Lilly had her 7th birthday, and there was a LOT of celebrating.
She started out the morning with presents and a special requested breakfast of toaster strudel. She was so patient and kind as Jack attempted to open her presents and she even let him open one present. She is gifted with compassion and love, especially for her brother.
She received a bunch of clothes from her new favorite store Justice. She is really into clothes, but she always has been.
When Lilly was delusional with a fever of 106 she couldn't stop talking about this "Hi! Bye!" shirt from Justice. She thought it was so hilarious because the front said Hi and the back said Bye. She went on for sometime when she was extremely febrile until we promised to get it for her. You make a lot of promises when your child has a fever of 106 and refuses to take medicine.
Jim, Jack, and I were all able to go into Lilly's classroom at the end of the day to bring cupcakes for her birthday celebration. Poor Jack waited all day for cupcakes, it's hard to be 3 and celebrate someone else's birthday.
This is Lilly at her desk with her best pal Bronson. She is wearing the birthday visor that all the kids signed in her class. I really love her teacher. I really need a teacher that is super kind and nurturing to help me get through these tough school years. She is good for Lilly too.
After school Lilly had funnastics (tumbling class) that she brought treats to pass out and then she came home and we all had fondue for her dinner (at her request).
We love fondue, especially me, so imagine my delight at fondue for dinner by request from someone other than me! After dinner we sang happy birthday and got out her special ice cream oreo cake. However we were all too full from fondue that the cake had to wait another day. I took video but it was too dark that my camera never focused and I didn't realize it until it was too late. At least you can see the blurry singing and excitement.
Lilly asked me to join a basketball team last fall, but I kind of ignored it, then she brought it up again and begged to join the local upwards team.
Much to my surprise, she LOVES basketball! Her coach is great and they teach good values during practice and the games.
I am so impressed with her lack of fear and willingness to try hard things that don't come easily to her. Her coach is really working with her and teaching her skills in a kind, yet firm manner. He makes her try repeatedly to get a basket and corrects her form and encourages her. Just great coaching. Not that I have any experience with coaches, being that I never played organized sports.
One day in January Jack fell asleep on the couch and he was adorable. Have you seen his eyelashes? Lilly also modeled her basketball uniform.
The Danville Primary School talent show came early this year. May is very hectic so they moved the talent show to February. Lilly wanted to do a couple different things for the talent show this year but settled on standing on her head. It was epic.
The video is pretty shaky because they played the wrong music for Lilly's head stand and I was slightly freaking out. In fact they played the ONLY song that was specifically requested by the principal NOT to be played during the talent show. I gave a CD with several tracks, and this happened to be on there. Oh well! I am glad that the Mormon girl could bring "sexy lady" to the primary school. The kids love it though, oh well again! Lilly was supposed to stand on her head to the Chipmunks "Party Rock Anthem" and afterwards she came over to me very confused because I specifically told her she couldn't stand on her head to gangman style. She told me she saw me at the back of the gym and focused on my camera the whole time. I was so proud!! Most of the adults said they had never seen a headstand that long.
I am so impressed with all these kids who get up on the stage with no fear, I love the inhibition of children.
My phone has really been fantastic in helping me capture all those moments when I don't have my big camera. My blogging has slowed down and these pictures trigger my memory.
For example, I forgot that day 3 of our flu lockdown was a snow day. My children couldn't go outside, so Jim went outside and built 8 snow men for them to look at through the window.
After days and nights of sleepless flu pain I had officially declared myself insane and decided (thanks to pinterest) that I was completely capable of building shelves in my hall closet while pregnant and sick with the flu. I escaped to Lowes and spent hours picking out wood and saws and paint. Then the next day Lilly and I primed and painted all the wood and then the next day I installed the shelves into the closet. It took two days of flu inflicted labor. Not my best decision. However, now I have shelves in my closet that in hindsight were not as mandatory as I imagined them to be!
It's cold here in Pennsylvania (which is to be expected for winter), a few days it was 10 degrees but with the wind chill it felt like -1. Today it was 34 degrees and I couldn't get over how much warmer 34 felt!
One extremely bitter cold day, the neighborhood kids hooked up a bunch of balloons to a kite and flew them in the sky. After days of below 0 temperatures and dreary grey skies it was a treat to see the balloons flying high in the neighborhood.
This is the natural color of the sky at 3 in the afternoon. It's rather depressing! Picking up the kids from school in this weather borders on dangerous, it involves a lot of scolding for not wearing gloves outside and making sure coats are zipped and then running as fast as you can to the car.
To pick up Lilly from school I have to park across the street and walk up to the school, sign her out, and then wait for her to be dismissed. Not fun on bitter cold days, or really any day for that matter.
I really appreciate the sun and blue skies when they appear!
Also, Jim got some pictures of Lilly and Jack one morning before church. Jack has since had a hair cut.
