Still Here

It’s been awhile since our last blog post.  We’re still here – just haven’t taken many pictures lately.  The girls had a fun Valentine’s Day. Of course donuts for breakfast were involved, then heart shaped food for lunch was to follow. Later that week, Lyla got to go to her first “Lyla only” birthday party (that is a party that she was invited to without Nina).  She was so excited to receive the invitation in the mail addressed just to her, and it was cute to watch her party with just a bunch of other four or almost four year olds.  The weather has been quite warm still for this time of year, so we’ve spent a lot of afternoons outside playing, hanging out with friends, and making a trip or two up to Sweet Frog.

Speaking of sweets, I had the chance to be the Mystery Reader in Nina’s class last week.  The Mystery Reader calls in three clues about themselves which the teacher tells to the kids in the class.  From those three clues, the kids try to figure out who might be coming to read to them.  The way it works is they are supposed to keep their hand raised when the clues read applies to a person they know.  According to Nina’s teacher who told me about it, the first clue was she likes to take pictures with her camera (Nina raises her hand), then the second clue is she drives a Honda Pilot (Nina still has her hand raised as do a few other kids), then the last clue was she loves Mike and Ikes to which Nina shouts, “That’s my mom!”  haa haa.  I thought that was cute.  We’ll be back soon with more pictures and updates.

 

 

Letter of Thanks

Remember the Best and Worst Dress Contest?  Just today I received a letter signed from the President and Vice-President of the Force Film Foundation (the nonprofit organization in New York who I mailed our collection of dresses to for Jane).  They wrote on behalf of the Force Film Foundation thanking us for our generous dress donation that they received to be used toward the support of Jane Ngoiri and her children.  So, I just wanted to let all of you who donated dresses to know that they were much appreciated.  Hopefully Jane is making great use of them right now!

For those that donated and would like this information – the dress you donated is deductible for income tax purposes at its fair market value.  The IRS code places the responsibility for estimating the fair market value upon the donor.  Force Film Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization registered in the State of New York, Tax ID # 75-3250496

For Men Who Need Pointers on Valentine’s Day

Those that have lived with me any amount of time (my family, P, Mark) know that I love nature shows.  I especially loved the series Planet Earth, so one year Bo got me the whole series on DVD.  Anyway, this is an excerpt from an episode that I was re-watching again recently. I love this bird.  He is awesome.  If any of you men out there need some pointers for today, just take a few notes.  He has a plan, gets himself looking his best, he cleans, and then he puts on a show for his lady.  And Pops, spare me the comment I know would come from you that this video “is for the birds!”     Happy Valentine’s Day!

Fetch’s 1st Birthday

Sometime in the not-so-distant future, I’ll share a really cool story about how we’re connected to the Loudoun Hounds, but for now, they’re a minor league baseball team that’s coming to Loudoun County.  The organization has been out and about in the community building anticipation for the arrival of the team, and their mascot is a hound dog named Fetch.  Fetch was turning a year old today and having a birthday party at Chick Fil-A, so Nina and Lyla were really excited to go.

We had dinner there, played with Fetch, got some face painting and tattoos, had some cake, and had a really good time. 

 

   

        

Sugar and Spice and Serious Amounts of Energy

I’ve said it on this blog before, and I’ll say it again.  Whoever said that little girls play quietly, sit and color, and act calmly has never visited our house.  Today was another example of that.  It was the Valentine’s party for the girls and some of Nina’s friends from her class and three other girls (3rd graders) that live on our street.  There were thirteen girls, and these little girls had some serious energy.

I started out with real simple ambitions for the party…a low key party with a craft, making Valentines, some snacks, etc.  I just managed to make it more complicated than I started out planning it to be. I picked a craft with lots of steps, and I most definitely underestimated the power of the combined energy level of thirteen girls! They all had a great time, but it was definitely crazy.  I did manage to take a few pictures of the “before” party.

 

I had spent some nights and early mornings cutting, tracing, folding, etc. in preparation for the craft and cards.  I thought I was well prepared.  I put all the little craft pieces in separate folders for each girl and evenly distributed all the stickers, cut outs, and craft supplies so everyone would have what they needed.  I have to say I was kind of impressed with myself.  However, it took about 5 seconds from the time I got the girls at the craft table till the first folder fell over and spilled on the floor, then the contents of one folder got spilled on the table and mixed up in the next persons, then all the little girls are talking so no one can hear directions, then Lyla is jumping off the couch, then ten more folders spill on the floor, then it was nuts.  Fun for the girls, but nuts. 

I managed to pick up my camera once even though I put it on the bar right next to the craft table because I was planning to take a lot of pictures.  When you hear Miss Amanda! Miss Amanda! 50 times in a minute, it’s kind of hard to take pictures.  At the point when I took this picture, half of the party was sliding down a plastic slide on a Bilibo or running circles around the basement.

Keep in mind, I didn’t even give them their sugary food prior to this point.  The food and cupcakes came at the end.  I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if they would have had that first. 

I guess the important thing was that it was a lot of fun for the kids.  Nina told me that she had such a great time and that she even felt like it was her birthday or something.  And I guess the other important thing was that I had a beer in my hand after I got the kids in bed and I turned to clean-up duty.

Separated at Birth?

If you ever need reason NOT to buy dolls from the dollar store, here she is.

 

Last Monday when Nina had off from school, I told the girls I’d let them go to the dollar store and pick something out.  I know what you’re thinking – wow, so generous, what a treat!  Nina picked a baton and Lyla picked a puzzle, and then they saw a 2-pack of these mermaid dolls and asked if they could get that too and split up the mermaids – one for each of them, so I said yes.  Now you’re thinking Mother of the Year Nomination! 

We got them home, and I realized that I don’t know that I’ve seen more ugly dolls.  They barely have a nose and ears, their head sits jaggedly on their neck, and they’re clearly missing the concept that hair is also present at the back of the head.  I think I should have saved my dollar and saved myself from nightmares.  However, Nina and Lyla do like them.  I keep thinking if they don’t get played with for a few days then they’ll never be missed when they find their way to the trash can.  However, for the moment we’re stuck seeing these hideous little creatures laying around the house. 

Winter?

Is this even winter?  Trust me, I’m not complaining.  Even though it’s a little weird to have 65 degree days at the start of February, we’re loving it!  Over the weekend when it was a little cooler, the girls spent some time in the park collecting piles of little sticks.  They loaded them up in the wagon and we brought them home to use for building a fire and an excuse to drink hot chocolate.

Since the weekend, the weather has felt like spring.  I only wish spring lasted from the end of January until sometime in June, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.  I took this picture of Nina on Monday, and when I looked at it the first thing I thought of was how big she’s getting.  I looked back on our blog to January of 2010 just to see how much she’s grown in a year.  When you see them every day it’s hard to notice, then when looking back at pictures from not that long ago it really makes you realize how fast they change.  Time is flying!