Morning

Location: My house
Time: Before preschool

Lilly: "While I am at school today can you clean Jack's room for me? Can you also clean your room and my room? Can you clean the whole house so it's really nice for me when I get home from school?

Me: "I will try, but sometimes it is hard to clean with Jack."

L: "But it is only one kid, it's not hard with one kid."

Me: "Ok, I will try my best."

L: "Ok try your best, I know you can do it

Me: "What if I don't, is that ok?"

L: "Just try your best and I will help you when I get home from school."

The end.

Visit

Jessamyn and Johnny came to visit a few weeks ago (that is the explanation for my lack of blogging). I did not make her work this time, we just kept busy with the children and a few excursions.

Lilly and Johnny played outside a lot. It was hard for them because they are the same size but Lilly is 4 and Johnny is 2. There is a big difference between a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

We rode bikes, played on the swings, and had wheel barrow rides. It was a lot of fun. There were some fighting and tears, but mostly laughter and fun.

Johnny was so sweet and anytime Lilly or Jack would cry he would run and say "Oh no, what hap?"

At dinner one night Lilly was upset that I gave Johnny the pink plate for dinner so she threw her plate across the kitchen in a fit. Well, I let her eat her entire dinner off of the table with no plate. This caused screaming for the entire meal while the grown ups tried really hard not to laugh. Lilly and Johnny did not find it funny at all. Lilly was screaming about needing a plate and Johnny was yelling at Lilly to stop screaming. And that's why we don't throw plates across the kitchen. *Lesson learned*

We took the children to chocolate world and Knoebels. Lots of fun all around.

Pumpkins

I love fall. It is my favorite season. Pumpkins, cider, cooler weather, college football (GO PENN STATE!), sweaters, and did I mention pumpkins?

I used angora wool to make the softest pumpkin hat that any baby would love to wear.

Except my baby. He is not a fan of hats.

I have plans to make a matching hat for Lilly, I just have to figure out how to make it bigger. Maybe that will encourage Jack to wear the hat that I lovingly crafted for his tiny, cold head. I wont be the mother that is knitting a clown sweater for her 7th grader, but it is my knitting right to make my baby wear hand knitted hats.

Birthday Roundup

Lilly and I made a cake for Jim's birthday. We used the recipe on the Hershey's cocoa box. The recipe was pretty good. I frosted the cake and in the process of frosting, tipped it onto the counter causing some minor damage to the cake's exterior.

Never fear, Lilly covered up my mistakes with sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles. She worked very hard to make the cake "creative" (her words).

The cake was extra delicious and no one was in need of sprinkles. Afterwards Jim and I went out to eat and then we checked out the new bookstore. A great time had by all.

10 Months

With all the excitement of soccer and school, I left out Jack's 10 month status update. Our adorable Jack (or Sack, as a friend calls him) is into everything. His new favorite activity is to eat the plant and pull cans out of the cupboards. It's time to start locking everything up and moving things to higher ground.

He sleeps 12-13 hours a night and gets some good naps in. He eats twice the amount of food that Lilly currently eats. In fact he usually finishes her leftovers.

He is happy and giggly a lot and loves to be held. He also loves to play with Lilly and was rather bored today while she was at school. He took to eating wipes, I put a stop to that pretty fast.

Now that Lilly is in school we are both figuring out a new normal.

First day of preschool

I was more nervous than Lilly was for her first day of school. I started panicking a little last night. What if she wouldn't eat her breakfast and then she would be starving until lunch? I walked around the house getting things ready, worrying all the while.

What if she wanted to play ponies in the morning but couldn't because she had to go to school?? She did want to play ponies, but the excitement of school was way more enticing.

She woke up and ran into my room to ask if she had woken up early enough to get ready. We had a special breakfast (which she did not eat!!) and then got dressed in her new school clothes and shoes.

She carefully packed her backpack and lunch bag that grandma sent.

She insisted on taking two cups, one for juice and one for water. She also took her white blankie for nap time. On our way to school we saw a friend, she rolled down her window and shouted "I'm going to school!!"

We arrived to school at the same time as her friends from church. It was like the momarazzi hit town with all the pictures.

Mrs. Benjamin was all smiles taking pictures with the kids. When it was time for me to leave Lilly was a little clingy, but no tears. Hopefully we will both have a great first day of school!