Ava the Elf

Ava heads back to the North Pole tonight after Santa comes. Here are a few more pictures of what she has been up to this year:

My baby can read

I'm still in shock. On Sunday Brooke was playing with puzzles. She loves her puzzles. The one she was doing was an alphabet puzzle. I put together the letters c a t and asked her what that spelled. I couldn't believe my ears when she sounded out each letter and then put them together and said "cat". At first I thought she just got lucky and maybe had memorized it. But no, Paige and I repeatedly quizzed her with every 3 letter word you can think of and she nailed it!

Now she seems so old to me! When did she grow up?

Elf antics

Here's just a few of the things "Ava" the elf has been up to...

Paige's Snowman

A hug for Santa

I think this is my favorite picture of Paige with Santa. As he was getting ready to leave she ran up and hugged him. That's very unlike Paige to hand out hugs that freely...

Minivan Express

Last night we ate an early dinner and at 6pm asked the girls to go put their pjs on. Luckily since it gets dark so early and we ate dinner earlier they didn't realize it was only 6.

On top of their pjs they each had a golden ticket for the Minivan express. We popped some popcorn and bundled up. Before they got in the van I punched their ticket with a hole punch.

Once in the van we put the Polar Express DVD in and then drove to the light show at Lakemont park. We had to wait in line for about an hour, but the movie and popcorn kept them entertained! They loved the surprise and were very excited.

Visits with Santa 2012

The girls met with Santa today at the local tree lighting.

Brooke's photo was staged a bit, because she's still a bit scared. She turned around for the camera while Santa sort of snuck up behind her. Good thing she didn't turn around right then!

Ava the Elf is back!

And she brought a Lego advent calendar with her!

New bed

We upgraded our mattress to King and finally picked out matching furniture!

Gingerbread house

The girls made a gingerbread house this morning!

Goodnight Olivia

I can't believe how well Paige can memorize things. She is part of Drama club at school and she already has all 6 of her lines memorized for the play that is a month away.

This is a video of her singing a song from the show Olivia. I can only remember about the first line, but she surprised me by singing the rest today! Funny thing is Olivia always wears a red and white striped shirt too!

Brooke's family portrait

Mommy, Daddy, and Brooke (we think).

School pictures

Halloween 2012

Had a great Halloween! Paige was a witch and Brooke was a fairy kitty. It was gorgeous: 70 degrees, clear skies, light breeze.

Parent night with Brooke

Tonight was parent night in Brooke's preschool class. She showed me many of her "jobs": practical life (scooping and such), puzzles, an alphabet game, the spindle box (counting), and sandpaper numbers. She's very good at counting, easily interprets written numbers as quantities, and probably knows half to two-thirds of her letter sounds. She's doing very well.

It's neat to explore her classroom with her after doing so with Paige last spring. For Paige, it was a room full of activities that she'd largely mastered. For Brooke, it was a room full of challenges to come.

At a Volleyball Game

There was a bake sale at the women's volleyball game to benefit one of the players, so we came up for the game today. This was the result of me asking them to look at the camera. :)

I don't want Sloppy Joe!

"I don't want Sloppy Joe! I want to eat salad!!"

Brooke is really getting into salad. Paige...not so much.

2 wheeler

Last week the girls spent the week with Grandma and Papa as their summer camp was over, but school hadn't yet started. They spent a ton of time at the park and Paige learned how to ride her bike without training wheels!

Here's a video Papa took on 8/24 at their park:



And here's a video 2 days later once we were home:




Brooke also learned to ride her balance bike and was really picking up speed. Once we got home she started pushing and lifting her legs in the air to coast while balancing!

First day of school

I love looking back through the years at the different first day of school pictures:
2011
2010
2009

It's so hard to get both kids to cooperate when taking a picture. Especially Brooke. She will look anywhere but at the camera. Here's the best of the pictures of the 2 of them together:

Last year I started doing a favorites post for the first day of school. And now that Brooke is in official preschool she wanted a favorites picture too :)

Brooke's in charge

This is such a cute age for Brooke. She's been very talkative lately and keeping us updated with her thoughts on every situation. Last night, Brooke decided on her own to help set the table. There was an old napkin left on the table from earlier, so I told her she could throw it away. She takes it to the garbage and noted that the trash can was full. So she said to us "You should take out the trash. Tonight. You can wait until after we eat dinner...and dessert. But then make sure you take it out because it's full."

