Pre-School-Project-Fun

Anne Marie is really loving pre-school! This week she came home with a very special project they worked on - it was a bird "feeder". They made bagels w/ peanut butter and bird-seed. They were learning about how we can take care of the animals that God created. She couldn't wait until Daddy got home to help her put it out in tree in our front yard.

Her very special birdie treat!

Daddy carefully getting it ready to hang in our tree.


Anne Marie picked out exactly where she wanted it to hang -- and even said "here Daddy, so the squirrels won't get it". I'm assuming they talked about birds and squirrels eating it.

Taaaa Daaaaa!!!!

Mattie is Back!!!!

Now that I"m finally healing I am able to watch our friend Mattie again while her mom works at her store. Can I tell you how excited Anne Marie is to have her friend back on a regular basis? Or maybe you can just tell by this picture!!!

Picture Day!

Today was pre-school picture day. Mike got home to see Anne Marie dressed like this....and said "oh great, we're going to be buying a bunch of pictures." And I asked why, he said "she's just too cute today to not buy those pictures!!" Somebody has daddy wrapped around her finger......

Quite A Party!!!

This Saturday Anne Marie and many of her friends were invited to a tea-party birthday party for one of her pre-school classmates. The invitation was hand-made and full of pink paper, ribbons, stickers and glitter. Anne Marie even asked if we could keep it! The birthday girl asked that all of her friends came dressed in their best and promised quite a party - primping, parading, and "fine-dining". She did not disappoint! Anne Marie and her friends had a BLAST! It was fun to sit back and watch!

As everyone arrived at the party, they were escorted to the "spa" location, where "big" princesses applied lip-gloss, glitter-blush, glitter hairspray, feather boa's, feather hair-clips, feather bracelets, cool shades, and jewelry. What special treatment!!

Anne Marie and her friend Mira all dolled up!

After a few fun back-yard games the kids paraded down the driveway w/ noise makers and silly string...and lots of parents taking pictures!

The whole well-dressed gang.

Then, it was time for lunch. The dining room was perfectly decorated, each guest had a special spot w/ special cups, plates, princess wands.

And then it was time for cake...and oh the cake! Each girl (and boy...and parent!) got their own special individual cake! Anne Marie ate all the icing off the cake 1st -- then finished the cake itself...she didn't let any of it go to waist!

It was quite a party!!

You Know It's Fall When.......

One of the 1st signs of fall for us is when the acorns start to fall from the trees! We headed over to the park that has a big acorn tree. For the last 3 years we've gone and picked acorns to help decorate for fall and this year to help with a fun little craft that my friend told us about. (I'll post that when it's done) We let the girls play a little a little on the playground & then gave them buckets headed over to the trees. They had just as much fun doing that too, I think!

Our friend Mira playing on the playground.

The girls searching for the "perfect" acorns!!

TaaaaDaaaaaa!!!!

Our Last Crop

While I was laying on my back waiting for surgery, Mike constantly tried to find things for him & Anne Marie to do around the house so they could stay close to me. One day, they decided to plant a 2nd crop of lettuce to get one more harvest w/ the last of our tomatoes.

It turned out a little smaller than normal, but it gave her something fun to do outside, and she was so proud when they finally could pick it the other day. I was not able to get out & pick w/ them, so Mike took the camera -- his own suggestion -- and I was quite proud of him!

That night, Anne Marie had a salad made of their very special lettuce & tomatoes!

Ready to pick her lettuce.

Getting those little fingers dirty.

You can tell that they didn't have time to "groom" the garden, there were quite a few weeds when they went to pick....but I it didn't matter -- it was a great project.

Very proud of her crop!

Our "BIG" Day!!

Well, today was a very BIG day in our house! For two reasons...........

#1 - I drove today for the 1st day since my surgery!! WhoooHooo!! It's slow going...but I'm praising God that it's going in a positive direction!!!

#2 - It was Anne Marie's 1st day of school today! Oh, my little girl is growing up!

Good Morning sleepy-head! Anne Marie's main struggle regarding pre-school is the fact that she loves to sleep....12 hours a night....and if she doesn't get to bed by 8pm, we'll never make it!

She is also a slow eater, so, I made sure that I got her up in time and had breakfast already ready to go....today....oatmeal w/ fruit & milk & yogurt!

The sweetest thing she did this morning.... she came to me and said "Mommy, if you miss me today you can wear one of my ponnies (pony-tail holders) and you can think of me, just not the pink one, cause it's my favorite color." (I'll talk about the pink obsession in the house another day) This is something she did every time she came to see me in the hospital last month. I think it was her way of dealing w/ us being separated so much...and it touched my heart. So I told her that I had a better idea.... I said that we each would wear one of our bracelets from China and if we wanted to think of the other all we had to do was look at our bracelet and remember that the other had hers on too!

All ready to go in her apple-dress specially picked out for 1st day of school.

My eyes were tearing up a little as I walked behind her on the way to the van.

What a big girl she is!

We have been talking about school for days. We talked about how we need to listen to the teacher, how she needed to share & take turns talking, and even what type of things she might do during school time. She's been very excited, however once we got in the yard and I started to take her picture, all the parents were around taking pictures, and some kids started to cry, she started to worry....you can see it in her face in this picture I think. It didn't last long, but I think she was a little worried about what she was getting ready to do...........

Then, we got to her class room - she saw some of her friends, and her teachers (all of which go to our Church) and things were fine. She jumped in, opened her back-pack, shared her bear (she was supposed to bring a teddy-bear, however she brought her panda-bear, because they are from China like her) and she never looked back. I just stood there...wanting to watch all of it!