The Birds and the Bees

Well, today was a special weekend for myself and Jessica.  We had a special mother daughter overnight to talk about puberty and the birds and the bees.  I had been doing some research and read that 8 years old is a good time to have "the talk".  And having just done it, I couldn't agree more!  If you asked me a few years ago, I probably would have said "no way, too early!".  My husband and I decided it was the time for a few or reasons:

~ We wanted to be sure she first heard about it from us.  I'd like to think that we can protect her from everything but she is at school all day and I didn't want us to be naive to think that the topic would never come up.

~  We wanted her to be informed before her body started to go through changes.  We didn't want her to feel surprised or fearful.  God made you and gave you this body and this is part of growing up.

~  She's been asking questions for awhile and while I have generally answered things, I also wanted to be clear about it.

~  Kids this age are so matter of fact about stuff.  She got the information, understood it, was happy she knew about it and was also grossed out a bit.  Mission accomplished!


I am so glad we made it a special night.  We stayed at a hotel, had room service, watched TV together, played scrabble, painted nails....basically a mommy/daughter pajama party.

We'll do the same for Lauren too.  We did discuss everything in light of God's plan for families.  She knows that this is just the starting point and not just a one time conversation.  This is an ongoing dialog and she can come to us at any time with any questions she might have.  She will always get a loving and honest answer.

We did give her a book about how a girl's body changes and tips for taking care of herself.  She loves that she has it.

Everyone needs to make the right choices for their family about stuff like this but I am glad we didn't stick our heads in the sand about it.

Oh and how can I forget Lauren, she got special time with daddy which included dinner and the chance to see the movie Frozen....again.  She loved it.  There was also a lot of game playing and snuggles.  She was a happy girl.  

Downton Abbey Premiere

What a fun night!  I had some friends over to watch the premier of Downton Abbey.  It was great to watch the show as a group.  Of course, Scott was there too. He is another fan of the show.  I've been trying to get over my fear of hosting people at our home.  I used to do it more often but not so much lately. The house is usually in a state of flux and mess...one area gets cleaned up and the other is a shambles.  I cook but I'm not someone who considers themselves a fab cook either which can cause some doubt in hosting.  But I got over it and had so much fun. Even though we were in sweats, I thought it would be fun to use our china and create an inviting set up to go with a Downton premiere.  No cucumber sandwiches though.

I've always considered my home my haven away from the rest of the world.  But I also realize that sharing it with others brings its own blessings too.  In its simplicity, I am thankful for my home.

Hula Hooping

Today Jess figured out how to hula hoop. Love it! I've always enjoyed hula hooping. I think it is a thrill as a parent to watch your child learn how to do something that they once couldn't do. It was just fun to watch her practice and to be so determined about it. We've had hula hoops for a long time but this was going to be the day. I think she saw herself getting close to "getting it" and she just didn't want to stop until she got it. I heard "mom, come watch, I think I got it.", "mom, I did it for 10 seconds", "mom, look at me, this is my best yet". She was on the patio and I was in the kitchen trying to get dinner ready. I was lucky I got anything made - she wanted me to watch and all I really wanted to do was watch her too. I just loved seeing the excitement in her face and just the pure joy of the moment. Her eyes would just light up. So simple, so honest. After dinner she wanted to go back out again just to hula hoop.




I think this is what I hope this summer will bring - the simple stuff. Learning how to do something that maybe you couldn't do before.

So proud of you Jess!

Dear Jessica

Dear Jessica,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

You are 6 years old today! My goodness...I really can't believe it. You are finishing up kindergarten and you'll soon be a 1st grader! Jessica you are growing up so wonderfully. You light up from the inside out. You are sensitive, warm and compassionate. You are an AWESOME big sister. Lauren loves you dearly. Your patience has grown so much because of the time you spend together. Now, it isn't always sunshine and roses. :-) You do fight together but you both apologize and make up pretty quickly.

