Things that make me smile

The girls' picnic set up, complete with name cards. The menu: water (mostly spilled), carrots and marshmallows. Yum :)

"This is me voting. It is important to vote because if we didn't vote we would have no president. "

PS. I am  so impressed by the phonetic spelling thing now. She did this all on her own. PS Again. Mia voted for Barack Obama because his name starts with "B" and her friend Brennon's name starts with "B" too.

 

I just saw this so I haven't had a chance to ask Mia about it yet, but I'm willing to bet she says Ellie did it. If so, the 2 year old teachers are doing some amazing things :)  I have a feeling a certain 5 year old will be scrubbing some red crayon for homework today.

Happy Halloween!

Fall photos

We try to do a weekend away in the mountains of western Va. every fall. This past weekend we went to Luray and enjoyed the peace and quiet, the scenery and the fall activities. Despite a rainy and cold day hiking along Skyline Drive, we still really loved our trip and this family tradition :)

In other news, Sean is Mia's soccer coach this fall. It is so adorable to see him out there helping 5 yr olds dribble the ball and pass it to each other and do stretching exercises. Mia likes practicing and playing with her teammates, but she doesn't seem too interested in the "games".  She started riding her bike without training wheels a few weeks ago and she says she loves how quiet it is now when she rides. I hope to get video of her soon.

Ellie loves to sing. "We are the Dinosaurs, Marching, Marching",  "Eliza Jane" and "I Know a Chicken" are her favorites lately. If you happen to see her in the near future, ask her to sing for you. The resulting cuteness will make your day, I promise :)

Recent photos below (too many to choose from, so lots and lots of them are included) 
Happy happy fall!

 We have never been apple picking before. It was really very fun!

 View from our cabin!

 I was peacefully enjoying my book when I look up to see this...

 And then this...

 Passed out on the way home.

Kid Art

I love kid art. I have it hanging in every room in my house. I have a hard time throwing it away. I'm one of those moms. But I also have a higher tolerance for clutter than a lot of people, and thankfully Sean doesn't seem to mind. Now that we have 2 in school, I have even more adorable handprint crafts and googly eyed pumpkins to decorate with.  Who needs fine art?  :)

Some of their latest masterpieces...

 Ellie likes to do homework alongside of Mia :)

Playing a duet

Three Weeks in...

Three weeks into the new school year and I'm still feeling like I'm starting school myself. There have already been 2 PTA meetings and multiple requests for volunteers in the classroom and I really want to be involved so I've been busy, but it is good.  Mia had a rough day or two last week when she had an impromptu painting party in the girls bathroom with some other girls (after being sent there to clean the paint off of their hands) which resulted in the janitor finding them laughing and goofing off and a pretty stern reprimand from their teacher. Then Mia decided that there were too many rules in Kindergarten and she didn't want to go back :(  Since then though, she has rallied and they started a new reading program that gives them a lot of independence during the day and she loves it.  Ahhh the ups and downs....

Oh, and I'm starting to have a much greater understanding and appreciation of what Sean's mom went through during his early school years! :)

She has a new friend across the street that is in her class and he is a super smart, quiet and well-behaved kid (at least at school) and she has decided she is going to marry him and I think the feeling is mutual. I'm not sure how I feel about this kind of talk at such a young age but they are very cute together and enjoy playing hide and seek and pirates.

Ellie's school is adorable. She drags me by the hand into her little classroom on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I am so happy that she is so happy there!

We recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary without too much fanfare, but with good friends and good food. Sean got me a box of Altoids because tin is the olden times gift for 10 year anniversaries. I will cherish it always :)

I got a tripod for my birthday and want to experiment with some fall portraits of the girls. Stay tuned...

Happy first day of fall!!

Ellie's first day of school pictures:

Thoughts and unrelated pictures

Mia has been in Kindergarten for a week and she's very happy about it. She seems to love her teacher and is making new friends and I'm mostly breathing a sigh of relief. I still have worries (this is me after all) and I feel like I'm so new to this "formal education" part of our lives and it is so different now from what I remember. Case in point: Phonetic Spelling. Mia has homework (!) asking her to label something by writing the words the way they sound to her. Often she leaves out a vowel, but is close to the correct spelling. She does not like this. She likes to ask me the correct way to spell something before trying to sound it out.  Now I feel like I'm reinforcing the wrong thing, but I'm assuming the teachers know what works best right?

Anyway, Ellie starts tomorrow and I know she will love her little school too. She is very excited about hanging up her backpack and playing with new toys and friends.

Some photos from the past week or two:

 Dancing and gymnastics at outdoor concerts

 One of Ellie's favorite things is puddle splashing

 Our new addition! 1950something Baldwin Acrosonic Spinet Piano. I'm trying to remember some skills and hope the girls will take lessons one day.

 Fun with Ariel wig on a Sunday morning