Preparing to Fly

OK, she's not really going to fly. Today was her first ballet class, and when getting ready, she decided she needed her fairy wings. Luckily, we were able to convince her to take them off before heading out the door. She has been looking forward to this class for WEEKS.

Bad Influence

Rory is officially a bad influence.  I just got a call from her teacher, telling me that he looked over and saw Rory's friend, Olivia, cutting big chunks out of her own hair with scissors!  When he went over to her, she said, "Well Rory was doing it!".  Apparently Rory only snipped a few strands, nothing noticeable.  I don't think the same can be said for Olivia.  Luckily Olivia's parents are laid back, and her dad's response was, "Well, better now than right before the prom!"  :)

Blueberry Pancakes

Rory was SO excited to carry the pancakes to the table this morning. I was SO nervous the pancakes weren't going to make it for the table, for any number of reasons.

Girlie as it gets!

Despite all my best efforts, this little girl is as girlie as they come! Right now, it's all about princesses and ballerinas. Last week was a bit of a banner week, as she got 3 new princess dresses AND found out that she gets to start taking ballet next month.

Botanical Gardens

It was a BEAUTIFUL Saturday so we headed to the Botanical Gardens. Rory loves this place!

"I'm beautiful!"

Rory and Olivia

This is Olivia, Rory's friend. Olivia is now almost 5 months old and Rory is figuring out how to play with someone so little. Rory was nice enough to share her pool with Olivia one hot day this summer, along with Mike and Melissa. And recently, Rory even shared her blanket to let Olivia watch some "Signing Time" with her!

Just hanging around the garden

Yeah, we're just picking tomatoes, checking out the cucumbers, etc. You know, isn't this how everyone dresses to garden??

"I'll be here all week!"

Rory is becoming quite a little musician. Here she is doing a concert for all her friends in the living room.

One Dollar's Worth of Happiness

You know, they say in this economy a dollar won't get you anything. I beg to differ. If you agree, then you have never seen a kid with a one dollar snow cone. It is amazing how much happiness one dollar's worth of shaved ice and neon-glow liquid corn syrup can provide!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

All at once, we are mobile. Last week Grandma surprised Rory by sending her a scooter. Then, we went to Iowa for Fourth of July weekend and someone there asked Rory to take a bike home with her! Wow, this kid is riding in style now. Each night after dinner she isn't sure which to start with.

By the way, if anyone is looking for a scooter for the 2-5 year old set, I can't recommend this one enough. It has 3 wheels and is directed by the kid shifting their weight, rather than steering with their hands. It's AWESOME! It's the Mini Kick Scooter by Micro.


Oh, and for those of you who want to know why she's crying in the last picture, BECAUSE SHE'S THREE! But isn't it just hysterical to see her with the helmet, the tutu, and crying?! Yep, I'm sick.

Fourth of July

We headed to Dubuque for the Fourth of July. It was our first trip up since Christmas. Not everyone may know this, but it's been one heck of a spring for my family. My dad had open heart surgery in April and has been recovering all spring with the help of my mom. And two days before we were coming home for the Fourth, Mom took a fall and shattered her ankle, resulting in 4 hours of reconstructive surgery with pins, plates, etc. So, this weekend was spent visiting Mom in her bed, where she has to stay for at least three weeks with an elevated foot.

Rory didn't injure Mom, though, which is good, and she enjoyed, as always, getting to see Kinsey and Kendall.

Hidden Talent

If anyone knows a show where we can show off this hidden talent of Rory's, you just let us know.
15 seconds

From Jun 23, 2009

House Before and Afters

We are almost there!  The painting is done and we're really excited about it.  Can't wait to get our furniture in and really start to decorate.  So far, here are the before and after pictures. 

House Before After

Big Blue

We finally bought a house!  We're calling her "Big Blue" because... well, you can guess.  Here are some "before" pictures.  The wallpaper is now down, an archway has been cut between two rooms, and the paint is going up on walls as I type (not by me, obviously).  Soon enough, we will have "after" pics to show.

Did I mention that we are not really yard people?  And we bought a house on a half acre?  So, if anyone is bored and hasn't had a chance to cut grass in a while, we've got a thank you and a couple bagels waiting for you.

New House

Garden

We've planted our first garden.  Jason and I went over to the house and planted it one afternoon.  I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to growing some of our own food.  And Rory loves the idea.  Her job is, of course, to water it.  Jason even bought her a new watering can that is extremely girlie, and just her size.  He even got her a garden gnome, to watch over the garden when we aren't there.  Rory has named the garden gnome Big Baby, in honor of a player on her Poppy's favorite team, the Celtics.

Starting a bad habit

Mimi gave Rory the ultimate treat today... she took her to the salon to get her nails painted! Of course, Rory picked out fabulous shades of purple for her fingers and toes. They even painted little flowers on her thumbs and big toes. I don't think I've ever seen her sit so still!

She's gonna be a star!

Rory's school had their annual musical last night. SO cute! The theme was the Seven Continents. Each class performed songs or poems related to a different continent. Rory and the rest of Room 5 had Africa. They performed a song called "Pole Pole", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Kumbaya". They opened the curtain and there is our little girl, front and center. Here are some pics of her costume.

Hush Little Baby...

Most nights, Rory requests that I sing "Hush Little Baby". At some point, out of sheer boredom, I started to make up new words. The song always starts with "Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird." It always ends with, "you'll still be the prettiest girl in town." But everything in the middle is up for grabs. The quality of the song from day to day depends solely on my penchant for rhymes that day.

Lately, Rory has decided I'm a jukebox, and she can now make requests of sorts. She comes up with a word or phrase and asks me to work it into the song. She's not challenging me, per se. She just has something on her mind and would like to hear it in the song. However, her requests aren't simple, like "red balloon" or "rainbow kite". This week, a couple of the requests have been "Elmo bus" and "mocking dorn". Try coming up with rhymes for those! And don't forget, the phrase of the song says And if that mocking dorn (insert verb here). Well? What does a mocking dorn do? AND, you have about 3 seconds to come up with an answer before she rolls over and starts throwing more jibberish at you.

Now I think SHE is mocking ME.

ZINGO!

THIS is Rory's obsession. Mike & Melissa got her this game for her birthday (have we thanked you guys yet?) and she has played it roughly 3-4 times/day since she got it. It's like Bingo sort of and is honestly lots of fun. She is a competitive game-player, as I think I've mentioned in a previous post. With this game, she looks at your card and hers to see what images you both have on your card to look for. Then, she talks smack, saying things like, "Mommy, I'm going to get the cat before YOU do!" This picture is from a day when she played with her friends. The thing I love about this is that she actually played for all of them! Almost all of them have yellow tiles on their cards!

Library

Every time we go to the library, Rory has to go to the children's section and find her "friends". She picks a couple stuffed animals (Pooh is her favorite) and reads them stories. Jas finally got a picture of it.