Relay for Life

Our school's Relay for Life team participated in a volleyball tournament against another school in the district this year and Emily was totally excited to go and cheer on the Pink Panthers. We all wore our pink (even Donald pulled out the pink polo - Emily wanted him to wear pink pants but he just couldn't find any in his closet) and Emily brought along her pom poms so that she could cheer with the cheerleaders. Although the Pink Panthes were not victorious, we had a great time - especially Emily. She got over the noise of the crowd pretty quickly and wanted to stay on the floor with the cheerleaders for the entire game! Throw in one blue lollipop at the end of the game, a pair of flashing glasses, and pizza at Partners and she was one happy girl.

Mary, Bertha, and the Little Lamb

This weekend we committed ourselves to working in the yard - which is not something we normally do and, unfortunately, it's starting to show. We got up early, threw on clothes and pinned up Emily's morning fro, and headed off to Panera for breakfast - one of our favorites this side of Joseph's in Charleston. After a delicious bagel and several scorching cups of coffee, we cruised to Lowe's to pick up some gardening essentials like Dora work gloves and knee pads, Dora trowels and cultivators, Dora purple plastic buckets, and any number of pink and purple bedding plants. Emily is so interested in working in the yard that we're hopeful she will take over this task for us as she gets bigger. After we got home, Donald headed out to pull up some unfortunately placed azaleas while Emily and I stayed inside to pot some new houseplants. We pulled the old plant out of my favorite white elephant planter (which I discovered later was a gift to my Mom from my Dad on the day I was born - how do I not know these things?) and then we replanted it with a beautiful pink plant that Emily picked out. We also planted some cuttings of the old plant in two smaller pots. Emily did a great job shoveling in the potting soil and made sure that the plants were well watered when we finished. Then she decided that the plants needed names. She named the smaller ones Mary and the Little Lamb and I chose Bertha for the elephant. We also scrapbooked some little name tags for the plants so that any visitors would also know their names - her idea, seriously. She is such a funny thing! After that it was time for a good, long rollup. We did outside gardening in the evening after waking up. She helped me trim back the marauding border grass that's threatening to take over our yard. You can tell that yard work is not our priority by the tools we used to do the job - I couldn't locate my little grass snippers, so Emily and I attacked the grass with her little kid scissors. Don't laugh - it worked and it looks much better! Don't you just love springtime?

Wild Animal Safari!

Emily missed out on attending the Yellow River Game Ranch field trip with her class, so Donald and I decided to take her on an adventure to the Wild Animal Safari at Pine Mountain. We had such a great trip! Emily loved riding in the zebra striped van (fairly grungy and smelled like wild animal kibble but a necessity - I didn't want watusi slobber all over my freshly washed car!) but was concerned about not being buckled in while we were riding. She's a safety girl. She loved feeding the animals and kept repeating that the animals must really love her. I think her special favorite was the giraffe but I loved the little squatty pigs that were running around everywhere. Donald was a great navigator and made it through the park without running over anything. There's a good reason I was in charge of picture taking in the back seat - driving is not my specialty! Donald also wins the prize for running into someone he knows while we were out. We have a kind of unofficial contest to see who will run into someone first when we're out somewhere. Donald has seen people he knows while on vacation in Hawaii, Charleston, and even while visiting the Wild Animal Safari! We thoroughly enjoyed our alternate field trip and would recommend the Safari to others with young children. Bring plenty of Wet Wipes! Oh, and be prepared with a kid-friendly explanation of why all the boy baboons seemed so "excited" to see us - and make sure to tell me what you came up with!

Happy Easter!

Emily had a great Easter this year. She woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had left her a purple basket full of purple goodies - books, bubbles, sunglasses, and chocolate bunnies. We met Cici and Grandaddy at Providence for church with them (Emily was intrigued by the contemporary service that was just finishing up when we arrived - lots of drums and flashing lights!) and then we headed home to put the finishing touches on lunch before company arrived. After a big lunch with Cici, Granddaddy, Amy, and Lane, we all settled in for an afternoon rollup. Then in the evening, we headed to the Farr House to share some leftovers and hunt some eggs in Papa's super-tall grass. Apparently he didn't cut the grass for a couple of weeks to let it get nice and high for egg hunting. The girls really had to do some digging to find all of their prizes! I have a feeling his lawnmower will probably turn up a plastic egg or two when he cuts it again. Em came back to the White House with a basket of prizes from Mim, Papa, Aunt Liz, Uncle Larry, and Miss Patsy. She's a lucky little girl - apparently lots of folks love her! Hope your Easter was full of family and chocolate bunnies!

Science Time!

Donald and Emily had some fun together while I slept in this morning. We ordered some shrimp and oysters from Florida from Joe Patti's in Pensacola which arrived yesterday packed in dry ice - a science teacher's favorite toy. When I woke up this morning, they had several different colored cocktails brewing all around the kitchen. Lots of fun!

Sally Soapsuds

Emily loves to play with shaving cream in the bath tub. It's good, clean fun - although sometimes she smells a little manly when she gets out! We bought her a new can to play with this Spring Break and I managed to snap this funny picture of her. I left the room to get a drink of water and when I came back, she was lathered from head to toe!

Linda's Playhouse

Mom and I took the girls to Linda's Playhouse in Peachtree City over Spring Break. What a fun place! Linda has basically rented a building and filled it with toys for children. There's are places for painting, building, dressing up, having tea parties, playing musical instruments, reading, weaving...all sorts of things! Abby painted all kinds of crafts while we were there and Emily had fun playing in all of the different centers. It was a really fun (and inexpensive) way to spend an afternoon.

Happy Easter!

Emily has the sweetest blue Easter dress to wear this year. I'm all ready for Easter Sunday - tights, shoes, dress, sweater (it's always so cold at Easter!), even a pair of white gloves! Luckily for us, she went out and found her own Easter bonnet just lying around the house. Isn't she creative? Seriously...I need to start picking up after myself!

Afternoon Rollup

We do love our afternoon rollups at the White House, including T.C. By the way, a rollup is a nap in Emily-speak. Donald snapped this picture of all of us resting together in the recliner. See if you can count all the heads - there's me, Emily, T.C., and Lucky the Possum. It's actually WAY more comfortable than it looks.

Two Mariposas!

Donald and I brought Emily and Abby back two feathered masks from our trip to New Orleans (more pictures from that later). They looked so cute dressed up together in their favorite colors! Emily likes to put her mask on at home along with a set of butterfly wings and yell "Mariposa!" at the top of her lungs as she runs around the house. That's butterfly in Spanish to you non-bilinguals out there. Get ready for a purple mariposa butterfly party at the White House this year!

A Day with the Girls

Donald and I spent the day with Emily and Abby and had lots of fun baking Easter egg-shaped cupcakes together. We cruised through Target and bought all of our supplies then stopped for a peek in the Oh! Chocolate store in Peachtree City. Yum! Very expensive, but completely delicious. We headed home for a baking session which included a lesson on color mixing from Donald. The girls had fun coloring their frosting and then decorating their cupcakes. And by the way - the silicone baking pan? Total rip off! But Emily loved it because it was purple.