Lunch Bunch

Lillian's preschool starts Lunch Bunch on Thursday. Each Thursday Lillian will get to stay 45 minutes later because she will be eating lunch at school! Another great thing about MUMPS is that the lunch bunch is already factored in to the tuition; many school you pay extra! This is a pretty major thing; she has a snack at school but this will be the first time she will eating a meal away from us (other than with family on occasional babysitting jaunts).

I ordered her a lunch bag and it came just in time! It is pink (her FAVORITE) and there is a butterfly on it. I had some letters left over from her backpack so I went ahead and monogrammed it (the company will only allow you 3 letters in a monogram!)


When I showed it to Lillian she was super excited and went and filled it up with lunch:

two Spicy V8 drinks
lots of cheese (string and sliced)
apples
an orange
two cups of yogurt

I hope she is hungry!

New Family Portrait

by Lillian.

from left to right:


Daddy, Rory (little sister to Lillian's best friend Lily), Lillian and Mommy

Paper Heart

Lillian cut this heart out all by herself this morning:


I drew the lines and she cut it out and then proceeded to put stickers on it.

Back to school

Today preschool started back up after being our for the holidays. It went pretty smooth considering the last few weeks of preschool were met with tears and fits. I usually walk into the school with Lillian but the teachers thought it best if we did the carpool for drop-off in the morning. Apparently once she enters the classroom she calms right down so she was putting on a show for me. I told them we would start carpool at the beginning of the new year.

Lillian was fine with the morning routine at home and went into the car easily. She started to get a bit upset as we sat in the carpool line. A few tears started leaking out of her eyes and the makings of the preschool fit. But we saw her teachers waving to us from the classroom and I kept telling her how excited the teachers, her friend Lily and Moonlight, the class fish, were to see her. Luckily Miss Vivian came very soon and Lillian went right with her into the building.

Lillian did give me a couple jobs to complete while she is at school: make a valentine crown and bring her a cup of peppermint tea when I pick her up!

Her back to school poses this morning:

Fake Blood and Hearts

A trip to the dollar store turned into Valentine headquarters for Lillian. She found a bag of 200 foam Valentine stickers that she had to have. So we bought them and headed home to get started on Valentines.

I would cut the paper hearts out and she would put the stickers on them. As I started dinner she was still going strong only now she had the big scissors and was cutting. No big deal - she was doing a pretty good job. Later on I noticed some red stuff on her fingers and asked her if she cut herself. Of course she said she didn't, that it was just fake blood. I asked her where she got the fake blood from and this was her response: "When paper and glue mix together it makes fake blood. That's all. Of course it's fake blood."

I convinced her fake blood and all to wash her hands and I looked for a cut. Couldn't find any cuts so we went back to our chores. Once daddy came home I noticed more red on her fingers. This time daddy was able to find the cut and we told Lillian she had cut her finger while she was using the big scissors and we need to clean it and but a bandage on it. All of a sudden the cut hurt and the whole way back to the bathroom she was whimpering, "It hurts! Will the hurt go away? Ouch!"

Here she is with her bandage finger that was leaking fake blood:

Happy New Year - 2010

For New Year's Eve, we headed out the Raleigh's First Night Celebration. In the afternoon it is geared toward children with activities around the museums and finishing with a parade, the People's Procession and an early acorn (Raleigh is the City of Oaks) drop at 7:00 pm. It was cold so we bundled up.

Lillian got to make lots of crafts: a smile stick, a joystick complete with a purple glow stick, a heart that was displayed with other hearts, a happiness journal, a hat and a set of hand prints. We watched a puppet show, some hula hoop dancers, huge walking puppets and a mariachi band.




Everyone was invited to walk in the People's Procession and as we did it started to rain. Just a drizzle so we kept on going.



The procession ended at a stage and there was the acorn, lifted high in the sky with the help of a crane.
A band was playing as we waited for the acorn drop and the rain got a bit harder. We found a little shelter under a stage for the news reporters and cameras so we had Lillian stand there to keep dry. But she wanted to get up higher for the acorn drop.

She would get very excited each time we would announce, "10 more minutes." Then we all counted down as the acorn dropped. Then there were fireworks which she got a bit upset about. We did not know there were going to be fireworks and usually they don't bother her, but I think the whole event was a bit overwhelming to her. Lillian and I headed for the car to go home as Joe left to perform in a couple shows that Comedy Worx was hosting during the event.



New Year's Day started out with Lillian bringing breakfast to Joe in bed - a bowl with 3 green onions, an apple, a pear and a carton of yogurt. The she made some of her own raisin bread - because I toasted the last piece of bought raisin bread and she did not want her bread toasted:


The it was time for the traditional New Year's Mexican feast and Lillian got to try her first Pina Colada and Mojito (non-alcoholic of course.) Here she is sipping the PC:

and with her Mojito and plate at lunch:

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2009

Text to come later

View some photos here.