Just a few things to help me remember you at this age:
You love taking dance class and gymnastics.
You are also taking swim lessons and ice skating lessons. We are seeing how that goes.
You LOVE school. I hope you will always love learning. We never stop learning - even when you are finished with school.
You love to draw and write.
You enjoy a good movie or TV show (both you and Lauren have been watching Clifford, Arthur, Curious George, Leap Frog videos and Max & Ruby).
You love to be read to and your favorite book right now is The Best Loved Doll.
You love to read in bed on your own after we've said goodnight.
You've gotten pretty good at making your bed and you always remember to make it in the mornings.
You haven't lost any teeth...yet...
You love to play with Lauren and usually you are the teacher and she is the student.
Your reading has grown so much. You like to read Young Cam Jansen the most. You have a great memory like Cam too.
You are tall. You might be the tallest in your class.

We are so proud of you. We love you so much!!
Love,
Mommy

Dear Lauren

Dear Lauren,

Oh my little girl...I can't believe you are 3 now! It seems like just yesterday we were carrying you around in your little car seat. Now you are already 39 inches tall. You've grown so much over the last year. It seems like just yesterday you looked like this:

You have such an awesome, sweet and spunky attitude. You love hugs and kisses but you also have been finding a lot of independence this year. You are potty trained now (since you were about 2 1/2). You love dressing yourself (usually it involves a tutu). You love trying to write. I am amazed how quickly you have learned your ABCs. You love preschool and your dance and gymnastics classes. You love monkeys which is why we picked "Monkey Girl" for your birthday party theme. You still love being picked up and held. Sometimes you love to just caress my face and give me kisses. You are very loving. You are cautious too especially around new people.

You LOVE your big sister. You love to play together, cuddle together for a show and have "slumber party sleepovers" in Jessica's room. Jessica really takes care of you and I can tell how safe and secure she makes you feel. I love hearing you both play and laugh together. Now it isn't always sunshine and roses but I think you have gotten a lot better at using your words and expressing how you feel.

You love being outside and playing with your baby dolls. You and Jessica play "mommy/baby" a lot and "teacher/student" and "dance teacher/student". You usually are the student but I make sure that you also get your chance to be teacher too.

You are an incredible helper. You love to help me cook or put dishes away. I always hear: "I wanna help" from you.

I love to kiss your cheeks and your little tummy. Lately you love wearing your hair in pigtails which look so super cute on you. They really just fit your personality. You have a very strong personality. If you don't like something, we'll know about it. You certainly are not a pushover. If you feel like something has been "taken" from you, you will march over and take it right back. You are really learning to use your words more in this area to talk about how you feel.

We love you oodles and oodles and can't wait to see what this next year brings. Although I wouldn't mind if time slowed down a bit. I love your snuggles and cuddles. We do hope you stop sucking your thumb soon but at the same time it is so cute to me. You are the apple of your daddy's eye. He loves you dearly. You are a wonderful daughter and sister. We love you!!!!

Thankful Gifts

I just started reading Ann Voskamp's new book "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are" . Her writing is eloquent and thought provoking. I'm really enjoying it so far. I'll probably be writing more on it later. I've taken on the dare of writing down 1000 gifts or blessings in my life - focusing not only on the big but the small. I think that is one of the things I'm taking away from her writing...that the "small" really isn't "small". When you see all the gifts God has given us, joy can be found. I can't wait to get back to the book.

So I continue to count:

21. Grandparent sleepovers

22. Time alone with my husband

23. Hearing unprompted words of apologies and forgiveness between sisters

24. Playgroup with kind friends

25. Espresso made by Scott

26. Benadryl for allergic reactions

27. When my daughter comes up and asks if I need help with anything

28. Bookstores

29. Amazon :-)

30. 180s to protect my ears in these frigid temps

Snow Books

One of the things I enjoy about winter is cuddling up on our sofa for storytime. Our schedule earlier in the year had us running around too much in the afternoon so I moved some things around so we could have a slower pace after school. Once we put away our Christmas books I took out our Winter books. Sometimes I find it hard to keep Lauren engaged in some of the longer stories but overall I think she does really well. In the busyness of our days, I think this is a really special time for us.

We love the My First Little House books - particularly Sugar Snow. Hopefully we can make a little field trip to learn more about maple sugar. Below are some of the other books we've been enjoying lately.