Vacation 2012

The week of July 4th we went on vacation. On Saturday we drove to our hotel in Philadelphia and then just let the girls swim in their indoor pool that night for awhile.

On Sunday, we went to Sesame Place! We've been there once before, 2 years ago. Brooke was only 1 year old the last time and still enjoyed it, but this year she could ride everything and had a blast. On Monday and Tuesday we toured around Philly and on Wednesday we spent the day back at Sesame and stayed for their fireworks. Then on Thursday and Friday we drove out to New York City and finally headed home on Saturday.

Here's the gallery of pictures and below I'll post some of my favorites:

Rug deal

I am so excited about the deal I got on this rug. I was walking around Ollies (similar to a Big Lots, but a local store) during lunch and this purple rug caught my eye. It was PERFECT for Brooke's room. It's a nice plush thick rug too. The best part was the price...only $15. I was honestly expecting it to be close to $100.

A sink!

The bathroom sink was installed!

And now we wait. It will probably be mid-July until they are back. In the meantime we need to paint, get hardware for the sink and get a mirror. They still need to install the shower door, medicine cabinet, trim, and install a granite piece in our closet area vanity.

But at least we have a shower, sink and toilet that we can use! The rest are just finishing touches.

Bathroom remodel - end of week 2

The contractor was out 2 days this week so this is end of week 2, but only Day #8. They grouted the shower and added the finishing touch tiles around the edge. At the end of the day they brought in the vanity in the foreground of the picture below, but it's not installed yet. Just sitting in the middle of the room for the weekend. At least the toilet is back in and usable!

On Monday and possibly Tuesday they'll bring in and install the rest of the fixtures. Almost there!

Bathroom progress

We're in to the second week of work. Looks like the project should wrap up early next week. The contractor was off sick yesterday, so that set us back a day. But today they got the shower finished tiled. Tomorrow they will grout the floor and then the next day the shower gets grouted. Here's the tiled shower:

Brooke's End of Year Program

Brooke's toddler class got to sing a song at the end-of-year program at PennMont this morning..  She got the chance to sing into the microphone two times and was absolutely brilliant.  The video is terrible, but you can hear her clear as day.

Bathroom remodel

Today starts the beginning of our master bathroom remodel! Here's the before picture and we'll update along the way. At this point we've already removed the medicine cabinet and made some minor electrical changes:




Here's progress at end of day 1. The sink and shower are gone. And the back door that leads to the family room has been switched around to open out. That will eventually be a small closet.

On Day 2 the contractors built the new shower walls and put in the shower pan. You can see the line in the ceiling where the old shower wall was. The new shower is almost twice as big!:

Day 3, the contractor built out the closet that is to the left of the shower. It opens from the other room. The hole that you see on that small wall is where the medicine cabinet will be recessed. Also, the corner shower seat was installed.

Day 4 he laid the floor tile:

It's looking like the bathroom remodel is going to take around 2 weeks instead of the initial 1 week that we were hoping for. There's still a lot more tile work left to do and then all the fixtures have to be installed. I've been in Boston this week, but I'm heading back tomorrow. 

3 and 6 year checkups

The girls had their annual dr checkup today. Neither of them had to get shots, so that helped the appointment go a little smoother. They both had their hearing and vision tested and they both passed all the tests.

Paige is 50%-75% for height and 50% for weight.
Brooke is 25%-50% for height and 25% for weight.

They both have strict orders from the Doctor to "eat more vegetables"! We'll see if that sticks with them.

Kindergarten Graduation

This is Paige's entire Kindergarten class. Paige is 7th from the right in this picture:

They all lined up in a row together and then performed their first song (the Opposites) together. Here's the video: 

The rest of the performances after that were with smaller groups of about 10 kids at a time. 

The "Months of the Year" song. Paige was the month of May.

The Dinosaurs. Paige is the middle Apatasaurus. Her lines along with the other 2 were:

"Our name is Apatosaurus

We are big and slow.

We have a long neck and tail.

Leaves and plants are our favorite food"

The agents of change song. The kids each picked what they wanted to be when they grew up and dressed as that. Paige is a waitress:

This is the end after they've received their diplomas and they're waiting for the rest of the names to be called. The kids are getting a little antsy. Paige is using her diploma as a telescope: