Lawnmowers

These 2 little guys (and quite a few of their sisters and brothers) have become regular visitors in the past few weeks. Last year we saw rabbits quite often but this year they have clearly multiplied in population! We see a bunny on our lawn or on one of our neighbors' at least once a day. Luckily they aren't nearly as destructive as the deer!

Movie Time!

Because the girls don't do a lot of summer camps, I try to fill our calendar with lots of activities in and around our area. And lucky for us there are lots to choose from if you know where to look. Today we headed out to a movie theatre that has free movies on Tues. mornings and saw "Curious George." Tomorrow we'll hit a local shopping complex where "Animal Ambassadors" will do a show. Thursday is a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with friends and I can't even remember what we have planned for Friday! We've also been at the pool nearly every day for Brenna's swim team and both girls are quickly becoming little fish. They are both registered for the library's summer reading program and all three of us will be at Vacation Bible School at a nearby parish next week.

So keeping checking back - we never sit still for long in this house!

Tooth Fairy Coming Again!!

The Tooth Fairy is becoming a regular in our house lately.

Poor Brenna looks more like a jack o'lantern with all the gaps in her smile.

This time the poor fairy might get a little mixed up though.

She'll have to find the right room because this time things are different . . .

Now Miss Molly has a hole in her head! Her loose tooth has been hanging on for days and finally, after much drama (why are these first teeth so traumatic?!) it's out. Just goes to show that you never know when these things will happen. Brenna has been one of the last in her class to lose teeth and Molly is one of the first. Go figure.

It's funny how such a tiny tooth can leave such a big hole. She really looks different!

HAPPY FLAG DAY!

And in our house that also means

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The girls and I will make him a his special Heath bar/Cool Whip/angel food cake concoction and see if he still has it in him to blow out the candles!

Zoo Day

It's been a while since we've gone to the zoo. It's so close by and we have a membership but with school and activities, it's hard to carve out the time during the year. Summer is much easier (as long as the weather cooperates - the many hills are killers in the humidity!)

Well today was perfect so we grabbed out best buddies and spent almost five hours checking out all of our old favorites. The zoo is on watch now as they wait to see if the female panda Mei Xiang is pregnant again. That would be big news! We also picked up the schedule of summer concerts which the girls love. My guess is we'll definitely be back to the zoo sooner rather than later!

Portraits

Here are Molly's belated 5-year-old pictures. It took me awhile to get them done and scanned. I love the shots with her arms crossed. I initially didn't buy those but when I saw them printed, I just had to get them since they most capture her personality.

My spunky little sailor girl!

Ahem! Has Anyone Seen a 3rd Grader?

Oh wait - here's one now!!

Today was Brenna last day of school and the excellent report card she brought home tells me that we have a new third grader in the house. YIKES - Grade 3!!

She was sad to say goodbye to her teachers in Gr. 2 - especially since we learned the wonderful Gr. 3 teacher will be leaving. However the new teacher has already been hired and "word on the street" (she'll be coming from another school nearby) is nothing but good. The school is also losing one more teacher - Molly's! So both girls will have new faces in their classes but we trust that they will be wonderful - and the school has been right on with all of their recent hires so I'm not at all worried.

The only other recent hire for the school is . . . me! I was offered and accepted a job in the school office. I guess they figured I was there so much that they might as well hire me. The timing was perfect since both girls will be there full-day next year so I just couldn't refuse.

So after a long week of work (I've been in the office the past 2 weeks) and parties and every other imaginable "extra", we are all ready to kick off our vacation in style. We'll start by sleeping in!!

Rooting for the Home Team!

A great time was had by all at Girl Scout Night at the Nationals yesterday. It was the first time we've been to the stadium. But boy are we tired today - it was a late night!

Can you stand one more?

This is just a 20 second blip of Brenna at her final Irish Dance class last week. My camera is on the fritz and kept seizing up so I didn't get much else. She looks happy at least! Her teacher wants her to compete in a feis this summer but Brenn says she doesn't want to. It doesn't matter to me either way so I told her she could try it or not, change her mind, whatever and that would be fine with me.

Scouts

Today was Brenna's last day of Brownies. They had a big luncheon for all 75 Girl Scouts at her school which was a great way for them to end the year. She received the last group of patches she's earned this year and loves sporting them on her vest.

Now she'll have a two week session of Girl Scout camp to look forward to in July!

