Where the wild things are

We are having fall festival at our school on Friday and we get to dress up as Wild Things from the book Where the Wild Things Are.  Me and Grace and my mom went to see the movie...which is pretty deep and emotional but strangely enough we all 3 enjoyed it.  Maybe because it is one of my favorite books to read to my class, who knows!  Grace loved Judith in the movie, one of the two female wild things and she told me that she wanted to dress up as her.  Well trying to find an outfit has been quite challenging.  I found footsie pajamas, a tail, some ears, furry boots and some fur.  My friend Shannon and I went to Party Plus and found these great claw slippers so we all got a pair.  They are huge and you can barely walk in them.  Grace tried hers on tonight and we both were laughing so hard we couldn't even talk.  I don't know that she will wear them on Friday....because she won't be able to walk, but I think her other slippers will work okay.  Tonight we also cut out squares of discount fur I found at the fabric store and hot glued them onto her PJ's!  I think she is going to be very cute...I mean very scary!  I'll eat you up I love you so!

Sally the pumpkin cat

Grace had to decorate a pumpkin for school and she told me that she wanted to make her pumpkin look like a cat.  So we got the black paint, a black boa (fyi, when you cut a boa, feathers go everywhere), pipe cleaners, eyes and cat nose.  Grace painted the pumpkin all by herself and I added the ears and put on the tail.  Brandon put on the eyes and then she stuck on the mask and added the whiskers.  She has had a bow on that pumpkin since the day we brought it home so it was only natural that she would put the bow on the cat pumpkin too!  She named the cat Sally.  She has wanted a cat for over a year now and we can't have one because I'm allergic, so this is as close as it gets for her.  It was a lot of fun working on it as a family and she was very proud to take it to school and show everyone!

Sunday play

Grace had another great day of play!  She was busy dressing up babies and pushing them around the house in her shopping cart.  One baby didn't like all this and would "cry" so Grace decided to play with the smallest of the two babies most of the day.  She played beauty shop and curled her hair and added bows.  She went shopping all around the house with the baby.  This baby would just go with Grace and didn't seem phased by any of it all...this baby is my first baby...Daisy, my Shi Tzu!  I've never seen a dog take it like she does.  Maybe she, like Grace, enjoys the attention.  I could not believe she sat in the shopping cart and just let Grace push her around!  Priceless! Who needs siblings?  By the way, Duke, my other dog was the one that cried...he wanted no part of any play!

Soccer Star

So we all know that there have been some ups and downs during Grace's first soccer season, so why should this weekend be any different.  Grace did great at practice on Monday and told us that she was going to make a goal Saturday at her game.  Mrs. King her teacher from last year came to watch her and we were all a little nervous about this due to Grace's "stage fright" when others watch her, but she started the game and was smiling and running so all looked good...until this little blonde....no, I 'll say it....this big blonde on the other team whom I'm pretty sure has been playing since birth hit Grace in the face.  Grace started crying and would not go back on the field.  Brandon and I tried our hardest to motivate her...you know, balloons, a new dress, you name it, but she just wanted to go home.  She also wanted Mrs. King to go home...I'm still sad about this!  Mrs. King said that she understood and knows Grace well and wasn't upset at all.  Well Grace continued to cry and would not go in, so it wasn't Mrs. King being there either.  The last quarter Brandon gave his little girl one heck of a pep talk (no bribes included) and she ran out there and did great...so great that she kicked the ball, she kicked it in the goal.  She was very excited, but not nearly as excited as me and Brandon!  I'm a little embarrassed now that I think of it.  After the game we took her picture by the first goal that she scored in!  We also had to go get one balloon because that's what this other little girl gets when she scores a goal. Grace later told me that she didn't really want Mrs. King to leave she was just embarrassed that the big blonde girl hit her in the face and Mrs. King saw her crying!  It was another emotional soccer day!

This is Grace's soccer team...cute bunch of girls aren't they?

How I love to watch her play!

