We call this "dancing"

Some of my favorite moments in parenting are those you can't plan. They're the ones that just HAPPEN and you have to embrace it for what it is - magic. It makes me smile.

Sea World

The real reason we went to San Antonio was so that we could take the girls to Sea World. To be honest, Daddy and I are not keen on the concept of Sea World (more on that later) but we were able to acknowledge that the girls would love it and at this age it can be very inspiring for them.

Let's avoid some of the background info for the time being and just cut to the chase. Sea World is not the same as I remember it being. The big show? You'd think it would be Shamu. And yes, Shamu was impressive and yes the girls loved the show. And yes they wanted to talk to the trainers afterwards. Addie even asked the trainer what kind of school she went to in order to learn what she needed to know to be a trainer (she got a degree in animal psychology, in case you're wondering). Yes they loved seeing Baby Shamu. Yes and yes.

But no. It didn't have the same WOW factor that it had up until just a few years ago. The trainers are no longer able to get into the water with the orcas. So though the girls loved the show, it wasn't a stuffed animal Shamu that they wanted to go home with. You might wonder what could be BETTER than Shamu???

The Belugas, of course. Why? Because the trainers were IN THE WATER with the belugas. In an instant Addie says "No, I change my mind! I don't want to be one of the blue girls (Orca trainers). I want to be one of the red girls (dolphin/beluga trainers) when I grow up!" The show was quite entertaining. There were Belugas, Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (so pretty), synchronized swimmers and divers and even a flock of Macaw Parrots.

After the show, the girls once again loved the opportunity to talk to the trainers. Since Ellie is taking diving class, she decided to ask the diver how long she has been practicing, but I think she was a bit surprised by the answer being 20 years! Addie didn't hesitate to go up and ask the trainer questions about what it takes to do just that (she got her degree in Marine Biology, just fyi). I personally loved the fact that they weren't anxious to just get up and leave to see what's the next source of entertainment. These girls wanted to learn MORE.

On the way back to the hotel, our own Beluga trainers were quite happy and tired. Addie made sure to add one more request, "Mommy, now that we know what school those red girls went to, can I go there too?"

We even snuck in a night time swim in the lazy river. Both girls thought this was one of the best parts of the entire trip. Who gets to swim after it's dark outside??? Crazy stuff I say!

P.S. My sincere apologies to the hotel staff for all the marks on the window.

Little Family Trip

Daddy does quite a bit of traveling for work. Most of his work travel takes him to the wondrous state of Maryland or the exotic city of San Antonio. We often try to tag along to visit family and friends in Maryland since we used to live there ourselves, but this weekend was the first time we tagged along on a trip to San Antonio!

Yay! I LOVE trips with my Little Family!

Since it was basically just a weekend trip, we did very little. In fact, we didn't even get to go see the River Walk. WHAT? I know. We may be the very first people to visit San Antonio and NOT stop to see the River Walk! Sigh.

But we DID get to hang out at the hotel all day Saturday! Yay! Hotel!

Actually it wasn't that bad. The hotel had great grounds with a long lazy river (I think a 1/2 mile long!), pools, activities and playgrounds for the kids. The time passed by quickly and the girls went to bed with smiles on their faces and new pet snakes by their sides. Ok, so they're not real snakes (thank goodness)... but the fun kind of snakes that are made out of wood.

Life is good.

Easter Cards

Easter cards for our kind neighbor...

From Ellie

From Addie

Double Trouble Birthday

Once again we did a double birthday party this year for Ellie and her cousin. It was FABULOUS. We hired a magician who was truly magical. I've never seen a group of kids (we had 30 in the house!!) laugh so much, squeal with such delight and cheer with such enthusiasm! Magic.

Addie's Definition of a Seal

DADDY: Addie are you a snuggle beluga?  A snuggle-luga?

ADDIE:  I am not a snuggle -Luga.  I am a snuggle seal because I am a bear AND a fish.

Family Dinner Question of the Day

What is the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning?
ELLIE - I want to go back to sleep!
ADDIE - It's coronation day!

Periwinkle the Batman Cloud

My Irish Dancer

She's so proud that she's learning how to dance with her feet (can't you tell, she's keeping her upper body perfectly still??)  I'm told that soon she will be hopping and skipping everywhere she goes.  I can't wait!

SEVEN!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

And so I leave you with one of many memories...

Sisters

I fondly refer to my sister as my Seestor. Addie recently confirmed the following with me: "Mommy,  a Seestor is just a grown up Sissy, right? "

Cute. Cute. Cute.

Glass half empty

I know what you're thinking. It's a pencil. But you'd be wrong. Any intelligent person can look at this and know that it's not possible to write with this. No, since there is no tip, it is obviously NOT a pencil.  It's an eraser holder.

Tid-bits

After a typical, nothing special, Friday dinner out at a restaurant, Addie informs me, "Mommy, I just had the best, most special-est day ever with my family tonight!"

I love that after the girls return from spending a few days at Gramma's house, they talk nonstop for hours upon hours as though we haven't seen them in ages. They don't even stop long enough for us to tell them we're going to get ice cream. Instead, we end up herding them out into the car without a word - from us anyway.

I love that Ellie is reading "Matilda" by Roald Dahl out loud to the rest of the family. Watching her stumble across new words is fascinating to watch and sometimes creates a whole tangent of laughter. Take the word "Now-here" for example. Nowhere else would that word create such a giggle attack.

I love that when I found Addie hiding in a corner, obviously not wanting us to see what tasty treat she was stuffing into her face, it was an almost completely eaten container of tomatoes we had bought not 5 minutes before.

