reading party!

When the day finally came last month to put a red star on lesson 100, Emma was so excited.

She was excited she had learned to read.  She was excited that she got prizes.  

But she was really excited about cake.  She truly is my daughter. 

I was excited too, because I was proud of her and also because of the cake thing.  (So shoot me. I like cake.)

Emma wanted a "reading cake", which doesn't leave a lot of room for flexibility.  What exactly can you do with a reading cake? I decided to go with a book.  An open book.  You know, because Emma's reading the book.  

It all started out well.  I made a chocolate cake, and had some vanilla icing on hand.  I was prepared to make the cake into a book. 

Yes, everything was going fine until I had to write on it.  I cannot write on cakes.  It can't be done.  Will someone please have pity on me and send me those freaky little sugar letters you can stick on cakes?  I. Need. Help.

It so happened that on the day of her reading party, all of our local friends were out of town or otherwise engaged.  All her family members were on the other side of the ocean, and even our house helper had the day off.  There was no one to celebrate this reading accomplishment with us.

So...since we weren't waiting on any guests to arrive, we decided we'd have our reading party as soon as everyone was awake.  And that was....um....about 7:15.  

Emma had to read her Lesson 100 again, just to "prove" to everyone that she could read:

...and then we ate cake for breakfast.  Yes, there are advantages to not having to wait for guests to arrive!  

Emma got a few new books, a music CD and a little princess doll for all her efforts.  That day, we read our fun new books and did lots of activities about books.  It's such a wonderful thing to read and learn new things.  This poem, from one of our children's poetry books, sums it up well:

friends

isn't this a great picture?

One day, our house helper bought matching dresses for all these girls.  They loved romping around in matching outfits.  I tried valiantly to get a picture where everyone was looking at me.  This was all I got:

unique

Abby.

She's not Emma.  Not Samantha.  She's her own little self, with her own little idiosyncrasies.

Sure, she's got the square face that Emma had.

And she squawks like a seriously angry pterodactyl, even when she's happy...which is exactly what big sister Samantha did.

But, she's different too. 

For example, she does this:

All the time:

Every day:
None of my other kids did it:

Maybe she's a member of an alien life form and is trying to communicate with me in code.  

If she is, I don't understand.  

But I still love her.  

making friends

It seems that everyone wants to have their picture taken with abby.  

Or at least, everyone wants their children to have their picture taken with abby.  

Check out these recent pics:

Abby and "madeline" (remember? from the swimming adventure?)

"Do I have to, mom?  Really? Please don't make me!"
I LOVE LOVE this picture of abby being held by this friend of ours - it captures all the raw emotion that an encounter with this little girl can bring.  In fact, that's usually how i feel when this girl comes to our house.  =)
she's warming up to the idea, I think...
...and then finally a smile.  Whew.  I wasn't sure if we were going to make it through that one. 

a second chance - a new contest!

We're leaving our home for a few days to deal with visa stuff...you know, those pesky little things they have to stick in your passport that allow you to legally reside in this country...

Anyway, since (ahem, cough) Cassie (the winner of my last contest) has yet to submit her pictures to me, I'm having another contest.  I'm just itching to make a trip to the picture dude's store.  

This is a good time to do it, since I'll be away from home and watching my blog to see all your answers will give me something to do.

Rules:

Two sets of pictures - naked baby pictures and fluffy dress pictures - are below.  Each set has one picture of Emma, Samantha and abby.  

Label each picture - abby, emma or samantha.  You can number them if you want, but if you just give me a list of names, that's ok too.  

Contest ends July 31, 10pm my time, 8am CST.

One winner will be chosen from correct entries for each set.  So never fear, if you bomb at naked baby pictures, maybe you'll get fluffy dress pictures right.    

SET 1:

SET 2:

a treat

Last year for Christmas, josh's sister surprised me with a gift that speaks love me in a big and bubbly way.

