Just Lounging Around

Finley's First Day of School

I picked Finley up at 2:30 pm and she was so excited about school.  Her teacher gave us her artwork and her daily report.  Finley "ate a lot of lunch", read "The Kissing Hand", did All About Me art and was "Cheerful, happy and played well.'  What a good little girl!  Finley had been taken to the potty three times, but didn't use it.  She was honest with me about it.  We had discussed she would get a treat at home after school was over and she said she didn't need one because she hadn't gone potty.  The teacher said she hadn't napped, she had quiet time, but hadn't slept.  Once we got home, Finley talked all about her day.  She was most excited about going down the slide with Max.  She loves her teachers and couldn't wait to go back.  Meerkat got left at school, which stressed her out a bit, but I explained that Meerkat was going to school and we would bring him home on Wednesday.  She ate a yogurt snack when she got home and then opened a package full of stickers from Grammy and Grandad.  She was tuckered out and went down for a nap, sleeping until nearly 6 pm!  And when she finely did wake up, she was still tired.  We are going to have to get used to this long school day.  Clifton and I gave her "Preschool Day Hooray" as her first day of school book.  We read it last night and it described her day perfectly.  Her elephant nap mat also arrived in the mail and she is excited to take "elephant sleeping bed" to school with her.  Hopefully, she will actually sleep tomorrow.

First Day of School

Finley's adorable dress is made by Max's mom, isn't it the cutest? I will have more to report once I pick her up.

First Day of School Tomorrow

Finley starts pre-school tomorrow and she is very excited. On Friday, there was an open house and orientation. She got to meet her teachers and spend time in her classroom while Clifton and I attended the orientation. She had so much fun. Her teacher asked if she had been in school before, when I said no, she was amazed. Finley ran right into the classroom and started playing with all the kids. It probably didn't hurt that Max was there. I hope tomorrow goes as smoothly!

Happy Birthday, Soham!

Soham is in our playgroup and he turned 3 this week.  He had everyone over to his house for snacks and cupcakes, but the highlight was a visit from the West University Fire Department.  The firemen were so patient with all the kids and everyone had such a fun time sitting in the truck.  Finley even tried on a fire helmet, isn't she adorable?  Future firewoman maybe?  Are you sick of all the birthday party posts yet?  It is only the start of birthday season, we still have a few more months to go.

Max Visits Again

Finley was over the moon with yesterday's schedule.  We had a birthday party at Soham's house (pics to come from that), then we got her picture made for her passport, home for lunch, the gym with Miss Michelle and then we headed to pick up Max.  She kept asking if we were going to get Max next.  It was so adorable.  The two of them are so cute together, both were a little worse for wear due to no naps, but they still played so well together overall.  Finley just loves having Max over to play.  Miss Michelle told me that all Finley could talk about today was Max.  I think it is so cute how they have the same looks on their faces in the last two pictures.

Happy Birthday, Sarah Kate!

Sarah Kate was the only kid at our wedding besides our fantastic flower girl, cousin Faith.  Sarah Kate was just a baby then and now she is turning 7!  The party was a cupcake decorating and pool party.  The party started at 6:30 pm, so Finley wasn't going to be able to make the swimming portion of the party.  We headed home past Finley's bedtime and the swimming hadn't even started yet!  Luckily, Finley was there for her two favorite things at a birthday party: cake and pizza.  Finley did a great job decorating her cupcake, I was amazed she didn't make a total disaster of Sarah Kate's kitchen since she was one of the youngest kids there.  It was so fun seeing what the kids came up with.  There were your standard cupcakes, but then one kid created a curled up snake on top of his cupcake, so creative.  I had to include a snapshot from Sarah Kate's bedroom.  She has a dollhouse for her American Girl dolls.  It was taller than I was and I think Finley could have fit inside if she tried.  She did ride the dolls' scooter...

Book Worm

Finley loves books.  We usually read one before nap time and two before bed time.  Lately, she has been wanting to "read" them herself.  The funniest part is that she sort of mumbles nonsense to herself while she is reading.  It is almost in a whisper voice and it is tough to tell what she is actually saying.

