Beauty and the Beast Tea

Last weekend Sonya and I attended the Beauty and the Beast Tea at the Magic House. I didn't tell her about it until the day before we went because I did not want to hear about it everyday.  She was so excited when I told her about it, and kept asking if it was the afternoon, meaning time to go.  On Sunday, she kept asking to put her Belle dress on, but I had her wait to put it on so it wold not get all messy.  When the time finally came to get dressed, she ripped her clothes off and put her Belle dress on with lightening speed.  Since it was a special day I put a little bit of princess make up on.  Back story:  Sonya is obsessed with this girl on You Tube who does different Disney princess looks.  She is always pretending to put a "look" on herself with paint brushes and colored pencils, or she putting the "look" on one of her Disney princess barbies.
This was our Belle "look," a little gold eye shadow and pink lip gloss.

The girl never smiles for me.

She also insisted on wearing her crown forward and down of her forehead.

We went to the tea with my friend Cary and her daughter Winnie, and Cary's sister Jenny came in town with her daughter Remi last minute and they joined us.

Here are the three most beautiful Belles I have ever seen.

We were all super impressed with the set up at the Magic House.   

They had a bunch of art supplies set out on the table to decorate crowns right when you sat down.

 Then they had a little play read by the fairy godmother. 

 During the intermission of the play they served us some great tea and snacks.

They even had real china.

I couldn't believe how beautiful these little girls looked.

When the tea was over the girls were able to each take a rose, meet The Fairy Godmother, Belle's Papa, The Beast/Prince, Belle and get their autograph.

The Fairy Godmother

Belle's Papa
Here favorite line from the Beauty and Beast movie is,
"My father's not crazy, he's a genius."
I was hoping she would say it to him, but she didn't.

The Prince.  
Sonya was a little star struck by him.

Now Belle.
Sonya gave Belle her rose.

It was a great afternoon.  
The girls were very well behaved, perfect little ladies.
These are the times I love being a mama to a little girl.

Happy Birthday Baby T

My precious boy turned two last Monday.  
You can read about his entrance into the world here.  
Here is a little list of what he has been up too.

• He is 37. 5 inches tall, that is the 98 percentile.
• He weighs 33 lbs, that is the 94 percentile.  I think that is the first time he has been on the charts since he was two weeks old.
• He has had three haircuts.
• He LOVES trains.  We live right next to railroad tracks and we have multiple trains come by our house everyday.  Every time a train comes by he always runs to the backdoor or the window to watch it go by.  
• He calls Elmo, Melmo, and Cookie Monster, Cacoo.  That is he word for cookie.
• Here is some more Teddy speak:  sotty-sorry, mott-milk, shashie-shower, roo roo-Rooney (our dog), bebes- babies, helt-help, wawa- for water he wants to play in, wa wee- for water he wants to drink,   
• His favorite book is Waiting For Cookies.  It is a book I got from the dollar bin from Target.  He likes to pretend he is Cookie Monster and eat the book.
• His new favorite show is Go, Diego, Go.
• He sleeps is footie jammies every night because he likes to stick his hands down his diaper.  Which in turn makes him pee all over himself.
• He is left handed.
• He LOVES fruit: strawberries, blueberries, grapes, kiwi, apples, pears, raspberries, bananas.
• He is still an early riser, getting up most days between 5:00am and 6:00am.
• He is extremely strong.  We were at Yo My Goodness and he pulled on wooden stake in the ground and it broke in half.  That is when I decided he is going to be Bam Bam for Halloween next year.
• He will make anything into a track for his car or train.  One of my favorites is when he makes the straps of my camisole into a track.
• He loves to ram and crash things into each other.
• He talks very loud and has a deep voice.
• He is the gift I never knew I wanted, the greatest trick on my heart.

These photos of Baby T running around the backyard were taken on his actual birthday.

Getting so long and lean.

A perfect Teddy face.  

This what he does when you ask him to do something and he doesn't want to...

he closes his eyes to be dramatic.

Watching the train go by.

Just being 100% boy.

I love you Theodore Russell.
The Lord has made you perfect.
You are true joy to me.

I Heart Faces Wind

This week's challenge on I Heart Faces is wind.  

I had taken this photograph of Gracie before the big Statesmen football game last fall.

I love the perfect billowing flag, as she gave me her fiercest pose.

Click the button above for all of the other great entries at I Heart Faces.

The Cut

Every morning when I have to brush Sonya's hair it is a battle.  I don't like to let her wear her hair down because I hate when it hangs in her face, drags in her food, and it makes it easier for Teddy to pull.  She screams and cries almost everyday when putting in one of her three hair style choices; pony tail (popo), pig tails, or a unicorn (single pony tail on top of her head).  Everyday I would ask her if she wanted to have long princess hair, and if she did I explained that we must take care of it, ie wash it, brush, etc.  I also asked her if she would like to have short hair like her friends Campbell, Capi, and Lizzie.  Everyday the answer was always long princess hair, until last week when she answered, 

"I want to cut it."   

