ready for the pool

Dance recital part 2

Two years ago Nyla had her first dance recital. She was so excited afterward that she wouldn't take off her costume and insisted on sleeping in it.

Last year she did the same thing.

No matter how itchy the kids claim the costumes are ahead of time, they still want to sleep in them that first night. The excitement of the day hasn't worn off yet.

Dance Recital

Here are some dance recital pictures of the girls.

The kids at Orange Leaf afterward.

Nyla's costume came with a cute little hood and cape. Her ballet dance had a little red riding hood theme.

Arboretum

We went to the arboretum today. Here are some pictures of the girls. They are wearing their Sound of Music inspired dresses. (Yes, I do have curtains to match).

Salty cinnamon water

Yesterday Celia was in the mood for baking:

Celia: I want to make something.
Wyndee: Oh Celia, we still have a bunch of cupcakes left from yesterday.  Let's wait until the weekend at least.
Celia: I want to make something with water.  And cinnamon.  And salt.

So Wyndee got out a bowl, put water in it, gave her some cinnamon, salt, and a spoon for mixing and let her have at it.  The look on Celia's face when she tasted it was priceless, but unfortunately not recorded on camera.

Nyla showing off her earrings. Clip-ons of course, she is terrified of getting her ears pierced.

Celia on a toad stool.

Climbing the fence.

Goofy!

Nyla in school at the Muffins for Moms mother's day party at school. They read a little poem to us. They each had a line.

May 2013

 Celia, after her preschool program.

Nyla and Celia in a little log cabin.

Nyla dangling.

I got this dress out for celia today and remembered taking this picture of Nyla in it. 

A week's worth of groceries

I saw something online the other day with photos of families from around the world posing next to what a week's worth of groceries looks like for them.  I thought it was interesting and wanted to take our own photo.  Here's our week of groceries:

Full disclosure: We also bought three gallons of milk, but Wyndee made me refrigerate them.  And there was a pound of celery that didn't make it onto the table somehow, although if you zoom way in, you can see it on the counter.  I think it's a pretty representative picture, except for maybe the watermelon and the fact that certain things like rice and beans (both of which we plan to consume this week) we tend to buy in bulk.

Celia does not like to admit when she's wrong

Celia and Wyndee had the following conversation at lunch the other day:

W: Do you want some stuffing?
C: No.  It's yuck.
W: Remember our rule: you can't say something is yuck unless you've tried it.  Do you want to try some stuffing?
C: OK, but when I taste it, it's going to be yuck.

[tastes it]

W: How was it?
C: It was yuck. [Makes thumbs-down gesture] But the next time I try it, it's going to be good.

[takes another bite]

W: How was it?
C: It was good! [Makes thumbs-up gesture]

Fascinating that she would actually insist that the first bite tasted bad, but that subsequent bites were good, all just to avoid admitting that she was wrong about how stuffing would taste.

Celia's book

Celia wrote a poetic and strangely haunting book the other day.  She drew the pictures and dictated the words to Wyndee:

That poor, one-eyed baby.

March pictures

Silly Celia

Nyla bowling

Cute Celia

Nyla showing off another missing tooth.

Art in Bloom

February

Christmas, part 2?

It snowed here in Lexington yesterday, so Celia asked if it was Christmas.

Me: Does it only snow on Christmas?
Celia: Yes.

Later, we saw some deer out the back window.  I picked Celia up so she could see them.

Celia: Are those reindeer?

Little Celia, thinking it was Christmas again.  Later:

Celia: Mommy, I think we should put the tree back up,

The Kids Interests

Nyla has been asking me to teach her how to sew. So, I have been finding small projects for her to work on. She is pretty good at using the needle and thread, we haven't tried the sewing machine yet.
(She was against me posting anything about this so next time you see her pretend you don't know.)

Celia loves to paint and color with markers. Sometimes she will sit and paint for over an hour. Asking for more and more pieces of paper.

Celia is 3!

Celia turned 3 last week! She requested a blue cake with Snow White on it.  She and Wyndee worked on it together.  Here she is with their creation:

And here is Celia being a cute little helper.  She was so excited to stir the batter.

Celia is potty-trained!

She still wears a diaper to sleep in at night, but hasn't worn one during the day for about three weeks now.  Congratulations, Celia!

While we're on the topic of Celia, here is her take on our address:

Me: Celia, where do we live?
Celia: In A-tucky, by the earth, in our house.

Other October events

More October fun! Lots of leaves in the backyard for the kids to play in:

Wyndee had a great idea one day: Outdoor Candy Land.  Wyndee inspired a few imitators around the neighborhood as well. The kids had a lot of fun with this for about a week until it rained.

Wyndee and I also took a nice walk along the Kentucky River Palisades. There were some beautiful views from along the cliffs:

Halloween

Well, lots have happened since our last blog posting. First in a series of posts: Halloween. The kids were both witches this year. Here they are in their costumes:

They also liked playing with vampire teeth:

We discovered a pumpkin plant growing in our garden this year. We're not entirely sure how it got there, but we managed to get a nice pumpkin out of it. Here is Celia next to the pumpkin while it was just starting to grow. It got bigger. And oranger.

Below are our family's pumpkins. Celia's pumpkin (the one above) is on the far left.