Happy Birthday Reesi!

Reesi's had her 5th birthday this week! The family celebrated on Friday night. They played kickball in the backyard with Jason, Julie's husband, and had a great time. Reesi insisted on being the cheerleader. She's a great cheerleader too! She never stops cheering. Lyla and Grace kicked the ball and attempted to run bases. They never quite got the concept of running the bases though. I think Grace did more spinning and dancing then kicking.

The girls all love Jason. He is pretty sweet with them. Here's Grace giving Jason some lovin'.


As we were going in, Reesi got poked in the eye on accident. She was sad for a little while but got better. Right after her boo-boo, Grace fell going up the stairs and bit her bottom lip and made it bleed. So we had too with ice packs at the same time. I didn't get a picture of Grace though. We can't make it through an event with out a boo-boo or two.

Happy Birthday Reesi! I'm glad you're old enough to wipe your own booty now!

Playing outside with Papoo

Mom and Dad came on Friday for Reesi's birthday. Lyla always wants to play outside when Papoo is here. They spent most of the afternoon in the backyard swinging, playing tag and climbing trees. I was playing with my camera and got some cute pictures of Lyla. She is in her Spiderman pajamas, of course.

Look at those blue eyes! She got those from the Gardner side!

Look at those round cheeks! So cute! I'm dreading the day that she doesn't have that little girl look...you know...those cheeks, those little fingers and little round toes, and especially her little girl pronunciation of words. It's just so cute.

This is Lyla and Papoo playing tag.

It has begun!

Grace lost her first tooth on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. Tuesday evening she was trying to wiggle her tooth. She has been "wiggling" it for about a year now. It had actually gotten a little loose over the last month or so. But Tuesday night it turned a corner. She asked Eric to feel it, like she has many times before. But this time when Eric wiggled it he pulled back quickly and said "it popped". It was a major change. It was really, really wiggling now. She was so excited she wouldn't leave it alone long enough to eat dinner. The next morning I went to work in her kindergarten classroom. The whole time I was there she was doing her work with one hand and wiggling her tooth with the other hand. When I picked her up from school that afternoon the tooth was gone! She said she pulled it herself at the lunch table! She said she saw blood on her finger and they sent her to the nurse. The nurse lets the kids pick out what color treasure box they want to take their tooth home in. Grace has talked about these treasure boxes since the beginning of the school year! She was so excited. We did have a little scare later that afternoon when Lyla lost the tooth in the car! There was some yelling and maybe a few tears, but luckily, we found the tooth! The tooth fairy left 8 quarters under her pillow that night.

We had actually just gone to the dentist on Tuesday afternoon. They pointed out that her 6 year molars were coming in. I hadn't even noticed. So, it's official, she's beginning the process of growing in the big teeth and shedding the remaining baby parts. She's already lost the baby fingers and toes, the round baby belly, the wispy baby hair, and the baby voice. Now she losing her baby teeth. It's kind of sad. She's going to be driving before we know it!

Watching cartoons

They were sharing the ottoman while watching cartoons one afternoon. I thought it was nice of them to be sitting together and not fighting. They're so sweet together.

A family portrait

This is Lyla's family portrait. She said I'm the "fat, silver one" in the middle. Gee, thanks Lyla!

Accelerated Reader!

Grace came home from school last week with big news. She was moved up to the accelerated reading level in kindergarten! When she came in the door she was beaming and told me the whole story of how it happened. It was something about not being able to find a book in the EFG books and then she couldn't find one in the HIJ books either. Then Mrs. Heim just asked her if she wanted to get a book from the library in accelerated reader. She said yes so Eileen, a little girl in her class, took her to the library and showed her where the books where that she could check out. She is on "gray dot" books. She was so excited to get to check out her reading books from the library. Until now she was bringing home little level reader books, not "real" library books. She kept asking me if I wanted her to tell me how it happened again. I think she told me the story about 3 times that afternoon. This is a picture of her reading her first AR book. I tried to have her dictate to me the story of how it happened later that night but I guess she had forgotten some of the story by then. It was changing from earlier in the afternoon and not really making sense. She has really progressed a lot in her reading and writing in the last couple of months. We're so proud of her for working so hard!

A day at home with Lyla and Reesi

I'm at home with Lyla and Reesi and Mondays and Fridays. They play together pretty well but sometimes they need help coming up with activities. On this day they just couldn't seem to get into their pretend play so I stepped in and came up with something to do for a little while. One activity was stringing a snack. They strung popcorn, cheerios, apple jacks, fruit snacks, and raisins on string for a snack. The idea was to string it all and tie it up for a necklace. I don't think they ever tied their necklaces on. They just skipped that part and went straight to the eating part of it. This was right up their alley too! They are both Queen Snackers! They love to just snack all day long instead of eating a full meal. Believe me, I try to make mealtimes for them but even after they've had "breakfast" at 8:00 Reesi will be back in the kitchen at 10:00 for a snack. Lyla just follows her lead so she's asking for a snack too. This was a perfect snack activity for them!

The other activity I found for them was a new game. Grace got this for her birthday from one of Eric's sisters. They hadn't played it yet so when I got it out they were excited. It's called Hullabaloo. It's a great game for this age because it doesn't require any skills other than listening and knowing your colors. The winner is determined by chance. For some reason, Reesi was lucky that day and kept winning each round completely by chance. Lyla didn't like this and kept getting mad. She ended up quitting and leaving the room b/c she never got to win. It's a great game though!

They were in their pajamas all day! That's the way they like it on Mondays and Fridays!