Fashionista

Box Car Day

Last week was box car day at Claire's school. When I arrived to pick her up, this is what I saw...

 A homemade car! What fun! 

Gotta love that paper plate steering wheel and fake smile!

 Claire was thrilled to bring her car home. 

It was parked, unnoticed, in Claire's room for a few days until I heard a scuffle in the hallway.
This is what I saw...

And so, Maggie was given a ride all over the house... for about an hour. 

Thanks for sharing, Claire!

Our Claire with the golden hair

Out of the blue the other day, Claire says to me, "Mom, I have golden hair."

Yes, Claire, you do. In fact, it's hard for us to go anywhere without someone commenting on Claire's hair... they love the color and the sassy short stack. One afternoon after school, I took Claire for a haircut. Here are the photos that followed once we got home...

Today is picture day at school, and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Love that golden hair!

A little bit about Maggie, month 8

Maggie has changed lots in the past month. Her hair is getting quite long; Rob wants me to cut it, but that would ruin part of her Halloween costume. So, we will wait on the haircut. Maggie has cut one new tooth on the top and another is on its way. During September she also experienced her first cold, as well as some major discomfort from her teeth. But...

Maggie LOVES to smile and giggle...

When she gets out of the bath, she has curls!

 She enjoys a diet beyond baby food such as Dad's homemade waffles. She also loves my banana bread.

She's on the move all over the house. She crawls everywhere- she started this at the end of month 7, but now she is fast!

We have become efficient, once again, at locking gates and picking up tiny scraps on the floor.

And... drum roll please... she can pull herself up to standing. In this instance, I found her playing in Claire's kitchen. Watch out!

But most of all, she is a happy little girl pretty much all of the time.

Love you, Mags!

 

Hoppy the Frog

Remember many months ago when we happily hosted the class hamster for the weekend?

Lucky for us, Lilly's kindergarten class has a mascot of a different sort... Hoppy the frog.

The children take turns hosting hoppy on overnight visits, all the while helping create a scrapbook of Hoppy's adventures.  Lilly waited with eager anticipation for weeks on end hoping her name would be drawn; as luck would have it, hers was one of the last.

Alas, Hoppy time!

Because she waited so long to bring Hoppy home, Lilly was full of ideas on where she wanted to take Hoppy- and have her picture taken with him for the Hoppy scrapbook. 

First stop... the local cupcake shop. Lilly, Claire and Hoppy picked out these goodies to celebrate Hoppy's arrival at our home. Hoppy was very impressed.

Next stop... the neighborhood playground. Hoppy and Lilly braved the heat for a few minutes of play.

We had Dylan with us (Hannah's brother) on this day and wanted to capture some silly photos at the park.

 Last but certainly not least, we took Hoppy to Sam's Club for a bit of shopping. Hoppy loved riding next to Lilly in the cart.

 Hoppy also came with a sleeping bag, several outfits, etc. We are now eagerly anticipating Hoppy's next visit... we'd better start planning.

What fun!

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

It's been a busy month at the Z house. I apologize for neglecting the blog.

One of the cute things that happened this September was Maggie discovering her reflection. She loves the full length mirror in our bathroom. 

Here she is on the first day she discovered the baby in the mirror.

Who's that?

Please Consider Donating to the Families Together Step-by-Step Walk Run and Stroll

It's the time of year again for football, cool weather (we can always hope), and the annual Families Together Step-by-Step Walk Run and Stroll!  Families Together is an organization that provides support to families that  have children with disabilities.  Rob's sister Julie was born with mental and physical disabilities and Families Together provided much needed support to their family from the time that she was diagnosed throughout her childhood.  That organization continues to reach out to families across Kansas and we want to make sure that it continues to be strong in this difficult economy and beyond.  The support that they continue to give each family who calls is so important!  Won’t you please consider supporting Julie, and her parents at the Sedgwick County Park Playscape for children of all abilities on Oct. 8 to celebrate Families Together?  You can make an online donation by clicking the button on the right or visiting the Network for Good donation page.


Thank you,
The AZ Z's

Home decor

It's no secret I like to decorate our house. I love to paint walls, love to shop for neat home decor, love to sew all kinds of things and especially love to decorate for the seasons.

Who knew Claire has the same interest!

In the wee hours of the morning, our little Claire took it upon herself to decorate the wall in the dining room. Using a dry-erase marker I had inadvertently left on the dining room table, Claire made her mark, literally. It really is a shame dry erase markers won't wipe off of anything except the surfaces they were meant to wipe off of in the first place. And, so, now we have a nice piece of "art" for the dining room.

If you look closely, you can see a cute little ghost with a smiling face in the center of the masterpiece. Perhaps this is Claire's subtle hint she wants to go ahead and decorate for Halloween. It is September, after all. Perhaps displaying our fall decor would satisfy her.  In any case, let's hope we have some extra primer and paint in the garage.