Ballerinas in Training

Last night the girls were invited by their friend Katie to "Bring a Friend Night" at a local dance studio. They were incredibly excited. I can't count how many times I heard, "...and we're going to eat supper and then go to dance class, right mom?!?" Lily told me she hoped to learn how to do a grand jete. (Thank you, Angelina Ballerina)

I like to call this  the "take the picture already Mom" pose

While the girls danced, we mommies got to hop a couple stores down and eat ice cream. That's a good night in my book!

I Blame Daylight Savings. And Teeth.

Lily is the most reliable alarm clock I’ve ever owned.

Every morning. 7 o’clock. On the nose.

So I was excited about Daylight Savings Time this spring. Because, theoretically, she would “sleep in” until 8 a.m. Maybe just maybe, I thought, we could trick her little biological clock into waking up an hour later.

Do you want to know what time she woke up that Sunday morning?

That’s right.

7 o’clock. On the nose.

Which, in case you don’t remember, actually felt like 6 o’clock. I definitely remembered.

We didn’t tell her about the time change, didn’t put her to bed earlier, didn’t change a thing in her routine, but somehow she knew.

And ever since then her sleep schedule has been all wonky. She hasn’t napped well, has had a hard time getting to sleep at night (probably because it’s still light out) and she’s “reset” her inner alarm clock to SIX-THIRTY.

*sigh*

I thought maybe this week we’d get back to normal, but now Sophia has started in. She’s working on four gigantic molars and has been waking up early from her naps still tired and verrrrry cranky. I can’t say I blame her, I know how bad a toothache can be, and I can’t imagine what it’s like to have four at once.

However.

All of this to say that I’m a little tired myself.

My house is kinda messy, because I haven’t had regular nap times to clean.

And do you know what it’s like to clean your house when your kids are awake? A friend of a friend said that cleaning your house while your kids are awake is like, “trying to brush your teeth while your eating an Oreo.”

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

My floors…my poor floors…are so sticky and I can feel little bits of dirt on the bottoms my feet when I walk.

I hate that.

I’m sorry. I hope you didn’t come here hoping to be inspired by my model of good housekeeping. Just keepin’ it real.

But…you know…I will take short naps and cranky kids over bad attitudes and arguments about boyfriends or makeup or clothing or goodness knows what else is coming my way once we have teenagers in the house!

Let them be little, right?

(But I really do need to go clean my floors)

Happy Wednesday!

Three words

Unpacking. Organizing. Cleaning.

That pretty much sums up how I’ve been ringing in the New Year.

Unpacking because we just returned from visiting Dave’s family in New York.

Organizing because we got an influx toys and books and other stuff for Christmas and I’ve got to figure out where to put it all.

And cleaning because…well, because life is messy and we don’t have a maid

I made some New Year’s resolutions but I’m not going to list them all here because I don’t think you really care but I will say that one of them is to do a better job recording the little things the girls are saying/doing.

Because I’m a Mom, and that’s what Moms do.

So. Here are a few “Lily-isms”.

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Lily: I really love exercising, Mom.
Me: Oh, really? What do you like about exercising?
Lily: Well, I like taking my shirt off and doing push-ups. Like Daddy.

Oh, dear.

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Her version of “Patty Cake”:
”Patty cake, patty cake,
bake your hand.
Make me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and mark it
and put it on a B.
And make it in the elevator doop bah duh bee”

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Potty Humor:

On the drive to New York, we had to frequent quite a few public restrooms and Lily quickly caught on to the fact that they don’t usually smell the greatest. At one particular spot, we entered the bathroom and she cautiously sniffed the air, then said with surprise, “Oh, this one doesn’t smell bad!” About a minute later, the person in the stall next to us was, *ahem* “dropping the kids off at the pool” and Lily loudly proclaimed, “It smells stinky in here NOW Mommy!!!”

In yet another public restroom, she informed me and everyone else that “she was going to go poopy” then pointed to the stall next to us and said, “Is she going poopy too Mommy?”

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And I really don’t mean to leave Sophia out, it’s just that her verbal communication can basically be boiled down to two words:

Da-da = Daddy
Dog-dog = any animal

And, oh yes! A recent addition to her vocabulary:

Da = Yeah

She will say this with enthusiasm in answer to basically any question you ask her.

“Sophia, are you hungry?”
”Da!!!!”

“Sophia, do you want your dolly?”
”Da!!!!!”

“Sophia, do you want a spanking?”
”Da!!!!”

And that’s all she wrote for today. Happy Friday!

Define “Dangerous”

The other day Lily and I had a discussion about tattling. I explained that it's not ok to tell on her sister just because she wants to get her in trouble and ended my explanation with the instruction to, "only tell Mommy if Sophia is doing something that will hurt her or is dangerous."

You would not BELIEVE the number of dangerous activities Sophia has been involved in since then.

