separation anxiety

despite the fact that we spent several hours together earlier in the day, and shared on skype call that evening ... these girls still had to connect one more time before going off to bed.

thank goodness for skype,

thank goodness for fun cousins whom we love,

thank goodness for silliness in general - it keeps us entertained to say the least.

one thing at a time

slowly but surely the mini-makeover is taking place in the girls room. i am still just loving that little cabinet - the hours of work were totally worth it. now we just have to wait about a month before we can set things down on it. but for now, the curtains are the next priority - hope i can find some as cute as the ones we've had.

and they're off

a 2-hour appointment with the orthodontist and she is brace free - yay!

however, the gum still has to wait a few weeks - and she won't be able to eat any of the huge pile of caramel popcorn i made her this morning - bummer.

but, the braces are off and her smile is beautiful - what a pretty girl!

night of arts

the school's night of arts finally arrived and we got to head over there to see how the kids did ... i can sum it up pretty easily ...

they did awesome!

thing 1 received a 1st place medal for a poem she wrote

and a second place ribbon for the photo she entered

thing 2 won a first place ribbon for her photo

and another first place for her watercolor painting

and she also snagged a second place ribbon for her scrapbook page (funny enough, she lost to a boy)

and the boy's photo of our beloved dog earned him a first place ribbon as well - way to go buddy

my funny valentine

i might not have snapped photos of our valentines, but here are the kids with their boxes full of valentines and their faces full of smiles.

nothing says i love you like candy ... right?

happy  ♥ day!

budding photogs

the kids have an art/literature/music/talent night of arts coming up at their school. they entered a few different forms of art (painting, poetry, scrapbooking), but they all wanted to put together a photography entry and this is what they came up with:

thing 2 captured the sunrise

thing 1 wanted a close-up of one of our shrubs

and the boy caught our dog in licking action. i think they all did pretty good ... and i didn't have a heart attack when i handed my camera over to them!

one more appointment

this morning we got some great news from the orthodontist ... 5 more weeks!!!

super ... s-u-p-e-r ... super

my little super star daughter, thing 1, was a participant in her school spelling bee today. look how cute she was when she came in to the room and took her seat. a little nervous - but still darling.

first round - she did great ... second round - she got out (as did 2/3 of the kids - rough round) ... and the word that got her out:  prejudice.  (sigh)

i guess all those times i've watched the movie and read the book didn't sink quite sink in - oh well. she's still got a few more years - we'll practice more next year. and maybe i'll make her read pride and prejudice this year - ha ha.

she didn't seem to mind getting out, like i said, 2/3 of the kids got out that round. so she got to sit on the side with her bff and cheer on another friend who was still going strong.

this is not a sad girl by any means:

and then she got her participants ribbon:

and she was pleased: