Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. Lillie got a two wheeled scooter from Santa and Sophie got a Sofia the First castle from Santa.
Lillie woke us up at 7:15 on Christmas morning to open presents. They loved all of their presents and we had fun playing the games and putting their toys together too.

We took this picture of the girls on Christmas eve. Lillie's smile looks funny in this picture because she had a loose tooth and it was hanging at a weird angle. She finally lost that top tooth tonight. The tooth came out too late for us to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."

Santa and Nativity

Today, we went to see Santa and we saw a Christmas miracle. Sophie did not cry when she sat on his lap. She has cried the last two years.

Lillie and Sophie told him what they wanted for Christmas. After, we went to decorate bags and write a letter to Santa.
Later this afternoon, Lillie played an angel in the Nativity play. She played angel 2 and 3. She whispered in Joseph's ear and she appeared to the shepherds.

Earlier this week, I joined Lillie on her class field trip to the Delano Homestead at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Most of the field trip was outside and it was only 5 degrees outside.Lillie got to grind grain, make candles, fleece wool, make gingerbread cookies. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for Thanksgiving.

We had a great week. We played games, watched Lillie at gymnastics, went shopping, went to see the movie "Frozen" and updated the mantel on the fireplace.

Happy Halloween

Sophie had her first Halloween Party at Preschool. Sophie is in the back row, in purple, as Sofia the first.

We played games at her school, 

made a trick or treat bag, and trunk or treated.

Later that afternoon, I went to Lillie's school for her class Halloween party. Lillie is in the front row, with the Hello Kitty hat on.

Lillie's class played games, 

ate snacks, and had a school parade. Lillie is between Sponge Bob and Iron Man.

Later that night, we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Sophie told me "This is the best day ever."

Visit from Grandpa

Last week, Grandpa came to visit. He helped us carve our pumpkins.

He got to see Lillie at her gymnastics class. He also got to see Lillie and Sophie's schools.

On Tuesday, we trunk or treated at the Gilmore Car Museum and we rode a double decker bus.

On Wednesday, we visited the Bird Sanctuary and Dairy farm to watch the robots milk the cows.

It was a great week.

Sophie's New Earrings and Lillie Cheers for Gull Lake High School

Yesterday, was an exciting day for us. Sophie got her ears pierced. She picked out purple earrings.

She let out a quick cry after they did them, but I picked her up and she stopped. She didn't cry any tears. The pinch just scared her.

Later that night, we watch Lillie cheer at the Gull Lake High School football game. 

She is the one, on the right side of the picture below. She cheered for 15 minutes of the game.

The night before she had a practice to learn some of the cheers, jumps and stunts. Including this stunt below. It was a great experience for Lillie and we got to see Gull Lake play for the first time. Gull Lake unfortunately lost the game, but Lillie had a great time.

Lillie and her friends from Kellogg Elementary school. 2nd grader, Ella, Grace, Lillie, 2nd grader.

 Lillie and other Jack and Jill Preschool Friends. Lilyanna, Ashley, Lillie, Amanda, Rylee.

Lillie lost her first tooth

Since May, Lillie has had 2 permanent coming in behind her bottom baby teeth. The Dentist said that she would have the 2 baby teeth out between the 4th of July and Labor Day. He was wrong.
She finally lost her first one tonight. She was scared that it was going to hurt. I told her to go wiggle it in the mirror and watch her tooth go sideways. She wiggled it sideways and then practically fell out. I hope that the gift from the Tooth Fairy will motivate her to keep wiggling the other 4 teeth that are loose.

She is holding her baby tooth in the picture above. School picture day is tomorrow and it is going to be a cute picture.

Sophie's 1st day of Preschool

Sophie had a great first day of preschool. We took lots of great pictures.

Sophie and Beth.

Sophie and Brian.

 Sophie standing under the school sign.

Today was meet the teacher day, so the parents stayed close by while the students sang some songs, read a book, and played with some of the toys in the school. Since, it was a hot day, the kids got to go outside and play before we went home. Last week, Sophie met Lauren (blonde girl in pink) and they were excited to see each other and play together again. We are also friends with Wendell's family (boy next to Sophie). His dad is from Nebraska and we hatch chicks from the eggs from their farm.

Of course, Sophie would not let me forget that she got a cookie and balloon on her first day of school (like Lillie did last week). She picked out this balloon at Dollar Tree and she helped me decorate the cookie with sprinkles. She even spelled out her name for me to write it on the cookie.

1st day of 1st Grade

Lillie had a great 1st day of 1st grade.

Sophie had her picture taken with Lillie and she said that she was going to miss her.

We had our picture also taken at the bus stop as we waited for the bus.

This year, Lillie looked confident and excited as she got on the bus. Since, she is in 1st grade, she got to sit anywhere that she wanted. She sat next to two of her 3 best friends on the way to and from school. Her other best friend is on another bus.

 Sophie and I met Lillie at school and took her picture with her teacher, Mrs. Renne.

Sophie and I made Lillie a "1st day of 1st grade" cookie. I told Sophie that she could have some after we got Lillie from the bus stop. When we got home Sophie picked up the plate on the left. She thought that she could eat the whole thing.

Yesterday, Lillie and Brian had fun afternoon in Battle Creek. They ran an errand to Menard's and then stopped for ice cream and a visit to see his office. She was quite happy in this picture.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Last week, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit.

We had a lot of fun playing lots of games, reading lots of books, making S'mores, and visiting Frankenmuth.

Beth, Sophie and Lillie had their picture taken with this sign. We ate lunch at the Bavarian Inn, a German-American Restaurant. While at lunch we were entertained by a guy in lederhosen playing an accordion. When he walked into another section of the restaurant, Sophie asked "where is the music man." After lunch we went into the gift shop and bought Sophie her own accordion. This was special since her Great-Grandfather played the accordion.

After lunch, we did some Christmas shopping at Bronner's and Back to School shopping at the outlet mall.

Lillie had a mini recital at Mrs. Lawrence's (piano teacher) house as part of her twinkle graduation party.  Lillie made it through the first part of her suzuki book. She had to play 4 different songs from memory including "twinkle little star" and the variations.

We went fishing and Sophie caught her first fish and she caught one more.  She was scared of the fish, when it would jump about.

Lillie caught 3 fish. She also caught the biggest fish of the day.

We had a great week and we can't wait until we see them again.

Sherman Lake camp and Blueberries

Last week, Lillie attended a day camp at the Sherman Lake YMCA camp ground. She had a lot of fun. During the 5 days of camp, she swam, Kayaked, climbed the rock wall, did archery, played camp games, and had lots of fun. Thursday night was family night. Lillie got to show us around camp and we tried a few things like the archery and rock wall. 

While Lillie was a camp, Sophie and I picked blueberries one morning. We went with some friends and Lillie was disappointed that we went without her. We picked 7 pounds in less than an hour. I had enough for 2 batches of jam and Lillie and Sophie ate the rest. Sophie probably ate more than what she put in the bucket, but she picked the entire time that we were there.