LilyBug

Happy 6th Birthday.

2012-02-14T11:46:00.003-05:00

My (not-so) little LilyBug,

Where does the time go? I swear it was just yesterday that we were anxiously waiting for you to be born.... hours ago that you were learning to walk and talk... minutes ago that you were in preschool. But no, it's been a whole year. You are bigger, stronger, funnier, smarter, sillier, and more adventurous. You have learned and grown and experienced so much. You are even more full of awesome than you were a year ago!

And what a big year it's been. You graduated from preschool and started kindergarden. You made tons of new friends. You started dance classes. You learned to swim. You learned to read. You learned to whistle. And, um, you toured Europe! You saw the canals of Amsterdam, the Eiffel Tower and the Royal Palace in Madrid. You learned to say "hi", "bye" and "thank you" in three languages. And you know where to get the best ice cream in three European cities!

You've turned into such a BIG kid. At bedtime, you don't want a picture book followed by a song - you'd much rather have a couple of chapters from whichever "big girl" book we're reading that week. After school, you'd much rather play with your friends down the street than hang out at home. You clean your own room, clear your place at the dinner table and do homework!

You are such a big help to Mommy and Daddy. You love to help, and you're endlessly curious about what we're doing and how things work. You helped Daddy when he was renovating the bathroom - your artwork will always be inside the walls. And you helped him build and paint the shed. You love to build, and to create. When you have free time, you can almost always be found working on an art project at the kitchen table - drawing, painting and gluing.

Even more than you love to figure out how things work, you love to explain how things work. You are always coming home from school with something new you want to teach us - lately you're our resident meteorologist, explaining where clouds come from and how evaporation works. You were also really excited to teach us all how to add and subtract. Luckily for you, you have a very willing student in your little sister.

You and Rory are so lucky to have each other. You love each other so much, and you play together so well. Most of the time.. You two love to play dress up and make-believe. You have the most intricate games and story lines going on. And as long as you can agree on who is playing which role, you two will be lost in your own little world for hours. It is beautiful to see. I hope you two will always have a friend in each other, and that you always understand how precious that is.

A year ago I was so sad at how big you were getting. The thought of sending you to school every day was heartbreaking for me. I still miss my tiny little baby, but I am so in love with my big girl! It makes my heart almost burst when I drop you off in the morning and watch you skip into school! You are so happy, so confident, so excited to be there. I love hearing you tell me about your day. I love watching you learn new things, make new friends and take new adventures. I am so proud of you!

You are still my sweet, smart, silly girl. And in this last year, I've finally figured out that you always will be. No matter how big you get, our how tough the situation, you are still my LilyBug. Still curious, still kind, still funny. Totally and completely full of awesome.

Thanks for always teaching Mommy something new. Thank you for this amazing, wonderful, fabulous year.

I love you, sweet girl. Happy, happy birthday, six-year-old!

Love always,

Mommy

6 Year Check-Up.

2012-02-13T11:36:00.002-05:00

Height - 44 and 1/8 inches - 30th percentile

Weight - 41.25 pounds - 25th percentile

Our big girl pretty much could have done this without me - she answered all of the doctor's questions, aced her vision and hearing tests, and sat patiently through the exam. But at the very end, they needed a blood sample. Just a finger pinch, but sweet Lily still needed her Mommy for that!

Tea time.

2012-02-11T19:09:00.007-05:00

Lily decided to have a tea party for her birthday this year.She invited a few girls from her class, and a couple of friends from preschool and playgroup, and Rory. We served "tea" (fruit punch and hot chocolate) in real tea cups and tea pots.
Even the cake had a tea pot on it.Tea cup goody bags.
Lily's friend Abby, who lives up the street, came over early and they helped me make a game for everyone to play later - Pin the Top on the Teapot.
Once all of Lily's friends arrived, they got to work on decorating tea cups - everyone got to make one and then take it home.
Then pretty much all at once, everyone decided they needed fancy clothes to wear to the tea party.
Luckily, we have a lot of dress-up clothes.

Next up was "Pin the Top on the Teapot".

When the game was over, it looked like this.

Finally it was time to sit down to tea.
(Lily, Rachel, Hannah, Emily, Natalie, Elizabeth, Rory, Abby, "Little Lillian" and "Big Lillian")
I don't know what was a bigger hit - the tiny tea cups or the heart-shaped marshmallows for the hot chocolate.
Happy little birthday girl!
Abby and (little) Lillian.
Rory likes tea parties!

Our shy girl, hiding a smile while we sang Happy Birthday.

Make a wish!

After getting everyone all hyped up on hot chocolate, marshmallows and cake, we headed outside to run off some excess energy. The rope swing was a big hit.
Waiting for their turn.
And the swingset was too.

And then Lily and a couple of friends had to rest in the hammock, because partying is hard work!
Lily spent the whole night thanking us for her tea party. I'll count it as a success!

Let's go to the Hop.

2012-02-10T13:23:00.002-05:00

Lily's school hosted a sock hop - her first dance! - complete with crazy sock contest, dj, black lights and face painting. Both girls wanted to look like cats.The dancing was hilarious. Especially when the wii got hooked up and an entire gym full of elementary school kids was dancing along with the just dance game. Here are the girls at the beginning of the night.

Family Portrait.

2012-02-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

Birdhouses.

2012-02-07T07:47:00.000-05:00

A recent project, painting wooden birdhouses. I love to watch our little artists so hard at work.

They love to paint.

When we came home and found them dangling in the garage (Daddy was spraying them with a clear coat so the paint won't wash right off), they thought that was about the silliest thing they'd ever seen.

Lily really wants to hang them outside so that real birds will move in. I think they're so cute that I want to put them on the screen porch so they won't get ruined. We'll keep you posted.

Some recent (ish) schoolwork and artwork.

2012-02-06T12:12:00.001-05:00

With all the changes and teachers and everything, we've gotten some of Lily's schoolwork back slowly, but here are a few favorites from earlier this year.

Her first ever book report...My favorite part was "wn klifrd mad al th pumpkins fol into the strt."

One day they had a presentation where a man brought several animals to school, including a porcupine and an eagle owl. When I told Lily I didn't know what that was, she mentioned his eyebrows, and then drew one for me. (I looked it up. This is what an eagle owl looks like. Well done, Lily!)

I love interpretive spelling. I love the way Lily labeled all the elf's clothes. Especially his tights.

First word problem.
This is from her December journal... "I reelee love my mommy. Chee is pritty. Chee is my best frend."
Also from her December journal... "I love Skawt. Skawt is my dog. Shee is my best dog. I like to scrach hr eers."
And finally, I don't know if y'all heard, but Matt and Colleen got married back in October. If you haven't heard, you should come to my house, so that you can hear all about it. Because at least once a day we get dressed up to go to their wedding, for pretend. The girls tell strangers on the street and in stores about it, especially if they happen to be wearing their black shoes from that day. And Lily loves to recreate the event on paper. The first time, she insisted I send it to the happy couple (I did), but this one I'm keeping. She added a chandelier over all of us, to make it even fancier.
(Colleen, Matt, Daddy, Mommy, Lily and Rory, dancing under a chandelier. Also, Lily loves Colleen and she loves Matt. Good times!)

Legoland in the playroom.

2012-02-05T09:49:00.004-05:00

Daddy went up to the attic and came out with two five-gallon paint containers full of legos from when he was a kid.
They've been at this for every waking moment for about 24 hours straight now.

PS. Hey Lego... my girls don't need special girl legos. They just want to build.

Before and after.

2012-02-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

Lily's hair.She announced earlier this week that she wanted "six or seven inches cut off". So that's what we did.
Crazy long hair!
Long, long, long...
Still long. But short too.

