Will I survive?

Today I woke up with a headache and was happy I made a spinach smoothie the day before. I had some leftover, so I put the blender in the fridge. Little shaking and wah-la... breakfast! I was laying on the couch with my eyes closed and tasted something spikey. The smoothie was peach, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, etc. So I thought it was a berry stem and pulled it out of my mouth and went right on drinking. I opened my eyes and saw I was holding a dead fly. My dramatic side took over and I told George I was going to puke and die and all sorts of other things. He went in the other room and I said to Lucy, "Do you think I'll survive?!?" And very solumnly, she shook her head, "no." I snapped out of it and assured her that I would. But still it leaves me cringing. Nastiness!

Surprise!

Last weekend was definitely a memorable one. I planned a little surprise to visit my sister in Kansas before it was harder to make the little trip. Amazingly, none of us gave it away (whew!). Mark and Lacey pulled up to the airport terminal and she kept staring and staring and staring... then finally jumped out of the car when she was sure it was me. Great fun! Lacey's write up about the whole weekend is a great sum-up, but I thought I'd post a few pics to help me remember (as if I could forget :) what a great time we had.

The KC Royals stadium.

The Kansas City game was the decoy and it worked so well that we thought we'd actually go to the game. The stadium was so cool and the game was fun too.

Lacey and I at Liberty Jail

we visited while waiting for my mom to come in (although Lacey didn't know the reason :)

One "given" activity when the girls get together is a FULL day of shopping. Notice the treats mixed in with all the shopping bags. Something had to keep us going. :) My mom bought us matching shoes and then we bought enough stuff to worry about how we were going to jam it in our carry-on bags. Its tradition.

A memorable "touristy" thing we did was stop at the Wizard of Oz museum. Follow the yellow brick road! And I wish I could... right back to Kansas again! Thanks for the wonderful vacation, ladies!

Double the age, double the parties, double the fun!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!

I think every mother says, "where did the time go?" when each child's birthday comes along. I know I always feel that way!

We celebrated the way we have for a few years... party during Thursday playgroup and a family party later. I had to wake Elise up to join in on the playgroup party and she was completely stone face as the kids sang to her.

What a great group of buddies! We will certainly miss all of you!

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I was gone (more on this later) on Elise's actual birthday, so we didn't do our family party until Wednesday.

George and Lucy made a great lemon "E" cake while I was gone. However, I promised we could make cat cupcakes before I left. Since we already had a fabulous cake, I bought store sugar cookies (what kid doesn't love those?!?) and we decorated them. This was a family event and I must say, even the best attempts from the adults didn't look a lot like cats. The close up is of Elise's self decorated cookie. I think the theme of the decorating changed to "eat four time as much as you put on the cookies" and Austin and Elise tied for the prize.

Then we opened presents (thank you kind grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends).

Then it was cake and ice cream time! Delicious!!!

More good buddies (all Brycewood neighbors) that we will miss!

Austin's favorite activity was polishing off every cup/plate that was left. Just worked himself from plate to plate, using whatever spoon was in there.

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Every time we celebrate Elise's birthday, I am reminded of the love of her birth family who allowed Elise to join our family. We just don't know how we'd live without her. She brings so much joy to our lives.

A few Elise facts:

favorite phrase: "I do it, too." She is very independent. As any parent of a toddler, sometimes I am proud of this little fireball. And sometimes it drives me crazy (since putting on her own shoes, buckling her carseat, etc. now takes triple the time).

At one time we were worried about her talking skills, but it was kind of similar to walking. Once she figured out she could do it, she went crazy! We can't understand all of her words but she loves to repeat whatever we say. She offers sweet prayers with a little help (Lucy loves to be the helper). She also knows how to say "sorry, mama" really well. What does that tell you?

Elise is a fast runner and a great climber. She can form tackle Austin, even though she is smaller. She will tell him she is sorry and try to pull him up by the head. The whole scene is quite comical.

She doesn't like her picture to be taken. It is a rare thing if I can get her to look at the camera.

She's improved in eating and is now above the 5th percentile. She likes to brush her teeth.

She loves her baby doll (in the purple PJ's) and kitty cats. She likes Cinderella. One of her very favorite things to do is brush my hair.

Thanks to Lucy, she is now particular about which bowl she has (likes pink), which dolls (see above), which coloring books, which clothing, etc. Let the battles begin.

I love it when she puts her head on my shoulder. She kind of goes limp. Elise tends to fall a lot since she is so adventuresome. She is really tough. However, sometimes she'll cry and point to the area she wants to be kissed. After the kiss, she is immediately fine.

We sure love our sweet Elise!

Happy birthday, cutie!

A Poodle from Paris

Lu had her 2nd dance recital of the year on Friday. She had a winter recital in January and then we took a three month sanity break and started up again in April. Again, she had a wonderful time and especially loved getting ready.

Even though it was only a five month span between recitals, there was a big difference in how Elise reacted to the whole thing. She had to be a part of all the action including makeup and tutu.

Lucy told me she liked this recital better because "my lips are brighter red and they'll look better on stage."

Each class performed their dance twice. Lucy did a great job and concentrated very hard on doing each step. We were proud of her. I was given strict instructions to "film the WHOLE thing because Aunt Lacey told me she wants to watch ALL of it." So, here you go, aunt Lacey. Lu is the dancer on the far left. :)

For those of you with a shorter than 2 1/2 min attention span for 4 year old dancing :) , here are my two favorite parts:

And the most amazing part of all of it is that she did that well with her shoes on the wrong feet. Oops!

