First and Last

 Maggie had her first (and probably last) dance recital this past weekend.  I only took pictures during the dress rehearsal the night before, so that I could be fully present for the actual recital.  Sadly, Maggie has decided that dance isn't her thing and she'll be trying something new during the next school year.

I am so NOT a dance mom, but I really enjoyed the recital and the little bit of hype that surrounded it.  Maggie's favorite part of the recital was killing time with her friends while waiting their turn to perform!  

 Of course, a cheap plastic trophy and flowers from your dad are also nice.

Maggie received her first trophy when she won "Clubber of the Year" in her AWANA class a couple of weeks ago and she was thrilled to add another trophy to her collection.

Little ways that say I Love You

To say that parenting has it's ups and downs is an understatement. To say that "single"-parenting while your spouse is away for weeks at a time has it's ups and downs is even more of an understatement.

Big Daddy left on Sunday, February 12. We decided that he would leave for the airport at the same time that I left with the girls for church. We were going to take him to the airport, but then Big Daddy and I decided that it might be too much for me to try to carry two crying, kicking, heavy girls to the car after he had boarded his plane. Goodbyes to Daddy can be hard.

Maggie had her first "I just miss my Daddy" episode on Sunday night. She completely lost it when we finished our phone call with Big Daddy and then she said, "I just can't do anything without him here. I can't do anything at all without him during the day". It was like looking at myself some 14+ years ago when I would finish a Sunday night phone call with Big Daddy. I explained that I used to feel that way when we were dating, but now I had two little girls to make me feel better and explained that being apart was hard on all of us. To make matters worse, we were getting sick, too.

We stayed in all day on Monday and Maggie even asked to miss dance that evening. We were snotty and coughing and all feeling a little lethargic. At some point during the morning, I found an envelope with our street address written on it and opened it to find this:

I might have melted! I never want her to feel like Mommy can't handle things when Daddy's away, but I always want her to know that this is hard for me too. I had written her a little thank you note a couple of weeks ago because she had folded all of the towels, wash cloths and cloth napkins (nearly a full load of laundry) without me knowing. She was obviously touched and then wrote me a thank you note to thank me for the card. She loves the written word.

We woke up on Valentine's Day and Maggie was thrilled to finally give me my present. She had wrapped it (a David Crowder*Band cd) a couple of weeks ago and had been giving me hints about what it was. I opened it and then fixed the girls chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Ellie was playing with static cling hearts on the french doors and then spit all over the door because he heart wouldn't stick. (Yes, it sticks if you use spit!) I scolded her, she apologized and then I got the cleaner and a cloth and she cleaned up her mess. A few minutes later, I had a "delivery" in my bedroom.

And then found this on the easel in the living room.

No day would be complete without some sort of accident. On Valentine's Day, poor Ellie couldn't get her bathing suit (long story, don't judge) down in time when she went to the bathroom. You can imagine what happened. This is the note that I received:

Heart melting again.

We needed more tissues and I really needed VapoRub, so we had to go out and my mom asked us to come by her house so that she could give the girls their Valentine gifts. They each had a snowglobe in their bag. Of course, Ellie decided to put her snowglobe in her backpack once we got home and then she jumped up and down on it. Of course, it broke. Of course, Maggie wrote ANOTHER note.

The rest of our Valentine's Day was spent making homemade pizza and then delivering treats to our closest neighbors. (Both girls started out in bathing suits, but Ellie likes to change clothes A LOT. Maggie was trying on a new suit, but the bottoms were way to big, which explains why she doesn't match. Not that she normally matches!)

Lots of other stuff happened, but we'll just fast forward to this past Sunday. Maggie always has at least three art projects from her Sunday School class and this was one of them:

This is now framed and sitting out where I can see it!

There are SO many days that I feel like the worst mom and I wonder if anyone appreciates anything that I do or if they hear anything that I say. I am so thankful for these little reminders.

You Are Amazing

We started out our week with a trip to IKEA on Monday. It's a two hour drive, so we talked about leaving you girls with Nana, but we wanted family time. Your dad had phone meetings, but we were able to have some nice family time.

