She's Crafty!

No, I'm not blogging about a Beastie Boys song, but my crafty little Lyla!  I've always had a hard time throwing stuff away, but now its really hard because Lyla says "Don't throw it away, I'll make it into a craft."  Yesterday she cut up and colored on a band aid box to keep me from throwing it away.  

Her rainbow made out of licorice and rolos at school.

Paper hats we made for her and her baby doll.  I love the internet because I really didn't know the best way to do this. 

Glueing bird and flower cut outs her Nana George sent her.

More cut outs from Nana. She glues anything that she gets.

Paper flowers we made with paper and pipe cleaners.  Lyla loves the cartoon Caillou and on one episode he and his mom made these, so guess what we had to do too?

President's hat she made at preschool.  She told me she was President Obama.  I've never seen him wear this particular hat, but maybe he does.

Sock flowers made from mismatched or too small socks.  She loves to watch Noodle and Doodle, which is where this craft idea came from.  

Mommy & daughter easter crafts.  We used almost an entire bag of cotton balls.  If we make this again, I will use little plates.  Lesson learned.

Not really a craft, but her teacher sent me this picture of them doing a number matching game the week of Easter.  

 Her teacher sent me this one too.  They did "under the table coloring" the week they learned the letter U. 

Her nana sent her this Easter cross.  All the colors are foam stickers and you had to match them up and stick them on the cross.  I was making breakfast and she wanted to do this.  I told her "after breakfast" but she said she could do it all by herself.  She was right, she did do it all by herself.  She is so smart.  

Lyla does such wonderful crafts everyday at home and at school and I wish I could keep every single one of them but there is not enough room.  She loves to cut, glue, color, paint and do stickers.  I can't tell you how many glue sticks she has gone through.  I just love to see what she will come up with next.

Getting into the swim of things!

We started ISR swim lessons last week from Ms. Trisha.  Lyla took these lessons last year when she was three and I wished I had started her sooner, when she was one.  She loved it last year, so this year I put Caroline in at 16 months old for the first time and Lyla did two weeks of refresher lessons.  The first week Caroline screamed through her lessons so I didn't take many pictures.  However, this week was a totally different story.  She now loves Ms. Trisha, is enjoying the water, and swimming like the cutest little fish.  She loves swimming to the steps and standing up, but doesn't enjoy swimming to the wall very much.  

 Here is Lyla getting ready for her lesson.  She and Trisha are great friends.  

We call this Lyla's starfish float.  The idea is that they swim towards the edge of the pool, and when they need a breath, the turn over and float, then continue swimming to the edge.  

Muffins with Mom

This morning, Lyla's preschool class invited the mom's to join them for "Muffins with Mom."  I was so excited about this morning and got a sitter for Caroline so I could focus on Lyla.  I knew she had worked so hard getting ready for that day, and wanted to devote those 30 minutes just to her.  The first thing they did was run into the hallway saying, "Mom, mom!" and she grabbed my hand and led me in to my chair and she pulled my chair out for me to sit in.  It was so precious.  Then we sat and looked at the beautiful thoughtful gifts she had made for me.  Below she is holding the potholder with her name and handprint on it.  I don't think I'll use this because I don't want a lasagna stain on that precious handprint.  

The other gifts were a vase with foam flowers and one flower has her Fall picture on it.  Then I got a Mother's Day prayer card with her Spring picture on it.  

Then the kids sat on the carpet and sang the cutest little song about Mom's.  

After the song, Ms. Mary Kay read the fill in the blanks the kids helped with.  Lyla's answers were pretty funny.  

Then they came back to the tables for some hugs and breakfast.  It was such a fun morning.  I appreciate her teachers helping her with all of this.  It means so much to me.  

Tea Time!

Look at this cutie that I got to have tea with.  Some of my mommy friends and I got sitters for our babies, and took our big girls out for tea.  We went to the this little tea place at the Beach.  It was so cute, and luckily we had our own little private room, because the girls weren't quiet or perfectly behaved, but overall we had a good time with our little sweeties.  One of the mommies brought these cute tea hats and a butterfly craft for the girls.  Then the lady at the tea place brought them cute little scarves.  It was truly a traditional tea.  