Saturday morning bike ride.

2012-02-04T13:53:00.000-05:00

We headed out for a bike ride this morning, trying to outrun the rain that's predicted for the whole weekend. Lily rode behind me, pedaling as hard as her little legs could go, occasionally actually pushing me along. Those legs are getting strong! Rory chilled in the trailer with her snack. Until they saw lots of people jogging and thought that looked like more fun. So they ran for awhile. And then Rory refused to get back in the trailer.

Luckily, she's always willing to hang out with Lily, and Daddy was willing to pull them both.
They were very interested in the park map and making sure we made our way back to the car.

Let me have the map!

Speak no evil!
Weee!
We found this really cool tree.
It goes up and up and up!
Our little woodland fairies. Or Keebler Elves.
And then, Rory asked very politely if she could try Lily's bike for a minute. And she said I could go slowly, and that Daddy should hold on to her.
She was holding on pretty well, so I started pedaling slowly. And then she started pedaling too.
And, as it turns out, she's totally ready to graduate to a bike. (Who's surprised by this... Anyone?)

Pretty soon she was shouting to everyone that we passed "I'm ridin' on my sista's bike!" She also told one women as we went by, "My Auntie lives in Amsterdam!" Not sure where that random shout-out came from, but it was adorable.

Where was Lily during all this? Riding in the trailer and consulting the map, of course!

100th Day of School.

2012-02-03T14:55:00.003-05:00

Rory and I surprised Lily at school for lunch today, the 100th day of school. This is apparently a very big deal now - every grade level does something different to celebrate. Each kindergardner brought in 100 of something (Lily chose marbles) to share with the class and to add to the display. They also made posters and got to eat candy. It's a pretty sweet day to be at school.

Rory always loves a chance to be at school with her sister.

When you have lunch guests, you get to sit at a special table and invite a friend to sit with you. Lily chose her new BFF Hannah.

And then spent most of lunch period being silly with her friend and ignoring her mommy and sister. It's very much what I imagine her teenage years will be like, except that she hasn't yet mastered the eye roll, thankfully.

Inaugural ride.

2012-01-28T20:09:00.000-05:00

For Christmas, Lily got a trailer to hook her bike to one of ours. And Mommy got a new bike for her birthday. Since then, we've had bad luck with rain on the weekends. But today was a glorious day - sunshine and highs in the 60's - so we went out for a family ride. We went to a greenway and rode for about 6 and 1/2 miles and Lily pedaled most of the way! (Good job, big girl!)

The trail we rode goes across a pedestrian bridge over the highway, so we sent Daddy and Rory ahead to the other side to get these pictures...

Halfway through Kindergarten.

2012-01-27T19:48:00.000-05:00

Lily's kindergarten year is already halfway over. It's hard to believe. Was it really four months ago that I left her in her classroom and then cried the whole way home? Now Lily hops out of the car in front of the school and skips inside, either by herself, or with one of her friends that she meets on the way in.

Lily loves school. She loves her teacher, the assistant, her friends. She loves the playground, music, gym, computer lab, art and the library. She loves math. She loves science projects. And she can read! (She'll tell you she can't, because our tiny type-A perfectionist doesn't think she can do something if she can only do part of it. So while she can read a bunch of sight words and can sound out 90% of words she come across, that last 10% has her convinced that she can't read at all.)

Most of all, Lily loves her teacher, Ms. L. She is sweet and encouraging and enthusiastic and generous with her time and praise. She is exactly what I would have chosen in a kindergarden teacher and she has been the perfect teacher for Lily. Lily simply adores her. Back in October, we found out that Ms. L. was expecting a baby boy in January. Unfortunately, she had some complications and delivered him 2 months early. So in November, Lily's class got a long-term sub. Ms. R. was older, and a lot less warm and fuzzy. She was a good teacher, and a nice lady, but really different from Ms. L. The transition was hard on Lily, who missed Ms. L. and would say things like "I don't understand why some grown-ups change the rules." She wasn't as excited to go to school every day. We were all excited to have Ms. L. come back after the holiday break.

Sadly, little baby Noah is still very sick and in the NICU. Ms. L. kept having to leave or take days off to be with him at the hospital. So Lily's class was having a lot of different substitutes. Lily was getting pretty anxious about the whole thing. On the way to school in the morning she would wonder out loud who her teacher would be that day and what the rules would be. One day, she had to walk laps for sounding out words out loud, a day after being encouraged to do that by a different sub. And her class wasn't getting to do things that the other classes were doing. So it was with really mixed emotions that we found out that Ms. L. is taking the rest of the year as a parental leave of absence. We will miss her terribly, but this way she gets to be with Noah, and the class will get a permanent teacher for the rest of the year.

For her "end of the year" gift, Lily picked out a stuffed animal for Noah, and she and I made this for Ms. L. to remember her by.
This is the back.And by the end of the day, Ms. L. had sent home this note.
She is so sweet, and we will miss her. We hope Noah gets well and strong soon, and that she will be able to come back to the school next year. I especially love the "PS." because earlier this week Lily came home bursting with pride that Ms. L. told her she is a "Math Wizard"!

Along with Ms. L.'s last day, today was also the day we got Lily's first ever report card. Everything is ranked on a scale of 1-4, and Lily scored 3 or 3+ in math, science, social studies, listening, and writing. She got a 4 in reading! She got top scores for all work habits and behavior, which makes Mommy and Daddy very proud. And most of all...
"She is a pleasure to have in my class." My heart could burst! Here's to a successful and smooth second half of the school year...

Sweet Lily.

2012-01-26T12:04:00.002-05:00

Typical Wednesday Morning.

2012-01-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

You know, a show before school...

The whistler.

2012-01-24T20:53:00.001-05:00

New shoes.

2012-01-23T20:59:00.000-05:00

For today's teacher-workday-craft-project, we decided to paint the wooden shoes that Auntie sent the girls from Amsterdam. We saw painted shoes while we were there visiting and ever since then, Lily has been asking when we could paint hers. Today seemed like as good a day as any!Lily and Rory each painted the base color of their shoes. Lily painted the flowers on hers (and then Mommy went around the outside and neatened up the lines). Rory cried when Mommy wouldn't let her paint the dots on hers. Sorry Roo - your Mommy is a little too OCD for that.
Aren't they adorable?

Pretend princesses.

2012-01-22T20:31:00.002-05:00

Lily as Rapunzel (see the scarf-as-hair?) and Rory as Belle.Rory as Snow White.

The girls each got a gift card to a toy store for Christmas and so we let them pick out their own gift. Rory picked a crown that came with earrings and a fancy dress.
Lily picked a crown that came with earrings and a book.
And now we pretty much live with two crazy, silly princesses all the time. In fact, Rory is now insisting that we refer to her only as "Aurora".
I love this picture.
It's no secret that Mommy and Daddy are not so crazy about the whole princess thing. We successfully avoided it for a long time. We continue to encourage other toys and games. And when they are playing princess, we try to point out that princesses can be brave and strong and do fun things besides just wear fancy dresses. And these two princesses do all kinds of things. They dance, and build towers and rescue each other from the alligators that are apparently always swimming in our living room. And they have tea parties and birthday parties. And they put on shows. They read and they jump and they chase monsters. They are really cool and multi-faceted princesses.

And then Lily said to me the other day, "Mommy, do you know why we like playing princess so much? Because we get to use our imagination. And that's the best game, because your imagination is like pretend. Except it's inside your head."

So, while I wish there was a little more engineering and a little less princessing, I am no longer opposed to dressing up like a princess. And really, any excuse to dance with these two, to spin around until we're dizzy, is totally worth it for me.

