Dressing Up, Kentucky Style

You've seen lots of posts showing my girls' dress up adventures recently.  They're really into it.  They're just like their Mama in that way.  I've also posted recently about the dearth of dress up items in my Mom's closet when I was growing up.  She came through with a few fun things for the girls yesterday though.  Check out this hat.

It was made, of course, by my Grandma.

Lass loved it.

The girls loved seeing their Grandma try on this clown costume, also made by my Grandma.  It is actually a full clown costume with a baggy one piece suit that has big buttons down the front.  But I'm not sharing that photo.

When I wrote about my Mom's dress-up-lacking closet recently in this post, I mentioned the one item she did have that I loved to dress up in - the beautiful silver shoes.  I forgot about the beautiful silver purse that went with those shoes.  My Mom brought it out yesterday and I was so happy to see it.  Seriously.  I gasped and exclaimed, "The silver purse!"  The girls are loving it too.

Miss really got into carrying it around.

Before I gave it to the girls, I opened it up to make sure there wasn't anything in it that they couldn't play with.  Turns out I was the last one to use it.  Here's what I found:

This is what I used to carry in my purse.  My keys, "address book," and um, FBI identification card?

Miss enjoyed my special purse contents too.  She was very animated in discussing the importance of having her "message" (the FBI card), her "keys to go for a trip in the car," and her "book to read in the car" in her purse.

I love playing dress up with my girls.

I Gotta Get Me One of These

And when I say "one of these," I'm referring to a huge, obnoxious trampoline to put in my backyard.  For my kids, of course.  Yes. For my kids.

During our recent weeks of traveling we spent some time with my sister-in-law's family.  They have a trampoline in their backyard (along with a pool and lots of chickens, it's like child heaven there).  The girls loved it.

They played "Monster" with my husband and his brother.

They jumped and jumped and ran and jumped some more.  They laughed and screamed a lot.

Miss made up a game called "Kitty-Cat-Cat Ball," which she played with her older cousins.  The rules according to Miss: "You throw the ball up in the air and try to catch it. And if you miss it, you have to do something else." Right on.

This was her proud pose every time she caught the ball.  I love, love, love this pose.  I just wish this photo would have captured the priceless look on her face too.

Her cousin was pretending to have trouble catching the ball.  Here she was telling him, "You have to keep trying.  I know you can do it!"

Add trampoline to the long list of things I once thought I would never do or buy for my children that I am now scrambling to buy and have rush delivered.  I don't know why I used to think I wouldn't get one of these.  It's great exercise.  The kids can be entertained for hours in there.  And with the zip-up safety cage around it, it's like the world's largest playpen!  Entertainment + Containment = LOVE

And who am I kidding?  I can't wait to get in and jump around myself too!

"Do You Have a Baby in Your Butt?"

Yesterday I volunteered to help at Miss's school because one of her teachers had to be out for a funeral.  It was a really fun experience.  I loved getting to watch her in her space and get to know some of the kids she goes to school with.  I was quite a novelty to many of the kids, who got a kick out of my big belly and kept asking about the baby, poking my belly, etc.  One little girl was especially sweet.  She sat next to me every time the class sat down to listen to a story, sing songs, or do other learning activities all together (weather, calendar, etc.).  She hugged me.  She said she loved me.  She was that super sweet and lovey little girl that every preschool class probably has at least one of.  Then it happened.  After looking at and asking me several questions about my belly, she asked a different question.  "Do you have a baby in your butt?"  Um.  No.  But thanks so much Sweet Little Girl.  Thanks a million times for asking me that.  Man.  Kids say the darnedest things.  

I really wanted to take some photos of Miss at school, but I was afraid my big camera would be disruptive and wasn't really even sure about sneaking some with my phone.  I was supposed to be helping after all.  So, these photos aren't from school, but I still love them.  It amazes me how quickly my big girl's (and my little girl's, for that matter) skills are increasing.  Miss is getting very good at coloring in the lines and can draw a wicked smiley face now.

It was wonderful to have a special day with her at her school yesterday.