Project Life ~ Week 2

I am so excited that Week 1 of Project Life is all complete and in the album. I am really trying to keep it simple. I write most of the information myself including dates. My family loves looking at it and it is only one spread so far! To me that is the greatest reward as well as motivation. I'm a stay at home mom and I've kind of taken the view that getting our memories in order is my new job. If you only saw the pile of "stuff" in my bedroom - memories I want to keep. It truly is embarassing. I'm seriously considering getting a Project Life album for each of my girls and maintain them from Sept - August. I have so much stuff I could put in them. I really need to figure out what is my "game plan". Anyway, here are the pics for Week 2 as part of Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday:
Saturday ~ Jan 8

Celebrating Nana's 93rd Birthday

Sunday ~ Jan 9

I helped Jess clean up her room - it had gotten a little out of hand. She was so thrilled with her cleaned up space she just wanted to hang out on her bed and read/look at books.

Monday ~ Jan 10

I took a pic of my daughter's ear infection medicine but it had our address on it and I didn't know how to block it out. I'm a newbie. Below is the description for the pic though.

In the morning, Lauren complained that her ear hurt. She was acting fine and playing and laughing all day but she complained again before her nap. We headed to the doc after Kindergarten pick up -- full blown ear infection in one ear. Poor Baby!

Tuesday ~ Jan 11

I totally missed this day in pics BUT we had a big day Wednesday with lots of pics so I'm going to fill in the spot with a pic from Wednesday and I'm not going to drive myself nuts if I miss a day.

Wednesday ~ Jan 12

Snow Day - sledding pics

Thursday ~ Jan 13

Momma's Little Helper - putting away utensils.

Friday ~ Jan 14

A new class assignment has Jess writing sentences with a certain word list. I thought she did a great job. I still have to scan the page but I took a pic just as a placeholder and hopefully the scanned pic will come out better.

I am also trying to realign my weeks so they go from Sunday - Saturday. I'm just going to skip Saturday the 15th - oh well.

Dear Jessica

Dear Jessica,

I just dropped you off at Kindergarten and I'm sitting in a quiet kitchen just thinking about you. I always miss you when you head off to school but there was something about today that made me miss you a little more. There was soft music playing in the car, you hugged your sister when you got out of the car and waved goodbye and in that moment you just seemed so....Big to me. So grownup. Today you asked if you could make your own snack for lunch. You made a list of everything in your lunchbox too. You were so proud of yourself...and you should be because you did a great job. You asked if you could make your snack every day. Is this slowly the beginning? Does independence mean letting go? I sure hope not! :-)
Seeing how proud you were made me realize that I really need to take a look at other areas where you can act more independently. You are only 5 1/2 but there is so much you can do and want to do. I never want to stand in the way or hold you back in your growing up. Maybe you can slow down just a little bit. :-) Always know that your family is here for you. Watching you and Lauren grow up has been the greatest joy in my life. I can't wait to see what God has planned for your future. I am so excited to have a front row seat to your life. You are beautiful inside and out. I love you oodles and oodles....
Mommy

Project Life ~ Week 1

I am linking up, for the very first time over at Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday. Press the button below to check it out!



I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to approach this project. I like the idea of doing a weekly update but it also seems a little redundant for me...we'll see. Now for the pics of the week:

December 31 / January 1:

Ok, so this photo is from Dec. 31 but I love it as the opening photo to our family album of the year. New Year and a New Family Project! We did spend New Years Day at Grandmom and Pop Pop's house with all the family ~ hanging out and eating stuffed shells. Yum!

Sunday, January 2:

Well, here starts another attempt at organizing some photos. I really like the idea of how it captures our everyday life. I showed it to the girls and they are really excited and are already reminding me to take a picture for the day.

Monday, January 3rd:

We finally made it back to our library today. We returned all our books before our Thanksgiving trip to Florida. We have a lot of books at home. I love to buys books. But it is so nice to just be in the library and let the girls make their own choices. Jessica, you love using your library card. You want to checkout all on your own. Tonight we read some of our new library finds and Jess also read this level 1 book for The Snowman. She did really well and just needed a little help. Jessica, it is so awesome watching you learn to read. So exciting!

Tuesday, January 4th:

Everytime you girls take a bath/shower you bring your doll bathtub into the bathroom too and put your babies inside. So cute!

