Tea for Two (or five)

Emily was recently invited to what promised to be an absolutely fantastic tea party thrown by some friends of ours. However, on the day of the party, she was running a fever. I didn't want to be the Mom who takes the feverish kid to the party and infects all the others, so we opted to stay home and rest instead. Emily was VERY disappointed to have missed out on the fun (we had already packed a bag of dress-up clothes to take with us and a special animal to share her tea!), so we tried to recreate the fun a few days later when she was feeling better. Mom, and Amy, and I joined Abby and Emily for tea at the Farr House, complete with costumes and fancy food. Amy and I had a good laugh because the teapot we used is from Mom's old set of china. I saved it when she got rid of the dishes because Amy and I used to play tea party with it when we were little. They think it's hilarious that among my many sets of dishes I have a set (plus linens!) that are reserved especially for little girl tea parties. Any good hostess is always prepared for these things, right? At any rate, the girls had a good time together and refused to take their costumes off for several hours while they chased each other around the house waving their fairy wands. I'm looking forward to a repeat performance sometime soon!

Making Music

Emily and Abby were caught playing the piano the other day in this cute picture. Abby likes to give Emily "lessons" sometimes. It's very sweet, but it only takes a little while for the listeners in the room to get an earful of their musical creations! Makes for a sweet picture, though.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Emily came home from school on Groundhog Day with a very fun craft. The class made a groundhog puppet with a straw, paper cup, and groundhog cutout. They also learned a song to go along with their puppets and she was very proud of her new knowledge - she sang the song all night! Nothing shy about her. You can't see it very well in the video but her groundhog is...you guessed it! Purple! When I asked her about this, she told me that all the other boys and girls colored their groundhogs brown but she really wanted hers to be purple. I couldn't argue with that logic. I love it that she thinks outside the box! Hope you enjoy the groundhog song, as well as T.C.'s unexpected appearance. He was a bit of a camera hog during our taping session!

All the Ladies

Amy and I gave Mom a digital picture frame for her birthday this January and I loaded it up with pictures from both of our computers. This gave me the opportunity to hijack all of the pictures off of their hard drive and save them to my own. Turns out they have tons of fun pictues of our girls that I had never seen before! I love this picture of all four of us together. It was taken at Amy's birthday dinner back in October. It's rare to get a shot of all of us together with everyone looking at the camera and smiling!

Hanging out with My Valentines

While Donald was away at a soccer game this week, Emily and I traveled to the Farr House for some arts and crafts. Amy, Mimi, Abby, Emily, and I had lots of fun making valentines for our nearest and dearest. We had fun stamping, coloring, and sticking before bundling up to head back home. Will it EVER warm back up? Amy's "Friends in Any Weather" card wins my award for best stamp and pastel combo, but Emily's sticker and marker creations were pretty fantastic, too. Thanks to Auntie Yam for pulling out her fun Stampin' Up supplies. Our valentines are ready to be mailed, so be on the lookout in your mailbox for a fabulous hand-crafted creation! Happy Valentine's Day!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Because I cooked supper tonight, Donald was sweet enough to do the dishes while Emily and I had a little girl time together. By the way, you read correctly - I cooked supper! Don't be so surprised. Emily and I snuggled in front of the fire while I gave her a pedicure. While Donald and I were on the cruise at Christmas, she got her first toenail painting at Mimi and Papa's house - purple, of course! They've been redone several times since then, but were looking a little ratty so I convinced her to let me update her look. I don't have any purple, but she agreed to let me paint them pink - just until I can go out and buy some purple polish! We had a good time and stayed toasty in front of the fire - a bonus in this shivery weather!

Happy 40th Birthday, PCES!

