Angel Maggie

Munchkin Carly

1st grade Thanksgiving Play

Our little Indian headed to the stage.

Weekend in Charleston

A quick trip to Charleston with the Brown family...It was probably the hottest weekend this summer. We roasted and often found ourselves drawn to water...the kids did not hesitate to run through the fountains...also visited the aquarium and walked around the battery and rainbow row.

First Day of First Grade

Yesterday was the first day of school. Carly was excited and ready to go....unfortunately, the excitement of school did not last too long. This morning she got up with her alarm and then moved downstairs to the couch...her pace was much slower!

Carly's First Catch

Not bad for her first catch!

First Trip to the Pool

Saturday (May 23rd!) we hit the pool for the first time in 2011. We had two very excited girls who spent most of the time in the baby pool...their parents were a little frustrated but the big pool was freezing...and it was much less stressful in the baby pool.

Since I originally wrote this post the girls have now become comfortable in the big pool-especially Carly. Now the challenge is getting them to go potty at the same time so that we don't spend the entire time going back and forth from the potty.

Summer 'Do

 The girls' hair was out of control! Decided on a whim to go extra short for the summer. Here's a few pics of them modeling their new cuts.

Carly - age 6!

Carly had her 6 year well check up last week. This prompted me to create her blog post about what I want to remember about her these past few months.

• has learned to read and really enjoys reading
• finally hit 40 pounds!!! (41 pounds now to be exact)
• enjoys writing stories and poems - note to self to scan one of her poems to post
• loves to hear and tell jokes
• tries to make up jokes - unfortunately they don't make any sense
• has recruited me two babysitters - Carly somehow gets her student teachers to give her their phone number before they leave school.
• loves to swing
• loves to play outside and go to the park
• loves to dance
• loves to sing
• likes to cook - especially if it is a dessert
• performed in her first play (Alice in Wonderland) and loved it
• will be the star in her kindergarten graduation play - The title of the play is "The Cow who didn't Moo". Carly is playing the cow.
• loves to do art projects
• doesn't mind being sick because she enjoys missing a day from school
• still loves to eat crossants
• only drinks water with the occasional small glass of milk or lemonade
• has a new love for corn on the cob...luckily she still has her two front teeth
• has her first loose tooth
• loves the Pink song "Raise Your Glass"... why does she know this song at the age of 6??? because I'm the World's Greatest Mom.
• had her first sleep over at France's house...stayed up until 9:45pm and woke up at 6:15am!
• still can throw a really good fit
• sings and tells herself stories for sometimes an hour before falling asleep
• has had a green dot every day this year - behavior color chart (green is the best behavior with red being the worst)...most days she gives me a run down of the kids on blue and red
• still enjoys dressing up
• wants to wear a bikini this summer!
• knows how to play angry birds on Mike's phone
• knows her way around the computer
• favorite restaurants: Cici's (all you can eat pizza buffet) and Zaxby's (loves the bread)
• dresses herself on Fridays
• thinks skorts was one of the greatest inventions
• still very routine driven...keeps us on schedule!
• loves life!

Easter - family pic

Easter 2011 - First family picture in a long, long time...in fact, have I ever posted a family pic? Easter was low key around here...The highlight was making homemade yeast rolls (a tradition Nanny started for the holidays)...yum! but definitely a time investment. Unfortunately, making rolls took so long there wasn't time to make much else...luckily a kind friend shared some ham and turkey with us!

How did April go by without one blog post!

The Debut of a Star

Carly debuted in her first theatrical performance this weekend at the local town theatre. She was perfectly cast as a sassy, confident, talking tulip in Alice in Wonderland. She loved it! The last two weeks were exhausting - but her energy did not let up.

 Flowers from her admirers.

Getting a hug from the card soldier who painted her red during the play. Carly loved working with the older girls!

Killing time and clowning around with her friend Frances backstage.

Continuing to clown around with the caterpillar...

She learned today that the fall play is going to be Wizard of Oz. We barely had her out of the theatre before she was proclaiming that she would make a great munchkin...

Maggie - age 3!

