old quotes, new finds

I found these quotes on an old (couple months) draft that I somehow overlooked...

While outside on a walk, Caleb kept yelling adamantly at the birds in the trees:
Come down heah, li'l buhdie! Come down heah, li'l buhdie!

* * * * *

Driving in the car:
I have a boogie for you, Mommy.
I don't have a tissue, I'm sorry. You should have waited until we were home and asked for a tissue. I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to wait until we're home. I can't help you.

When I went to get her out of her carseat, there she sat patiently with her hand cupped, holding a little old boogie in her hand.

Here's the boogie, Mommy.
Oh! Um, throw it on the ground, Maddie.
Thoughtfully, Do birds eat boogies, Mommy?
No, Maddie, they don't.

* * * * *

We went to visit to Daddy at work, and he gave the kids a bottle of orange juice to split while we were visiting. So on the way home I said,

Wasn't that fun, having orange juice w/ Daddy at his work?
It wasn't orange juice, it was YELLOW juice.

fafa's fifty-ninth

Caleb and FaFa worked puzzles while the ladies finished dinner prep and we all waited for Bray to join us after work.

Beautiful table spread as usual. All the food was Mexican.

My favorite dish of the night--chimichangas with pomegranite seeds.

Time for cake!

The kids' hi-light: licking the whipped cream beaters.

My hi-light: watching my handsome hubby do his Birthday Serenade.

(He did. The next morning he and La were to run the Marine Corp Marathon!)

The cake: We had a mousse alongside the Apple Spice Cake. The mousse was good, but the cake...weeeell, Mom was trying to be healthy...Let's just say it was another family cake memory (to be remembered alongside Jess' famous potato birthday cake).

once upon a time...

...I was invited to a tea party.

Good thing I dressed. (The hostess was wearing heels!)

We munched away and enjoyed our lunch, banilla butter and all.

All too soon it was time for me to leave. (The hostess needed a 'rest time.')

She says she'll invite me again. (I hope so!)

THE END.

conversations

Caleb's toes got stuck in the tongue of his shoe as I was putting it on... My foot. Is booted!

* * * * *

Maddie came to me 'crying' and rubbing her hip.
Mommeeee, I hurt my ribs.
Oh dear, how did you do that?
I hit them on the table.
I'm sorry...God, please help Maddie's ribs to feel better quickly!
(Rubbing her hip still) Are these my ribs?
No, they're your hips.
My hips?
Yes, your hips.
Where are my ribs?
Up here. These are your ribs.
Oh.

* * * * *

At a bedroom tea party eating 'bread'...
I forgot the butter... Let's see, I need both ice creams. And...some water. That's how I make butter. It's banilla butter.

* G week! *

Quick Summary...

...wrote notes to M's grandparents & learned how to stamp & address envelopes
...listened to George Gershwin's music--'An American in Paris' and 'Rhapsody in Blue' (I love Gershwin!)
...sang the 'Gospel Song' together
...memorized a bible verse and a poem about a gingerbread man
...did all the usual (sounds of 'g', writing 'g' and so on)

pumpkin patch

* Preschool -- F week *

Yes, I'm a little behind...

Maddie told me that she turned FFFour at the beginning of F week (last week). And she did. :)

Last week we primarily celebrated being FFFour and the FFFall...

We made cards with Maddie's new stamp set and wrote Thank-You notes for birthday gifts. Maddie signed her name on them for the first time...all by herself!

We also picked our pumpkins for the front porch...pictures to come.

During snacktime we made the letter F using fishie crackers.

We ate leftover birthday cake--yum!

We read books on fall, 'fiestas', a boy named Felix, and the US flag.
Maddie made her own US flag and did a wonderful job following my directions.

We went on a Leaf Hunt. We gathered fall leaves, and when we came home we made leaf rubbings. I was surprised that Caleb was able to do this activity with us. As long as I held his paper still, he did great.

the very hungry caterpillar

Something about listening to a 2-year old read a story to himself that is just so cute! Caleb was having his nightly reading time alone in his crib. I peeked in on him and he was 'reading' The Very Hungry Caterpillar to himself. "An' he ate a weaf. An' he ate a ice cweam cone, an' a piece of pickaw, an' a piece of meat, an' a piece of...dat, an' of dat an' dat. Tummy ache. He ate a weaf...an' he made a...cah-coh-nee...cah-coh-nuh, a cahcayNUH." And he closed the book, the end, but still repeated to himself, 'cahcayNUH, cahcayNUH....'

do we have an artist in the house?

