Ballet Recital

On December 14th, Mary Stuart and Molly had their ballet recital at Theatre Charlotte, a landmark theatre in Myers Park. It is small and quaint and a great place for a Christmas performance.
First up was Molly. She had us all in smiles and stiches. She was a little shy on stage. That being contradicting, as Molly is far from shy. She usually enjoys the center of attention. However, she is the youngest, and actually under the "age limit" in her class. But she LOVES going to class and has a great time.
Molly did not MOVE her feet on stage. She completely froze. We waited for her feet to move..nope. It was hilarious.
Here is a picture, not so great as we were mid-row, much too far back for my pocket digital to flash strong enough!

Molly is the last one to the left.

Next up was Mary Stuart. As we all predicted, she did just what she should have done.
Again, a picture, too dark:

MS is the second from the left.

It's hard to put into words how special this is. They just are so angelic, innocent, and pure up there on stage, alone left to "perform". It captures the girls so perfectly. We all enjoyed that day so much. Well, Molly may dispute that one day....

Thanksgiving Fun

Stuffed, is what we are! Let's just say the END of Thanksgiving was spent at Lexington Barbeque.
We went to Martha and Harrison's around 11:00 am on Thursday. We enjoyed Bloody Mary's and snacks. Then we had the most wonderful Tuscan Soup. Oh, and the girls indulged in their favorite, Martha's Carrot Cake


See, that's Mary Stuart, eyeing the Carrot Cake, for the umpteeenth time.

Then, we went on to Granny Charlotte's house. This is Tom's Great-Aunt, who is very close to the family. We spent the night there and had lots of fun. Mary Stuart helped set the table, take dessert orders, and played a lot. Molly entertained everyone. With her lack of nap, she was full of energy due to the loads of sugar she had consumed.
We had a wonderful day. This is one of our favorite pasttimes.
Oh, and now we are upon Christmas. Merry, Merry!
To quote MS's very special blessing, that you may use one day,
"Thank you God, for the food you provide,
for friends and family, and you by my side,
Amen."
Hope you all enjoyed your special day!!

NC State Letdown

The letdown of the season!!!!! Mary Stuart had been planning a special visit to Raleigh with Mommy to visit our best friends, Jaime and Peyton. We arrived last night with a cold, which quickly progressed to a fever, which landed us at the local Urgent Care at 8am. She's fine, but has croup (which has been a constant each year). This included a loss of appetite, fever, and lethargy. Last year, same time, same place, Mary Stuart brought with her the stomach flu.
So, at 9am we hit the road to go back home to Charlotte. No cheerleader uniform, no pre-game festivities, no tailgate food, no getting to know "Mr and Ms Wolf". Oh, well. There will be next year. Let's just hope we won't harbor more illness the next time we visit.

Halloween

The holidays, as I can see it, are about to be really fun. For the first time, I was so excited for both of the kids...they "got" Halloween this year. Feeling that emotion, you just can't help getting giddy inside, remembering how fun your past holidays were. I can only imagine how fun Thanksgiving and Christmas will be. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was riding in the car taking us all to school last week. Mary Stuart and I were having a conversation about the holidays. I asked her what we did at Thanksgiving, wondering if she had any clue, and she said, "We eat carrot cake at Martha's". For those of you who don't know, our dear family friends, Martha and Harrison, live in Greensboro and they are first in our Thanksgiving eat-a-thon. The culmination of that soup lunch is Martha's wonderful carrot cake, which has made it's debut on one of the morning shows and in a cookbook. How in the world Mary Stuart remembers things, I don't know, but that would be a memory to keep!

Back to Halloween, we started the week with a Halloween playdate at Shayle's. Shayle is hiding her child development degree from me! I got there, and she had huge pumpkin, ghost, and bat (?) cutouts from butcher paper for the kids to color, pumkin paper plates with stickers for each child, homemade sugar cookies....on and on. The kids had a lot of fun.

Halloween night, we went back to Jennifer and Derek's for a second year in a row. Two other couple's, Jenn and Mike, and Karmin and Travis, were also there for the festivities. The girls had such a wonderful time. We stayed up late and had lots of fun. And we all are still eating the tons of candy. Molly says, "I like chocolate" every time I bring the treat bags down. That's new! Oh, and she uses the spanish version of chocolate, like Dora: "choc-o-latte"

FINALLY, Sunday night, Jennifer and Derek rented a bouncy house, just for fun, and we were back over there for football and fun. Shew!

Needless to say, we are blessed with friends! We have had lots of fun so far this fall. Oh, and we have new neighbors with two boys almost identical in age. They live directly across the street, and the kids are having so much fun with them. Life goes on! We will have lots of holiday pics to post, I'm sure. We hope you all have lots to be thankful for....

