Birthday conversation with Colin

We're mostly settled, but I still haven't found the time to sit down and do a real blog post.  I just had to put this little video on here, though, because it's so darned cute.  Colin usually clams up when the video camera comes out, but he was in a particularly chatty mood on his birthday and I managed to catch it:

Look at that cute little farmer!

Tiny little farmer?

Nah, that's just Colin, driving the "tractor" (as he called it) at my grandma's farm.  There are lots more pics from our big Midwestern adventure to come, but we're moving.  And that makes me tired.  And perhaps a bit cranky.  And my kids get cranky, too (the nerve!).  All of these things dig into my blogging time.   But I'll get crackin' soon, I promise! 

Day 2.5

As I type this very blog post, our dear sweet Maddie-kins has gone two and a half days without sucking her thumb. This is a very big deal, as she's been sucking her thumb since the beginning of time (for her) and was even BORN with calluses on her thumbs from sucking them in utero! All it took were some Barbie Band-Aids and a marble jar, a promise of ice cream if she got five marbles, and a hint of an American Girl accessory if she was successful for an extended period of time.

This was taken IN the hospital!

She got her fifth marble today and she is most definitely looking forward to her ice cream. To say I was surprised is not an understatement. She has promised to stop before, but always reneged when the going got tough and she needed a "hit". I think the marble jar has motivated her. Woohoo! 

There's our big girl!

As a former thumb-sucker myself, I can say that this is a HUGE accomplishment.  I can distinctly remember ducking under my desk at school in 1st or 2nd grade to get a quick hit from the thumb. No such behavior from Maddie, though.  She seems to have gone the cold turkey route.  We're so proud of her!

This is all particularly good news for her Lily doll. You see, when Maddie sucks her thumb she needs something to do with her other hand. It ends up twirling hair. For a long time she twirled her own hair and had to get periodic hair cuts because the one side would be much longer than the other. We managed to focus her twirling attention onto her dolly instead, which was great for Maddie-hair but not-so-great for Lily-hair. Lily would end up looking quite disheveled.

Medusa?  Nah, just a very well-loved Lily.

Now that she seems pretty motivated to give up the thumb, though, Lily is getting a make-over. I combed out her hair (no easy task) and re-rolled it so it would be pretty again.

 Let's hope for Lily's sake that Maddie is serious about this no-thumb business!  Way to go, Maddie!  We are so proud of our big girl. 

 Lovely new coiffure!

School's out for the summer!

School's out for everyone in the fam' now! Phil and his class graduated last night with a nice ceremony followed by a dinner reception. We knew he had gotten pretty good grades throughout the course, but we were surprised when he was given an award for graduating in the top 10 percent and the "Fogleman Award" for his class.

The kiddos and I were very, VERY proud of him and his hard work over this past year. Nicely done, Phil!

Not a kindergartener

As of today, she's officially NOT a kindergartener anymore. But I refuse to refer to her as a 1st grader because she is still my Claire-baby. And Claire-babies can not possibly be 1st graders who go to school all day long.

Don't worry - I have all summer to get used to the idea.

In the meantime, check out that big girl with her bus stop pals on their last day of school.

Graduation (for Maddie)

Our little Maddie-kins recently had her pre-k graduation. Except she's not really graduating because she'll do pre-k again next year due to her late birthday. But her school makes a bit of a hooplah over it so she got to party, too. They've been practicing their ceremony for awhile now, complete with four songs.
Each child in the class received some sort of award. You know, things like "Most Curious", "Best with Numbers", etc. We were really SUPER proud of Maddie when she was recognized as the "Best Friend" in her class! Her teacher said she was a good friend to everyone. Maddie would find the kid with no one to play with and be sure to include him or her. She was always friendly to everyone and easy to get along with.

We were so happy to hear that our little girl was the same sweet person at school that we (mostly) see around here. Congrats, Maddie
Our next graduates will be Claire (from kindergarten) and then Phil!

Picnic in the Park

As the school year wraps up, there seems to be much less actual learning going on in class and much more fun. This is understandable, as the weather has seemed more summer-like and the kiddos (and probably the teachers, too!) have been antsy for the end of the school year to arrive.

Maddie's school helped with the antsy-ness with a picnic in the park. The teachers and a good number of parents walked with her class through town to a nice little park.

They ate their picnic lunches.

Then they had a little parachute time. Who doesn't love the parachute?

Then a story.

And THEN it was playtime! Wahoo!

All About Me Day

Each year, Claire's school puts on an "All About Me" day for the kindergarteners. They work all year long on making projects to display. On the big day, parents and family can come into the school to see what all they've been working on. Each kindergartener stands in front of their display and answers questions/shows off their stuff. They were so proud of themselves and of all the things that make them, "them"!

Part of the display was a photo of them on "When I Grow Up" day. Here's a closer picture of Claire on that day -- she wants to be an artist.

After showing off their work they all got up on the stage to sing a few sweet songs. How cute are these kiddos (especially the one second from the left in the back row)?

Memorial Day at the Veterans Cemetery

Claire's Daisy Girl Scout troop, along with many other scouting troops in the area, placed flags on the headstones at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery here in New Jersey. What a wonderful way to help the kiddos understand the upcoming holiday!

Here's our little scout, hard at work:

And Maddie got to place some flags, too:

Even Colin got into the spirit!

Phil helped to hand out flags to the little girls in Claire's Daisy troop.

There were so many scouts there that the whole cemetery was completed within about 20 minutes. It was pretty warm outside today, but the kids all did a wonderful job!

Before:

After:

Let's Dance

We just got home from the girls' big dance recital. They spent the last year getting into the routine of a new dance studio, getting to know a new teacher and all of the girls in their classes, and (of course) learning new dance moves. Once again, they got to wear beautiful costumes and perform a dance on the big stage. They worked really hard on their routines and they both did a wonderful job up there!

There's Maddie in the middle

That's Claire 4th from the left

"Recital week" is a busy week. We had their normal classes on Monday and Tuesday. Photos (in their costumes) on Thursday. Dress rehearsal on Saturday and THEN the real deal on Sunday. I got pretty good at putting their hair into ballerina-esque buns by the time the big day came around! Note: there's lots of hairspray and bobby pins involved.

Getting prettied up

Yesterday the girls were upstairs playing and they were quiet. Too quiet, really, but I trust them not to do anything too awful and Phil's out of town so I chose not to check on them. I'm so glad I didn't! When they finally emerged from the bathroom (yes, they were playing in the bathroom and I still didn't go check -- did I mention Phil's out of town and I'm long overdue for a break?) they were SO cute! They had discovered all of their hair-do accessories and Claire put them to good use.



She combed out Maddie's hair (without any complaints from Maddie - that never happens for me!) and then completed this complicated coiffure. Such sweet and beautiful girls I have!

Longwood in the Spring

This weekend the weather was beeeeautiful so we packed up the fam' and headed back to Longwood Gardens to see the tulips in bloom. Boy oh boy were there a bunch of flowers! Side note: how cool would it be to be a gardener there and get to play with all of those pretty plants and make beautiful landscapes???



Maddie apparently observed her grandmother closely at the gardens and the flower show last month -- she knew just what to do! "Daddy, take a picture of that flower. Ooo and that one! This one too, Daddy!" and so on and so forth. I'm sure her grandmothers will be proud to hear of her love of plants.