A Family Fun Night

Here are my loves enjoying the nice weather (finally) at "Kites in the Park" night last week! Sophia didn't seem too into flying the kite (she had more fun decorating it) but Lily loved it and held onto the kite almost the whole night! Amelia spent the evening hanging out with her Nini, watching the kites and snoozing in Nini's arms.

Oh no they didn't!

Yes, yes they did and this lovely image is what I walked into a couple of weeks ago (sorry for the crappy pic, it was taken on my phone). That morning Sophia & Lily apparently decided that the literally 10 - 15 coloring books, drawing pads and construction paper were just not enough. They needed to spread their artistic talents around and so they took to the dresser with black, green and purple crayons. I had no idea they had done anything wrong until I went into their room later that morning to collect dirty laundry. OH. MY. GOSH. When Sophia saw me notice their "artwork" she immediately blamed it on Lily. Thing is, Sophia has been on this kick of putting x's all over her coloring books, she x'd out a picture of a dog once because Lily is afraid of dogs. So I knew that it wasn't just Lily. I may not have been there but I know my kids coloring "styles" and I saw them both on this "masterpiece". After a stern talk about only coloring on paper I informed them that there would be no more coloring in the bedroom and that they had lost all coloring items for a week. Then we got some Magic Erasers and I had the kids clean up their mess. The dresser is all cleaned up now and Mommy learned an important lesson: Never leave crayons in the unsupervised hands of a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

I Am So NOT Ready For This!

Sophia starting Kindergarten that is! Last week we had "dabble day", where the incoming Kindergarteners get to "dabble" in the classrooms, meet the teachers and enjoy a few fun activities. My understanding or assumption really, was that the parents would be included in this fun as well. Want to know what I spent an hour and a half doing that morning????  I spent my morning sitting in tiny chairs, around a small, kid-sized table with Brendon and about 5 other parents cutting out shapes with tiny, kid-sized scissors. Doesn't that sound like fun????

Anyway, Sophia is seriously excited about going to Kindergarten, it's the focus of many of our conversations lately. She will tell me several times a day how excited she is and tells everyone she sees "I'm going to Kindergarten!!" It's cute and awesome that she is so excited but, as I'm sure any Mom can attest to, it's a little sad seeing my first baby growing up so fast. 

We have also discovered that Sophia has 2 loose teeth! Her two front, bottom teeth are super loose and one of her adult teeth has already pushed through the gums. On Friday I was scolded (by Sophia) for putting apple slices in her lunchbox and instructed not to do that again until her teeth came out.

Belly Bubbles

So lately Lily has been trying to express her needs to me. She still gets her words mixed up though and it's so darn cute! For example she spends much of our morning telling me she's "thirsty" which either means she needs a drink or that she's hungry. She tells me something is cold when she means hot and hot when she means cold too. This morning she stood in the living room excitedly telling me that she had bubbles in her belly button (hence the above picture) which I can only figure she meant her stomach was growling or maybe she had gas, either way it is TOO. CUTE.

Have You Ever?

Have you ever laid in bed at night, just thinking about your day and feeling like the luckiest person alive?
Last night was one of those nights for me. Most nights I lay in bed, say my prayers, thank God for all that He has given me, and drift off to sleep; but last night was one of those nights where I felt truly blessed and I started thinking of all the reasons why:
I have an amazing husband and we have an awesome relationship, my girls are happy, healthy and all around wonderful, we have a home that is filled with love, laughter, and often with family and friends as well, we have jobs, and we have food in the cupboard. All of that alone is enough to make anyone feel blessed and thankful. However,  I have also been blessed with a wonderful family, I have a great relationship with my mom, my dad, my step-mom, and my siblings, I have great grandparents, aunts and uncles and I am close with many cousins (even more now thanks to Facebook and someday I'll write a post about our annual camping reunions). I am also blessed to have an awesome and amazing "in-law family" and I feel lucky that they love me and that we have such great relationships.
As I closed my eyes last night and drifted off to sleep those were the things I thought about and I felt overwhelming happiness.

This Picture says so much. Photo taken by my brother Jay Austin