My school recently celebrated its fortieth birthday with a big party for faculty, students, and former staff members. Emily and Donald joined me for the big event and Emily had a great time. She had been looking forward to going to the party and having "lots of cake." Each class was asked to submit a decorated cake and guests were allowed to vote for their favorite cake. Emily loved voting and carefully selected the cake that had the most purple icing. She also enjoyed buying mardi gras beads to benefit Relay for Life - also in purple. Her favorite part of the evening was playing with balloons on the dance floor - of course, she chose a purple balloon. After a certain point, the dance floor became a bit of a mosh pit, so she and Donald hung out in the library with Curious George while I finished packing up the slide show equipment (my portion of the evening's entertainment!) I snapped a few cute pictures of Emily in her sassy boots and wanted to share them with you all!

Superbowl Sunday

To celebrate Superbowl Sunday, we invited over a houseful of Emily's favorite people. She and Abby spent the evening chasing each other around and playing upstairs (miraculously not destroying the playroom any worse than it already is!) and the adults stayed downstairs eating, eating, eating and watching the game. Making pizza has become a bit of a tradition at the White House, so we laid in a supply of pizza toppings for Emily and Abby to create their own mini-pizzas. They had lots of fun, although I can't say that Emily ate hers after it was cooked. She prefers to eat most of the toppings raw! Abby did a much better job of cleaning her plate. She and Emily had some exciting moments trying to escape Adrian, who's always trying to get one of Emily's curls. I think this was the latest that Emily's ever stayed up. By the time everyone went home, she looked like a little owl with big round eyes! Rhonda and I tried to convince her to lie down, but there was no persuading her to get in bed while fun was happening downstairs. She was happy to climb into her bed at the end of the night, but I'm afraid she was not on her best game for school the next day! Happy Superbowl!

More from Baby Jace

Another funny video from Baby Jace. Apparently he has a love/hate relationship with baby food. Who doesn't love banana baby food? It was one of Emily's favorites. He seems to be getting to the toddler-opinionated stage really early!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4DNSIsPpHE

Comfy Cozy

Getting Emily ready to go out anywhere during this cold snap has been lots of fun because she has numerous snazzy hats, scarves, and sets of gloves. She particularly likes this polka dotted hat from Old Navy. She wears it around the house and makes snow angels on the living room rug. Let's not even talk about what her mop-top looks like when she takes the hat off! She's too cute wearing it to worry about all the tangles that will come later.

Our Little Mozart

This month's edition of Parents magazine has an article titled "Why toddlers like to get naked - and other mysteries revealed." I'm thinking of submitting this photo of Emily to the publishers. What do you think?

Ten Years!

On December 19, Donald and I celebrated our tenth anniversary! I can hardly believe it's been so long. We booked a Caribbean cruise to Key West and Cozumel aboard the Celebrity Century and had an amazing trip. We left out on December 20 and arrived home on on Christmas Eve afternoon - no small feat, considering the general craziness of the Atlanta airport! We didn't think we were going to make the plane to Miami, but by grace and Donald's good schmoozing skills, we were able to get through security with time to stop for breakfast. Our ship was amazing - we would highly recommend the Celebrity line if you're planning a cruise. The food was wonderful and the staff took care of everything we needed. We enjoyed having a huge breakfast on our veranda each day - and also enjoyed a huge supper in the gorgeous dining room each evening. Key West was incredible. We spent lots of time exploring Hemingway's house and getting friendly with the many six-toed cats running around. Of course, that was my favorite spot. We spent some time at Carlos and Charlie's in Mexico where we practiced a bit of Spanish and did some shopping for the girls. I spent some lazy hours catching up on reading while Donald hung out in the casino during our last day at sea - which was incredibly rocky. Break out the Dramamine! Donald was the big winner, as you'll see from the pictures in the slideshow. And he remembered to buy me something pretty with his winnings, too! We were very relieved to make it home on Christmas Eve - we've never spent that much time away from Emily. Incidentally, she had a fantastic time feasting on pancakes, making play-doh creations, getting her toes painted purple, and generaly being spoiled rotten with Mimi, Papa, Abby, Amy, Cici, and Granddaddy. We're planning another cruise soon and are expecting you all to go along with us, so start saving now!

