Party in the Park

Yesterday, was the Kalamazoo Library's "party in the park" event. The kids got a snack, drink box and a free book. Our group of kids found a spot and several volunteer readers came to our spot to read books to the kids. The Very Hungry Caterpillar read to them:

Sophie also enjoyed the stories and animal crackers.Lillie and Sophie eating crackers while listening to the story.

A banana read them a book:

The man in the yellow hat read them a story. Lillie is pictured with her Jack and Jill friends in this photo. The 4 year old Jack and Jill classes' mascot is Curious George.

They also had a chicken, a frog, a pizza man, the Kalamazoo Sheriff, and many city leaders read them books. They also got to meet Clifford the big red dog.

Lillie's last day of 3's Preschool and Sophie is 15 months old

Tuesday, was Lillie's Preschool field trip to the barn at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Here is a picture of Lillie with her friends and Preschool teacher, Mrs. Hoard. They learned where items from the grocery store came from. Milk, eggs, corn chips, etc. They also got to see and pet a horse, sheep, goats, calf, and baby chicks. After seeing the animals, they went on a wagon ride through the farm area.
Thursday, was Lillie's last day of 3's Preschool. I was fine until Mrs. Hoard started to cry. She was a great teacher and we couldn't have asked for a better teacher or first year of preschool for Lillie. We can't wait until she can go back in the fall. Many of her friends in this year's class will also be in her class next year.
Today, we went to the grocery store and Brian took Lillie and Sophie to the horse ride, while I checked out the groceries. Brian asked Lillie "how many times have you riden this horse." (At least once a week. It is only a penny to ride.) Lillie responded, "enough to get to Florida."

Sophie turned 15 months last week. Every birthday month, I take her picture with a little lamb to show how much she has grown each time. This time it was very hard to get her to sit still. It eventually turned into a game of us throwing the lamb back and forth. It snapped the picture below, right before she was going to throw it at me.
Sophie found her belly button yesterday. It was cute to see her look down at her belly inquisitively. She isn't walking, but she is taking a 2-3 steps, if we trick her.
She could walk, if she just had a little more confidence. She has been slower with walking, because her acid reflux causes her to arch her back and she has been sick for the past 8 months with colds, ear infections and strep throat.
Last week, when I was getting Sophie ready for church, she picked out a purple dress that she wore for her 1 year old photos. After picking it out, she pointed to the pictures of her in the dress with the bunny on her bedroom wall. She knew that it was the dress that she wore when she had her pictures taken with the bunny.
Sophie can say about 5 words. Today, I heard her say "fishy" when we were getting groceries today at Meijer's. (They have fish in their pet department.) I wasn't planning on stopping to look at the fish, but since this was the first time that she said "fishy," we stopped to look. She can also sign about 5 words.

bunny dress

Tea Party and Lillie Reads a Book!

Today, Lillie went to a birthday "Tea" party. The birthday girl, CiCi (in the middle), is in Lillie's dance class. The girl next to Lillie and across from Lillie are also in her dance class. The girls dressed up, had little sandwiches and apple juice for tea. The girls had a great time and so did the moms.

This weekend, Lillie picked out a book at bedtime to read to Brian. She did a great job reading it and only needed help with a couple of words. I have not read "Sleepy Dog" to her in over a year, so I know that she did not memorize it. She read it. Here is a link to the video of her reading it.

http://themarshsphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures/3194

Happy Mother's Day

Sophie was sick for Mother's day, but she is starting to feel better and eat more.

Today, Lillie had a Mother's Day tea at school. Her teacher, Mrs. Hoard told the kids, "to bring a special lady." Lillie told me that she didn't have a "Special Lady." I guess that Moms aren't "ladies."
Our schedule is getting busier with playdates and activities. She only has 3 weeks of preschool and 4 weeks of dance left this school year. But our summer is going to be busy. Lillie is really interested in Soccer, so we signed her up for soccer this summer and fall. She is also looking forward to a gymnastics class/camp in June.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter Sunday. Sophie is teething, so we were awake and ready to go to early mass today. The girls loved the goodies that the Easter Bunny left in their baskets.
Lillie has been making up her own songs. The most memorable ones is "Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter eggs" to the tune of "Jingle bells."

No, she isn't sleeping.

No, Sophie did not fall asleep on the floor. She is throwing a temper tantrum. If we tell her "no", she starts to cry and lays down on the floor. She is testing us and trying to control her feeding too. She is refusing to eat baby food and wants to feed herself. Her favorite food is Cheese or "chee" as Sophie says it. Sophie is pushing a shopping cart around the house and last week, she stopped at the refrigerator picked out a couple of magnets and dropped them into the shopping cart. Last week, Lillie's Preschool teacher asked her, "Where did you go on vacation?" Lillie replied, "I went to visit a few of my Disney friends." Later, that afternoon Lillie was playing in her room. I noticed that it was quite and she didn't answer my calls. She had crawled into her bed and fell asleep. She woke up a couple of hours later with a fever. We knew that something was up, because she has never crawled into her bed without us telling her that it was time for bed. She has not taken a nap in her bed in almost 2 years. Lillie colored the following gecko at the Library on Friday. It took her over 20 minutes to color it in, because it was the first project that she stayed inside the lines on. She also cut out the tail and glued it on by herself.

Mickey and Shamu

It was very difficult to choose a picture for our week in Florida. We took a lot of pictures and made a lot of memories with the girls. Lillie met almost every character at Disney world. Sophie was entranced by the characters, but she did not like the characters in the full costume. They scared her. When we visited the Castle Couture shop (Princess shop), Lillie had Pixie dust sprinkled on her. Brian said "You have fairy dust in your hair." Lillie responed, "it's pixie dust, not fairy dust." Another memory that we will not forget was when we watched Lillie dancing to the music during the fireworks show. Lillie still chants "Shamu, Shamu" like they did at the Shamu show at Sea World.