Bed heads.

2012-01-21T20:26:00.003-05:00

Home improvement.

2012-01-20T21:05:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile (at least a week) since we had tackled a home improvement project. So we decided to start the New Year off with a new shed for Daddy. We picked a spot on the side of our yard.And Daddy and Lily got to work, first painting the floor beams and then framing it out.
Rory wanted to help too.
And then Lily got work hammering the floor down.

By the end of the first day, we had a pretty good start.
But we were short on supplies, so we had to make a trip to L*we's, but that's a favorite store for 3 out of 4 of us, so we had fun.
The girls were excited to see Daddy get out his BIG ladder.
And by the end of the first weekend, we had the bones of a shed.
The next weekend, Lily and Daddy got to work on the roof.

And Mommy and Lily painted the outside. Then Daddy added windows and doors and a ramp.
And now we have a shed. Lily was very, very proud to get to help. And also exhausted. We kept telling her she could go play, but she would insist that she had to finish what she was doing first. And when I suggested that we do something she sighed and told me, "I just don't think I'll have time. With school, and working..." When I stopped her and asked what work she told me, "Helping Daddy with the shed on the weekend." Poor kid! Thanks for your help, LilyBug. You're the best!

Happy birthday?

2012-01-19T20:18:00.001-05:00

We were invited to a birthday party for a friend down the street. So what else was there to do but put on the hats that they never want to wear on their own birthdays???

My sweet, silly girls.

Splish splash.

2012-01-15T19:01:00.004-05:00

They were taking a bath.

Mommy & Daddy's new bathroom is the perfect place for bubble baths!

In 3D.

2012-01-13T20:16:00.001-05:00

It was an early release day at school today, so I surprised the girls with a trip to the movies.Popcorn, skittles, lemonade and Beauty & the Beast. In 3-D.
Rory's first movie! She only wore the glasses for the first 45 minutes or so, and then seemed perfectly happy to watch the rest of the movie mostly blurry. Lily loved every minute and every time that something "Popped out at us. Like we were IN the movie!"

Math and science night.

2012-01-12T19:57:00.004-05:00

Lily's school is a STEM school (focusing on science, technology, engineering and math) and just hosted a Math & Science night. There were a bunch of students from NC State there, helping the kids with different projects and activities. The kids were supposed to go dressed as their favorite number or scientist, so Lily borrowed Daddy'a Halloween costume and went as "Pumpkin Pi".She learned how to engineer a diving board out of dominoes.
And she and Daddy melted some chocolate with light bulbs.
She learned about liquids and solids with Jello.
What's better than an experiment you can eat?
(She liked the chocolate better.)
I have no idea what they were constructing here. But both Lily and Daddy were completely in their element and having the best time ever.
Lily also made a necklace out of pasta after learning about patterns.
We love this school!

Happy Birthday, Dear Auntie!

2012-01-12T07:45:00.000-05:00

Thank you's.

2012-01-01T18:51:00.001-05:00

For all the amazing, wonderful, thoughtful gifts these two lucky little girls received...

... These were the pictures we put on their thank you notes. They are thankful. And so are we.

Bye bye, Auntie.

2011-12-28T18:30:00.001-05:00

It's always hard to say goodbye.

We miss you already.

Christmas 2011.

2011-12-25T22:23:00.029-05:00

It all started out so peacefully.Santa came!
And then the madness started. The girls were so excited, and incredibly overwhelmed.
As usual, one gift was barely opened before they were tearing into another one,

Rory picked out this Aurora doll for Lily.

And Lily chose a stuffed "Clifford" and a claw for Rory.
They were big hits!

Rory picked out some new wind chimes for Mommy.
Auntie got earmuffs for her cold rides to school - one pair from Lily and another pair from Rory.

Bumpa got a book.
(And help opening it.)

There were gifts for Grammy.

And a picture of the step ladder that Mommy got a few days after Christmas.
Then we had to take a break for a snack. Opening presents is hard work.
Then we moved onto trying all our new stuff. Lily tried on her new headband.
Rory showed off her new scarf.

And tried out her new stilts.

I have no idea what she was mad about, but I love this picture!
Then she moved on to her new backpack and new boots.
Mommy tried on a new scarf while putting her newest Christmas tree up on top of the shelves with the others.
Mommy & Daddy got a new lens for the camera, so we tried that out for awhile...

And when we were all done, it looked like this.

We moved Lily's big gift from Santa, her new castle, into the playroom and she got right to work coloring it in.
Bumpa ate a gingerbread house.
We played outside for awhile, and played with the new lens some more.
Daddy tried out his new fleece.
Auntie tried out her new earmuffs.
Back inside, Rory tried out her new dress and the paints that were in her stocking.

Later that afternoon, at Lily's very specific request, we watched a movie. With a fire going. And cozy blankets. And popcorn. And hot chocolate.

We had some dinner. (Who am I kidding? We ate all day long.)
And we finished the day with a bubble bath.
Best. Christmas. Ever.

Santa, we're all ready for you!

2011-12-24T19:28:00.001-05:00

We all have our patching jammies on.

We've read a story in front of the fire.

And your cookies and milk are waiting...
We've been (mostly) good this year!
Please stop at our house tonight!

Apology accepted.

2011-12-23T22:24:00.003-05:00

After our adventure at wonderland, and all the the Christmas fun we've been up to, we had two very grumpy, over-tired, over-stimulated little girls. And two overtired, over-stimulated parents. There were some tantrums, and then there may have been some harsh words including the threat of canceling Christmas. Luckily, Lily knows the way to her Mommy's heart.

Christmas Wonderland.

2011-12-23T07:16:00.001-05:00

Every day during December, the girls opened a door on our calendar and found a special activity for the day. One day it was a movie, a couple of times it was making a craft, one day it was picking up Auntie... and one day it was going to a local nursery that was advertising it's "Christmas Wonderland". The girls were crazy excited, even when we got there and it was mostly just a store. But they did have an amazing room full of poinsettias, where you could take pictures.

After wonderland, we went out to lunch. But first we played tag in the courtyard.

Caroling.

2011-12-22T19:11:00.000-05:00

Rory was camera shy, and it was dinnertime, so you don't get the full effect of the two of them singing at full volume while twirling around, but still... The Christmas song of 2011 in our house:

Dinner with elves.

2011-12-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

Two little elves.

Or maybe reindeer.

Elves love cookies.

Fun with Auntie.

2011-12-22T10:08:00.001-05:00

We love having Auntie here! She is so much fun. She reads stories.

And goes to T*rget. (Notice that she and Lily are rocking matching ponchos.)

She comes along on crazy dinner adventures.

(We tried to eat at a local place famous for its Christmas decorations the week before Christmas without reservations. They laughed at us. But we got to pose with giant nutcrackers, so it wasn't a total loss.)
She helps make gingerbread houses.

In fact, she helped us make a whole village of gingerbread houses!
She did not help us eat them, but no worries, the girls had that one covered.

She also helps bake cookies - a highlight of every Christmas we can remember. Auntie and Mommy used to do this together when we were little, and we haven't missed a Christmas that I can remember.
She encourages dressing up fancy for baking.
And lets the girls lick the beaters.

And spatulas.

She teaches the fine art of rolling out the dough.
And doesn't mid when flour gets everywhere.
And she helps decorate. Rory had an unconventional method, where she pretty much dumped entire jars of sprinkles onto individual cookies.

And then ate handfuls of sugar.

It got a little messy.
But after we dumped off the extra, Rory's cookies were very fancy.