One more Recital post

The girls had their dance recital Saturday evening. They were wonderful! Sadly my camera fritzed out on me and nothing that I taped in the "movie mode" came out. Big bummer because I had Brenna's Yankee Doodle jazz number that was fabulous and the Finale to Dreamgirls that was great too. All I wound up with was a single shot of the Finale. . .

Brenna's there just to the right of center. They were all wearing tiaras and shirts with gold stars and their names. It was a nice little show with just enough dazzle without all the razzle! Both girls want to return for next year so watch this spot same time next year for more dancing!

Last Day

Friday was Molly's last day of school. She insisted on bringing her two teachers these enormous balloons. PreK has been a very fun year for her and we are looking forward to a nice number of years with the group of kids that make up her class. All 21 of them are moving on to Kindergarten and will be joined by 9 new kids. Then, God willing, they will move together through the grades.

A big part of the reason I love the school is the wonderful spirit there. Because so many kids are there for 10 years together, it really becomes a special place for them. Friday was also the last day for the oldest kids as the 8th grade gradulated that night. A school tradition is that all of the classes, teachers and staff line the hallways and Gr. 8 makes a final trip through the school collecting hugs and high fives from all of the people they've come to know and love. There wasn't a dry eye in the building!! It will be very emotional when my kids the big-kid end of that rather than the little kid end!

The only bad part of the day was that Molly wasn't able to wear the "last-day-of-school" dress that she agonized about picking out Her class had their Relay Field Day so they all needed to be in shorts and sneakers. She had so much fun that I think she forgot all about the dress!

It's been a great year!

Dress Rehearsal

Here they are - my dancing dolls! This will be Brenna's fourth recital and Molly's second so they have declared themselves old pros and today's rehearsal was a piece of cake. I managed to sneak in and video Molly's class performing and Brenna's tap number. I'll try to get those uploaded later.

Here is Molly's number - it's a cute song!

And here's Brenna. This was at the end of a 2-hour session and they look pretty pooped. She has a jazz number and a long finale dance as well. I'll try to tape those at the show on Saturday.

No School!!

There great rejoicing in our house today as the girls wound up with a bonus day off. A water main break on the street near the school left the building with no water.

So now we are left to decide what to do with some unexpected free time. The girls do have a dance dress rehearsal today at 4pm so whatever we do will involve Molly with her hair in rollers though!

Eww! This is not what I wanted to see in my backyard yesterday! Needless to say we had a little chat with the girls about what they should do if they encounter an extra "friend" in the yard while they are out playing!

All's well here and we're enjoying the warm weather over the holiday weekend. We were up at the pool today and ran into lots of folks we don't often see - other than at the pool! I think we're going to have a nice summer.

Molly had her "Step Up Day" at school yesterday. That's when all of the PreK (and the 9 students who will be coming to join them next year) visit the Kindergarten classroom and spend a few hours with the teacher there. Molly said it was lots of fun, "even if all we did was work, work, work. And do you know there's no tv there?!" Clearly she has some misconceptions about what type of activity will be expected of her next year! Her lead teacher will be a fabulous woman who was the secondary teacher (there are 2 in every class) when Brenna was there. I'm excited to be back in that class again (sounds like I'm the one in school, huh?) Brenna will have her Step Up Day during her last week of school (she had Field Day yesterday). Word on the street is that there is a tremendous jump in expectations at Gr. 3 but she's not worried. Her teachers will be a team of two young women who work well together and seem to have a great rapport with both the kids and the parents. So as sad as we are to see this year coming to close, it's nice to end the year knowing what good things await for next year!

But I still don't like the snake . . .

Things are going swimmingly!

It's a busy week here with lots of activities and errands to run as the school year winds down. But in case we weren't COMPLETELY crazy before now, we went ahead and signed Brenna up for our pool's swim team. Well, it's only the beginner squad but she's excited. Last year we couldn't have paid her to try it but this year she was very excited. They hold practices every weeknight from 4:30-5:15 from now through July but luckily the kids aren't expected to be there every time. Thank God because with school still in session and other activities still going on, she'll probably make less than half of them over the next 3 weeks! She won't swim any meets this year but it will still be a good experience. Most of her friends swim on other teams which I think was what encouraged her to go for it.

Things are starting to wind down. Yesterday was the last "official" dance class for both girls although Brenna has another special class and both have a dress rehearsal next week. Girl Scouts finishes up with a meeting this week and a luncheon next week. Irish dance has a show next week. Her teacher for that wants her to compete this summer but I can't commit to bringing her to Virginia each week for extra classes. Oh and we have four birthday parties between June 4th-8th.

Next week is Molly's last week of school and Brenna has one left after that. Here comes summer!!

A Special Goodnight

Tonight Molly and her best buddy Francesca had a special treat. Back in March at the school auction, our families won a "Bedtime Tuck In" with their PreK teacher (it was meant for 1 child but we split the price and the teacher was happy to do them together) Our girls simply adore this woman and we knew it would be a lot of fun.

So we all went over to their house and our families had a fun dinner together. (Francesca's big sister is very conveniently Brenna's best friend so our families are very intertwined!) Then Mrs. M arrived with cookies and milk and some special books (with wonderful inscriptions) for the girls. They played and giggled a while together before having their snack. Then it was up to bed where all three of them snuggled up for stories, prayers and lots of hugs and kisses. The funny part was when she asked the girls to say a bedtime prayer, Francesca launched into "Bless us O Lord, for these thy gifts . . ." I'm not sure Grace Before Meals is a proper bedtime prayer but I think they are just so used to saying it with her (they do it before snack and lunch every day) that it just popped out of them. Needless to say, that got a lot of laughs!!

How can you not love this picture? It's nice to know that in a world so scared of personal liability and such that we have such a wonderful school community with faculty willing to really get to know their families and have personal relationships. It was a special activity for the girls and one they'll look back on with nice memories for a long time.

Dance Recital songs

The theme of the show is "Movin' to the Movies" and every class is dancing to a song from a movie. Brenna will be in a tap number and a jazz number as well as the Finale. Molly will do only a ballet number. Given that the show is only an hour long (oh how I love this place better than the 3.5 hour show of the other studio we first tried!), that means we'll be filming most of it!

This is Brenna's song for the Finale. Dream Girls.wma All I know is that it involves tiaras and much posing! The funny thing is that the two classes performing with the oldest girls (teenagers) are Brenna's group (7-8 yo) and the other 6-7 year old class. Brenna's class has a very patriotic costume (she won't let me show anyone yet!) which should be okay but the other group is dancing to something from Pirates of the Carribean and their costumes are very "pirate wench" looking. That ought to be interesting for this number!

Her tap song is from the Molly American Girl movie. It's called "Victory Sisters" and it's quite long. The teacher's daughter dances in this class so their routines are always a step above in some ways. Sadly many of them can't keep up and it kind of ruins things. Brenna's been practicing though so I hope she remembers all her steps! Victory Sisters.wma

Her jazz song is sort of a swing version of "Yankee Doodle" and we don't have the music for that yet. I'm hoping she gets a copy soon because I know she needs to work on that a bit more. Same costume (another perk of this studio - no huge costume fees!)

Molly is dancing to a song from Charlotte's Web (and old version though, not the newer movie) called "There Must Be Something." 01 Track 1.wma It's really precious. It's about being friends which is especially nice since 8 of the girls in the dance class are also in Molly's PreK class at school.

It should be a cute show!

HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY!!

I have two very good reasons of my own to celebrate Mother's Day today. And my wonderful friends and family have many reasons of their own to celebrate as well. I think our pastor said it best at today's Mass when he blessed "all of the mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, aunts . . . everyone who loves another with a mother's heart."

So we say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers who have touched our lives!

(And I know you'll all be jealous but I got breakfast in bed today. Brenna had already climbed in with me and Molly came running in with 4 granola bars, threw them in the bed and said, "This is all I'm allowed to make by myself!" But you know, it was the best granola bar I've ever tasted!)

Spring Concert

Friday night was the girls' Spring Concert at school. The Christmas Concert was canceled because their music teacher passed away very unexpectedly just 2 weeks before the show so this was their one chance to perform a concert this year.

Naturally it was adorable, the kids were fabulous and everyone's pictures came out too dark in the church but a good time was had by all.

(Feel free to comment on Miss Molly the poser. She's a total diva these days! She made a comment that it was good to be the youngest in the family "for lots of good reasons and only one bad one. When you're the youngest you're always the last one to get everyone else's clothes!" Mind you she gets more new clothes than any other second child I've known. She's a diva and she's spoiled!!)

Hanging at the Park

The weather has been beautiful and the girls have spring fever in a big way! Luckily we live right near a few great parks so we've been trying to get out and play a bit after school whenever we can. It's also "birthday season" and each of them has several parties during April/May. Add to that the myriad of school events, scout activities and dance classes/rehearsals and we are one busy family these days.

Last week Brownies for Brenna was on Monday instead of Friday. Except that Monday is also her dance class. But dance class also has a makeup class on Thursday. Whoops, Thursday is already booked for Irish dance class. That's okay because there's also a dance rehearsal next Sunday and the following Tuesday as well. Too bad that Tuesday is also the Brownie picnic. I'm really glad we limit her activities and we don't have soccer practices and games or something on top of all of this! Luckily Molly only has dance class. She didn't want to add another activity now but she's dying to do tennis in the fall. I don't know where the interest comes from for that but I think I'm going to have to get them a chauffeur or something. I can't keep up!

First Communion

It was a beautiful day - special in every way! The sun was shining (but not sweltering) and we had a nice lunch back at home afterwards with all of her grandparents and Auntie Krissy. Brenna was very excited and everything ran smoothly - except for one little girl getting sick (Brenna had to fill in and read this girl's part during Mass) and Molly getting pink eye. (Leave it to Molly to insert herself in some way into the festivities!)

Sunday it was back to church for the parish Mass (that's why her hair is up in some photos and down in others - too much activity!) where the kids sang their First Communion song again and took part in the May Procession to crown Mary.

I think she enjoyed her weekend and I know we're all very proud and happy for her! Nana and Papa headed home today (with a stack of photos of course!)

I have gazillions of pictures and will make up a nice one to mail to folks soon. I'll save some pictures for that, but here's a few from the weekend . . .

Brenna has something to show you . . .

Or actually to NOT show you!

Sure enough, that wiggley tooth finally popped out today. I think she was trying to hold it in until after First Communion, but it was not to be. She was playing a game with her friend today and a little bump sent it flying. Luckily the 3rd grade teacher was nearby and they found it and delivered it safely home in a Ziploc bag.



So now she has six permanent teeth in various states of growth. She looks quite like a jack o'lantern!! But the funniest part is listening to her talk.

Thee thounds tho cute!!

Brenna Van Gogh

I'm part of the team of parents who work together to present the "Meet the Masters" art program at the girls' 2-3 times per year. Today I was in Brenna's class for the second half of the lesson I was doing on Vincent Van Gogh. The first half last week was a slide presentation and discussion presenting Van Gogh's life and works and then the second session has the kids doing a piece of art in the style of the Master Artist they are studying. So today we brought out some oil pastels and the kids replicated Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

It's a fun program and I've really learned a lot - probably more than the kids! So far we've done Pablo Picasso (abstract cubism), Katsushika Hokusai (Asian brush painting) and Georgia O'Keeffe (magnified florals) as well.

Brenna enjoys having me teach these classes and I'm so glad I have the chance to do it!

Another nice weekend

The weather has been great so we've been trying to get a lot of our yardwork done on weekends. Today we were working on the screenporch but the girls were getting bored. Dean packed up their bicycles and took them for a ride on the C&O Canal while I plowed through the rest of the work. We have Brenna's First Communion next weekend so as long as the weather cooperates, we'll be able to enjoy a little party outside after the big event!

Too Funny!

I'm weeding through some old photos and came across these from June '02. They gave me a good laugh! (Brenna is 2.5 years old and Molly is 2 mos.)

There, there baby Molly . . .

Enough with the crying already . . .

Okay, this is really getting old . . .

That's it - I've had it!

I sure don't miss the days (months) of that crying baby! I do remember that Brenna seemed unfazed by it all which is why these pictures seem all the funnier to me.

All Checked Out!

I took Molly for her 5 year old checkup today - partly because it was time and partly because her class is riddled with cases of strep and/or pink eye. She's been complaining of a scratchy throat in the morning which I chalked up to her cold and the pollen count but I wanted to be sure she wasn't the one inadvertently spreading strep all through the building!

No trace of anything contagious and she measured in at a cool 43 lbs. and 44 inches. That puts her at or slightly above the 75th percentile - which is what you can expect with a daddy who is 6'4". Two shots and we were done. Dr. E wasn't too concerned about the hives that are still appearing every few days. I can't even begin to guess at a trigger but the dr. agrees that it is almost certainly an ingestion thing as opposed to an environmental one. He did give her a prescription for an EpiPen though "just in case" it ever worsens quickly. Otherwise we'll hold off on the allergist for now and see what happens. We haven't seen anything in a few days so we're crossing fingers . . .

