Don't mind the panties

After the play on Saturday the girls wanted to play together, of course. Anytime they see each other they expect to spend the entire day together. So, Reesi stayed over for a while. They rode bikes, played dolls, colored and then ended up in the backyard just relaxing. It was too cute not to get a picture of. They were just laying there in the shade picking 3 leaf clovers "for good luck". Ahhh...the carefree days of childhood..........

Which reminds me of something funny Lyla said the other day. We were riding in the car and out of no where she said, "I'm hatin' bein' a kid." I say, "What? What are you talking about? Why do you hate being a kid?" She says, "It's irrwitatin' me." (translation-"irritating") She cracks me up.

Sleeping Beauty

On Saturday Joni and I took Grace and Reesi to see a production of Sleeping Beauty. It was really fun. The girls loved it. I think the mean fairy was their favorite. Joni asked me twice when the 7 dwarfs were going to be coming on and I thought she was joking. About 3/4 of the way through the play she finally figured out there aren't 7 dwarfs in Sleeping Beauty! She was mixing Sleeping Beauty of Snow White together! I thought that was so funny. I can understand not really knowing the story of Sleeping Beauty very well, but I thought everyone knew the story of Snow White! ha ha ha Anyway, we had lunch outside at McDougal's after the play and then went home. I have always loved going to see plays so I hope to pass that love of the theater on to Grace and Lyla.

Moment's with Mom Project

Every year at preschool we have something made to give/sell the moms for Mother's Day. We actually send a note home to the dads giving them the opportunity to purchase a special gift for the moms. In the past we had a photographer come take "face shots" of the kids in a candid sort of way. Then she put the pics in a matte and wrote a bible verse on it. Everyone loved them. The pictures were always great. A couple of years ago she quit doing it though. Fortunately for me, my director thought of me when she was deciding what to do for the preschool moms. She actually asked me to paint a canvas for all 90+ moms! I didn't think I could get that large of a project done in just a few weeks so I suggested the frame in the above picture. So, last year was my first year for this preschool project. Everyone really loved them so I was given the opportunity to do them again this year. Last year the Asst. Dir. took the pictures but this year we had a photographer come take them. So I ended up making about 87 pictures frames this year. They match last year's frame but with a different verse. Everyone seemed to love them again. My painted canvases and picture frames can be seen at www.jennygardner.smugmug.com.

Moments with Mom Two's Class

We had a "Moments with Mom" party in Lyla's class at preschool too. She made a handprint for me on a tile that was very sweet. I actually teach the other two's class at our preschool so, unfortunately, there's no surprise in it for me. It was still sweet. The card was made in Lyla's Sunday school class for Mother's day.

Moments with Mom Pre-K

Last Thursday was Moments with Mom at preschool. This is Grace's last year at preschool so it was kind of special. They made a special hand towel with her hand print and a sweet verse and a special card. The card makes me laugh because she says I'm special because I take her to the zoo. It's funny because we hardly ever go to the zoo because I really don't like the Nashville Zoo. I try to go at little as possible. I guess I need to take her more often!

The pictures are of her with her teachers, with her whole class, then with a few of her closest friends. She's really going to miss them next year because they will all go to separate schools in kindergarten. The last picture is me, of course. It was a halfway decent picture of me so I thought I'd go ahead and include it. ugh!

It was a sweet time with Grace at her Moments with Mom!

My little tomboy

Lyla does everything Grace does most of the time, but, there are other areas in her life that she likes to go the opposite direction. Clothing is one of them. Grace is a total girl. She wears only dresses or skirts and would were high high shoes to play in every day if I let her. Lyla on the other hand will only wear jeans with pockets that her hands will fit in! I recently took her Wal-Mart to find some new tennis shoes. She won't keep her shoes on at all and it is a very annoying problem. So, we went looking for ones she would like and keep on her feet while we were anywhere but home. She did find some shoes, as you can see in the picture above. Luckily, they were on $10 and she loves them. They make her run really fast, as she'll be glad to show everyone. She also found this Spider Man shirt. I showed her all of the "girl" t-shirts they had but she immediately went to the boys section and pulled this one out. She fell in love immediately! She's a rough and tumble girl! Watch out boys, here she comes!

Unexpected Visit

A couple of weeks ago we were excited to have an expected visit from my grandparents from Missouri. They came to TN for a cornbread festival and an anniversary celebration for one of my uncles. We were lucky enough to have them with us for an evening and a day. The girls were excited. Grace dubbed them "Grandma and Papa with a cane". My grandpa walks with a cane and that is how Grace distinguishes him from the other grandparents in her life. She is lucky enough to have 4 grandparents and 2 great grandparents. That is a lot of grands to have names for. They brought along their new puppy, Sunshine. She was very cute but had very sharp teeth and is in that puppy biting stage. The girls jumped from furniture to furniture to avoid having their toes bitten. It was a great visit and we wished they could have stayed longer. One more funny quote from Grace...She asked if her grandparents from "Zyrup" were coming to visit. She couldn't remember Missouri and it came out sounding like "Zyrup". Funny! If you can't tell by the resemblance these are my mom's parents.