Tribute

I was totally going to post the first day of school before we got to Maggie's birthday.  I was also totally going to post Maggie's birthday before we got to Halloween. I actually have a fuzzy memory that I did write a post and then somehow deleted it all, and it was like 10 so I just went to bed? Maybe? Let's pretend that I did do that, and it was the greatest post in the world.  This is just a tribute.

Molly's first day of Kindergarten went really well!  She was initially concerned and did cry a little, but she's been good to go ever since.  I think at first she was just worried that she wouldn't know what to do or what the rules were.  Something I can totally relate to.  She is super proud of her Green status. So far all of her days have been "Green" days, meaning she's following all the rules and doing what she should. She has since been given an award for her awesome math skills (she can count to 100 by 10s and 1s!) and a "Sunshine" award for being a good friend.  She's pretty awesome when she wants to be :-) 

In case you haven't been to Kindergarten lately, it's serious business.  It is not the Kindergarten I remember with a play kitchen and beanbag chairs.  They are reading and writing and sitting at desks...for better or worse.  They are also graded with a percentage grade. she mostly has 90's except for the 82 in writing, which I was informed was actually a high grade and that she really wouldn't have been expected to do much better.  Serious effin' business. I'm mostly trying to ignore it which I suppose is easier for me to do, because she is doing so well.

 

I took her shopping and let her pick out an outfit to wear for the first day.  This is what she chose including the accessories. I don't think she has worn any of it ever again. 

Maggie wanted to get in on the first day of school fun.  She took her pretend lunch to school that day and wore a pretty dress and let me do her hair in a "baby bun".  Everything in Maggie's life is about babies. She love babies, she loves the idea that she was one, that she continues to be one.  She likes things that she perceives to be for or about babies.  We went to pick out some flowers for the yard the other day and she was insistent that we get teeny tiny baby flowers. We ended up with some Alyssum.

Coolest Kindergartner at Alice Byrne since 1985.

 

 Next up was Maggie's birthday! For her school party, I took
 whipped cream and fruit.  The girls were loving it.
 Maggie's face cracks me up.

 For her party we had a swim party at the country club.

This picture make me feel like "Big Pimpin'" is playing in background.

To continue with her baby love, she picked out a baby minnie mouse cake.

 Blowing out the candles with a little extra help on the side.

 So this is actually some pretty big news.  Molly cut a big chunk of her hair off.  She's actually been bugging me to let her do it for at least a year off and on.  I had mostly just put her off until one Friday after school I just decided she had made it pretty clear what she wanted, so we went to the school and did it!  She loves it.

She had enough to donate so here's her braid we sent off.  I actually cut mine all off a week of so later, so we had two braids to send in the end.

I do not know what to make of this.  I seriously opened up the dresser to get some sheets and this is what I saw. She told me it was barbie jail.  I'm pretty sure they're waterboarding.

She's been crazy for climbing our fig tree lately. Last year there was a tree at school that she would climb everyday with her friend when I would pick her up.  She was super pleased with herself when she figured out how to get up this one.

 Still not too big for kitchen sink baths!  helps to have a giant  sink.

 

 What a sweet little Kindergartner! Considering I had completely forgot it was picture day until we were walking out the door for school, I think she did pretty good. Also working against us was a muddy playground and an also muddy ball.

Halloween! We made it! The girls were watermelon fairies.  Kind of random, but they enjoyed it.  We just did the downtown merchants trick or treating and were back at home before sunset.  It was a pretty good deal. I do wish it could have cooled off one day earlier for us though.  It was in the 90's yesterday (not terrible but not exactly fall either) and like just like magic, today, November 1st, it's cooler. That's pretty much the way it goes around here though.

So I probably won't get around to posting again this year, although we're having family pictures taken next week so you never know.

Summer...er...Spring 2014

So maybe I missed a season. Oh-well. We again took the long drive to Colorado to visit with Chris and Stephanie.  Jonny was supposed to go, but ended up having to go to Spain for work.  Glamorous, I know. Thankfully, Mere was able to come along and drive us-the whole way. Before anyone thinks I'm an ass-hole for making her drive the whole way, she actually likes driving.  

