Kids + Sprinkler = Mom's get 15 minutes of quite inside the house
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| For a girl who just a few months ago was terrified to get her face splashed on in any way, she's make huge progress. |
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| I love each stages of my children, but this is a particularly fun one - she's sleeping a little better at night (Goes for about a 6 hour stretch), and she's smiling at us, interacting, but she's still a small little baby. Best of all worlds. Not to mention that she is absolutely darling in every possible way. |
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| Lexi's first time in the Bumbo! Again, I love those little baby toes. |
Lily's started her last year of preschool! She got into the Southside elementary school program - it was so strange dropping her off (I didn't even have to walk her in) at a large school in the drop off line. I even had to pack her a lunch because they eat lunch there before they come home. It felt like she was starting her first real year of school and it was so strange. Lucy's parting words of wisdom to her sister as she got out of the car on the first day were, "Watch out for Swiper! Say "Swiper No Swiping"!".
At first Lucy was very mad that Lily again got to go to preschool while she didn't. "Gym School" just isn't cutting it for her anymore (she knows the gym day care isn't really a school now). However, I try to do things with just Lucy while Lily is gone and she now loves the time while Lily is gone, but still looks forward to picking her up from the bus stop.
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| Lily rides the bus home, so here we are waiting for her at the bus stop. |
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| This. Face. I can't stop kissing those chubby cheeks. Lily asks every single day when she comes home, "Did Lexi miss me?" |
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| Our first day of school tradition, frozen yogurt! Lucy was confused and asked for frozen yogurt every day after picking Lily up from the bus stop for the first week. |
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| We are still in the "princesses don't wear pants" phase of life. Lily has loved her school so far - she has a church friend in there, Nathan, who is a fun friendly boy. He makes sure to always invite Lily to play with him, and through him, Lily has made some friends and gained a lot of confidence by doing so. She's even taking it a step further and coming home to tell me about how she started talking to someone, instead of waiting for them to talk to her like she did last year in preschool. I already consider this school year a success based on her increasing social skills. She comes home and does "homework" each day to make sure she is learning academics. I can teach her preschool skills, but I can't teach her how to interact with a large group of kids at home. |
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| "There Are Worse Things They Can Do To Her" #2 |
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| Since Lexi was born, I've made sure to have "reading time" each day. Usually I would really only read to them at nap time or bedtime, but since Lucy doesn't take naps anymore, I added it during the day. It's a nice thing for me to do with the girls while Lexi is napping - but Lucy has become a book-aholic. Perhaps is because she knows it's the sure fire thing to get me to stop doing dishes and pay attention to her, but she is always asking me to read a book to her. I'm sure the snuggling time doesn't hurt. Today Lexi was joining us for story time and Lucy asked Lily, "Sissie, you want hold Lexi?" To which Lily replied, "Yes I do!". As soon as I moved Lexi from my lap to Lily's, Lucy immediately took her place in my lap. Cleaver girl. |
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| The Indianapolis Art Museum has Community Days when they have fun kids activities - this was at the end of our visit , as shown by Lily and Lucy's faces. |
Lily celebrated her 5th birthday! Excited is just too much of an understatement for how she felt. She loved that she was able to go to preschool on her birthday - the birthday treat she requested to share - watermelon and strawberries. I tried to spruce them up by cutting them into hearts. The watermelon worked out (thank you cookie cutter) but the strawberries didn't. She didn't care. She loves her treats but also loves to eat healthy.
Our birthday traditions include:
- Decorating the bed and door frame so that it's their birthday from the moment they wake up.
- They get to pick their breakfast and dinner. When asked what she wanted for breakfast she said, "I want something special. I want cheerios, in a bowl, with milk and a spoon.". It was difficult, but I was able to meet her request :). This year she requested mac & cheese for dinner
- We all (including Daddy if possible) go out to lunch at birthday person's restaurant of choosing.
- At dinner time (or bedtime if we forget) we all go around and say what we love about the birthday person so they know we are glad they are apart of the family.
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| Lily's ballet class started back up from summer break today, and Lucy had her first day of gymnastics (she LOVED it). Lily thought this was all perfect. |
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| Lily's request for a cake? An orange cake. She had this planned out for months. I guess she really loves oranges. I had to pursuade her to not have actual oranges slices inside the cake. But I did get a good orange cake recipe with orange filling and frosting. I let the girls decorate it, and again, Lily loved it. |
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| Each week Lucy is showing more and more love to Lexi. Especially while Lily is at school. |
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| "There Are Worse Things They Can Do To Her" #3 |
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A sure way to get Lexi to smile? Sing her special song. Each of my girls have "their" song that I made up - they aren't anything to brag about but they love having a song about them. Lucy and Lily love to help me sing Lexi's, and Lexi almost always gets this darling grin.
Hers goes like this:
Sung to the tune of (We are trying to remember what nursery rhyme this originally goes with)
Lexi Lexi
Lexi Lexi
We love you
Yes we do
You are so very cute
Even when you toot
We love you
We love you |
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| Since Lily had ballet on the day of her birthday and she already had her big birthday party, we had a little friend get play date the next day. The big activities were building sugar cute castles and making President Monson birthday cards. They played the rest of the time. The snacks Lily requested were grapes, brazillian cheesey bread (her favorite food ever) and popcorn. |
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| Training for the Mill Race Kid's Fun Run has begun again. Lily and Jordan go to the track each Saturday morning and run - Lily can run one lap around the track at a 9:30 mile speed. Plus I needed to document Jordan in his hot short running shorts :) Lucy has currently chosen not to train with them. I have a good feeling that come the day of the race Lucy will be mad that she isn't running with Jordan and Lily, but we are not going to let her run it unless she prepares for it. |
