It begins...

Maggie cannot escape the dress-up.

Almost there...

Right on schedule with her older sisters... Maggie is about to crawl. The older two crawled at 7 months of age, and that is what we are expecting from little Maggie too. She has mastered the skill of sitting without assistance...

 She can roll all around to get where she needs to go, but she isn't crawling just yet. She's almost there... she will get on her knees and hands and do the rocking back and forth thing.

Come on, Maggie, you can do it!

For now, she usually gives up and ends up on her tummy.

 Bad news for Lilly and Claire... it won't be long before their space is invaded by a toy munching machine named Maggie.

When the cat's away...

The "cat" is at kindergarten, so we are doing a lot of playing this week. Claire and I have been reading stories like crazy, dancing to Pandora, playing play-doh, running errands and having fun together.  Claire likes being the big sister to Maggie without the bigger sister looming. So, I've let her have the run of the house... literally. Whatever she wants to do, we do.... until it's time to get in the car to pick Lilly up from school. :)

 Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Big girl Maggie

Our little munchkin has several new tricks in her bag.... 

First, she sleeps in her crib all night. Before you get excited, realize this doesn't mean she sleeps through the night, mind you, but at least she's using her own real estate. She just became too wiggly for the bassinet.

She is more alert now than ever. Everything is a smile to her...

 And, drum roll, please.... she sits on her own. 

Once she becomes mobile, this house will never be the same!

 And here's another one just because it's super cute...

 

Latte?

We were in a parking lot today when Claire exclaimed, "Mom, Check it out. The latte princess!" I was busy getting the diaper bag ready to get out of the car when she said it again. I turned my head to see this...

Ah yes, Starbucks.

It's kind of sad to admit Claire knows this logo... but Claire likes to steal sips of my iced vanilla latte from time to time. Before heading to Staples next to the Starbucks, she said, "The latte princess has your coffee, mom." Yes, sweet Claire, she does and oh it tastes so good.

Kindergarten Day 2

It was quite unbelievable...

Last night, Lilly chose clothes to wear for day 2 of kindergarten. We took them out of the closet and placed them on her trunk in preparation for morning. Around 6:30am, Lilly crawled next to me in bed- all dressed for school. This is really quite remarkable considering Lilly's love of sleeping in. She was wide-eyed and ready to go. Part of the delight for today is that Lilly gets to be "class captain." This means she is the only child that gets to have show-and-tell today, gets to sit in a special chair and perform special tasks such as being the line leader, turning on lights- you get the idea. She also gets to take ice cream sandwiches for her birthday treat- very exciting. So, in other words, today is Lilly's big day.

Lilly also chose to wear her Hannah watch today. This cupcake watched belonged to our beloved Hannah; Hannah's parents gave it to Lilly for her birthday. Lilly cherishes it, as you can imagine.
Here she is showing off her watch and wearing the "show-and-tell" bag with her treasures inside (mini Toto stuffed animal and mini K-State Wildcat toy)

It's so refreshing to see our otherwise shy Lilly so eager to participate in school.

Let's hope this sets the trend for the year... or the next 16 grades she has to complete. :)

Three cheers for Kindergarten!

Time for school!

Lilly bounced out of bed earlier than normal this morning... ready for her first day of kindergarten. I commented to her that it was nice she was up early for school; she has a tendency to try to sleep in like a teenager. She looked at me and said, "Well, this is how I get up now." Rob and I looked at each other- probably thinking "yeah, right!"

Lilly picked her outfit for the day- a new green dress and her favorite gold slip on shoes. She has a new "full size" backpack, purple lunchbox, purple water bottle and school supplies too. Oh, and let's not forget the mini unicorn pillow pet she got for her birthday.

Lilly's pre-K buddy Teagan will be at the same school, but they have different teachers this year.

They will be able to see each other at recess and lunch.

 Signing in for the first day of school. She will do this for attendance each day.

Here's the classic "first day" photo with her kindergarten teacher.

 All ready and waiting for class to begin...

When Rob, Claire, Maggie and I got ready to leave, I tapped her on the shoulder and told her to have a great day. She looked at me with a huge grin and said, "Okay, Bye Mom." That was it... no tears, no clinging to my leg, just excitement for the day! Hooray! 

