Lily is 7!

...and I just can't get my mind around it. Time keeps moving faster and faster. How is my baby seven years old??!!...

my teeny little 6 pound baby I used to bath in the sink

My toddler who'd spend hours playing in the water "doing the dishes"...

the little girl I couldn't get out of her pink flannel nightgown once for over a week and who wore a leotard everyday for a year?

the kid who celebrates Halloween everyday...

and can always make you laugh...

the most photogenic child I ever aimed a camera at...

is 7 years old.
She's growing up.

She's always been a very intense child, with a VERY strong will and full of energy! None of that has changed, but she is really learning how to channel her energy in a more productive way and she has matured so much in the last year, it brings me so much joy.

Just as any mother's first baby does, Lily has changed my life in every way and I am so thankful for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!

Lily's new Dress

I'm a sucker.

Lily found some fancy fabric in my stash and was determined to sew herself a dress out of it. So I found a pattern for a dress in her size that said "very easy" and figured I could whip it out for her, I put my projects on hold again...

It took two days and the "very easy" statement kinda made me feel very stupid!

The pattern is Butterick B4906

It's not a bad pattern, I have just never attempted a dress before, which is why I wonder now why I thought I would be capable of "whipping one out"!!

But anyway, I did manage to finish it and here is the end result:

It looks good in the photo...You can't see my mistakes! I will just tell you, I thought I would make things easier and do buttons rather than a zipper, but it turned into a disaster. I accidentally put the button holes on the wrong side and my machine went crazy and messed them all up! I was able to salvage things, but next time I'll go for the zipper.

I made some barrettes out of our fabric scrap roses and they looked pretty in Lily's hair. She wants this be her Easter Dress, so know I feel obligated to sew two more!! Maybe they'll go fast since they'd be smaller and now I know what I'm doing!?

snow day

The girls really enjoyed their snow day on Wednesday. I shoveled the driveway and created quite a mountain next to the house in the process. Lily and Rosie dug it out and made themselves a very cool snow cave. They had so much fun! They stayed outside for hours!

dreaming of spring

tired of snow.

longing for green and growth.

I want to build this.

new birth

Lily

Lily's 6!!!!

Lily turned 6 on the 13th. I can hardly believe 6 years have past since I gave birth to my first little girl! She is really growing up lately. Rosie and Daisy and I went to her classroom with cupcakes in the afternoon. This is her class singing happy birthday to her. Yes, she does have a small class. There were a couple kids absent, but there are only 5 kids in her class right now.

your being watched...

by a pink Eskimo spy!


Lily got off the bus today, came in the front door, grabbed her binoculars and went straight out the back door to spy in the backyard. Thanks to Amy (who had just stopped over and was being spied on) for taking such a cute pic, so I didn't have to go out in the cold!

Our Family Portrait

by Lily

Quite a work of art! and very accurate too! She's been drawing lots of pictures since she was very little and I love what I gain from them about her perspective on her life! In this portrait from left to right, there's Rosie holding Daddy's hand, Me and my dreadlocks, then Lily holding Daisy's hand. Down on the bottom left she has drawn all our pets, Luna our dog, Little Bear our Cat, and Rita and Harriet our Rats!

Picture retakes

much better!

Fall photos

Here are some photos I took of the girls the other day in this beautiful fall weather. We have been spending as much time as we can outside, trying to soak it all in while we can.

It's very hard to get a photo of Daisy lately, she just doesn't stop moving now that she can walk and she is so serious when she is exploring!

We have been inside for the last couple days though. Lily came down with a sudden case of Pneumonia Sunday night. We ended up in the ER till about 7am. They gave her an injection of an antibiotic and sent us home with an oral Rx. She is doing much better today. Please pray that she would continue to recover quickly.

First Day of Kindergarden!

Lily started school today! She is attending Coit Creative Arts Academy which is a theme school in the Grand Rapids Public district. The curriculum is based around the Arts. She will have art class twice a week and be a part of school theater performances. Starting in 1st grade all students are in choir too. They are on the Alternative schedule and she goes from 9-4pm Monday thru Friday! It is going to be an adjustment for her, but I think it'll be fairly easy for me. I really like her teacher, Mrs. Sleighter. She has been teaching 18 years and has 8 children of her own, so I think she is experienced enough to handle Lily!

Lily was very excited about her new Princess backpack. I tried to talk her into a plain blue one, but that didn't fly. She also got a new hello Kitty alarm clock. I set it for 7:45am, but she was up, dressed and came into my room to wake me with her backpack on by 7:15am!

Rosie was very excited to be a part of getting Lily to school. She cried big tears when we left saying, "I am going to miss Lily!" Rosie will start school right after Labor Day and that will be very good for her. She is going to be in her friend Solomon's class at Grand Rapids Montessori.


Lily gets her very own locker. She is so good at recognizing her name that she just ran straight up to it and put her backpack in.


I realized on Tuesday that both the girl's hair was way to long and shaggy, thank God Aunt Heidi was available for a last minute hair cut! I would've hated to send Lily to school with her hair hanging in her face like it has been all summer.


This is Lily and her cousin Brieanne, who will also start Kindergarden this year. Aren't they cute with thier matching missing bottom teeth?

So now that Lily is at school all day, I have a little more free time, check out what I am up to! Oh, and be sure to read on to the next post to see what is going on out at the farm!

The tadpoles went home

The tadpoles outgrew their little container and it was time for them to go back to the pond. Many of them had all four legs now and had emerged from the water onto the floating little log we put in there. It took alot of convincing, Lily wanted to keep them forever and I had to explain to her that they would not be happy with us any longer because I didn't know what to feed them now that they were froglets. Some of them had already died, but Lily didn't know that. I know someday she is going to have to deal with the full circle of life, but for now, I was not ready to go there, and I wanted to get them back to the pond quick. While I was setting up for the Artist Market, Rich took Lily and Rosie to a pond near his work and they let them go. Lily was a very big girl about it, and Rich promised her that they would come back often and see how they are doing. It was a good experience and Lily learned some very important lessons.



We still have two toads and a frog on the back porch, I thought I'd give them each a proper introduction:

Dicky Boy

Charlie

and Lily's favorite, Prince green Slimy Frog

They eat meal worms and crickets when we get to the pet store. They seem to be doing alright in the aquarium, although I think Prince is a good enough climber to find his way out one of these days. I am trying to prepare Lily for that day and help her to understand that although she loves these pets immensely, they would be much happier living in their own environment.

Tadpoles

A teacher at Lily's school has a fish tank full of tadpoles in her classroom. Well Lily got wind of it and has a newfound obsession with tadpoles. We already have two toads living on the back porch in a fish tank, Dickie boy and Charlie, but now Lily is the proud caretaker of a whole bunch of little baby tadpoles. Her teacher negotiated for Lily to bring home a container of tadpoles and I picked them up from school today. We have lots to learn and I am sure it will be a fun science project for the summer. Today we learned all about the word Metamorphosis. Right now they look like this:

We'll keep you posted on their development and all the amazing new things we learn on this new adventure!