Thursday, October 27, 2011

Meet Abby Cadabby!

Lexi had a fun day at school today.  They played carnival games, had pizza for lunch, AND had a Halloween Costume Parade.  I was able to leave work to watch the parade.  It was fun to see her and this year she even smiled for me!

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And when we came home, she played and played.  After using some of her treats from school to “decorate” in the kitchen.  She needed some “friends” to view her decorating.  After that the sillies just kept coming! (and to think most of this stuff is in her bed every night!)

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Pretty Dress vs. Panties

Geoff came home last night and brought Lexi a bag from Baby Gap.  She went from totally excited to NOT in like 5 seconds.  See he brought her panties and she wanted a pretty dress.  She scolded him and told him not to bring her panties anymore.

In fact, she was so bummed out by it she brought it up again today and told me that she didn’t like those panties and that I should buy her Ariel panties because she would like them. So later Aunt Carolyn came by with another pretty dress from Cutie Patootie.  Lexi had to go into the whole panty story all over again with Carolyn. 

I think Daddy is going to have to redeem himself with either a pretty dress or Ariel panties one day real soon!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hiding Stuff from Sable

On Tuesday, Miss Cheryl gave all the girls a treat bag that had a bunch of lollipops in it.  Well, when Lexi wasn’t looking, Sable got one and took off! Lexi started hollering for me to come and was just so upset that Sable had a lollipop.  When I got near her, she hunkered down like she was eating a steak (paper and all).  I told Lexi to let her have it and she just cried because she wanted to eat it.  So she got mad and decided to HIDE the rest of her candy.  After she went to bed, we laughed at her hiding method.

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That was quite a lot to do just to hide candy from the dog!  And of course, she never even asked about it after we put everything away when she went to bed.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ballerina of the Day

Guess who got a certificate today for being the “Ballerina” of the day??  Yep, you got it!  Our little Lj led the line out of class today with a proud certificate in her hand!  I was so proud even though I know that they give them out evenly.  She doesn’t know that!  Plus, I watched our little ballerina today through the one way glass and marveled again at how well she is doing.  I should say I “hogged” the window!  I figure that I as probably the oldest Mom in the building should get some perks!  LOL!

Lexi was disappointed once again that she did not have her very own tap shoes that she can get out of her bag.  (We ordered them now a month ago! And Lj does not understand WHY she does not have her own tap shoes like all the other girls.)  Who knows they may have been here today but Mrs. Cheryl’s daughter had a baby today so she was out. 

I had to take some pictures of Lexi with her certificate.  This weekend, she will have her first public debut!  We will be posting how she does.  Sometimes it takes her a bit to warm up so we have no clue how she will do!  Not to mention that the dance they are doing is a “witch” dance and she does not like witches!  And that she will have to wear a witch hat AND black tights!  Two uncomfortable things may just be too much!

Anyhow… here is our little ballerina!

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I so love watching her grow and learn but at the same time just want to slow her down! 

One more story and then I’m done.  Last week when I picked Lexi up from her dance lesson, her teacher walked out and came up to me and said that she wanted me to know how proud she was of Lexi.  She said that that particular day at dance, the girls were not listening and that she had to raise her voice a lot.  She made sure that I knew that she did not have to raise her voice at Lexi.  She so far as to say that Lexi was doing awesome and that she tried her best, listened the first time spoken to and that she clearly wanted to do well.  I jokingly told her that I wished she would do the same at home!  She then proceeded to tell me that it was student’s like Lexi that made her continue to want to teach dance.  I was so proud!  I so hope that she continues to do so well and that she does indeed to always strive to do her best! 

We know she is amazing but it is extra special to hear it from complete strangers!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Lexi says this is how to make an Owl Smore…

Tomorrow is Lexi’s day to bring snack.  She pretty much had her hands in every step of the way so watch out future Chefs… Lexi may well be a force to deal with!

First, you break graham crackers in half.  Then you squeeze marshmallow in half to make the “eyes” of the owl.  (Just please ignore the fact that she is about 3 weeks late for her haircut!)

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Then you take some Wilton yellow wafers and shave the point off with a knife… (Lexi had to do this too, only she asked for a kid’s knife so that she would not cut her fingers).

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I was then able to put them in oven on the low broil heat just long enough to melt and fluff the marshmallows. Then we carefully, put the candy corn beaks in place along with the M&M eyes in place.

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And the finished bunch…

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And of course, she had to help with the packaging of the finished to bring to school. (not great photos for some crazy reason) The toppers were made by Melissa… Lexi’s extra special Mommy’s friend.  What really surprised me here was that as I cut the toppers out and began to fold them in half, Lexi insisted on helping and much to my surprise, she could fold in half just as well as me! 

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And here they are… our basket of school treats for the month of October.  One to bring home and one to eat at school.

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So… what shall we do next month??

And by the way… the idea came from one of my favorite sites Living Lucurto.  We’ve just been waiting for October!  I love doing these kinds of “cooking” activities with Lj.  She loves it and we get great Mommy-Daughter time together. It’s so much fun!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

She’s got Style… Lj Style!

 

Lexi picked out her own outfit this weekend.  We actually went to WalMart like this with her wearing her pink boots!  I have to say though the pink boots at least matched the bow on her ghosts head! After we came home we did some crafting in the kitchen.  Needless to say anything done in the kitchen with Lexi is very entertaining!

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Oh, and while we were at Wal Mart, she got a new baby.  She’s finally showing some interest in her dolls and stuffed animals.

And here’s our little finished project.  I was inspired by How Does She.com.  I can’t  wait to make some more for the holidays.  I think I will be making some of these to sale at Lexi’s preschool Bazaar.  Team Brandon is going to do a fund raising booth and I think these will be fun to make.  I think I’ll do some as cookie pop holders and make some cookies to display.  I’ve been wanting to try some new things so here we go!!

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

I missed my calling…

Once upon a time, my Mother wanted me to go into the Medical field.  I told her I just could not stomach the yucky stuff and never even considered it even when she said I could be an X-ray technician.   Little did I know that teaching also comes with “Yucky stuff” and for that matter so does Motherhood!  Heck!  Sometimes I can’t even stomach the cats and dogs! 

However, over the years anytime anything comes up with any of us, I make my very unprofessional diagnosis of the issue and make very good diagnosis! YES!  Geoff has bronchitis.  He was still sick this morning and stayed home and on his OWN violation made a Dr. appt.  Seriously, I do not take any pleasure in being right and I pray that Lj does not get sick next.  I see Geoff going through what I did last weekend and just feel so bad for him.  I hope his meds kick in soon!

On another note, once I got home tonight I began to fix dinner and “play” with my next idea for Lexi’s snack next week.  I got the idea here and have been anxiously awaiting making this month’s treat. Well, after buying the necessary ingredients, I tried one… then two… and so on and so on!!! Now I just implore anyone who has made these adorable little Smore Owls to share with me HOW you managed to get the doggone marshmallow eyes to MATCH!  Every one I tried ended up with one BIG eye and one LITTLE eye!  It must be possible since the site with the recipe has such a perfect cookie!  And no… I’m not likely to be pleased with a crazy two – sized eye Owl.  Owls are cute… adorable and I want this snack to work! 

As I finish this post, I hear Lj coughing in her room…. Gracious,”Lord Jesus keep her well!” 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Prima Ballerina!

Ah, sickness has invaded our home but thankfully it has only attacked Geoff and me.  After being “down” since last Wednesday with muscle spasms and then bronchitis I am back to feeling better.  I can’t say the same for Geoff and can’t be sure that I didn’t give him something. 

I was home yesterday and did take Lj to her dance class.  She was awesome as usual and is learning so quickly!  It makes a Mama proud!  This morning, Lj wore an outfit we bought at Carter’s with boots from Old Navy to match.  I just love dressing her in quirky cute clothes! I’d make another scrapbook page if only I could remember some of the key strokes that I need to know … (Melissa… time for some re-teaching!!)

So here are some picts I took this afternoon as we returned home to find two of the last three Butterflys that needed to be turned loose to fly to Mexico!

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She is always so concerned if they are boys or girls.  Today, we had a boy and a girl!

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There is a butterfly in this picture but she turned away… as usual!

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She’s alright as long as they don’t touch her skin anywhere other than her hand! She didn’t like this butterfly lovin’ at all!

Next thing to do was go play on the Little Tykes!

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She’s certainly a tough little thing!  It’s amazing how much she has grown!  In this picture she is wearing a mixture of sizes!  The top is size 4 (which is for now a bit big but by the end of winter will probably be just right!.  The skirt is still a 2T but she can now wear size 3 leggins!  The boots… size 8!)  It  just seems that each season she gains much more and by the time she hits four maybe she will actually wear a size four for the most part!  If only we could just slow…. and I mean ssssslllooww…. down…  her growing up!  And Yes!  It’s time for a haircut!

Butterflies… are free… to fly…. Fly Away!!!

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Here are a few pictures taken while we released butterflies over the last month.  At home we are up to over 160!  Today when we came home, we had two unexpected little new butterflies that hatched.  One was a boy and the other a girl.  I was so tempted to keep them and just see if I could successfully breed and raise some.  But considering how hard it is to grow milkweed in the winter, I decided it was best to let them go.  We have ONE little lost caterpillar that is just today making its chrysalis so we have just one… one little butterfly to look forward to.  It’s been fun and it’s just too cool to hear my little one actually say things like, “Mommy, it’s a chrysalis!”.  That’s just too cool!

P.S. Yea, this post is me trying to use PhotoShop again for the first time in like FOREVER! 

And yes, every single time we release a butterfly, I think of the journey it has ahead to migrate to Mexico and just think how nice it would to go visit the Monarch sanctuary with it!  Maybe one day, our family will actually go to witness this miracle of nature together.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Dancing Princess!

Today was Lexi’s second dancing lesson.  She started last Tuesday but low and behold I brought a camera without SD card!  So today I made sure to bring a camera.  I didn’t get the greatest photos but no worries… our little princess is just awesome!  Last week, she was not prepared for what she was about to do.  We had talked about taking her to Disney on Ice and she thought that was what we were doing. Today however, she knew exactly what to expect and was sooooooo ready! I stood behind the one-way window and watched her dance in total amazement! She has pretty much picked up everything overnight!  Most of these girls have been coming to dance since August.  Needless to say… this MAMA thinks her little dancing princess is just sooooo talented!

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We had to order tap shoes so these are loaners.  Lexi want’s some so bad that she put them in her bag.  I think she just thought they were hers since she has worn them two weeks in a row now.  Last week she “fussed” at me for not having a “dance bag” with her shoes in it like all the other girls.  I got the bag this week, but we still have to wait for the tap shoes to come in.  This week she was so proud of herself and talked about how she was not being shy today.  I for one was a very proud Mommy!