A Birthday for Alice - The Second Party

On Lily's actual birthday we invited a few little friends to a real Alice in Wonderland Tea Party - complete with a Mad Hatter.

 And an Alice, of course.

 There was a door mouse...

... lots of yummy food, tea and cakes.

And friends!

The Moms got to tag along too.

A four-year-old delight!

A Birthday for Alice - The First Party

Miss Lily (or Alice as she was known for a few days) wanted a Alice in Wonderland birthday party for her 4th birthday. So, we had two parties: A family pool party at my parent's house (did I mention that they got a pool this summer?) and another Alice in Wonderland Tea Party with a few of her little friends. (That post is to come.)

At the first party we kept it simple. Pool. Alice Ice cream cake. Cousins. Fake fingernails. A little show put on by the birthday girl. And Chic-fil-a - also requested by the birthday girl.

She knows what she wants.

Swimming fools.

Apple Orchard

It's barely September, but we've been to the orchard at least 5 times now.

Now they have a lovely playground in the midst of the apple trees. And it's five minutes from our house. And they have 50 cent apple slushies.

Oh, how we love the orchard.

FOUR!

Today our first born is FOUR.

Happy Birthday sweet little girl!

I want to remember you now, just as you are. And now that you are four - and practically all grown up - you can...

Pick out your own clothes (and put most of them on).

Swim all by your self! (a little bit).

Talk. my. ear. off. And I don't think you particularly care if we're actually listening.

Write your name. (backwards)

Name all your letters and their sounds, colors and count to fifteen!

You can say "hello" in four different languages.

Ride your bike all by yourself. (with training wheels of course)

Your favorite food is ice cream. or cake. or cookies.

You don't like any foods that are mixed together.

And for your 4th birthday the thing you wanted most in the world was a fish.

So take good care of those fish. Today you named them Dorothy, Princess the Tree, and Princess the Lala... but the names will be different tomorrow. (And please stop feeding them so much. They aren't going to make it a week.)

Happy Birthday sweet heart. We love you so much!

First Day of School

It's that time of year again! Time for everyone in the blog-o-sphere to post their pictures of their little one's first day of school. This is Lily's first day of 3D3's (or three-day-three's for those of you not up on the lingo). She goes three days a week, and she's in the three-year-old class... get it?

This particular first day she was in a mood.
Usually the first to smile for the camera, she was not interested in my efforts to document her important day. So this is the best I got.

Believe it or not, this girl loves school. On the way there she kept saying, "Mommy, I'm so EXCITED to go to school!"

She's going in the afternoons this year (since she hasn't napped regularly in ages), so hopefully her little sister can get a nap and I can get a few things done. So far it has made her very cranky and tired at the end of the day. So we're hoping that she gets used to it soon!

Trip to Mississippi

At the end of July, the girls and I drove 10 hours with my parents to Mississippi to visit my grandpa "Poppy," my Mom's Dad.

He and my Uncle Barry live on my Great-Grandparent's farm just outside Oxford, MS. My Great-Grandfather built the house himself, and while it's not the working farm it once was, it is settled on the top of a hill, over looking farm fields and cows, surrounded by a great blue sky.

For, me, Mississippi is heat, and red dirt, and sweet tea, biscuits and bacon, pork BBQ, fried catfish, and gravel roads, kudzu, and calm and slow.

Summer

Rug Rats

Tiny Dancer

Lily's first recital was June 4th. It was a BIG hit. She was in a tap number, a ballet and got a medal at the finale.

She loves to dance, and is so happy to be on stage. No actual dancing pictures, though - I spent the recital backstage, and didn't take pictures from the wings. We have some great video of it though... might possibly get it loaded up here one day, but I wouldn't hold your breath.