10 YEARS!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary, CHRIS!

BLOG-A-THON

9 NEW POSTS! (10 if you count this one).
A lot more than photography has been happening around here so I thought I'd try to do some major catching -up...at least for me if for no one else. :) I think I'm caught up for the most part - YAY!

Our Backyard River

MAY 15th, 2009 - this is what our backyard looked like today during a major downpour. It actually got worse than this for a little while.

I know there's a name for it but I can't think of it - but it's when a channel is cut by the water to create a new path. That's what happened in this picture. The water was flooding in through from our neighbors yard through our strawberry patch - the channel actually doubled in size a few minutes after I took this picture.

We had hail also but the water is what mesmerized us. The river in our yard is actually a good thing because it keeps the water flowing right out of yard (and into our neighbors, right? - but then to the street and drains). We'd just never seen it quite like this.

Deanna Rose Farmstead

(MAY 2009)
This past week for playgroup we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead for a fun day with kid activities and farm animals to see. It was PACKED. I've never seen so many preschoolers and kindergarteners in life! I got panicked a few times when I couldn't see one or both of my children. I about lost my mind (which I know isn't that hard for people who know me to imagine.)
Overall we had a fun time with friends. The ultimate best thing we did was feed the little baby goats bottles of goat's milk formula. It was so fun watching the girls figure out how to feed these goats while managing the other goats moving in on the one getting fed, etc. Check out the slideshow for more. Click on it to enlarge.

Elise on Wheels

Even though we've told 'em a hundred times that the stroller is for baby doll's - they still can't seem to resist going for rides. This was too funny not to take a picture of. When I first saw Elise, it looked like she was in a little wheel-chair.

:o(

Preschool "Tea" Party

For the past two years, we have been participating in a Mommy's Preschool where each of us three moms takes turn teaching preschool once a week at one of our homes. This day was a special day. We decided to have a tea party where the girls could all dress up and have "fancy" foods. Siblings and mommies were also invited.
First, Amanda taught the girls some table manners.

Then, they got to have some finger foods: little cut-out sandwiches, fruit on toothpicks, pickles, olives, deviled eggs and cookies for dessert.

They didn't care so much about the food - but LOVED the "tea" - which for our purposes was lemonade. They got to pour their own from mini-teapot and then drink up. Elise looks so grown up in this picture.

Elise was particularly excited about the lemonade and drinking from such a big cup. It took her a while to figure out which side of the cup to drink from - hence the "bib" and completely soaked dress underneath. ;) Oh what fun though! We went through lots of "tea".

Ava had a fun time too and enjoyed wearing her pretty dress.

I think the tea party was a success - look at all of those pretty girls (and one handsome boy).

Easter 2009

April 2009

With Easter approaching, the kids participated in a few egg hunts - the first being a Mom's Club one that my neighbor friend invited us to.

Aunt Gina came down one day and we colored lots of eggs.

Elise was pretty amazed. She did a great job of making a mess - a trademark of hers.

This became known as the "monster hand". It stayed fairly green for a couple of days. We'd ask her to show us her monster hand and she knew just what we were talking about and often included some "scary" sound effects.

Ava was a little more into the process this year so we got some stickers and other things out to personalize our eggs.

Gina hid some eggs out in our front yard for the girls to find.

Elise is particularly attached to Aunt Gina and was very sad when she left. She kept coming up to me and saying, "Gina gone!" and was sad.



EASTER MORNING
Easter morning was nice - the girls woke up and saw that the Easter Bunny had indeed rememebered to hop by.

The Easter Bunny knows how to keep it real and not go overboard at our house...although the girls got some fun things including a movie, books, ONE thing of candy each, and a few little toys.

DRESSES

I don't care what anyone says - I like to dress my little girls in matching outfits. :) I made these dresses for them as part of a sewing class by my friend Kathleen and finished them in time for them to be the girls' Easter dresses.
Easter Sunday we went to church in the morning, came home for some rest time and then celebrated with extended family in the late afternoon/evening.

We were able to snap a few pictures of ALL EIGHT of my parents' grandchildren. Can you tell which ones are from the same family? Four sets of parents: one with three, two with two and one with one.

The Binkie Fairy

The binkie fairy paid a visit to our home this spring. It was long overdue...a very sad occasion and some mourning - but then a happy little girl who knew she was being brave. The binkie fairy brought a special gift and glittery card for our big girl.