Not much else going on. Brenna is writing almost exclusively in cursive in school now and she's loving it. Actually her cursive penmanship is much better than her printing! She did a presentation to the class on her Freedom Trail trip which was nice of her teacher to encourage since it wasn't a school project. The teacher is very big on oral presentations and developing comfort with public speaking which I'm happy about. Brenna doesn't seem to mind giving oral reports (they do at least 1 per month)which is great given that she can be quite timid at times.

So that's about it for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Arghhh! A Pirate's Life for Me!

Molly headed off to her friend's birthday party today. It was a pirate theme and the kids were encouraged to come dressed as a pirate if they wanted. Molly was excited and we found black shorts and a red striped shirt that worked perfectly with her do-rag bandana and eye patch. That is until she found the Hello Kitty holographic butterfly shirt. Clearly that was much more appropriate for the pirate look she was aiming for! So we added some tatoos to toughen up her look and off she went.

The party was a big hit but she told me she didn't go on the moon bounce they had. Her exact words - "I don't do puffy things like that." Miss Molly is a a girl who makes no bones about how she feels. Kind of like when I asked if she wanted to play on a soccer "team" with her classmates. (She didn't enjoy it AT ALL last year but I thought with new friends it might be appealing . . .) What started as "Soccer's not my sport" escalated into "I'd rather die than play that soccer thing." Her words exactly. When this kid is serious, she's SERIOUS!!

Anyway, my mini pirate had fun today and that's all that matters!

Spring is FINALLY here!

Today the sun was high in the sky and the thermometer read 80 degrees. Dean and I got some yardwork done while the girls "helped" (mostly by staying out of the way!) Tomorrow is supposed to be equally nice so we'll head out again and by next week we'll have a nice looking yard and I'll no doubt have a nice looking case of poison ivy! It never fails.

We worked until 4pm when I had to get Brenna ready for her dance class. Her teacher brought in a friend to do a special hip hop session today and again in May. Brenna was very excited and had a great time. This is her first year in jazz and a little extra practice can't hurt - especially if she's just having fun.

After that we grabbed a quick dinner and I took both girls to Dean's alma mater for their spring theatre production. Put it this way, when they saw the flyer come in that mail that they were performing "High School Musical," there was no way my girls were missing it! The kids did a nice job and both Brenna and Molly danced and sang along throughout the show.

All in all - a good day.

Ummmmm . . .

Sometimes there are no words . . .

This is what I found lurking behind me last night. The tie dye shirt, the pink & blue leopard-print capri pajamas, the neon water shoes, the doll blanket cape . . . She thought she was truly stunning.

Sometimes all I can do is shake my head.

She was also all bent out of shape the other night because I didn't give her enough broccoli for dinner. She said "Well the least you can do is make more and put it in my lunch tomorrow!" Ever hear of a kid begging for broccoli?

As I said, never a dull moment . . .

Home Again

We came back home from Boston by train this time. Airfares were high so we thought we'd take a rail adventure instead. Good thing we did because that nor'easter that ran up the coast all weekend would have kept us stranded at the airport. My mom travelled back with us and stayed a few days. The girls especially liked that! Monday I did the dancing class carpool, Tuesday was library duty for Molly's class, etc. It was nice for Nana to tag along for "ordinary" days rather than just being here for holidays or vacations.

So we're getting back on track and gearing up for the next round of events - First Communion in a few weeks, their dance recital a few weeks after that, and all of the other end-of-year activities. Never a dull moment around here!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Five years ago last night my cousins Alan and Sharon had arrived to help me start setting up the nursery and just generally help keep me entertained as I counted down the final weeks before Baby #2 arrived. I had some blue gingham fabric and Sharon was going to help me with some valances for what I was positive was going to our little Joseph Benjamin in 5-6 weeks.

Five years ago this morning Alan and Sharon were instead entertaining Brenna "just for a bit because I'm sure the hospital will send me home" I said. Oh they sent me home alright - with Molly!

Miss Molly - you took us by surprise then - we didn't even have a name for you (we chose it on the exit ramp to the hospital)! - and you continue to take us by surprise each and every day. But we wouldn't have it any other way!!! You bring so many smiles and laughs to our house and we're lucky you decided not to wait any longer to join us. Who could have imagined that the cranky little baby that the hospital nursery refused to keep because she cried so much would just 5 years later be the funniest, most endearing little charmer?

I love you Baby Girl!!

(and Sharon - you still owe me some valances!!)

My baby is almost 5!

With just days to go before Miss Molly's birthday, here's a quick look back at her birthday portraits from the past few years . . .

Which reminds me to make an appointment for the next one!