Preparations

Hard to believe that Livy is coming up on her first birthday! So in preparation for the princess' day we have....

Painted toenails in princess pink (in a quick dry formula of course) for the first time

Stamped wrapping paper

Tried on the dress for the one year picture

Experimented with the tiniest barretts I have ever seen

What will Friday ever bring???

Sore Muscles

We mulched our front flower beds this past weekend and prior to that Brett laid nice brick edging around them to keep the mulch in place as every time it rained we would watch our mulch wash away.

To showcase our efforts here is a before picture.....

And here is the after picture--please ooh and ahh :)

All about food

Other than our recent trip to the ER, we've been up to a lot of activies that involve food so here is our post.

We got all decked out in Hokie wear to get the free chicken sandwhich at Chick-Fil-A on labor day. The sandwhiches were great but the wait of 20+ minutes in a very crowded and tiny area with two hungry and wiggly kids, was so not worth it. I have told Brett to remind me of that experience when I tell him about another freebie. (Please disgregard the awful photo attempt in the mirror and the messy bathroom counter.)

We discovered that we had an apple tree in our backyard....well a very tiny one that produced 3 apples. We picked them as Ian needed one for preschool this past week (letter A day). The branches were suprisingly sharp so Ian was a bit hestitant about getting poked.

And Livy who is 11 months old found a box of Cheerios (and shocking did not dump them everywhere). She sure wanted what was inside though. Brand imprinting at its best. She is our mountain goat already climbing to pursue things.

She also got her first corn on the cob on her month day in celebration of her fourth tooth (two on top and two on the bottom). And as we suspected, she LOVED it.

First Day

Today was Ian's first day of preschool and he had an awesome time! No tears, loved every minute of it and basically the picture of what I was hoping it would be for him. We got there early, just like most of the class so we had to wait around for a few for the class to open. Every mom there had a camera with her to document the all important "first day" moments. When I returned to pick Ian up and asked him about his day he told me all about who was naughty; hopefully, he won't ever need to include himself in that list.

We opted to park instead of doing the "drive through" lane today. Ian had his special Thomas backpack ready to go.

The teacher put name tags on everyone's back so she could tell who was who.

And of course Livy thought it was all for her and couldn't resist playing with the toys and kids.

He is already looking forward to preschool tomorrow.

Sprinkler

We went to playgroup today at the Sprinkler. It was a great day for the sprinkler as there were hardly any other kids (school starting again is great for that) and it wasn't baking hot sunshine. Today was especially nice also because L could stand and walk so I didn't have to carry her and hold her the whole time--it was delightful!

I captured some great moments (in my humble mommy opinion) at with the kiddos having fun in the water. I will miss you Sprinkler when you close for the year in a few weeks.

our vacation

I've not updated our blog for a while as we've been in Virginia visiting family and friends. It was a great trip--just not the getting there part. Our DVD player stopped working on our return journey at around Charlotte.

We also were racing to come back to make a 4pm doctor appointment for both kids that I set up that morning begging for the latest appointment as we would be coming from VA. BOTH kids turned out to have pretty gnarly ear infections and are now on antibiotics. I'm glad to know that at least there was some reason for the rotten sleep all of us got the last few nights.

So here are some of our highlights of our trip (in no particular order)

Canning beans (twice--I think the count was something like 88 pints)

Visiting the caboose park (Ian wouldn't climb on it once we got there)

Awesome haircut

Dinner with old High School band friends atMacado's

Lots of great afternoon naps for me while Grandma watched the kiddos (why can't you store sleep?)

Shopping with my Mom (great deals on capri's!)

Picking corn from the garden

Playing in the Virginia Room

Ian digging trenches in the garden (so that he could be "just like scoop" from bob the builder)

Playing with the water table

Shopping without the kiddos

Swimming with friends (sorry we were late)

Boucing balls with Ian (what a thigh workout!)

Twisty string cheese (I've told Ian that orange string cheese is only at Grandma's)

Playing $100,000 Pyramid game show with Mom late at night

Shopping at Kroger (sadness that they no longer sell hulless popcorn)

Watching the neighbors cat "Leroid" (real name is Elroy)

Girls night out (wonderful ginger cookies and conversation and stamping cards)

Hamster Wheel (termed the "Tramster wheel" by Ian)

Bubbles in the VA room

Die cutting foam and felt at Pulaski Library (the alphabet I started two years ago is complete)

Visiting Thrift stores for books (got a Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton for kids Christmas)

Here are some pictures from our journey and more are on my facebook page if you want to see them!

I hear a symphony

The sound of the garage door opening signaling Brett returning from work is just music to my ears, like a symphony. The kids tackle daddy and I well I want to run and lock myself in the bedroom for a few minutes of peace. Nothing like getting tackled!