Wordless Thursday

Library Outing

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I've always wanted to share my love for reading with the girls.  I got lucky in that it didn't take much coaxing from Mom or Dad to get the girls interested in books, they naturally took to reading!

As far back as I can remember, Julia has been obsessed with reading books.  When she first learned to crawl we always knew exactly where to find her if she wasn't next to us - in her room taking all her books off her bookshelf.  As she got older, she started taking as many books as she could manage into her bed with her at night and continued to read them all night and was often told to stop reading and go to sleep when we were going to bed.  Finally, we had to limit the number of books she could take into her bed with her at night when we thought it might collapse from the weight of all the books - well, not really, but you get the point.  Lately she has been spending a lot of her time reading books to Emma and her stuffed animals and there is rarely a day that goes by that we don't have a treasure trove of books scattered around the house from her daily wanderings.  Her current favorites are Pinkalicious (a great gift from Daddy!), the hand-me-down Muppets books that are probably out of print now and the collection of books on many different animals that she received for Christmas.

Emma also loves books.  In the beginning, it was always books with mirrors in them so she could see herself.  Then her interest turned to any books that included animals.  Then to most of the priddy books, which were also Julia's favorites at that age.  Now she really likes the touchy-feely board books by Usborn. We have That's Not My Fairy and it's a big hit and it's actually one of Mommy's top 5 favorite books to read to the girls.  It's a great book since we can talk about the textures on the page - soft wings, bumpy shoes, etc. - to reinforce all the work we are doing in her auditory verbal therapy.  I just did a search online and see they also have That's Not My Pony in this series and I think we'll be adding that to the collection soon to help Emma bond more with ponies.  After all, she does ride one every Friday evening, so the book is perfect for her!  

As for me, I have always loved reading and I read almost anything I get my hands on, but lately I've been focused on books to help Emma.  When I do get the odd minute of free time I read an article in a magazine since I can't commit to reading many novels lately.  I'm looking forward to our vacation in two weeks so I can read a book - or two or three.  I'm a quick reader, so I'll pack a few books in the suitcase and see how far I can get. 

Last week's adventures included a visit to the library to sign up for the summer reading program.  The girls receive a prize each week they visit the library and also receive a free scholastic book after a certain number of hours read.  We track the reading on the sheet they gave us, which I have to find before our next visit as they seemed to have vanished in my never ending sea of paperwork, but I digress.....  Here are some photos of the girls enjoying the children's section of the library.

If you have any book suggestions, please leave them in the comments section.  We're always looking for good books to read!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day!  There are so many reasons why we love you, and here are just a few -

• We love when you let us ride on your back while you crawl around on your hands and knees and when you put our bellies on your feet and fly us through the air
• When Mommy isn't home, you always take us out for fun stuff like ice cream or trips to the mall to throw pennies in the fountain (and ice cream afterwards!)
• You help make the best forts out of our furniture cushions (so we can hide from Mommy)
  
• You show us fun videos on YouTube
• You let us stir the brownies and lick the bowl and not worry about the mess at all!
• You spend gobs of time on the floor playing with us and make us laugh until our eyes tear up from so much laughing
• You show us how to do new things, like bowl and ride our bikes and cheer us on as we succeed
• You kiss our boo boos when we are hurt and tuck us into bed when we are tired
• You get us the best books and read them to us any time of day, not just at bedtime
• You never make us stop to get things like smocks or drop cloths when the artistic urge hits us (even though Mommy thinks this is crazy!) - you let us dig in and let our creativity flow when the moment hits us!
• You do cool stuff like buy balloons, make a cake and sing Happy Birthday when we wanted to celebrate puppy's 2nd birthday
  
• You are never too busy to be there for all our important moments
• You make Mommy laugh a lot and that makes us all laugh a lot
• You take good care of yourself with diet and exercise so you will be able to see us grow up

Oh, and Finnegan is lucky, too.  She asked us to let you know that you are the best ball thrower on the planet!

Most of all, we love that you are just plain silly and we can be just as silly when we are with you.  We are so lucky to have you as our Daddy.  Happy Daddy's Day!

Love, All your girls

Dance Recital

This weekend mostly revolved around Julia's dance recital.  This is her first year in dance and I found out quickly that the year end events are planned for starting in November for the June event!  The studio that Julia takes lessons in does a recital every other year and this was the year for the recital, so I just had to put her in it.  Just thinking of the little ones dancing on stage makes me smile.

Julia had two routines - tap and ballet.  This required two different costumes, hairpieces and shoes.  It also required a bit of a time investment with the dress rehearsal on Thursday and a recital performance on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon.  I was a stage mom on Saturday night so I was able to see the performance on Sunday with our families.  The kids did really well!  All of them showed up on-stage and most of them danced.  This is no small feat for a group of 15 three and four year olds.  Actually, all the routines in the first act were fantastic and the time just flew by.  What a great way to finish up the dance season!  Until next year.....

Wordless Friday

Some of the blogs I follow do a Wordless Wednesday where they post photos.  I love that idea, but didn't get around to doing it until today so I'll call this Wordless Friday.

Here are some photos of the girls playing with play doh (Emma actually was rolling the dough with her fingers while keeping herself in a sitting position!), riding the pony Mercedes, and I even  threw in a photo of Finnegan for good measure.  Enjoy!