Great job, Lucy!

Lu's end-of-year school program

We attended Lucy's school Open House on Friday. It was crowded and crazy with video cameras and the craning necks and bodies (one of which was mine) trying to get a great shot. But we had a good time and enjoyed watching Lu on stage. The school did one thing that was cool. We started off with a slideshow of some highlights of the year, voting of new board members and other business stuff. Then the parents from the older 4 year old classes ate refreshments outside while the parents of the younger classes watched their children perform and then we switched. So, you didn't have to sit through a really long program and got to actually see your child do their performance. Cool.

Lucy was really excited for this day. But parts she was most excited about were 1. going to school at night and 2. entering through a "secret door" that she had never been through to get up to the stage. She talked about the "secret door" all week.

I think the thing that is most fun about these programs is seeing your child so happy and proud of what they are doing. Even if its waving a green ribbon. Lu had a great time and the rest of the family did too.

This and that

Here's some random stuff that has been filling up our time lately.

Trips to the park
Whenever Austin hears his name called in a less-than-friendly manner, he makes this grumpy face. I can't help but laugh my head off.

"Muffins for Mom" at Lucy's school

Music class. "Then the little fish got so very, very tired..."

We will miss going to music class every week. In case you are wondering, Elise goes too. She just prefers to hold on to my leg continually during class, then do the singing and actions at home. Therefore, she is not in the picture. Austin is starting to really get into it and I love it. He loves to march around with his instrument and tries to follow the big kids when we do action songs.

This is Cotton, the class "pet." We took her home for a couple days and Lu wrote about what we did with her (which was basically feeding it "meals", giving it a "bath" and putting bows in its hair) on a little scrapbook page. It was probably Lucy's favorite two days of the whole year.

Free play at the Landa library... "If you give a moose a muffin"

Playing in the water at the zoo. The favorite animal seen was a rolly-polly.

Austin kind of freaked at the cold water, but loved laying in the dirt. Notice a pattern here?

Young Women learning how to make sushi at Kaori's (and I learned too... yum!)

Playing Store

To get Lucy more excited about putting the groceries away for me, I told her we were going to play "store." She agreed, but only if we could find her an apron close to the one Uncle Benji used to wear when he worked at the store. The idea worked great. It was fun and a good exercise in sorting, plus helped me out. Double bonus!

The next day I found the toddlers (sad... they don't seem like babies anymore) in the pantry. This is nothing new. It is a daily occurrence. You'd think I would be more diligent about shutting the pantry door because the one time I leave it open, the place is trashed. This time, Elise found a ramen noodles box and stood on top to unload all the cans into the recycling bin. In the past, its only been the bottom shelf. Austin thought it was the coolest thing and was so proud. When I asked what they were doing, Elise promptly said, "store!"

worthy of the Joy

Mother's day was a good day.

The morning had the normal busyness of a Sunday morning, plus a bit more than the normal scrambling around to get everyone ready and fed... George was speaking in church and I was giving a lesson to my young women. But it started differently... with Geo and Lucy coming into my bedroom with a tray of breakfast. Lucy was so excited she couldn't contain herself. They left me to read and eat, but Lucy and Elise came back moments later to snuggle with me and drink the orange juice (and nearly spill syrup all over the sheets... twice... and then I was smart enough to move the tray). And Elise said, "Mommy, I-a brush-a your hair?" (one of her favorite things to do) and "You okay?" as she tore through it with the pick. Its those times when you remember the joy of all the little things of motherhood and realize how fast these little children grow.

Looking a little better- except Elise was ticked because her shoe was in the van and she wanted it put on her foot immediately

Tonight I finished reading the book "Little Women". Although I know the story well, this is the first time I've read the book. Side note: Does anyone remember the anime version of Little Women? I loved it as a girl, but had to look pretty hard to find it to show to Lucy. I thought this would help her be excited about the story so she knew why it was so necessary to lock myself in the bathroom occasionally. :) The plan kind of worked. She loved the movie and asked me lots of questions when she caught me reading but still wasn't thrilled when I listened to the CD version while doing dishes...partial success. ANYWAY... I think Louisa May Alcott is so insightful as to her comments about human nature and especially the natural gifts of women. Gifts and talents are celebrated and encouraged to grow, but the joy, love, and contentment of family are championed at the same time. She works us through the trials of normal family life. Its been a great read! I've had a hard time putting it down. Last week I read some words by Marmee to Meg and Joy and have given them a lot of thought. Marmee is telling them of her apspirations for their futures and she says,

"I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, loved, and respected; to have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send. To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience. It is natural to think of it, Meg, right to hope and wait for it, and wise to prepare for it, so that when the happy time comes, you may feel ready for the duties and worthy of the joy."

I loved that line and that thought... being "worthy of the joy" of family. And I thought a lot about Marmee's wishes for her girls and how I wish the same for mine. Although it was not intentional, reading Little Women has been great timing for a "Mother's day" read. Marmee's solid advice and counsel is woven artfully throughout the book. Her role in her girls' lives is evident and their choices are often made with "what would mother think?" in mind. How great is the influence of mother! Thanks mom... for everything!

P.S. I thought George did a great job on his talk. Liz, you would have been proud of your son. He loves you dearly.