Mother of the Year

Saturday was L's second soccer game. She was pretty excited for it. Before the game we discussed how we have to follow through and not stop when we get close to the goal. During the first half I thought it was going to be a repeat of last week. She kicked it towards the goal but rather than following through (as we discussed all morning) and actually scoring the goal herself she let the defender get it and he (accidentally) kicked it in the goal. So she got an assist and credit for the actual goal. After the game she comes running over and says Mom "I scored a goal!" I looked at her and said "The one from the first half that went off the other team's player?" "No mom I scored another one and you weren't even paying attention!" I hate to admit it but she is right. I was chatting away with a couple of the other moms and watching S and completely missed her goal. To top it off neither D or I remembered to bring the camera so I have no photographic evidence. I guess I just lost my shot at the Mother of the Year award (again)!

More soccer picutres courtesy of Pop-pa -

Not sure what she is saying here - loves to talk with her hands

Photos from the almost goal .....

All alone .. watch her go ...

One last person to beat ....

Then she stops and does some type of hop as she waits for the goalie to pick it up ...

Soccer Anyone?

Saturday was L's first soccer game of the season. She did pretty well - almost had a goal - she got the ball and dribbled it ball down to the goal (it was just her and the goalie) and stopped. I think she was afraid she was going to kick the goalie. Later I told her to keep kicking it until it is in the goal - no stopping! The next time she went in she asked to be goalie. She did ok but she is a much better offensive player because she is taller and faster than a lot of her teammates. I tried to encourage her to play more offense ... so we will see. Below are some pictures ...

Posing in the net for Mom

Waiting to make a big save

S just chilled while L was playing - it was sooo hot that day!

I finally got her to smile for me

We went to Dave & Buster's the other night and a machine was broken so L got 206 tickets!

S and Daddy driving the race car!

L & S both loved the Daytona race cars!

Wedding Fun

Yesterday D, L and I attended a wedding for a good friend of mine. She used to work for me (I hired her for her first job out of college). Since then we have both left that company and now work for the same company, but different divisions. Anyway we have stayed good friends and it was great to be there for her special day. Below are some pics (in no particular order) ....

L Dancing with the Bride ... L loves to dance!

Drinking Sparkling Cider for the toast

Patiently waiting for the reception to start

Daddy and his big girl (btw-she has a jordan almond in her mouth)

Our family - minus S!

Mommy and he chatty girl!

Costumes and Kites

No final decisions on costumes yet. Currently S wants to be Nemo (fortunate for us she fits in L's old Nemo costume). But as with most 2 year olds this is subject to change on a daily basis. Our neighbor offered her daughter's Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) costume for L to wear. The thing is L has never seen the movie and has no idea who Dorothy is. Plus D and I don't really like the movie (yes I know it is a classic and most people love it but we don't). My neighbor says she also has a red cape that she can wear over it to go as Little Red Riding Hood. I asked L if she knew who Little Red Riding Hood was and she proceeded to tell me the story. So at this point we are leaning towards that option. D is all for this option as it means $0 spent on their costumes this year! Being the bargain hunter he is, D even suggested giving S L's old bike for Christmas this year. I vetoed that one immediately! We had a good weekend, other than our football teams losing on Saturday. But the Phillies won last night so that was a bright spot for the sports teams. A few pictures of the girls playing outside yesterday.

It's blurry - but such a great smile I couldn't resist posting it

Not wanting to share with Nina

Dressing up with the neighbor's stuff

Run like the wind ... flying a kite

After a a great kite flight and showing her love for her Phillies!

The Leader of the Pack

Last week I had a day off and volunteered in L's classroom. Since I wasn't going to work L was able to ride the bus to school. She was super excited (as was S who packed a backpack with her blankies, puppy and monkey to take sissy to the bus stop). So we get to the bus stop and L patiently waits for JR (neighbor across the street) to get there. He gets there and shortly afterwards the bus pulls up. All the kids get in line to get on and the following happens:

The afternoon bus (the only one L had ridden up until last week) is #122, but apparently the morning one is #119. I didn't even look at the numbers, knowing all my neighbors' kids who ride the bus everyday (including JR) were getting on and going to the same school as L. A frantic L yells, "JR this isn't our bus, our bus is #119, this is #122, we can't get on" and pulls JR away from the bus. JR looks a little bewildered but says "OK" and follows L's lead. I calmly assured L this was the correct bus and told her and JR to get on. As I am leaving the bus stop I am relaying the story to my neighbor and she says "Oh she will make a great wife - already giving directions and telling the boys what to do." Then another neighbor (a husband) says "Yep and like a good husband JR followed right along!" Then when I get to school L's (fabulous) Kindergarten teacher tells me how much she enjoys having L in her class and what a natural leader she is. I was thinking to myself, if only you saw her in action at the bus stop this morning! Besides saying great things about my kid, her teacher has the patience of a saint. God bless her, she is amazing with those kids! We are very lucky to have her! Let's hope L doesn't continue to practice her leadership (aka Miss Bossy Pants) skills with her little sister! S follows along for a little while, but definitely has her own agenda!

Is it Really Fall???