We went to Bass Pro Shops first and you two loved playing on the boats that they had inside. You can make anywhere into your personal playground.

And Maggie, you wore one of my favorite dresses. Forget that you had slept in it from when you wore it to church on Sunday. You decided to change it up a bit and paired it with dark brown leggings and your brown cowboy boots. You looked beautiful and I wish I had taken a picture of the complete outfit. I let you pick out your clothes and I can't help but smile even when you embarrass me.

We walked just inside of the big mall and after one store, I decided that I couldn't do the big mall and IKEA with you two! Of course, we walked right by a chocolate shop and someone wanted a candy apple. That would be you, Maggie.

$10 later, we walked away with a nice dessert (caramel, covered in chocolate with a strawberry drizzle)for after lunch. And Ellie, you met a new friend.

We had Mexican food for lunch and then pulled into IKEA around 12:45. The two of you could totally live on the second floor. You jump from "room" to "room" and are just do excited to look at everything. It wasn't crowded like last time, so you had lots of space to roam.

Since we knew what we were going for, we picked out the two pieces of furniture for your rooms and I picked up a few other things. Your dad and I have looked at furniture for your rooms for so long and finally decided that this was what we want and we really couldn't be any happier. I want to get some cute antique headboards or something, but I like to look until I find exactly what I want. We were back on the road a couple of hours later.

You were both thrilled when Daddy started putting the new furniture together on Tuesday. Both of you are quite handy with a hammer and a screwdriver. You treated your dad like a king and were quick to give him any tool that he needed. The best part was that you were able to help again on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Daddy quit the work at home stuff and went back to the office. Both of you were sad, but we needed to do a little school work, go the library and get the house in order. "We" worked on Valentine stuff and were excited about our homeschool group's party in Friday.

Some of our friends from church are part of the big group now, so Ellie, you played in the toddler area with Kamrynn. The two of you had lots of fun and were so funny trying to sneak off and get into trouble with the big kids. Maggie, you loved decorating cookies, playing games and doing a cake walk. We ended the party with snacks and a puppet show.

Daddy decided that it was time for a certain five year old to get her first gun. A rifle, to be exact. I was (hoping) for something child-sized and pink, but got this instead.

A big, black Ruger.

When I asked you about it, Maggie, you said that you really like black anyway. Then you asked if we could go out and shoot at trees. Your Daddy has already taught you a lot about gun safety and you are anxious to learn how to shoot.

Now, it is Sunday. We are finally getting our first colds of the season. It started with me and I think it's moving to you Ellie. Maggie, you tucked your sister into bed, read her a story and prayed with her tonight. You two can be SO sweet and then sometimes, you're not.

But every single day, you are amazing.

Finally Fall

Maggie has been patiently waiting for the first day of fall for weeks. When I reminded her that today was the big day she said, "Oh my word, I almost forgot".

We decided to put our fall wreath and scarecrows up last week. Unless something drastic happens, that is the extent of our seasonal decorations for fall. We'll buy a pumpkin in another week or so and I'll be planting pansies as soon as I can, but that's it.

This week has been a busy week! This was the first week of our fall school/activity schedule with Big Daddy home. I guess busy is our new normal.

Ellie has started putting together the most amazing sentences and she is so funny! She loves to ask," Where are we going next?" when we're running errands and getting in and out of the car. Ellie likes her new Sunday School class and going to Mission Friends on Wednesday evenings. She has discovered glue sticks and loves art at church and the library.

Maggie has been something lately! She is still enjoying school and her homeschool elective (sign language) class. She seems to be enjoying her Awana class too. She has been creating lots of fun things this week- from puppets to paper dolls. She has a great imagination and has also started writing songs,

Keep The Balance Right

The past few weeks have been overwhelming at times. We are about to start what will be our "everyday schedule" for fall. I feel like we have fallen into a nice rhythm with first grade schoolwork and I have managed to get Maggie weekly work binder put together in an hour (or an hour and a half) on Saturday afternoon and now we're going to shake things up a bit!

