Charlotte's 1st morning of PMO

Today was our baby girl's first day at St. Stephen's Preschool for their PMO program.  We have her signed up to go one day a week from 9-12 to give her a chance to meet new friends and to give Lily and I some special time together. 
Here are some pics of our exciting morning:

Good morning, big girl!

 So excited!

 New dress for the first day, of course!

 And new shoes, too!

Second thoughts about her outfit, maybe??

  This girl lets you know when she's not happy...

with real tears :(

 Looking way too big with her backpack on...

 A little nervous...

 but still very excited!

While Charlotte was at school, Lily and I headed to Barnes and Noble.  Lily loved having some alone time with me.  She kept saying, "Mommy, you're my best friend.  Well, you and Emma Jane, and Kaitlyn, and Addie...,"and the list went on.  At least I made the cut!

So, How did Charlotte's first day go?  Well, her teacher said that she was "pretty sad today" when I asked that very question.  She said that she would cry, then play for a few minutes, and then start crying again.  I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that this poor child naps every morning from 9:30-11!  It honestly never crossed my mind and I have no idea why.  She could barely keep her eyes open when I picked her up at 11, and I wasn't even out of the parking lot when I looked back to see her fast asleep in her car seat.  I moved her into her crib when we got home and had to wake her up for a late lunch at 1:30! 

So, not sure if this PMO thing is going to work out for Miss Charlotte just yet.  I will be a little bummed about losing that solo time with Lily, but I'm totally fine with keeping my baby girl home with me everyday another year.

By the way, I don't think I ever mentioned that Charlotte is walking now.  She started about a week after her 1st birthday and has pretty much mastered it now.  Can't believe I didn't blog about it...I'm going to blame that one on summer!

Our Little Family

We recently had pictures taken by a photographer friend of mine.  My wish is to hopefully have this done around this time every year since it's close to both girls' birthdays.  Lindsey did a great job capturing Lily and Charlotte's sweet little personalities despite the heat and bugs that night.  You can see a few of the images on her blog:  http://lindseypacephotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/sadler-family-columbia-sc-childrens.html.

Lazy Days of Summer & Playroom Remodel

I love summer.  I love the long days full of nothing, letting Lily stay up late to watch movies with us, daily trips to Yumilicious for yogurt & the list goes on and on.  Well, summer is quickly coming to an end and the only thing keeping me out of a mild depression is knowing that Fall (my most favorite time of year) is just around the corner.  Thank goodness for Pumpkin Spice Lattes!  
Josh and I have always loved to go to movies together, and it appears that Lily has inherited this from us.  She's been to several movies in the theater this summer, and we've rented quite a few, too.  I even purchased a little popcorn popper to spruce up our movie nights at home.  Lily thinks it's tons of fun and the popcorn tastes so much better than the microwaved kind.  Plus, it's HOT PINK...bonus!

Lily has also enjoyed going with me to the "big gym" to play while I Zumba.  My classes are late, so this is a special summer thing for her.  Yesterday was a particularly lazy day, so Lily was still in her PJs when it was time to head to the gym.  I decided to let her go upstairs, pick out her outfit and get dressed all by herself.  She was beyond thrilled with the idea.  After about 10 minutes of silence, Josh and I decided we should go check on her.  She was half way through her very thought out ensemble and it took everything in us to not fall on the floor laughing.  She had picked out 3 skirts:  one with polka dots, one with built in shorts & a ballet skirt, of course, and tennis shoes...no top yet.  I said, "Lily, aren't you forgetting something?"  She sat there for a minute thinking and said, "oh yeah, a hat!"  Here is a picture of the final product.  She was so darn proud of herself I didn't have the heart to tell her that 3 skirts and a long sleeve top might be a bit much for the 95 degree South Carolina heat! 

We got another laugh before bath time when we realized she had a pair of pinks short hidden under all her skirts, for a grand total of 5 bottoms!

One last thing in this random post is our newly "remodeled" playroom.  I decided to reorganize and rearrange on Sunday to make the space more usable for the girls' current interests.  Lily is very into Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Ponies at the moment, so I wanted to create a special place for her to play with them.  Also, Charlotte loves to play with their kitchen so I wanted to make it easily accessible for her.  Just a few changes and two cute new rugs from Target made all the difference.  Lily took one look at it after her nap and said, "I love it, Mommy, it's so perfect!  Thank you so much!"  Probably one of the nicest thing she's ever said to me :)

Dance Camp

Lily did a week long camp at Turning Point Centre for the Arts with two of her good friends, Kaitlyn and Natalie.  The camp was from 9-12 everyday and they did both tap and ballet.  Lily seemed to have lots of fun despite the fact that she always looked like she had been through a tornado when I would pick her up.  Seriously, I would drop her off each morning in her cute little dance outfit with her hair in a nice and neat bun with a sweet pink ribbon in it.  Then I would pick her up three hours later and without fail she would have a huge hole in her tights, snack all over her leotard & her hair always strongly resembled her "just out of bed" look with no pink ribbon in sight.  What in the world did they do for those three hours?!  She was having fun, so I guess that's all that matters :)

Happy Birthday to LILY!

I can't believe our little baby girl turned 3 on July 23rd!  Two of Lily's most favorite things are swimming and sugar, so we decided to celebrate the day with a Candy Land Pool Party with our friends and family.  The party was lots of fun and the "sweet shop" candy bar was a hit with the 3-year-olds! 

 

Lily,

I have had so much fun watching you grow this year.  There are way too many things that I adore about you to list them all, but here are just a few of my current favorites:

How you tell me every morning that you had sweet dreams and that it's a beautiful day.
How much you love your friends and always greet them with a running jump hug, shouting out their names and giggling till you reach them!
How you still rub my ear every night at bedtime while we read stories. 
How you are so funny sometimes without even trying to be.
How sweet you are to your baby sister.
How you are never in too much of a hurry to "stop and smell the roses"...literally!
How you are constantly surprising me by how smart you really are.
How much your quite observations remind me of your Daddy.

Seeing your cute scrunchy smile and fun loving personality is my favorite part of each and every day.  I know being your Mommy makes me a better person.  Thank you for being you! 

Happy Birthday, sweet girl.
I love you up to the sky!

Mommy