Lily, no surprise, was much more precise.
And her cookies were beautiful!
Mommy's cookies.
Auntie's cookies.
Auntie also brings her fun friends to visit and takes silly pictures.
Lily joined right in... just one of the girls!

Pajama day.

2011-12-21T21:56:00.003-05:00

Last day of school before winter break... pajamas, The Polar Express and hot chocolate! Sounds like a pretty good day.

Show and Tell.

2011-12-20T22:03:00.003-05:00

Before school got out for winter break, Lily brought Auntie in for show and tell. Okay, fine. Auntie, Rory and Mommy met Lily at school for lunch.
But Auntie did go back to Lily's classroom and read a story to her class. (Rory helped!)
Poor Auntie - even on vacation she's teaching!

Auntie's arrival.

2011-12-18T20:00:00.001-05:00

What? You aren't greeted at the airport by your own personal fan club?

Elfie's back.

2011-12-16T19:58:00.000-05:00

Elfie's back at our house! He's been a bit more mischievous this year. He got into our candy one night, and left a trail of wrappers behind him.Another night he stole Lily's stuffed "Grinch" and took him up on the chandelier with him.
Despite this naughty behavior, Lily and Rory race in the morning to see who can find Elfie first. They can both be overheard telling him things that they would like for Christmas that they forgot to tell Santa about. And the threat of "Elfie is watching you!" is a very effective discipline tool for both girls. Welcome back Elfie! We've missed you.

Under the mistletoe.

2011-12-15T19:06:00.001-05:00

Holiday dance class.

2011-12-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

We got to watch Lily's last dance class before Christmas break. They had been working on this routine since just after Halloween, and working really hard on partnering.

Once more, with feeling!

Well done, LilyBug! We're proud of you!

Teacher cards.

2011-12-13T18:12:00.000-05:00

To go with the gift cards we were sending, Lily made each of her teachers a card, with a customized tree on the front of each one.The notes inside were the same for all three teachers.
And then on the back of each card, Lily drew a picture of herself with the teacher.(Ms. Luffman, her regular teacher is holding a baby because she just had a baby and is on maternity leave. The other cards are for the teacher's assistant and the full-time substitue filling in for Ms. L.)

Christmas Craft.

2011-12-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

We did a bunch of them this year, but this one was by far my favorite.

2011 Christmas Card.

2011-12-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

Santa Claus is coming to town.

2011-12-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

The annual kids Christmas party held at Daddy's office is a holiday highlight for us. Lily talkes about it year-round. We were counting down the days to this party with nearly as much excitement as to Christmas itself. And once we arrived, the girls were thrilled to see their old friend, the polar bear.And then we got in line to visit with Santa. By this time Lily had a list she had written, asking for one or two gifts for everyone in the family, dogs included. Rory had big plans to ask Santa for a dollhouse, and she was excited for her turn. When we got to the front of the line, Lily greeted Santa like they were old friends. And Rory stood in the corner and cried at the thought of having to talk to him.
Santa was very patient while Lily read him her whole list.
For the record, Lily asked for a play house that she can color, a fancy dress and a kitty costume. She told Santa that Rory wants a dollhouse and some dolls, that Mommy wants a new bike and some boots, that Daddy would like a new coat, Lucy needs some tennis balls and a rope toy and Scout needs a stuffed animal to chew.

Our next stop was the balloon man. He is always popular. Lily chose a flower. Rory? A tiger, of course. What's more Christmas-y than a tiger?
And then we got the girls to pose in front of the giant gingerbread house.

After some snacks, we built our own (foam) gingerbread houses.
(Before we started these, Lily got her face painted with a candy cane and a Santa on her arm.)
Mommy may have gotten a little confused by the gingerbread house construction.
This was serious business, people. (Also notice the snowflakes on her hand. She wasn't letting the face-paint guy anywhere near her face!)
Some help from Daddy.
Lily was pretty serious about construction too.
But she took great pride in her finished project.
We had to take a break for more snacks. Rory really liked the chocolate on the chocolate covered pretzels. Not the pretzels so much though.
Candy cane girl.
On the way out, Rory was much braver and willing to stand in the general vicinity of the big man.Santa's little elves.A fabulous time, as always.

Sleepover.

2011-12-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

Daddy is out of town on business. I told Lily that as a special treat, she could sleep with me one night while he was gone. She was so excited! So at 8:00 I tucked her into my bed with a book and went back out to the living room. I did some work, watched some TV, took care of the dogs and got ready for bed. At 10:00, I went back to my room to snuggle up with my girl and go to sleep. This is what I found.
The text I sent to Daddy said "Great. Now where am I supposed to sleep?!?!" Luckily, she's a sound sleeper, so I was able to rotate her without waking her up.

Literacy night.

2011-12-08T15:53:00.002-05:00

Lily's school held a Literacy Night as part of their week-long book fair. There were books to buy (Lily had been stalking an Olivia book for a month, since the catalog got sent home), games and activities, and the kids all got to get dressed up as a book character. Lily decided on Olivia, because that was the book she wanted. She was adorable.
And Mommy was pretty proud of the costume she came up with, too.

Getting some things right.

2011-12-04T15:20:00.001-05:00

Today Rory announced, unprompted, that "Mommy is a ROCK STAR!" and Lily was overheard saying "Mommy always says that I'm smart and funny and sweet."

My work here is done!

Finding the perfect tree.

2011-12-03T14:31:00.002-05:00

Ah, off to the Christmas tree farm, to find the perfect tree!

The girls with Santa.Lily, posing with Santa and the sample tree she drew, cut out and brought with us. All this so that we could find one that looked just like it - "Not too tall, not too short, not to fat, not too skinny, not too green, and green enough."
"Look! Another Santa!"
This one was kinda big.
Don't squish me Santa!
Yay! Christmas trees!
I love this picture. I love how excited they both were. I also love that it's the perfect example of how they refuse to listen to Mommy, and how I have absolutely no say in what they wear. When we were getting dressed for this excursion I suggested "warm" clothes, they decided to go with "fancy". And then insisted they weren't cold, while they shivered.
But in the end, we did find the perfect tree!

Giving.

2011-11-25T10:57:00.001-05:00

Grammy was making sandwiches to donate to a local shelter and the girls were excited to help.

They did a good job too. Lots of love in those sandwiches.

Ice skating.

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001-05:00

Ice-skating, Carolina-style... A sunny, mostly warm day on an artificial, outdoor rink. Fun for everyone!

The girls, trying to find their balance.Lily, getting the hang of it.

Rory, doing her best to keep up. (She did a great job, especially considering that the smallest skates they had were so big that she kept her sneakers on inside them!)
Mommy and Rory.

Rory in motion

Daddy and Rory.

Daddy and Lily.Lily and Bumpa.
Waving to the web cam, which Auntie was watching, all the way in Amsterdam. Hi Auntie!!! (Man, I love technology!!!)

After awhile, Lily really got the hang of it, though she preferred to skate with two grown ups at all times.

Taking a break.
Rory, discovering that the rink was made of real! ice!

Thanks.

2011-11-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

We are thankful...

For little girls who dress up in mommy's shoes and set the table.

For even littler girls sleeping in a big girl bed for the first time ever.

For loving grandparents. And good food!
For teeny-tiny turkeys.

And silly faces.
And also for all the friends and family who were far away today. We love you all. And we are thankful for you.

Thankful.

2011-11-22T21:25:00.000-05:00

I'm thankful for school crafts.

Lily is thankful for Scoutie.
But most of all, I am thankful for this little turkey!

Tree Lighting.