Monday-dance class for an hour in the evening

Tuesday- Maggie's sign language through music class in the afternoon, Ellie will be in a preschool class and I'll help out where needed (these classes cut into ou school time and Ellie's nap, so we may not take them again in January)
Wednesday- Awana- I'll be teaching Cubbies again, Ellie will be in Mission Friends and Maggie and Callie (she's coming along this year) will be in an Awana class
Thursday- Storytime at the library in the morning

Even though the activities only last for an hour or so, I feel a little overwhelmed. I decided that it may be best if Maggie doesn't do children's choir at church on Sunday evenings,but I'm thinking that she'll be doing it in January. If we hadn't already signed up for the sign language and preschool classes through the homeschool network, we'd do it. It's a Christian homeschool network, so the songs that Maggie does will be faith-based. I already have a list of things that we'll be doing or not doing after the first of the year. I want to mix fun and educational things, so Maggie may take a children's literature class or something like that through the network. We'll see how our schedule looks.

Big Daddy and I have always wanted Maggie (and Ellie) to be involved in extra curricular activities, but we have seen too many children that seem to be over-scheduled. I want to have a good balance of fun, educational, free time and family time. I'd like to have a little free time too, but I feel like that will come later. Even though I have only two children and really only work at homeschooling one of them, it takes quite a bit of planning, commitment and time. When things seem so busy, I remember that this is only a season in my life...or maybe two.

I'm going to try and put together a post of Maggie's weekly work binder and our curriculum choices soon. I'd like for her to look back on what we did one day and it may be of interest to someone else that's homeschooling.

Celebrate Good Times!!

On Sunday evening we celebrated my nephew! His birthday is today and he is 21. I'm still not sure how that happened.

My sister decided that he is a little too old for a "real" birthday party, so we had an informal family gathering and ate finger foods last night. I'm always trying to come up with something that's a little different for functions like these. ..other than my Yogurt Spinach Dip.

When we enrolled in our homeschool group, we had snacks and drinks before the "meeting". I put the tiniest spoonful of an amazing dip on my plate. After I'd had one bite I wanted the recipe. I thought about asking around, but the group is large and the only other person that I knew was my cousin. So, I chit-chatted with the parents (of nine homeschooled children) at my table and thought I'd look online for a similar recipe. The very next day, the homeschool group's founder asked for website help on facebook. I saw where one of the members said that she had a website and could help. I clicked over to her site and found out that it was a food blog. I did a search for the dip and found it. And now we're facebook friends.

So here's the recipe that I'm going to call Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip! I'm already thinking this may be a neat dip for Big daddy to take to office parties and such.

Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip
2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c mayo
8 oz chopped green chiles
2 oz canned/jarred jalapenos, chopped
1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
Mix first four ingredients in bowl. Transfer to casserole dish and top with shredded parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve hot with tortilla chips.

This isn't the healthiest dip, but if you're serving it at a party with lots of people you'll probably only eat a bit. To balance things out, I also fixed homemade salsa using a copycat recipe for Chili's Salsa.

Copycat Chili's Salsa

1- 14 oz can of tomatoes and green chiles
1- 14 oz can of whole tomatoes 4t jalapenos (I used canned)
1/4 c onion 1/2 t garlic salt (I used garlic powder)
1/2 t cumin
Put in blender until desired consistency. (I made mine a little runny, just like Chili's.) Transfer to bowl and chill. Serve with tortilla chips. It tastes better after it's a few hours old and all of the flavors have time to blend.

On a completely different note, today also happens to be six year anniversary of the day that we saw Maggie on the ultrasound screen for the first time! After years of ultrasounds and visits to my gynecologists and midwives it was so exciting to see a baby on the screen! It also came after a couple of days of "unexplained" bleeding. Of course, we found out at Maggie's birth that this could have been an early symptom of our vasa previa. It really does only take a moment to diagnose life. I was sure that I had miscarried, so seeing and hearing her little heartbeat was even more amazing.

Another Whirlwind Week!

I feel like I've made it through another whirlwind week and I'm already looking at a busy calendar for the week that's about to start!!

I have had so many things that I wanted to take the time to blog about. This blog is a scrapbook of our daily lives and lots of things happen that I don't want to forget. Unfortunately, my free time seems to get less and less and homeschooling takes up so many of my thoughts. I plan to post a few things about homeschooling later. There are things that we're doing that I'd like to document for when the girls are older.