She introduce me to the LUSH family of products, including this little beauty right here:


Yes, he might look simple and unassuming in this photo, but in fact he is a "bubble bar", the likes of which no bath has ever come close to matching.

You crumble this little sucker in a tub of running water, and then lock the door to the bathroom because you won't want to come out for a zillion hours.

I started a bath the other day, and when the tub was only HALF FULL of water, this was the result in bubbles:

These are my new favorite splurge. Kristen, you totally rock for finding these for me. I could thank you for the rest of my life. I'll start now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you...

oh say can you see!

I was totally behind on my Fourth of July planning this year, so we did all our 4th activities the week after the actual event.  I was tempted just to wait until next year since I couldn't actually do it on the exact day (or week) but I pushed the temptation aside, because I had a few really fun things to do.

To begin with, we started it all off with a bang at a cookout at my friend Rachel's house.  In a little grassy area behind their house, we grilled hamburgers and skewered veggies, had potato salad, fruit and cake and played games or sat on the blanket for as long as you could stand the heat.  I'm happy to report that my family was the first of the families to escape to the air conditioner.  Turns out 4th of July cookouts are hot, no matter where you are.  

A few days later, the girls and I made July 4th kebabs.  We started with beautiful red plums:

big, fat marshmallows:
and blueberries!  Blueberries!  We've been so happy to see them in our stores!
And then we skewered and patterned and talked about the colors of the flag.  If you believe everything you read on the internet, the red means bravery, the white means purity and the blue for perseverance.  

Both girls loved this activity.

Emma, though, was a little more concerned with the "eating" aspect than the "patterning" aspect.
Way to go, mantha!



Another day, I got this rockin idea off of familyfun dot com.  I was digging the paper clips and the foam.  We even had left over skewers from the above activity, so amazingly, I had all the supplies I needed.  
It's a grand ol' flag, eh?
Then, there was this little guy that involved gluing strings of yarn on to a flag template.  For your average child, this activity should be no big deal.  But for my pampered, girly princesses, activities that involve large amounts of glue tend to also involve frantic trips to the bathroom when glue gets on them.  My idea just to "wait til you're all done and then wash your hands" doesn't really fly with them.  They have to wash their hands every single time a drop of glue gets on there.  
Anyway, happy 4th...just a few days late.  

I love these girls

No commentary necessary.

a tale of two girls

I forgot to mention in Samantha's birthday post that she got a bike as one of her presents.  It's not girly and pink like Emma's bike, due to some convoluted form of supply-and-demand out here (if it sells out, things don't get restocked). In fact, Samantha's bike is blue and green and pretty boyish.  I feel like I should loan it out to Alex and Peter, two boys in our city.  

but I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon, because she loves that bike.  

I've always known my girls were different.  Looks.  Personality.  Preference.  But it wasn't until we got the bikes that I could get a really clear sense about how different they are.  

It's like, Driving Miss Daisy meets The Fast and The Furious.

I'll let you guess which is which.  As if it's unclear.  

The funny thing is, the bikes even confirm this.  Emma's bike has nice curved handles, perfect for a sunday stroll.  Samantha's handles are straight across and have the feel of a racing bike.  

We've found a little alley tucked away behind our building that is used for bike practice after dinner.  I love "after dinner" in the summer.  It's perfect.  

Here's Miss Daisy:

...too busy posing to be riding her bike...yep, that's Emma.
What did I tell you? The Fast and the Furious.  I didn't even manage to get a clear picture of her.  All of her pictures have a blurry feel to them, and it's not exactly my fault. 
She's dangerous.  She's not even concerned about keeping her eyes on the road.  Are we ever going to let her drive a car? I think not. 

No, definitely not.  

Meanwhile, Abby gets parked over in the corner and left to fend for herself.  She's not always happy about this arrangement, even if she does have toys velcro-ed to her stroller.  
Watching them together reminds me of all the evenings I spent as a kid riding bikes with my brother.  How happy and carefree and blissful it feels to ride a bike.  And to ride it with a sibling is even better.