Boo Boos

This has been a bad week or so for scuffed up knees at our house. I fell while running and cut mine up and they were pretty gross. Jillian has been so cute with them - whenever she sees my "ouchies" she says "What happen??" Or "It hurt?" She also spent quite a bit of time one afternoon using her doctor kit stethoscope inspecting them - after ramming it onto my sore-ish knee, she would declare "Betterrr!"

Tonight we were leaving our friend's house and Jillian tripped and got a little cut on her knee. Meredith took over and calmed her down and promised to get her a band-aid when we got home (only after lecturing me that I should have brought some with me!). She led Jillian in the house immediately when we arrived, took her to the bathroom, and quickly got to work doctoring her. I walked in just in time to hear her say "Put your leg out straight just like this." She gave her a Tinkerbelle band-aid, but when she saw the Hello Kitty version and wanted those instead, Meredith apologized and said "Sorry, sister, I should have asked which one you wanted!"

Wish I had gotten a better picture of this sweet interaction!

Papa!!

We kicked off our weekend with swimming at Gigi and Papa's with friends. I brought my camera to get a few pics of that fun, but it never made its way to the pool. After the party, the girls turned Papa into a jungle gym and had a blast!

Dance Pictures

My sweet friend, Melanie, came to my rescue by taking these fantastic pics of Meredith in both her dance costume and her Daddy/Daughter Dance outfit. I love them all - thanks again, Melanie! The best part of the morning was hanging out with Melanie and her sweet daughter, Corinne. Corinne is a few months older than Jillian, but Melanie and I always joke that Meredith and Corinne are soul sisters because of little similarities in personalities and their height! All three girls had a blast!

This is how we sleep

Neal was commenting the other night that Jillian is pretty good about going to sleep without complaining (that is, most nights!) But the truth is, after our bedtime routine (books, songs, prayers, and rocking), she lies down, rolls over very sweetly and closes her eyes a little too quickly. So I have decided, she is actually just trying to get us to leave so that she can do better things. These pictures are from last week - 3 nights in a row of how I found sweet Jillian once she did fall asleep.

Night 1 - a backpack. We find her like this lots. Including the night that we had to spend a bit of time in the bathtub because of tornado warnings. When I brought her into the bathroom, Neal was really confused why I made her put on a backpack to hide out. Ha!

Night 2 - where to start...the girl loves sleeping in shoes. If we don't put them on her before bed, she always seems to find them to put on herself. But she is also particular in which pair she wears. For instance, tonight, she requested "orange" and then later was crying because she needed "pink" instead. Also love how it looks like she either fell asleep while climbing back into bed or, as might be more accurate based on the next picture, she was out of room.
Here is the second version of that night - maybe we need to get this girl a queen to fit all these babies and backpacks!

Night 3 - another common sight - lots of books in bed, but then she added 2 boxes of wipes, a diaper, her orange shoes, a tail-wagging dog, and not pictured here, a whole family of Little People and a plastic Sleeping Beauty.

Not to be outdone, Meredith has been choosing some interesting PJs this week...

On Thursday, we had a playdate at the Hooks' house. The girls were having a blast dressing up as a variety of princesses, and then Meredith came across a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume that was Jake's. She was so thrilled! Sweet Jake let Meredith have the costume and she wore it from before dinner through the next morning!
It is June in Texas - temperatures in the 100's - and this is Meredith tonight.

Lemonade!

Last weekend, my mom and I had a garage sale and I had a special helper who was the best lemonade sales girl ever! She was really excited to help me make the lemonade and then sell it- of course, she also loved drinking it herself! Sweet girl made $10 or so, and would always tell us she wanted to split the money with her sister (who was playing with her Caleb and Merrick.) Love her!

Celebrating with Daddy

We had a nice full weekend of celebrating Daddy for Father's Day. Saturday night was super special for the girls with a Daddy/Daughter Date night that Chick Fil A sponsored. I told Meredith that you could dress up if you wanted to, so she immediately wanted to wear a tutu! The girls picked out matching tutu like skirts and were super cute!

Tutu girls waiting on their date
Sweet girls were VERY excited!
First date picture! :)

Neal said the whole thing was really well put together - they had reserved tables for the dates, they took their orders at the table and served them, then they also got dessert. Plus the girls got roses and stuffed cows and the they had a dressed up cow ready for pics(which was a hit for Meredith, but Jillian stayed away!) The highlight of the night though was a post-dinner carriage ride! How fun is that!

Jillian was a little scared of the horse at first (as you can tell by the picture) but both girls had a blast on their ride! I can't express how much this added perk made me love CFA even more!

After everyone got home we opened Daddy's presents - following our favorite present tradition, the girls shopped in the dollar section at Target!

Meredith was so excited about the Whoopee Cushion she got for Daddy. She even requested that she store it for him in her playroom.
Jillian and Daddy share a love of popcorn (or "ha-horn" as Jillian says) so she we set on getting him this cup.

On Sunday, we headed to my parent's house for lunch after church and then the whole family headed to Six Flags for a very hot and crowded, but super fun day! The girls loved showing Landon their favorite rides and hanging out with everyone they loved!

splash

On Friday of last week we had lots of fun things that we had to bring repairmen in for. I was feeling bad that Meredith's first day of "summer" was going to be spent stuck at home until I realized that it was summer - so that means time to break out the kiddie pool! The girls couldn't have been more excited!