It has been so hot here for so long .... but finally this weekend the weather cooled down a bit. Yes we get excited when the highs are in the high 80's to low 90's. The evenings cooled off enough for me to wear a sweatshirt! Yeah! Needless to say we spent a lot of time playing outside with the neighbors this weekend. Below are a few pictures ... D took them and they are almost all of S. I think L was too busy riding her bike, scooter or just running around.

I think she may have more skills at soccer than her big sis ... time will tell

Her little mischievous look!

Time for a ride in the wagon

Ready for batting practice! She needs a Phillies cap!

D took this while she was napping on Saturday! So sweet!

Proof that she sleeps with lots of things!

Spark of the Week

In Kindergarten they have something called "Spark of the Week". Each student gets to be Spark of the week one time during the school year. As part of the privilege, the student gets to take Sparky the Bear home for the weekend, fill out a poster all about the student, send in pictures and a special snack. L was chosen as the very first Spark of the Week for her class. She was super excited. I asked her why she got picked and she said, "I just earned it Mom!" She was very proud of herself. Sparky joined us on several outings this weekend including the grocery store, a party and Sunday school! Tonight we have to take the pictures and put them in a scrapbook and detail the events of the weekend. Exciting for the student - but lots of work for Mom!!

L and Sparky grocery shopping

A picture in front of the pumpkin display at the grocery store

Baking Cookies with Sparky; L has on her Harrod's apron from cousin Carla and Sparky is sporting a Christmas apron Nana made for S

Football watching with the girls!

A family photo with Sparky!

Sunday school with Sparky (Grandma - I tried to put S in her dress that matches L, but she did not want to wear it yesterday)!

Dressed in their Sunday best!

Calling All Princesses

The girls (as well as D and me) had a great time at our friend's Princess birthday party. We went over early to watch college football and hang out a little. It was NOT fun watching Arizona lose (it is going to be a long/tough year for the Cats) but it was great to see FSU pull out the major upset! Anyway we all had a great time hanging out with our friends. Here are a few pictures of the girls ... hope you had a great weekend. Looks like another busy week at our house!

Before the transformation to a Princess ...

SLD as Sleeping Beauty - she was NOT happy to wear the dress!

She did warm up to it and left it on the entire afternoon!

Princess LAD with he cheap (aka tacky) crown that she insisted on wearing

Yes this was her Halloween costume from last year

Ears and Teeth

I forgot to mention this in the last post, but L had a pretty bad ear infection last Friday. She ended up missing a 1/2 day of school which she wasn't too happy about. Luckily the ear drops the Dr. prescribed did the trick and by Sunday morning she was much much better. Thank goodness - she wasn't the most enjoyable person to be around for a couple days (not that I can blame her). Wednesday all the girls (L, S and me) had dentist appointments with Dr. Angel (yes that really is her name!). This was S's first time at the dentist and we weren't sure how well she would do. D came along as well to help manage the troops while I got my teeth cleaned. S was very hesitant at first but did finally warm up to Dr. Angel and let her count her teeth and brush them a little. L did fabulous as usual (she loves the dentist - I think it is because she has a huge treasure box where the kids get to pick out toys at the end). She took X-rays and we were able to see a lot of L's adult teeth starting to come through so it looks like she will be losing some more soon ... we will keep you posted. As you can tell by the lack of pictures on this post I forgot to bring my camera to the dentist.

We have a fun weekend ahead of us - dinner with the neighbors and hopefully some time playing outside. It is finally starting to cool off a tiny bit in the evenings here. Tomorrow our good friends are hosting a princess birthday party for their daughter. I will try to get some cute pics of the girls in their dresses. Sunday is church and relaxation time! In between we will be getting our fill of football! Have a good weekend!

Sunday Night Photo Session

After the girls had their baths last night they played all sorts of games in the family room - including pile on daddy (no photos of this), ring around the rosie, wrestling, etc. It's fun to see them play well together, but generally it ends up with one of them getting hurt ... luckily no injuries were incurred last night! Hope you all have a great week!

Bia and her new puppy, we retired the old one as he was so worn out he lost his spots!

Ring around the Rosie ... Pocket full of Posies .... Ashes Ashes ... We all fall Down!

Posing for mom

Taking a moment out to pose for another picture

LAD smiling for Mom

WWF Wrestling Sister Style!

The Girls' Rooms

DPD painted SLD's room this past weekend ... we had found a Dalmatian comforter over a year ago really cheap and decided to decorate her room with it since she loves her puppy so much. We still have a few things to do to finish decorating it, but here are some pictures. SLD kept saying "daddy paint" every time she would go in her room. She seems to like it so that's good! If you notice I turned the character side of the comforter down so only the spots show. I am not a huge fan of character bedding but thought the spots looked ok. We do have a bed frame for her, but for now the bed is on the floor.

These curtains were extras I had. I really want to do something different, but not sure what.

LAD's room has been painted for a while now and we have been slowly trying to decorate it, little by little. Grandma is making a new cover for her window seat to match the blue (I didn't take any pics of the window seat). The walls still seem a little bare - it is so hard because they are so tall. I would love to have better decorating skills ....

One picture of the girls. LAD insisted I take their picture before I took shots of the rooms!