Sophie sang with the kids’ choir this morning, it was her second performance in front of the congregation and she did GREAT! She really has a lot of confidence up there, her natural inclination to “ham it up” probably helps a bunch - since she thinks the world is her stage anyway. She gets another chance to steal the show next week for Palm Sunday - whatever will she do with a palm frond? I say she makes it into a tail feather to give her a chance to shake her hips all around in church. And whatever other unscripted moves she can think of!
Yesterday Maddie was busy working away at a bunch of pictures on the drawing tablet. Here’s her story about this one:
“I’m the big one with the hair in the middle. Sophie is the one smiling on one side, she’s happy because she’s with me. The one that is sad is xiao-mei-mei, because she’s not with our family yet and she’s lonely. I hope that she comes home soon!”
I’m with her. Tell that stork to hurry up already!
Seems that the kids will only sing their musical showtunes for “certain people” - namely Mommy and Daddy. Everyone else, you’ll have to take our word for it. Maybe they’ve been watching some classic Warner Bros lately…Sorry Uncle Tim!
In the past couple of days, the girls have been filling their vacation time with lots of fun stuff - Sophie learned about outer space and magic in some day camps, and both girls went to the local arboretum (”it was pretty and we saw a turtle”) and the livestock show at the rodeo (”it was smelly and we saw a piggy race”). While I wait on getting pictures of those adventures back from super-nanny Miss Alma, I decided to check in on the butterfly garden we seeded a few weeks ago. The sprouts are starting to come out of the ground now, and I’ve already forgotten what we planted! Guess we’ll find out soon enough. Last year the sunflowers grew taller than the girls, so we hope for at least that much this season! Apparently we can eat some of the flowers we planted - but we didn’t keep track of which ones those were. Who gets to be the guinea pig? (Oh…Sooophieeee!)
She’s not a chimney sweep, but she moves so fast you can’t quite catch her with a camera! What else do you do during spring break but teach your children those valuable life skills that make *your* life easier! So far, the ladies have had a ball (really!) vaccuuming, using the paper shredder, and well, they were already champ dusters. Now THAT’s quality education! That fact that they fight over who gets to help first just makes me giggle. Point on the board for Mommy!
Actually, I have to partly thank “Mary Poppins”, which the girls watched for the first time a few days ago. I need to find other movies that make household chores inspirational! (washing dishes? folding laundry? cooking dinner????)
These days our house is filled with little voices singing showtunes - not only from Mary Poppins, but now also selected songs from “Fiddler on the Roof”, which we rented over the weekend. There’s not too much funnier than hearing the little ladies belt out ”Do You Love Me?” to each other. Actually, they ARE like an old married couple, so maybe it’s fitting! Regardless, it’s all better than having Dora or Hannah Montana share my living space. I’d much rather have Tevye and Golde, any day. Sing it, girls!
But only if you’re in the hot tub! It’s the first official day of spring break for the kids and they celebrated by taking a dip in the pool - both the warm little one and the not-quite-warm-enough-yet big one. It’s a tolerable 73 degrees in the big pool, not quite ready for prime time, but it should be OK a few weeks from now. I’m still trying to convince these fishes that swim team might be fun, but you know, anything that smacks of being my idea gets an instant veto from them. And theirs is the vote that counts! Guess it’ll have to be just the backyard for another summer - which is just fine too. We’ll be in there with them before too long - but for now it’s much more fun to hear them squeal at the chill. Brrrr!
(And as usual, Sophie offers her very nicest face for the camera. Charming.)
Whoever could we be referring to?
More sardonic art with words can be found here.
I’m always amazed at what I pick up going to preschool with the girls — Maddie especially has learned all sorts of things like how to power a light bulb with a battery and tin foil, how to make ice cream from scratch, and right after spring break, she gets to build a space station! One of the homework “bags” that goes home with the kids is a ”Letter Bag” where you have to fill up the bag with objects that start with the letter they’re studying that week. We always seem to get the tricky ones - like “U” (what do you put in after an umbrella?), and a few weeks ago, “Y”. Maddie loves to fill the bag up to the brim, and because we didn’t have any “yo-yo’s” or “yellow yaks”, I turned in desperation to Google Images for things to print flashcards of. This little grump is too cute. Wonder what the class thought of that one!
I always thought a yeti was a little wrinkled guy in a robe. Or maybe that’s Yoda. Darn! Didn’t think of that one either!
Over the weekend, we went to see a free concert by the US Navy Band at one of the local high schools. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, including the ladies, who deemed it “fabulous”. Maddie almost fell asleep halfway through,a dangerous act because the performance was in the gymnasium instead of the auditorium, and bleachers are much less forgiving than cushioned seats. Luckily, she ended up rallying after intermission and a short catnap in my lap (much safer!).
Sophie, on the other hand, was at full attention the whole 90 minutes. It happened to be her turn to bring her preschool “class pet” home, which she in turn brought to the concert. Curious George got an earful, even though Soph didn’t let him out of his special bag much. She claimed he had an entire band in there with him already!
When asked, “What would you play in a band?”, here’s what the girls answered:
Maddie: “Drums! No, maybe a flute. Or a clarinet!” (cousin Sarah plays clarinet)
Sophie: “Cymbals!!!!!”
She’s one step closer to starting that garage band where she’s the drummer and lead singer. Can’t you see it? Little “Sophie and the Banshees”?
We’re finally back after a few weeks of blog snafus - unfortunately the verdict was that site needs to start over due to “database errors”. So I’ve got a lot of work to do filling it all back up again! Sorry to have been gone so long, but the girls have been doing wonderfully the last several weeks. The rodeo is in town, and Andy and I have had the “Texas Star” song burned into our brains for several days since the little cowgirls had a “rodeo lunch” at preschool. Lucky us. At least all the cowboy stuff is pretty much concentrated into one month of the year, and then quickly gets replaced by shamrocks, leprechauns, and Easter rabbits. Let’s hope that happens soon!