UNdecorating the tree

I'm innocent, honest.

Equestrian Match

We went to an equestrian match and had lots of fun.  Even Charlie got to ride a horse...with a little help from Mom, of course.

sleepy

Alli's Preschool

Excerpts from Alli telling us about her day:

Today Bobby sneezed on me.  He MEANT to and he didn't say sorry, and when I told the teacher they talked to him and told him to say sorry and he said sorry, but then when they left I said real quiet to myself, (here she kinda rolls her eyes and sounds very exasperated) "He'll do it again". 

The next day:
Whit threw a rock and hit me in the head. Almost in my EYE!  He accidentally hit me, but he didn't accidentally throw it and he's not supposed to throw rocks. 

Another day on the playground:
The little kids were running to fast down the hill and I told them they shouldn't run so fast.  Then there was one who was in front of the swing and was about to get hit and the teachers weren't looking so I went and told her to watch out or she would get hit by the swing.  She was little so she didn't know better and I told her so now she does, I saved her.

Butterfly research

Laura's class got caterpillars yesterday. Her's is named spikes and she thinks it's a girl and she loves her very much. So last night she grabbed all the books in our library that had info on caterpillars and she and Alli spent their lights on time researching butterflies. Here are some of the results:

 Alli's research page
















Laura's Research Pages

The only trouble is I have a really hard time telling them they have to turn their lights out and go to sleep when they are sitting there happily looking through books and writing their findings. 

Alli's Picture

shelves

Ah the joy that simple things can bring to children. I found a couple of shelves on the side of the road, which prompted some minor rearranging in the kids room. Alli has a shelf beside her bed now and Laura has a reading/homework area. They are both very pleased.

Georgia Aquarium

Last weekend Nana and Gramps came up and we went to the Aquarium in Atlanta. We spent all day gazing at the fishes and had a great time.

Alli's Going to Preschool

Here is a picture of Alli at her new preschool. She starts Monday and is very excited!

Laura's First Day of Second Grade

The outfit she is wearing was sewn by none other than me! It was started as an ash tree fairy costume for Halloween (she requested I start early to make sure it got finished in plenty of time) But, she decided to take away the wings and have a first day of school outfit.

Here is our inspiration picture http://www.flower-fairies-pictures.co.uk/ff/shop/details.asp?productID=316

Videos of Charlie

Catapult

At our last visit to Granny and Granpa's house a family reunion took place. Ever since childhood when all the cousins got together something fun happened. Back in the days when the electric fences weren't up all over the place, and the old datsun and bug could still be revived we had some grand fun playing different variations of car chase, car tag, hide and go seek, joy riding, etc. Now we're a bit more grown up and half of us have little ones on our heels so car chase was not resurected, but when Joshua (5) asked Uncle Charlie to help him build a catapult, he got the whole crew working and a trebuchet that could fling a watermelon ~ 50 feet.

Here's a link to Daniel's animation of it in action

http://awarenessispainful.blogspot.com/2009/07/catapult-construction-our-homemade.html

Mario Wars

Chris found a new video game that we've been playing with the girls. It's called Mario wars and essentially it's just various game boards were we all try to bounce on the other's heads. At first of course Chris was beating us all pretty badly. Then, slowly, Laura and Alli and I got the hang of it and weren't getting beat quite as badly. After a while I started being the first one out, and now Alli wins more often than not. It is really funny to see she and Chris go head to head and her to win. Whenever I cried out "No! You Got Me!" She just says, "It's part of the game and you can't get upset" and grins really big.

Laura and Charlie in the Pool

Charlie seemed to want a little pool time today and lucky for her she has a wonderful big sister who was happy to help. She had a great time splashing and playing with Laura. The pool is shallow enough that Charlie could stand up if she wanted to, but generally she just kicked and floated around. And, yes, I stayed very very close at hand.

Diving

Alli was pretty timid about the diving board idea, but once assured that she could have help (and after watching the other kids get lowered down) she was ready. Once she got going, she really had fun and "jumped" off the diving board 4 times today.




Here is Laura jumping off the edge of the pool and then swimming all on her own to the side.




Laura was a little apprehensive as well about the diving board. Last week she was able to jump off the diving board by herself while wearing a swim belt. This week she tried it without a swim belt, but ended up needing someone to get her off the board.