Playing the Family Dinner Box of Questions, "Have you ever gotten in trouble for showing you didn't do?"
Ellie responds, "Yes! I once got into trouble for not getting ready for the day!

MOMMY: GAH. I can't remember what I was going to blog about!
ADDIE: Oh, fiddle sticks!

100 years from now

Taken from some of Ellie's schoolwork:

The world will be a much different place 100 years from now! It would be like everywone would be a fairys and the teacher would teach in the sky! And cars could fly! And peaple would have no drinks so peaple would have to drink from ocens and lakes! That would be weard!

Voices

After Addie corrected me in the gender of her latest drawing....

Ellie: Why do you always like girls and not boys?
Addie: Because I can't talk like boys. Boys talk like this... (deepest voice possible) see me?  I am a boy.  I only talk like a girl and girls talk like this... (squeaky voice) hi. I am a girl.
Ellie: No they don't.
Addie: They don't? Are you sure?

Addie Reads (barely)

As I mentioned yesterday, it seems like Addie has made a crazy amount of some sort of brain development in the last couple of weeks. Suddenly her artwork is meaningful and her name is written more clearly. She can even spell a few words! So, being the curious mommy that I am, I thought I'd test her reading abilities. Mind you, she's only 4.5 years old.

I pulled out the "Dog and Cat" book, which was the very first book that Ellie read all by herself, at age 4 years and 9 months. How is it possible that Addie is approaching that age too? Can she really read? Surely not. She's not yet in the classroom that Ellie was in when she started reading!

At first glance of the book, I asked her what the name of it is. She hesitated. I pointed to the dog. She said "Dog" so I pointed at the word and asked her what it said. She hesitatingly said "Dog and... Cat" I looked at her with suspicion and she looked at me wide-eyed scared I was going to say it was wrong. Like this was some sort of test or something. I suppose it was.

First page into it, we started looking one word at a time.

Mommy: What's this word?
Addie: I don't know.
Mommy: These two letters make a TH sound.
Addie: The!
Mommy: And this one?
Addie: Dog.
Mommy: What's this word?
Addie: Ummm...
Mommy: Let's sound it out. "i...ssss"
Addie: Is!
Mommy: Good. And the last word?
Addie: Old! The dog is old!!!

I stared at her for a moment, and she stared back, almost like a deer in headlights. It was as though she was just as astonished as me.

Mommy: Ok, next page. Do you remember what this word was? You saw it on the first page.
Addie: The?
Mommy: Good.
Addie: Cat. ummm....
Mommy: Remember to say the two sounds and then try to say them quickly. eh...sssss.
Addie: Is fat!

Her eyes were bright with disbelief as we stared at each other.

Ok, so it wasn't perfect, but she was able to read the words following words on her own: dog, cat, old, fat and the.

The third sentence went a little slower.
Addie: The old old dog (no problems)...

The sentence was "The old old dog can't chase the fat cat." She needed quite a bit of help with the word chase and we stopped at that point.

Tired and completely astonished at her own abilities, we tucked her into bed. As we were leaving the room, we could hear her whispering to herself, "The old old dog can't chase the fat cat."

Too cute.

Leaps and Bounds

Perhaps you've noticed it too? In the last couple of weeks, Adeline has... how would one say it? She has matured by leaps and bounds. Her artwork, her penmanship and even her spelling... they have all made a drastic and sudden change in just the last two weeks. Below are some examples, all of which she came home with just today...

Her first letter to me. She was so thrilled that she wrote it all by herself. "I love you Mom." When did she learn that? For that answer, please re-read the first sentence.

She drew an elephant, complete with wrinkles, little eye and the beginnings of a pink ear. She said she wanted to draw all of the elephant but ran out of space on the paper, but at least she had enough space to give the elephant water to spray onto his back. Notice her name? It's most definitely the first time I've seen her name written in small letters. When was the change? Yep, you guessed it.

Here's another happy person. I asked her what was at the person's feet, and she said they were arrows pointing to her shoes. Hahaha! Love it.

Donating Memories

Of all the clothes she has grown out of and needed to toss into the donation pile, it was this pair of shorts that upset her the most. Why? Was it because she wore them every single day? No. She only wore them once, but that was the day she and Daddy were twins.

Addie's Dragon Story

Though it was Ellie who recorded the words, this story was created by Addie, and spoken with perfect rhythm...

There once was a dragon
who needed a wife
to have a kiss
to say good-bye!

Addie Draws Addie Bears

Addie may be her name when I speak about her online, but my real nickname for her is Addie-Bear. Recently I have noticed that bears are her topic of choice when drawing pictures. How interesting it is to see how subtly different she is from her big sister.

Here is her first Addie Bear, complete with sunshine rain (of course).

And this one puts an especially big smile on my face. You see two sister bears down below, holding their own umbrellas to protect them from the rain. Above and to the right, you see the storm. Addie says she never drew a storm before because she doesn't know what one looks like, but she's pretty sure it looks like that. Then to the right of the storm, you may assume you see another cloud. You'd be only partially right. Technically that's an alligator angel hiding behind the cloud. I know, I know. That was going to be your second guess.

One thing I must say... The level of detail behind the thoughts of each image, even from when she was younger, blows my mind. No doubt, when a child draws an image, she's creating an entire story at the same time. Magic.

Wordless Wednesday

Digital generation

Daddy spends some time building up a little house of cards, only to have Ellie knock it down time and time again. Finally she says, "You can fix it one more time but then you're out of lives!"