Turtle Class of 2011

After Jillian and I enjoyed some time together, we headed to Meredith's school to celebrate her last day as a Turtle. She has had such a great year - we have been blessed with two really great teachers, Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Lee. She has also gotten to spend the year with many of her friends from last year, but has made new friends, too. This year has been such a big learning year for Meredith, she has really taken to their reading preparation - she loves her sight words and has even started reading some - we are so proud of her! So, we had lots to celebrate at her end of the year party this year. We also got to say good-bye to her sweet friends, who are all going to different schools next year. It will be sad to not see all these same boys and girls every day, but I know she will make lots of great new friends next year.

The day was full of fun - in the morning before the parents got there, the kids and teachers had a water play day complete with snow cones and bounce houses. Then we got there in time for the official party!

All the kids kicked off the party playing a laughing game where they laid on each other's tummies. They thought it was pretty fun!
Jillian decided to give it a shot, too!
The kids each decorated a fun sand bucket with stickers and markers. Guess who picked green?
There was also the ever-popular cookie decorating!
And then more games that Jillian was ready to join right into, too. Meredith loves sharing her sister with her friends - oh, how I pray that continues! I sure love how these sisters love each other!

Six Flags

Neal has been anxious for a little time away from the office, so he took a few days off so we could have a little family fun - including a day out at Six Flags! Meredith has been asking when she could ride the roller coasters that we see off the highway forever, so now was her chance - and Neal is pretty excited to groom a coaster riding partner!

Our first ride - the trucks. As soon as we were off, Jillian looked at me and said "One more time!"

Next up, the swings! Neal commented on how big Jillian looks just sitting on that ride all by herself. It was pretty cute to watch her get excited to get on the ride, then look around like, what am I doing???

The planes were a little less successful - Meredith had a blast, but Jillian hurt herself getting on the ride, so she cried the whole time.
Posing next to her first big coaster! She said she was a little scared, but I think she had a blast! Daddy was super proud of her because she just hopped on without even questioning if it would be scary! Later in the day, I think she started to catch on that she should be more hesitant, but that is another story!
She and Neal did the mini mine train and the mine train after Meredith and I did the parachutes (that were actually scarier than I remembered them being) So this was really the last big ride we could convince Meredith to do - Neal said she just would take in all the surroundings and would be polite but not too talkative when he would ask her questions to try to keep her calm.
After all the trills, the carousel was right up everyone's ally!
Nothing scary about that!
Meredith was excited to meet Sylvester - Jillian opted to stay with Daddy.
Meredith was very excited to drive the Antique cars while Daddy rode the Texas Giant.
Beans and I were backseat passengers!
We promised Meredith Cotton Candy for snack after seeing some earlier in the day. It took quite awhile for Neal to get through the line for the Texas Giant, so the girls and I headed off to find snack. We seriously walked around for 30 minutes in the most humid heat with no luck finding cotton candy ANYWHERE. Finally, Neal got back and we found a place that had it - but it was enough for 12 people. At that point, I didn't care. We bought it. And if you are craving cotton candy any time soon, swing on by our house.

Can you tell we scooped an almost comatose Jillian out of the stroller for this family picture?
Our only family ride - the cave ride.

We ended the trip with a train ride - love Meredith holding Daddy's hand in this pic. Jillian had been waiting to ride this all day - every time we would see the train she would say "Choo Choo train, I'm comin!"

Last Mommy/Jillian Day

It was the middle of Wednesday last week when I realized that I needed to not only emotionally prepare for Meredith's last day of school, but also for my last day with just my sweet Beans. For the past two years, she and I have gotten to have lots of great quality time together while Meredith has been at school and I have been so thankful. I remember back to the days when I was at home with Meredith as a tiny baby wondering how I would ever be able to have the same kind of time with another child one day. God was very good to me by allowing me to not only stop working just after Jillian was born to give me more time with both girls, but to also allow us to send Meredith to school. I have treasured those two days with just Jillian. We did everything from just napping together on the couch when she was just a few months old to going to the park or zoo or just running errands and spending time just us two. Next year, we have already signed Jillian up for school, too, which I know will be an amazing experience for her, but I will certainly miss our days of just the two of us.


So, after dropping Meredith off on Thursday, we headed to go feed some ducks, which is always a hit with Jillian!

Looking for some ducks...

There were a lucky few ducks that spotted us and came over for quite a feast! A few more joined them later and then I spotted this really cool big goose that I took Jillian to see. As we got closer, the goose got angry. Then he charged us. As I have probably mentioned before, I have an aversion to birds, so I scooped up a pretty scared Jillian and ran and ran! Probably was hilarious to watch!

After our close call with the crazy goose, we headed to the mall to ride the carousel - much safer!

Jillian went back and forth - first insisting she ride the rabbit, then the cat, but she finally chose the "strich." Again, safest bird of the day!

A little grainy, but still cute!
An M&M cookie - the perfect end to our outing! Plus it was loaded with oranges just for Jillian!