It goes something like this:

Lily: Mommy, Sophia is doing something dangerous!

Me: What is she doing?

Lily: Well, umm….she’s holding my special baby doll and…I’m afraid…I think she could choke.

Me: On your baby doll?

Lily: Yes, because it’s dangerous and I really think she needs to stop.

***********

Lily: Mommy, Sophia keeps poking me and it’s really dangerous.

Me: How is that dangerous?

Lily: Well, because, she could get hurt and I just love her so much and I just don’t want anything to happen to her because she is my sister so could you please tell her to stop touching me?

*********

Lily: Mommy, Sophia is taking my crayons away from me and it’s really dangerous.

Me: What’s dangerous?

Lily: Well, because she could poke them in her eye and then she would be hurt and I just don’t want her to get hurt.

************

Something tells me she’s confused the words “dangerous” with “annoying”

Photo Booth Friday: Indian Summer

Autumn Storehouse

I'd like to take October days
And store them in my mind,

To warm me during Winter's reign
When nature proves unkind.

Then I remember sunshine,
The Autumn rich with gold,

And tawny fields a-flower
With wonders quite untold.

My thoughts will ease the moments
When in reverie I dwell,
And linger for the present
In some bright majestic dell.
Virginia Borman Grimmer

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
Albert Camus

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. 
So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Happy Friday!

Apparently I’m The Queen of Freak Accidents

I mean, if you’ve been around me long enough, you’ve probably already figured that out.

I told you about how I branded myself with a curling iron in high school.

And how I broke my wrist.

Oh wait, I never actually told you how I broke my wrist…there’s a reason for that. It’s embarrassing.

Short story – my knee popped out of place (it does that sometimes. It hurts. Really bad.)

I fell.

While I was taking my pants off.

Landed on my wrist.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I had to tell that story and every time I wished I had a better opening than, “Well, I was taking off my pants...”

(You know like, “One day in kickboxing class” or “Last week while snow skiing.”)

Aaaanyway….

Fast forward to the present day. I set Sophia down on the carpet, turned to walk past her, intending to shut the window, somehow knocked her over with my leg which caused her to fall on my foot and scrape the side of her head on my toenail.

Yeah…you can just go ahead and hold off on that Mom of the Year award I know you were planning on giving to me. I really don’t know if there is anything worse than realizing that you have {even unintentionally} injured your child.

And of course, because it’s in such a visible place, now I get the added embarrassment pleasure of explaining to everyone that I scratched my child’s face with my toe.

Not only am I a klutz, I clearly need to spend more time grooming my feet.

I guess, on the positive side, maybe this could help me make a case for getting a good pedicure??

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Don’t forget to enter the Princess of the King giveaway for your chance to win some adorable hair accessories for the favorite little girl in your life!!

The Evolution of a Hair Style {GIVEAWAY!!!}

I’m thrilled to be doing a fun, girly giveaway today for Princess of the King. Read on to find out more!!

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Of all the wonderful things about raising little girls, one in particular has proven to be equal parts fun and frustration.

Their hair.

More specifically, what to do with their hair.

Lily’s hair has gone through a number of stages since her entry into this world.

First we had the newborn fuzz…

Oh my goodness.

Stop it.

I want to pick up that little bundle and snuggle her fuzzy head on my chest again.

Aaaanyway….

Then the fuzz started to rub off…particularly in the back, so we had the nice Is that a baby or the back of an old man’s head balding stage…

This was actually the easiest stage of them all. We could do hats…

Although occasionally those got to be a bother…

Or headbands…

Ok…how much do I want to squish those cheeks??

And eventually we got to the can’t hardly see it but there’s just enough hair there to attach a bow stage.

I believe that look says, “Dude. I can’t wait to start choosing my own hair accessories.”

Not long after that we got to the stage my husband affectionately coined, The Lily Ray Cyrus phase. Because her hair was a little bit…mullet-ish…

It was at this point that I really got to actually start doing Lily’s hair – as opposed to just slapping on a headband.

Now Lily has a head full of gorgeous wavy blond hair and we get to have tons of fun accessorizing!

Which leads me our giveaway…

When Sara {who just so happens to be my cousin’s husband’s brother’s wife…did you get that? } contacted me about doing a review and giveaway of her hairbows, I jumped at the chance.

Because, I mean…just look…

How sweet would these be in pigtails on a trip to the pumpkin patch?

These little clippies work great for those of you whose munchkins don’t have much hair to work with…like mine!

I got some sparkly ones like this

…in black and brown. Sophia even wore one in our family pictures this past weekend:

I love the versatility of these sparkly bows:

I could do pigtails for Lily, or put one in each of the girl’s hair to match!

And I couldn’t resist these fun green and red ones for Christmas:

And these are just a fraction of what she’s got available in her shop!

Sara’s customer service is fantastic and she had mine shipped almost immediately after I ordered them! Not to mention that her prices are extremely affordable!

So I’m thrilled to tell you that Sara is graciously offering one of my readers $15 worth of hair accessories! Wanna know how to enter?

Visit Princess of the King and check out all her hairbows! Then come back and leave a comment letting me know which one is your favorite!

Wanna get your name in the pot another time?

“Like” Princess of the King on Facebook! Sara also happens to be doing a fun giveaway through her Facebook page, so liking her page will gain you an entry into that giveaway as well!

And because she is so generous, Sara is offering a special discount throughout the course of the giveaway – free shipping on any orders over $10. Just enter FREESHIPPINGWITH10 at check out.

Whew!

That’s a whole lotta good stuff for one giveaway!

So what are you waiting for? Get your entry in now! Even if you don’t have a little girl of your own, these would make great gifts for that niece you love to spoil! You can’t win if you don’t play!

Giveaway ends this Sunday, October 9 at 11:59 PM CST. I’ll draw and announce the winner Monday morning.

Good luck!!

The Long Overdue Vacation Post

I realize this is only going to be interesting to about half of you, but one of the main reasons I keep this blog is to preserve some family memories. So if this bores you to tears…skip it. No offense will be taken.

I think I mentioned before that one of my older brothers is a program director at Camp Fairwood in Westfield, WI, a few hours from where we live (You can check them out on their website or on Facebook)

Anyway, earlier this year while pondering what, if anything, we could afford to do for a family vacation, I happened to be flipping through the brochure for their camp and that’s when an idea struck me, “What about family camp?”

Although both Dave and I have worked at various youth camps in the past, neither of us had ever really had any experience with family camp, but we thought it could be fun and it was definitely within our budget so we decided to give it a try.

And I’m so glad we did! We had SUCH a great time!

As I mentioned, Lily had a fabulous time getting to see her cousins. She and Mykaela are just a year apart in age and were practically joined at the hip all week. They would’ve slept together if we’d let them…but we knew there would be more giggling than sleep going on if we had allowed it!

Sophia and cousin Adyson had fun playing together too, although they weren’t quite as giggly as their older sisters were

But apart from seeing our family, there were so many other benefits to choosing a week of family camp:

First, being able to enjoy the great outdoors. The camp has acres and acres of gorgeous land. Tons of walking trails. A lake.

Playgrounds

And on one part of the land is a pine plantation. I just can’t get over how perfectly spaced these trees are. It’s like walking (or riding a horse) down a long pine tree hallway.

Cool, huh? And yes…that is me on a horse. Don’t laugh. But that brings me to the next great thing about camp the activities.

We didn’t really even get to scratch the surface of all the fun activities they had to try – paintball, canoeing, tubing – but we did manage to squeeze in a few fun and special activities that we couldn’t normally try at home.

Obviously, horseback riding was one of them. Dave and I went just the two of us during naptime one afternoon, and then later we went with Lily and cousins Eli and Mykaela.

Lily wouldn’t ride with Dave or I, but we were able to persuade her to get on the horse with Mykaela.

I wish I had video…riding behind these two was incredibly entertaining. Lots and lots of giggling and some interesting conversations about horse poop…

Lily loved watching the horses run in the pasture together

and even got to feed one a treat, which she thought was pretty awesome

And even Sophia got in on the fun – although she couldn’t ride the horses, she definitely liked touching them!

Dave and I also played in the 4 on 4 volleyball tournament. Check out Dave’s sweet spiking skills.

And…not that I’m bragging or anything…but our team totally won the whole tournament It felt great to play somewhat competitive volleyball again, and really made me want to find a league to play in this winter! (Sidenote: not really sure what is going on with my face in this picture…apparently I’m super enthusiastic about that spike??)

The camp is really laid back and low key – their goal is to give you lots of opportunities to  be as active as you want, while also leaving room for just relaxing and hanging out, which we really appreciated.

We skipped out on some of the evening activities so the girls could go to bed but we did stay up to participate in a few – like this Minute To Win It game show they put together.

Look at that teamwork!

Last, but not least, one of my favorite things about being at camp was the food.

It was good. And I’m not talking about just “good for being camp food good.” I mean good, like, “I would order it at a restaurant” good.

Hot breakfast every morning, salad bar at every noon and evening meal, and super delicious main dishes – they even had a banquet night where they babysat our kids and we got to eat an entire meal without having to wipe up spilled Kool Aid or cut meat into itty bitty pieces.

Oh, and did I mention, desserts after every lunch AND dinner? Chocolate chip cheesecake, peanut butter pie, Oreo truffles…I’m surprised any of my pants still buttoned at the end of the week. Honestly, I’d say the food alone(and the fact that I didn’t have to cook it OR clean it up) was worth the price of admission!

The very last night was a picnic under the pine trees…

So that was our 2011 Vacay. Definitely something we’d like to repeat in the future – and maybe next year we’ll bring a few friends along!