What makes me smile...

.... watching my three little girls lined up right next to me at the computer while watching this Taylor Swift music video, and all the while totally enthralled and dancing. These girls absolutely adore miss T. Swift;) What's funny is that Abrie dances EXACTLY like I've seen myself dance when I was her age. I remember watching old videos of us (the old film ones that you project on the wall) and there's one in particular where I remember Aunt Lisi and I dancing together in the playpen while Nene played a plastic saxophone, and it was as though I was watching myself.

It's surreal sometimes to sit back and watch these three beautiful ladies of mine. How did I ever get so lucky?!

"Bird's nest" to help my week

Excited that I have some of my first "photo shoots" scheduled for October. Here's hoping that I can somehow launch a successful photography gig, so that then I can do what I love along with my loves.

This week has been horrible work-wise, so I'm putting more of an effort into trying to make this photography thing somehow come to fruition. Ordered my back-up battery today from amazon.com (never used that website before) so hopefully I don't lose my focus as easily with this new battery.

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Totally unrelated note, but I have completely forgotten to mention what we call Abrielle's hair these days. I am so proud that she seems to have the waviest hair out of all three of my girlies. Faith's hair does get curls when it's wet or humid, but Abrie's hair definitely seems to have some natural curl of its own. I am so excited. Now granted, I use the term "curly" quite loosely; she does have little ringlets that form in the back, but it's definitely not textbook "curly." But, anyway... I digress!... Her hair gets so matted in the night when she goes to bed that she wakes up with this ENORMOUS mound of knots and puffiness in the back of her head. We lovingly refer to this hair-do as "Abrie's bird's nest." Not to mention, some days she wakes up with that matted look in the back PLUS some of the pokiest/spikiest hairs on the top-- awesome combination. The 'bird's nest' lingo though is quite popular around here, and apparently Maddie was talking about it in school today! Hahaha. I can just imagine how puzzled the kids must have been when she told them about her sister's bird's nest!

Aside from the bird's nest hair, Abrie is just a fabulous little girl. I could just squeeze her. She's so much fun! She definitely is a Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde though. The girl can change moods at the flip of a coin; I mean this quite literally! She also is a cupboard thief who loves to snag snacks (open boxes of cereal are a favorite) and then runs as fast as she can to a corner of the living room where you just hear her saying "mmmmmm.... mmmmm" as she sits there happily snacking to her heart's delight. She also LOVES to "be cool." She has an obsession with putting as many ponytail holders/silly bands on her wrist as possible, and then walks over to show her sisters. It's so funny!

Week in review

Boy, how I cherish the moments of relaxing at home with my precious family so much. My day off never comes fast enough it seems.

I've decided to try to not feel so guilty or be too hard on myself about the messes that are a constant theme around here. I'll have plenty of time to be OCD about these things later on in life, but for now I want to learn to relax about that all and focus on what is most important.

Maddie had her first day this week where she did NOT want to go to school. It was brutal. That is the only way I can describe it. She was begging for "just one day off, please Momma. Please Daddy! I promise I will go to school the next day; I just want one day off." It took everything in me to tell her to give it a try and see how the day went. I had to mouth (through my tears) to the school secretary to please take her hand and help her since she was so upset. I was so anxious for my report after Dan picked me up from work, and was so relieved to know that she had had a great day. I truly think that she was just burnt out. I hope to never have to go through that again. Ironically, Faith had her first day (the day prior to Maddie's meltdown) where she burst out crying in the middle of the day saying she missed her Maddie.

Faith is totally into Ariel these days. This is her new favorite princess (the girl has been a steadfast Snow White admirer since she was 2) and she wants to watch the Ariel movies all the time. Her "husband" though continues to be John Smith of 'Pocahontas' fame.

Went to the Carsonia carnival on Friday night, Captain's Cove with friends last night, and had our dear cousins here today to play. Fun, fun, and more fun.

Artiste Cran

This was a picture that Maddie made the other day in art class at school. It is her at Weaver's orchard picking apples from an apple tree. There are two jugs of apple cider, a cow, and bunnies. I absolutely love this picture, and Maddie told us that her art teacher loved it too.


This was a picture Maddie made tonight. It is supposed to be her and Donovan on a date, and the chef serving them. I had to try my hardest not to laugh about the "date" part when she explained it to me, but I thought it was so cute too.