Yes, Madeleine drew and painted this! I about fell out of my chair watching her (don't believe me? ask Braden). Maddie received a new set of watercolors for her birthday. That evening after her party and after the family had all gone home, Maddie asked if she could paint. I set her up and she made a few dabbles on the paper.

Then she picked up her crayons and drew a tree. Yes a tree. Not shocking for most 4 year olds, but this is Maddie we're talking about. Maddie has not drawn anything since the puppy dog faces in September, and prior to that it was the ocean in April and then the rather unusual self-portrait almost 1 year ago. I am totally serious. Now Maddie colors all the time, loves to color in her coloring books; but draw she does NOT.

"Maddie, who taught you to draw a tree?" "Ummm, I just thought about it and then I drawed it."

Braden and I watched as Maddie continued to draw and paint, telling us what she was doing. She painted in the sky, then used crayons to add in the curly clouds. She added grass at the bottom. The orangey-green thing with yellow in the center, that's the sunset. Wow.

family pictures

For a while now I've been wanting to get some family photos done--we've haven't ever done that before. Well, last weekend our friend Megan took some wonderful pictures of us. You can see a few of them here on her photography blog, and I get to see them all tomorrow!

What a cute little boy and precious little girl we have!

birthday weekend (part 3 of 3)

On Monday we invited a few friends to go to the park with us for some playtime and cupcakes.

Cupcake Faces...

Maddie is 12 hours older than KJ...though you'd never think it to look at them!

I think her Daddy must have told her to dance, and I think she must have obliged...

birthday weekend (part 2 of 3)

FAMILY PARTY...

Happy 4th Birthday, Madeleine!

Maddie wanted 'chocklit cake with sprinkles all over it,' so this was my version of her request.

the Birthday Girlie

the Birthday Girlie with her birthday crown, birthday bracelet, and birthday rose from Nonna & FaFa

showin' off that bracelet!

Nana & Grandpap called to wish Maddie a happy birthday.

Nonna, FaFa and LaLa came over a bit early. Mom whipped my messy kitchen into shape as only a mom can. We watched the end of the very sad, very bad Redskins game. La blew up some balloons.

Uh-oh... Fight! Fight!
I think the kids must have watched Bambi a few times too many.

The rest of the family arrived bringing party favors--horns and whistles.

Maddie wanted to have party hats at her party. You can always count on Granny to oblige.

Over dinner we played a few Maddie-games. The first was Maddie Trivia...you know things like: At what time was Maddie born? How much did she weigh? How much does she weigh now? There were some pretty angry contestants when the question of 'what is Maddie's favorite color' came up. Maddie has been declaring for months that it will be white when she is 4. However, it was still red. A riot nearly broke out!

Official winners with 5 points out of 11 (ouch!): a tie between FaFa and LaLa.
Prizes: artwork from Maddie

Next up: Maddie Bingo. Everyone had a bingo board full of Maddie's favorite things and such. Maddie helped me draw the 'chips.'

Bingo! We've got a winner! LaLa again.

Prize: a big hug from Maddie!

final game: Pin the Head on the Maddie

Maddie was scared of the scarf, so Gair was a good sport and showed her how it's done.

And would you know that she was able to place her face perfectly in the correct spot--a feat no one else was able to do! (She also accidentally dropped her face, picked it right up, and continued on...hint hint.)

Tarrah gives it a shot.

Braden was having a little too much fun spinning everyone around.

Time for cake.

After several tries Mommy had to come blow out the candles with Maddie. Maybe you'll get it next year, Maddie!


Maddie enjoyed snipping all her ribbons so carefully.

We were in the living room and all of Maddie's gifts were on the hearth in the dining room. Maddie would open a gift and then she would say, "Mommy! Can I go get ANOTHER present?!" And off she would run to the dining room to get another one. What was so cute was that she kept asking the same thing, present after present.

Here Maddie is sporting a pair of the dress-up shoes Granny had just given her.

And then came The Gift. Garrick and Tarrah bought Maddie a big wheel. PopPop is helping her (and Caleb) pull it out of the bag.

What a gift! What a birthday!