The End of Preschool

Emmalee recently finished up her run as a preshcooler. She went to the zoo on Friday, May 15, and then had park day on Monday, May 18. Here are some pics from her fun times.

Hanging out with the girls from preschool

Waiting for the sea lion show
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Here is a smilebox creation of her time at the park. Obviously I have still not figured out this new camera!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

She had a great time at both events, and we were sad to see her time as a preschooler come to an end!

Emmalee Graduates!

Emmalee has attended New Beginnings Preschool in Richmond for the past two years. It has been a wonderful experience for all of us, and we were all sad to see her time there come to an end. She graduated on Tuesday, May 19. Graduation was held at the First Baptist Church in Richmond. She was dressed in full graduation attire-cap, gown, and 2009 tassel. We tried it on at home earlier, and here is how she looked. I will admit, I shed more than a few tears!

The excited graduate-to-be

Posing with little sister, who is already enrolled for preschool for the 2010-2011 school year-crazy, I know!
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I have tons of pictures, but for some reason I cannot upload them from my new camera. However, I was able to use them in a Smilebox, which I do from time to time. Here are the pics from the big night!

Make a Smilebox slideshow All in all it was a great night! We are so proud of Emmalee, but we are also sad to see preschool come to an end!

Emmalee's Broadway Debut

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Emmalee's dance recital was held on Monday, May 18. She had a great time again this year. The theme was "On Broadway." Emmalee danced to "In the Jungle" from The Lion King and "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray. It was a fantastic show, and Emmalee did a wonderful job.

My Kids Rock...(and so does my husband!)!!

I have the best kids and most thoughtful husband! I worked the day before Mother's Day, and Duane kept the girls. While I was gone, they created huge cards and picked out stuffies (a.k.a. stuffed animals) and balloons for me. This was all waiting for me when I got home from work, along with a clean house! What a surprise!

Their beautiful creations!
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Mother's Day itself was hectic, but here are the best pictures we could get.

This is how cooperative my two-year-old can be!!

And another fabulous shot (ha, ha!)

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All in all, Mother's day was nice and the girls, along with Daddy, made me feel really special!

Thanks guys!

A week of this and that...

Spring has finally arrived, and we have spent lots of time playing outside lately. It has been wonderful, and I think it has also helped with getting both girls (namely Tori) to sleep through the night.

Last weekend we went to Dylan and Cobi's birthday parties on Saturday. Everyone had a great time. Here are some pics to prove it.

Here is Uncle Brian helping Tori and Cobi out on the trampoline.

The kiddos with Brian waiting for the horses to come so they could feed them carrots.

Uncle Brian helping Emmalee get the carrot to the horse-she gets a little nervous.

Tori and Pappi on Uncle Brian's 4-wheeler

Emmalee hanging upside down
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We have spent as much time outside as possible this week. The girls love it and so do I!

This is what happens when you tell a 2-year-old to go get her shoes. I decided to skip the argument and go with it-happy toddler; happy mommy!

A rare picture of mommy and Tori-I am usually the one behind the camera!

Mommy and Emmalee on the swing set

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Things are about to get pretty crazy around our house. I am entering my last 8 days of school, and Emmalee has her dance recital and preschool graduation during my last 3 days. We are all excited for a little time off before I head back to teach summer school, and Emmalee enters the Chillicothe School District as a student in summer school!

A Bad Ending

Tori has always been just a bit more clumsy than Emmalee. She has always fallen more, scraped her knees more, bumped her head more, busted her lip more... We are pretty accustomed to hearing a thud and a cry from Tori and then needing to get the ice pack. Last night was no exception. The girls were playing and Tori ran through our bedroom. She fell head first into the curio cabinet, and she ended up being worse for the wear. She has a big bruise/scrape combination down the side of her face. She is a trooper though and hasn't fussed too much about it. In fact, it hasn't slowed her down at all. Just this morning she was trying to stand on a laundry basket near the television and that ended badly as well. This bump, though, is under her hair, so I have no pictures to show her later. I am surprised she doesn't have a pounding head at this point!

Here she is with her war wound!

Dancing Disaster

This week was "bring a friend to dance" week, so Emmalee chose to take Tori as her friend. This was going to help us see how ready she was for summer dance. Tori was very excited about going to dance with Mimi, but once she got back inside the studio, she quickly changed her mind. She told Miss Tracey, "I no like it, I no like it." That was the end of that. Emmalee was crushed and cried too, but everyone calmed down and Emmalee returned to dance lessons. Tori even ventured in for a brief moment. I think her real problem was that she only wanted to jump on the trampoline, like she did at Emmalee's birthday party. However, you can't do whatever you want to do at dance, you have to listen to Miss Tracey and Jorge. Tracey thinks she will be fine this summer; she thinks Tori got overwhelmed by too many big kids making a fuss over her. She is signed up for summer lessons and Fairy Tale Ballet Camp, so I guess we will see!


The girls after leaving McDonald's

Sheer excitement just prior to going into the studio