2011-11-20T18:16:00.005-05:00

There was a tree-lighting party at a nearby shopping center, with games and food and crafts. The girls had a blast eating popcorn for dinner and making paper snowmen. But the highlight, of course, was Santa's arrival and the way he used magic to light up the giant Christmas tree!

Rudolph was there!
And frosty too.
Where's Rory?

Popcorn and Christmas trees??? Best. Night. Ever.
Lily and Little Red Riding 'Roo!
Daddy took this picture of the lights from the tree reflected in Rory's eyes.
Funny story... Right after he lit the tree, Santa was available for visits with the kids. Of course, the line immediately had an hour long wait. But, of course, the girls really wanted to go see him anyway. I pointed out that they hadn't even decided what to ask for, in a desperate attempt to get them to willingly go home without talking to the big man. Lily accepted this pretty easily and decided to go home and get to work on a list. Rory, on the other hand, considered this for a moment and then announced. "Maybe I want a Cwiss-mas twee. So I can go see Santa! I know what a want!!!" And then sobbed as I dragged her away without letting her ask Santa for a tree. Mean Mommy.

Raleigh Christmas Parade.

2011-11-19T16:20:00.004-05:00

Last year's Christmas parade was pretty much a total disaster. We were unprepared, got there late, the girls couldn't see, Rory was too young and a total mess - we left swearing that we would never go back. Isn't it nice how memories fade and a year later you can feel optimistic enough to try again?

This year, we brought snacks, we got there early enough to get a spot where the kids could see, and both girls were on their best, most excited behavior.

It was cold, but that was mostly an excuse to snuggle.
We saw the girls' dance teachers on the dance studio's float.
We waved to everyone, cheered for all the bands, and ate candy.

We saw this guy, who apparently won American Idol.

And generally had the best time ever.

Then we went out for lunch at a restaurant downtown. The food was good, but the entertainment was even better.

Nothing is funnier than wearing big hats, apparently.

Hiking at Umstead.

2011-11-13T13:56:00.002-05:00

We spent a fabulous fall family (like that alliteration, y'all?) morning hiking at a nearby state park. The girls had a blast!

Lily, looking for the best path to take.Rory, posing on a stump.
The first of many bridges we crossed - Lily counted them all and I think we ended up at 13.

Rory's best funny face! Love this one - she makes it when we tell her to smile for the camera.
But then she always gives us her best smile too.
It was such an unbelievable pretty day.

With a perfect, Carolina-Blue sky...
Mommy, taking pictures.
Of my three favorite people!

The four of us.
Sweet Lily.
Daddy and Rory.
Rory kept asking us "Can somebody carry me 'cuz my legs are vewy tired!"
But then she'd follow it up by asking to get down and running ahead like a mad woman.
She kept announcing, "I'm gettin' ex-sir-size!"
Strolling through the leaves.
Peek-a-boo!
I see you!
One, two, three...
JUMP!

Rory had to try it again by herself.
Ready, set, GO!!!
Rory found the perfect rock. She was very sad that mean old mommy wouldn't let her take it home.
This repeated approximately 1,746 times.
LilyBug leading the way back.

Sitting in a tree. (For those of you who remember the tree incident in Amsterdam, no worries, no children were harmed in taking this photo.)
Rory, all done hiking. Too bad we were still a couple of miles from the car. It's hard to be two.
Several minutes later, Lily was angry with Mommy too. Nothing like a common enemy to bring sisters together!
They sure look sweet though!
Rory, checking the map to make sure we were on track.
We all made it back to the car, had a nice lunch out and took blissful, snuggly naps all afternoon. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day together!

Day off.

2011-11-11T11:50:00.001-05:00

Honestly, sometimes I act like I'm brand new at this whole mommy thing. It's Veteran's Day. Everyone is out of school. And I decided to take the girls to M*nkey Joe's for a fun outing. The place was insane! Wall-to-wall kids and total pandemonium. But they had fun anyway.

Lunch at school.

2011-11-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

Rory and I surprised Lily at school for lunch. One of Rory's favorite parts of the whole day was getting her visitor sticker in the office.Getting to eat Brueggers at school was Lily's favorite part. She was so surprised and excited to see us!
She got to choose two friends to sit at a special table with us, where we were allowed to talk. The rest of the kids have "silent lunch". We got to meet Lily's friends Natalie and Elizabeth and had a really nice lunch in the cafeteria.

Halloween 2011.

2011-10-31T11:03:00.000-04:00

Once we got them home, we had to carve our pumpkins. This year, Lily said she wanted to carve hers (instead of painting) and Rory just wants to do whatever Lily does. Except, it turns out she doesn't like touching pumpkin guts. So she mostly just watched.
The girls with the finished pumpkins.
Lily and her princess pumpkin (complete with rhinestone tiara and earrings, of course). Rory and her kitty cat.
Spooky!
Daddy helped the girls make a haunted gingerbread house.
Decorating was serious business.
Rory's turn!
Lily's deep-in-concentration face.
Adding candy.
Ta da!

Lily signed the back.
The black frosting was especially yummy.
Arg! Beware the pirates at the breakfast table. Lily put her costume on as soon as she woke up on Halloween morning.
Daddy's costume for work... He went as "Pumpkin Pie".
We went trick-or-treating at Daddy's office.
Caught in a spider web!
And the girls did some work while they were there.

Leaving a pirate message on Daddy's board.

Hard at work on Daddy's computer. In fact, she told us "Don't talk to me! I'm workin'!"

After we left, Daddy was unable to use his computer for close to an hour, thanks to some weird setting Rory had switched it to.)
A pirate, with her parrot on her shoulder.
And then finally, we went to our neighborhood's first annual Halloween parade. It rained.
But the kids didn't really mind.

After the parade there was a party, and after the party we went trick-or-treating with some friends. The girls loved running up to doors with their friends. Especially Rory, who loved keeping up with the big kids. In spite of the rain and the cold, they had a blast. After awhile, we all got in Jack & Abby's van and drove from house to house. Rory thought sitting in the back, with the door open was the most fun she'd ever had in a car.

The end of the night. Abby as Medusa, Jack as a mad scientist, Lily the pirate and Rory the parrot.
Cold, wet and tired, but with more candy than they knew what to do with. Best Halloween ever!

Pumpkin picking.

2011-10-30T15:14:00.001-04:00

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin farm for a morning of fabulous fall fun. It was a perfect fall day.

Walking in past the farm equiptment.When we first arrived, Rory was NOT into having her picture taken.
But she did want to see how much bigger they were than the last time we were here!
On the way in, we met Cotton, the bunny.
He was a big, BIG hit.
Our first stop was the giant, bumpy slide.
It's inside the hay mountain.
Then we checked out the hay maze.

And then we found the newest activity, inside the barn.
The corn crib.
A giant pit full of corn to play in.

And make corn angels in.
And bury Daddy.
Or yourself.
("Just like Pippi when she was buried in the sand!")
You can also feed corn to the cows through these tubes.

Then the girls milked a cow with Farmer Ganyard (it's his farm).

Rory, the dairy farmer.
We fed the goats. Well, one goat. The rest were not interested in our corn.
Lily's turn.

Rory's turn.
Rory thinks goats are hilarious!
Hooray for goats!
Except when they bite her finger.
Lily was feeding the goat with both hands. He wanted to come home with her.
Heading into the corn maze.

See you later, Mommy & Daddy...
Rory needed a ride back.
Then we went on a hay ride.

Yay!

The view of the farm, from the hay ride.

Happy Halloween!
Posing with pumpkins. (Rory would only give fake smiles by this point.)
I don't want this pumpkin!
"I like dis green one!"

Counting pumpkins... one...
... two...
... three...
... FOUR!
It took forever, but Lily finally found the perfect pumpkin.
Three happy scarecrows.

