Christmas concert

The girls are impressing me more and more with their music. Addie can play with both hands and sing at the same time. Ellie has learned so many new sing to the notes and reading the music is actually helping them with their singing voices too.  I can't help but smile at the results of their hard work.

Ellie's Guitar Lessons

I'm so impressed with how well Ellie is doing with her guitar lessons. Check out this sheet of music and then watch the video below. This was taken only an hour or two after she was first given this new song to play. I have never been one to know how to read music, so of course I'm impressed when I see my daughters doing it!

Most important person in the world

Who is the most important person in the world?

How would you answer that question?

Ellie answered it with a confident "Me!"

If you're like me, your initial response might be to think something along the lines of "Wow, that's the opposite of what I would want my child to say."  After all, shouldn't we be teaching our kids to be humble, and that they should put others before themselves?  Especially if you're a Christian family, I would think that such a response would be against everything you are trying to teach your children.

At least this is how the conversation I had with a colleague of mine went.

As for me, I couldn't be more proud of Ellie's answer.  In seeking to understand what she meant, I know that she did not mean to say that she is any more important than the next person.  Rather, what she meant to say is that it is important to believe in one's self, and to make your needs a priority.

I do not worry about Ellie treating others with kindness and respect.  She does that naturally.  And she knows that the best way to love others is to love herself first.

Personally I like the fact that she has such self-confidence.  As long as she puts her energy towards making her world a better place, I don't see why she can't be the most important person in it.

You're still the one

We recently had a bunch of lice decide that our girls' hair would make the perfect place to establish a home for themselves and generations to come. We scrubbed our heads with the fancy schmancy shampoo, did a ton of laundry, tossed a bunch of stuffies into the garage and spent the following week nit-picking (literally). Towards the end of the week both girls were desperately missing their favorite stuffies, Bun Bun and Bussi Bear. Even after all this time, they are still so very loved.

Happy Halloween 2015

Family Portraits

I love seeing the differences in the styles of the drawings my girls made.

This is Ellie's portrait of our family in Paris, including her imaginary pet unicorn (apparently she doesn't really exist, but Ellie wishes she did). I love the absolute perfection of everyone in the image. We are all in our places. We look happy, don't you think?

This is Addie's portrait of our family. Notice the life that she has given us! Can't you just feel our personalities? Daddy is dancing and singing to the music and the girls even have their arms around each other. If you ask me, it looks like the mommy in this picture couldn't be any happier.

What do you think of the differences in styles? Are they as apparent to you as they are to me?

Ellie's Drawings

Ellie's drawings still make me smile.

She knows how to make Mommie's day with thoughtful drawings representing the bond she has with her sister.  Doesn't that just melt your heart?

She has also started to draw silly photos to make us laugh.  You have to admit, you couldn't help but smile.

Sometimes you need to break the rules

The girls returned today after visiting Gramma for a few days. I missed them so and I could tell that they missed me as well.

In tucking Ellie into bed I had a hunch that she needed more time with me. The fact that she wouldn't let go of my hand was a pretty good hint.

So what did I do? The only solution I could think of was to invite her to join me on my evening walk.

We spent the next hour walking 5,752 steps around the neighborhood, nearly 2.6 miles,chatting the entire time.

It was just what I needed and I am willing to bet that even though she ended up going to bed 2 hours after her bedtime, Ellie would say the same.

I sure do love spending time with that girl.

Wordless Wednesday

Chalk

Another oldie from my now-dead phone... but this is a good one. We found a new restaurant on Main Street in Longmont and the girls kept themselves busy with the chalk boards. I love that their messages are automatically filled with love for each other.

I love socks

I recently got a new phone and was going through my old photos to make sure I had everything transferred away from my very unhappy old phone, when I stumbled upon some goodies...

I had forgotten all about this. There was a strange period of time where Ellie insisted on snuggling with a pair of Daddy's socks. She insisted she loved them like a lovey and even made a bed for them. One day I found this note next to her beloved socks. She's a strange girl, but I gotta say... she loves to laugh!

Smile*

You make me smile like the sun,
Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird,
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record,
Crazy on a Sunday night
You make me dance like a fool,
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold,
Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

* Lyrics to Uncle Kracker's "Smile"

Enchanted

Happy Father's Day

This Father's Day, the girls made Daddy a couple paper tents. They open to a list of reasons why they love their Daddy.

In the middle of Addie's, it says "Happy Father's Day" and her reasons for loving Daddy say:
- Your a bear with me
- You tickles me
- You like the Broncos
- You tuck me ind bed

In the middle of Ellie's, it says "I love you! Happy Father's Day!" and around the edges, it says:
- I love my Daddy because...
- You make me smile
- You taught me how to read and write
- Best of all you gave mommy a sperm so that you could have me as a child

I'll give you a moment to wipe up the coffee you just spit out.

Isn't she beautiful?

I love how much she's enjoying playing guitar and it makes my heart sing watching her confidence and talent grow.

Ellie helps Mommy save the world

I was a little late in saving the world this year but I had a good reason. This year I decided to have Ellie play a part in my donations. I wanted to be a good role model for Ellie in the area of giving back to the community, but how is that possible if she doesn't even know about it happening?

So here's what I did... I wrote down the charities I had in mind:
- school for kids who are blind
- home for people visiting their kids in hospital
- people who can't afford their own clothes and toys
- children who are abused by their family
- orphans who do not have mommies or daddies
- hospital that helps find a cure for exzema
- blind people who need a dog to help them do normal activities
- children with cancer
- children who live in poverty with no home, clothes, food
- mommies who need help finding jobs to take care of their family
- saving children who are slaves

Next I askedher if she thought I was missing anything. She added a couple to the list:
- rescue wild animals who are hurt
- humane society to give pets a good home
- children's hospital

Then I took 50 raisins to represent the money I had available to donate. I told her to split up the raisins between all these wonderful charities. It took her about 3.5 seconds to split up the raisins evenly among the piles.

I told her that would be a great way to split up the money but I asked her which she thought was better: helping a lot of causes a little or helping fewer causes a lot. Without any hesitation, she gave some consideration to prioritizing the charities and quickly knocked about half of them off the list of options.

After her next round, I asked her if she made her decision and she said "No, wait" and proceeded to narrow it down even more.

Afterwards, I asked her if I could reshuffle the raisins just a bit so that I could add some charities that were particularly important to me. And so, here are the results!

It was fun to watch how Ellie thought through this process. I loved that she had a few charities to add to my list, and I was surprised to see how quickly she eliminated some of the ones she added. When I asked her why she removed some charities, she always had a good answer. The people finding a cure to eczema are doing a great job and she is fully confident they can do it without more help. People have better chances of finding solutions than children. Blind people are brave even without dogs. Animals may need a good home but so do children. Children with cancer are the ones who need the most help.

I love that Ellie is getting involved and was excited to help me decide the best way to help save the world.

Ellie's 2nd Grade Treasures