This is such a sweet picture of Lyla

Me and my sweet girl

The girls decorating their butterflies

Here's the whole crew.  These are my best friends in Jacksonville and I don't know what I would do without them.  They are great friends and wonderful mothers, and not to mention some of the strongest people I know.  They are also my workout and running buddies.  We run races, do pull ups, push ups, and so many other fun things together.  Our husbands think we are a crazy bunch of women but we actually enjoy running together at 5:30AM on a Saturday morning.  Our girls are also BFF's and love each other so much.

Dress Up Time

Caroline absolutely loves to play dress up.  She is always bringing shoes to us to put on her feet, usually shoes that aren't hers.  She loves wearing Lyla's shoes and stomps around in them and brings them to me to put back on over and over.  Here she is in Lyla's Dora ballet slippers and a red bandana she put on herself.  

A good fireman never forgets her lovey.  Whenever the lovey is in her hands, her thumb is in her mouth.  

Lyla squeezed into her ladybug costume that she wore Halloween 2009 when she was 16 months old.  What a fun afternoon!

Teacher Appreciation Week at Preschool

Lyla goes to preschool at our Church and it is such a wonderful preschool.  So wonderful that during Teacher Appreciation Week they have a theme and everyday the teachers and kids dress up.  They had a Time Machine theme this year.  I have to admit, this week is not very easy for me because I'm not crafty and I do the bare minimum to make Lyla look somewhat like that day's theme.  As I watched some of the kids walk in with their hand sewn costumes, I felt pretty bad, but whatever, Lyla had a great time helping me make her costumes and choose the accessories.  

Monday they turned back time to the 50's.  Lyla has no saddle shoes or poodle skirt, so I cut out a poodle shape and she glued cotton balls to it and used clothing tape to stick it to her skirt.  I figured even if it didn't look great, she would be excited because she helped make it.  Then I put her hair into a high ponytail with a pink ribbon.  I thought she looked pretty cute.  I forgot to take a picture before we left the house, but here she is in her carseat.  At least you can see her ponytail.  It was a cooler day which is why she's wearing the leggings.  

 Wednesday they dressed up as their favorite fairy tale character.  Lyla loves Dora and has a Dora dress that she decided to wear.  It was cold this day and she also chose the clothes to wear under it.  She looks so sweet in this picture.  By the time we got to preschool she was ready to take the "scratchy" dress off so I have no idea if she even wore it for five minutes at school.  

 Friday was ancient Greece day.  At 10:30 that night, I realized I had to find something to fashion into a toga.  Sheet?...too big, crib sheet?...too small, pillowcase?...didn't really want to cut it, my big pink scarf?...perfect!  I wrapped around her waste and over her shoulder and I pinned it and tied it with yet another pink ribbon.  She had this cute headband with pink and green flowers on top which completed the look.  I thought this was the best one yet.  

Yay!  I survived more costumes.  I feel like we've been dressing up a lot lately!  I know they have so much fun with this at her school, so I do try my best to help Lyla participate.

Five Feet of Fury

When you are in the Navy, there are plenty of opportunities to dress up and act silly.  I guess that's how we stay sane with everything that we deal with being a Navy family.  This Spring we had our annual Flight Suit Formal.  Don't let the name fool you, there is nothing formal about this event.  This was the third one I've been to, I think.  The way it works is each helicopter squadron decides on a theme and incorporates the flight suit into your costume, or at least the guys do and some of the women.  This year HSL-48's theme was ROLLER DERBY.  This turned out to be such a fun theme.  Some people in the squadron chose to wear roller  skates, but we weren't that brave, nor do we own any of our own.  If you look closely you will see that Tommy made is work boots to look like roller skates.  Our squadron colors are yellow and green and our mascot (not sure that's what you call it) is a viper.  Yes, they actually have a snake in this huge aquarium at their squadron. It's a good thing Tommy is the one in the Navy, because I would not be able to work near that thing.  I think its name is skirt, but I'll have to verify that.  Anyways, I've gotten off track.  So, each squadron gets to make an "entrance" and they give out awards such as best theme, best centerpieces (we decorate the tables), best dance, best entrance, etc.  We also got to come up with our own roller derby name which I loved.  Mine was "5 feet of fury" and I think it was appropriate.  My number was 60 in.  Tommy was Autorot8.  I think I got that right, its a helicopter thing.  Some other themes were 80's hair band, pilots from the future (man I wish I had a picture of them), LMFAO (the band that sings Party Rock), and Angry Birds.  Those are the ones I remember.  

 Trying to show my muscles.