Hudgins, Pumpkins, and Ballet

We had a busy weekend. Tom's cousin, Sarah, and her husband, Robbie, had a wedding to attend in Charlotte. They stayed with us and gave us a wonderful opportunity to meet their 6-month-old, Hudgins. The girls LOVED the visit. Mary Stuart enjoyed being a mommy to Hudgins, and Molly enjoyed being a girlfriend to Robbie. She even had him serenading her with the guitar. Oh, and he tuned it. L-O-V-E.




Next up was our annual Pumpkin Patch visit. It was a little stressful as both girls wanted EVERY pumpkin they had to offer. Thank god they didn't see the Dora painted one. We cut our visit short with two mean temper tantrums. But the pictures are good!!!





Last, we had our observation day at ballet. Since both girls have ballet at the same time, I had to run in and out as time and temperaments allowed. I must say, Mary Stuart was a treat to watch. She knew there was an "audience" and really did her best. I was so proud of her. Especially since she can already dance better than her mommy and has more balance than I do.
Molly...oh, Molly. I signed her up early (they should be 2 and a half, Molly was just two, and most of the girls are three in her particular class). She is having a ball, loves going, but has such a limited attention span. I am just happy she's happy, but wonder what other moms think when they see this:



Yep, that's Molly...waaaayyy over there. I must say, she usually follows directions, but by the end of the session, she's done.

Here are these pics:

Great Times!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying, yet funny, times.

I have no pictures yet, but I did want to post about the "emotional" side of the weekend.
We went to Davidson for the Fall Festival...Of course, my camera lost it's charge, so I borrowed my mother-in-law's camera. So we will post pictures from that as soom as possible
I have previously posted "out of the mouths of babes" comments before. We had a doozie tonight. This is no slight to either daughter...Molly just isn't as verbal. So when Mary Stuart has funny things to say, and she has plenty, some are post-worthy.
Tonight, she was playing with an old loveseat from my great-great-aunt. It just got recovered and I tried to explain to Mary Stuart to NOT play on it.
Our conversation,
Me: Mary Stuart, please do not play with this chair. It has been in my family for a long time and it's really special to me. I need you to take care of it for me. See the new fabric??? It's so nice. Let's look after it, okay?

MS, eyes squarely on me: "I am going to break it"

Hmmm, what do you say to that...

I enlisted Tom's help at this point. She went to her room, Tom scolded her, and then she called Tom a "big elephant". When I heard this, I was in stiches with laughter, hiding it, of course. Tom told MS I was crying, so I went to my room, let it all out(laughter), and by the time I returned, Mary Stuart was so upset with the thought of ME crying, she cried. I began crying, and she said, "Mommy, don't put your tears on my pajamas or they will be dirty."
Okay.
Oh, me. What are we in for with our girls???
On the fun side, Mary Stuart and Molly really are playing well together. Mary Stuart includes Molly in all aspects of her pretend play. I love watching them play together. Cooperative play is something you see in three-year-olds, but Mary Stuart has definitely brought it out in Molly at an early age. It is remarkable to watch. Mary Stuart works really hard on being a great big sister. She is my second-hand most days, and Molly loves it.
Well, that's our latest. I will post actual pictures soon!

Here comes fall!

I don't know about the rest of the world today, but the weather today in Charlotte was PERFECT. It was sunny, cool, no humidity, and perfect fall/football weather

Speaking of football, Tom and I are a little bitter we had the miss the ECU game today. What a great game that was!!! GO PACK! Today was the first day the girls heard their daddy cheer, and I mean cheer, for his team. Instead of being scared of his fire and brimstone, they got a chuckle out of it. And I did, too. We would have gone to the game, but all signs pointed NOT go to. First came the lack of gas to be found. Next, I had to have an "unexpected" root canal Thursday, so I wouldn't have been much fun. And Jaime called today to seal the deal...Peyton has the stomach flu. I guess a good game can be enjoyed by the TV.

Mary Stuart and I started today by going to a neighborhood yard sale. I don't really do yard sales, since they are so early. But Mary Stuart's teacher was a part of it (she lives in the neighborhood next to us). So she really wanted to go. We came home with a Little Tikes vanity mirror, complete with a seat and makeup. $5. I'm sold on garage sales. What else can we find??? A new kitchen?? Outside equipment??? If they don't play with it, it's no loss for us!!

We ended the day outside. I took the easel outside and the girls had fun. Molly is a budding Jackson Pollock. Mary Stuart enjoys learning how to color her coloring books.