While we were there I hardly took any pictures at all (a reoccurring problem that results in infrequent updates) Chris and Stephanie did pick up the slack for me though. 

We had a chance to head up to A/U, our old summer camp and walk around a bit.  It made jealous of 3rd-12th graders, which is something that is usually pretty difficult to do.

Maggie practicing for future ropes course glory.

We also, checked out a nearby goat farm.  Goats are apparently old news to the girls.  Maggie didn't even want to go on the tour and Molly cut out halfway through it.  Maggie was thrilled to gorge herself on goat cheese.

Chris and Steph had a wedding to go to one day, so Mere and I took the girls to Aspen on a whim. Right after we had made the decision to go I immediately thought "This is probably a bad idea" I hadn't been considering how terrifying the road was or how it was completely possible that the girls (or me) would get car sick...and for what? $50.00 Frozen T-shirts (seriously?!?!?) In the end there was a fun park and a balloon guy who made the girls Little Mermaids, so it wasn't that bad.

the nearby parks were a big hit with girls so we hit them up daily.  Going to the park in July can be a novelty to Yuma folk.

 

We didn't camp, but we still had smores.  It's basically the same thing as camping.

  I need to look at this picture at least twice a day so that I remember they love each other.  Mostly.

  On our way home, we stopped at four corners and had some of the worst snow cones ever.  I'm pretty sure a Snoopy snow cone machine would have made a better snow cone. The girls were less critical since they like sugar in all it's forms.

After a week in Colorado, we decided since we really had no good reason to go back home, (Jonny was still out of town), we'd spend another week with Granny in Parks, AZ.  The weather was great and the girls learned about important things like ET and Kindergarten Cop (surprisingly violent-I hadn't remembered). 

We also had a chance to check out the nearby Deer farm.

I don't have a picture of it, because we were running for our lives, but I'm not sure the general population deer are fed by anyone but visitors.  As soon as you walk in, you're pretty much attacked by a gang of deer trying remove the food cups from your hands or any loose articles of clothing from your body.

 

Molly's favorite part, was probably taking the quad to the post office.

I take that back.  Hanging out with Granny's kitten, Smokey Steve was her favorite part.  They both relentlessly harassed the poor thing.

It was a fun trip and the weather was of course WAY better than it was in Yuma, but still it was nice to get back home after 2 weeks.  Maggie was especially glad, several time throughout the trip she would let me know she wanted to go home, and that she wanted to go to Mr. G's and get a bean and cheese burrito.  After we got back home, she's said several time that "It's nice to be back home!".  

So onto all the other stuff I missed in between.

I don't remember when it was, but there was a fairy party at the quartermaster depot, so Rams and I took the girls.  I was amused that Molly was instantly recognizable as "Elsa" to all the other little girls there.  They would even call her out.

Ready to party like fairies

The girls are now sharing a bedroom. I had envisioned that it would magically make them sleep in their own rooms without coming in to camp with us, but that hasn't worked out yet. Someday.

Molly practicing her Elsa ice powers.

Over Memorial Day, we visited Granny's house in Parks and took a train to the Grand Canyon.  A better mom would have taken pictures of that.  I'm not that mom.  We'll probably go again. 

Molly "graduated" from Pre K.  We were so relieved, we thought she might fail.  Her prospects are looking better now.

 

Molly had her dance recital.  She was a fairy and did an awesome job!  I bought a video and Maggie has been a little obsessed with watching it repeatedly.

Mommy and me Yoga is way better when you go into the lobby and do your own thing.

Call an exorcist! No wait, just Maggie.

For the 4th we had a good time at Annette and Kate's shindig.  lots of bouncy/wet fun. Get your head out of the gutter.

The girls have been going to preschool a few days a week 1/2 day.  Maggie has been reluctant, but she's warming up to the idea.  They say that she always has fun after I leave, it's just leaving and picking her up that she gets a little weepy. I'm so relieved that when my kids are at school, they're always great at listening and getting along with others. I can't say I always get that from them at home. We've had 3 days straight with no tears though, so things are looking up.  It's good timing too since Molly is about to head to Kindergarten!