"Socter"

This spring (April & May) we decided to sign Ava up for soccer in a nearby town, smaller than the one we live in. A few of our friends and family have kids who play there too. Ava was very excited to play soccer and go to "socter" practice. :)

During the first part of the first game, they put Ava in as goalie. Mine and Chris' heartrates shot way up. It's a lot of pressure to have your kid in the goal. Not mention your kid who is brand-new at soccer, not real competitive or aggressive (we'll give her time for that), etc. She really didn't know what to do and that didn't seem to bother her. Instead she stood there. The first ball that tried to enter the goal was blocked because it bounced off of her stationary legs. The second, slowly crawled past her still stationary legs. :)

That's okay - isn't she sweet?!

Which way are we kicking?

Daddy loves his Ava.
Aunt Gina loves her 'Lise.

We won! We had to tell Ava that her team won because she really wasn't worried about the score - which actually is fine! We know she was brand-new at soccer and that eventually (if she's interested in soccer), she'll catch on. The important thing was that she had fun, learned to listen to another adult, cooperate as a team, and get some fresh air and exercise.
That said, there were days when she refused to practice or play and just didn't want to go to "socter practice". Some days we still went and coersed her into played - other days - we let it slide.

immediately after her game, Ava ran and gave Elise an unprompted hug. Ahh!

We couldn't believe how busy having one kid in soccer was! Our coach decided that we needed to have practice twice a week with a game on Saturday. Soccer Saturdays were made fun because of all of the people we knew there. Two of Ava's cousins also played soccer so on any given game day we'd have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it!

On the last game day after all of the other people had cleared out, we had a family pick-up game of soccer. It was a BLAST!

GOOD JOB WITH SOCCER, AVA!

Elise's Birthday Party

Elise's Birthday party (March 28th) almost didn't happen! We had an ice storm that threatened to keep people away. All day we watched the weather and tried to decide what we should do. They had projected a ton of precipitation but it turned out to be a lot less. While the trees and plants and ground were iced over, the roads were okay....so the party was on.

I told myself we weren't going to be into "theme" birthday parties - but that idea is out the window. We did a Sesame Street theme. simple and easy. What we did: played some games like feed cookie monster cookies by tossing, musical shapes and dancing to Sesame Street music, crumpling up newpaper and putting it in Oscar the Grouch's trash can, coloring, decorating snack bowls, eating snack and eating cupcakes.
(sorry -the pics are a bit out of order but I'm too lazy to fix them!)

Elise made a mess - she's very good at that. Too bad the red stained her face for a day. Oh well!

Elise admiring her handi-work.


Can I really go to town on this cupcake?

I love watching kids' expressions when all of the focus is on them - like when everyone is singing "Happy Birthday" to them. :)

Towards the middle of the party, Elise decided to take a break and read a book in our little story corner.

My sister, Gina, suggested that I try an Elmo cupcake-cake. It was the easiest birthday cake I've made so far! SOOOO easy that I was able to do it last minute in a major hurry and it was fine.

When I plan a party I really try to plan things for the kids! Sometimes it's easy to get carried away (which is very easy for me to do!!!) in making things really "cute" or what not but things run so much more smoothly when geared towards keeping them busy and happy. (trial and error speaking!) We went through things so much more quickly than I thought we would but that was okay...sometimes you just have to fly by the seat of your pants.

Why I felt the need to paint this the morning of the party - I'm not sure. If you remember Ava's 2nd birthday party. You might notice that this is the same foamcore board we used to make a puppy bean-bag toss came - just on the other side. I thought I was being a little green.

Elise Turns TWO!

On Elise's actual birthday (March 27th), she turned two. We decided to go to the "Donut Store" aka Dunkin Donuts to have breakfast. Naturally, the girls were very excited and loved picking out the sprinkle and chocolate donuts.
Ava was so sweet that day. She sang "Happy Birthday" to Elise at least half a dozen times, including twice at the donut store. She was unihibited and let her voice carry througout the place. It was a very sweet thing for a mommy like me to witness.

Daddy arrived and brought the mail with him. Cards from grandpa, great-grandma and a great-aunt and uncle. Elise was very excited. Ava even got a card with stickers from Great-Grandma Patty.

Meanwhile, the cookies we had been baking together were cooling.

"Happy Birthday to you..."

Cake is overrated. Here's a cookie cake of sorts.

Elise did not complain. Happy Birthday sweetie!

Ava's sweet too of course and loved making her sister feel special.