Church had their annual Pancakes in Pajamas for the preschool age a couple of weeks ago. We got up and headed to the church for some pancakes and crafts. The girls love going places in their pj's so they were ready and willing, even thought it was at 8:30am on a Saturday. We ate yummy pancakes and bacon and the girls played with playdoh, sorted candy hearts, made a Valentine card, and looked at books on beanbags. It was a nice way to start the weekend. 
This is Reesi and Lyla having lunch on Friday at our house. They have actually played very well today. Lyla and Reesi don't get along very well sometimes, so when do do get along, I try not to interrupt them! I had planned on taking them to the elementary school to eat with Grace today. They were playing so well that when I asked them if they were ready to go and they said they wanted to play instead, I said OK. So, here they are eating later on. Notice Reesi's nice outfit...what you can't see is the pink sequined skirt and purple dress-up shoes that match her purple polka dot bra and pearls. They love to dress up. 
The girls are scissor happy right now. They want to cut all the time. One day in January Lyla cut the hair off of a big horse costume. I found her midway through the haircut and there was furry fuzz hair everywhere! Mommy wasn't pleased with that one. Then Reesi cut holes in her bedsheets to find out what was "under there"! Joni wasn't very pleased either. Then on Monday, Reesi cut her hair while she was here at my house! The crazy thing was that I was at the table with her and Lyla while they were cutting and I never saw her do it! We were helping the girls clean up later and I found the BIG chunk of dark brown hair on the floor! Joni...not happy again. Then today Lyla called upstairs to me to say that she was cutting her lion's hair. She was very quick to explain that she was leaning over the trashcan and putting each piece in the trash as she cut it! She actually did a pretty good job at that part. She forgot that the fuzz gets all over her shirt as she cuts though. So, here is her sweet lion after its haircut. It's head used to have a big, full mane!
How can you stay mad at that face for very long?
Yesterday afternoon Lyla was invited to a birthday party at ChuckeCheese. She was really excited and so were Grace and Reesi. They went by default. Luckily, Joni was able to meet me there to help with the girls. At preschool yesterday Lyla's class had a pizza and pajama day to celebrate the letter 'p'. So Lyla was in her Lightning McQueen jammies and refused to change to go to the party. Oh well, you pick your battles.
We had fun at ChuckeCheese. They played and won a few tickets. For anyone familiar with ChuckeCheese, you know that the tickets don't go very far when it comes to claiming a prize. But, you can actually pick a big prize that takes like 300 tickets and just pay the difference with money! I have never revealed this secret to my children and had not planned on ever telling them! Joni took care of this for me yesterday afternoon. She made the fatal mistake of telling Reesi and Grace she would pay the difference for them to get the cotton candy prize instead of the plastic spider ring prize. So, Lyla had to have cotton candy too. Now, they will always insist and argue for the bigger prize! Thanks Joni!
Last night after Lyla was in bed I heard her singing happy birthday to the two little birthday boys from the party yesterday. How cute!
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.
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.
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. :)
