Whose kindergarten class is it, anyway???

Elle and I have been spending a lot of time in kindergarten lately. Mary Claire's teacher lets Elle come when I help with centers, and recently I have been teaching every Friday morning in her class and Elle is my "helper". We've been there so much sister certainly feels like she is one of the gang. All the kids love her and want to stand next to her in line.

This post is dedicated to Heather

Thanks to my friend Heather, I've been trying my hand at the coupon thing. So far it has been pretty fun. I've been getting so much stuff for free and loving it! It's almost like a game to play. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration Heather. The above groceries only cost me $7.38 total. I know you serious couponers would only have paid $0.38, but seven bucks is pretty good for me. Now the question is, will we be able to eat 60 pop tarts before they go bad??

One girl's trash...

Is CLEARLY another girl's treasure. Since Bennett has been traveling so much, I've had the girls all to myself a lot...even sometimes on the weekend. A couple of weekends ago I brought the girls yard saleing with me. When I first told them about their predetermined Saturday morning plans, all I heard was moans and groans. To entice them into being good sports, i.e. bribery, I promised a movie in the car (we only do that on MD trips), pop tarts and spending money. Complaints immediately turned into cheers! The night before, I set out the supplies and filled the girls purses with $5 in quarters. Don't you just love their little bags? My dear friend Kathleen sent these to the girls for their birthdays. I even laid out their clothes the night before (pink and green to match their bags of course!) so that when I woke them up at 5:45am we would be ready to go.



For 5 hours we shopped till we dropped. I actually don't think I have ever stayed out so long--usually I try to make it home for Bennett's classic chocolate chip pancake breakfast. But the girls never once complained, even though they were in the car for 5 hours! And Lady and the Tramp only lasted for 90 minutes of that. I was so impressed with them!

I think they really did have a great time. I get so excited when I go to yard sales, it might have rubbed off. They would get giddy when we would land on a house that clearly had girls. So here is what they bought with their spending money. It was very interesting to see what each picked out.

Ellie's treasures: 2 books, polly pocket airplane, two pet shop animals, a treasure tin, a stuffed dog with a leash. Favorite find for her was definitely the dog leash.




Mary Claire cracked me up. She was really only interested in breakable things she could display on her nightstand. Her loot: one ceramic horse (this has got to be the ugliest thing I have ever seen! They wanted $2! I tried to talk her out of it but MC would not have it. We negotiated the price to $1. They should have paid us to take it!), one precious moments manger scene (it was broken! she HAD to have it!), three littlest pet shop animals, and a rolling backpack (not pictured, she takes it to school). MC only spent $4. She bought all she wanted.




It was a fun morning. Mary Claire says she wants to go every Saturday, but that isn't going to happen. I hope she is not upset in the morning when she wakes up and I am not there!

The Hitchhiker Waxes Philosophic

This weekend, we purchased two "hitchhiker" bikes, little half bikes that attach to our bikes. This has opened up a whole new world for us! The four of us have been exploring ever since...believe it or not, there are parts of our neighborhood we are now seeing for the first time! The girls love it, and are so content and happy on the back, and can choose to pedal and "help out" or sit back and enjoy the ride. There is one drawback, however...I am not such a great biker, or maybe I am just extremely out of shape, but Mary Claire likes to ask deep questions while I attempt to get the both of us up hills. Yesterday, she asked, "Mommy what if one day I am a widow?" (Can you tell we recently watched The Sound of Music?) My response was, pant...pant..."Do we have" pant...pant..."to talk about this NOW?"

All By Herself

Mary Claire for some time now has been asking to make dinner herself, from start to finish WITHOUT my help. The girls always help joyfully with dinner, but for some reason that hasn't been quite enough.

Recently, I allowed Mary Claire to make a chicken dish we enjoy from start to finish. She did the measuring, mixing, coating, oven door opening and closing and everything else the chicken needed. Then she and Ellie set the table, found next year's velvet super fancy Christmas dresses hidden in the back of their closet, got dressed pretty for Daddy, and the three of us waited patiently at the table then surprised him when he got home (we actually do this every night!).

The chicken was excellent, and Mary Claire did a wonderful job. You can see she was very proud of herself.

A Joyful Noise

With a Grandma and two Aunts being piano teachers in the family, finding a piano to have in the house has been a must for us. Recently we found one being given away for free on Craigslist, and we jumped on it. With the help of a friend (thanks KN and KN!) our house has been filled with joyful music ever since it moved in.

Playing the piano has become a daily activity around here. It's cute to see the girls make up their own songs, and funny that they are always hymnal-like. I love it and remember doing the same thing as a little girl.

Mary Claire starts piano lessons in a week. She is looking forward to it!

It's just what they do...

It's fun to have girls, and I must say that Spring is the favorite time of year around here for mine. In our Secret Garden, clover patches abound and after school hours are spent frolicking in these instead of thinking about homework (and yes, there is homework in kindergarten!). I must say, it is nice for mommy...I end up resting and watching from under the shade trees while the girls pick huge bouquets for our table. I guess that's just what little girls do. One day I thought I would grab the camera and document the fun.

I snapped these pictures, but later when I downloaded them I was very dissapointed. I'm convinced after a winter night of leaving the camera in the car in -10 degree temperatures that my camera is vengefully taking poor pictures! Of course it couldn't be operator error!!

I ignored these pictures for two weeks. Until this weekend when LH gave me a photoshop tutorial, and I went to work. Now I steal moments all day long tweaking and playing with my pictures. I sense Bennett from time to time poking his head around the corner checking me out sitting hunched over at the computer, then I hear him snicker as he heads down the stairs.

