Veggie Tales!

The Veggie Tales characters were at a local Chick Fil-A for a promotion of a new movie. If your kids dressed up as a princess, they got to eat for free. Yes please!

While Mom is Away, the Kiddies Will Play

I wanted to post some of the pictures of what Kaylon and the girls did while I was away- as you can see- they kept very busy!

A Puppet show

Carosel

Beach

Fishing

Crabbing

Feeding Ducks

They managed to get dressed for church!

Balitimore

Liliana the Kindergartner

I was very worried about sending Liliana to school. She is on the younger side. Her growth is 1.5 years behind. And she is usually off in her own world. She's a lot like I was when I was little, but I have a January birthday, so I wasn't as young. We have gone back and forth the past year about whether or not to put her in, and finally decided we would try it out and make a decision based on how she does.

I am happy to say that Liliana loves school. She is excited to get on the bus in the morning and comes home happy in the afternoon. She has brought home a smiley face every day this week, meaning that she has not disrespected the rules to the point of moving her green card to yellow. She remembers songs she learns in class and sings them to us. And, the biggest improvement I've seen, is she fine motor skills- which are way behind most 5 year olds. She is now trying to color in the lines, use different colors in her pictures, attempting to draw specific things, and writing her name... although she does it in a very interesting way. Maybe she's from the Middle East?

A rainbow

This is a duck, she said.

Again, her name backwards, as well as an example of better coloring.

She has a cute song that goes with this puppet.

So far, so good. Maybe she's more like me than I knew. After all, my grandmother told my mother not to expect me to do so well in school, since I was off in my own world, as well. :)

He Man Obsession

I have to laugh because as much as my girls are little princesses, they have their mom's tom boy streak as well. Who would expect a He Man post on an all girls blog?

Kaylon received a dvd several years ago with the top 10 He Man episodes and Moira saw them for the first time a couple weeks ago. She has become obsessed! She wants to watch it all the time. She "becomes" He Man when she plays and has assigned each of us our own character. Kaylon is Skeletor, I am Teela, Grace is the Sorceress, Liliana is Evil Lynn, Violet is Orko, and Yoda is Battle Cat. The other night she refused to call Kaylon 'Daddy" but instead prefaced all her conversations with his new name 'Skeletor.' (For example, "Skelotor, I need a drink!") She will point her sword at Yoda to make him Battle Cat and then call to him (unlike the real Battle Cat, ours does not listen to He Man so well). She also tells great He Man knock knock jokes: who's there? He Man. He Man who? By the power of Grayskull! And then she shoots you. Or, Battle Cat who? ROOAARR!!!

The obsession has come in handy. I have used it to make her "clean up as fast as He Man" as well as eat her "He Man food." Pretty Awesome. I'll post a video when Kaylon gets home- he has it on his phone.

Job Chart

We have started a job chart in our house. We (the parents) were getting tired of the girls whining every time they were asked to help out. So Kaylon came up with a great method for tracking jobs.



Each girl has a set of color-coded circles on the fridge (Grace-purple, Liliana-pink, and Moira-orange). Their chore-circles are chosen according to their age. When they do a chore they move one of the circles above the blue line. Everyone has to do at least one chore a day. If they do more than one then they get a quarter for each extra chore.

I didn't know how things would work at first- how much I would have to fight them to get them to work or how much I would have to help them, but I was pleasantly surprised. I sometimes get some kickback, but less and less as time goes on. And the awesome thing is that I don't have to do everything! Grace unloads the dishwasher, Liliana swiffer-vacs the floor, and Moira feeds Yoda. As long as I get the dishes down Liliana and Moira can set the table and Grace often collects all the small trash bags and takes them out. Makes me wish we had started it earlier. All the credit goes to Kaylon though- he did all the planning.

I almost forgot- the youngest has to put in some work as well- right now we're working on neck strength and smiling :)

Wonder What She's Learning in School...

Just overheard as Liliana and Moira play with their toys:

Liliana to Moira, "Do you know what respectful means? It means being nice to people."

YES! She's listening in class!

First Day Recap

Moira and I waited about 45 minutes in the rain for the bus to come. Next time we won't go out so early!

And here are the girls getting off the bus!


Grace told me that she had a great day and that the best part was lunch. I guess she and another boy made up a violent Mary Had a Little Lamb poem, that she told to Kaylon on the phone (but not me). Lovely.

I pried out of Liliana that her favorite part of the day was sleeping when her legs were tired (???) and that her next favorite was "coming home to your family." She did say she liked her teacher and made friends, and brought home a picture of her and the school bus, so, so far so good.

The Girls at Home

We couldn't leave out the younger two! It won't be too long before they get on the school bus too!

School Year 2011-2012

Everything I've wanted to do lately has been hinged on when the girls start school... starting at the gym, potty training Moira, going shopping more often, and generally organizing my life. Well, all my excuses are now gone: school started today. It was rainy and quite chilly this morning- I don't think it's supposed to even hit 70 today (which is a blessing since the a/c went out again last night).

Both Grace and Liliana woke up excited and got dressed quickly. I made french toast for everyone, wrote out lunch checks, did hair, packed snacks, and reminded the girls what they were buying for lunch. We took pics inside because of the rain and then walked to the bus stop.
We were only there a few minutes when the bus came around the corner. I had expected a little more time, so i gave up finding my camera in exchange for hugs from my girls. Liliana was the first one on the bus. She gave the bus driver a high five, walked to her seat, and waved and blew us kisses until she couldn't see us anymore. Grace got in line with her neighbor friends and didn't give us a second glance. I was misty eyed, but didn't cry. Still it felt like half my heart was on that bus.

I drove Kaylon to the metro, so as soon as I got home I checked the phone for messages; I guess Liliana is doing alright since there have no phone calls from the school. Now it's just me and the little girls. Guess it's time to break Moira of her TV addiction and start potty training... :)