Little Lights

Emily has been so curious and excited about preschool ever since Addie started back in February. I enrolled the girls in a summer fun program one morning a week at a great little preschool by our house called Little Lights. While the summer fun program isn't technically preschool, we treated Emily's first day there as her first day of preschool, because really, why not?
Little Lights is a pretty small school, but I have met so many moms in the neighborhood and around town who send or have sent their kids there, and I've heard nothing but wonderful things. I was hoping to get Emily in for the fall, but they filled up fast and I enrolled her at our second choice, TLC. But we got exciting news last month - a spot has opened up for Emily, so she'll get to go in the fall, which will mean she will get to continue going to a school she's come to love, and she won't have to transition (change is HARD for Emily) to a new school. Yay! :)

Emily's FIRST day of preschool, June 4th, 2014

The big girls have been having a BLAST at Little Lights this summer. They have a favorite teacher, "Miss Shell" (Miss Michelle) and they bring home the most creative art projects each week. Plus, snack is provided and always contains at least 2 food groups, how awesome is that?

Each week there's a theme, and so far this summer they've had:
Exploring Music - There was a keyboard set up and they had fun playing piano
Pizza Parlor - They painted with noodles!
Workshop Days - Hammering golf tees into peg boards, and they came home with door hangers made from popcicle sticks
Art Show - One wall became dedicated to the colorful acrilic paintings the kids created
Sports/Fitness - A ballet teacher came and taught a routine, which included arabesques, which the girls were obsessed with doing across the room, across the yard, anywhere they could, while saying "arabesque, arabesque, arabesque"
At the Beach - They wore their swimsuits, played in water, and ate popcicles
Bible and Drama - They learned how much God loves them

We only have four more weeks left: Culinary Camp, Science Exploration, The Great Outdoors, and Ice Cream Shoppe

I say it every year at the end of July, but I'll say it again. Where did the summer go? It's just zipped right by. I guess we have 4 more weeks, but they'll be gone in the blink of an eye.

While the big girls have three hours of fun fun fun on Wednesday mornings, I have three hours of Elizabeth all to myself. We've been having quite a bit of fun ourselves. That first Wednesday, I took advantage of being one-on-one to let Elizabeth have her first shot at finger painting.

Even with one-on-one attention, some paint got ingested

We had a fun photo shoot outside, and Elizabeth got to play with my phone. Joy!

Love that belly button

Happy Girl

Sweet Faces

Elizabeth had a great time posing form me in the backyard, smiling at her goofy sisters, my photographer assistants.

I especially love this shot, it shows Elizabeth's "Yeah, I'm pretty cool." face, and her awesome flippy hair. Love this girl!

A few days later, Emily and Addie had their first trip to the dentist's office. We went to a pediatric dentist and her whole staff is amazing with kids. Right when the girls walked in, they were given princess crowns and they were treated like royalty. When they were all done getting cleaned and checked, they got to use tokens to buy prizes. They can't wait to go back!

I love this one, Addie was singing "Let it go" and she was really conjuring Elsa's essence.

Little Miss hadn't gotten her teeth cleaned, but she needed a picture, too!

On another day, Elizabeth climbed up on Emily's chair, and then shot me this mischievous look....

...and then this sweet smile...

My friend Wendy is one of the best photographers I know. She captured this special pic of me and the girls during one of our playdates...

And then captured sweet smiles from Emily and Addie....

Snow Snack

It was Elizabeth's chance to taste some snow, and when I brought some inside for her to snack on, her big sisters wanted to try some too. I made theirs extra special with pink sprinkles. Oooo! Sprinkles can make a treat of anything!

Rainbows on Angels

January Favorites

We had quite a few snowy days in January. One warm snowy weekend day, Chris took the girls out to build a snow fort. Addie didn't stay out for long, but enjoyed watching Emily and Dad through the window.

Elizabeth has been watching her sisters play ever since she was born. Now that she's on the move, she is able to get in on their play more and more. It's always fun to watch all three of them playing together.

Being on the move, one of Elizabeth's favorite family room obstacle courses goes under the table and through the woods.

Addie's a big helper around the house, and in January, she became obsessed with "fixing" the chairs after every meal. She would gather her "tools" - a rag, a fork, and a spoon - and work hard fixing all the screws.

Found a piece of food in this one

Proud Helper

This was quite a sweet moment. It had snowed and I put Elizabeth next to the window to look out at the white landscape. Emily and Addison both got so excited to tell Elizabeth all about the snow. They got down on either side of her and told her all about it.

Peek! Love this girl's little tongue. She's showing it off a lot these days.

Emily found that she was able to shimmy herself into Elizabeth's snowsuit and enjoyed sliding around the floor pretending to be a baby.

We got a mini trampoline from the neighbors a few months ago, and the girls have taught themselves to flip over the bar. It's been a great source of indoor exercise on all these cold winter days.

Tunnel play with Dad!

Believe it or not, the girls were almost three years old before they got to experience the messy fun of finger painting.

One of Addie's favorite things to do is play with her box of dress up dolls and My Little Ponies. She likes to line up the dress up dolls after getting them all dressed and ready to go, and then plays pretend with them. Sometimes they're going to a party, sometimes to school. It's pretty cute when it's school, because then Addie's the teacher and she'll read them a book.

I just love the smiles on these gals!

And we'll end with Emily, showing me her injured finger. Ouch!