Before and After

The work on our front-porch and pergola is progressing and it will be awesome once it is done, but in the meantime, there are some inconveniences of having work done on the house.  The biggest by far is the lack of a front-door.  As the workers were pulling off some stuff around the old door to get the measurements for the new door; the old door became so unstable, they had to take it out and board up the hole.  Do you have any idea how many times a day you just quickly pop outside to do this or that?

Or how ugly a boarded up front door space is?  I was contemplating a front lawn sign that reads "We ARE current with our mortgage payments and our house is NOT being repossessed".  I finally abandoned the idea in favor of spending $12 on various paints and letting our girls and Rowan go wild painting. 

I think the results turned out fabulous, but I would still give up the painting in a heart-beat if that meant our door would be delivered earlier than the currently scheduled date of October 10th!

Before:

Ready to paint!

 During:

Hard at work

After:

They may have to work on their pose.  And, yes, the adults did get roped into finishing off the top that they couldn't reach.

Kindergarten!

Extended Care started on Tuesday, Kindergarten on Thursday.  After an extremely tearful departure from Preschool (apparently, both Vivian and the teachers were in tears throughout the day), Vivian seems to have no problem settling into Extended Care and Kindergarten. 

The transition was greatly helped because her best buddy Gregory is also in her ExCare class; even though he goes to a different Kindergarten.

Annelee is taking the transition harder, almost bursting into tears when we all dropped Vivian off at ExCare and Annelee couldn't stay and Vivian wasn't coming with us. 

Annelee does like KG drop-off and pick-up on Mondays and Fridays though.  Today, she ran up to Vivian (who was already lined up with the other kids to go inside) and gave her a big hug.  Very sweet!

Here are some photos from the official first day of KG.

If the backpack looks big on her, can you imagine how her classmates (who are all shorter, of course) look?

Not to be left out, Annelee donned her backpack (not that you can see it in the picture) and I had to quickly modify the sign, and she got to take a picture, too.

Homework

Vivian has two days of Extended Care under her belt.  Today, she complained to Will that he was picking her up too early because they were in the middle of a fun game.  I think she's settling in nicely.

Yesterday, she got to meet her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Munson, for a brief interview.  She got her first piece of homework (?!?!?!) to bring to her first class tomorrow.   Luckily, it just involved filling out a paper with her name, favorite activity, food and color and a picture in the middle.

Needless to say, we were taking photos this evening.  A good thing, because I haven't been doing nearly enough of that lately.

Annelee, of course, needed to have her picture taken, too.

Annelee seems to be taking the whole transition to Kindergarten the hardest.  She keeps telling me that she is now going to go to KG, too, and doesn't like it when I point out that she needs to be 5 years old.  When we dropped Vivian off at EC today, she almost cried because she wasn't allowed to stay and Vivian wasn't coming with us.  Poor girl.

So, here are the photos from our impromptu session.

I'm pretty sure that a beginning Kindergartener isn't allowed to look so big already!

Curly-headed preschooler

Shopping with Supergirl and Rapunzel

Next week, we'll have a preschooler and a kindergartener.  I am glad to report that this does not mean that they are too big for dress-up or wearing their costumes out in public.  This is who I went shopping with today. 

Paint Face

I have a number of posts that I need to get on here.  One even about another face painting event.  But I thought I might as well start with a recent one first, and then work backwards.

Casey and Ernie came to see us this weekend.  Much fun was had by all.  The girls were spoiled (as usual), and it was lovely to see that Annelee now has well and truly caught onto the good that is aunts and uncles and ran up to Casey and Ernie when they arrived, demanded to sit on both of their laps, that they play with her, etc.  Vivian has been doing that for years, of course, so it looks as if she's got competition.  Luckily, both got plenty of attention.  Casey and Ernie in return got their fair share of babylove, good food (thanks, Will, for feeding us all so wonderfully).  We hung out, the adults went out on the town Saturday night ... and ... we created a tradition (doing something a second time makes it a tradition, right)? 

The girls demanded that Casey paint their faces, and that they get to paint ours.  Just like last time.

The girls' skills have improved a bit, although Annelee still snuck some arm-painting in, despite clear instructions to stick to Casey's face only. 

Can't wait to see what creations they come up with next time!

Group Photo of the results

Butterfly

Disco Diva

Abstract I (by Annelee) and II (by Vivian)

Three

Annelee has been excited about her upcoming birthday for months.  "I turn three.  Rowan, Alex, then I turn three." "Bye-bye, binky".  "I turn three".

She's also been talking a lot more. Three months ago, I made a speech evaluation appointment (it is Monday, it took that long to get an appointment).  True to our daughters' behavior, her language exploded just a week after I finally made that appointment.

The big bonus of Annelee being able to express so much more than before (and us understanding so much more) is that her sense of humor really comes out.  She's also repeating things she's done over and over and over (again, part of it is the enjoyment of knowing that we will understand her).  She is forever starting sentences out with a long, drawn-out "Yesterdaaaayyyy ...." and will then tell us something she did days, weeks, even months ago.  It is very cute.

Her giggles and her belly laugh are by far the most contagious you have ever heard!

Today, she brought cupcakes to daycare ("Mommy, I had cup cakes!"), tomorrow, we are opening presents, and getting rid of binky ((hopefully), click here for a reminder of what happened to Vivian's binky), and Sunday we will have a little party for her at home.  Just as it should be for our big three year old girl.

Happy Birthday, LeeLee!

As usual, here are the photos from the last year.  Years one and two can be found by clicking on the links.

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

Trip to Virginia

At the beginning of the month, we went to Virginia and got together with all the Page siblings to sort through Anne and Newton's house and find homes for all those items that people had interest in keeping.  And you know that, no matter what the reason for the trip, we had fun getting together with everyone!

We spent a whole day at the house.  Many things found a home.  Many memories were shared.  Much fun was had.  The girls both loved all the jewelry (much costume jewelry from Anne's Mom) and were very happy to get some of those, as well as a special ring/necklace set (Anne's favorite ring that matched her eyes for Vivian and a set from Alaska for Annelee).  Will got the chifforobe that he liked.  He just has to go back and pick it up ...

As usual, we stayed at Hotel Aunt Susan's and the girls (and Will and I, too) were totally spoiled there.  Casey and Ernie also came by on Saturday after we arrived and got their girl-love fix.

Casey and Annelee playing with Casey's new toy from the Museum

By the end of the weekend, Annelee was able to assemble it all by herself and was mightily pleased with that

Playing cornhole

Nike-walking is always one of the highlights of Vivian's trip

All the Page siblings in the same spot - a rare treat

On the way back, Annelee, Vivian and I stopped by Anne and Newton's grave