Barbie time

At times I wonder where my big girls are, but then I remember they are in the basement... playing Barbie. Lilly and Claire can stay down there for hours upon hours playing Barbie. They have vast imaginations, and if you take time to listen to their play, it is quite humorous.

We used to have only a few Barbies... but then Christmas 2011 came and Nana gave the girls a Barbie Corvette, Jeep and horse trailer she found at our favorite Kansas flea market. The girls thought they were in heaven. Fast forward a few more months and a true gift from heaven knocked at the door one evening. Actually, the gift began as a phone call. Shelly, our dear angel Hannah's mom, called one evening to inform us she was "bringing over the Barbies." It was time to clear their bedroom of Hannah's massively huge and obviously pink three story Barbie house. And with the house came an under-the-bed size storage container of everything Barbie... you can only imagine the treasures inside. Shelly and JC, Hannah's parents, wanted to give all of Hannah's Barbies, accessories, house and VW Bug to the girls. We were speechless. And, so, back to my opening statement... "Where are the girls?"

Countless hours are spent playing Barbie. In fact, Claire wakes at the crack of dawn some mornings and goes to... you guessed it... the basement to play Barbie.

Here's a photo of Barbie central...

Lilly LOVES them! And, she especially loves that they were best friend Hannah's Barbies.

And so tonight, I eavesdropped a bit, then went and took these photos. As I got close to the Barbie house, Lilly informed me, "Look mom. It's fish night."

Oh yes, it's fish night alright. I suppose dinner's ready-No need to cook tonight. Barbie has it covered.

Happy 6th Birthday Lilly

A few weeks ago we celebrated Lilly's 6th birthday in Phoenix.

Queen Lilly chose to host a tea party in honor of the big 6. Note her costume is a Queen, not a Princess... she is very picky about this.
So, we welcomed her school girlfriends for a petite tea with Princess Belle.

First activity of the morning... face paint! Who can resist? Princess Belle carefully painted each face of the little party goers.

Lilly chose a flower... and notice the bright red lipstick? She thought she needed ruby lips just like Snow White for her party.

Claire chose Pascal for her cheek... to go with her Rapunzel costume, of course.

Belle read stories to the girls and served them while they ate. They were all so cute in their little dresses and costumes!

And the cake!

They played games, opened gifts and Belle sang to them too. Here's Belle spinning Lilly around for a "pin the crown on the princess" game.

What a great time!

And, of course, we couldn't resist having a family photo with the famous princess..

Happy 6th birthday, Lilly! We know it will be the best year yet!

Back to School 2012

It's that time of year... back to school!

This year we have a first grader and a Pre-K student in our house. At last Claire is able to go to "Lilly's school" a few days a week.

The first day of school came, as expected, with much anticipation. The night before, neither one of the girls could sleep... they kept popping out of bed for various reasons. Excitement for the coming day was the real reason. We had visited their school the week prior to meet the teachers and learn the layout of the classrooms.

Here's a picture of Claire with her super nice teacher on her first day.

And here's Lilly with her first grade teacher.

And, Monday was also Maggie's first day at her new school. Yes, she was able to take her pacifier with her thankfully.

At the end of the day, all reports indicated each of the girls had a great time.
And now to get into the routine of it all. :)

It's going to be a great year!



Summer Art Camp

Lilly's favorite subject in school is definitely Art.

Knowing that, it wasn't a surprise when she asked to join the summer art camp offered by her favorite art teacher. Each day Lilly came home with the neatest things.

Here are just a few of her summer creations.

"Zebra drinking water from a pond"

Collage of "Mom running at the gym"

Clay sculpture of "prickly pear cactus with flower blooms"

Painting of a "beach and ocean, with seashells"

Art camp #2 gears up in about one week. I think we need more wall space!

Say Cheeseball!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our favorite Dad!!

Our Dad of 3 girlie girls deserves lots of love and hugs on this Father's Day.

We love you!!

Happy Father

Summer Swim School

Nothing says summer like swim lessons!

Claire was the lucky swim student this summer... it was REALLY hard to get into lessons this year!

Claire had a nice refresher class to begin the summer swim season.

So far, swimming is not Claire's favorite activity; she doesn't like putting her face in the water. But, when she decides to swim with her kicks and scoops (arms and legs) with eyes down (in the water) she does a REALLY great job! And, she is super strong which equates to speed.

Here she is... doing what she is supposed to be doing.

Her favorite is the back float. 

I must report that Claire was the unhappiest student at swim lessons. Each lesson was met with tears and clinging to the pool fence. Once in the water she would ask each instructor, "How many minutes?" Then, she would do everything she could to avoid putting her face in... dog paddle, etc. 

On her last day of lessons I asked her to give me a smile and to at least pretend she liked to swim. Here's what I got...

 Let's hope swimming at Nana's will give us great practice and a love of swimming.

Miss Ma-Moo

Maggie is full of personality... we see this become more apparent each day. 

One afternoon, while she was being her silly self, I captured a few cute pics...

She just won't let go of the pacifier! Take a close look at the safety pin holding her bink clip together.