I'm pretty excited about learning this program...I feel like all my pictures can be made pretty no matter how bad they are. Thanks LH! Though I still need more lessons...still can't quite get layering and need to work on that retro look LH and sister in law Melissa do so well.

But for now I'm happy making my beauties look even more beautiful!

Brrr...the Beach!

We took our family beach trip a little early this year to save a little money. Early April turns out is a very cold time to be at the beach!! Plus a very windy time too. Even though it was chilly, we still had a good time. Sand is sand whether you have to wear a snow hat or not, high winds are great for kite flying, and the hot tub is always open for some fun. It was nice being with my parents, too. Here are some pictures from our trip:



Bennett taught the girls how to play Monopoly. They loved it--it was a highlight of the trip!
Good for math skills too!



We did have a couple of warm days. These were fun.

Ellie has her pirate face on here.

The ferry ride was a favorite for Ellie.

Mary Claire, watching her kite (while feeling a loose tooth!).

Papa is always full of fun.

The bachelor's got nothing on Bennett and his ladies.

Here, fishy fishy!

Growing up I loved to fish. I don't know why, but I did. Wanting to share this love with the girls, I took them to Aunt Vallie and Uncle Jeddie's last week for a little fishing trip. It was so fun!

The night before we left we spent an hour with our Barbie fishing poles learning to cast out in the Secret Garden, and they were GREAT at it. The day of the trip we stopped in Wake Forest to buy worms (after an unsuccessful yard search) to the amusement of several good ol' boys in Keith's Bait and Tackle convenience store.

After a yummy Aunt Vallie meal, we walked with the goats through the pasture to the pond.





We had extra hook baiters on hand, too. Along with my Aunt and Uncle, my cousins Kyle and Jamie showed up to help!




Mary Claire caught her first fish in about 30 seconds. Can you tell how excited she is?

Can I hold it?

Soon after, Elle caught her first fish. She was amused when I asked her if she wanted to hold it.

The girls caught about 25 fish in an hour and a half. As soon as the worm was dropped into the water, the bobber would disappear and the excitement would begin! My uncle's pond is literally FULL of fish who have not seen a free meal in years, and we fooled them all! I don't think they will ever be able to fish anywhere else though--they are super spoiled now. I can't even imagine the frustration I will have to deal with when they don't catch a fish every five minutes!

We can't wait to go back!

Ava's Adventures

Before Bennett left for a work trip to Wisconsin last week, Mary Claire declared she wanted to pack Daddy's bags so that she could pack him a stuffed animal to sleep with. "Ava," one of our favorite stuffies, wound up in a new land. Everyday, Ava would send a report about what she was doing with Daddy in Wisconsin. The girls enjoyed getting emails from Daddy and were full of giggles each time they saw her picture pop up!

Ava arrives at the job site.




Ava didn't know Indians lived in Wisconsin!

Ava hard at work. It was noted, however, that Ava DID NOT like the coffee.

Ava watches it start to snow and wishes she were back home in sunny NC.

Ava is ready for bed.

Ava contemplates eating some pie.

Ava had a busy week!

A Change...Can Do You Good

For a week straight we have had ladders and paint cans and little men in white suits decorating our nice little home. It was time for a change. Here is our house, January 2007:

Our house, freshly painted 2009:

I love it!

The Wise Easter

Easter at the Wise Family was a ball as usual. The kids enjoy each other so much. As you can see, none of them are very far apart in age. My kids are so blessed. It is not always the case that your kids have any cousins their age. My kids have 11 cousins to play with when you combine both sides. How cool is that?

Here are the Wise cousins, in order from youngest to oldest. They look so happy here.

You won't find Ellie and Charity more than two inches apart at any given moment when they are together. This picture was taken DURING the egg hunt!! I kept telling the girls they would find more eggs if they would just SEPARATE! They are truly BFF.



My dear sweet Mary Claire, perched on grandpa's wood pile tenderly examining her loot. I love the way her feet cross!

We love Ellie's eyes.

We also love Aunt Buh-lissa, and her camera skills. Check out other BEAUTIFUL pictures of our Easter on her photo blog !

18 pounds!

Our lives have been very busy lately, and I intend to post about our travels, but on Friday we traveled close to home and picked a few strawberries. Well, 18 pounds of strawberries to be exact. But at $1.00 a pound, who could beat the price?

Trying out the strawberries was the most fun. We ate a ton!

My strawberry girl...which one should I pick?

The most thrilling part of the farm--the scary broken-armed mannequin!

Ellie was proud to have found a four-leaf clover!

TEXT ME

I was intriqued this valentine's season when so many of the conversation hearts said things like "whatever" and "text me." Seriously, text me?? Aren't conversation hearts popular with the 3 yr to 9 year set, not the cell phone carrying types? What do 4 year olds know about "text me"?

You can imagine my surprise when my I caught my preschooler this morning pretend texting Daddy. Where did she learn how to do this? I only learned myself to text message 3 months ago, and it takes me so long to punch one out I rarely do it. Obviously, she picks up more than I realize.

Or is Daddy spending too much time with the iphone?

Room Redo

The girls' new room is nearing completion! We changed the curtains and I scoured ebay for new bedding and wall art (the owl prints were personalized!). We bought pottery barn knock off collector shelves (see Ellie painting above) and each girl now has her own place for favorite books and stuffies. The clock is still cuckooing and I must say this has been the best thing ever for the girls. They are loving it. Now I just need LH to come over for a little wall mural (that's an official invitation!).

The Cartwheel

The score of the yard saleing weekend was a gymnastics mat!! Ever since it took up residence on the porch Ellie has been handstanding and cartwheeling and forward rolling. She works at it until she is drenched with sweat. I'm not sure how long it will be part of our outdoor decor, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts!