Poison Apple

Bridget wanted a poison apple while she was dressed like Snow White.  It was so cute - I had to grab some photos.

Sisterly Love

I love watching the girls together - Audrey is so sweet to Bridget and B thinks the world of her big sister.  Lately, we have been trying to break them of their horrible bedtime habits (which are totally our fault).  This means that they are going to bed earlier and I am not laying in Bridget's bed with her until she falls asleep.

It has been going well, especially since Audrey has been sleeping in Bridget's room with her.  Now, we go in B's room, read 3 books and I can leave because Bridget has someone there for company.  I have noticed that they have been much easier to get up in the mornings because they are going to bed at a decent time.  Imagine that!

A couple of nights ago, I was trying to get Bridget to bed by herself, so while I was tucking her in, I said "Bridget, are you a big girl?"

Bridget:  "Yesh."  (she says her S's as "sh."  It's adorable.)

Me: "Are you a big girl because you go pee pee in the potty?"

B: "Yesh."

Me: "OK, well big girls also go to bed by themselves, so Mommy is leaving the room.  Good night!"

About 5 minutes later, I look up to see Bridget standing at my bedroom door and she says "Mommy, I not a big girl."  I guess she didn't like that aspect of being a big girl!

When Audrey is in her room, she will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night saying "Ah Dee?"  I will go in and tell her that sissy is right behind her and she will snuggle up against Audrey and fall back asleep.  One night when she woke up crying, I heard Audrey get up and in her sweet little voice, she was saying "What's the matter Bridget?  Do you need a drink of water?"

Bridget was painting with water colors the other day and Audrey walked in and said "Wow Bridget - a rainbow.  That is so pretty!" 

She also asked "Are you okay, Princess" when B tripped the other day.  So sweet!

When we went to the mall to get the girls new July 4th dresses, we also took them to the Disney Store.  They had row after row of Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Tiana and Belle, but not a lot of Snow White stuff for poor Bridget.  We did find her a shirt, which she loves!

Big sis picked out an Ariel shirt of course (yes, that is our washing machine in the background in the middle of the kitchen).  Side note - I think this might be the first time in 3 years that Audrey will not be having an Ariel themed birthday party.  She told me that we need to start making a list for her Tangled birthday party.  Rapunzel is running a close second to Ariel as Audrey's favorite Disney Princess!

I got Audrey dressed in an outfit that she didn't really care for the other day and she came up to me and said "I don't feel pretty in these clothes.  They make me feel kind of nervous." I'm going to have to make sure to take her with me when I start shopping for fall/winter clothes so I don't buy any more clothes that make her nervous!

Pre-Kindergarten

This past week, I had Audrey's Pre-K orientation.  All they did is show the Pre-K room and give me the packet of paperwork that needs to be turned in on the first day of school.  As I was looking through it and looking at her school supply list, it hit me that we have hit a major milestone here!  While this isn't as big as going to kindergarten, we are now on school schedules for the next 15 years.  15 years of homework, school supply shopping, not being able to do certain things because it's a school day - it's crazy to think about! At least I have this little nut home with me for the next couple of years.

I will also be saving a lot of money on daycare expenses when she starts Pre-K!  It's a state funded program so I just have to send lunch money and then it's $11/day for after school care.  Audrey is taking Pre-K at her daycare since she is familiar with the people and kids there, but I am worried that she has been spoiled by staying home 2-3 days a week with grandparents and that she is going to have a hard time having to go every day.  Hopefully it will be fun so she will want to go.  I don't want to have to battle her every morning.

Last weekend, our 10 1/2 year old washing machine died.  Andy took the back off of it, decided that he had no idea what to do and told me to call a repairman.  The only day that worked for the Sears guy and I to meet was Friday, so we went the week without a washing machine, which sucks when you have a newly potty trained 2 year old who seems to be regressing a little bit.

I did a couple of loads at Tina's throughout the week and had 3 overflowing baskets in the kitchen waiting for the repairman to fix the machine on Friday.  The guys walks in, sees the back off of it and says "I can't touch a machine that's already been taken apart.  It's a liability." and he walks out.  I was SO pissed! 

The girls and I spend all day yesterday at Mom's doing laundry.  The girls didn't mind though, because they got to play with Gretchen and Otis all day.

Today I will be assisting Andy in the laundry room (the drywall behind the washer was moldy, so he cut it out yesterday) and trying to convince him to just get a new washer instead of waiting another week for the Sears repairman.  Wish me luck! ;)

Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee...

When we got up yesterday, Andy asked Audrey what she wanted to do, and without hesitation, she said "I want to go canoeing".  We spent about 3.5 hours out on the water and the girls did very well.  Bridget liked to help Daddy paddle, which was nice because it gave me an excuse not to help paddle.  ;)

We stopped at a rock for lunch and discovered that we were sharing our picnic space with a momma and baby ducks.  Audrey, my little worrier, kept getting anxious when the babies would swim too far out.  "Oh no!  That baby duck is getting too far away.  Come back!"

Bridget kept saying "May I pet baby duck?"  She wasn't too happy that we wouldn't let her.

Andy brought the girls little fishing poles and Bridget has discovered the love of fishing.  Andy would cast it and hand the rod to her and she would reel it in with a look of serious determination on her face.  I can't wait until she actually catches something - she will be thrilled!

By the end of the trip, the girls were so tired.  Bridget was asleep before we even got out of the parking lot and Audrey didn't last too much longer than that!

Here are a few more pictures from Monday:

The rest of the pictures from Monday are here:
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Fun on the Fourth

As I mentioned, we headed down to Centennial Park for a party on the Chamber rooftop.  I wanted to get some good shots of the girls in the cute outfits before we left, but Bridget woke up from her nap in a foul mood!

I could tell that we don't go downtown often enough because as soon as we got to the Buckhead area, Bridget stared at amazement at the buildings and exclaimed "Mommy, a tower!  It big!  Look Daddy, a castle!  Dat Snow White house?  It big!"

The Atlanta Chamber building is right off of Centennial Park.  There were lines of folks waiting to get into the park and I was surprised to see that they had to go through metal detectors.  I was glad that we got to bypass the line and go straight into the building.  Here was our view of the park.  The big headliner was Chrystal Bowersox from American Idol but they didn't have the speakers very loud in the pavilion so we couldn't hear her very well.

I must admit, the Fourth is more fun with family and friends, but we did enjoy a nice free dinner and drinks and the fireworks were great!  Bridget stood on my lap and danced and yelled "Woo hoo!  Yay!"  Afterwards, Audrey said "That was awesome!  I love fireworks!"

We didn't bring the camera because we weren't sure what they place would be like, so here are some fuzzy cell shots!

 Audrey lost her light up pin about 5 minutes after I took this.  I made the mistake of saying "Oh no, you lost your pin."  She was about to freak out until quick thinking Daddy said "I found it and it's in my pocket for safe keeping."  Luckily she didn't call him out on it or we would have had to sneak Bridget's pin away from her. 

 Photo courtesy of Audrey:

4 1/2 going on 14!  She ended up taking home a bouquet of the red, white and blue carnations.

Picture Post

Amos got neutered a couple of weeks ago.  The poor guy was so excited to be going somewhere in my car and was so happy to see the vet techs.  He was bouncing around and wagging his tail at the vet tech when I left him. 

He was not a happy camper when I picked him up.  The vet techs said that he was such a sweet, goofy boy, but he was pretty barky before the surgery and whined like a little bird while waking up.  He pretty much ignored me and layed around pouting and whining all evening.

Here he is yesterday napping with Big Baby (that's Bridget's appropriately named doll).  I think we need to start calling him Big Baby - our 10 month old puppy weighed 56.5 lbs at the vet!  He's going to be huge when he's full grown!

Bridget is turning into a little fashionista like her big sis.  On this particular morning, she asked to wear zebra print, so I got her dressed and went to go brush Audrey's hair.  Bridget came out of her room with clip on earrings and a bracelet on.  She wasn't happy that I wouldn't let her wear the earrings to school! I shouldn't have let her wear the bracelet because it didn't make it back home.

On this day, she wanted piggy tails with her outfit and I pulled them through into little buns.  Audrey told her "You look so adorable with your outfit and your hair like that."  I think so too!

Each week this summer, there is a different fun theme at daycare.  Last week was pirate week.  Audrey's class made eye patches and telescopes and went on a treasure hunt.  My tough little pirate made a heart eye patch and named herself Pirate Rainbow.  She wouldn't let me get a picture of her in her pirate gear

but here she is with her pirate face paint.  She had an eye patch and black and pink stripes on her cheek, although they are hard to see here.

More Audrey quotes:
When Bridget was acting like a typical 2 year old "Boy, you are a sassy pants, Bridge!"

"Mommy, I'm ready to try new foods.  I want to try barbecue!"  Lucky for her, we finally purchased a new grill (ours died at the beginning of the summer).  True to her word, she ate a half of a hamburger (which she usually doesn't eat), tried some avocado and had some smoked pork!

Out of the blue last night "I need a mother and a father.  Sometimes I can't do things by myself because things are sharp." 

Andy's boss gave him tickets to a Fourth of July party at Centennial Park at the Atlanta Chamber building.  They are having a party in their rooftop pavilion, so we will have front stage seats to the fireworks, not to mention air conditioning and a bathroom!  We think the mayor of Atlanta is going to be there, so we took the girls to the mall and got them new cute Gymboree July 4th outfits.  I will post pics later this week.  Happy Fourth!