A is for Apple

I've mentioned it before, but Anglea does a great job with their program and they will be more than ready for preschool next year (they are on the waitlist for the 3-half day, 3s program at St, Aidan's next door). Angela does circle time with them focused around a weekly theme and they go over the days of the week, months of the year, and weather. They are starting the alphabet over again (they just completed 26 weeks of A-Z) and focusing more on lower case letters, a spanish word and counting from 10-20. They did a lot of crafts this week, including painting with apples and making an apple suncatcher.

First Snow & Sister Love

We had about 1/2 inch of snow the the girls LOVED it. They played outside over an hour...until it was dark. Also, lately, they have been very affectionate with one another. Often Sylvia says she's the Mommy and treats Evelyn like her baby (slightly weird, but cute).

Budding Artists

The girls love to visit the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria. It's a really cool place that houses a ton of artists studios. They are always very nice to the girls and talk about their artwork. This time one of the artists gave them postcards of her work and canvas to paint on. The next day, they were begging to paint. Sylvia was painting a doggie and kitty cat. Evelyn never said for sure; It is was a cow and a tree at different times. Love how she primarily used her favorite color, blue.

Princess Play

First, we had an great holiday with Grammommy and Gramps, but I haven't gotten around to loading all the pictures and videos. That will come soon.

The latest trend is that the girls MUST do everything in princess dresses, including bounce in their new bounce house and play with their new dollhouses. It's very cute. Evelyn's alter ego is Snow White.

New Years Eve

We had a blast with the Turner's (Shawn, Monique, Maya and Macy) and Davis' (Brandon, Julia, Wyatt and Gresham) on New Year's Eve with all the kids (2 infants and 4 2-3 year olds). So fun! After lots of playing, we fed the kids, and then an early countdown where the kids all looked at us like we were crazy. Kids were asleep by 9pm, we were asleep by 11pm.

Christmas 2011

Given the girls LOVED all things Christmas this year, it was a special time. We were lucky to have Grammommy and Gramps visit for a whole week. Here are some photos and videos that capture a few highlights -- gifts from G&G upon arrival (you'd think it was already Christmas), a visit from Santa at the house (huge hit), Christmas morning gift opening (bounce house, doll houses, princess dresses, tutus, crafts, voice changer, legos, lincoln logs, etc), spending time outside on Christmas eve and day, museum visits, and a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg (water park, bowling, arcade). Plus, terrible napping...go figure!

Fun at ChuckECheese

The girls always have something new and different to do. Today they went to ChuckECheese and had a blast on the rides, playing the games and enjoying their prizes (a straw, among other things).

Fun-Filled Holiday Weekend

This weekend was a blast! Friday, we went to the National Harbor with Amy, Bo and Clara. We met a cow, picked up balloons and peeps hats and then met Amy and Clara for dinner. Afterwards we headed over to the Gaylord resort to meet Bo for the tree lighting show with characters from Disney's Madagascar, an indoor snowfall, train ride, and picture with Santa. The girls did great with Santa; it was the same Santa we met last year. Evelyn made friends with a few penguins (look behind Evelyn in second picture above; they played peek-a-boo with her for at least 5 minutes...so cute).

Saturday we hung out at the house in the morning and then had a sitter to go to a holiday party at Belle Haven Country Club that evening. It was pretty over-the-top. Yum food, lots of drinks, dancing, etc. So fun.

Sunday, we had swimming. The girls are so relaxed in the pool! You can't dare touch them if they are swimming with a noodle. We grabbed a pizza lunch and headed back for naps (wait, they didn't nap!). That evening we went to the Bull Run Festival of Lights, which is 2.5 miles of lights and then a holiday village at the end. We saw Santa and went on a hay ride. So fun!