What the what?!?

I will admit, I panicked a little bit.  She really wanted to cut it off, I never thought she would do it.  

Not that I don't like short hair on little girls, I do, but she has always had this beautiful wavy hair.  

I was acting like one of those girl's on Top Model about my daughter's hair.  

Ridiculous!!

So I called my sister in law Erin, our family hair stylist, and let her know what Sonya wanted.  She was so excited to give Sonya the "big" cut.  Josh and I discussed the haircut before hand so we would be on the same page.  He told me that he wanted to go with a super short pixie cut.  I was a little nervous to cut her too short.  I did not want her to hate her hair and think she looked like a boy.  I had a short haircut that I hated as kid, sorry mom, and I did not want that for Sonya.  Josh and I looked on the internet and consulted with Erin, and decided on a cut.

Here is what we agreed on.

Here is the before:

   The first cut:

Cutting:

The funny face:

The finished look:

Can you stand the cuteness??

I am still in shock with how old she looks, but I love it.  More importantly so does Sonya.  

She was so excited to show her friends at school, and kept talking about how she looked like Campbell and Snow White.  

Thanks Erin for doing such a great job, and being so patient with my girl.

Monday Manifest

Babies I Have Helped Name Over The Past Three Years, Not Including My Own

1. Poppy Caroline
2. Stella Rose
3. Haper Susannah
4. Charles Frank
5. Reese Katharine
6. Mary Jane Grace
7. Liv Katherine

My services are available to all if you need help naming a baby, HA!!

Then and Now

Last week we had Sonya's conference at school.  I know some people might think a conference for a pre-schooler is silly, but not me - I love checking in with her teacher.  I never realized how controversial pre-school, or school in general can get between parents.  To send your kids to pre school or keep them home, where you go, how often you go; and why do other parents care where other people's kids are going to school?  The view on pre-school, in our family, is that we are partnering with the school/teacher to help us nurture and teach our children mentally, physically, and spiritually.  The bottom line for us is we can't do it on our on our own.  Don't get me wrong, school defiantly gives me a break in the day, but more importantly when I send Sonya to school I know to she is cared for in that ways that I fall short.
My thoughts for pre-school (homeschool, public, private, etc.) are that you do what works for your family.  Since becoming a mother, one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that there is not one formula that works for every family.  As mothers we should not judge or throw out opinions that aren't asked for, but we should come along side one another and encourage each other to make the best and right decisions for your own family.
OK, off my soap box.      
   I am super excited for Sonya to enter JK next year, but my heart is starting to break as 3K ends.  Sonya's sweet teacher, Mrs. H, writes up a description of each child in the class and has you read it at their conference.  After I read the description from her teacher, I realized how well her teachers know her, understand her, and love her.    
I am so grateful for the amazing year Sonya has had.  
One of the other things Mrs. H shows you is your child's self portrait, 
one from first semester and one from second semester.
This was Sonya's self portrait from October.
I love it how it is so scribbly, and not a lot of detail.  
I also love that it has how she wrote her name before she could write all the letters at the bottom.

This portrait is form March.

Look at the difference, so much detail!!

 Fingers, stripes on her dress, ears, irises in her eyes, a blue 

(of course) bow in her hair, the sun and her name written so well at the bottom.

This is such a great project to get a tiny view into how Sonya sees the world, and especially how she sees herself.  

I am feeling rather sappy lately as both my kids birthdays approach, so sorry for all gushing lately.  It is such a joy to watch them grow and learn.

I am one blessed mama.

The Big Guy

This post is long over due.  

We cut Teddy's hair a few months back because he was getting go shaggy and I could barely stand too look at him.  

This photo was taken around Thanksgiving, right after a bath.

Let me just say these luscious curls only stayed like that for like an hour after his bath, then it would just turn into a scraggily mess.

He has his first big boy haircut right after this, where it did change his look.  

I don't have photos of that.

Shocker I know.

Then at the end of January we cut it again, and that is when he became a big boy!!

He looked like a little stockbroker heading off the Wall Street, or like he belonged on a yacht wearing a pink polo shirt with his initials monogrammed on it.  

This was also confirmation that Theodore was the perfect name for this uber preppy looking kid.  

I took these photos of him because I needed a recent photo of him for a toddler class he is taking, and they really solidified his bog boy status.

I can't stand it!!  

So cute!!  

Now, I am going to give you a peek into my shallow heart.  

When he hit about 6months old, I didn't think he was that cute.  Let me say he had a nasty rash that covered his chin all last winter, bad eczema on his back, and still got up about three times a night.  All of those things probably played into psyche at the time.  

Now I think he is the bees knees.

 He will be two next week, is a baby boy no longer, and turning into a true heart breaker.

I love you TR!!