Grace will be 5 in January and when she plays it is so fun to watch.She is an only child most of the time (her half sisters are here every other weekend) so she gets pretty creative with her dolls and her animals. And I tend to play with her much of the time too, even if she is a little bossy! I walked into the playroom this weekend and she had her blanket layed out on the floor with her favorite animals (lots of pigs, her favorite) and she was watching a movie.  She had dug through her drawers and found this little red hat and put it on too. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that her and her animals (all named Sally) are about to

 go to the festival and it's cold there!

On Sunday she was playing with barbies and I asked her how many barbies she has (keep in mind that she has inherited most of these barbies from her sisters).  Well she lined them all up and counted and there were 20 barbies.  We decided that we would put some up and only keep 8 out to play with.  She said that we could give them to another little girl that didn't have barbies.  I'm trying to decide whether to keep the barbies forever or actually give them up.  What to do?

Soccer Star???

Okay so maybe my dream of Grace being the next Mia Hamm may not be very realistic but she is really cute when she plays soccer.  She likes to run up and down the field and she stays right there with the ball and smiles the entire time.  However, if the ball is in front of her she will not kick it!  If someone tells her to kick, like after the other team has scored AGAIN, she will kick the fire out of that ball, otherwise she will just run and smile.  I even caught her watching herself run at one point, just running and looking down at her side and smiling!  She must think she looks really good in those pink and grey soccer shoes...and boy does she!  Her BBFF (boy best friend forever) Cade was playing on the field next to her and he scored 5 goals, way to go Cade.  Then he came to watch Grace run up and down the field smiling!  Grace loves this picture because Cade has his hand on his hip...she laughs every time she looks at this picture. 

Field trip fun

Grace went on her first field trip with Ms. Hart's class.  She went to the pumpkin patch and had a pretty good time...however I went with her and she decided that she wanted to be Grumpy Grace on my behalf.  She and I spend so much time together that I think that she sometimes forgets that I'm mommy and she has to listen to me.  I even did something that I always said I would never do the other day...I called her dad on her!  We go through these moments and really the field trip was a lot of fun.  The first picture is her girlfriends in her class.  They are all very sweet and she loves playing with them.  The one in the middle with the pink is the one that claims to be Michael Jackson's daughter...I don't know what do you think? 

This is Grace and her little friend Javon.  They have been in the same class now for 2 years and they love playing together. However, Grace has recently got a little agitated because he likes to be the sister and boys can't be sisters.  They are too sweet!

Grace's Pre K class.  Ms. Hart, her teacher, is on the right.  Grace has really been lucky to have great teachers at Stubbs.  Last year her teacher was Mrs. King and Grace continues to love her and look at her like she is a rock star.  Rock on King!

Is there a doctor in the house?

So I haven't felt well for about a week now and Grace has heard me talk about the need for my treatment to make me feel better.  She is always very patient and sweet when mommy feels bad and will let me just lay on the couch and rest.  Well I walked into her play room and there she is telling her baby "shhh, it's okay, I'm just going to make sure you are okay....oh no, you need a shot to make you feel better."  It was the cutest thing ever.  I asked her if she was going to be a doctor when she grows up and she said "no mommy, I'm going to be a princess!"

Our precious family

Fun in the Fall Sun

Every year we go to the Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze with the girls.  It is always so much fun and it seems like everyone gets along when we do this.  The older the girls get the harder it is getting for everyone to get along.  Jaycee the oldest can barely tolerate Kennedy the middle child and Grace the baby starts acting like another child when her sisters come to stay with us.  But every year on this day for some reason we all have a blast!  I love my family even if it is complicated at times!

  I usually like picking out pumpkins in nice cool fall weather but this year was not the case. It was 95 degrees outside so the whole "fall feeling" was not there!

We also go through the corn maze and it is hilarious with these three girls.  This is my children of the corn picture!  They are always posing, scaring each other and even helping one another out when they get lost.  Me, I stay right behind my husband and my eyes are always on Grace.  I have no idea how he knows how to get through that maze but I'm sure glad he does because I would be stuck in corn land forever if it weren't for him.  It was a fun weekend even if it felt like summer outside. 

I walked outside and found Grace sitting on the big rock by our pond with her toes in the water. She was just sitting there very peaceful trying not to move much because she "didn't want the fish to eat her feet."  I started thinking about how big she has gotten and how truly blessed I am to have this child who will be 5 years old before I know it!  This picture is my little piece of heaven!