Today was a big day for Finley, the fall classes for gymnastics and swim lessons started this morning.  I was a bit concerned about scheduling both on the same day, but I really wanted to keep one day completely open during the week (Thursday~ we have playgroup, but don't have to go) and this was the only way to do it.  She did great!  Gymnastics was so quiet without the summer campers there.   When things started, Finley was a little distracted with all the kids.  There were 10 kids in the warm up and she has gotten used to one on one interaction with her coach.  After the classes broke out, it was just Finley and one other girl with their coach.  Finley became much happier and even did a flip over the bar.  Her coach said she wasn't sure about going upside down, but she did it!  After that, we headed straight to swim lessons.  Finley also has a new teacher, Miss Crystal, who has been training with Mr. Cameron the past few weeks.  Mr. Cameron has started back to college, so he is only teaching in the evenings.  Finley kept calling her teacher Mr. Crystal, but other than that, she did great.  She has passed four of the nine objectives for her Goldfish class.  Miss Crystal had her floating all by herself today and Finley was so proud of herself.  We can always change her swim class to another day if they schedule gets to be too much for Finley, but for now, it works.

A Visit with Max

Finley has been looking forward to her day with Max all weekend.  The two of them are such peas in a pod, it really is adorable.  I decided to brave the grocery store with two toddlers this morning and it was not as bad as it could have been.  That being said, there were balloons, white chocolate covered pretzels and fruit galore to entertain the two of them in the ridiculous Mickey Mouse car cart.  The two of them made a bit of a white chocolate mess and we lost a balloon in the milk aisle, but other than that, they were perfect.  i meant to snap pictures of them, but I my attention was focused on getting them in and out of the grocery store without incident.  Finley has loved having a playmate over.  In exactly one week, she will be starting school and will be in Max's class.  These two are going to rule the school!

Busy Baker

We had a very busy day yesterday!  We met Riley, Sydney, Kendall and Courtney at the pool (and their mommies Georgia and Lori.)  Finley had so much fun playing in the splash pad area, she especially loved the slide.  She even wanted to go on the big slide for older kids.  She was really insistent, luckily, it was closed for cleaning.  She had such a good time pushing baby Sydney around in her float, even though sometimes she would wander a little too far off with her.  After the pool, we headed over to Lori's for a "Chickafila" lunch.  Shockingly, Finley only at the fruit, all but the apples.  Struck me as very strange, but I figured she was tired from all the pool fun.  We headed home for a nap, I thought she would get a good one in.  She slept for less than an hour and woke up grumpy, so I figured we needed some hands on activity to occupy her.  I decided we would make some chocolate banana bread.  I had never made it before and it doesn't need a mixer, so Finley could do everything herself.  She was so good!  She only had one little spill, that I made a million times worse trying to clean up.  She was much gentler with the stirring and didn't try to eat the plain flour once. I cannot wait to decorate Christmas cookies with her this year.

Time to Make the Doughnuts...

I ordered a doughnut pan from Amazon. Finley loves the doughnuts we have made so far, especially the chocolate frosted ones. The good thing is they are tons healthier than the doughnuts from a doughnut shop. The bad thing is she is getting used to chocolate for breakfast.

Fort!

Finley has decided she doesn't want to nap again today...fun times.  Especially since she is so tired from swim lessons this morning.  Too bad it is 104 degrees outside.  So we are trapped indoors.  Which means, Finley needed some entertainment from something other than her countless toys.  She asked if we could build a house out of cards since we had been playing flashcards.  I said we could build a fort instead.  She loved it!  It became even more exciting when I shut the fort door and gave her a flashlight to play with inside.  Too bad the fort fun only lasted 20 minutes, but in toddler land, that is an eternity.

Three funny Finley moments from today:

Finley: I have a stomache
Me: Does your tummy hurt?
Finley: No, I have an egg in my tummy.
Ahhh..a stomachegg

We were getting my car inspected this morning and the guy at the desk asked if she would be starting kindergarten next week.  I told him no, she is only two years old.  His reply "she sure does talk a lot."   yes, yes she does.