Note our artists. Molly has to wear her panties "just this way" for inspiration.




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The First Day of School

School has started! The girls are in school on MWF, and I teach on W/F!!! Both girls are doing great. Mary Stuart has a wonderful teacher, who has really made her comfortable going to school. This hasn't always been easy for her, but for the first time, she looks forward to school and really is excited to start Show and Tell and Chapel and Learning Center and all of the other Three-Year-Old things she is able to do that Molly isn't!
Molly loves her class, too. Her teacher is so wonderful. I shared a common area with her last year when I was an assistant and I was able to see all of the wonderful things she can do. She puts a lot of effort into creating themes and activities.

In other news, the girls are REALLY into helping Mommy in the kitchen. An added benefit to that is it does help them to eat what they helped cook. Here is a picture of the girls helping "bake" biscuits (in this case removing them from a freezer bag). Usually our cooking projects are more fun than that, but they don't care either way.


Yesterday we got a visit from our close friends Martha and Harrison. We go to their house every Thanksgiving for lunch. Harrison is a VERY good cook. It's his hobby, I suppose. So he usually makes a wonderful, hearty soup. Martha enjoys baking, so we usually gobble up her carrot cake...Anyways, they came for a visit and here are some pictures. Note the new rainboots they gave the girls. Molly loved Harrison!



And, finally, Tom and I have been chasing Molly around the house looking for her diaper and pants she has removed. She spends most of her days in the nudie and it is driving us nuts. I know, she is really close to being potty trained. But it hasn't clicked yet. She doesn't associate having to "go" with the potty.
Well, yesterday, she proved me wrong. She went to the potty, had fun flushing and pulling toilet paper out. She did this three times until FINALLY she pee-peed in the potty! Yay! She is making progress! I'll take the plunge soon and full-on train her. I'm not ready yet, and I'm not sure she is, either. We'll see!

Adding on from below...Molly's Pool Party

On August 21st, Molly turned two. This didn't mean so much to me on that day as it does today for many reasons. I always "knew" that 16 months apart was close for having the girls. We have weathered, and still do, back to back difficulties..the temper tantrums haven't gone away, the mood swings, the "waking up in the middle of the night", and the constant change...taking away bottles again, and transitioning to no paci, no blankie, and no crib (so the last three are *upon* us...again, we just did this!!!).
None of this meant so much until we started school and ballet. It seemed like yesterday that Molly was a baby, did baby things, like going in the Toddler Class at school, and was more or less along for the ride.
School started this week, and all of a sudden, I realize she is TWO! She is doing two-year-old things at school like her sister did just last year. I anticipated those things for Mary Stuart! Now I am shocked that Molly is that "old". Heck, she can do carpool at school next week!!!
I watched Molly in ballet and couldn't believe I was in the same place a year ago. And there is Mary Stuart, growing up, down the hall, not batting an eye that I'm gone!
Molly is growing up...she's doing the same things I just saw Mary Stuart do 12 months ago. It's just amazing. I am so proud of both girls, and happy with our Molly being a "big girl".
That being said, here are some pictures from her "pool party" on her birthday! Notice my homemade cupcakes...Molly's request!

So Far Behind...

I have been really behind on posts. I never posted Charlie's baptism pictures from July. I still have Molly's "friend" birthday party to post, and the first day of school.
So I will start with what I have, Charlie's baptism, and work from there, adding along asap.
Amanda's mom and dad graciously hosted the luncheon following the Baptism. It was a wonderful time. The girls really loved the surprise of seeing Mary Morgan (MS's best friend from preschool) and enjoyed the food and the backyard. Charlie did great during the Baptism. He was quite vocal but wooed the crowed, nonetheless.
Here are the after party pics, kid-focused, as always:

Birthday Time!!!

Our Molly, celebrating her birthday..

First came Mommy's birthday, on the 12th. Mary Stuart spent the night with Tuddie and Pop and helped make a cake. They came back here and assembled it:



We had a great time! Mommy's 25th birthday is nothing to bowl over, but when the girls are involved, it's much more fun:





Next came an early family party for Molly's second birthday! Tuddie and Pop are heading to Canada, so this was the best weekend to celebrate. We had them and Chuck, Amanda, and Charlie join us. And we had a wonderful time. Mommy is getting smart on entertaining...the easier, the better! We got a sandwich tray from Fresh Market, I made two cold dishes, and add chips...we did great!
Molly, by the way, doesn't like cake or ice cream (??) so I got a cookie cake and she was sold! It's a texture thing for her...
Here are some pictures of our fun times:

Molly as a newborn:



Molly at one:



Molly at Two..




Happy Birthday to Molly :)