Grace and I went to Jump n Jungle for her BBFF (boy best friend forever).  We had so much fun!  Grace didn't really play with Cade so much because, well she was out numbered by boys quite a bit and although she likes to play with boys she only likes to play with one boy not a whole bunch of boys.  But she said that she was having fun and she didn't mind Cade playing with those boys because she liked going on this one slide over and over anyway!

We did catch Cade at one point and they were able to get their picture taken together. These two have been friends since birth. They always play so well together and it has been such a blessing for me to watch the two of them grow together

Classic blue tongue from the birthday cake!  Good times and Happy Birthday Cade Hyatt, we love you!

soccer tears and bribes

Grace had her first game on Saturday and she was very excited....until we pulled up to the field and the tears started.  We encouraged her and reminded her of how much she loves soccer...didn't help!  She got on the field and continued to cry.  She said she did not want to play! And let me tell you people, the child was serious!This is Brandon carrying her off of the field and then he changed his mind and carried her back on the field where she continued to cry!  He told her that she was going to play....ummm, no she wasn't!She slowly backed herself away from the rest of the game and continued to cry.  The poor coach on the other team even tried to help her and she really got mad.  You will notice she is in the corner of the field and the rest of the team is playing.  Brandon then went and got her off the field!So it was time to pull out the big dog...Mimi!  Mimi told her that she would take her to ChuckE Cheese (eeeeek), buy her a new dress and even an American Girl Doll!  Did this help you ask?  NO!  The girl was not going to play soccer today or ever she said! Her father was very upset about all this since he had someone come in and work for him at the station while he came and watched his...little soccer star?  He went back to work very upset but I don't really think Grace cared about how everyone else felt.  She did not like people looking at her. Unfortunately Grace had another game later that day and she said that she would not play.  We went and ate lunch and took a nap and again we reinforced the bribes!   Well what do you know...it worked!  This is game two; Grace and her Papa warming up with both of their tongues sticking out to the side (I too did this when I played soccer, I call it the Crouch tongue)!  Grace even helped me with some cool stretching with her team.  We did the itsy bitsy spider stretch and she told me that next time she will teach me some more...NEXT TIME?  "Yes mommy, I like soccer and you know I cry on the first time."  So now I know and maybe she had forgotten about the bribes!Grace is #4, the cute one twirling her pigtails!  The girls didn't do very well.  They didn't really get the concept of kicking the ball.  They just kind of watched the other team, who by the way has played together for one season already so I call this the professionl 4 and 5 year old time.  Grace said that the orange team was just too fast!  And she really wanted to kick it but couldn't catch them. These are the directors of the the soccer league encouraging the Pink Pixies to kick the ball into the goal and try and get the ball from the orange team.  I started thinking that Grace's entire life has been about me telling her not to take things away from people and here I am yelling at her "GET THE BALL!"  They were very confused and the parents very frustrated.Grace did actually kick the ball and I was very proud and turned towards Brandon to see how proud he was but then remembered that he had to work and he was missing this very special moment!  Oh well he got to see her throw her ball earlier when she didn't want to play!

So the final score was something like 25 to 3 with 2 of our 3 points being scored by the other team...oh well, we'll take it!  So did Grace forget about the bribes you ask!  NOT A CHANCE!  Did Mimi and Papa take her to ChuckE Cheese...NOT A CHANCE!  They went back to Artesia and stuck me with the Big Cheese, EEEEEK! 

Pink Pixie

 

Well here she is, playing soccer!  For 2 years we have heard her talk about soccer because the kids play at the park all the time and now she is all decked out in shin guards and soccer cleats!  Her team is called the Pink Pixies and they are SOOOO cute!  Grace cried at the first meeting but her first practice was all about fun.  She kicked her pink soccer ball and twirled her little pigtails!  Her daddy is helping coach but I'm telling them the ins and outs because I consider myself to be quite the expert on soccer!  At the end of practice they all put their hands in and said "Pixie Power."  Very cute, too bad they don't know what their team name even means!  Our first game will be Sept. 19, no goalie, no score, just good old fashing kicking and fun!  I love this girl so much and love to see her smile!