Making marshmallow men

The school has a cute garden and lots of animals.  Here's Molly with one of the bunnies.

We may have lost our minds! Jonny brought home a cat yesterday.  After a few trial names (Tennis, Little cat A, Zoinks, Smokey Eve) we settled on Sweet Pea.  It was Molly's idea and it's way better than her first name-Elsa or the name the Humane Society gave her-Anna.  Welcome Sweet Pea! You will be loved to little bitty pieces!

 

Look at this sweet little thing! can you believe she's going to be 3 in two short weeks!?!?

I can't.

Peter Cotton Tail

If anyone is interested I actually posted some Christmas pictures and Molly's birthday pictures in the two posts before my Ireland post.  I can't believe I ever did this almost weekly.  

Before I print out another hard copy of this, thought I'd just throw Easter in there too.

I'm so sick of candy.  Just having it in the house makes everyone tense.  I'm trying to hide it, they're trying to get it.  Molly knows how to use a ladder now, so that makes things more complicated. School had an egg hunt and a party, so there was that candy.  There's been a few birthday's lately, so there's that candy. Then we brought them some Easter candy from Ireland, Meredith bought them some too.  On top of all that, we went to the country club for Easter brunch and they also had an egg hunt with even more candy.  Fortunately most of it was not worth saving and went into the trash, but still it's so much crap. 

here's Maggie with a death grip on her chocolate bunny.  She would not put it down.

 This reflects Molly's new attitude lately.  Willful? Disdain? I'm not sure what's going on.

 Easter Morning we sort of slept in (7:30) and my parents were wondering what was going on.  They went outside to see if they could see any eggs and neither saw anything.  I'd like to point out that this egg is right in front of their front door.

This year we got both our families together for brunch at the country club.  It's always nice to just get everyone into one place so you don't have to drag small children around all day.

 I've never found it to be worth my while to make my kids take pictures with strange characters.  I will say that those who do, have some of the greatest crying kids pictures ever.  My favorite is an infant Grayson with the Easter bunny.  Molly asked to take her picture with the bunny, she held it together, but I did notice she got a little uneasy when she was close up to him.  Maggie was not interested in the least.

This is the best picture of both of them that I could get.  Oh-well.

After brunch, Jonny went and played a few holes. The girls started out interested in golfing, but after meeting up with their friend the drink cart lady, they became more interested in Gatorade, pretzels and of course Maggie had to have her Perrier.  After that they pretty much just played around in the cart.

Molly with her "Sad Eyed" puppy from Gran for Easter.  Also one of her favorite flower arrangements.

 

 

Maggie is a nap fighter, not a lover.  Still, sometimes they catch up with her

 

Desert Rats!  We went out a few weeks ago.  It's fun to let them just go around a whoop it up.

 

Zonks!  Too much desert fun.  Molly has been preoccupied with who she will marry.  Of course Grayson is a front contender for her.  All day she was very vocal about this, so when she passed out like this, I made sure to send the picture to Ramsey so Grayson could see his lovely future bride.

As is tradition, we hit up the county fair with Annette and Kate.  They had a good time conning us into buying them crap.  This ride, was not a baby ride.  We went 2 days and in total, Molly rode it 4 times.  I rode it twice and Jonny rode it once.  Jonny was not a fan.  If Molly's going to be a daredevil, Jonny's going to have to suck it up!

Other random news to throw in before I wrap this thing up.  Molly started piano lessons.  So far, so good.  She has a recital next month and she'll probably have at least a small part to play for it.  Very exciting for me.  

Maggie started "real" gymnastics class.  She had 2 classes that went great and 1 that went horribly (lots of tears).  We've paid for 1 more so we'll see how that goes.  She is super into the idea of dance class.  She always wears the clothing.  She's a little obesessed with looking at tutu pictures and watching ballet videos online.  She's always talking about being in "Miss Myriah's dance class", and her dance moves/poses are pretty awesome.  Hopefully this summer she'll do better than her first attempt at dance class.