Disney and Universal

Its been so long now that we went to Orlando (during Thanksgiving Break) that I can’t remember everything. So the synopsis: Our family of four joined forces with Granny, Wes, Lindsay, and Kacie to conquer the fun that is Disney and Universal Studios. I’m pretty sure that the girls, and definitely Chris and I, are bigger fans of Universal–there’s just so much more real rides that we can all enjoy. However, the entire trip was fun…and exhausting. We had to take a day to stay at the resort just to recharge!

When we planned for the trip I knew I was going to put those little backpack buddies on the girls. There was NO WAY I was going to risk losing one of my girls in a crowd as I knew others have. So it all seemed to work pretty well until Caroline met Aurora, and told her, “my parents treat me like a dog.” Thankfully, Lindsay and Casey explained to the princess that she was referring to the backpack leash and it was for her safety! How embarrassing. Glad I wasn’t around.

Both girls looove rollercoasters, thank the Lord, because I’m sure amusement parks will play a large role in our family vacations for years to come. Caroline was always willing to take pictures with characters, but Haley would not get near them! I realize that I was quite the lazy photographer on this trip. Next time I’ll preserve our memories a little better.

Oh, and Hogsmeade is amazing.

Pictures are in no  particular order at all.

Haley waving at the electrical parade:

This girl fell asleep with my hand on her head for support on the monorail.

Thanksgiving

Caroline was adorable in her Pre-K Thanksgiving program. No kidding, she was the cutest one. She did the little dances and sang and she was front and center. Unfortunately, I only got this one good picture:

She was front and center. Just where she was meant to be!

Our Thanksgiving Break was actually spent at Disney and Universal. That’ll be the next post before I start Christmas: Phase One.

Mommy and [Mini] Me Baking

I do like to let the girls help bake. Caroline is usually the one to offer her services, but Haley got to do it this time. We made one of our favorite treats: Funfetti Cake Bars.

Fall

It kills me that I’ve waited so long to post that, in order to save time, I drastically limit the number of pictures to post from the lastest batches. There are some super cute pics that didn’t make the cut and may never be seen again. (Who wants to look at a computer for hours to see thousands of pictures?) But the ones I chose are special to me and I want to make sure they get preserved in my blog book. This post spans a couple of months and there are still at least three more posts I want to complete before Christmas. So let’s get to it:

For a small period of time, Caroline drew all her people with a really long line between their legs. She says they were peeing. Here’s the beginning of one of those drawings:

Reward for an “All-Gs” week– a cookie as big as her head:

Ready for the first field trip (to the Pumpkin Patch):

Picking out her very own pumpkin from a REAL patch:

Caroline’s classmate offered to take this one, and I thought he did a good job:

Riding the train with her principal, Mrs. Comeaux:

Haley playing with Mrs. Ginger’s bulldog, Bo:

We arrived home from school to a pumpkin left anonymously (until we found out it was Wes & Lindsay). They loved it!

Haley and Big Dad:

Caro and a bestie, Reagan:

This is the sign on Caroline’s locker at school:

Haley attempting a nap on a table in my classroom:

 

More Camera Clean-Off

Here are some more recent ones:

With Mamaw and Papaw Ware in Homer:

I stole the next two from Angie’s facebook from Shaun’s bday party:

Mommy and Me baking again! This time its Funfetti Cake Bars:

New bow holder:

Haley woke up stuck under the bed. It was traumatic:

Country & Western day at gymnastics:

Doing “homework” on the computer:

Caroline wearing my old t-ball shirt:

Daddy fixing Haley’s hair:

Cleaning off the Camera

Just a few quick pics from the last several weeks. I know one day I’ll regret not having written the stories behind everything, but I will not regret not spending all day on this computer!

Cooold at Orange Leaf:

On the playground at school:

One day Caro couldn’t draw a line, the next she’s made a masterpiece of her and Nana:

Junior Civitans had the corn booth at the fair again and Haley had to do some quality control:

Again, one day she couldn’t color, the next:

Caroline was so proud of catching her first bubble:

Not sure about this one:

The girls and I have a new tradition of eating Johnny’s before gymnastics. Thank goodness for those half off cards:

Jewnastics*

*Let me start by saying that I in no way condone antisemitism or hatred towards anyone! My sweet little Caroline just mispronounces “gymnastics.”

We drive across the world to get there. It pretty much controls our whole evening from after school to bedtime. It causes us to eat fast food (or at least gives me an excuse). But that firstborn of ours really loves her gymnastics class.