I was upstairs getting Finley's swim bag.  I was gone for 30 seconds.  She managed to smear markers all over her face while I was gone.  Thank goodness they are washable markers!

Last Day of Gymnastics

Well, it was technically Finley's last gymnastics class today.  She will be starting her fall semester next Tuesday, so there really won't be any break at all.  Still, I got to go in the gym with her to see all her accomplishments and snap lots of photographs.  The best part was that she was the only student in class, her very own private gymnastics lesson.  Finley has come a long way since the first class, she will even do somersaults on her own at home...even on the hardwoods.

Happy Birthday, Izzy!

Izzy had a super fun splash birthday party to celebrate her turning three.  Finley feasted on watermelon and strawberries, which coordinated perfectly with her fruity swim suit.  The kids had so much fun dumping water on each other from the buckets.  Izzy's mom had put a baby pool at the base of the slide, which everyone had so much fun sliding into.  The kids took a break from the backyard fun to sing (or sing/scream if you are Finley) Happy Birthday to Izzy.  Finley only had eyes for the candy coated marshmallows.  She didn't even take a bite of the cupcake, she totally turned her nose up, all she wanted was the marshmallow!  I cannot blame her at all, the marshmallow lollipops were adorable and were exactly the sweet treat that Finley wanted after all the water play fun.  Look at how much these kids have grown in one year...Izzy's 2nd birthday party.

Playdate at Chick-fil-a

Or "Chickafila" as Finley calls it. We were supposed to have Max over for lunch while his Mommy was at a doctor's appointment, but she ended up getting out early, so we all met up at Chick-fil-a for lunch.  Little did we know it was orientation for Bellaire High School, which is within walking distance of Chick-fil-a.  The place was a total madhouse!  We ended up having to share a table since the high schoolers had camped out at nearly every table.  After we ate, Finley wanted to go down the slide.  Of course, she went down the slide all of once and ended up dancing, jumping and running around with Max for the majority of the time.

I had both Finley and Max in my car and the two of them were so cute talking to each other. They pointed out nearly every car and truck we drove by, it was so adorable. The cutest of the cute is when Finley said, "I love you, Max." And Max responded, "I love you, Finley." Cue me tearing up in the front seat. Those two crazy kids...

Center Court Pizza

Finley loves Center Court Pizza (evidence #1 and evidence #2), we are lucky to have swim lessons in Pearland where there are not one, but two locations nearby.  Today, we met Sarah, Ryan and Lillian for lunch after Finley's swim lessons.  Finley wanted to do everything that Ryan did, whether she understood what he was doing or not.  At one point he asked for money, so she did too.  I doubt Finley knows what money is, but she had to have it.  Ryan was sweet and brought Finley a strawberry lollipop.  How did he know it was her favorite?  Finley devoured three slices, which was one more than I had.  This girl loves her pizza.  And she was super excited we had some in a box on our drive home.  She kept saying "we can have pizza for later!"

Aren't Ryan and Lillian so adorable?

Me and My Llama

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel hosted his 3rd birthday party at Discover Gymnastics yesterday.  Finley was so excited t show off her gymnastics class skills.  She was jumping down the trampoline, in perfect form.  She even showed off her balance beam skills, which impressed me very much.  Her favorite activity was dancing with Max.  The two of them were cracking me up with their dances moves.  And by dance moves, I mean running around in circles over and over and over again.  There was pizza, fruit and cupcakes, which make the perfect party in Finley's eyes.  Happy birthday to Daniel!

Maryland Tomatoes, Corn and Crabs

We visited the McClurgs while we were in Maryland. Their daughter, Jenny, was getting married on Saturday. We were lucky to get to see everyone and Finley got to play around by their big pond in the backyard. Finley also helped Chuck pick tomatoes from their garden. After all that fun, we headed to the Eastern Shore to get crabs. It was all you can eat and the crabs were amazing. I wish I had some right now! Finley was happy with the ice cream sundae that came after the crabs. She also loved feeding the ducks, but it went about the same as it does here in Texas. Cracker for Finley, cracker for a duck...and so on.