Halloween Dance Class.

2011-10-26T15:10:00.000-04:00

Lily's dance class at their Halloween Party and observation day.

(There's no video, because Lily has just switched into this class and didn't know the dance . But she followed right along and was such a good sport! She loves her new teacher and I love how much more convenient this class time is.)

Fall leaves.

2011-10-23T15:02:00.000-04:00

While Grammy & Bumpa were visiting, the girls did some yard work.

NC State Fair 2011

2011-10-21T11:55:00.001-04:00

Oh, how we love the NC State Fair. Lily counts down to it every year. This year, Grammy and Bumpa came with us, and on the ride there the girls were both listing off all of the fun things we were going to do. I mean, Rory was mostly just echoing everything Lily said, since she didn't actually remember our last trip, but still. Lots of excitement. On the list were baby chicks, giant lemonades, rides and ice cream.

As always, our first stop was the baby chick and ducks.

We met the Cat in the Hat.
For Rory's first ever Fair ride, we picked the giant swings. I think this was Lily's first ride too. When they first strapped us in, she got a little nervous and snuggled up to me. But she recovered quickly.
Meanwhile, Lily had picked Bumpa to ride with her.
And he had fun!
We all did.

After a dinner of french fries, what could be healthier than a giant, chocolate-covered ice cream cone?

Lily on the trampoline, doing some crazy jumps. (Still a little too nervous to try flips though.)

Rory and Grammy on the spinning dragons.

I'm not sure Grammy knew what she was getting herself into, but she seemed to enjoy herself anyway.

As it got later, Daddy and the girls used up some of our last few tickets on the giant slide.

One last ride... the dragon roller coaster. Daddy tried to get on this one with them and was told he's too big. We weren't sure if they'd go by themselves, but they held hands and laughed the whole time.

We stayed until after the fireworks. It's the first time either of the girls had ever seen fireworks, and they were appropriately awed. Best time we've ever had at the fair!

Ten Years.

2011-10-20T11:24:00.002-04:00

It's Mommy and Daddy's 10th wedding anniversary. A lot has happened in those 10 years... 7 jobs, 5 cities, 2 states... And two amazing, clever, hilarious and sweet little girls. A whole decade of awesome. And to celebrate, Mommy unpacked her wedding dress and we had a dance party in the living room. Lily and Rory now think I should wear it every day. After all, when is a giant white ball gown NOT appropriate?

Pride Strides.

2011-10-19T11:29:00.005-04:00

Lily's school does an annual fundraiser called "Pride Strides", where the kids get sponsors and run as many laps as they can during their 20 minutes on the track. Knowing Lily, I didn't think she'd want to run. Bumpa got hoodwinked into sponsoring her for $10 a lap, and then Mommy put up $5 per lap. Auntie, familiar with this activity, wisely volunteered $1 per lap.

Each class makes up a name and a chant and parents are invited to come and cheer them on.

And then they took off. And much to my surprise, so did Lily. She ran the whole. time. I forgot to factor in peer pressure.

Yes, she's wearing a skirt and mary-jane-style sneakers. That's how she rolls. And it didn't slow her down any.

Lily's class - "Luffman's Little Lappers":

Lily ended up running 12 laps and raising almost $200 for her school.
You're a rockstar, LilyBug!

Colleen & Matt's Wedding - The reception.

2011-10-15T20:45:00.000-04:00

Let's get this party started!The kids got to use their baby parade streamers during the introductions at the reception.
But they were also really useful for turning into fairies and casting spells.

Math-themed table names.
Hobbs Family 2011.

Snuggling with Emily.Cupcakes and kisses.

Lily didn't want to dance at all.

And Rory was a little shy on the dance floor to start off.

Other people... not so much :)

This was how Daddy looked most of the day!

The girls both came around eventually and decided that a wedding was even more fun than a dance party in our living room.

Lily followed her big cousin Sean around most of the night. I think he may have replaced Loren as her favorite boy.
Both girls kept talking about "Cousin Colleenie's fancy dress" but they were a little shy with her.
Rory's favorite part of the whole weekend was hanging out with Cousin Amy. She followed her around the night.

The tiniest dancing queen...

Rory only had eyes for Cousin Amy and was dancing around other people to get to her "fweind AAAA-my!"

Still dancing!

Our girls were worn out at the end of the night.

Best. Wedding. Ever!

Ever since then, the girls take turns pretending to be "Colleenie in the fancy dress" or "Cousin Amy". They put on dress-up dresses and twirl around the living room to Taylor Sw*ft music. They'd rather be Amy or Colleen than Cinderella. That's high praise, y'all.

Colleen & Matt's Wedding - Posing for pictures.

2011-10-15T13:33:00.007-04:00

The new Mrs. Germann.Matt and Colleen took all kinds of pictures with every combination of family and then tried to get a picture with all of the kids.
Lily snuggled right up to Colleen, guaranteeing that she'd be in the shot!
There were about a dozen kids under the age of 6, so posing them and getting them all to look at the camera was super easy!

Towards the end, poor Emily, who was refusing to participate, got set in the frame in the hopes that she's sit long enough to snap a photo.
Instead, she fell. And it was hard not to laugh - just ask Colleen! (No babies were injured during this photo shoot.)
Everybody wave goodbye!
Yay! That's over!
While other groups were being photographed, Lily snuggled right up to her hero, cousin Loren. In fact, she asked the other groomsmen to please move over so she could sit next to him.

Colleen & Matt's Wedding - The ceremony.

2011-10-15T11:33:00.002-04:00

It was a beautiful, simple, elegant wedding... perfectly tailored to the happy couple!

The boys.Brother and Grandmother of the Bride.
Parents of the Groom.
Father of the Bride.
The girls...

And the Bride with her Mama.

Rory was enchanted!

The happy couple.
Saying their vows.
One excited Bride!
The new Mr. & Mrs.

Colleen & Matt's Wedding - The Baby Parade.

2011-10-15T08:47:00.001-04:00

Before the ceremony, all the little ones who wanted to wave streamers and run down the aisle were part of the baby parade. Rory was pretty much born for this job. Lily sat in a pew all alone rather than be the center of attention like that!

Getting ready at the back of the church.

Molly, leading the way.
Rory, running down the aisle.

Vinny was quite stoic.
Emily needed a little help from Aunt Tracey.
And at the end, Rory decided to go around again.

Here's the video of all the hilariousness.

Colleen & Matt's Wedding - Going to the chapel.

2011-10-15T08:37:00.001-04:00

To hang out with cousins! Here's Vinny, Molly and Ashley.
Lily, Molly, Rory and Ashley. With Aunt Tracey, Uncle Tom, Emily, Sean, Auntie Carol, Vinny, Nick, Sunny and Uncle Mike behind them.
Mommy and Rory.
Uncle Tom and Lily.
Cousin Martin.
Bumpa!
Daddy, amateur photographer.
The groom's cousins, and the ceremony musicians. (They were amazing!)

Also, while in Rochester.

2011-10-15T07:36:00.000-04:00

Get all dressed up and go to a wedding!

Rochester.

2011-10-14T19:11:00.003-04:00

Things to do while in Rochester, New York...

Ride the carousel at the Mall.

Have dinner at Don's Original with the big girls.And Uncle Fritz.
Try to master the slap game with Allie.

And go swimming (and hot-tubbing!) in brand new dresses from T*rget because Mommy foolishly forgot to pack bathing suits.

Charlotte Trip.