My original intention was to drive over to Bayou once a week only until the more local place called and said they had an opening, but now I’m not so sure. Not only has Caroline expressed that she wants to remain where she is, but they are a full-fledged gym with all the gymnastics equipment-vaults, beams, whatever else those things are called. The local place doesn’t do all that. They mainly focus on tumbling to increase your kid’s chances at becoming a cheerleader, which IS NOT our goal. So maybe its worth it. How much do olympic gymnasts get paid? Oh, we’ll have to sell our souls? Nevermind.

Here are some pictures through the tiny windows at the gym. Maybe you can spot Caro.

 

Mommy & Me Baking

I love to make things with the girls. Crafty things, sweet edibles. As long as they are willing, I can find something for us to do. Caroline’s really good at helping because she’s a little older, but I’m really excited about the days when all three of us can whip something up. Our latest thing: M&M-y Chocolate-y Pretzel-y things. I really don’t know what they’re called, but I found them on Pinterest, my latest addiction. We have a church lunch tomorrow to send off our wonderfully-loved-but-deserves-this-great-opportunity-somewhere-else worship leader and his wife, Josh & Jessica Grammon, so we made these for that.

Here’s how it goes:

Put some tiny twist pretzels on a baking sheet.

Top them each with a Hershey’s kiss.

Place them in a 275 degree oven for 3 minutes, then smush M&Ms on top.

Stick em in the fridge to firm up and have a happy kid.

 

 

(Be sure to eat as many M&Ms as possible during this activity)

I found some pictures on my phone from a recent visit to the Pierce’s to decorate cookies, so I thought I’d share that here:

And I forgot to include this on my earlier miscellaneous post, so….This painting sold for $60 at the MedCamps Auction. I couldn’t believe it. I believe the free beer and wine helped the cause. (But it made me feel proud.)

About my little schoolgirl…

I’m smiling. It’s because I’m thinking of my biggest little girl and how PROUD I am of her! She came home from the first week at preschool with all G’s on her progress report! That’s perfect, people! Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself–in case you didn’t know (by now you do), Caroline is now in school! I really stressed about it, but now I wonder why. Her teacher knows how to teach her. The cafeteria lady knows how to feed her. The principal knows how to keep her safe and how to contact me if she’s hurt. It’s been a smooth transition for her. She’s got this student thing down.

It all started with the first day of school:

 

 

 

She picked out what she wanted to wear the night before, I packed her a lunch, we put her breakfast money in her canvas bag we decorated with a mermaid, and her supplies were already waiting for her in Mrs. Hellam’s classroom.

We get to school (quite early because I have to get to my own school immediately afterward) and wait in the lobby for the bell to ring. When it does, we enter the gym and find her class’ bench and she waves me away. SHE WAVES ME AWAY. What? Did I want her to cry? No, but I wanted her to feel the impact of the moment just as I did. I guess it’s better that she didn’t.

 

When I pick her up she’s excited to see me, but close to the first words out of her mouth is, “Mom, you forgot my pillow.” (I was under the impression that they didn’t encourage pillows because of space issues.) Later that evening I ask her if every one else had a pillow. She looks me straight in the face, not complaining or anything, but calmly says, “Everybody but me….Not fair is it?” I could have cried. Wes and Lindsay laughed like crazy. That weekend I found a small pillow.

She has since just amazed me with the way she behaves in the one week she’s been at school. She’s more helpful. She cleans her room.  She starts every response with “Oh!” as in “Oh, yes, it was terrific!” She gets prizes almost everyday from the treasure chest for following the rules, which she can recite, and can tell me every person that didn’t get a prize, and who had to sit out for recess, and what she had for breakfast (she doesn’t like grits).

I look in her lunchbox every day when I pick her up from Ykids, the afterschool program, and she didn’t eat the cookie, or the marshmallows, or the other sweet thing I put in there. I assume Mrs. Hellams gets her to eat the healthy stuff first (wow.) and then she runs out of time. Everyone in the class has to go to the cafeteria for breakfast whether they eat or not, so we let her eat their breakfast. She loves it. She gets to have options.

She’s like a teenager, though, when it comes to getting any information out of her about how she liked the day or anything that actually involves her. I have to ask very specific questions. But it’s fun. I love to pick her up everyday.

When I drop her off in the mornings we get to see the principal feed the fish:

 

And because she didn’t get in trouble at all during the week and she had all G’s on her report, we celebrated with a sno-cone:

 

 

 

It’s pretty cool having a preschooler.