Christmas program

Yesterday, Little Missy had her very first Christmas program at Bible study. She was so excited and did a great job! I'm so proud of her!





Let me set up this next clip. E nails the very first motion of the song...and then holds that pose for the entire song. At one point, the teacher tells her to put her hand down, E misunderstands and bends over to put her head down. She doesn't realize she is holding this pose until it's time to do that motion again much, much later in the song. She then becomes visibly mortified and is on the verge of bursting into tears, but like such a brave girl, holds it together and finishes strong! :)

Storybook Festival

So, the Loudoun County libraries are awesome about having tons of free programs and activities for both adults and kids. They recently had the Storybook Festival. The kids were encouraged to come dressed as a prince or princess.

They had a ton of super fun activities. Face-painting, hopscotch, live music, etc. However, I think E's favorite part was looking at all the other little girls dressed in their finest princess attire. It was literally as if the Disney Store had exploded inside the library!

Here's Miss Priss with what I guess is the mascot of the library system. She just marched right up to him like we were still at Disney World.


Here she is trying to be oh-so still while the artist draws her caricature...

Unfortunately, it looked nothing like her, so I stuffed it in the top of her closet when we got home.

And here are a couple of her posing on the "royal throne"...

some fall pics

computer literate

So, there is a use for my old laptop, which met a rather untimely demise when I spilled an entire glass of wine on it. Eleanor's daddy fixed it right up for her complete with educational software. Here's a little video of her playing for the first time...



I was pretty impressed, but I am the momma. :)

Not sure what's up with the Photobucket videos...they used to work so well...

Gymnastics

So, Eleanor (now more commonly referred to as E) started gymnastics class today at My Gym in Leesburg. I signed her up as a way for her to get some social interaction, learn to take direction from other adults, and gain confidence in her physical abilities. (Did I just write a commercial for My Gym??) Anyway, she seemed to really enjoy it, and I was very proud of the way she listened to the teacher and followed instructions.

The most memorable moment of the day was definitely at circle time at the very beginning of class. Mr. Eli asked everyone to introduce themselves and say the name of their favorite book. There were five kids before E who followed directions quite nicely. When it was her turn, she very seriously said, "My name is Flounder!" Everyone chuckled. And Mr. Eli said, "Well, what is your real name?" And E said, "My name is Flounder. And my favorite book is Little Mermaid. He-he." :) Mr. Eli moved on to the next kid.

Walking the balance beam with Miss Demi:

Mr. Eli, who must have the patience of Job!!

Scooting relay.

Doing some stretches. This is the butterfly.

More warm-up games.

Of course, the ball pit is always a hit!
Jumping on the trampoline was her favorite activity. She said, "Look, Mommy! They have a trampoline just like at Nana's house!!" :)

now, where were we?...

ah, yes, here we go...

daddy's visit and some random silliness!!

This girl...I'm tellin' ya...keeps me laughin...

Ice skating

Thought she could say it best...

Memorial Day

Today, my sis and I took a spontaneous mini-roadtrip to a State Park about an hour away. We had a picnic and let the girls put their feet in the lake (too cold to get in!) The girls had a great time, and Eleanor once again surprised me with how brave she was around the water.

Here's the evidence of her bravery and independence. I was having a mini-heart attack that she was leaning so close to the water, but she insisted on doing it "ALL BY MYSELF!!"

And some other lake pics...

Sidenote: E's adorable swag is a hand-me-down from none other than the one and only Sophie B. :)

First swim of 2009

So, it's that time of year (at least here in Texas) when the mommies squeeze themselves into those spandex torture devices known as swimsuits and tote the kiddos (beach towels, floaties, sunscreen, sippy cups, etc.) to the pool to have some all-out, super-intense fun in the sun!

Or your kid, who is notoriously hydrophobic, could say, "No thanks, Mommy. I just wanna sit in the beach chair right now."

Seriously, it took an insane amount of coaxing and distracting, but after fifteen minutes or so, we ended up here...

She had a GREAT time! I'm so proud of her!! She's getting to be such a brave little girl! We even managed to get to where I was only holding her chest up while she was lying on her tummy kicking her legs...huge progress from the clinging-to-my-mommy-like-a-baby-koala point from which we started.

Chloe was a natural in the water. Totally dug it from the get-go and had no fear!

Some more pics from the pool.

Get your workout on!

So, about six weeks ago, I purchased Wii Fit and Eleanor and I have pretty much been doing it everyday. She is especially fond of the yoga and strength training...

Surprise!!

This weekend, we had a surprise party for my aunt Teena who turns the big 5-0 in a couple of weeks. My cousin Karen had the idea a month or so ago, and we've been working pretty much ever since then to pull this thing off. The hardest part of it all was actually surprising Teena who knows everything about everything that's going on in town!! We had the party at a little restaurant in town that happens to be owned by a friend of the family. (It's a very small town, people. So cute!)

Teena was so suprised and everyone had a great time! Happy Birthday, Teena!!

The family How cute is my niece Piper?!

My nephew Ryder and my grandmother, Gran.

Some pics that I stole from Teena's house while she was at work. :)

My cousin's daughter Madison and Gran

Teena and a couple of old friends (one of whom I found on Facebook!)

Some of the kiddos hiding, getting ready to say, "Surprise!"

Eleanor will tell you it's not a party without the cake!

Little Miss Chloe ready to party!

And there's Miss Priss herself