Catch the Baby *

*No babies were harmed in the making of this slide show...in fact Charlie seemed to think this was a hilarious game.

Gymnastics vs Karate

The other day we were at Burger King letting the kids play at the big indoor playplace. There was one other little boy also playing on the playplace and apparently he starting picking on Laura and Alli. As Alli tells the story, she said to him, "You better leave us alone, Laura knows Karate!" He was worried for a minute, but then he says "Oh yeah, I know Gymnastics!" At which point the girls ran away.

Laura Can Swim!

Here is a clip of Laura swimming taken from far away.

Laura Swimming

Playing Dressup

Laura decided we all needed to be chinese girls today. This was what we came up with. The kids said that Charlie looks like a Shrek baby. I agree.

swim lessons

The kids are in their second week of swim lessons for this summer and things are really starting to click. Laura went from being afraid of getting her face in the water to being able to swim front crawl (freestyle). With the aid of swim goggles she now readily plunges completely under the water and floats around. It is really an amazing difference. Laura has also made several friends that she plays with in the kiddie pool while Alli is at her lesson. They dive for pennies and race and typically have a good time. Today a boy joined the group and was the "shark" that chased the girls around.

Alli is still pretty scared of the water, but she too is making progress. She went from a refusal to go anywhere near the pool with her teacher to blowing bubbles and letting her teacher dip her under the water. She has fun swimming with a noodle or swim belt on, but is pretty timid about trying anything new. Still, I think it's helping her and maybe she'll be ready to do more next year.

Charlie enjoys the water too, but two hours at the pool is a bit much, so she usually naps the second half.

Geometry Lesson

Chris is giving the kids a late night math lesson and tells the kids that the sum of all angles for any geometric shape is 360 degrees. Laura asks him, "What is a sum again?" Alli, exasperatedly pipes up, "Your 7 years old Laura you know everything." Laura's reply, "I know, but sometimes it pops out of my head."

Hair

Charlie's First Food

Bird Nest

I built this house and put it up for our pigeon, Oscar, when I was pregnant with Alli.  Oscar pretty soon moved on, and it has remained empty for years.  I left it up, though, in the hopes that some other bird might find a home.  This year, they finally did.  Here are the babies..

 

I found a Dragon...can I keep em, please please?

Here is what the kids and I found while driving home from school today.  He was being pursued by a rather large crow, but considering that he is rather large himself he didn't seem to be too perturbed by it.  I, of course, had to stop the car and check on the big lizard and sure enough it was a bearded dragon.  I grabbed him up, put him on my shoulder, finished a few errands I had to run and brought him home.  Then Alli, Laura, and their friend Lexi helped me get an old aquarium set up as a temporary home for him.  They especially liked feeding him and we got an action shot below of him enjoying his Romaine lettuce.  

I am assuming he is someone's pet that somehow got loose and am attempting to find the rightful owners which I hope is soon because he's way too big for the aquarium we have him in.  

Alli has gotten very attached already.  She convinced me that we needed to take him with us to Laura's soccer game tonight, has been very attentive to taking care of him, and had us move the cage next to her bed when she went to sleep.  She won't actually hold him, but has requested a leash so that she can take it on a walk. 

Alli's Ballet Recital

Alli had her first ballet recital last Wednesday. She has really enjoyed her lessons and did very well with them.


Alli sitting with the other ballerinas.

Stretching

Dancing

Dancing


Doing a tumble


Nana sent flowers.

Laura's 7 year old Soccer Birthday Party

The first present of the day came in the mail from Aunt Sarah. After a quick "I love Aunt Sarah" dance it was immediately put to good use.

Also note Laura's hairstyle....apparently this is an appropriate hairstyle for a seven year old.


Big Bear even got all dressed up for the party and was there to greet everyone as they arrived.


Everyone got soccer tattoos for the party.

The kids made up their own games. This is them playing kickball with an beachball soccer ball. Note the use of Aunt Sarah's present as bases :-)

Hanging out in the treehouse.


Ah, the old relighting candles gag... she can't seem to get the candles to stay blown out.


Alexis, Laura, and Alec


This is what happens when I try to organize a game...chaos...they did better without me :-)


After the party Laura is modeling her Chinese dress that she got for her birthday. This was a present from Mommy and Daddy. It was her hearts desire. Her cheeks are still rosy from vigorously scrubbing off the tattoos, because they didn't go with the dress.