Five Favorites!

It's that time again (if anyone is not bored to tears yet!) It's been a long and crazy week but all is well!

Molly at the Glen Echo carousel. I loved these shorts she's wearing - a nice soft microfiber in the same blue as her eyes. July 2004
I love this smile! Nov. 2004 so she had just turned 5. Why does that seem like so long ago?
Molly at Ocean City in August 2006.

Brenna's nursery school "graduation" - she's four and Molly had just turned 2.

Brenna's first snow day

The Tooth Fairy Came!

Miss Molly is sporting another hole in her head. Missing tooth #3 brought more gold coins from the Tooth Fairy (did you know there are different fairies and they have names? Brenna's Tooth Fairy is Pearl and Molly's is Flossie) and our traditional spaghetti dinner when someone loses a tooth. You have to test out the new space with spaghetti don't you know!

And so did the Girl Scout Cookies!

There are still a dozen boxes of cookies in my living room even after delivering quite a few yesterday. It's a good thing they are all spoken for because we have no willpower!

Five More Friday Favorites

We are home today on our first (but hopefully not last - although it's nearly March!) snow day so I re-thought the pictures I was going to post and found some nice beach/pool ones instead!

This was hard because I have a ton of fun ones of my little beach bunnies and I still can't get my scanner working to get some of the earlier ones of Brenna onto my computer.

Oh well - I hope you enjoy these ones at least!

This is Brenna age 3 1/2 and Molly age 1 (this was actually the day before her birthday)

in 2003 during a trip to Daytona Beach

Brenna and Molly practically looking like Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar models

during the summer of 2005 at the neighborhood pool!

Is Molly's expression and pose not hilarious? And it was totally candid!

Brenna age almost 7 during a trip to Ocean City MD. She's a beach girl for sure.

Everyone's a Comedian!

I was making dinner tonight and I had the oven on as well as 3 stove burners with things boiling away. Evidently the combined steam affected the smoke detector (because I swear nothing was burning!) and it buzzed a few times but then stopped. I finished serving up the plates and called the girls to come downstairs. I could hear them whispering and then they both came crawling into the kitchen. Not even thinking I told them to get up and sit at the table. Molly was the one who blurted out "But Mom, we heard the alarm and thought should crawl to stay underneath the smoke!"

Hardy har har. And I swear there was NO smoke!! :)

Today's Favorite Five!

My little dancer. Brenna in 2003.

Molly on Valentine's Day in 2005. I like her hair shorter.
An old scrapbook page from Brenna in 2001. I have to plug in my new scanner and get more older pictures of her. She came along before my digital camera!

This helps me remember that it is

never,

ever,

EVER

a good idea to give a baby red Jello.
Unless she is needed as a stunt double in a horror flick!

This is from Brenna's nursery school field trip to the grocery store.

How funny are those two sets of eyes peering over the cookie display?

My Valentines Wearing *gasp* Jeans!!

You have to understand that when you wear a uniform to school every day, having a chance to wear something else is a big treat. But even on out-of-uniform days the kids are not allowed to wear jeans.

Well today was not only Valentines Day with all the parties and treats, it was also the much hyped "Denim Day" at school. The Student Council had signs up all week announcing "Thursday is Denim Day! Wear the Forbidden Fabric!!" It was a riot how excited they were and they even got all of the faculty in on it.

At the end of the day they also announced that Brenna's class had collected the most Box Tops for the contest the grades were having. Gr. 3's prize would be a Dress Up Day sometime later in the month. That was big news too - even if they won't be able to wear jeans!

Weekend Warriors

We had a busy weekend trying to fit in our activities and still relax a bit. On Friday night Brenna had her best friend come to stay over while Molly went to their house (conveniently she's best friends with Brenna's BFF's little sister!) for a "half sleepover". She stayed until 9pm and came home to sleep. We didn't let Brenna start doing sleepovers until she was 7 so Molly has to wait a bit too. Sophia had to leave Sat. for a basketball game and Molly had her own basketball clinic so Brenna and I cleaned up a bit and headed to the skating rink. Dean and Molly joined us and both girls finished their final skating class and tested into the next level so there were smiles all around.

Sunday was Scout Sunday at our church and Brenna was excited for that. She sang with the choir and brought the wine to the altar in the offertory procession. She's so serious in her scout uniform! After that we ran home to change and headed out again - this time downtown to the National Theatre to see the touring stage show of High School Musical. One of the moms from school got a whole group together and we had amazing seats. There were at least 35 girls from grades 3-5 plus all of their moms so we took up a fair part of the theatre. It's so nice to have such a warm and welcoming school community that we can do things like this with and really feel like we're part of such a great group of friends - both for Brenna and for me! The show was fun and everyone came out dancing and bopping around so I'll call the whole outing a success. In the meantime, Molly (who didn't come on this "Gr. 3 field trip") and Daddy joined her aforementioned BFF (conveniently the dads get along just as well as the girls and the moms - could this be any more ideal??) at a paint-your-own pottery place. Dean said something about an up-ended tray of paint and some drama that resulted in a woman glaring at them as if they were inept dads who needed to be reported to Social Services but all seemed to end well and I know Molly at least insists it was great and will have Dean back there soon.

So there wasn't much rest - but then again, there never is!

Five More Friday Favorites

Molly has a cold this week so I thought I'd post this one from April 03. She had croup and this was also the day we discovered she was allergic to asparagus and broke out all over her face. Is this not the most pitiful thing you've ever seen?

I love that fluffy hair! Molly's about 9 mos. old here.

Their personalities really come out in some photos! July 2005

Pensive Brenna. I'm guessing she's about a year old here.

"Yeah whatever." says Molly. Feb. 03

Mardi Gras!

We celebrated Mardi Gras in style with a pancake supper at our church tonight.

The girls were happy to enjoy dinner with their friends and I was happy to not have to cook!

Of course now the whole school smells like syrup becasue not only were there pancakes tonight but the kids had French toast for lunch today!

Say What?

Molly sometimes has the funniest expressions for things. Usually it's things she's heard before but can't quite remember. For example, no matter how many times I correct her she insists on caling earlobes "earbubbles." I can't explain it, she just does. Every single time.

Earlier this evening she was complaining that she bumped her knee while ice skating and now her "knee knuckle" hurts. When I clarified that she meant her kneecap she said "No, that would be the part on top. I mean the part inside that bends - the knee knuckle."

Okay then! Sadly enough, it does make perfect sense if you think about it . . .

Phew- Friday!

It's been a long but fun week at school. Actually today was a planned half day that was modified futher by a 2 hour delayed opening due to icy conditions in the morning. Frankly we all needed the short day! The girls are tired but happy after a raucous Student Appreciation Day. Students dressed in sport attire and the Student Council organized an obstacle course in the gym that each class participated in.

The kids were divided into red and white teams (our school colors) and had a ball competing.

Then even with today's short day we still had closing Mass and then Brenna's scout troop was off to Dominos for a pizza-making field trip, I had a faculty luncheon and Molly had lunch with Grandma. After all that we quickly changed clothes and headed back to school for a special basketball game (A team of DC priests and seminarians vs. a team of our school's dads and a few 8th graders) We won!! Molly kept yelling to our team "Hey guys! Get your head in the game!" High School Musical junkie she is. Then it was off to the Parish Hall for pizza and ice cream. It was a long day and although we really enjoyed it, we're ready for the weekend!

Five Friday Favorites

Happy Mardi Gras! 2006

All my chatter about dance costumes leads me to post this one -

Brenna's first dance recital June 2004 - age 4

Molly looking so impossibly tiny! April 2002 when she was only 5 days old.

One from the days when that elephant was pink and fluffy! August 2006

Ever the princess! Halloween 2003 age 4

Penguins - Take 2

Molly's class is knee deep in a unit on penguins. She's become a mini-expert on things like brood hoods, rookeries, creches, and all species of these little black and white creatures! Today they were having a penguin party to celebrate their class' adoption of a real penguin. (Of course the near hysteria that news brought on was completely dashed when they discovered that their new pet would not be coming to live in the classroom! Mind you the poor thing is about to be named Barbie, Hannah Montana or R2D2 so perhaps the little thing wouldn't exactly enjoy it's time with these darling 5 year olds anyway!) Anyway, I was drafted to make penguin cupcakes that we made last year for Molly's birthday. So after a quick trip to the grocery store, I made the girls my kitchen helpers and we whipped up the perfect treat for the Kindergarten darlings . . .

The Golden Pen

Only Brenna can make anything a milestone! At her school the 3rd graders can start using pen for their school work this semester but only after the teacher personally gives them the okay. Her teacher decided to make it and earned privilege and will award 5 pens per week to students who prove themselves worthy by doing neat work. I don't know how my eraser queen did it but she managed to snag one of the coveted pens ery first week and is now on cloud nine.

She's also been asking if earning her pen merits a dinner at McDonald's as a reward. At this rate she'll want a car if she makes Honor Roll next year!

Open House

It's Catholic Schools Week and we are running around crazy at school with special activities and such every day throughout the week. Today was Open House and I was able to pop my head in quickly to see the girls. Conventiently though I was tasked with taking some candid photos so I snapped a few of my own kids in their classrooms. Too bad they didn't come out so hot - neither wanted to be photographed! I just like having a few pictures that show them in normal evryday activity at least.

Grave Injustice

Today was costume ordering day at dance class. The dance teacher was showing all of the parents the music they'll be dancing to and the costumes she's chosen for the recital theme "Seasons".

Both girls have cute costumes - Molly's will be a pretty blue with white fur at the neckline, wristbands and headpiece. (That costume also came in red and even though all the adults wanted red, the girls picked blue and who's about to argue with 16 5-year-olds!!) She'll be dancing to Winter Wonderland for ballet and Jingle Bells for tap. Jingle Bells has a Rockette-like kickline that they'll be doing that will either be totally adorable if they pull it off or hysterically funny if they don't!

Brenna's costume will be deep pink and looks like a sort of old fashioned bathing suit and/or a funky swing top and bike shorts depending on how you look at it. That works well because she's dancing tap to "We've Got the Party" by Hannah Montana and "Fabulous" from High School Musical for jazz. That just about put poor Molly over the edge though that Brenna "gets to do two cool songs! Isn't one enough for them?" I told her that she had to wait until she gets older for the dance teacher to pick "cool" songs. I guess it's just hard to be a younger sibling and know about popular things and not be able to participate.

Pilgrimmage

Brenna's Girl Scout troop took a trip to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception today as pilgrimmage celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Blessed Mother's appearances at Lourdes. The Shrine is one of the 10 largest churches in the world and the largest in the Northern hemisphere. In addition to the Great Upper Church and the lower level Crypt Church, there are more than 70 chapels and oratories. While we were visiting we saw dozens and dozens of priests gathered to celebrate Mass together as Archbishop Broglio was formally installed today. Quite an impressive sight! The girls were wonderful, the tour was amazing (one of our parents arranged it with a friend of hers who did a great job with the girls) and we ran into one of the deacons who served in our parish over the summer. Actually our pastor concelebrated the installation but we couldn't see him in the crowd of priests. Personally my favorite piece is the Christ in Majesty mosaic at the rear in the north apse. It is absolutely stunning and simply enormous. The face alone is over 7' across! Brenna really enjoyed it and all of the girls left with new rosary beads blessed right there. Here are few photos - I could post a million though. Beautiful place.

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.