Good Girl

She's such a GOOD girl.

Each day after school when my Ellers hops into our car I always ask her to tell me how her day at school was by her facial expression. She turns her head around and then back to me and the majority of days she flashes me the world's largest smile. It's pretty cute. If she's had a hard day she'll turn her head around with a half smile or some tears and then we can talk about it. My heart is happy that most days her smile is big and bright.

I went to Elle's 2nd grade parent-teacher conference this past Friday morning. The teacher went through all of her academic progress which is right on track. She's a smart girl and works hard so I was happy to see that her class work reflected that. Her teacher then looked me in the eyes and told me what a good, GOOD, sweet girl Elle is. I'm sure she tells most of the parents this but it took me quite by surprise. I know she's kind and sweet but you never know what happens when they leave you. My emotions really caught me by surprise. The more she talked about my Elle's sweet personality the more my eyes started to well up with tears. I kept thinking, "oh no, don't do this amy...this is embarrassing!!!" but it was to no avail. The tears came. She went on and on about how Elle treats the other children in the class and how kind and caring and helpful she is. To me this is SO much more of importance than any of the other things on that report card.

As a mom I work so much with my girls and sometimes I just feel like it's going in one ear and out the other with them. And somedays I feel like I'm a completely lousy mom. There are so many ups and downs on this "mom roller coaster". I think that was what made me cry - all of the TIME and TALKS I have with them are paying off even just a little bit. You do your best with them and then you push them out into the world and hope for the best. It's scary and rewarding and somedays heartbreaking all at the same time.

Each day as Elle is walking down the driveway and hopping into Jon's car to go to school I give her a hug and say, "Work Hard AND...."

She then has to finish the quote.

She always, smiles and says

"...BE NICE".

I love my sweet Elle. I'm glad she's mine.

Love

I love this picture - grainy and all.

It was a candid moment from my iPhone. We were trying to take a picture of all of us...(lily included) and then Gwennie said something funny and we all lost it. Lily ducked out of the picture but she was right there with us.

I love my girls so much.

Mirror Makeover

I got a new mirror for our family room. I still really liked our last mirror but wanted a change. I was driving with Jon and the girls to get ice cream and spotted this mirror in the window of a consignment shop. I begged Jonnie to stop and he obliged. The mirror was an ugly gold color. I really do love gold but this was just not a pretty gold. I knew it could be painted so that didn't deter me. When I got home and measured, I was thrilled to find it would be the perfect size. The pictures don't show the scale very well but it's huge...just over 5 feet tall. Our ceilings are vaulted so it works. The next day my friend came over and we spray painted it in my backyard. It still needs another coat of paint --I want it to be a flat white without shine. Jonnie bought a sprayer and I bought the paint so that's on our "not so important to-do list" which is really getting pretty long. I also have the prettiest chairs just sitting in our garage that I got at an antique store for almost nothing that also need to be reupholstered and painted. One of them will eventually go in the corner where our girls' little computer table is right now. Luckily I have a husband that puts up with all of this frivolous stuff.

Happy Halloween 2011

We had a fun Halloween. I must say though that this has been one crazy week. We are on day 8 of at least one person in our family having the flu. It's been non stop for me in the laundry department and I'm tired. I was so sick on Monday that I begged and bribed Gwen to not go to preschool. I may have even shed a tear. She however was too excited about her party and I don't blame her. I got her all dressed-up and also drove her there with my head literally on the steering wheel. It was a sight but she made it and had so much fun. Jonnie took the girls trick-or-treating last night in our neighborhood. Lily loved cruising in the wagon and Elle and Gwen ran from house to house. Our neighborhood is a fun one on Halloween night. Lots and lots of kids and parents running through the streets. It's adorable. The girls have already started talking about what they want to be next year. I love their ages right now. Every holiday is just magical for them. I know that will change someday so I am enjoying it so, so much right now. Now I need to figure out what to do with all of this candy in the house. I always forget how delicious kit-kats are. Seriously, so good. Here's to another fun Halloween and hoping that Jon (the last stand-out in our family) does not get sick. My fingers are crossed.

Happy Halloween!

(you can see this picture was taken after the 1st trip around the neighborhood trick-or-treating...how funny is gwen's wig!?)

Strawberry Shortcake Gwen

The Wig. I mean c'mon it doesn't get any cuter.

Elle the 50's Pink Lady

The Glasses. They "made" her outfit and she LOVED wearing them. So cute!

Piggy Lily

The Black Satin Bow. That's what sold me on this costume. Adorable.

Where's Waldo?

Jon said that if there ever comes a time when I question his love for me all I need to do is look at this picture. So true. I told him Waldo never looked so good. Also very true.

Love him.