Donuts for Dads

Last Tuesday was Donuts for Dads day at school, but there's no Dad in these pics. I was waiting to share because I was hoping the girls teacher would send home some pics of Walt and the girls, but I haven't gotten anything. So, these will have to do. {Thanks, Uncle Brian.} 

The girls and Walter had a great time eating donuts and drinking juice. They sang a special song and each gave Walter a "World's Greatest Dad" trophy they made themselves.

Tub Time

Anna Claire and Mallory love bath time...until it's time to wash hair, that is. Recently, washing hair and later blowdrying hair, has become an epic battle in our house. These pics are obviously the before shots.

No cameras allowed in the bathroom during hair~washing; water usually ends up everywhere.

Lights Out

Does anyone else sneak into their children's rooms and take pictures of them sleeping ~ or is that just me? Luckily, Anna Claire and Mallory are heavy sleepers; I'm never worried about waking them.

I like to try to remember the little things ~ like how Anna Claire usually falls asleep curled up in a little ball on her side and Mallory falls asleep flat on her back.

Lately, the girls have wanted to "read" in bed which we're fine with as long as they stay in bed. Sometimes we hear them chatting with each other, but usually they are fast asleep in under ten minutes {wow, have we come a long way!}.

We leave the hall light on until they fall asleep so there is a little light for them to see the illustrations. Once they're done "reading," they toss the books onto the floor...

Loving my lightscoop, by the way. These pics were taken in the pitch~black dark!

Slowing Down

January has been a slow month, and we've pretty much been hanging close to home ~ which is fine by me after the craziness of the holidays. Here are some random pics of the girls over the past few days ~ forget what I said about slowing down; Anna Claire and Mallory are busy all. the. time.

Enjoy!

At any given point in the day, this is probably what our living room floor looks like:

Goofy girls! {wearing their 3D glasses from Beauty and the Beast last weekend}

Anna Claire and Mallory pretending to "drive" to Disney World with their clothes and lovies in the back of their car:

This was Mallory pretending to be Aurora, I think, dancing to Once Upon a Dream. She is all about singing and dancing these days.

Here's Anna Claire practicing her recital dance for dance class...more on that later!

Yes, we jump on the beds; you're only young once!

Anna Claire was so proud of the rainbow she drew on the driveway and so were we!

No idea what Mallory was doign here!

So, if you're able to take anything away from these sweet pictures of two happy little girls laughing and playing, it's probably that we spend a lot of time in our pajamas. Oh, yes!

Beauty and the Beast

We've probably watched Beauty and the Beast on DVD about 72 times, but that didn't keep us away from the theater this afternoon to see it in 3D. The girls loved it! Anna Claire tried to talk through the whole movie and Mallory kept taking her glasses on and off, but they did great, much better than their first 3D experience at Mickey's Philharmagic ~ maybe because they are so familiar with Beauty and the Beast ~ and maybe because water wasn't being sprayed their faces!

Something about those glasses on Anna Claire...

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It's About Time...

...I learned to use my camera. I've only had it for two years! This arrived in the mail today along with a Lightscoop and in about 90 seconds I went from this...

 ...to this...

 A.MAZ.ING

I used to take indoor pics in either auto or aperture mode, then edit as best I could in Picasa {because it's free!}. As a result, I'd get something like this:

 Now, I get this:

NO editing!!!!! I almost cried. For two years I've been taking awful pictures with an awfully expensive camera of my awfully adorable girls. They deserve better!

I'm not saying the setting are perfect yet, but I didn't even have the Lightscoop on my camera yet, had only adjusted the manual settings, and was already getting drastically better indoor pics. Seriously, in less than two minutes of the mail lady dropping the Amazon box on my porch my life was changed forever. It's the little things that make me happy!

Anna Claire was a great model for me while Mallory napped. I was originally practicing taking pics of my vacuum, but I thought you would much prefer to see this cutie instead.

They've Got a Dream...

This week at school the girls are doing a unit on community helpers {policemen, doctors, etc.} and tying that all in with "I Have a Dream" since MLK day is Monday. {Is it horrible that all I think of now is the Snuggly Ducking scene from Tangled?} Yesterday they got to dress up as what they "dream" of being when they grow up. Now, up until yesterday if you asked Anna Claire what she wanted to be she would have told you a mommy and Mallory would have told you a bride. Interesting.

So, we had a little talk about careers and jobs, and since we pretty much only have princess and fairy costumes, and I was not going to Target to buy any new costumes/props, I was able to gently persuade Anna Claire that she might like to be an artist and I easily convinced Mallory that she might like to be a chef. They were sold on my ideas for their "dream jobs" and so excited to dress up for school. Anna Claire asked me if it was Halloween!

Off they went to school yesterday...Anna Claire wearing an art smock with paintbrushes, crayons, and markers in the pocket and Mallory wearing an apron and carrying a mini whisk and wooden spoon. Dylan was a veterinarian. 

 

I don't know why, but this picture makes me laugh sooooo hard. I think it's the look on both girls' faces and the fact that Mallory's head looks huge.

No school Monday; happy MLK Day!!!

Making Progress

Since the girls got their bicycles for their birthday in June, they really haven't shown too much interest in learning to ride them. We didn't start them on balance bikes or tricycles but went straight to training wheels and I think that's been the problem. Mallory's definitely put the most effort into practicing and today she finally got it! She was so proud of herself and we are, too!

side note: the girls do have helmets which we do make them wear, but Mallory's decision to hop on her bike this afternoon was spur~of~the~moment and if you know her, you know nothing is going to stop her when she decides she's going to do something. For all future bike rides it's safety first!

Party Animals

Anna Claire and Mallory missed ringing in the new year by about 3 hours! Mommy missed it by about an hour and a half, and I'm pretty sure Daddy fell asleep on the couch before the ball dropped. We did "party" for a little while over at Aunt Pam's house but we came home early where I played a few games of Sudoku before bed and Walter figured out how to play the girls' Tangled Wii game. Like I said ~ party animals!

Rebeccah, I love what you posted on Facebook the other day ~ you know you're getting old when you're more concerned with who's making what for lunch on New Year's Day than where the party is on New Year's Eve. So true!

Hoppin' John and collards here I come. Healthy eating starts tomorrow. Promise.

Happy New Year!!!