Little M Sings her ABCs!!

Little M surprised us recently when she started singing her ABCs. It's difficult to understand her at times, but she's doing a pretty good job. Some of the things she's been saying lately are so cute...can't believe she's growing up so fast! She loves to dress up in a leotard saying, "me ballerina". When she first wakes up of a morning, she's always asking where her big sister is. They are having a fun time together and it's been fun watching them "play" together.

Make sure you turn the blog music player off so you can hear Little M. Hope you enjoy her singing video!

Gingerbread person

Big M was given a gingerbread person to decorate for this month's family project at Country Lane Elementary. She decided to make it a gingerbread "girl". Puffy paint for hair, Froot Loops for eyes, rick-a-rack for a mouth, a marshmallow outlined dress (with sequin buttons, of course), and button shoes. The girl wasn't complete until she had added a bracelet from round stickers and blue puffy paint hair clips (although those are difficult to see). It was fun...now to see what projects are up next!

Fun with Little M at Bouncy Barn

We hadn't visited Bouncy Barn for quite some time...Big M seemed to be outgrowing it and Little M seemed too young the last time. I had an errand to do right next to their new location on Monday, so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad we went...it was snowing outside and there were only 2 other kids the whole time we were there. Little M had a great time, as you can see in the photo below. I'm sure we'll be back to visit soon since she had such a great experience!

On another note, we've been trying to video Little M dancing. It's so cute and really does get us tickled. Of course, when we start recording, she doesn't show us her best moves. Here's a little video, although you really need to see her dance to music in person . :)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! I caught a picture of the girls just before heading off to school the first day back from Christmas break. While it was nice not having to be on our regular routine, the two weeks just flew by...a couple of playdates for Big M, travel to Guthrie to see Charley's family, travels to LA to see my parents. We baked our "Christmas" cookies for Santa, too. It was messy, but I think both girls had a great time. :)

Just like the Thanksgiving turkey we disguised, we also had a Christmas ornament to decorate. Here's how Big M's turned out. Lots of fun, but this thing weighs a ton with all of the candy she put on it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and wishing you a great 2011!

Dance and Preschool Music Performances

Big M was so excited to ballet dance to a "Tinkerbell" song during one of her recent dance classes. It's great that her dance teacher offers 2-3 performances during classtime each year in addition to the dance recital in May. She still enjoys dancing and we loved watching what she has learned!

Our smiling ballerinas...Big M and her friend, Marin.

At TLC at The Church at Battle Creek, the kids put on a nice Christmas music program. They sang 6 songs! Big M was an angel and really put a lot of effort into her singing...just another one of her favorite activities!

December 2010

We visited Santa at Utica Square and both girls were very excited to see him. Santa has the cutest little house there and it's fun watching the moving "Nutcracker" scenes located throughout the shopping area. Like I suspected, Little M clammed up and didn't want to have much interaction with the jolly fellow. After seeing him, she was very concerned about his nose though...not sure why, but she still talks about it from time to time! Big M brought along her "my little pony" so Santa would know just want she wanted him to bring her. It was fun getting hot chocolate (for the girls) and coffee for us after seeing Santa...maybe it will become a new tradition!

Both girls had fun helping put ornaments on the tree this year. They did lose interest after a little while since there were just more ornaments than they had patients for, but it was a good time while it lasted.

Our Elf on the Shelf, Elvis, has joined us again this year. We never know where he'll be when we wake up. And, the girls know that he's keeping an eye on them and reporting all of their good and bad behaviors to Santa. Hopefully, there will be mostly good reports this season and for the upcoming year!

Turkey in Disguise?

Both of big M's schools sent home a blank turkey for us to decorate/disguise as a family project. So guess what we did on our Friday off of school?...we glittered, feathered, sequined, and pompommed the two birds to send back to school! We were supposed to disguise them creatively, although I think it's still pretty obvious that each one is a turkey. We did decide that one should be a girl and the other a boy. While they still really look like a very colorful turkey, Big M did have a great time decorating them. I know she can't wait to get the glitter out again for another project!

"girl" with a dress and hair bow

"boy" with t-shirt and baseball cap