Fancy Tea

R had her second fancy tea experience in the same month when Grammie, our friend JK, and I took her to a local tea house for lunch. She had the "Tinkerbell Tea" while Grammie and I chose vegetarian sandwiches and JK had chicken salad. The food was delicious, but the best part was watching R's reaction to everything that came her way.

She diligently ate her sandwiches before touching the desserts at the top of her tea tray, but when it came to eating those desserts, she asked very tentatively, "I can eat whichever one I want?" and when we told her she could eat them all, her eyes got very wide and she said, "I don't have to share?" We told her that she could share if she wanted to, and that that would be very nice but that no, she didn't have to share if she didn't want to.

Surprise! She didn't want to. And then she proceeded to share my dessert and eat a bowl of ice cream, too.

R's new favorite skill: Cutting with Scissors

R is completely into all things arts and crafts related--if it involves painting, drawing, coloring, gluing, or any kind of turning everyday things into craft projects, she is 100% on board.

Lately, her favorite thing to do is cut things out with scissors. At school they have a "Writing Station" in her classroom, which is by far all the children's favorite place to play, according to the two teachers in the room. One of the things they provide is large coloring shapes--butterflies, umbrellas, and caterpillars were all in there when the children were finding all these caterpillars in the playground. (In fact, speaking of caterpillars, here's a picture of one R was carrying around one day when I came to pick her up. I had to persuade her to leave it there and that we could take a picture of her to take home with us.)Anyway, as I was saying: her favorite thing to do is cut things out with scissors. Here's a few of her recent scissor-cut-outs. Just about everything she draws ends up getting cut out, and honestly? I'm really impressed with how well she can handle turning the paper and cutting out very small elements.

R cried when I picked her up at day care today

because I looked like this:

Mother's Day 2011: Me and the Kids

RUS's new skill!

I've posted before about how RUS doesn't really say an "o" sound. He JUST learned how to do it, and now he does it all the time. It's so cute. Here's a video.



Transcript: About 1 second into the video S says "Can you say 'ohhh'?"
RUS: ohhhhhhhhhh (flops over onto couch)

R at the park

Yes, J is the one who purchased this shirt

And a few more shots of RUS wearing it, just because.

More iPhone Self-Portraits

Japan Wedding Catch-Up

All my posts on the wedding are coming SO out of sequence, but today I was thinking about the karaoke and dancing at Local Hero and Local Heroine's wedding reception, so I was inspired to upload these pictures after their arrival at the reception.

"Open the door, shut the door"
Sisters-in-law!!!
Tennis is what brought them together, so this cake is completely perfect for them.

iPhone Self-portraits

One feature of my new phone that both children find incredibly entertaining is the ability to take self-portraits.

Belated Mother's Day Post

I had the most delightful Mother's Day this year. It started with J taking the plunge and getting me an iPhone--we had to make some changes to our phone coverage anyway, and he decided to go ahead and upgrade my phone in a BIG way! After getting over the initial shock, I really, really love this phone.

Not only did he go all out on the gift, but I got to sleep in that morning and he made chocolate chocolate chip pancakes (my favorite breakfast splurge). On top of that (yes, there's more), he helped both kids make me cards. I felt so special, and it was truly nice to be "showered" so to speak with the handmade gifts from the kids.

At school, R made "flowers" by painting her footprints on paper (as leaves, I think) and attaching them to popsicle sticks. She also painted the flowerpot and pasted her picture in the center of a flower in front. I am going to proudly display this in my office. The sheet of paper on the right is the card she made for me at home.
Here's RUS's creation: handprints on an adorable little bag, and then hand tracings at home with letter stickers spelling out his name.
A close-up of R's flowerpot and flower:
and a close-up of RUS's card so that you can actually kind of see the yellow "R" which is hard to see against the yellow paper.
(All photos used in this post are courtesy of my new phone, which I am sure I will have more to say about later).

Cutest Picture EVER of My Two Kids

Princess Tea Party

After the Royal Wedding last month (April 29, to actually commemorate the date here, when Prince William and Catherine Middleton got married) Grammie sent R and I an invitation to a tea party where we could watch coverage of the royal wedding that Grammie recorded for us to watch over at her house.
We decided to have it on Mother's Day and it was SO. MUCH. FUN. R got to dress up in Grammie's first communion dress, complete with tiara. She was so tickled!!! Grammie and I got dressed up too.
(I apologize for looking like Shaggy, but I did get my bangs cut later that day. Too bad it wasn't before pictures, though!)

R's First Dance Recital

Here are some pictures of R just before her big dance recital on Saturday. She had a GREAT time and did a really nice job with all the dance moves. The little girls were so cute. Unfortunately we got no good pictures of the actual performance but once I get some of Grammie's photos uploaded I'll add some of R with her flowers after the performance. J picked up some mini pink carnations for her.

A Castle!

RUS received the most awesome set of colorful, decorative HABA wooden blocks for his first birthday, and these blocks, paired with some wooden blocks J and I picked up at a tag sale for a couple of dollars, have been AWESOME for the kids. One Sunday morning in May, R had a great time putting together this sweet castle.
And here's an aerial view:

Dress Rehearsal

While I'm uploading pictures to the computer, here are some shots J took at R's dance recital dress rehearsal. R was so excited to be able to dance with her umbrella, she hardly let it out of her sight.

Ag day

Four generations!

We met up with GiGi and Grammy at Ag day on Saturday. It was a cool, windy day, but we all enjoyed being outside. R participated in a number of crafts and games. RUS got to see lots of animals: all kinds of dogs, sheep, cows, rabbits and ponies. R rode on a pony. RUS got a balloon. They stuck their heads through boards to be farmers and bees:




R got a butterfly painted on her face:



Of course, the highlight was at the end when S and R got UDairy ice cream cones. S got mint chocolate chip and R got cookies and cream.