Five Friday Favorite Fotos

As we wait for some snow - here's one of Brenna, age 6
Probably one of my all-time faves - Brenna age 2.5 meeting her new baby sister
There's those blue eyes again. I miss those chubby cheeks!
Here's Brenna in the snow even earlier - 4 mos. old
How about waking up to those eyes peering up from the crib each morning! Molly 8 mos.

Oldie but a Goodie!

I'm cleaning out my email files which is where I usually find little gems like this one. This I sent to my friend Joanne (who was my Catholic school best friend and a fellow rule-follower!) regarding Brenna's first day of Gr. 1 (by the way, her teacher was a nun) . . .

On Day One I ask :

Me: “Where's your desk?”
Brenna: “In the front row.”
Me: “That’s good. Where’s Sophia?” (her best friend, they're joined at the hip)
Brenna: “I don’t know”
Me: “What do you mean you don’t know? How big is your classroom that you lost Sophia?”
Brenna: “Well she’s behind me.”
Me: “Oh. Right behind you?”
Brenna: “I don’t know”
Me: “What do you mean you don't know? You don’t know where your best friend is?”
Brenna: “MOM! The rule! Eyes in FRONT! I can't look behind me to find out where she is!”

So Brenna knows that Reid is on one side of her and Zach is on the other and 27 other kids are somewhere behind her but she has no idea who they are or where they sit. The back of the classroom could be in flames and she wouldn't turn around to find out! Oh how I love Catholic school and my little rule-follower!

Well let's just say that Gr. 3 is proving to be a different experience! Her teacher this eis young and hip and really is bringing Brenna out of her shell. Hopefully not too much though!

Five Friday Favorites

In the absence of new photos, I think I'll instead share 5 of my favorites! Maybe I'll even do this every Friday! (Actually I've been going through old pictures and shamelessly just need an outlet to show them off!) One of my all-time favorites of Brenna. It's just so spontaneous

and her eyes just sparkle!

I love their expressions here!

My bald Molly.

Brenna age 2

I still love those blue eyes! - Molly age 1

Snowy

The girls are out now enjoying the snow we got today. But because tomorrow is a scheduled day off for them, they're hoping the snow stops so we don't "waste" a snow day.

I left my camera cord on my work computer so I have no new pictures to share. When I get back to school and get the cord I'll post some shots of the girls at their skating lessons. Brenna loves it and does incredibly well for a kid who has only been on skates twice. Molly is doing much better after a long practice session. She has that personality that she gets ornery when she can't do something well right away (remember that tempermental baby that didn't walk until 16+ mos. and didn't talk forever?!) I was hoping to get them back to the rink in the morning for another practice since it shouldn't be crowded at all. We'll have to see what the weather brings though.

We've had a busy week with quite a few school projects due so things have been busy. Brenna and her friend Maggie have also be out hoofing to sell their Girl Scout cookies. Never a dull moment here!

Yahoo!

No time to blog lately. The past 2 days have been sunny with highs in the 70's. If feels like spring if you weren't looking at the calendar! The girls had their scooters out today for a good long time enjoying the day.

Back to reality tomorrow.

Dribbles

Today was the first day of basketball clinic for Molly. She really doesn't care one way or another about the sport but this is a great (read: inexpensive!) clinic that the dads run for 9 weeks in the winter. The kindergarteners meet at 9am for an hour followed by Gr. 1 and then Gr 2. It's hard to say who has more fun - the dads or the kids!

So I figured it's a good way to burn off some energy on cold winter mornings as well as a way to learn some skills that she'll be using in gym for the next 9 years (The PE teacher loves basketball and with this nice new gym floor it's a common activity in gym class - much to Brenna's dismay because she hates basketball). Molly on the other hand was more interested in the fact that most of her friends are doing it and that she gets a Tshirt. So she was happy to sign up and really enjoyed herself. And I'll really enjoy myself next week when I stay home and let Dean take her!

Strumming

And just in case the vegetarian thing doesn't work out, Molly has another career possibility looming . . .

She's actually pretty darn good too - well, until she was until she lost her guitar pick and started using a quarter. That sort of grates on the strings a bit too much for my ears.

It doesn't bother her a bit though. She keeps saying, "Want to hear a new chord I learned?" How does she know what a chord is?

Career Day

Along with the leopard pajamas for Christmas came several new stuffed animals. When I say Molly is an animal lover, you can't even begin to grasp how much. How many kids asked Santa for a fox? It's basically the only animal she didn't already have! Brenna of course knows of Molly's penchant for pets and picked out the perfect gift for her sister - an animal care kit.

Molly was thrilled and immediately started giving her animals routine checkups and called Uncle Don with the exciting news that she had a new "vegetarian kit! Because I just love animals and growing up to be a vegetarian is a good way to do that, right?"


We laughed so hard that I just couldn't correct her.
She's growing up way too fast as it is and I just want to hang on to these last little girl treasures while I can!

Chew on this!