2011-10-09T17:40:00.001-04:00

Us girls drove down to Charlotte for the weekend while Daddy *almost* finished the bathroom. We hung out with Grammy and Bumpa. Lily and Mommy visited Grammy at her new job, which gave us an excuse to be silly at the mall.
But the highlight and main reason for our trip was a very brief visit with Auntie, who was in town for a wedding.

And, you know, the girls dressed up Holly, aka "The world's most patient dog".

The bus.

2011-10-06T17:30:00.000-04:00

There are three other kids on our street who go to Lily's school. Abby is in 2nd grade and the coolest person Lily has ever met. Obviously. Jack is Abby's little brother, who is in kindergarden too. And George lives across the street from them and is in first grade. George rides the bus to and from school. Jack and Abby go to school with their Mommy, but ride the bus home a couple of days a week. So, about a month into school, Lily started asking if she could ride too. I was really not planning to put her on the bus for awhile, but the school is about a mile from our house, and the bus doesn't have to leave the neighborhood to get to our house. And they will not drop off kindergartners or first graders without a parent there. And she would have friends there. So she got to try it.

She said it was fun. My big girl....

She rides once a week, at her request. Because she just wants to "try it, once in awhile."

Star of the Week.

2011-10-03T17:24:00.002-04:00

Lily's class is featuring one student each week as a chance to get to know each other better. Lily drew pictures for each question and got to choose two pictures of herself to send in.The first picture is of her family. Each of us is wearing heart-shaped glasses.

Apparently Lily's favorite food is a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone with purple food coloring.

She chose the picture of herself and Auntie in Amsterdam and the one of her and Rory running on the grounds of the palace in Madrid.

When Lily grows up, she's planning to be a Mommy (to 4 babies, it looks like) and a gardener.

Her favorite book is "Diary of a Spider" (or it was that day anyhow).

And her favorite hobby? Dance. With tap shoes, of course.

Apple Picking. Or not.

2011-10-02T15:21:00.008-04:00

We've wanted to go apple picking the past few years, but the season is really short here and there aren't many farms, so we've never managed to make it. But this year I did my research and we headed out on a gorgeous fall day for the hour-plus drive.The drive was beautiful, and the farm was so pretty, all decked out for fall.
There were scarecrows!

And a path to follow. And baskets to wear.
However, there were no apples to pick. The trees were picked bare, although there were some on the ground. Mommy forgot to refresh the web page, so we missed the update.
On the bright side, the long walk back to the car was easier without apples to carry.
Sweet girls.
Lily got a little tired and needed to rest her feet for awhile.
And then offered to carry Rory so she could rest her feet too.
Luckily, the gift shop was fully stocked with apple cider slushies, apple pies and cookies.

So the day was a total success as far as the girls were concerned!

Drop off.

2011-09-26T14:57:00.003-04:00

For the first two weeks of school, Rory and I walked Lily in, every day. All the way to her classroom. She insisted on it. And she seemed fine with going in to the room by herself, so long as I held her hand on the way there. But, one day the principal asked Lily if she was ready to walk to her classroom by herself as we came in the front doors. She gave a very polite "no thank you!" and tightened her grip on my hand. The next day (a Friday), he offered to walk her to her classroom. She refused again, but since we had already talked about it, she told him that it was Mommy's last day. When Monday rolled around, she had a bit of a panic in the car as I pulled into the carpool drop-off lane. But lucky for all of us, our friends were in the car in front of us... Jack, who's in kindergarten too and his big sister Abby, a second grander that Lily adores. And when offered the chance to walk with Abby, Lily didn't even look back. (But for the first time since the first day of school, Mommy cried. And so did Rory, who could not understand why she didn't get to go inside.)

Anyway, we don't always get there at the same time as Jack and Abby, but Lily usually sees someone she wants to walk in with. And then, look who was waiting at drop-off this morning...
Lily had no problem getting out of the car today!

Practicing her "Arg!"

2011-09-25T14:48:00.004-04:00

After much deliberation, Lily has decided not to be Rapunzel for Halloween, but to be a pirate instead. (Yay! Pirates are totally more fun than princesses.) And when her costume arrived, she couldn't wait to wear it. I mean literally could not wait. She wore it at breakfast. She wore it to play. And she wore it on a trip to H*me Dep*t. As she rode around in the cart (pretending it was a pirate ship, naturally), she greeted everyone with an "Arg!" or a "Shiver me timbers!" She was a big hit.
World's greatest pirate - no doubt!

Dance class video!

2011-09-24T14:56:00.002-04:00

Going Dutch.

2011-09-22T14:44:00.002-04:00

For two weeks, Lily and her classmates have had an assigned color to wear each day, as they learn about colors. ("Mommy, do you know what a PRIMARY color is? It is red, or yellow, or blue. And if you mix them together, you get a DIFFERENT color!!! Did you know that?") And on brown day, she wore her jumper from Amsterdam. You know, the one Auntie gave her for Christmas. The one Lily very sweetly said thank-you for, right before saying "But I'm going to return it."

Flashback.

2011-09-18T15:19:00.002-04:00

This is a song that Auntie and Mommy loved when we were little.
The actual words are "Mud. Mud. I love mud. I'm absolutely, positively wild about mud. I can't go around it, I've got to go through it. Wonderful, fabulous, super-duper mud!" The girls love it, Rory especially, but we're having a hard time getting it on video...

School Open House.

2011-09-15T14:30:00.002-04:00

Before we left for our first-ever elementary school open house, Lily wrote this note for her teacher:After a PTA meeting where we listened to the amazing principal, meet the whole fabulous staff, and learned about all the fundraisers we'll be doing, Lily took us to her classroom. We saw her first couple of art projects... A self-portrait.
And a "circle bear" - the kids were given all the circles but no directions, and had to create their own bear.
Lily was very proud to show us her classroom, her chair, and her spot on the "magic carpet". We all love her teacher, her assistant teacher and everyone we've met so far at school. We're feeling very fortunate.

First School Picture.

2011-09-14T14:21:00.000-04:00

What I didn't want to tell her.

2011-09-13T16:13:00.001-04:00

Lily came home from school yesterday and told me, "Today we had a moment of silence. Because one day some men came to a city and they didn't like it so they knocked over some buildings and they hurt a lot of people. So we had to have a moment of silence for the people that missed the people that got hurt."

It's a great, big, scary world out there... This is part of why it was so hard to let her go. She's exposed to so much more now. Deep breaths and fingers crossed that we can help her put it all in perspective.

The rest of their weekend with Daddy.

2011-09-12T13:25:00.007-04:00

While Mommy was away, Daddy had to take Lily to her Saturday morning dance class. Which required a braid. Lily announced that "Daddy's can't do braids." But I think he proved her wrong.And then it was off to dance class.

Lily had lots of fun dancing!

In between skype calls with Mommy and her Chicago friends, the girls had lots of fun with Daddy. They spent lots of time playing and washing Mommy's car (which the girls think is almost as fun as actually playing - for real!) and painting a giant sign that said "Welcome Home Mommy!" Sweet girls, and sweet Daddy too.

First Full Week

2011-09-09T17:36:00.007-04:00

Lilybug, I have to tell you, I am so proud of you. You are through your first full week of kindergarden and you are doing great. You go each morning with such confidence and come home excited, with stories to tell and new ideas. It is so cool to watch.

Mommy was away, so I got to take you to school today. The place seemed huge, but after a week, was already yours. You were my guide. You told me where to park, showed me where we needed to go and pointed things out along the way. You looked so little... my little girl, with a giant backpack, acting so much like a big kid. I'm not sure I can handle it. We got outside of your classroom and you just turned around, said goodbyes and headed in, ready to start your day. That wasn't it though, after you disappeared, Rory lost it. She didn't get a kiss from her Lily. With her in full-on Hurricane Rory, I was about halfway down the hall just trying to get her out of there, when you appeared around the corner and rescued me. You were so kind and thoughtful, told her it was okay, hugs and kisses to make it all better. Then you were off again. That was my big Lily. Thank you.

