Emma Grace here. Mommy, Daddy, Reese, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 yesterday. It was my VERY FIRST MOVIE EVER... in the theaters anyway! I was a law abiding citizen until about 30 minutes 'til the end of the movie. Mommy knew we would be making our grand exit early when I began to strip down and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. For real. :)
So basically... don't ask me how the movie ends.
We've been spending a lot of time outside lately... OBVIOUSLY... so regular themes/lessons have been put on the back burner. Mommy's been working on a great summer schedule for us that'll allow us PLENTY of outside exploration time along with a very short Montessori lesson. BUT until then, here's what we were up to last week.
Mommy made me a worm habitat. We collected a few worms from the garden and placed them in a jar alternating soil and sand, so we could see their tunnel trails... it was awesome... until Daddy discovered yesterday they were dead... oy. For the record there were holes in the lid.
Mommy decided to clear out some of our toys... we still own them... but weren't playing with them. We now only have one toy per opening on our shelves... this has prompted us to actually play with them... 
Our new rainbow music that Mommy made a la her frapaccino bottles. :)
Since I made such strides last go round with swimming lessons, Mommy and Daddy decided to enroll us again right away. Emma Grace does well in class until it's time to float on her back... then all shenanigans breaks loose. Luckily Aly is in her class to be a good role model. ;)
Mommy was a little shocked this go round when she discovered it was a "no parents" class. OMFG... excuse my french! Mommy explained to me that this was a chance to swim with my friends, so I was chill. I'm really confident in class this time... I'm the only one who's been under water so far... on purpose!
Hopefully we'll be okay this summer with all the traveling and swimming pools in our future!
After the Smith Family Fun Day at the baseball field, we decided to camp out. It went just as last time. We all went balls to the wall eating, running, playing, and roasting marshmallows. I slept outside with Daddy, and Emma Grace and Mommy slept inside.
It was a blast.
This past Saturday was Smith Family Fun Day at English Field on campus, so we got all dolled up in our Hokie baseball best and headed out.
We got to play in bounce houses, eat cotton candy, got baseballs and bracelets, ate Rita's, and watched the game... ALL FOR FREE! :)
The weeks seem to be going by quickly...we're doing a little bit of everything and nothing at all at the same time. We've been filling our weeks with playing outside when it's nice, keeping occupied inside when it's not, preschool, play dates, and swimming lessons. Here's a bit of what we did last week.
While at a play date... puddle jumping... something we don't do nearly enough of.
Lots of arts and crafts. This is some kind of a space ship we found in one of my new books I bought from my school book fair.
Shadow puppets.
My beautiful flower garden. Emma Grace is STILL working on do-a-dotting her coffee filters... a week later. :)
Awe my little nuggie! Rachel here... can you even believe Emma Grace is going to be 2 in less than a month?! We're knee deep in party planning over here... its crazy. We're doing a rainbow theme, so things are starting to get VERY colorful around here. I tend to take on too much for these little shindigs, but it's so worth it in the end... even if she won't remember it. :)
Emma Grace continues to talk up a storm. I understand everything that comes out of her mouth... THANK GOODNESS... it makes for easier days around here knowing what she wants. She's speaking in full sentences a good chunk of the time. Some favorites that comes out of her mouth... "You, sit down, right now." "Mommy...watch this!" "I love you too!" Swoon. We're continuing to work on her colors... and she continues to call everything yellow or green if you ask her what color something is. I caught her yesterday though playing with her wooden rainbow (more on that later); she had the purple piece in her hand along with her purple tube WHISPERING "purple"... little stink. She can sing her entire ABC song (with some interesting l, m, n, o, p action). Once Reese is out of preschool, I found some great alphabet plans that the girls and I will be working on, so Emma Grace will hopefully pick up on recognizing the abc's, shapes, and colors. She's very independent like her sister, and has managed to figure out how Reese gets what she wants on her own and does it. She's growing up much faster than Reese, but to see them learning from one another is amazing.
One thing we are battling with is Emma Grace always wanting to be naked. Not a big deal around here by any stretch of the imagination... in fact... it's gotten me starting to potty train her a little earlier than I planned with the naked method. HOWEVER it is a big problem when she does it at night... she takes off her jammies, her underpants, and her diaper. If we don't catch it in time, she ends up peeing all over her bed and everything in it. I know it's a just a phase, and we stay on top of it as much as we can, but it can be very trying and messy. God love her. :) Here's to being 1 and 11 months!
... maybe it's not so bad after all. ;) Rachel here. I just finished my second knock off kit, and I'm so nerdily excited! I took on the dinosaur kit... the $30 version from Time for Tots... 
The next kit... "Everything Fine Motor skills." This is so much fun!
Mommy and Daddy threw us in the car after preschool on Friday for a balls to the wall adventure. We drove about an hour and a halfish to Virginia's Safari Park (a drive thru zoo of sorts). I had the time of my life with the animals peeping in on us... pecking at the windows.
As you can see in the above photo, Emma Grace was scared out of her mind. She was so upset and crying that she puked all over herself. Mommy wanted to jump out and run around to her door to help her but was scared for her life. There were two camels giving her the stink eye, so she cleaned Em up and sat on the console rubbing EG's leg for the remainder of the ride... while Emma whimpered and repeated to herself... "I skeeeeered." :(
I think it's safe to say we won't be going back until Emma Grace has graduated... from college.Who doesn't love a day at the park? :)
The little sister even managed to master the slide... her arch enemy.
Mommy gave us the week off. We flew by the seat of our pants, and I won't lie... it was pretty fun. :) Mommy first made us over sized lacing beads from pool noodles. She saw these flower beads on Activity Mom and thought they were adorable. We walked into the dollar store the other day, and VOILA... pool noodles. Pool noodle + bread knife = over sized flower lacing beads. HOLLER.
Once Emma Grace got over her initial excitement...
... we used the new shapes as stamps for painting flower gardens. We'll try lacing later. ;)
I had my very first book fair Thursday and Friday. We meandered on in there bright and early Friday morning in hopes of finding something useful. We found 4 somethings useful. :) 4 great make and do art/science books... so exciting. I told Mommy I wanted to do a special project just this morning from my new book. She handed me one, and I picked this "cowgirl" made from a cardboard tube. We had all the materials on hand... FREE. Cute right? Summer is going to be so much fun!
Daddy caught a ginormous beetle and placed him in captivity for me to observe. He was awesome.
We also spent a BEAUTIFUL day at the playground, and took an impromptu trip to The Safari Park... more on those adventures later. Here's a happy week ahead to all! :)
