A Rare Sunday in Febuary

Febuary 1 was very rare. It was in the 60's! Grace kept going on and on about how it was springtime. I kept telling her it really wasn't and that it was going to get cold again. She is so ready for spring and summer she can hardly stand it. My girls definitely love to be outside. Anyway, we met Joni and Reesi in a culd-a-sac between our two houses for the girls to ride bikes. Reesi got a new bike for Christmas and has recently discovered the joys of bike riding. The little culd-a-sac even has a park bench for Joni and me to sit on! Perfect! So, the girls rode bikes, played a little baseball and drew on the street with chalk. Lyla fell several times but never cried once. I finally took a picture after about 3 falls. One picture shows her checking her elbow for boo-boos after her fall. She's riding without training wheels and doing great. She's just a little, well, reckless is the only way I know to describe it. She goes full speed and tries to turn on a dime. That's usually why she falls, she jerks her wheel too quickly and looses control. She cracks us up. She has no fear! I've tried to explain to her how to turn more slowly so she doesn't fall. She has to figure it out for herself though. Grace figured out that riding down a little hill and then onto the road was fun too. There are pics of that below as well. Lyla had to try that too. Reesi did a great job with her new bike and I was glad to see all of them getting to ride together.

Driver's License for Grace

Last week Grace told Eric she wanted to drive. He told her she has to have a driver's license before she can drive a car. She ran off and came back later to show Eric her driver's license. Here is her license (or "lisins" for an emergent reader). Too cute.

Snow Day, well, not really

Last Wednesday the girls were out of school for snow. Well, they were actually out because of a prediction of snow. The snow fell for about 45 minutes that morning and then it was gone within an hour I think. They insisted on going out though. Grace scraped together a snowball from the snow that accumulated on the upside down swimming pool in the yard. It is in our freezer right now. :)

Lyla wouldn't put clothes on or a coat. As you can see in the pictures below, she actually went out in her pajamas alone. I've been reading a child discipline book called Parenting with Love and Logic. It says that you should let the logical consequences of a childs' actions teach them the lesson rather then me trying to make the decisions for them all of the time so they won't have to suffer the consequences. This works, sometimes, if the child cares about the consequence. This winter we have had a battle over wearing a winter coat. Lyla wants to wear a little, thin, sweatshirt jacket that she got for Christmas because it is Spiderman (thanks Aunt Laura, she loves your gift!). Reesi doesn't want to wear a coat at all because they are all "too poofy". Love and Logic says to inform her of the weather outside and then let her decide whether to wear a coat or not. It says that a child will realize that she needs a coat once they spend one outing freezing to death and the next time she goes out she'll choose to wear a coat and be warm. Not our girls. Reesi has just started wearing a coat in the last couple of weeks! She's gone most of the winter wearing nothing! Lyla still wears her thin jacket. So on the "snow" day I let her decide what she needed to wear outside. She went out with her pajamas alone. She came right back in for what I thought was a sensible outfit for snow play. I thought the consequences were working. No, she just wanted a hat and gloves! Needless to say, their time outside didn't last very long. She might be cold but she's learning to make her own decisions. :)

So Sweet!

Every morning I take Grace to school and drop her off at the front of the school. She has a little ritual she goes through as she gets out of the van. First she gives Lyla a hug and kiss, then she gives Reesi a hug and kiss, then she gives me a hug and kiss. Then when she gets out of the van she turns to me and crosses her arms like a hug sign and then blows me a kiss. She does this a couple of times before walking on into the school. One morning I looked in my rearview mirror as I was pulling away and saw her turn around one more time and do it to the van as I was pulling away. It breaks my heart for some reason. It makes me feel like I'm sending her off into a scary world all alone as she's walking into that big school by herself and she keeps blowing me kisses as if she's wishing she could stay with me. This morning I tried to take a picture of the arms crossing and the kiss blowing. I caught her by surprise though and she was frowning as she did it. I didn't tell her I was going to take a picture. I wan't to write this down and take a picture so I could remember this in the years to come. I know one day she won't want to stay with me or blow me kisses as she leaves for school. I want to make sure and remember this sweet, sweet age.

Beware! Lots of Birthday Pictures!

Saturday was Grace's 6th birthday! I can't believe she is already 6 years old. It's very strange. She has been very excited about her birthday this month. She has a calendar that she marked days off of to keep track of how many days were left before her birthday. The weekend finally came. Mimi and Papoo came on Friday morning. We took Grace a big cookie cake to school to share with her friends at lunchtime. She was so excited to see us. She had a birthday hat that Ms. Heim gave her. She wore it the whole day! Memaw (Joni's mother-in-law) brought Grace a new outfit that Friday morning before school too. She put it on right away and it fit perfectly. Here are some pictures of Grace's celebration weekend.

We had a dress-up tea party birthday party for Grace and a few little friends. I tried to make a teapot cake mayself. Here is the result...

That Friday night was the dress-up tea party. The girls had dresses, jewelry, a "dressing room", purses, hats and spray-on glitter for the dress-up part. They really liked going behind the curtain to dress-up. They liked the glitter too!

This is Grace's special teacup for the party. She got the fanciest teacup!

Here is Grace's best friend from preschool.

Here are the girls all dressed up with their dolls, ready for tea! Lyla wasn't interested in putting on a dress. She found her own dress-up clothes for the party.

The girls were pretty quiet while we were serving them tea. Joni suggested that we leave them alone and as soon as we left the room, they erupted in giggles and sillyness.

Reesi really liked being fancy!

Grace and her friends got pretty silly during the tea party. I don't think they really got the concept of being proper and dainty at a tea party. They didn't really drink the tea either.

I bought little petit fours for the "birthday cake" at the tea party. I thought they were so cute and dainty and perfect for a tea party. None of the girls liked them though! Oh well.

They got through the tea party and dress-up part of the party very quickly. So I let Grace open her presents from her friends to take up some more time. She ripped through them in about 5 minutes!

This is Grace's family party on Saturday. She's holding her present from me, Eric and Lyla. She got an American Girl doll. She has been playing with it since she got it Friday night. I was so glad she liked it. Mimi and Papoo gave her a scooter for her doll and Julie and Jason gave her a horse for her doll. Grandma, Papaw and Angela gave her a game and doggie with a carrier. She loves dogs, so that was perfect for her.

Lyla had a hard time this weekend letting Grace get all of the presents. She hasn't grasped the concept of the birthday girl getting the attention yet.

She did get a big truck for her cars as a present.

Notice Lyla is blowing out the candles with Grace. Grace didn't like that at all. We had to light the candles about 3 times so everyone had their own turn to blow them out.

Grace had a great birthday! Now when I ask her to do something or not do something her response to me is "Mom...I'm six now" as if there is no need to remind her things anymore. Such a big girl!