Later in the day, Rory was so excited to pick flowers out for you.

You seemed to like them.

And the Friday Peppermint Patties too!

Lily, starting kindergarden is a really big deal. It's been tough for Mommy and I to handle how little baby-Lily is left in you, but the big kid that is taking over is so amazing. You are clever and thoughtful, and so helpful to us and your teachers. We are sad to see baby-Lily go, but so excited for you.

I love you Lily.

-Daddy

Words that sound the same.

2011-09-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

Mommy, talking to Daddy about an upcoming trip for a wedding: "Oh, bummer. The hotel that everyone else is staying at doesn't have any suites."

Lily: "I don't mind!"

(Mommy thinks to herself: "Sure, YOU don't mind. But none of us will sleep much if there's no door in between us.")

Lily: "I mean, I don't need any candy or cookies or anything."

First Report from her Teacher.

2011-09-06T19:12:00.001-04:00

Tuesdays are when we get Lily's folder from her teacher, with a weekly report on how she's doing, a note from the teacher about what's going on in class, and any work that's being sent home. So here's her first ever "report card".
And her artwork.

Working on numbers...
My favorite! A new family portrait... I especially love Daddy's big teeth and all of our piggy noses.

School chatter.

2011-09-05T19:24:00.000-04:00

Lily, when Daddy tried to get her to sound out a word (which she can do) and then pointed out that she'd be learning to read at school... "I KNOW! I don't WANT to learn to read now. I only like to do it AT. SCHOOL." (Good thing I'm not homeschooling!)

On the ride home, while Mommy was asking lots of questions about her day... "See, this is the problem with school. I have to TELL you all about it!" (It's exhausting, I know.)

She's also explained to us in great detail what a smartboard is, what "specials" are, and that some of her friends have to walk laps at recess instead of playing on the playground.

So far, she's still smiling every afternoon when I pick her up, and she's excited to go every morning.

Swimming laps.

2011-09-04T08:15:00.000-04:00

She was kind of exhausted, and didn't really feel like performing this trick again on camera, but you get the general idea.
Our girl can swim! I call her stroke the Lily - some strange, invented hybrid of the breast stroke and a doggy paddle.

First dance class.

2011-09-03T07:29:00.003-04:00

No fear. Just pure, contagious excitement!

She couldn't wait to get there. Couldn't wait to put on her tap shoes. One hour later, after tap and ballet and jazz, the teacher opened the curtain on the window so we could watch 16 5-year-olds jump and spin and wiggle in unison. Awesome!

First impressions.

2011-09-02T19:00:00.000-04:00

When we picked her up at the end of the first "real day" Lily said, "I had a really fun day!" When I asked what she did she told me "I don't remember. But after lots more questions, she did tell me that she has a new best friend (Natalie, her cubby-buddy), that she had played on the playground, that they had circle time on the "magic carpet" and that she took her rest in the book nook. Oh, and on the way home Rory told Lily, "Lily I missed you when you was at kin-guh-gaaah-den. My big sister was gone-ed!"

When Daddy asked her how school was after her second day, she told him, "Great! It was awesome. Even better than yesterday."

We're off to a good start.

Mommy's soundtrack.

2011-09-01T07:01:00.000-04:00

Making it through the whole day without my big-girl-sidekick was tough. Really tough. Especially when Rory took her nap. The house felt too still, too quiet, too big. 4:00 couldn't come fast enough. And I probably shouldn't have listened to these songs...

Michelle Branch - Crazy Ride
Goodnight big moon, sweet dreams baby.
If I could have one wish tonight, it would be that you'll always keep, keep the starlight in your eyes.

One day you'll grow up, one day you'll walk out in this big world on your own.
And they'll be days that your heart will break and you'll swear that all your strength is gone.
But then you'll find a way to carry on.

Heaven knows that its a crazy ride.
It's never perfect all the time.
It will pull you down and send you flyin'.
So baby hold on tight, on this crazy ride.

Taylor Swift - Never Grow Up
To you, everything's funny.
You got nothing to regret.
I'd give all I have, honey, if you could stay like that.

Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up, just stay this little.
Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple.

I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart.
No, no one will desert you - just try to never grow up, never grow up.

Trace Adkins - You're Gonna Miss This
You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.

There are some good times, so take a good look around.
You may not know it now but your gonna miss this.

3:45 couldn't get here fast enough.

The night before.

2011-08-31T20:36:00.009-04:00

LilyBug,

Tomorrow a whole new chapter in your life begins. Somehow the sweet, tiny little baby we brought home who turned into a shy, quiet toddler has become a confident, smart, kind and funny big kid who can't wait to start kindergarden.

Every time someone has asked you if you're excited you've answered, "A little bit. And a little bit not." There's still some of the cautious girl there. But you have also told me that on the first day you're just going to look around, find someone nice and they will be your first friend. And that's the new confidence that you've found. I hope you'll be able to hang on to both.

I hope that you will have fun, and explore and make friends. I hope that you will ask lots of questions and soak up as much as you can. I hope you will listen to your teacher and be polite. I hope that you will always be as sweet and loving and generous as you are now - that getting bigger and being out in the world doesn't change that. I hope that if you see someone who needs a hug, you will offer it to them. And I hope you will always know how much we love you, and how much our time together has meant to me.

Because I am so thankful for the privilege of spending the past five and a half years with you. For getting to have dance parties and dress up days and afternoons at the pool. For all the morning snuggles and mid-morning snacks and the millions of stories we've read. For getting to watch you become Rory's best friend and hero.

I will miss having all of that every day. I will miss our quiet afternoons while Rory sleeps. I will miss the constant barrage of your chatter, your questions, your artwork and your love notes. It's hard for me to let you take this next step into the big, wide world all by yourself. But I know you're ready. I know that this is going to be a wonderful, exciting, amazing year for you.

When I tucked you into bed tonight, I told you to remember these three things...

School should be fun. Always look for the fun, even if you can't see it at first.

Sometimes things are tricky, and they might take awhile to learn. But if you keep trying, and you work hard, you can do anything. (Just like how you taught yourself to swim this summer.)

You will make lots of friends. But always remember to be kind to everyone, not just the people you are already friends with. That's the best, most important thing you can do.

Lily Sophia, my big girl, you are sweet and smart and funny and amazing. Everyone is going to love you. And at the end of every day, Mommy and Daddy and Rory will be waiting for you. And we will be proud of you, always. Good luck, little one.

Love always,

Mommy

Meet the Teacher.

2011-08-31T14:40:00.000-04:00

The day before her "real" first day was Meet-the-Teacher-day. We got to see her classroom.
Find her seat. (And meet a new friend - Natalie, who is seated next to her!)
We found her cubby.
And Lily showed off some of her favorite things in her new classroom... Like the housekeeping playset.

And the book corner.
And we gave her new teacher this - one last gift from MUMPS.
(Please note that her favorite toy is "books", her favorite game is "pretend", her favorite books are "Magic Tree House" and her favorite thing to do is "cuddle". Oh, and if there's one thing she wants her teacher to know, it's that she likes to sing songs!)

Marbles, and the end of summer.

2011-08-31T10:54:00.000-04:00

On the last day of summer vacation, I told Lily she could pick what we did, and (Shocker!) she wanted to go to Marbles. So we did. Marbles all morning, lunch outside and a walk to get ice cream. It was pretty much the perfect day with my girls.