Some things I want to remember about Maggie at this age:

• loves to dance
• loves to play babies
• loves to read books
• loves to dress up
• loves gum
• loves playing babies
• loves dessert and all forms of candy (especially hot tamales)
• loves purses and packing items into her purses - we often find missing things stashed away in one of maggie's purses
• always wears accessories to church and school
• enjoys singing
• went to her first show in a theatre - Tangled and loved it...sat on my lap without complaint the entire movie
• was a pill to potty train...but now is successfully potty trained...
• maggie was having teetee accidents every day for about 10 days...nothing was working. Finally I made her wear pants (NO DRESSES ALLOWED) until she could make it through a day without an accident. Punishment with pants worked wonders! She was back in a dress in no time.
• likes to give kisses on the lips
• loves to play with her big sister - especially barbies and dress up
• is very good at sharing
• does not transition well
• refuses to nap and does not like rest time either
• has a VERY strong attachment to her paci and square
• Loves to eat oatmeal for breakfast which she calls "hot cereal"
• Loves apple juice
• edamame is her favorite green vegetable
• has an entire imaginary family consisting of 2 brothers - Jack and Emerson, 2 daughters - Floppy and Caroline who are constantly popping in and out of her tummy, her "other" mommy and her "other" daddy
• maggie says her other mommy looks like princess Jazmin
• loves having friends over
• loves starbucks - especially their donuts
• likes to play inside more than outside
• still talks about "our Montreal house"
• loves to snuggle
• loves to be tickled
• loves to tickle other people - but she usually ends up scratching
• does not like wearing a coat
• refuses to wear anything except dresses - every morning asks "mommy, will you please put me in a pretty dress"...she does not quit asking until she is in one...and will occasionally take matters into her own hands.
• She is also very opinionated about mommy's clothes. She only wants me to wear dresses with my hair down.

• is starting to talk about the parts of a book - I love it when she makes up a  name and says "they are the awfuls" - (aka - author).
• prefers boots over shoes...usually removes all shoes/boots as soon as she comes inside...she is not afraid to walk around our freezing house in bare feet and a short sleeve dress.
• often talks about how she has a husband or that she just got married last night. She occasionally refers to the husband as Brandon.

Our sweet 3 year old is always making us laugh and making her big sister role her eyes!

Dress Up

My girls would play dress up every day...maggie, especially. She got 4 pairs of high heels for Christmas. She loves to clomp around in them. Carly is almost always willing when she hears Maggie stomping about. They both love to accessorize, too. With the cold weather, dress up has filled many a day around here.

January Snow Days

We went sledding in the park by our house on Monday. So glad we decided to save our Canada sled. Although it is impossible to steer, it will work on very little snow. Carly and I had so much fun creating a "ski slope".  Maggie went down once with Mike and then decided that was enough for her. She wasn't much of a snow bunny this go around.

A White Christmas - Almost

Here is Dec. 27th in Chattanooga. Uncle Trevor had the fabulous idea of hitching the dogs on the sled to pull the kids around Oma and Grumps' house. The kids and dogs loved it!

Megan and John home for Christmas.

Maggie and Carly can not resist doing snow angels even when they know piles of snow will end up in their shoes. The angel is always worth the sacrifice of cold feet.

We are on day 2 of our second snow storm of the winter. We always thougth one reason to take the girls to Canada last year was to experience snow...who new it would come to the south.

Christmas Morning 2010

Somehow I only took 6 pictures Christmas morning...and only about 15 pictures total for December.

The item below was initially a grocery store. The girls have since turned it into a Coffee Shop that serves Pizza - my kind of place!

They cancelled school here tomorrow. Looks like we might be out Tuesday, too. I have a feeling that we will be playing with a lot of our Christmas gifts (accept for maybe the carseat)...Maggie only wanted two things from Santa this year - a cupholder for her car seat and a lollipop. Luckily Santa seized the moment and gave her an upgraded carseat instead of just a cup holder.

December Dance Performance

Carly's school offers several kinds of dance. This year she is taking ballet and creative movement. Here she is in her ballet costume the night of the winter performance. The picture below is with her new school friend Thailer. Carly is making her acting debut in the spring. She will be participating in the Town Theatre's Alice and Wonderland. She auditions for a part on Monday night...and then will have weekly rehearsals until the show! She is thinking that she definitely wants a girl part and that if she is cast as Alice that they are going to need to get her a wig...