I just don't remember ever having this much of a knack for drawing when I was Maddie's age.

Bake sale

A first for my girlies: their first ever BAKE SALE!

Maddie and Faith have been wanting to sell "drinks and sweets" for the longest time now. The other day they saw a cute gray and white cat outside, and got the idea of having a bake sale to raise money to feed the cat. The seed was planted in their mind about having a bake sale a long time ago, and the cat gave them that little bit of motivation to go ahead and make it happen. I couldn't say 'no' to the idea after they spent that night making 22 posters (literally) that said there would be a bake sale on Saturday.

Well, Saturday wouldn't work because I had to work. But, I told them we could do it Sunday. So, they posted a few signs on the way to Maddie's school last Thursday, and of course our neighbors knew about it. Sharon was so sweet and made orange rice krispie treats, and Rhonda made cookies. My big helpers and I stayed up until 10pm last night making cheesecake brownies (out of a box- we cheated, but they are Madison's favorite), strawberry cream cheese cupcakes, and fancy pretzel rods (dipped in melted chocolate-- Maddie did white, and Faith did chocolate-- and then dipped in sprinkles). They also wanted to make the cups fancy and put colored sugar crystals on the rims of all of them (the glasses for the lemonade were quite a hit!). Needless to say, we were all wiped out after all that baking last night, and yet they were ready to go by 8:45am!!

They started at 9am this morning, and went until 11:30am. It was a wonderful day. They had so much fun. All of their customers were either Dan or our neighbors, but we did have two little boys come up on their scooters asking "is this where the bake sale is?" It was precious! Maddie was so excited that someone had seen their signs! They handed out stickers to every customer and free bookmarks.

During their break from all the buying action, they were busy painting nails and toenails (even Dave!) in their self-appointed "salon."

They made a respectable $28.10 and are now torn between Maddie still wanting to find the stray cat and buy it a collar, bowl, and cat food and Faith wanting to donate to the library to help them buy more books! They're too funny.

Today was a day that made me smile the whole day. My girls are blessed with wonderful childhood memories that I hope they'll be able to reflect upon later on down the road.

Ugh.

I hate that I only ever get to walk to pick up Maddie from school on my day off from work. Granted I get to walk her to school every morning, but I miss out on the afternoon "report" when she answers our gazillion questions about what she did that given day. Needless to say, I hate that I miss it, but I get my school report on the drive home from work (and, I try to not get the abbreviated version either!).

Maddie told us today that the girl that she has taken to since the very first day of school told her that she didn't want to be Maddie's friend anymore.

I have to wonder-- what in the world would prompt a 6-year old (Maddie is actually one of the younger ones in her class, most of the kids are already 6) to be so cruel already? I don't even have the words to express how hurt I felt that a kid Maddie's own age could be so cruel to my sweet and loving girl. I will leave it at that, because I know if I dwell on it, I will just want to find this girl's mother and give her a little lesson on how to properly raise your daughter to respect someone's feelings.

The "good" that came out of this? After Maddie told us all of this, Faith tells Maddie (in her froggy/sick/scratchy throat voice) from a car seat's length away: "Maddie... you my best sistah. I tell someone if they say this to my sistah.. hey! leave my sistah alone. She is my best friend."

How do you ever say thank you

Went to Captain's Cove last night for dinner, and were accompanied by our lovely next door neighbors and our beloved Joie.

Joie was back from Millersville for a week (my first college that I hold near and dear to my heart!), so we celebrated her 20th birthday early. Though the circumstances for her homecoming weren't the best--food poisoning that turned into sepsis-- we enjoyed the time we had together this week.

I don't know how I can ever express in words what our neighbors mean to us... to my girls. They are some of these girls' best friends. Needless to say, we spent an evening laughing, dancing, being serenaded by Maddie and Faith, being entertained by Abrie (who is typically hostile towards anyone other than her immediate family, and yet waves, hugs, and plays with everyone on this block-- she spent almost the whole night flirting with Rhonda to chase her!), and just enjoying the company.

Joie was so sweet and invited my big girls over for a movie night. They happily walked over with their "choices" (a Barbie movie and "Mary Poppins") and stayed until 10pm watching "Mary Poppins." Faith ended up passing out on their living room floor, and Sharon and Joie walked them back at 10pm carrying Faith all bundled up with her blankie.

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