Wednesday, January 5th:

Today we had the girls' annual visit to the allergist. I put this pic in black and white for the album.

Thursday, January 6th:

Auntie Jenny's Birthday and 3 Kings Day:The girls are enjoying their new footie pajamas they got for 3 Kings Day.

Friday, January 7th:

1000 Gifts and 1/11/11

11. Medicine to help little ones with ear infections

12. Trips to the library

13. Fresh Sheets

14. Project Life

15. Great teachers

16. Whole Foods

17. My uggs for these cold days

18. Knowing when to say "I'm sorry"

19. Nose Kisses

20. Blanket / Cuddle / Story time with my girls

Well today seems to be an interesting date (1/11/11)....all those '1's ...I figure I'll document what I did on this date -- in short, the usual :-) We are awaiting a snowstorm that should start tonight. Lauren was supposed to go to preschool today but stayed home with me instead -- she was having a 'mommy moment' so I kept her. It is only 2 year old preschool. We grocery shopped together and picked up Jess from Harding Kids. After Kindergarten and Lauren's nap, we are off to the library for some more books, Kings for a couple of grocery items I missed and maybe Michaels if I can swing it. I know it is earth shattering but I didn't want to forget what I did on 1/11/11. :-)

1000 Gifts...The Beginning

I plan on reading her new book. Have you heard of Ann Voskamp and read her blog? I love reading her blog. Here is a recent post from her blog about it:
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/01/how-to-begin-a-new-year/

I am going to try this. I'll journal what are 1000 Gifts in my life....from the "big" to the "small". It always seem easier to think on needs, wants and all the open items on our "to do" lists. I just want to make sure I take a moment to SEE the gifts all around me.

1. Wonderful, Commited, Hardworking, Devoted Husband and Father

2. Amazing Daughters - Sweet, Funny and Kind

3. Family that is always there for us

4. Our Home - my safe haven

5. Ballerinas dancing in the kitchen

6. Dishwasher

7. A 2 year old that cleared her plate without being asked

8. Hugs

9. Daughters working together / helping each other

10. Cozy Pajamas

Happy Anniversary #11!!

We celebrated our anniversary this weekend. We had so much fun! Our anniversary is actually 10/2 but we decided to attend a special birthday party with the girls and celebrate the following week. Scott's parents were kind enough to come up and watch the girls so we could enjoy a day in the city.

It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed brunch at Balthazar and did some window shopping (including a stop at The Strand bookstore) and then we made our final stop at Eataly. We enjoyed yummy brioche french toast at Balthazar. Scott had some oysters too. Scott was then able to witness my addiction to children's books...well...books in general. I LOVE to buy books. We found some great stuff at The Strand. Our visit to Eataly was so yummy. They have several places you can eat inside but we went to this very casual area where you can have wine, cheese and antipasta and caprese salad...it was soooo good. We topped it all off with some gelato...of course!

It was so nice to just walk around the city and spend the day together. We don't get to do a lot of date nights or date days. I loved just hanging out with my guy. I am so thankful for the 11 years we have shared. We make a great team!

Apple Picking 2010

We made our annual trip to Alstede Farms this past weekend. For several years, we would go pumpkin picking but now we like to go apple picking there. We had a GREAT time! It was a beautiful day and everything is a lot easier now that Lauren is older (and pretty much potty trained). :-)

Lots of pictures....

We ate a lot of apples and also made some applesauce. I always look forward to these traditional outings.

First & Second Day of Preschool

Over the weekend, I had gone to Madison, WI to watch my sister, Jen, compete in her first Ironman. I'll talk more about that trip later but because I was away I couldn't go to Lauren's first day of preschool. It was more of an orientation day for one hour with the parents. Scott and Jessica took her and they had a great time. Daddy had to get her all ready by himself. :-) I think it went really well having Jessica there too. I was sad to miss the very first day but I think it was special that Scott could be there for her.

I arrived back from my trip to Wisconsin later that night. The next day was another Parent/Child day at preschool which included the Mother's Tea. I was excited that I could go this time. Jess came with us again too!

She seems very excited to be a preschooler!!