Exploring

The girls love to go exploring with Eric. One Sunday afternoon this month I went with them and took lots of pictures. I love the fact that the girls enjoy being outside so much. I wish I were more like them. I'm just not an outdoorsy type of girl. I wish I were. I've tried but it's just not what I prefer to do. But so far, the girls do, and that makes me happy. I hope they keep that as they get older. Anyway, on to the pictures. Here is Lyla waiting for us to leave. The girls got camo hats to were like Dad. We went to a new horse park in Franklin that has no horses or anything park-like. Basically, the only thing there was this big dirt hill, which was a HUGE hit with the girls. Here they are darting for the mud. By the way, it had been raining a lot. This dirt was squishy, wet mud.

Here the girls are looking for four leaf clovers with Eric.

Posing for the camera...they're always so silly!

Cute pics of Daddy and his outdoor girls.

Grace and Lyla are darting for the dirt hill again in the next few pictures. I put all of these because it shows some sisterly patience. In the first picture Grace is running way out in front of Lyla. Lyla is a fast runner! But, Grace has such loooooong legs that even Lyla can't keep up. Of course, Lyla is yelling "GRACE!!!!!" this whole time.

So, finally, Grace slows down to see what Lyla wants.

Then she comes to a full stop and waits for Lyla to catch up.

And here they are back on top of the hill. You can't tell how big the hill is in the picture but it is very, very big.

They really enjoyed running/sliding/tumbling down the hill. They always think it's hilarous to see how dirty they can get.

Here is Lyla's turn "running" down the hill. Her run turned into a tumble.

She did a complete roll over. But, as you can tell from this picture, she's not phased a bit.

Posing for Mom

Another pose with "bunny ears".

Grace's pose

Grace sliding down the hill.

She thinks it's so funny!
And....the proof. What a cute little dirty bottom.

Grace at 7 years old

Grace turned 7 in January. I can't believe she is that old. I want to put a few things down about her at this age to remember for the future.

-She is still very sweet and kind hearted. She cares for others and is very aware of their feelings. She tries to make the person feel better when they are sad or hurt.

-She loves to play. She likes to play house, littlest pet shop, Barbies and art. She gets up extra early in the mornings before school so she has time to play for a little while before we have to leave. She never wants to stop playing when it's time to go to bed either.

-She still like Curious George cartoons. Even though she's growing up, she still wants to watch Curious George every morning before school. She makes me wake her up at 6:45am so that she can lay on the couch with all of her blankets, watch Curious George and drink hot chocolate before she has to get ready for school. After she gets ready for school then she goes and plays for about 10 minutes before we leave.

-She's still a deep thinker. She contemplates serious things and always asks lots of questions. She tends to worry a lot too. But, I'm happy to say that over the last 6 months, her worrying has subsided quite a bit.

-She has a "BFF" at school. Sara Kathryn is her bff at school. They have had several sleepovers and play days together. They also cheered together for Upwards.

-She is already experiencing the drama of girls at school. She comes home at least 2 or 3 times a week telling me all about the drama between her and the girls in her class. Someone always gets mad because the other is playing with someone else, or sitting by someone else. Poor Grace always seems to be in the middle trying to make everyone happy. She runs between the squabbling girls trying to make peace so they can all be friends.

-She's doing very well in school. Her reading and writing have dramatically improved since the beginning of the year. She has learned a whole lot this year. Joni tested her reading for me and she tested at the end of a 2nd grade level in reading. She doesn't really love to read but is starting to want to read a little on her own when she goes to bed at night.

-She is getting picky about food. She doesn't want to eat what I fix for dinner. She wants sweets WAY too much and always says she wants hot dogs for dinner.

-She still likes to wear cute girly clothes. She wears more pants/jeans now though. She doesn't have to have a dress or skirt like she used too. But, the funny thing is, she doesn't like to go shopping. She has no interest in looking through the racks of clothes at the store. But when I just bring clothes home for her she definitely has an opinion and doesn't always want what I pick out.

-She does not like to do homework. We had some trouble with me having to nag her every night to get her homework done. So, I didn't nag her for 1 week and let her forget to do her homework. The teacher and I were working together on this effort. The day she didn't have her homework done, they talked about it at school and she got in a little trouble. The teacher help her come up with a schedule of when she will do her homework every evening. So far it's worked pretty well. I've been impressed with how she has stuck to her plan. She still doesn't like to do it though. She's too interested in playing when she gets home.

