AHG, Science Center, Father/Daughter Dance, and Random

Wow, I am ON it, aren't I?! Two posts within a month of each other, that's amazing! It helps that my kids are so darn cute I can't help but share their pictures. :o) I'm trying to avoid plastering facebook with a million pictures, so I'm trying to just post a few there that I'd like to share, but leave the bulk of them to these posts in a link. :o)

First, here's SarahMae. Eating. Enthusiastically, as always. :o)

And at the library, coloring, while Shiloh picked out her books. She loves their preschool space!

I find myself saying this all the time -- "She looks so big here!" But it's true. She does. She's been really getting into the "Little House" books and just finished up "Little House in the Big Woods" this past week and is on to "Farmer Boy." She now sleeps under one of my old quilts b/c she says it makes her feel like she's in the "Little House" times. I love her.

My readers. SarahMae usually chooses a book or two to "read" while Shiloh has her daily reading time. Anything to be like her big sister!

She's a little obsessed with her feet. She's always pointing to them and talking about them. When you put her socks on, she even kisses them and tells them "bye bye." Hah!

Shiloh's American Heritage Girls meeting. They're currently working on their Puppetry badge, and we had someone from the church who does Puppetry come in and share their puppets and skills with the girls. It was really cute and a lot of fun.

They also had a team building activity where they had to stand in a circle, and each hold hands with two different people, then try to get out of the tangle. It was interesting and they had a lot of fun trying. I'll decline to say whether they were successful. ;o)

Our science center has an event called "First Fridays", where the first friday of every month, they have themed activities and heavily discounted exhibits available. This month, the theme was dinosaurs and their exhibit was a featured one on Wildlife Rescue that was in its last week. Shiloh had a blast. Here, she's using an "elephant's trunk" to pick up blocks.

Riding in a field plane....

Being a turtle...

Looking at regular birds' feathers vs oil-covered feathers...

This was cute. Simulating a parent bird having to pick up tiny food pieces to feed to the baby.

They were showing movie clips of endangered animals and how they're being protected.

 

Does she weigh as much as a giant panda?

SarahMae in the sling and I... in a bird mirror. :o)

She could have spent ALL DAY here. They've included an paleontology area in the permanent Dinosaur exhibit and we hadn't seen it yet. We ventured down there and she was at home immediately, digging for bones. She's been insisting for some time now that she's going to be a missionary paleontologist. And maybe a ballerina, too. But "I love nature. That's my thing. I could even hold a bird, that's how gentle I am. God gave me nature as my talent. And I love bones. Bones and nature are my thing." She's gone on about it so much so that I ordered an archaeology curriculum that just came in the mail today and we'll begin incorporating it immediately, she's super excited!

Snow day! They were being "snow archaeologists." The baby had a runny nose, so, you know, we HAD to stay inside. ;o) It was fun watching them, though.

Ruby kept us company. :o)

SarahMae is really getting into baby dolls, taking care of them and such.

Of course, hot chocolate after the snow!

Out to eat one day, SarahMae was being hilarious with her silly faces! FYI -- these pictures have "see food" in them!

This was so funny -- Shiloh practices her ballet exercises every day, and the other day, she was doing some stretches, and SarahMae came out from the other room, saw what Shiloh was dong, and without hesitation, stuck her foot upon the rail. Like, it didn't take her more than a second to get it up there, and she was super serious about it!

Wearing Daddy's hat. :o)

Target shopping cuteness.

Shiloh is participating in the "Sparks-A-Rama" bowl in a couple of weeks. Sparks is her Awanas club and they compete against other Sparks teams from other churches in the area. I was surprised when Shiloh asked to participate, she doesn't usually like "sporty" things, but she's having a really good time at the practices. Hence, the blur. :o) Also -- they played dodge ball at the end, and we asked her how she liked it. She said, "Oh, it was fun! I dodged one of the balls by doing an arabesque (ballet move), I'm so glad I know ballet!"

And, finally, Father/Daughter Dance. Aaah, it was awesome for the two of them!!! Shiloh went to great lengths to get dressed up, fussed over how she wanted her hair and jewelry, etc. And she had a great time. Rick said it was incredibly memorable for them both. Again -- she's so big!!!

"Wait, mom -- take a picture of me doing some ballet moves!"

Daddy surprising her with flowers. And she was, so incredibly and sweetly, surprised. (Ignore the state of our deck and yard, I liked it better when the snow covered it all up!)

Knowing how she loves potted flowers, he also got her some potted daffodils, which she immediately put on a stool directly in front of her window. 

Aren't they amazing??

In other news, as I've shared on facebook, we're potty training SarahMae, who has been showing signs of readiness for about a month now. I've been waiting until we had a free weekend where I could give her my undivided attention for two or more days, and this was it. She's done so much better than I expected! We didn't know anything about potty training with Shiloh, and she had many digestive issues besides, so I wasn't optimistic about my ability to do it this time around. SarahMae is an apt student, though, and picked up on it immediately! By the end of our first day (and we didn't even "start" until after 11.00am!), she was going on her own, telling me when she had to go, and keeping her underwear dry. Yay! Here's hoping the next couple of days really drive it home so we can keep our appointments/activities/meetings this week. :o)

Thanks for looking, guys! Love you all!