Emma's First Day

 

Well, Miss Emma.

Today was your day and you were sooo excited.

You didn't make us work to get you ready. You listened and were eager to get dressed, put on your new shoes and wore your backpack all around the house half hour prior to leaving for school.

 

Emma is going only 2 days a week and has Mrs. RedBow (Lily's 2yr old teacher) and Mrs. Super. They are both wonderful and Emma loves them especially Mrs. Super. She is definitely a teacher that does not hesitate to pick Miss Emma up to give her hugs. She talks with her and makes her feel very important and safe. Thank goodness!

 

 

 

Emma took her cat, Pinka, to school today (along with a baby, hairbrush and little Dora doll in her backpack she snuck in without us noticing). We stayed a bit to make sure she was ok this morning and she waved, blew us kisses and smiled as we left. She didn't cry at all, reports were all good until 10 minutes before they left the room to come to the awaiting parents down the hall. She had met her limit and wanted us, but she made it. She kept saying, "RedBow said, 'We'll read a book and then go see Mommy and Daddy'" to make sure we understood their day.

 

Since coming home after school she has wanted to play school. "Pretend school, Mommy". She wanted to take me to pretend school, drop me off and she would leave saying, "I'll be back in a little bit, you'll be ok Mommy." And, two seconds later would return and say, "I'm back, Mommy!".

 

Our baby girl did good! She received flowers from Daddy, a special baby she named Chloe and a little art desk so that she won't steal Lily's art stuff. She definitely deserves it!

 

And, if you're interested here's what Emma's day looks like:

 



 

8:55-9:15  Arrival Time/ Table Toys

9:15-9:30  Library on Mon and Chapel on Wed

9:30-9:50  Creative Play

9:50-10:00 Clean-up and prepare for outdoor play

10- 10:30  Outdoor Play

10:30- 10:45 Washing hands, potty and diapering

10:45-11:10 Snack

11:10- 11:40 Art Activity and Center Time

11:40- 11:50 Clean-up

11:50-12:00 Story and Good-Bye Song

12-12:05 Backpacks, Coats and Stickers

12:05 Dismissal

 

On Wed: 9:35-10 Music

 

Yes, as Mike and did house projects we had this schedule on the kitchen table to know what our baby was doing. The three hours were easier than I thought they would be and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my 6 hrs a week without kiddos but I'll definitely be fine.

 



Lily's First Day

 

I can not believe that this is her last year of preschool!

Where has the time gone? Why does it go so quickly?

Looking back to the past couple of first days I can see how grown up our girl really is...

2 yr old, take one, 2 yr old take two, 3yr old class

 

 

 

She was a bit nervous but only due to having new teachers, Mrs. Dailey and Mrs. Tietjen. She knows every single child in her class which makes it easy to walk in on the first day but still doesn't get rid of those butterflies. I still get the butterflies for my girls on the first day :) Just one of those things.

 

She was really tired when we picked her up as well. So glad that she is going 4 days to prepare for next year, she definitely needs to build up her stamina :). Daddy gave her flowers, a first day tradition he started back in Sept of 2010 and is always a big hit. She also received a mini art studio which has been wonderful for our girl to occupy her during Emma's naps.

 

Here's to a wonderful year!!

Labor Day Weekend

 

Our weekend started at the beach with the most fabulous day.

The largest dolphin pod hung around for a bit too!

 

And, our weekend ended with a "Surprise" day for the girls.

Everything we did was a surprise :)

1. We saw Brave. Love this movie! 

(for the second time. This time at Cinema Cafe and Emma didn't fall asleep)

2. Lunch at Z pizza

3. Dessert at Skinny Dip.

 

Love Family Surprise Days!

Stickers!!!

 

Yep, a sticker chart that Emma loves.

I'm really thankful this is working.

 

We are decreasing Emma's Binky time.

 

She was doing great without it during the day and only using it at night and naps but then she got sick. And, since then she's been pretty attached to it and I haven't had it in me to pull it away. So now we do the stickers. She earned a little present pretty quickly and we are working on filling up a much bigger chart now and really hoping that's all it takes.

 

Sweet girl Miss Emma. Oh, she chose a small Doc McStuffins doll :)

 

 

School Orientation

 

Well, this morning we had two preschool orientations!

Yep, TWO!

 

Next week Lily and Emma will begin school.

Lily will go four days and Emma two days.

 

Praying that these smiles continue!

Summer Summary

Well, remember this post?

 

We have been crossing things off slowly but surely.

 

We made Moon Sand.

Our Summer Rock Collection.

We collected rocks from all of our adventures and the girls painted them.

We then wrote the date and event on them.

We ate rainbows!

Sisters are loving sharing a room.

They are growing, growing, growing and filling up our growth chart :)

We made fun snacks like cereal necklaces.

We made ABC animal posters.

We had fun "buffet" lunches.

The girls looove these. A little bit of a lot of stuff.

We read 100 books!

Lily has her favorites now and most of them are very classic books.

We are very familiar with the hold and renew policies at the library now :)

We painted our sidewalk and driveway.

 

We had great S'mores evenings.

We ate tons of veggies fresh from our garden.

And, we loved watching the planes while

we ate lunch on the hill at the Botanical Gardens.

 

Other things we did were:

Play hopscotch

Caught Fireflies

Watched Fireworks

Met Daddy for lunch at work

We had a Scavenger Hunt

We went camping

We went swimming and to a pool

We went to a new park

We went to the movies

We almost have an entire USA magnet map

We went to a baseball game

We went to Busch Gardens

Harborfest 2012

We went to an outdoor concert

We took a family trip

We went to a Bounce House with Daddy

We ate dinner outside

And, we watched our first sunset as a family

 

Sad that summer is over but we had a great time!

And, it begins...

The stomach flu/virus thing that started with me and three days later hit Lily and then three days later hit Emma. With this thing lasting three or so days a person, it took us awhile to recover. Took up the majority of our August, making the days of needing to be close to the bathroom, the couch or our beds very long.

So, it started Thurs, Aug 16th and lasted until the end of that next week on Aug 24th or so.

So, no pictures.

Luckily, we were all better and ready to do things, fun things and then the rainy weather began.

Boo.

Then because of the rain, the girls got a cold that turned into a cough. A really ugly cough. But, the tell tail signs never showed up...no fever, eating fine, sleeping fine (with delsym of course) so no need to go to the drs. Finally the nose stopped and then a few days later the coughs cleared as well.

Ready for the sickness to be over.

Friend Day

 

A day full of friends and a tour of Hampton Roads.

1. Visit with Shawn and Peg and their boys Evan and TJ in Yorktown.

2. Short visit with Tim, Abby and Nate...love little Nate!

3. Gotta love ending our day with a Monster Truck party :)

Happy 4th Birthday, AJ!

 

And, love finding spare batteries in the car :) at the end of our friend visits.

Happy August!

We had one amazing morning :)

Summer Photos

Coloring

With all of their toys, games and puzzles

they choose to color the majority of the time.

Lily has progressed into controlled coloring and in realistic colors.

Emma is still working on her fine motor skills but is getting a lot better.

Needless to say, Daddy has a special file at work that holds the many, many

coloring pages and drawings they make for him.

BG Afternoon

We woke up this morning happy to have Daddy home and we asked the girls what they would like to do today.  Lily looked at us with her grown-up face and serious voice and said, "I would really like to go to Busch Gardens today. It would be so much fun for all of us, I think".

So, we went.

We did an afternoon/evening trip and it was great!

Lily with her favorite Street friends.

Fun on the Tea Cups.

One of Emma's favorite rides, the Balloons!

First time on this ride and after the "worker" went around securing their seat belts came and found us to tell us that Emma needed one of us with her. So, Mike squeezed in :) And, he was thrilled about it. hahaa...

We went on countless rides, saw shows in the Illuminights show, had dinner, went on a boat ride and had tons of fun in the cooler weather. They got to choose some jelly beans as their special treat...

and we caught the nightly fireworks as we were heading to the parking lot tram.

So much fun.

These girls love Busch Gardens and ask to go constantly :)

Our Week

I'm backdating so much right now...my only clues are pictures. I do know that this week Mike was in MD for three days and it's pretty much a blur. But here are some pics when I remembered to take some.

Blueberry Picking and trips to Target

Teaching Miss Emma to do the dishes :)

Writing stories in her journal.

In between visits from friends, trips to Target, dips in the pool, playing outside and reading books the week went really fast. Why is it August already and why does it feel like summer is over?!?

:( Just a few more weeks left.

Lily

This video was taken a week and a few days after her surgery.

Voice Dec 2011 for comparison :) there are a few more if you want to search for "video".

Ok, so now that it has been a few weeks since Lil's surgery her voice is now the "norm". I even forget how much it has really changed! I forget how loud of a sleeper she was and how really loud she breathed while doing simple things like coloring or doing a puzzle. She no longer sounds like someone is pinching her nose closed or as if a clothespin was on her nose all the time.

We thank God that this issue was solved by a very simple procedure and her quality of life has improved so dramatically.

Love you Lily and you sweet, little voice :)

Six Years

I'm not sure six years ago we treasured our leisurely days on the beach...

2006

2012

...but we're certain our beach days are a lot more fun now!

Bowling with Friends

After a fun birthday party for one of our school friends we got to hang out with the Parkers!

And, we went bowling!

All four kids looooved it!

We had two lanes, one for the kids and one for the adults. And, we all played two games. We made the kids carry their own bowling balls to ensure a nice night's sleep.

The kids did great, they really enjoyed waiting to see how many pins they knocked down. Some of them would kneel down, sometimes we bent over and we always had to jump up and down and clap. So much fun.

Pool Time

We are loving are pool this summer :)

Camping?

These two girls were very chatty but quietly busy.

When we checked on them, we found them stacking a bunch of toys on the sofa.

Why?

Oh, they were going "pretend camping".

And, from the person who had to put everything back...

they got a ton of stuff on that sofa!

Very impressive teamwork girls and

a very interesting view of what camping is :)

Back to Chic's

Finally.

Back at the beach!

With trips, surgeries, rain and extreme heat getting in our way...

we made it back! Woo Hoo.

Monday Evenings

Every Monday evening we take a walk on the beach.

This week, we went to Croatan and I took the camera :)

Love Summertime!