 When you ask Maggie to "say cheese" this is what you get... Cheese!

 She is just so cute!

And she is growing SOOO fast!

 

Funny Photos

My apologies to our blog readers! I have neglected the blog. But, I vow to get back on the blog saddle now that the semester is over.

As I was going through photos, I found these two especially funny ones...

First... For awhile there, this was Maggie's favorite seat... the fridge. Why not? It's cool. It's comfy. Snacks are near. She can pretty much open the fridge, help herself to a snack and cool off too. Smart girl.

One more... It's not uncommon for Claire to take herself to bed. On the evening of her birthday party (photos to come) I found her like this... on her floor, completely passed out from birthday excitement exhaustion
She was all covered up... just feet from her bed! That's our Claire!

 

More TV Time for Miss Lilly

Our local CBS channel also came over to film the story of "Lilly's Slippers for Hannah."
If you can't see it well, follow this link:
http://www.kpho.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7021913

Lilly's TV Debut!!

As you know, Lilly has been gathering slippers in honor of BFF Hannah to donate to Phoenix Children's Hospital. We are in the process of packaging all 1585 pairs for delivery on Monday- a year to the date Hannah received her angel wings. And today, Lilly had her TV debut... local news channel 3 came over this afternoon to cover Hannah and Lilly's story.

Special thank you to one of my oldest and dearest friends, Carrie Lindeman, for getting the attention of the media. :) Tomorrow we have another television interview- unbelievable!

Easter Dresses

We got all dressed up and went to church tonight for our Resurrection Sunday (Saturday to us) celebration. The girls were especially excited to wear their Easter dresses. Just before we left for church, the girls were playing outside with a neighbor. The neighbor (age 6) asked why we went to church. To which Lilly replied, "Yesterday was the day Jesus died on the cross. He will come back to life on Easter." The neighbor said, "Who?" Lilly said, "Jesus!" It was an interesting exchange, to say the least. Perhaps our little friend should be our guest at VBS this summer.

Here's a glimpse of the girls in their pretty dresses...

 Maggie also happens to be 15 months old today. We cannot believe it! 

At this point in the day, she wasn't interested in smiling for the camera...

Each time I'd ask her to smile, she would turn around, look away or get a stoic look on her face.

This is probably her best photo of the evening...

  And tomorrow, it's time for more Easter eggs!

Happy Easter!

Lilly's Sunflower

As you know, we have enjoyed growing all kinds of vegetables and fruit in our garden. In fact, today Lilly and Claire ate our first ruby red strawberry from the garden. YUM!

One of the things Lilly requested in the garden was a sunflower. I love sunflowers- the state flower of Kansas- I think they are beautiful. Lilly said she wanted to grow the sunflower specifically for her math teacher at school. Lilly is in the "sunflower math group;" each math class has a team name. Her math teacher loves sunflowers too... and Lilly loves her math teacher.

Soon, we will chop down the flower and take it to school. But, for now, we will enjoy its sunshiny faces in the garden.

Here's the proud gardener with her super tall sunflower.

 

Garden field trip

Lilly's class took a field trip to the Desert Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful day spent with well behaved kindergartners. I was really proud of them.

Here is Lilly with two of her friends... look how tiny they are compared to this cactus!

They had an amazing tour guide who taught them about "stems, roots and leaves." They were fascinated with all of the hands-on activities and trivia about cacti.

For most of the morning, Lilly and her friend Ava walked around with their fingers in their noses... saying they were "allergic to pollen."

 The butterfly garden was Lilly's favorite part.

 Here's Lilly's entire class and her teachers. What a great experience for the kiddos! I always loved field trips when I was little; Lilly is lucky her school likes them too.

 

Eggstra fun!

It's that time of year again... egg hunting time.

 Claire wouldn't pose for the camera at first. Instead, she pretended she was sleeping... silly girl!

 We left the  hunt with way too many eggs, but we had a great time.

Maggie didn't participate this year... maybe next time.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Lilly's Firsts

Lilly had a few "firsts" over the last few months. 

She lost her first tooth!

On our way to a doctors appointment, she lost her first tooth while eating breakfast in the car.

When we asked where the tooth went, she realized she swallowed it!! Several others are loose. Needless to say, she's waiting for the next opportunity to earn cash from Ms. Tooth Fairy.

This weekend, Lilly scored her first goal during a soccer game!! Rob took this great photo as she ran down the field. When Lilly got home, I asked her to tell me exactly what happened. She said something along these lines... "I was running with the ball. I just kept running and when I got to the goal I just kicked it really hard."

Way to go Lilly!!

You can see Lilly in the far left of the photo wearing a red shirt.

 

Dairy Day

Claire's preschool took a field trip to a local dairy. We had visited this same dairy with Lilly a few years back... Claire didn't remember it.

We learned about life on a dairy farm, saw lots of fun baby animals, drank milk and enjoyed the beautiful Arizona weather.

Claire was first in line to hold the chicken.

 And she was a bit surprised when feeding Mr. Goat. I think the goat licked her hands... had to get every crumb, you see.

 Mags was along for the ride and was quite impressed with the farm friends. From her perspective they were huge!