wear pink.

 Here's Lilly on the car ride.  It just goes around and around.  It's definitely her speed.

Brave Sophia wanted to try the Fun Slide.  She absolutely loved it as you can see in the next picture.  I think she went on it 3 times before we were out of tickets.