You are our sunshine, our only sunshine...

Dear Charlotte,

You are our sunshine...

Our only sunshine...

You make us happy

When skies are gray.

You'll never know dear

How much we love you

Please don't take

Our sunshine

away!

Happy first birthday, sweet Charlotte!  We love you!

Orphanage Obsession

For whatever reason, our girls are fascinated with the idea of orphanages.  Whether it's because of Walt Disney (do princesses EVER have mothers?) or because the only books we read are books like Heidi, we always seem to have parentless girls on the brain.  Ask anyone who has ever played American Girl Dolls with Mary Claire and they will tell you--there are always little girls without mom and dads involved. 

This week (and it is only Tuesday mind you) this issue has been brought to my attention and I thought it would be cute to share little windows into the girls' souls through their writing and drawing.  First, Mary Claire had a field trip to see a play this week (I have no idea what the play was about), and when they returned to school they had a follow up activity to draw a picture of something they saw themselves doing in the future.  Here is Mary Claire's picture:

Mary Claire says this is her when she is grown up telling Chinese orphans about Jesus.  Wouldn't that be fun if she were a missionary one day?

And here is a story Ellie brought to us tonight.  She has been using some of her free time to work on it for the last few days (my girls love to write stories in their spare time!).  It was a really great story that made us chuckle many many times.  Again with the orphanage theme.  Maybe you'll get a chuckle out of it, too!  May none of you ever get sent to a grown up orfinidg, as it may make you cry "most bitterly"!

Dear Johnny...and other Parent Teacher Conference Musings

Yesterday I went to a Parent-Teacher conference for our little Elle Belle, who now at 6 is not so little anymore.  I won't share all the details but I was bursting with pride when I walked out of that classroom!!  It is so nice to hear good things about your own child!  Her teacher shared this cute little letter with me and I thought I would share it here.  I especially love the ending!  (PS--the handwriting is not so good, but she is a lefty after all and is terrible at forming her letters!)  The assignment was to write a letter to Johnny about the word flower using transition words.  There were no other guidelines or instructions.  Elle has a great teacher--I don't remember learning transition words in kindergarten!!!

Learning to walk isn't always easy!

Sweet Charlotte decided to try walking today with her baby stroller walker.  But as you will see, it's not always easy.  

Happy Girl

I seriously have the happiest, smiliest baby ever.  How blessed am I?

Baby Shower Blanket Cake--A Fun Diaper Cake Alternative!

There is something in the water because both Aunt "Buhlissa" and Aunt Christina are expecting little boys very soon!  It was fun to celebrate with Aunt Melissa at her shower a few weekends ago.  I wanted to do a diaper cake for her (it was one of my favorite things from Charlotte's shower) but she isn't using disposables...but it turns out that any ol' baby gift can be made to look like a cake!                               

It was a very fun centerpiece as guests arrived!

I loved these shoes...for a second I wanted a little boy so he could wear them.  But only for a second.

The girls made edible bird nests as favors (the nursery is woodland-creature themed!  so cute!).  It was the messiest craft EVER.  I do not recommend it.  They loved having a part in the baby shower preparations, though!

Mama's Girls

With Charlotte, Bennett finally got a daddy's girl...it was a long time coming.   But these two...they are mama's girls through and through.

Baby hearts Spaghetti...

 

Charlotte LOVES LOVES LOVES spaghetti...

 

 

and eats it by the handful.  She's usually double fisting it, too!

American Girl Doll Book Club Meeting #1--Meet Felicity!

If you know my girls, you know what they love:  American Girl Dolls!  My girls play with their dolls literally every day.  Kit, Felicity and the gang go to school, get dressed for horseback riding and tea, get adopted from orphanages and ride scooters selling eggs pretty much daily around here.  Our love for the dolls stemmed from a love of the books...of which we have read just about every one.  At least twice.

Let me back up for a minute.  When I taught middle school, I was priveledged to be a part of a monthly mother-daughter book club.  The girls in the group were the kind of girls I wished I was in school:  smart, cute, funny, and confident.  They were sweet and kind and had awesome mothers.  Best of all, they liked being with their moms!  I knew that one day if I had girls, I wanted to be a part of a mother-daughter something with them.  So after a middle of the night idea, our American Girl Mother-Daughter Book Club was born.

Our first "official" meeting was this weekend, and Meet Felicity was this month's selection.  We started the evening with an American Girl craft of beaded rings while we waited for all of the girls to arrive.  Once everyone got here, we circled around the living room and took a silly Meet Felicity quiz which made the girls giggle and got us ready to talk.  Ellie then used her kindergarten "retelling hand" skills to have the girls go over the basic ideas of the book.  Then each girl randomly picked a discussion question to talk over with their moms.  The questions ranged from, "If you could trade places with any character from the book, who would it be and why?" to "How is the main character's life different from yours?"  Each girl did a great job answering their question and it was good practice gaining confidence in speaking in front of a large group!

Next, we talked about the spices Mr. Merriman might have sold in his shop.  Felicity was sent for some ginger for the ginger cakes her mother was planning to make that day, so we played a little "bridal shower" style game of smelling different spices to see if the girls could figure out which one was ginger.  This was fun and everyone guessed correctly.  The prize--homemade authentic ginger cakes made by Laura!  These were so yummy...and I got to keep the leftovers!  They lasted about 2 minutes when we discovered them Saturday morning.  Bennett gobbled them up and demanded I get the recipe and make him more asap.  Maybe you could post that recipe Laura?

The main craft for the evening centered on each girl making her own mob cap.  In colonial times, these were used to keep girls' hair clean (and out of the way) when cooking, cleaning, and playing since they didn't take baths as often as we do today.  Bennett was sweet and cut out all of the circles and I glued the lace around the edges and snipped holes all around the fabric.  Each girl "sewed" a ribbon into the slits and  then the moms custom fit the caps to the girls' heads.  Voila!  A new piece for the dress up bins!

The night concluded with the girls playing until 10pm (gasp) in the American Girl wonderland upstairs.  I think everyone had fun!  Next month:  Meet Kaya

Mary Claire with her finished mob cap

The girls hard at work...yummy ginger cakes await

One of the cutest little mob cap girls

These girls were the envy of all in their costumes!

Number 3

Make no mistake, folks, this is a happy smile on the face of Number 3.  It's been very nice to have Mary Claire's Valentine's candy bag on the floor of the pantry for the last two weeks.  While I cook dinner, Number 3 spends at least a half an hour sorting through the cards and fun dip pouches and lollipops.  A harmless activity...until she managed to wrestle off the wrapper of a dum dum this evening and got her first taste of a sweet tooth.  She didn't look this happy when daddy took the dum dum away, however.

Number 1

Number 1 bounced into the car one afternoon recently declaring, "I did it mom!  I'm so proud of myself!  I was so brave!  I can't believe that I actually DID IT!"  A little nervous about what I was walking into, I cautiously replied, "What did you do?!!?"  Number 1 answered, "I wore my {fake} glasses in my school picture!" and handed me this beauty.  She loves this picture.  So I do, too!

Number 2

Of all my girls, #2 (as she is often called) has the bluest eyes.  They are SO blue.  No photoshop here, ladies. And that 6 year old smile...love those missing teeth!