My kids don't like foods that are "mixed up" like stews and casseroles. Purists at heart, they are! Tonight I made beef stew and Dean was cajoling Brenna into just trying any of it aside from the bread.

Finally I said "Girls, I'll give you 5 extra minutes before bedtime for every piece you eat on your plate."

Molly quickly started tasting things (without completely eating any of it though) while Brenna stared at her bowl. Dean was encouraging her "C'mon that could be a lot of extra time if you just eat the carrots!"

She looked at him, the plate, me, the plate and rationalized, "Well . . . I probably do need my sleep anyway . . ."

Little bugger.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The girls stayed up to greet the new year. We watched the ball drop in Times Square and Brenna is now insisting that we need to go there in person some year.

Here's hoping that 2008 brings happiness and health to all those we love and peace and prosperity to the world we share!

And best of all - back to school tomorrow!!

(And did you notice that the lamp behind Brenna is shining right through her hand? It must be a quirk of the digital image because I swear she's not transparent! Weird. And yes Molly is again wearing the oh-so-traditional leopard print Christmas pajamas. She's our animal girl!)

He Came!!

Granted Brenna did get coal, but she also got a lot of other great presents! Molly too.

Our living room at one point contained a scooter, roller skates. a guitar, an IPod, loads of new clothes (for girls and dolls alike), new baseball gear, more Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shop things that you can imagine, books, videos and a gazillion more things.

Santa was very good to all of us.

I just feel bad for the kids he must have missed in order to leave so much here! I just don't remember them being THAT good all year to receive all of this! I think it helps that they had all four grandparents here that day and there was just a teensy bit of spoiling going on . . .

Catching Up - Dec. 22

Could it be??
There are few things that send us scrambling outside on chilly winter nights. The sounds of fire engine sirens just before Christmas are one thing though.

Not that we hope they are coming to an emergency, it's just that our awesome local firefighters are known to bring Santa around on a little scouting mission each yar. We are quick to get out there and show him just where we live so that he'll be sure to stop here on Christmas Eve!

Uh Oh

Brenna got coal!

Christmas on the Frontier

Yesterday was a half day at school and the last day before Christmas vacation. The place was a madhouse! Kindergarten had parents in helping with a gingerbread cookie party. Grade 2 had parents in for a nativity play. Grades 3 through 5 and about 50 of their parents had taken over the lunchroom for Pioneer Day (why that particular day was chosen is beyond me but it was a awesome event with tons of food and activities all morning long). Grade 8 was having a pizza party and Grades 6 and 7 were exchanging Secret Santas. And of course every class also had a Christmas party and kids were wandering everywhere delivering teacher and staff gifts. But it was a good, fun kind of mayhem and everyone was enjoying the day.

Christmas Concert

The girls had their school Christmas Concert last night. It was wonderful - of course! Molly's class sang three songs including Birthday of a King which is one of my favorites. Brenna sang two with her class and another three with the school choir. Last year their concert was canceled due to the very sudden death of their music teacher. They remembered Sr. Jeanne in a special way by singing one of her personal favorite Christmas songs - "Joseph's Song." It's a beautiful song anyway but it was especially touching to hear it last night.
The concert was held in the church and the 8th grade does a beautiful tableau of the Nativity which is a nice way to really get in the Christmas spirit. They also sang a beautiful song from the movie "The Nativity Story." I really must rent it - I think Brenna especially would like it.

Nutcracker

On Sunday night the girls, Dean's mom and I went to the Washington Ballet's performances of the Nutcracker. This is a unique adaptation that sets the show in a Georgetown mansion and later along the banks of the Potomac River under the cherry blossoms. We've seen various versions of the Nutcracker by dance companies ranging from community theatre to semi-professional to professional and I think this may have been my favorite. It was especially nice since Brenna's friend Isabel danced one of the children's roles. We actually know 4 young dancers with roles so we were hoping to see at least one of them at this show. It was a late night (as you can see from Brenna's heavy eyes in this picture!) but well worth it.

And if you want to see the true spirit of Christmas at work, read this article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/09/AR2007120901499.html

Even a professional dance company knows what matters to the little people.

Better!

Molly's retake for her school picture came in the other day. It's better than the last version at least!! In looking at it, I can't believe how long her hair has gotten. She was begging me to cut it the other day and to let her grow her bangs out. Although I do like her with shorter hair, I'm not sure I can imagine her without bangs. Both girls have really high foreheads so I've always done their hair in ways that "disguise" it somewhat.

2.4 Minutes

That's exactly how much time it took these two to come in the front door, don ski pants and hats and run out the back door into the snow!

We had a light dusting at 7am and about 2 in. by afternoon. Nothing to brag about, but enough to entertain two little snow bunnies for quite a while! School didn't close early or anything but boy was traffic a disaster because the roads were a mess this morning. I sure am hoping for a 2 hr delay (our county's standard reaction to snow and/or ice) tomorrow after all of this freezes up overnight though!

