Double Happiness!

Buddalicious Blogger Buddy visit!

After nearly three years as Blogger Buddies, Michele and I finally got (at least some of) our kids together for a visit.  In the photo above, there's Maddy on the left, then Gwen, then Josie.  None of these three were in the picture (so to speak) when Michele and I first met in mid 2005.   It's amazing to think that our friendship has spanned so many life-changing events!   We've happily followed eachother's blogs for all these years so today was incredibly special. 

Gwen and Maddy have been watching the Buddalicious blog for a long time so they were excited that their friend Josie was actually going to come out of the computer and play with them at one of their favorite parks today!  They were equally excited about meeting Josie's big sister, Maddie, but she was feeling a little bit under the weather and missed out on the park.

The three charming 3 year olds held hands and skipped around.  I managed to get a video of this but I wasn't sure the video was working so I jiggled the camera too much and I'm afraid I'll make everyone sea-sick if they view it the results.  Bummer since it was incredibly cute!  You'll just have to take my word for it.  If I can get around to uploading the video and posting the link, I'll let you take your chances...

We're all looking forward to meeting Maddie and her daddy (James) tomorrow night for dinner at our house.  More pictures to come!  :)

Graduation

I don't usually blog very much (if ever) about pre-school stuff but I'm proud of my girls for "graduating" from the toddler room at school today.

It was an early graduation prompted, in part, by an outbreak of something contageous in their old class room.  Since we're heading to China in about three weeks, we didn't want to take any chances with our health and the school was happy to graduate the girls a bit before their 4th birthday just to give us some peace of mind.   

Maddy was happy about her promotion but Gwen wanted to go back to her old room.  Both of our girls know their ABC's and phonics and numbers so they were intellectually "ready" to make this change.  But, emotionally, they wanted to be with their old friends and teachers in the toddler room.  It was a hard day but it should get better as time passes.

We actually have "homework" now!  I didn't think that would happen until, at least, first grade!

Easter 2008

A few pictures from Easter in our backyard:

Just like last year, Maddy was more interested in the contents of her sister's basket than her own.

Maddy found an egg!  (actually, she found almost all of them!)

Gwen found an egg too!  She was so excited about it that she forgot to keep looking for other eggs!  Luckily, Maddy was nice about sharing.

Here's Maddy sharing some of her freshly picked flower/weeds.  These moments of kindness are not always the norm so we're especially happy to have captured this tender moment.

Speaking of tender moments -- this kiss was pretty cute.  But before you get choked up and head for a tissue box to wipe away a little tear, you should probably know that we bribed them to do this.  :)

One of the easter eggs contained a tiny bottle of soap bubbles. 

Madeline, you sure are pretty!

Gwenny joyfully rolls in the grass.

Happy Easter!

Jump!

Noodles

(Click image above for larger view.  If you have trouble with the text, here it is)

Noodles. Oodles and oodles of noodles! Oh how we love you so!

Long wet noodles piled high upon a fork, destined for a mouth that is much too small for such a large bite.  Sure, we could try to take smaller bites but how much fun would that be?  We don't worry about the noodles that hang out.  It might not be pretty but we'll slurp them up or chomp them off and let them fall back into our bowl (or our lap or the floor).

We're quite sure that even a real princess would eat her noodles this way!

Ramen noodles - 380 calories of nutrition-free, sloppy, slippery, wiggly, yummy, good fun!

Funny Face pictures

I mentioned <here> that I had some funny pictures of Maddy to share.  Well, I'm finally getting around to sharing them. 

She's such a little goof!

Three pretty girls

Daddy left the portrait lens on the camera so I had a nice surprise when I uploaded these pics to the computer.  I usually don't use the portrait lens because I don't understand the technical stuff enough to make sure I have the depth of field set correctly, etc.  My pictures are usually really blurry.  But when it works, it sure does look great!    Maybe I'll try to learn more about this lens!

Crazy hair!

Gwen wears her hair pulled back away from her face most of time.  I usually accomplish this by using a combination of pony tails and braids.  She'll wear these night and day for two or three days then we'll take them out and her hair will go POOF!   

I really love it when she's got the crazy hair!  Her hair is amazing anyway but on these poofy days, it's spectacular!  Isn't she lovely?

It was nearly bed time when I pulled Gwen's braids out.  She was so darn pretty and both girls were in such a happy mood that I dared to plunk them in front of the camera.  The results really do speak for themselves!

I have several adorable pictures of Maddy with silly expressions and I'll try to post those tomorrow.  What a little goofball she is!

Here are the cute pics from this sitting.....

Grandma

Grandma passed away last night.  She was 89.  She had such an amazing life and I'm sure heaven is a much more fun place now that she's there. 

San Diego Zoo

Guess where we went today.

It started out like any other day.  We loaded the girls into the van and hit the road.  But before reaching our destination, we lost our tire and had to call AAA for help.  An hour later, we were back on our way but then we discovered that parking at the zoo really is impossible on a holiday weekend!  We drove around and around and finally left the parking area and parked on the street.

As usual, the kids loved the zoo.  We skipped naps today and pushed straight through into evening.  In the picture above, our exhausted little darlings are clinging to life as we force them to pose for one more picture.  They're such good sports!

Here are some pics of the highlights (click for larger view):

They slept hard when we finally got them back to the hotel.  It was a long hard (but really fun!) day!

This is the first time they've ever shared a bed.  We weren't sure how this would work but it turned out better than we dared hope!  They slept straight through the night and I came into their room (we had adjoining hotel rooms) at 7:00 and found Maddy awake but laying there quietly.  What a pleasant surprise!

We're going to China in less than two months so let's all cross our fingers that this isn't just a fluke and they REALLY can sleep in the same bed!