-She still loves to rides bikes and explore outside. Eric takes the girls exploring at the river and they love it. She LOVES to get dirty and muddy.

-She still sleeps with her blankie.

-She is a rule follower and a pleaser at school and at home, for the most part.

-She doesn't like to clean up but does it much more willingly now than in the past.

-She is very tall. She is 50 inches tall which is in the 83rd percentile.

-She weighs 53 pounds, which is in the 64th percentile.

Yuck Potato Pie

Grace has gradually become a more picky eater. She has generally been pretty easy to feed. Even if she doesn't like something or it is new, she will usually give it a try with a bite or two. But recently her desire for junk food has taken over. When she comes home from school the snack of her choice is cereal. She wants to eat a sugary cereal, like Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cocoa Pebbles. And it's usually two bowls! Then she doesn't want to eat dinner. She also loves sweets. She can eat 5 bites for dinner and say she's full but when I finally give in and take her plate she asks if she can have a snack now, before she's even left her seat! Of course, a snack means a sweet. She's done this for a long time. But over the last month or so she has slowly started rejecting the dinners that I make. She says she just doesn't want that for dinner. It's not that she doesn't like it, she just doesn't want that. Her choice for dinner? Hot dog! That's what she always wants. I've tried to hold strong to the idea that what is served for dinner is what everyone eats. If I give in and let them start custom ordering their own meal then I'll never get out of the kitchen. She says she'll make her own dinner. I haven't given into that either. That will just be another mess for me to clean up. I really believe that they should eat what is served and if they don't want that, then breakfast will be served in the morning. This sounds harsh but it's what the parenting books suggest in order to maintain authority and teach them healthy ways of eating. I think I need to start only buying healthy cereal. I don't even keep many sweets in the house. Mainly so that I won't eat them! But the girls love sweets too so I just can't have them around.

Anyway, on to the title of this post. So, last Wednesday night I made chicken pot pie. It was fine. It was definitely edible. But Grace had it in her head that she did not want that for dinner. Eric came in from work after we had already started eating. (We started eating early because we were getting ready to leave for church.) Eric sat down and asked what we were having. In her most disgusted voice, and sounding too much like a teenager, she announced we were having "yuck potato pie". Well, thank you Grace. It's so nice to be appreciated! I guess that's the life of a mother.

Chuck e Cheese

A couple of weeks ago Lyla wanted to do something fun on our Monday together. She wanted to go to Chuck e Cheese. I actually had a handfull of tokens in my junk drawer so I said sure. We went for just an hour or so. We used the tokens we already had and then we left. Monday morning is definitley the time to go there. It was almost empty! I love it that way. We enjoyed ourselves. I'm trying to enjoy Mondays and Fridays with just Lyla. I only have a couple more months like this. She'll be in kindergarten next year! I can't believe it.

Now, Grace didn't like it at all when Lyla announced at dinner that she had gone to Chuck e Cheese with just Mommy that day! Oops!

Lyla's drawings

Lyla hasn't been as interested in drawing as Grace was when she was little. But, she's doing more and more these days. I love to see the progression of her work. The last two pictures were drawn last year. The rest were done recently.

Book by Grace

This is a book Grace made about me. I'm not sure when she made this. I just found it recently so I'm not sure how old it is. It's so sweet that I had to include it. My favorite part is the last page. She writes "dust" for the word "just". It's cute because that is how she used to pronouce the word "just". It just reminds me of when she was smaller. She's so sweet.

Drawings by Grace

This first drawings of balloons is actually by Reesi. She made it for Grace on her birthday. It was sweet so I kept it. The next one was written by Grace last year. I've had it hanging on my wall in a frame. That's why I'm just now scanning it. She wrote about Lyla being her sister. So sweet! The 3rd one that says "buffls" was given to Grace by her best friend. Somehow they learned about "bff", best friends forever. But then they took it further and started saying "best friends for life" or "bffl". But they say it out loud to each other as a word that sounds like "buffle". The funny thing is when they write the abbreviation they sound it out and it ends up being written like it sounds, not like an abbreviation. I don't know if that makes sense. It's cute. The rest of them are just drawings done by Grace recently.

Grace's writing

I'm trying to save some key samples of Grace's writing. Here are a couple of stories that she wrote and a couple of school assignments. It's just amzing how far she's come since this time last year in kindergarten.