My Own Cute Daddy

A few months ago we got family photos taken.  I love how they turned out.

The girls' personalities just shine through in these.

Props to our photographer Tara.  You can check her out here.

Don't they look like little porcelain dolls?

Several of these photos were used on our holiday card this year.  The one below was on it.  When we were at my parent's house I gave my Mom her copy of the card, and Miss was really interested in checking it out.  She was so cute about it.  She pointed to my face and said, "Who's this pretty girl?" (pronounced "pwetty guhl").  Then she pointed at my husband's picture and said, "And who's this cute guy?"  I of course played along and said, "That's Daddy!" and she said, "Yep, it's my own cute Daddy." I could have melted it was so sweet.

These girls just make me smile.

Cheech and Chong

Today, when we were getting ready for the day, I swore, for a brief moment of "where the heck did she get that?" that Miss was saying, "Cheech and Chong" over and over. I started to crack up about it, but realized all too quickly that she was actually saying, "teeth and tongue." She was playing with a doll and I suspect she was brushing its teeth. Damn. "Cheech and Chong" would have been funny. But even without that, my kid is pretty amusing. I love those moments when she says something that cracks me up. She does it more and more often these days.

An example of this occurred in the grocery store checkout the other day. We were waiting for the bagger to get the last of our stuff in the cart. Miss said she was hungry and I told her that we were going to go home in a few minutes to have lunch. I then asked her what she might like to eat. Without skipping a beat she replied, "A lemon." She was so serious about this I couldn't help but laugh out loud. And she continued to ask for a lemon to eat, all the way home, during lunch, and the next day. I kept telling her that I needed to use the lemon we had purchased that day for a recipe, but she kept asking. Today when it was time for her snack I suggested apple yogurt. She said, "No, I fink my want a lemon." I had realized, when cooking my recipe that required a lemon last night, that I actually had another, extra lemon in the fridge, so this time I said, "Sure. Hop up to the table and you can have a lemon for your snack." I was chuckling to myself about this, but she surprised me. She took several bites and kept asking for more.

She didn't shudder. Didn't make a sour face. She seemed to love it.

She got to her third wedge of lemon before finally giving a little shudder.

Then a big shudder and sour face.

She then held her lemon wedge out to me and said, "Apple yogurt please!"

Today the weather was perfect. A beautiful late summer, early fall day with sun and a breeze and a temp of about 75. I decided it was a park day. Lass loves hats, and was so excited when I pulled out her bonnet for the park trip.

As we were getting loaded up to go to the park I happened to think, "It's Thursday, I'll bet I could find a few rummage sales on the way." So I took a slightly circuitous route to the park to look for some sales along the way. I found two. They were crap. Seriously, the first one had deodorant for sale for 75 cents. Deodorant! 75 cents! So wrong. I didn't look any further because I wanted the girls to have plenty of time at the park before lunch. We went to a new park today and Miss had a blast checking out all the new stuff there.

Of course there was a lot of swinging.

This park has a splash pad, which I assumed was turned off. One little boy apparently touched the magic spot to turn it on, and Miss immediately asked to go play in the water.

The little spouts of water shot up in a sporadic manner, so Miss got doused by a couple of them.

She didn't seem to care. And Lass had fun putting her hands in the water from the Ergo.

This place is my new favorite park.

We came home to get dry clothes, eat lunch and take naps, and then went back to the beautiful day outside. We took a walk, which was very short because Miss requested to walk by herself instead of riding in the stroller. As she was walking she went onto a neighbor's lawn and started to take her shoes off. I told her she needed to keep them on while we were walking and she informed me that she wanted to feel the grass under her feet. All right. She agreed to keep her shoes on until we were in our own yard, and then we all promptly took off our shoes to feel the tickle of the grass under our feet. Lass got a big kick out of this. Miss and I danced and shuffled our feet. This resulted in some heckling from my hubby who was inside changing clothes after work. The heckling resulted in a dazzling display of the Running Man by yours truly. The evening was topped off by grilled homemade brats, football on the telly, and very soon, ice cream. I love days like today. My spoon is calling me.