Sweet sisters

I wish I had grabbed my camera sooner. This was one of those priceless sisterly moments between Olivia and Claire. For once the house was quiet, so I went to check on the girls who were supposed to be getting ready for a nap Sunday after lunch. I saw the girls in Claire's bed and was just about to tell them for the umpteenth time to go to nap, when I realized Olivia was reading a book to Claire. This was always Olivia's routine when she was younger. We always let her pick out a few books at naptime and bedtime. Sadly, we let this go by the wayside as we got busier with 2 kids (I can't even imagine with 3...). This was a sweet moment I hope to remember the next time one of them tells me "MOMMY, (insert name) HIT ME!"

Our Kazak friend

We took "M" to our local museum which includes a pioneer village, buildings dating back to the late 1800's and early 1900's from our area. This was the day before she was flying back to Kazakhstan. We met her through someone at our church who was related to her host family. She was enrolled in the intensive English program at the local university for about 7 months. I enjoyed getting to know her a little. We only met a few times as I'm a very busy mom and she is a very busy young woman who wanted to make the most of her time in America. Who knows, maybe we will see her in Kazakhstan. I doubt it though, her family lives in Atrau, a region where our agency does not work.

Mischief

Well, I guess the leprechaun came to our house last night, look what he did to the cookies the girls decorated yesterday

Cookies from yesterday:

This morning:


This morning, the girls ran in our room exclaiming, 'the leprechaun was here'. Not only did he turn the cookies green, he also turn the toilet water green, moved the kitchen table around, moved some things around in the girls rooms and in the family/play room. It was fun to see them so excited, running around breathless finding something new that the leprechaun did.

Baby stuff

Looky what I got from a friend of mine. I asked to borrow a carseat in case our son is under 20 lbs and she gave me all this! What a generous friend!

Go Claire!

Brave girl, she had her Kindergarten physical today with 2 shots, 1 TB test and 1 finger poke.

Trip to the park

Our writer

I know I'm biased but I happen to think Olivia is a good writer. I don't know where she gets it from!
Claire made a Pixos cherry and Olivia helped her draw a picture of cherry trees. Olivia wrote the following on the note for Claire for Claire's friend:
"This is a cherry so red and proud.
From Claire anyhow.
When you see it you want to eat it so hide it. forget it!"

She is in first grade and I sure don't remember writing much then. They learn so much more earlier than when I was in elementary school. She is already doing multiplication.