Big Daddy will be out of town all of next week. We'll have dance class, registration for homeschool electives, a teacher's meeting for our new Awana year at church and a field trip with our homeschool group on Friday. Thursday will be our only real free day and I think we'll spend it hanging out at home. There are times where I feel busier as a stay at home homeschooling mom of two than I felt on my busiest day in real estate.

I was finally able to finalize our Disney World reservations! Maggie woke up with a fever at 1am on Friday morning, threw up in her bed as soon as she woke up at 7am and spent the rest of the day on the couch. I used naptime to finish up our travel details with the travel agent (Small World Vacations- Annette F.) I cannot recommend them enough! I had already planned out exactly what we wanted, so we were able to do everything by email until time for payment. I feel so relieved...and excited.

Sunady is a special day. We had planned to attend Maggie's Graduation Luncheon at church, but it looks like she'll be staying at home and missing it. She's already asked if we could have a special luncheon at home. She will be leaving the preschool department and going to classes in a different building with all school-aged children. We feel so blessed that we go to this church and that she's had such a positive experience with everything involved in the Preschool Ministry.

Ellie will also changing classes. She will be going to a big girl class and will have the same teachers that she had for Bible School- Mr. Danny and Ms. Virginia. I know that she'll be okay because she talks about them all the time and everyone just thrives in their class. I'll really miss her sweet teachersMs. Alice and Ms. Denise.

Butterflies

Our church plans "H.A.P.P.P.Y" (Hands-On Activities for Preschoolers, Parents and You) Days field trips once a month during the summer months. We've never attended a HAPPY Day before, but we wanted to go to the butterfly farm and they have inconvenient hours for us, so we decided to skip the library and go.The butterflies were very friendly and I think every single person had at least one on their feeding pad, skin or clothes. I was the only one that was "fortunate" enough to have one in their hair...almost the entire time.

It was quite warm and Ellie was very hot. Both girls had been under the misting pergola and were pretty wet which attracted the butterflies even more!

I think my favorite part was looking at the butterflies in their chrysalis. There were several that were clear and ready to "hatch" and we were able to watch one as it emerged. It happened so fast, so I wasn't able to get a picture, but it was the chrysalis right beside of the butterfly with wet wings that is on the far right. That one had hatched just a few minutes before and was drying out.www.all-a-flutter.com

The Adventure of School At Home

To say that I was nervous and stressed about homeschooling Maggie is an understatement. I was totally overwhelmed with information.

After the first few days of "formal" work I felt SO much better about our ability to make this work. I found out that Maggie is a bit of a work-hog and was able to double the amount of lessons that I'd planned for us to do. I decided to do weekly lesson plans so that I could plan to cover certain things over a weekly period.

One of the reasons that we like the idea of homeschool, is because you can allow your child(ren) to work at their own pace, whether it's fast or slow. Starting next week, she'll be required to do the amount that I've planned, but she'll also be able to do an extra lesson or two if that's what she wants, but she is required to do a certain amount of work. I'm not letting her run our classroom. Allowing her to work at her own pace will mean that I'll have to do lesson plan work on a daily basis, but that's okay. We really want to feed her love of learning when she's just starting out. I really think that keeping children engaged helps to foster a love of learning, hopefully for a lifetime.

Maggie often does her phonics and handwriting work shortly before Ellie's nap because she is eager to "get to work". During Ellie's nap we focus on math, reading, history and geography. She loves looking at maps and finding things on our globe. Next week we are doing lots of geography, thanks to a great book I checked out at the library yesterday.
Ellie is pretty serious about her work too!!

I didn't think that I would love doing this, but I do! I can truly say that I adore teaching Maggie math concepts and how to read a map and crazy things like that! I have felt more fulfilled and this adventure has been such a blessing so far.

And on a completely different note...
Today is the birthday of a very special young lady. On July 1, 1994 a sweet baby girl was born. Her mom had undiagnosed Vasa Previa, just like we had with Maggie. Unfortunately, Kayla wasn't born completely healthy like our Maggie was. Kayla has never spoken, never eaten and never taken a first step. Kayla's mom has been such a source of inspiration for me and Kayla is very loved and well-taken care of. Just a reminder to me that we are so very blessed.

Oh The Things You Say!

We were driving down the road and Maggie saw a two-story house that was getting a new roof. She said- "Oh, they're really high up. I wouldn't want to do that job. I don't think I want to do anything when I grow up. I'll just stay with you and be a pretend nun".

If you ask Ellie, "how are you" or something that sounds like that question she either says "good" or "two".

Less Words Wednesday

Ellie has discovered the magic of a pretty tutu. The only one that she has (until I make her another one) is the one I made her when she was a few months old. This video was taken right after we came home from the beach (hence all of the stuff on the counters and stove) and of course, they thought I was just messing with the camera. My favorite part is when Ellie says "excuse me" at the 23 second mark.

Finally...

I don't like family pictures where the family is at the beach wearing khakis, white shirts and sitting near sand dunes. I like coordinating outfits just fine, but the match-y stuff gets me.
I LOVE pictures of kids in matching outfits! Finally getting a picture of Maggie & Ellie in their matching dresses (even if it wasn't the matching dresses I wanted) made me happy!!

These girls LOVE each other, but they aren't allowed to touch for pictures. It causes Maggie to scrunch down and Ellie to push her away and say, "no,no".

Ellie's official two year old picture.
Of course, Maggie had to wear her favorite American flag flip flops on the beach, but she'd had her nice sandals on all evening.


We have found that we take less pictures since we have two kids, so I think I only have a little over a hundred pictures of our four day trip. This was another one of those times where Big Daddy and I were amazed at how much our lives have changed since becoming parents. Watching Maggie and Ellie play in the sand and waves for a few minutes beats relaxing on the beach for hours without a care in the world any day.
Well, almost. It's a different kind of relaxing.

Less Words Wednesday

Sweet Maggie graduated from preschool today and she had the honor of leading the three graduating classes in!

This is Bubba (real name Joshua, but he prefers his nickname Bubba and that's what I call him since that's the name in his cubbie) , one of Maggie's best friends that happens to be a boy. He often walks up as soon as we enter the classroom and says, "Maggie, you look beautiful today" or "Maggie, your hair looks beautiful like that". He is the sweetest, most genuine and sincerely happy kid. Maggie said she wanted popcorn while they were playing with Ellie on the playground and he didn't miss a beat offering to get some for her.
I sort of love him.

Maggie's preschool teacher this year was perfect for her!

Turning Five

We saw almost all of the animals up close when we went to the zoo, but the day was really about Maggie turning five! I took lots of pictures of her, not just because it was her birthday, but because she actually asked me to. Very rare these days!This is a five year old walking backwards up a hill.

Maggie wanted to wear a shirt that I bought her last week, but she wanted to wear it with capris. The only capris that she has for this year are the orange pair that Aunt Lisa gave her for her birthday. Imagine that, she doesn't match.

I'm not sure how it happened, but we missed these beetles last time and Maggie LOVES beetles! They're right up there with caterpillars in her book!

She chose the bird nest-spinny-thing on the carousel. Of course, Ellie wanted to ride with her, but she didn't like so many different rotations. I think she would have enjoyed a normal animal a little more.

Ellie carried an umbrella 95% of the time. I put it in the stroller because it seemed extra cloudy when we arrived at the zoo. We had perfect weather, but Ellie liked the extra protection.

Of course, it's always fun until someone gets hurt. We were getting in the car (minivan) to go to the Library to deliver a birthday card to one of our special librarians when Ellie had an accident. She was following Maggie and they bumped (Maggie really smashed into her) in the driveway and Ellie's face smacked the concrete pretty hard with her face. I reminded Maggie that it wouldn't have happened if they had stayed in the garage like they were supposed to.

Ellie's face changed colors several times after the fall and before bed last night.


Maggie was in the floor and reached for a book just as Ellie was handing/throwing it to her and of course, it hit her in the eye. She had two little marks that bled and started to swell...and then bruise.

It turns out that five is just as dramatic as four!

And that is how we celebrated turning five and how both of my children ended a most perfect day with black eyes.