tawbubby

Kinda makes me feel like we’re doing an o.k. job here.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m so happy to have a family like you.

Daphne turned 4 this past weekend.  She had a party at a gymnastics school the girls took a class at this past spring.

The birthday girl, warming up…

and stretching out.

She said the rings was her favorite activity.  Look at the concentration in her face!

Tah-dah! A great landing.

She is watching where she’s going.

And concentrating some more!

Here’s one for the Lyons and Martin-Lyons.  Jackson made it, even after a car break down.

Amelia didn’t mind hanging out with the 4 year olds, and showing them a trick or two.  I saw her practicing her tuck jumps (she’s preparing for one, below) at home the week before the party.

Great form!  This was her favorite part, too.

Amelia said that phrase tonight to me while we read “Comic and Curious Cats”, and abc book with all kinds of words for each letter.

Her Gifer grows great gourds!

And she told us this was wheat.  Sigh.  It’s always good to get the city kids into the garden.

Amelia drew this picture, based on a painting from Cheri.  Cheri gave us the painting last week, in honor of Grizzy.

(Sorry my pic doesn’t do the original Beatific justice)

Then I took her to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art on Sunday, with colored pencils and tablet in tow.  She chose to draw in the middle of the Tiffany exhibit, which was great for me because I got to absorb the beautiful glass.  Maybe this is stained glass?  I didn’t ask her what it was.

It was good we took colored pencils, because that is all you can draw with there.  We also had markers and a security guard told me she couldn’t use them.  She had to wait to copy the colors of the VMFA logo until we got home.  She really enjoyed the museum.  She especially liked that she recognized many of the works of art because of a weekly visit from a VMFA educator to her classroom this past spring.  A Degas ballerina and Triple Elvis might be her favorites.

She renamed Splotch #22 “Rainbow Mountain”, and enjoyed climbing to the second and third story overlooks to see which peak was the tallest.  Also a Chuck Close exhibit with faces made of all sorts of methods was cool.  She liked the spitbite technique (spit + paint), and a woman’s face that was woven but looked like a photo, the best.

This one cracked us up.  She drew a camouflaged red man, laying on a red couch.  “You have to look closely, mama”. (For reference, this is the funny picture that inspired Amelia).

More later.  But, to ‘tide’ you over, these pictures captured both girls’ personalities…

Daphne: Bring it on, and I’ll just laugh and love it.  (And Red.)

Amelia: Explaining all the details and terrain of the complicated map of an imaginary world (to outer space) she drew on the beach.

Just for unloading the silverware.

Amelia plays on the Rabbits team, with five of her classmates from preschool.  Amelia has figured out the game, and found some speed.  She is pretty good!  She is often the one kicking the ball down the field and she seems to score a few times a game!!  I can’t believe how fast she has become, and how she can dribble the ball now.  Saturday mornings are much more fun when you kid is also having fun.  She is having a blast this season.

Daphne plays on the Mustangs team, with nine of her classmates from preschool.  She always has a blast doing whatever she is doing.  She mostly loves playing with her friends.  She kicks the ball a couple of times per game, and runs around following the herd for the rest of the time she is on the field.  She has to sit through Amelia’s game, usually a break (sometimes as long as an hour), and then it is her turn.  Our Saturday mornings are long and she hangs in there.

This past Saturday was warm and beautiful.  We had pictures- can’t wait for sibling picture on a mock ESPN magazine cover.  We played at the playground for a while after both games, and then went home to eat ice cream. : )   Here’s Amelia climbing a wall with her ‘hollywood’ sunglasses.

My favorite part of this week was riding home on Thursday night.  They were arguing over who was going to get to feed Cadbury.  Amelia came up with the grand idea of “Hey, you can open the gate to let her out and I’ll put her food in her bowl!”.  Then, “Put your hand on mine, and let’s do the sister cheer!  Sisters on 3.  (then together) 1, 2, 3, Sisters!”.

Daphne helped me plant Daisies around our mailbox, and do a bunch of other yard things.  We were both filthy from the dirt and soaked from the squirting hose.

Amelia read a book called “Little Bear” tonight.   I anticipated “Viking” would be the hard word in this sentence: “Then I wish that I could find a Viking boat,” said Little Bear.  She asked me about ‘find’, instead.  She must be a Johnson.

Amelia has been sitting down with books for a little while now. Mostly her Disney princess stories.  We knew she was looking at them, but weren’t really sure if she was reading.  Then there was Barbie and the Diamond Castle.  She read that twice to me, when I wouldn’t read it to her (worst book ever).  She started picking up their Book Day books (Wednesdays) and reading them to Daphne on our way to school.  I got her an Ivy + Bean book last week and she took off.  They are kids chapter books about two girls who have a lot of fun getting into trouble.  Go figure.

She is a good influence on Daphne.  If you look closely you will see Daph peeking over the top of her book.  : )

We went to the library on Monday to get a new Ivy + Bean book, after she finished the first last weekend.  She looked it up herself in the catalog.

They only had Ivy + Bean number 5.  She finished it this morning.

She put a hold request on Ivy + Bean #2, and it came in yesterday.  She and Ethan went to pick it up.  Here she is finding her name on a hold paper.  Ethan said she read 14 pages before they got to the grocery store.

And she put in a request for #3 this morning…it is so neat to see that girl buried in a book.