Last Friday at her "meet the teacher" event, Lilly was able to take home the "birthday bag" full of birthday themed books and even a little memory book for us to fill out about her birthday. And, tomorrow, we are scheduled to bring a birthday snack for the entire class. It's nice that even though Lilly has a summer birthday, she is still able to celebrate at school. As part of the "birthday bag" the teacher asks each birthday child to donate a book to the classroom. We sent, all wrapped in pink paper, the book "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse." She will open it in front of the class. Let's hope it's a hit with all the kiddos. We're off to a GREAT start!

Lilly turns 5

When talk of a birthday party began months ago, Lilly was emphatic on celebrating with her cousins in Kansas. She stated many times she did not want a Phoenix party. I think the fact Hannah isn't here to celebrate any longer was part of this decision. So, just as Lilly wished, we celebrated in grand style at a local Wichita cupcake store. After all, what little girl doesn't love  making a craft you can eat?

Here's the birthday girl carefully decorating her birthday creation. She was adamant about wearing a birthday crown we found at the local drug store.

 All of the little party goers had a great time creating, decorating and eating!

Claire and Elena aspire to have a show on Food Network. One thing's for sure, tasting comes easily for Elena- note the blue mouth.

 Claire wanted to maximize the amount of frosting on her cupcake...

 Maggie spent most of the party in this fashion... asleep.

But the cousins had fun showing off their final results... Proud Kate

Double proud Emma...

 ... and a super happy birthday girl!

As you can imagine, Rob and I were extremely proud when Lilly asked for "a K-State cake with pink bread." She wanted a strawberry K-State cake; she was thrilled.

She received Princess roller skates from us. Here she is learning to skate on Nana's nice floors while wearing her new Rapunzel night gown.

 Happy birthday darling, Lilly. Here's to many more healthy happy birthdays!

Flower Girl Debut

One highlight of our summer trip home, as I've mentioned before, was Aunt Coco's wedding.

Little Lilly made her flower girl debut at the wedding, and her cousin Lucas was a happy ring bearer. After the ceremony, while everyone else was leaving the church, Lilly and Lucas continued to practice their role of walking down the aisle. Once at the front of the church, I captured a few photos.

Lilly and Lucas are just one month apart in age- both will turn 5 this summer.

 Lucas didn't always do what Lilly told him to, so I think this is a photo of her scolding him a bit. As you can tell, he took her very seriously.

 Lucas' big sister Sofia wasn't far away and wanted to take part in the silliness too.
This photo is too funny for words. I think I told them to do something silly, and the girls obviously listened.

 Claire was dressed for the occasion too in a pretty purple dress...

 Taking care of 3 tired kids by myself in 100+ humid weather was just about all I could manage that day. And, unfortunately, these are just about the only photos I took.

Summer photos

What's summer in Kansas without photos in red, white and blue clothing?

Here's our trio...

My three with my three nieces: Emma, Kate and Caroline

You can only imagine all of the fun these 6 cuties have together!

No boys allowed!

6 months of Maggie

Believe it or not,  6 months with Maggie have flown by. She is cuter than ever- such a light in our lives. She loves her sisters, loves to coo and sing, loves holding things in her hands, can scoot around on the carpet (not crawl), loves vegetables (not fruit). She's pretty much a happy-go-lucky little lady. 

At her 6 month doctor appointment she weighed 20lb and measures >97 percentile for height and weight. No surprise. We love our Maggie. Claire calls her Maggie Maggie or Baby Maggie. Lilly calls her Maggie Moo. We've come to shorten her name to Mags and even Magpie from time to time.

Here is Miss Maggie, 6 mo.

 But I thought you'd like to see how the sisters also looked at 6 months. So, here's a few photos from the archives...

Claire, 6 mo.

Lilly, 6 mo.

 I think Maggie is a combination of both girls. Don't you agree?

Aunt Coco's rehearsal dinner

One of the best things about our trip home was seeing the entire Z family during aunt Coco's wedding celebration. I took quite a few photos during the rehearsal dinner and thought you'd like a peek at some of my favorites...

Isabel, Uncle Lupe, Aunt Brianne, Blaise, Aunt Lynnanne, Uncle Billy, Jessica, Rob, Aunt Teresa

Sofia, Aunt Coco, Lilly

Aunt Teresa and Claire

 Aunt Donna, Scott, Grandma Marie

Lilly and Sofia

Rob and Grammy

Aunt Coco and Mia

Isabel

Jessica, Grandma Marie, Aunt Brianne and Blaise

Fun times with the family- so great to see everyone!