American Education Week

The girls’ school celebrated American Education Week this week.  The week typically is made up of special activities and opportunities for parents to join their students in the classrooms, at performances, special lunches, etc. 

Nina’s class had its first event on Monday.  The parents were invited in to help with a Thanksgiving themed writing assignment and turkey creation followed by lunch with the students.  Since it wasn’t a performance, I didn’t bring my camera, but I did snap a picture of Nina with her turkey creation in her classroom.  She has a best buddy this year in her class (pictured below), Grace, and they chose to dress as twins on Monday.

   

The next day, I went on a field trip with Nina’s class to the American History Museum.  I also opted to leave my camera at home for this one.  I was a chaperone, therefore actually responsible for not losing children, so I figured it would be best to keep my eyes on the children rather than in my camera!  Nina’s friend, Grace, did use my phone to take this picture of us on our sunny bus ride to downtown D.C..  We had a fun time, but I came home wiped out!   Second graders have a ton of energy!

The very next day was big Kindergarten performance.  Each year, the Kindergarteners put on a Thanksgiving performance consisting of songs, a short story, and some activities for parents to join in the classroom.  We start hearing their little songs being sung around the house about six weeks before performance time (the same songs from when Nina was in K), so by the time the performance rolls around, we could all practically sing along.

The kids were either pilgrim women/men or Native American men/women.  Lyla was super cute during the performance (not that I’m biased or anything), and sang all the songs, did the motions, and smiled and had fun. We’re so glad she’s really enjoying Kindergarten!

  

Remember Jane?

WAAAAY back, over two years ago, I did this post.    My friends helped out.  Some of you that were on Facebook (I wasn’t at the time), shared the information on your pages, some of you shared it with your colleagues and friends, and they shared it with some more, and we ended up with A TON of beautiful dresses to send to Jane.   As you remember, I had to get them to New York, and from there the television company, Show of Force, that was creating the documentary for Half the Sky was going to send them on to Nairobi, Kenya and to Jane. 

When I sent the dresses, I sent a note to Jane and included my email.  I had no idea if the production company would include the note in the shipment of dresses to her, and I didn’t have any expectations of a reply.  However, today, over two years later, I got an email.  It was from Jane, and it was saying thank you and how grateful she was for the dresses.  I don’t know how hard it is to get internet access where she’s at in Kenya, how expensive it might be for computer time, and I don’t know how hard it was to get her thoughts translated into English (the note was small yet very thoughtful), but she communicated how happy and grateful she was to receive our dresses.  I just wanted to share with all of you that donated dresses or helped me spread the word.  It put a smile on my face – hope it does yours too!

Sister Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a sister update, so I thought I would shed a little light on what the girls are up to.  Nina is in second grade this year and having a great time so far.  She really likes her teacher and classmates and seems to have made some really nice friends (from what I can tell).  When she’s not a school, she can be found cartwheeling around the world.  Seriously.  The girl cartwheels everywhere she goes.  While it was cute at first, we have had to have some discussions about appropriate and inappropriate places to cartwheel, i.e. the church lobby, the kitchen, a parking lot with lots of cars backing out, a restaurant, etc.  She still loves to dance, and as you can see from the picture above, she just lost her first top front tooth.  She’s a little excited! 

Lyla is in Kindergarten this year, and much to our surprise, she loves it!  She started the year thinking it was “ok” and, while she went without much fuss, I really didn’t think she loved it.  Now she loves it!  We’re so happy.  She’s having a great time in her class, and her teachers are such a sweet pair.  She only goes half a day, so she spends less than three hours there, but I’m really happy for her that she’s really enjoying her time now.  Lyla also loves Legos.  She is a Lego Friends fanatic, and while she can follow the directions well to build a specific design, she’s also very creative in coming up with her own designs.  Keeping her Legos somewhat cleaned up is NOT something she is a fanatic about however. 

The other sister in the house is also doing well.  She’s been with us now for over two months, and we all love her so much.  She is so affectionate, very smart, and a lot of fun.  She’s also settled into a good daily routine.  Mark and I get up early to have some quiet time before the kids wake up, and Cayenne is with us for that, then as soon as she hears Nina’s alarm going off at 6:45, she jumps up, looks at us, and runs for the stairs.  Then we go upstairs to wake Nina up for school.  Cayenne loves to jump in bed with Nina, try to dig her out from under the covers, then burrow under the covers with her.  It’s so cute.  They both love it!  She always comes with us to the bus stop in the morning to see Nina off to school, then one of us takes her on her morning walk from the bus stop.  We see some of the same dogs every day on our morning walk, and she’s already made “friends” with some of them and gets so excited to see them on her walk each morning.  She loves to play at the dog park, and she loves the autumn leaves.  Something about running through the dry leaves seems to make her even more frisky!  She also loves going to the bus stop in the afternoon.  I ask her if she’s ready to pick up the girls, and she jumps right up and goes to the door.  As soon as the bus pulls up to the stop, she starts wagging her tail, sniffing, and checking for Nina and Lyla.  She’s so excited to see them each afternoon, and they love having her there to wait for them.

