Whoa!

I did it!  The entries might be a bit hurried and there are moments in the last 6 months that I did not capture here.  But finally FINALLY I am caught up -- just in time before the school year starts this week.

Hair cuts

In June, I finally got the girls a much-deserved hair cut.  Their hair had gotten so long - it was awful.

Catie's hair was almost down to her waist!  We cut off a couple inches and it is still long.  But with the dead-ends gone and some layering, her hair looks SO much better.  I just can't cut it short.  She needs her long locks.

This is after -- Catie is just not a good picture poster!

Carter's hair, poor girl, was borderline embarrassing!  It was so long!

She now has such a pretty should-length cut.

Carter is definitely our "model".  She loves to smile and pose for pictures!

Anakin

Welcome to our family's new pet - Anakin the Beta fish.  We wanted Will to have a little responsibility, so in addition to adding some chores and a $3 allowance each week this summer, we let him pick out a fish.  He wanted a black and white fish so that he could name it Anakin (as in Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars).  So far so good - Anny is still alive!!

Last Day of School!

I cannot say enough about how absolutely pleased Ellis and I were with Will's school.  I know that we made the right choice to send him to this school.  He had some trouble at the beginning --- Will is not the best listener in the world and has a lot of energy built up with him --- but his teachers, Ms. Stafford and Ms. Hayden worked marvelously with him and with us to help him mature and develop. He has learned so many wonderful things.  

Will's at his end-of-the-year party.

The kids giving their teachers a big hug!

The girl with Will is Darby ... let's just say Darby is Will's first girlfriend. They both had a whole lot of hearts and "Will and Darby" drawings in their school journals!  They would get all embarrassed if we dared bring it up --- but Will would probably proclaim "I love Darby" now and then.  :-)  

Will with Ms. Stafford (in green) and Ms. Stafford's assistant, Ms. Hayden.  I can only hope the girls will be luck enough to have Ms. Stafford as their teacher too one day!

Karate - Yellow Belt

After the T-ball debacle with Will when he was 3 (i.e. I signed him up, bought him all the stuff, and after one practice and one game he was so over it and bored out of his mind), I decided to wait until he told us that he wanted to join something.  A karate club near our house had karate after school on Fridays at Will's school, and after Christmas, Will said he really wanted to do karate.  So we signed him up and it has stuck.  We are thrilled with the curriculum and Mike Genova who owns the karate studio -- they teach not only karate but respect, self-defense, the importance of school, and other great lessons.  (You can see the creed in one of the pictures below.)  They encourage parents to watch and involve us when they can.

At the end of the school year, Will had his first belt test and graduated from the beginning white belt to a yellow belt.  

Young Authors' Tea

The big end-of-the-year event for the Kindergarteners at Will's school is the Young Author's Tea right before school is over.  Beginning early in the second half of the school year, they begin to write and illustrate their own book.  They had to design a cover, title page, and write and illustrate 12 pages of their story (one sentence per page).  Then, the children with their parents were divided up in groups of 5-8 or so and each child read their story out loud to the group.  I was really impressed by what the teachers had taught these kindergarteners and really proud of our son!  Will spoke up so well and read his story perfectly.  It was, of course, all about Star Wars and dedicated to his good friend, Sam, who also loves Star Wars.

Sweet Girls

Because Easter was a bust with Catie being sick, I put on their beautiful Easter dresses a little later.  Here I am with my beautiful, sweet baby girls.

Girls' Birthday Party

The girls had their first real birthday party this year at My Gym.  They used to go to the gym every week with Faith, and had not been back in months. They had so much fun with their friends.  Of course, individual Tiana and Ariel cakes were on order per their request.  We sang happy birthday to each of them and let them blow out their candles separately, starting with the oldest...Carter!

Big Girl Beds

The weekend after their birthday, we converted our last little baby room into a big kids room.  Part of me feels a little sad to be getting rid of the last of the cribs in this family.  I kept the girls in their cribs as long as I could.  Lots of folks were surprised I had my 3 year olds in beds but these girls are kind of small and fit just fine in there with no attempts to climb out.  (Catie only recently started to wear 2T clothes late this summer while Carter is just starting to wear 3T.)  I would have just assumed leave them in the cribs until they did, but we were on to potty training, so they needed to get out of the cribs at night.  

Putting the girls in big girls beds has been touch-and-go.  They do not constantly come out of their room over and over like Will did (thank goodness!).  But they did have a tough time adjusting in being quiet and not playing with everything in their room.  For months now, we have had NOTHING in their room - no books, no toys, nothing.  They broke one lamp, started climbing on the nightstand, and wouldn't go to sleep until after 11pm. Its been an adjustment of sticking one of them in the guest room bed by themselves in the dark as a "threat", lots of fussing and re-arranging their room so they can't walk on their nightstand, etc.  

Only recently - as in last week - I started to fill the book shelves with books again and moved the nightstand back between their beds. Hopefully, soon I will be able to really decorate their room and make it super cute.

Last night cuddling with my girls in the rocking chair that I have used to rock all the kids when they were babies and read to them when they were toddlers.  Now, its all about reading and cuddling in big beds!

Catie and Carter's request for bedding is that Catie wanted a pink bed and Carter wanted a purple bed.  Potter Barn had the cutest matching butterfly quilts - one in pink and purple!  It worked perfectly!

The room is pretty much this barren today.  Working on getting it decorated now!  

Easter

The girls birthday was the day before Easter.  It was a cloudy rainy Easter this year and I snapped very few pictures.  The night before, Catie woke up and threw up all in her crib.  We thought perhaps it was not a stomach bug because she was perfectly fine on her birthday, and she seemed fine in the morning.  She enjoyed eating jellybeans and hunting for eggs.  BIG mistake...

I thought we could make it to the Easter service.  My Uncle Tom and Aunt Becky were there with my Dad waiting on us.  I got the girls and Will dressed up all handsomely and prettily, thinking we would take pictures in our Easter outfits at the church...and then, as we were about 2 minutes from the church - Catie puked all over her beautiful dress and Daddy's coat.  The rest of Easter and the next few days looked like this --

Poor Catie got so very very sick.  And yet was so incredibly cute at the same time --

The Girls Turn 3

On March 30th, the girl turned 3 years old!  Somehow, this family completely left the baby/toddler years and entered preschool age and up.  In many ways I am so glad to see our family grow up - so many things become a lot easier.  But I am also a little sad to see the little baby years disappear.  

For their birthday, my Uncle Tom and Aunt Becky visited all the way from Washington State.  It has been such a very very long time since we saw them.  It was wonderful to be able to share the girls' birthday with them.  

The night before, after the girls were asleep, we filled their room up with balloons and streamers hanging from the ceiling.  Then, because Carter was still in love with Princess Tiana and Catie was still in love with the Little Mermaid, I had a banner for each of them in their favorite character in the kitchen.  They got their favorite breakfast - pancakes - with a little candle each.  I think all the decorations (especially the balloons) were a big hit!

Later that day we headed off to the zoo ... poor Grandma was not feeling well so she stayed home.

Then, we headed home for a little party where Grandma was able to join us!  The girls put on their Tiana and Ariel costumes and opened their presents from their family.

These girls are just the sweetest things ever.  I wish I could bottle up their voices and sweet expressions so that I will never forget them!