tawbubby

To her Mama.

Ding ding ding ding ding!  (One of Daphne’s favorite songs)

These are lucky girls, and pushing them in Grampy’s heavy wheel barrow is very good exercise.

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.

Not sure how many italian ices, snow cones, and popcorns Daphne ate.   She was pretty pleased with herself half way through the afternoon last Saturday at our blockparty.  One neighbor rented a snow cone machine, had three big buckets of italian ice from his brother-in-law’s shop, and a popcorn dispenser.  Crazy junky goodness for all!!

Allison handed me Daphne when I was sitting on a rock on the Bullpasture and said, “She might fall asleep on you.”

I tried to hold her still, but I was pretty tired, too. And there was a flat rock a few feet away, just inches above the water.

So we both took a nap. Allison took this picture. I was half-awake when Allison took this, but I fell fully asleep a few minutes later:

Woke up with sleeping Daphne on my chest and a mountain river burbling a foot from my ears. I thought, this must be what heaven is like.

Daph hasn’t worn a diaper in about 10 days!!  She’s doing great, staying dry all night long.  We are very excited.

Sometimes she takes her dolls with her and helps them go potty.

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.

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.

Daphne’s classmate had a Mad Science birthday party yesterday.  It was awesome!!  The Mad Scientist host did a water trick, which ended up with green water ‘disappearing’ into the powder that is in diapers.  It can absorb 500X its weight in water.  He let all the kids touch it.

This may be the best  picture I ever took of one of my kids (and she was kind of hyper from three nebulizer treatments and a good nap).  They learned about chemical vs. physical changes in matter.  Daphne was really amazed at a some paper he would light on fire and toss in the air.  Poof!  It disappears.

And she laughed  at an air vortex he poofed at each kid (like your airzooka, Dave).

They made slime to take home.

And she got a pair of rainbow glasses.

It was a pretty cool party.  They are good about getting 3-4 year old kids to think about big ideas using simple analogies.  They learned about different kinds of molecules (“molecules are like building blocks!”).  For solid molecules the kids had a group hug, sticking together.  For water molecules the kids jumped around near each other.  For gas molecules the kids had to separate themselves as far apart as possible.

There was some fun with a blacklight towards the end.  It’s funny how mesmerized little kids (and their parents) are by turning the lights on and off over and over again.