The girls were so excited on Daddy’s birthday, they asked if Daddy could open his gifts first thing in the morning. Daddy dutifully complied. One of his gifts was a Lego model of Bilbo’s home, Bag End, from The Hobbit. The worst part of opening it in the morning was having to wait until birthday festivities, bedtime activities and little girls were asleep (or at least in bed) before building the set.

The next morning Daddy woke up to find Julia asleep on the living room floor right next to the hobbit hole. She had gotten up sometime in the evening, played with the set and then fell asleep right in place.

Julia worked really hard making the paper trail around our house with all of the loose coloring sheets they have laying around. It reminded Mama of the Yellow Brick Road. After a while Mama asked if Julia would pick the paper up. Her answer to that request was, "but I laid it down for Jesus to walk on". What does the Mama say to that? I guess she is ready for Palm Sunday a few weeks early.

Our Kindergartener celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday today. The instruction was to wear wacky clothes and hair. Emily chose her clothes, but they turned out more well accessorized than wacky. For her wacky hair we tried out several hairstyles last night and ended up with this variation. It was involved, but she vetoed the crazy Mama ideas. She seemed to enjoy Dr. Seuss’s birthday celebration although not many kids participated in the crazy clothes and no one else had a Seuss themed lunch. 

We sent a little girl to school and home came a cat. It was awesome to go through the pickup line and pick up the face painted cat.

Our fun hairstyle. Please, no one mention to her that it is a cheerleader hairstyle. Her hair wasn’t quite long enough to get the pony tail on the tip-top of her head.

The themed lunch – a green egg (the color didn’t show up well in the photo), ham, colorful sprinkles in the apple sauce for a party theme, chocolate goldfish, hat themed fruit on a stick, and a pickle sign post for the places she’ll go.

Why make one lunch when you can make two at the same time. Julia enjoyed her Seuss themed lunch too.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Our little Julia is afraid of dogs. But, she has been asking for a puppy anyway. In an effort to get her more used to the idea, Mama took her to visit a pet store. We looked at all the young dogs a couple of times, and she was willing to touch a few in the special petting area. This was her favorite dog in that we saw during this visit. Somehow, it seems to fit her personality. If you ask her what kind of dog she wants, she will tell you a little one.

As another attempt to get her ready for a dog, we will be doing some puppy sitting for two small dogs in our house. It will be interesting for all of us. Shhhh, don’t tell the girls though, they don’t know yet.

We went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Emily’s birthday. Some of Emily’s favorite things include staying in hotels and swimming, and we were able to make both of these happen. The weather was amazing for January and we enjoyed being outside despite a few rain showers that moved through. In addition to swimming, we played putt-putt, visited the aquarium, rode the trolley, walked the strip, shopped, discovered our way through a mirror maze, and rode the skylift. Emily loved discovering that the hotel had hot chocolate and cookies every night. The trip was fun and it was a delight to share the time with Emily and Julia.

Our little swimmers before they made their big leap in. The water was a bit cold so once we got out we didn’t want to get back in.

Daddy was a great sport and swam with the girls until Julia’s lips turned blue.

During the break in the rain shower we got a game of putt-putt in. The girls wanted us to take turns in the order we played. We only got one ball stuck and didn’t lose any of them. We consider this progress with our young golfers. The rules were treated as suggestions and more than once the hole was bracketed with feet to give a sense of success.

Despite our rule bending both girls successfully made hole-in-ones all on their own. This is Julia celebrating her successful hole-in-one. Quite proud! She hit the ball without looking and was holding the putter backwards, but gravity and some good luck was in her favor on the hole. Emily was not to be out done and made a hole-in-one on a later hole.

The six-year-old has some game and some attitude. Funny!

This was how we traveled this weekend. When Julia got tired of walking we gave her a push. Not a bad plan because one afternoon she gave out and slept for over an hour while Emily kept exploring.

Emily’s first visit to the aquarium had a similar photo to this one, but the fish was bigger than she was. She has now grown longer than the fish!

Dude!! We found Crush!

Mama and her birthday girl!

The girls love the fish bowl and Emily still fits in there. I think the only reason they looked at the camera was that the fish swam away.

While Julia napped Robby took Emily up to the top of the mountain on the skylift. Emily was so brave and the heights didn’t faze her in the least.

Checking out! Emily took charge of all of her and Julia’s clothes and special things. Mama loves the efficiency of giving the stuffed animals a ride on the backpack with a view.

What is a birthday without celebrating it with ice cream for dinner? We did offer other food later, but up to this point it was dinner. Yum! We had enough fun we might do this every year.

Both girls got to spend their Valentine’s day with friends and sharing cards. They both opted for simple cards for friends. Julia decorated each with a sticker. Emily carefully wrote each name on her cards all by herself. She did a great job organizing by boy/girl cards and double checking to be sure no one was missed.

They both were up early and Julia’s greeting for both of her parents was a valentine’s greeting. She had made a drawing for each of us the day before and presented it to us as our card. It was very sweet. Emily loved going to school early to put valentine’s cards in teacher boxes.

Our family party will involve strawberry pancakes and strawberry milkshakes. Yum! Hopefully it will be a hit without a tummy ache.