Christmas 2008

Donald and I came back from our anniversary cruise just in time for Christmas Eve at the Farr House. We had a wonderful supper, opened some gifts with the girls, and hurried home to put out cookies and milk for Santa, as well as reindeer food for Santa's helpers. Of course, it was raining on Christmas Eve, if you will remember, so Daddy was dispatched to the yard to sprinkle the reindeer food while we watched from the front steps! Christmas morning was wonderful - the look on Emily's face when she saw all the purple presents Santa left her (her signature color) was so exciting! We shared breakfast with our friends Amy and Lane before heading off to the other White House for lunch. Emily had a great time there chasing Max the cat and playing with her new pink piano. We got together with the Farrs again on Christmas evening to open our gifts for each other. All in all, a very busy but great day! Hope you enjoy these pictures and that your holiday was merry!

Baby Jace is famous!

Check out these two You Tube videos of Baby Jace. He's such a sweetie - and looks exactly like his Mom, my cousin Shea. The first video is of him having green beans for the first time and the second is a silly baby giggle video. Very sweet! Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK4Uh8VrZc0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gUOUHno-w

Playing in the Leaves

On the day after Thanksgiving, Emily helped us hang up the wreaths on the outside of the house and do a little yard work. She specifically wanted to jump in piles of leaves because she's seen Moose A. Moose on the Noggin channel do this. I raked up big piles (we have loads of leaves!) and she had a blast jumping in and out of them. I took lots of pictures of her playing around before heading inside to wash her off....and check her for ticks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. It was lots of fun for Emily to be running around and "helping" us in the kitchen make things to take for lunch. Our families met together at my Nanny's house for lunch. After lunch, the weather was beautiful and everyone ran outside to play catch with the two girls. Bobby was home from college, which was great for Emily - she's his number one fan. We all went home to take massive naps and then returned in the evening for leftovers. My pants are getting tight just thinking about all we ate! It was wonderful to have a table full of family to share such a wonderful meal with. Looking forward to next year already!

Callaway's Nights of Lights

This year was the first time we took Emily to see the Christmas lights at Callaway. We drove down after school and actually spent the night. We enjoyed our stay so much over the summer that we thought it would be fun to spend the night and visit the gardens the next day. Emily had a blast viewing the lights. Predictably, the purple ones were her favorite, although she really liked the swan swimming across the lake and the frog that jumps over the road. We woke up and went down to breakfast the next morning and were greated by Rudolph and the Gingerbread Man. Emily's never seen characters in costume like that and we thought she might be scared. No such luck! She was all over both of them and insisted on going up to give them goodbye hugs before we could leave. After breakfast, we visited the butterfly center, which is a favorite of hers. We had fun, but it was WAY too cold and windy to go anywhere else. We made a stop by the country store for some goodies (fudge, of course) and then headed home. I hope we can make this fun weekend a holiday tradition!

Snuggling at the country store

Pretty sure it's dangerous for her head to fit through the bars like that

She loves to feed the fish

Checking out the butterfly center

Thanksgiving Feast

Donald and I, along with our parents, attended Emily's Thanksgiving Feast at her school. It was so sweet! She and her class performed several songs wearing their special Thanksgiving outfits. Then we all went downstairs together to enjoy a delicious lunch - and I mean delicious. It was real Thanksgiving food prepared by the ladies of the church. Yum! She was very proud to show off her school, her outfit, and the special table decorations each class had made. On a different note, Granddaddy White (aka Santa Gus) caused a bit of a stir with the nursery schoolers. Emily's best friend came up to him and openly confessed that she's been pretty naughty this year! They say the funniest things...

Birthday Party Fun

Emily recently attended her first "friend" birthday party for her best friend at school. They had a blast at a jumping play place, ate lots of cupcakes, and zoomed up and down slides all afternon. The parents of the little girl are actually from Palmetto and we knew lots of the other guests, so it was fun for the parents, as well! Emily got stuck inside on of the jumpers at one point and I had to climb in to rescue her - loads of fun! She wouldn't agree to leave because she was having such fun, so we had to make a grab and dash to get out of there. All in all, a very fun first birthday party!