Candy Girl

Brenna went to a birthday party for her friends' (they're twins) today. All of the girls made gingerbread houses, watched a Hansel and Gretel movie, had dinner and got these cool Tshirts as party favors.

Great party idea, huh?

Meet Liam

This is my friend's little man that we got to meet when we were in Boston. Could he possibly be any cuter? I could have just stolen him away but I think his Mommy might have put up a fight! Molly just adores babies and she tried to take over from the moment they walked in. I think she's one of Liam's biggest fans now!

Also on our trip we got to snuggle with our newest little cousin. Miss Kathryn Maeve was only a week old and I think the girls thought she was just a little baby doll. I didn't have my camera that night so I'll have to wait for Shanon to send me the pictures she took. Trust me that she's simply gorgeous though. I would have stolen her away as well but I think it would be her big brothers who would have had something to say about that!

And I can't forget my darling baby Brody. I thought it was because my girls have blue eyes that I fall so in love with these big brown ones. Now I think it's just because he's so darn cute no matter what color eyes he has!

Don't Be Expecting A Christmas Card From Us!

I fear we're never going to get a decent photo!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Yes, that's blondie's glowing locks reflecting the flash. Oh, that hair!!

Our church held it's annual St. Nicholas Mass yesterday. It was especially nice now that Brenna sings in the Children's Choir so she could participate even more. After the Mass there is a nice reception in the Parish Hall and St. Nicholas comes and tells his story to the children and gives them all chocolate coins and prayer cards. They all just love it and when the time comes that I need to "fully explain" things to inquiring girls, I hope that knowing the saint's story will help maintain the magic of the holiday for them.

Who Need Matching?

Today was "Mismatch Day" at school. The kids were allowed to be out of uniform in whatever mismatched way they could imagine. Some wore pajamas and dressy clothes together. Some wore clothes from two different seasons together. Some mixed opposite patterns and colors. Some wore their clothes completelyb inside out. And when they all came marching in at 8am, some teachers wore sunglasses!

It was a fun day (they had a great magic show in the morning and then a school-wide dance party with freeze dance competitions in the afternoon.

You can see one of our priests there in the back in a purple and white Cat In the Hat hat. He's a big favorite of the the kids' and served as the Announcer for the event.

Where there's a will there's a way!

Wednesday is the day that the 8th grade at school sells ice cream as a fundraiser. I was eating my lunch in the faculty room when the music teacher and one of Molly's classroom teachers came in laughing like crazy.

They said the kindergarten didn't get their ice cream until last and by then the lunch period was nearly over. Lunch ends with a prayer and the kids know that they are to fold their hands and say the prayer - no fidgeting with lunchboxes or walking around. Well it seems they both happened to be looking at Molly as she uwrapped her ice cream sandwich at the exact moment prayer was called. My little imp glaced right, glanced left and turned the ice cream bar vertically to fit between her palms as she folded them to pray. Then the prayer started . . .
"We give You thanks (lick) Almighty God, (lick) for all your benefits (lick) . . ."
At each pause in the prayer, she was sneaking a taste!!

That's my girl, always looking to satisfy herself before anything. She is a crazy little gal. Lord knows what I have in store with her!

It's Christmas!

Or at least it felt like Christmas on Saturday. We were able to sneak an extra celebration into our Boston trip since our wonderful family planned the Coleman Family Christmas for a time when some of us "away" cousins were able to attend.

Just some of the gazillion Coleman Great-grandchildren

What is there to say when these groups represent just a portion of the whole family? Brenna and Molly spent the afternoon eating, playing games and seeing Santa with about 50 of their extended cousins (and I was able to see all 13 of my first cousins and their children. It's been several years since we were all together like that!)

The "cousins" - with the odd spouse here and there!

I can't thank my aunts and uncles (well, some of them are cousins and great aunts and such but who can get technical when your family overlaps generations and has numbers like this!) for putting the party together and making it all happen for us. Beautiful memories . . .

The "aunts and uncles"

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the cutest bunch of Kindergarten Native Americans I've ever seen! (Molly's second row 3rd from right) There was much feasting and general funniness from this group. They are so adorable and I love sneaking into their classroom. (Okay you can't see it in the picture but their Indian names are on their headbands - Warrior Rabbit? Yup, beware the fierce bunnies! Lazy Camel? Sure, you know - the camels that are indiginous to North America. Molly herself is Quiet Fuzzy Bear. "Fuzzy" is a common word in nearly all native languages evidently. Her best buddy is Sparkle Moon Princess. Again, time-worn naming traditions being honored! Oh and don't forget the little boy who glued the front of his vest together and colored a row of buttons on it. Didn't you know that Native American peoples wore suits?)

We left school and schlepped ourselves to Boston -arriving at 1:30 am. Ugh! But we are all assembed now and ready for the BIG feast tomorrow with all the family. What's a 10 hour ride when you have that to look forward to!

Happy Turkey Day to all!!