Middle Earth

We've been at Disney World for the past 6 days, and I'll have to post about that later. First I wanted to post about our trip to Middle Earth (Grandmother and Grandfather's farm) a couple of weeks ago. It was a last-minute trip to Citronelle to say goodbye to Lane and Robert before they moved to Maine. We had such a wonderful trip. The girls really love the farm. They love to feed the chickens, ducks, and turkey, and collect the eggs, and get the vegetables from the garden. They also went fishing and planted a tree, and of course Abby walked the labyrinth many many times. Sarah even helped Grandfather clean the toilet take out the humanure from the composting toilet.
Here's a slideshow that Lane made to document the weekend.

Dentist

The girls had dentist appointments last Friday. Abby's two bottom front teeth are loose, and she's really excited about that. Sarah and I aren't so happy. I'm pretty sure that S&A are the last of their group to lose a tooth, so they're both really anxious for it to happen, and Sarah is bummed that Abby seems to be ahead of her. I would imagine that we'll have similar issues for the next 20 years, or longer, so I "reckon" she'd better get used to it!

Need to Catch Up!

I'm so far behind in my posts!

Here's a pic I wanted to share. One morning last week (at 5:45), Sarah came downstairs and said that Abby wasn't in her room. I figured she was just hiding. I went up, and saw that her closet light was on. I knocked softly on the door, then opened it to find this:

Abby was in her closet secret hideout reading a book. She had all of her stuffed animals in there with her, too. It's just so cute and sweet. I don't know how long she'd been there, but she stayed in there until she'd finished her book.

A Fun Weekend

Friday afternoon I left for a girls' trip to Lake Wedowee with some of the neighborhood gals. I love being near the water; it's just good for my soul. I was reminded of Lake Nacimiento in CA, and the peace I feel when I'm hanging out at the lake with my friends. It was such a great get-away, despite the dreary weather. None of us cared about the rain; we just hung out and played games (Mexican train, or Speed Scrabble, anyone?) and drank a margarita..or two..or three... ...
Perry did a fabulous job keeping S&A entertained in my absence - dinner with their fun cousins, pancake breakfast with other cousins, library, McDonalds, etc. Still, when I walked into the house Saturday night, they were all excited to see me. Sarah decided we needed to make the dinner table extra-special to celebrate my return. She found a tablecloth, and some fake flowers, and a candle, and she asked for fancy plates and napkins. So sweet.
Today we woke up to snow. At 6:15 in the morning, we were all out front enjoying the snowfall. The girls made snow angels and snowmen and had a snowball fight, before most people were even out of bed! The snow continued to fall all morning, and actually accumulated about 3", which is extremely rare here in Alabama. They continued to play outside most of the morning, coming in for a few minutes to warm up and put on dry clothes, and then running back outside to play with their friends. A few hours of sun this afternoon melted all the snow, but we have lots of pictures to help us remember the fun:

Reading

The girls have been reading for awhile now, but in the past few weeks it has really "clicked" for both of them. They've gone from VERY early readers to real books, sounding out more difficult words and just showing tons of confidence in their reading skills. It's so exciting! Tonight Abby was reading One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish to me, while Sarah was reading Green Eggs and Ham to Perry (they're both studying Dr. Seuss at school in honor of his birthday). I told Abby how proud I was of her, and how great she was doing. And then she told me that she wanted to be able to read all of her books by herself so that she could put herself to bed and wouldn't need me to read to her anymore. "NO!!!!" I screamed...silently. I am so proud of her independence and confidence, but there are some things that I just don't think I'll ever want to give up, and reading together at night is one of those things. I told her that I'll always want to read with her at night, even when she's big enough to read anything without me. I have a friend who still reads a chapter a night with her ninth-grader, and I just think that's awesome bonding time. I can only hope-

Twins

It seems like I'm always telling the girls to be nice to each other, stop fighting, stop picking, etc. But I know their bond is strong. Every morning they hop out of my car at school, wait for each other, and then walk into school holding hands. And tonight they were so sweet in the bathtub, I had to grab my camera.

A Third Child

No, it's not what you're thinking. We're not that crazy (well, I'm not anyway. Perry would love to have another one).
My neighbors had a family emergency and had to leave town, so we kept their 7-year-old for a few days. S&A love her and they get along pretty well, so it hasn't been too crazy. Today has been a little wild, but I think they're just ready to get outside and burn some energy.
Anyway, this morning they played dress-up for hours, and came downstairs for dance recitals and concerts. Here's a short video of one of their many concerts-

Happy Mardi Gras

We went to Mobile this weekend to see some Mardi Gras parades. Unfortunately the weather was terrible. We really wanted to go to the Friday night parade, but we just couldn't make ourselves go downtown and slog through the rain and puddles. Fortunately the clouds parted for the day parade Saturday, and we were able to catch it twice.
I'm not in much of a blogging mood right now - last week I was busy with the school newsletter (my first issue), and then Friday I started the Twilight series (and I'm hooked). Perry wants to know if I'm a 13-year-old girl again, and I know he's right. Why am I reading books about Vampires? Who knows. But I'm halfway through the second book, and I know I won't be able to stop until I finish them all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Crayon heart necklaces we made for S&A's friends





Valentines for school friends - heart necklaces, candy, and heart pictures













S&A door decorations

Their Valentine gifts

We're Gonna Miss This...

Here's a slideshow from last night. I can't watch it without crying - they grow up too fast!