Breakfast and Sickly Brooke

Mark and the girls attended the "Father Child Breakfast" at Olivia's school on Saturday. They all came home stuffed. The girls wanted coffee, but settled for apple juice.



Our Boston, Lucy. She always tries to hide her face when she sleeps. This time, she climbed onto Mark's shoulder and tucked herself into his neck.


Yesterday was gorgeous - like Spring!! The girls played outside and had a ball. Brooke loved it.

And here she is this morning - coughing and feverish with a snotty nose, staying home from school. She is in her "office", under the computer desk. So much for Spring...

Brooke's Valentine's Dance

First, here is a new silk outfit I found for the girls at the Thrift Store! You just never know what you'll find there. It is a little big for Olivia, which is perfect because they'll both get years of use out of it. It has beautiful golden flowers all over it.

Brooke was FURIOUS when I put it on Olivia first. She demanded to wear it, no matter how big.

Next, meet our friendly "pet" squirrel. The girls got into the dried corn on the cob I had in a bag on the deck and shucked it all over the deck and surrounding lawn. I explained to them that this was bad because 1.) we don't want squirrels running around (or in) the house and 2.) we don't want the Bostons to pop out the pet door and grab a squirrel (crunch!). They were disappointed, but understand now. So, until the remaining corn is gone, this little guy comes regularly to help clean up.

Olivia reading, with the coffee (ick) daddy made for her. (3 parts cream and sugar, 1 part coffee) She is in Kindergarten and can read an entire Junie B. chapter book in one hour. Her Aunt Linda will be proud.

Last week, Brooke's pre-school had their annual Valentine's Dance. They always have a 50's theme and the kids get to make their own ice cream sundaes as a treat. Brooke wore the poodle skirt I made for Olivia 2 years ago. We even curled her hair!

The kids went bananas. All that energy!!!

Siblings were welcome, so Olivia dressed up and danced (bounced), too. The little girl in blue jeans next to Brooke is Ella, her classmate in our Chinese class.

You can't have a kids' dance party without doing a "train"!

Ice cream for everyone! I stupidly let brooke put chocolate syrup on her ice cream. Of course it ended up on her beautiful little pink sweater with the satin-and-beaded white poodle before the night was thru. Sigh...

Brooke found one of her classmates there, Ben. They were very excited to find each other. Check out those rosey cheeks! Dancing is a workout.

What good sisters!!

And here's a snap of what I hope is our very last snow for 2011. Thankfully it was only decorative and melted on the roads.

They Found the Other Hat!

Whew! Here are BOTH my girls in their hats. Quite beautiful, I think!

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year! (Shin yen qui lur!) We're trying to do more to celebrate this year, so we got decorations, made dumplings, gave the girls red envelopes (filled with treats and some $), and are attending a CNY party at Georgia Tech on Saturday. I was the guest reader in Olivia's kindergarten class today, so I turned it into a mini CNY lesson. The kids really seemed to like it. They loved the pictures of the Lion and Dragon Dancers.

Here's Brooke in her Emperor hat. I know it's for boys, but I think she look so cute in it! I got one for Olivia, too, and she promptly lost it. It's in the house, but we can't find it anywhere. I can just see it - 6 months from now, we'll pull it out from under something...

The most tasty part of CNY is the dumplings!! I rolled and cut the dough and the girls stuffed them. Brooke becomes very protective of the dumplings even before they are boiled. Notice how she's watching Olivia...

We could eat dumplings every day!

And on a side note - here's what's on our deck right now. Compared to what they are getting up North, we have it lucky, but I didn't expect this today!

Have a happy, healthy and prosperous Year of the Rabbit!!!! Wish us luck as we begin mandarin lessons for the girls and me. The teacher's name is Heidi (ha!) and she lives at the rear of our subdivision. You just never know who's living right around the corner!