Advanced for Her Age

Ellie's words are finally coming...sort of.  Only we can understand them, but it's clear, sort of, what she's trying to say.  It's funny what she's saying, though.  With very limited vocabulary, not even identifying simply body parts, she's saying things like "Bless you" when someone sneezes, and "artichokie" when I say okie dokie (a cute little thing John and Eve do).  But with those cute ones, have come very clear representations of, "I want that", "mine", and "no".  Or should I say, "I WANT THAT!!!", "MINE!!!!", and "NO!!!!" complete with shaking her shoulders, or swatting her hand.  Sweet little Ellie has reached the terrible twos at only 16 months.  She's so ahead of the curve!

The Long Hard Road to the Altar

My poor little Princess Evelyn Rose has started her long, hard road to the altar.  It all started with her friend Claire getting to be in her aide, Miss Claire's, wedding.  Since Miss Claire accompanies Claire to school and would miss a week or so, of course they talked about it at school.  Of course, having heard about weddings in princess books but having no idea what they are or represent, Eve was (and remains) confused.  She thought (and still kind of thinks) that Claire AND Miss Claire got married, despite trying to explain to her the concept of a flower girl.  So, that weekend Eve became obsessed with getting married.  She fashioned a veil for her head and said she was getting ready for her wedding.  I asked who she was going to marry.  At first she said me, but I said she'd have to ask Daddy.  His answer was "No" because I was already married to him.  The option of John was next shot down because he's her brother.  "Well, then, who can I marry?"  And the bar was set..."You have to find a prince."  How stressfull!  After talking about it daily, asking, "How do I find a prince?"  "How long does it find a prince?" etc. etc., one day Eve came to me with such a sad look of concern and said, "Mom, I'm never going to find a prince.  What if I never find a prince?"  She keeps asking questions.  Last night she woke up in the middle of the night and came out of her room upset.  I went to make sure something wasn't terribly wrong and she said, "I missed my wedding".  Being the loving and sympathetic mother I am, she got a gruff, "Go back to bed!"  Oh my!  This is something John and I just haven't had to deal with!  Girls surely are quite different.  Someday her prince will come, but it better not be any time soon!

John's Turn

Here are some random shots of John.

Mr. Rob and Mrs. Suzie gave John a rocket for his birthday.  He and Buck worked together to assemble it.  

 And nobody glued anything permanently to their fingers!

 Now it's ready for launch!

 John had his first soccer game.  His team is the Bullfrogs.  As well as his first practice went, his first game went just as poorly.  I think for him to have a great time, all the stars need to align.  They did for practice, but things just didn't go his way for the game.  I think he must've been tired (he hasn't had ONE nap since school started, but he has needed one several days).  He was also nervous when all of a sudden, unlike in practice, 14 kids were clumped around the ball.  He sat out the middle two quarters, then mustered up the courage to stand on the field for the last one.  In the last few seconds he finally mustered up the courage to run toward the ball, and I think started to have fun, and the whistle blew to stop the game.  And then the tears started flowing.  He wanted to play more but had lost his chance.  Hopefully since he had fun at the end he'll be able to warm up more to it this week.

And this cracked us up.  John has decided one toilet paper holder should be hanging from the other.  He's put it there twice.  The kid's got quite an imagination and an eye for puzzles.  I guess if it's there, it just makes sense.  I think it's time he learned to read.

Random Shots

This past weekend we kept Phineas and Ferb, John's class "gerbils" that are actually white mice.  The kids loved it.

 Ellie has discovered the piano.  Don't they look sweet together when you can't hear them bickering over the keys and room on the bench?

Eve thought Callie should be outfitted as the princess she is.  Callie is a good sport.

Long Day

Sometimes you just need a break from all that fun.

A Bunch of Cheeseheads

We also ushered in the start of Packer Football with a bang.  We all wore our Packers PJs from Christmas, ate tailgate food for supper, and made Packers brownies (which John shared at school the next day when Ellie and I met him for lunch...great way to make friends :) )

 GO PACK GO!

 Eve was thrilled to wear the cheesehead and smile for a picture

Ellie protested the large cheesehead, but thought the small magnet was hilarious.
John didn't want to participate (in his defense, fun TV was on).
We do what we can.

Clemson First Friday

Friday before the first game of the season, Clemson hosts the First Friday Parade.  Since Buck had never been and we didn't have plans, we decided to kick off the football season with a bang.  Of course it was blazing hot, so since Buck gets off work early on Friday, we went straight from picking John up from school to pick Buck up, then to the boathouse to cool off.

 Then off to Bowman for the parade...

 I think Eve enjoyed it most.  She practiced C-L-E-M-S-O-N a lot rarely (OK never) getting the letters quite right, but always with a lot of heart.

After the parade we headed to Peppino's (of course), then caught a bit of the soccer game.  How fun!

I Know a Girl You Don't Know

Little Eliza Jane is such a ham!  She is all about getting people to laugh, and she does a great job at it.  Here are some cute pictures I just had to share.

 I think I've already written about "backpack".  Every time we say it she flaps her "wings" and makes a chicken noise.  Who ever thought about the fact they sound the same?  She put John's on the other day and was walking around.  It's a little big.  She also picked up Eve's lunchbox and walked around waving and saying "Bah Bah".

 She was trying to blow across the bottle to make music...I promise!

 Hello!

 If you ask for a kiss, this is what you get, so of course I ask for them all the time!

 Kisses for Mommy ( or Maaaaaaaahhhhhh as she's started to say)

A little bit different from kisses for Daddy.  His beard is so tickly!

And here is a compilation of tricks...as best we could capture

First Day of School!

 And we're off!  The garbage truck showed up for Eve's first day of pre-school, just like John's, but she wasn't quite as excited about it as he was.

 Every man for himself when it comes to getting in the car.

John's first homework assignment.  He was tasked with making a scrapbook page to represent himself.  I helped by giving him the pictures (he chose to use them all rather than choose one), and I found a few other things he liked and might want to cut out.  He did all the cutting, glueing, and arranging on his own, as well as choosing what to include.  There's the castle from the beach he was so proud of, John fishing, John and his sisters, boogie boarding, the Tiger, ice cream, a transformer, "G" for Green Bay, the color red, a soccer ball, a picture of John swimming (drawn in blue), and the word "family".  I thought it was pretty cool.

Sistas

Eve set this up and I was so thrilled the camera was close by. 

John's First Soccer Practice

 All ready for soccer!...sort of

 Huddle with Coach Bishop.  Suggested team names were Chickens, Goggles, Cheetahs...we'll see what we end up with.

John's Birthday Party

G.G.'s Camp Pictures

 We started the day with the Pledge of Allegiance

 Fishing in G.G.'s pond

 Bubbles!

 My grandmother is the only 93-year-old woman I know that can chase a fast and heavy 15-month-old down the long driveway to bring her back.  She's amazing!

 They puzzled and puzzled 'till their puzzlers were sore.

 That's a rotary phone for those of you who don't remember :)

At night we called Daddy and told him all the fun we'd had.