So, the girls are doing great, and seem to be growing up so fast.  They love their family, they love each other, and they both have kind little hearts.  I know in years down the road the days will arrive when they won’t like me taking their picture, and they probably won’t be sharing that much about what they’re doing and what their friends are like, so I’m logging these things on the blog as much for me and my memory as much as for sharing them with you.  With these updates, and much of the blog, they’re snapshots of our life.  I don’t normally pick up my camera when everyone’s cranky, and when I’m feeling grouchy (although they would probably make for some great “moments”), and when everyone is having a bad day.  I don’t want to give the impression that our life is perfect, always photo-ready.

But, something this blog has helped me do for the past seven years is appreciate the little things in the lives of the kids and our family.  When we sit down with the girls and look at pictures or videos I posted of them when they were little, they LOVE it.  When I want to remember how the girls looked at a particular time in their lives, I jog my memory with this blog.  So, I find that it helps me see their lives more in the moment because it’s so easy to forget the little things that make you happy or make you smile once some time has passed away from that moment.

So, while our life in the day-to-day isn’t always roses, we do feel very blessed for what the Lord has given us, the health of our family, and the little things in our lives that are worth remembering.  I saw a quote the other day that resonated with me – not for the ability to be thankful during just this Thanksgiving month, but grateful for the long term, and I feel like I have much to be grateful for.

Four Months

Our pretty girl is four months old!

Scruffy’s and Middleburg

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful fall day.  We didn’t have any plans, so we took a drive out to Middleburg.  There’s a little ice cream shop there, Scruffy’s, that the very best pumpkin ice cream in a cinnamon waffle cone.  It’s only offered for a limited time, so we had to be sure to get out there for some before it’s gone.  Since Middleburg is a dog-friendly place, Cayenne came with us. 

   

After ice cream, we walked around for a bit in the town of Middleburg and enjoyed spending the beautiful fall afternoon in the country.

Halloween 2013

Halloween seemed to come and go in a flash!  In fact, the month of October seemed to come and go in a flash!  This year, Lyla really wanted to be a ghost, and Nina wanted to be Bat Girl.  However, before Halloween night arrived, the Kindergarteners had their Halloween costume parade and party during the school day on Thursday.  Since the kids weren’t allowed to wear masks and things over their head for school, Lyla was a lady bug for the school party.  I was in charge of taking pictures of the class party, so you can get a little glimpse of what their time was like by looking at the pictures from the class party are HERE.

So, as I mentioned, Lyla wanted to be a ghost for Halloween.  The picture on the left is my first attempt at making a ghost costume.  Clearly, the first attempt was a tad off!  Lyla ended up looking a lot more like a member of the KKK than a Halloween ghost.  Not good.  My second attempt at a ghost costume is the picture on the right.  Better.  Even still, the ghost costume was a big flop.  It was way too hot for her, it kept slipping down on her head, and she tripped over the bottom of it several times.  She ended up taking it off after 25 minutes of trick or treating.  Oh well.

  

Nina’s Bat Girl costume was way easier.  Note to self – stick with the pre-made costume next year!

   

Cayenne did go trick or treating with the girls, and when they came home and wanted to sort out their candy, she sat and watched all the candy business without trying to sneak off with any.  She can be such a good little pup when she wants to be!  The girls had a lot of fun and collected a ton of candy (as usual) which trumps any wardrobe malfunctions.  Another successful Halloween!

 

All the Reasons Why Cayenne is Happy She Wasn’t Purchased to be a Hunting Dog…

  

  

All these pictures were taken with my phone camera which takes pretty awful pictures, but you get the idea.  This pup is a little princess. I don’t think I ever posted her full name on the blog before, but formally, her name is registered as Cayenne Miss Liberty Belle.  Cayenne – obviously the name we call her, Miss Liberty Belle because she was born on the 4th of July, and the spelling of Belle was a bit of a play on words. Because she’s such a little princess, we spelled Belle like the princess, not bell (I can thank Pops for thinking of the spelling idea).  I think the name suits her perfectly!