Apple and Tree

Hair

You may or may not have noticed, but Charlotte has a mullet now, and Samantha has some pretty stellar long locks.  Which means we can now do THIS:

Charlotte instantly says "CUTE!" when she's done.

Sam insisted.  

My Name

Charlotte has discovered my first name.  It is currently the "hot thing" to call for me across the house, "KiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!"

Add the latest standing pose (arms crossed) while she's doing it and I can't help but crack up when she does this.  Which, of course just reinforces it.  

Goof.

Talk about seeing yourself reflected in your kids!

Dresses

We love dresses and skirts at our home.  They're just...fun.  And feminine.  I caught Charlotte holding up her dress and the pose just struck me as quite classically beautiful.

She's discovered that Sam's shoes will 1) stay on her feet and 2) give her many more options.  Sam's shoe stash is quite embarassing!

The arm and leg chubby combo here is almost too much!

Blackmail

It takes everything I've got to not make suggestions.  

Ahem.

Thank You, Aunt Jenna!

It's a hit with BOTH of them!

Kindergarten Graduation

This memory was a rough one.

After mass, Sam saw me and broke down crying.

And just couldn't recover.

The songs she'd been signing and practicing for weeks at home we being played behind and around her while she bawled and bawled.  She tried to come back after a few songs, but just shook her head and ran off stage.

Watching from the sidelines.

We got some smiles at the end!

The top of her graduation cap

Remember this little squirt?  It's Nicole!  Her bud since in-utero!

Afterwards we went to Mommy's Pius and she emptied the suitcase of toys she'd packed the night before.  It was quite the set-up.

Don't Worry, Mom

Sam packed a suitcase of toys the other day and confessed that she'd brought her Mary statue too.  We'll find her in Sam's bed sometimes in the morning, as she'll cuddle with her when she's scared at night.  *melt*

Anyway, she's quite breakable and I told Sam that it would be awful if she broke, so she needed to stay at home.  She jumped up when I mentioned her breaking and said "I'll take care of it, Mom." 

 I noticed this a few minutes later:

Yep, she did take care of it alright!

A Six Year Old

 Sam's b-day was stretched to a whole week almost!  Allll week every stranger asked her how old she was and she'd perk up and proudly announce, "SIX!"  Something about using BOTH hands to show your age is just so cool!

At her school it is tradition to give a treat to your class on your b-day.  When I was there, I remember everyone requesting my mom's peanut-butter balls.  But now it's a nut-free campus and it's frowned upon to hand out candy...so one has to get a little creative.  Sam's gotten water bottles, silly glasses, pencils and bouncy balls.  I had Samantha pick out scratch n sniff stickers!  We just couldn't help ourselves and each classmate got a personally decorated paper plate (to put the "food" on) and 17 different scratch and sniff stickers.  I'm not sure if it was a hit or not, but they were fun to play with while we put them together!

Sniffing...We did order some fun ones like "grandpa" and "dirt" but Sam was not amused and did NOT want to put those in the treat bags.

She opened these and was THRILLED.

It's all she talked about for days.

She love signing "Let it go" again while flipping the Elsa doll.

"CHEEESE!!"

Yes, Charlotte.  We didn't forget about you.

I let her sleep with them.  The next morning she informed me that Ana and Elsa didn't go to sleep, although she did.  I asked her if she told them to go to sleep. "No, they kept talking."
"Well, did YOU go to sleep and ignore them?"
"No...cause I had to do their voices for them."

She randomly got hooked on having an "Ariel" b-day party.  She was very specific when describing the cake to my dad and how she wanted it to look.  I'd say he got it all perfectly!

It was difficult to decide who to invite.  We decided to do non-school friends since she'd already celebrated with them.  We still had 11!  

She's obsessed with piñatas.

We also had a tent (inside due to weather).

And Amanda came over to sing songs on her uke.

Gabe (orange shirt) tried VERY hard to sweet talk her into letting him play...to no avail.

This young lady showed off her skills too.

Reading lyrics together.  Who knew "Do your ears hang low" had so many verses?

Head, shoulders, knees and toes dance-off

And Grayson found a box.

Happy Birthday, My Love!