How to spend a rainy Saturday

It was gray and cloudy this morning and then around noon the skies opened up. What is a family of five to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon?

For starters, we dropped Kennedy at Grandma's and took Resli and Lela to see The Lorax (thanks in large part to a generous birthday gift card from Uncle Adam and Aunt Amy). The girls were, needless to say, pretty excited about it.

Resli recited lines from the book the whole time. 

After that, and a brief respite at home, we ventured out during a lull in the weather and headed to Tasty Buddha, our favorite restaurant. 

Kennedy particularly enjoyed a new treat she got in her school Easter basket yesterday, called a Mum Mum. I'd never heard of them but this sure was a big hit.

And it kept her happy and occupied while the rest of us ate, and thus it is even more wonderful!

Then it started pouring again. Oh, I forgot to mention we were eating on the porch of the restaurant, because it's not very often you get a pleasant low 70s degree evening in Florida. 

But the rain got so intense that the roof started leaking on our table!

Resli and Lela couldn't decide if that was hysterical or horrifying.

And then we all got soaking wet on the way home. But not too wet to stay outside and play in the puddles a little before heading in for a bath and bedtime.

How was your Saturday?

New spring dos

We took Lela and Resli for some long overdue hair cuts over the weekend. 

Lela's hair is tricky because of the curls, but she got a few inches cut off the bottom to make it more manageable, and we're still working on growing the bang part out so that it goes down rather than up.

And Resli, even though she wants to grow it long, allowed for a bob-like cut which is just wonderful with her hair. And perfect for springtime.

(Rebecca did not get her hair cut.)

Standing!

Now that she's mastered sitting and crawling, Kennedy is on to new and bigger things. Like pulling herself up to standing (al by herself!). I had her sitting in a file box to play the other morning and turned away for one second, only to discover that she had stood right up.

And was clearly very proud of herself for doing so!

Cruising can only be a few short weeks away, I imagine.

Yum yum!

Kennedy is really getting good at this whole eating thing. And her sisters enjoy helping her eat too.

I think Lela missed her mouth on that one...

One of Kennedy's favorite foods is her breakfast Yo Baby yogurt. 

Judge for yourself how excited it makes her:

3/4 of a year

How time flies! 

Kennedy is already 9 months old.

Really, it's true!

This calls for some celebrating!

Girl scouts at the park

Resli's girl scout troop met at Roper Park yesterday evening, so we got there a little early and had a picnic dinner. Resli and Lela played more than they ate.

But not Kennedy, she enjoyed her food!

By the way, I know you haven't seen it, but Kennedy has a tooth! You can sort of see it here - it's on the bottom, just left of center (you'll have to zoom in a little):

Resli's troop was making tie-dye shirts for their next camping trip, so it was a good thing we were outside.

Resli made hers blue and pink and purple.

I thought this looked really neat, all lined up and drying... 

Kennedy and Lela enjoyed the playground while all that was going on.

Although I'm sad that we don't really get winters here, yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, and it was perfect weather for our outing.

A message for Daddy

Daddy is away at a conference, so we're sending him this message.

(You thought we only had three daughters, didn't you!??! This little girl was at the park and took a liking to Resli and Lela. Turns out - since you can't hear it in the video - her Daddy is away too, so she wanted in on the video action as well.)

Resli Ward, star student

Resli's teacher does a wonderful thing each week called "Star Student." A student is chosen at random to be the star and all week long there are special activities. This week, after months of waiting and hoping, Resli was chosen!

One of the first things they do is make a poster all about themselves to bring in on Monday and hang up in the classroom. This is Resli's. I helped with the glitter glue and the scissors (two things we do NOT want Resli in possession of!), but she did the rest:

Then on Tuesday they get to share up to three special things with the class. Resli chose to share...

Lela and Kennedy! So we all took a walk down to school and the class got to ask Resli lots of questions about her sisters. 

On Wednesday and Thursday the class asked Resli questions about herself and used that information to write about her. Not sure of the details, but I know Resli made an acrostic poem of her name yesterday, so perhaps that was part of it too. 

On Friday Resli gets to choose the next star student. 

She has thoroughly enjoyed being the star of her class (because, you know, she never gets any attention otherwise!), and I am impressed with her teacher and her whole class!

Tea for two (or more!)

For Christmas Uncle Adam and Aunt Amy got Lela a great tea set, that needed its own decorating and painting. She has asked me almost every day if we could paint it, and today I finally made it happen. 

They had a blast being creative and messy.

The stuff is now drying and will be baked this afternoon. And then we'll invite you all to a lovely tea party!

Young grasshopper

Resli started karate classes a couple weeks ago. She earned her white belt by trying hard, and so far is really enjoying it. 

She's proud of herself for what she's learning, and I like the fact that they emphasize discipline and respect in addition to fitness and self confidence. 

And always aiming high.

Kennedy's on the move!

Kennedy, in an effort to keep up with her very active older sisters, has begun to crawl. 

She started slow, 

but even since taking this video a few days ago she's gotten faster and more coordinated. 

Back to baby proofing!

Road trip!

Remember when you were in college and you used to take the most awesome road trips with your roommates? 

This was nothing like that!

I had a conference to go to last weekend in Columbia, S.C. You may recall that Ashlyn and Maleah, friends of this blog, live there, as do their parents, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to get our two families together again. The trip up only took about 7 hours, which isn't bad considering normal people do it in about 5. Upon arrival at the hotel, we discovered that the phones didn't work and they were so apologetic they gave us two adjoining rooms, which worked out so much better than all cramping into one small one.

Kennedy definitely enjoyed the bed. (And not, I'll point out, her pack and play, as planned.)

While I was out doing conferency things, Harvey took the girls on wonderful adventures. One day they went to the most amazing children's museum called EdVenture. (But forgot the camera.) That night we met up with the Lomicka-Anderson clan and had a wonderful dinner, albeit sans camera. 

The next day Harvey took everyone to the zoo, thanks to passes from Lara (although her family got sick and they couldn't join the fun). It was, from what I hear, a great zoo. 

They had statues to climb on

and of course real animals too. They took the turtle pictures for me.

And there was a merry-go-round as well!

Although Harvey and I go a little stir crazy being cooped in a hotel room, Resli and Lela (and by force, Kennedy) really enjoyed just hanging out and being silly. 

In retrospect, everyone did really well on the trip. It was tiring and a whole different experience than what I used to call a road trip, but it is also nice to have these family vacations.

8 months!

Kennedy turned 8 months old on the day we began our road trip up to South Carolina. So her 8-month picture this time around is an action shot. 

Happy 2/3 of a year, little K!

The trials and tribulations of curly hair

Lela hates her hair. She hates brushing it, she hates that everyone talks about how wonderful her curls are, and she hates that it's not straight and blonde like she wants it. (Which just breaks my heart because her hair is absolutely amazing!)
But in spite of that, and in spite of the endless arguments that seem to ensue from some hair-related incident, she has her moments in which she appreciates it. These often involve a minimum of two accessories, and often more.

For example, in the above photo we have: headband, feather clip, pony tail holder, pony tail ribbon.
What would we do with boys in this house!?!

Polka Dots and Prunes

A winning combination!