Chapel School Easter Party 2013

To prove just how special these Chapel School parties are, we drove back from Tulsa yesterday after I had a night of little sleep followed by a day of training.  I didn't want these girls to miss these precious CS memories! 

I got to help out in Cooking today.  We made Resurrection Rolls and Popcorn treats.  They were yummy and messy.  I am so glad that I am not usually a cooking mom!  Give me the academic classes anyday over being in a room full of knives and fire with a bunch of 3-5 yera
 

 

The rules of the CS egg hunt are "bring 12, take 12".  It makes things very simple and non-competetive!  Amity had already found her 12 before I could get any pictures of her.  She was later disappointed to discover that all 12 of her eggs were filled with jelly beans.  Vivien had much more variety.  Good thing the opening lesson this morning was about the 10th commandment!
 

Little Jack snuck into our picture!
 

It was a wee bit windy but we still had a great time and then headed home for a NAP afterwards.  Definitely worth driving home for!
 

Sunday at the Zoo

We are members at the Dallas Zoo again and this time Dennis got to join us for a fabulous afternoon after church.  The weather was GORGEOUS and even though half of Dallas had the same idea, it still was not too crowded.  We didn't even see half the zoo but can plan to go back as many times as we want before next February 2014!

Amity sure has come a long way since she was two and screaming on the merry go round!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis used his special animal noise to lure the giraffes away from the feeding deck crowded with people and over to the bridge where we were standing alone.  This really made an impression as you can see in Amity's Weekend News that she wrote the next day!
 

Daddy made a funny sound that made the giraffes make funny noises.
 

Pretties at the Park

Last Thursday was a wide-open day with no commitments.  In the afternoon, between nap and dinner, we headed out for a few errands and went to Lindley Park to playand enjoy this beautiful weather.  The girls made the full lap around the park with Amity on her scooter and Vivien on her tricycle.  It wasn't always pleasant and without complaining but they did it and were proud of themselves once we got back to the van.  Vivien is getting really good at peddling but her steering skills still have a long way to go.  She just kept looking over her shoulder and talking to me as she would run off the sidewalk!
 

 

 

I am realizing how quickly these girls are growing up and know that our time of loving playing at the park is limited.  I'm sure I looked weird with my camera out at the park but I wanted to capture these memories of park fun!
 

 

We are learning that Vivien loves adventures like the zip line but she does not like things that spin.  She turned green several times on this tire swing and wanted it to stop while Amity kept wanting to go faster and faster.
 

 

We know of three different families with children that have broken an arm or leg on this zipline trolley so I am praying every time they try it. 
 

 

The highlight of the park was this old tree.  Vivien quickly decided it was a pretend pirate ship and she gave the three of us names from Jake and the Neverland Pirates show.
 

Thankful for such a beautiful day at the park and time with these two! 

Our New Happy Place

We were back at the DMA yesterday for art class and we decided to have a picnic across the street at Klyde Warren Park (aka "Our New Happy Place").  It was such a beautiful, sunny day and you just can't not be happy in that place.  The girls loved playing in the children's area.  Later, we ate lunch at the tables on the lawn and then took a walk around the entire park to see the dog park and game area.  On our way back to the food trucks, we stopped at the reading area to read a book.  Amity picked out Olivia and that seemed appropriate since we had just been at the art museum and were feeling very "cultured" being in the middle of downtown.  I had promised to buy the girls a treat to share if we walked the whole park.  It turned out that the remaining food trucks didn't sell any cookies but Amity chose a bag of Cheetos instead.  Those are not usually allowed in our house because I would not have the self-control to not eat the whole bag at once.  So, with cheesy fingers and our recommended intake of Vitamin D, we headed back to the van in the DMA parking garage.  Both girls took great naps (a rarity now for Amity) and that was just one more reason that Klyde Warren is my new happy place!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Vivien - 3 years

Some things we want to remember about Vivien at 3 years old:

• She still says "gor" instead of "girl" and "forces" instead of "horses" and we are totally okay with her continuing to talk this way until she is 20!
• She still loves MONKEYS in all forms and sleeps with Sucking Monkey every nap and nighttime.  Her bed is full of other stuffed animal monkeys that have similarly lovely names.
• We have pretty much pegged her as having an Otter/Sanguine personality.  Everything is FUN, FUN, FUN for her or, if its not, she'll find a reason to not do it and find something else fun to do.  This becomes especially evident when it is time to clean up her room!
• While she does love fun, she does not like to be called "Funny!"  Her big sister knows that she can get a rise out of her by simply saying, "Viv, you're funny!"  It always goes downhill from there!
• She is a usually a great eater and loves any kind of nut or dried fruit.  Costco is one of her favorite outings because she loves the samples!  She would be happy to eat mac 'n cheese every night for dinner (just like her daddy) and she likes any kind of Italian food.
• She is already a lover of technology and screentime even though we keep it pretty limited.  Her favorite TV shows are Curious George, Doc McStuffins, and Little Einsteins. 
• She is definitely getting into pretend play and loves to carry on extended conversations where she is a mommy and tells about her children.
• She knows all of her capital letters and we are working on her lowercase letters.  We are also starting to recognize numerals.  She can count by rote to 20.  
• If she wakes up early in the morning or at naptime, she will sit in her bed and "read" books to herself.  The stories that she tells always sound way more interesting than the written text.  Sometimes we find her sitting on the side of her bed holding her book with the pictures facing out just like she has seen her teachers do.
• She has been soaking up the Children's Shorter Catechism as we are working on it with Amity.  She is currently up to question 22 and can even ask some of the questions herself! 
• She is still napping for about an hour or so most days that we are home in the afternoons.  Bedtime at night is a different story as she likes to pop up multiple times to ask me "something really important".

 

I am sure I will think of more things I want to remember about Vivien at this stage and will have to add them to the list.  It is such a fun age and she is such a fun little girl!

So happy to be 3!

On January 25th, our little Vivi Leigh turned THREE!  All day long, she kept saying, "I just can't believe I'm finally three!"

I'm not ready for this little one to grow up!  I love that she still sleeps like she did when she was a baby.

We have a tradition of waking the birthday girls up to a pancake in the shape of their new age. Apparently, Vivien didn't fully understand the tradition because she later told my parents that her pancake was in the shape of an "m"!  

 

 

Every since she turned 2, she has been asking for a Dora party for her third birthday. 
 

I was too involved in the party itself to take many pictures but we had a super-fun Dora party thanks to everyone's help.  On Friday night, Dennis and I went to the neighborhood park to brainstorm the action plan for the party.  Afterwards, we went to Dollar Tree to buy supplies for his Swiper costume. 
 

 

We had nachos, taquitos, and quesadillas along with the standard fruit and veggie tray for lunch.  We invited our 50+ guests (Vivi is blessed with lots of friends!) to eat first and play on the playground a little.  After that, I read a little book in Spanish and then invited everyone to come see Vivien's cake.  BUT...it was gone!  Swiper had swiped it and left a map in its place (I'm not sure if that is how it really works on Dora but we haven't really watched Dora that much in the Grover house so no one seemed to question our accuracy). 

The map directed us to go up Sun Mountain where the adventurers found sunglasses to place in their Dora backpack treat sacks.  We then slid down Slippery Slope to find bottles of bubbles for the treat bags.  The final stop was a pinata that had to be broken to discover the last clue.
 

Inside the pinata was a note that said "When you sing the birthday song, the cake will go back to where it belongs."  We sang the birthday song to Vivi and magically the cake was back in its original place.  Like I said, many thanks to everyone that helped us pull off our magical adventure! 
 

The birthday girl enjoyed celebrating all weekend long and having GG and KK here for extra attention.
 

Sweet Vivien Leigh, we are so happy for the three years God has given us with you!  You are an absolute joy!

Who made God?

I love this little girl!  After being in bed for about 30 minutes tonight, she came into the room where I working on the computer and asked me, "Mom, who made God?"  I am so curious about the train of thought that led to that question in the quiet of her room.