Sunday, April 06, 2008

Easter pictures

I'm working on my post for Lily, but in the meantime...here are our Easter pictures. Lisa and I braved our first egg dyeing experience together. We did it in my tiny kitchen with 5 three year olds. It was actually really fun thanks to my sweet cousin Amelia who was staying with us that week. She spearheaded the dyeing while Lisa, Phil and I rotated the kids through her dyeing station.
















































































Here is Lily enjoying her first chocolate Easter bunny that Sarah bought her.














Phil's parents came for Easter. What a treat!! Grammie and I took the girls out for Easter egg hunts on Saturday. We hit 3 in a row! First, the one at the library...













































Exploring and comparing their treasures...


































































































Next stop... the state park. The girls caught a glimpse of the Easter bunny. Here is Kate on the lookout for him again.






































There he is!!













Last stop...the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Lily tied for first in the egg hunting contest. She actually would have won the whole thing if I hadn't taken some of hers out of her basket and put them in Kate's almost empty basket. What a bad mommy! I didn't know it was a contest...I just didn't want to hear the candy fights all day!




















This is why Kate doesn't find many eggs...she is more concerned about what is IN the eggs than how many she gets.
































Exhausted and ready to go home by the end of the day....













I highly recommend the Resurrection Eggs sold by Familylife. Phil and I were struggling to communicate the Easter story to three year olds who didn't understand yet about death or sin. Everytime I started to explain, my words sounded too heavy for their little hearts. We were saved by the Resurrection Eggs. Phil did a great job of explaining it to them using the Eggs (except for the part he threw in about the Easter bunny working for Jesus - talk about "adding to the Gospel!") Anyway...the kids LOVED the Eggs and Phil's explanation and really got the concept of Easter as much as a three year old can.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

What is Katie like these days?

Katie...Yes, she is mostly going by Katie these days. We still call her Kate a lot, but Katie seems to match her cuteness more closely. She has the cutest smile that I've ever seen. Although we are not sure, we think that she is the youngest of the two. She certainly acts like the youngest and wants to be the baby. Lately, she is so clingy and loving towards me. She has not been so outgoing to others in the past, but is starting to come out a bit now and actually say "Hello" to people she knows out in public. At home, she loves the fact that we think she is so polite. She loves to say thank you and please.









































These are a few of Kate's favorite things. Actually, Lily came up while I was posting, saw this picture and randomly confirmed, "Mommy, those are Katie's things!" The absolute favorite is the green string. This has and is still being play with for hours at a time. She makes knots, lasso's things and just carries it around. Same with the bungee cord. The stick is actually a broken broom handle that becomes a walking stick and a horse. The safety googles are, of course, for eye protection. The phone is to call Daddy, Mommy, grandparents, Sarah or Hannah. The wrench gets a workout around the house and the bat is for self defense (I guess, I'm not really sure. I really don't notice what she does with the bat unless Lily is crying). The leap pad is for writing her letters, at which she is a pro.












Many of these items are just like security blankets. Here she is watching TV with bongee cord and wrench in hand.













Doggybear (there are two of them) is still her best friend. She sleeps close to them every night.














She has expanded to other puppies. Below is her puppy collection that sleeps with her. They are arranged in order of importance from right to left. Each was named by her (except Doggybear which was my error. I thought it was a dog for 3 months during my initial mommy fog. Then one day I looked at it after getting a good night's sleep and realized it was a bear. She already called him "Doggy," so he became Doggybear.) Anyway, from right to left below is:
Doggybears I and II, Big Puppy, Medium Puppy, Puppy with a Mouth, Puppy without a Mouth and Shake Puppy (he vibrates when you pull his tail).









Katie is a tomboy (the opposite of her sister's princess personality). She never wears a dress except on Sundays when I ask her to (Lily never wears pants, only dresses since she was 18 months old). She likes to wear T-shirts that represent the things she likes...puppies, Chip and Dale (Dale is her hero), Belle, and Mickey Mouse. She doesn't play with dolls, as I'm sure you have gathered from her above list of favorite toys. Below is a picture of her playing with a doll. She is, so gracefully, lassoing Snow White.


































Another offer of mine to see if she wanted to play with a doll is below. She is taking her baby for a walk in the stroller. She was sure to bring all the things a little Momma might need in a pinch...a green lasso rope, a wrench, and, of course, safety goggles.


















Kate's talents are along the order of logic and engineering. She loves to work on projects, taking them apart or putting them back together. She is also crazy about computers. She can play for at least an hour by herself on the computer working on letter, coloring and number games.














Kate likes to be unique. She doesn't want to be like her sister always. As far as I can tell, she is pretty introverted and enjoys alone time. She is like her sister in that she is very sensitive, sweet and smart. I love trying to figure her out and learning more about her at every stage!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Chinese New Year celebrations

Here we are getting ready for the first Chinese New Year "Vegetable" (festival) as Katie called it.
































...and the FCC Chinese New Year dinner.





























Lily got her nerve up enough to do the dragon dance holding on to her friend, Laura Joy.







My favorite time of day

Getting ready for bed is the best time of the day around here. We go back to their rooms and Phil gets the girls all crazy by wrestling, tickling and having pillow fights. They laugh so hard that they can hardly breathe. They get to read their favorite books and say their adorable prayers. Lily is daily thanking God for Ella and Emma's birthday party and Katie is thanking him for Kai-Lan (from that new show, Ni-hao Kai-Lan). Then Daddy gets his good night kisses from the girls (I'll have to post that one later as it is quite the event). Phil then tells him that he loves them more than a bee loves honey or a monkey loves bananas or whatever he can come up with and the girls answer back with more of the same. Lily sometimes says, "more than girls love chocolate." Kate's newest is "more than a grasshopper loves grass." Mommy gets her snuggles as I snuggle them to sleep lying between them. I love it! Below, Lily is in pink and they are being silly at bedtime, making faces and goofing off.

OK...got to go...I left them fully clothed listening to a new CD in the kitchen...now they are completely naked and laughing...which means they are bored and about to get into trouble!