Preschool Graduation

Can you believe it? Emily has finished her first year of preschool! Her graduation ceremony was held this week and church and everyone came out to cheer her on during her program. She has been so excited that she could hardly go to sleep at night. She even raised up just before dozing off on the night before her program to remind me that her hair needed "to look beautiful for Miss Virginia for the program." She also woke us up last weekend singing "The Ants Go Marching One by One" into the monitor at top volume...and continued singing after climbing into bed with us. So much for sleeping in! I made her a special headband to match her school shirt so that she would be well-coiffed for the event and make Miss Virginia proud. She did a fantastic job, even if we are a bit biased. She loves to sing and dance and performed all of her songs without a hitch - she even had a special part during the "Down by the Bay" performance. I loved looking around the room and seeing friends from high school with the same goofy lovestruck looks on their faces as the two of us as we all watched our children perform on the stage. Can't believe she'll be in the four year old class next year. Now if we can just get the matter of the fish and fish bowl settled before school starts back up...

Happy Birthday!

We went to a birthday party for a friend at a local jumping center this weekend and Emily had a blast! I'm always scared of these places - too much can go wrong! However, all the kids were roughly the same size and they all played together really well. She had loads of fun climbing up the slide and romping through the inflatable mazes. I got to go along for several trips down the slide. Donald was healing up from a soccer injury and was sidelined with the camera, but that means we got lots of great pictures. She was exhausted by the time we got back to the White House, which meant a long roll-up for both of us. I love weekend naps!

Night time visitors

We have a new friend who comes out to play at night - Rocky the Raccoon! Sometimes, if we're lucky, he comes over to visit before Emily heads upstairs to sleep and we all get to peek out the windows at him for a while. We had a little photo shoot the other night, which is no small feat with a wiggly raccoon in the dark. Who needs to visit the Wild Animal Safari when we have friends like this in the back yard?

Braids!

I came home from school this week and didn't even recognize Emily. Mimi had french braided her hair into two of the sweetest little braids I've ever seen! I had to shoot some pictures. I can't understand how her crazy curly hair managed to stay slicked down like that. If you look closely in the pictures, you'll notice that there aren't even any pony tail holders on the ends of her braids. Her curls are so tight that the braids stayed in without any help! She even slept on it that way and it looked the same when she woke up.

Fun with T.C.

Emily has gotten the notion lately that she can "train" T.C. to sit and perform various other tricks. He has (so far, anyway) not responded to her instructions, but I have enjoyed catching her in the act and photographing their little lessons. Seeing her press on his behind and say "Sit! Sit!" in such a stern voice while T.C. attempts to slither out from under her little hands is loads of fun for me. Thank goodness that T.C., despite his really loud and annoying voice, has been very patient with her!

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!