Thursday, December 15, 2011

Claire's gingerbread house

Claire was excited to make her own gingerbread house in preschool.
She was even more excited to sample all of the frosting and candies used to construct the house.
To her, it was a buffet.
But she managed to make a cute little house adorned with all the sweets her heart desires.
 Yum Yum!
At the end of the event, after eating countless skittles and marshmallows, she turned to me and said, "My tummy hurts." 
Uh oh!

Auto spirit

Even our car has a little Christmas cheer.
The girls think our car costume is the coolest thing!
Grammy and Nana should be "wearing" theirs too! 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

He's back.....

Much to Lilly's delight, her kindergarten class mascot, Hoppy, returned to our home.
What a house guest... He always makes Lilly smile.
So, for three nights of bliss, Hoppy lived with us once again.
... and slept in Lilly's bed...
... and tried on my black boots...
What a dream it would be if Hoppy lived with us forever!

The power of the cheerio


Who knew cereal had the power to influence the behavior of a kindergartener?
A little background.... In Lilly's math class at school, there is a reinforcement for good behavior. The teacher and her aid will comment on a child's ability to get their work done in a timely fashion by telling the child, "You're on fire!" Then, the aid will draw a little lightening bolt on the child's hand. Each time I've volunteered in class and seen this occur, the children always grin from ear to ear.
So last night at dinner Lilly announced, "I was on fire today!" Then, this morning, when asked what she wanted for breakfast, she said "I want honey cheerios so I can be on fire. That's what I ate yesterday."
You can imagine what came later tonight... Yes, at dinner Lilly announced again, "I was on fire AGAIN in math today." She then proceeded to say, "I need to eat honey cheerios every day so I can always be on fire." I told her she could probably eat some different foods and still be on fire in math class. She disagreed.
We'll see how many boxes of honey cheerios she eats before she figures this one out. :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Holiday Family Photos 2011

It was sure fun trying to get all five of us smiling at the same time. :)
Maggie was napless that afternoon... But, surprisingly, Claire was happy for the photo shoot.

Skip to my Lou my darling



Merry Christmas from the Z's!

Maggie, 11 months

Our munchkin is quickly approaching her first birthday.
Time flies!
Maggie is 11 months old... and is quite the personality.
She loves to pal around with her sisters; she follows them to their rooms and plays with all of their toys. She is still my little hip monkey, meaning she would prefer if I held her on my hip all day long.  She isn't walking on her own just yet, but she will walk the edge of the couch or the coffee table. She seems to be on her own schedule and will do things, such as walking, whenever she pleases. Her demeanor is still laid back and happy, in general. She will wave at anyone and responds to the cues, "Say hi. Say bye." She will turn her head when you call her name and "speak" to you if she wants. She will say "Ma Ma" but not necessarily in context, we don't think.
 Much to my dismay, she LOVES french fries but still likes fruit and trying new foods.
She is curious about the sippy cup but definitely prefers her bottle. She has successfully won the battle against her first major cold- it took 3 weeks, but she won!
Lilly and Claire insist we should change her name to "Peaches." 
She is still our little Maggie Moo or Mags.  If given the opportunity, she will eat food from Belle's dog bowl, fish around in the toilet and put rocks in her mouth.
She is exploring like crazy.
We love our Maggie.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Our baby...

Awe, isn't she cute?
We showed this picture to Lilly and Claire and asked who it was; they both said it's Maggie.
It's actually Lilly.
We were cleaning the office today and came across this... scary how much Mags and Lils look alike.