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.