My Beautiful Annie in the Sunroom at Mountain Sun Open House

Note her "bunny bauble" in her hair (that she's very proud of) and the rays of the sun in the background, one of which she created. : ) Also featured: Annie's teacher, Shana and an old favorite: the workbench.

Annie Rediscovers Photos

My Girls Among the Phlox

My Little Springtime Annie

Annie's Idea: Bunny Family, Seed Ears!

"I Wanna Be a Florist & a Karate Girl"

Annie's first dandelion bouquet of the year that she arranged herself! And after watching Kung Fu Panda, Annie insists that, "I wanna be a florist and a karate girl" when she grows up.

Our Yoshino Cherry Tree

Annie's Bunny Evolution

Meet the bunny family with a black bunny, a white bunny, and a brown bunny. First it was bunnies with a Mamma-drawn smile. Next it was bunnies with a straight and stoic Annie-drawn line for a mouth. Now it is one line down from the nose, but no mouth. Later it will be only eyes and a nose "because it's cute"! : )

Leia has Two Teeth Pulled

Today was Leia's very first orthodontist appointment. The positive thing about having your dentist and orthodontist in the same office is if one needs something done, you can send the kid right down the hall. That's what happened today. The orthodontist was very concerned that both Leia's upper and lower teeth were being shifted to the left due to overcrowding. (Recently Leia had been complaining that her right canine was "tingling," a sure sign it was moving. Sure enough, the new tooth was trying to come in behind it.) She had two pulled and did just wonderfully! She chose vanilla flavored nitrous gas, ... and loved it. : ) No tears or screams from this kid. : )

Planting Roses

Brown Car, Dirt Road: Annie's Bunny Canvas

Bun's Birthday Party

Leia's First Downtown Art Show: "Wind"

Leia at Tom Sawyer w/ Carla & Quinten

Annie's Rainbow Heart Nut for Mamma

Annie's Dino Creation on the Well

Games w/Grandma & Towers w/Grandpa

"Leia's Maching Gaim"

Otherwise known as "Leia's Matching Game" and evidence that Leia has neither given up fun, self-created projects nor phonetical spelling.

Mulch Mountain Courtesy of Duke Power

And now we won't have to buy mulch or pine straw (or kindling, for that matter) for YEARS!!!

Issues 2011: Hair & Art & Rocks

HAIR:
I find it ironic that all of this started with Leia and Morgan watching Tangled, a movie about HAIR. Ha! It was only a few days later when Leia leaned over and cut a chunk of Morgan's hair off without her knowledge. Scissors taken away until Christmas. "I'm Sorry" cookies baked. http://leiaandannie.blogspot.com/2010/12/leias-big-mistake.html End of story? I thought so. Until THIS today. I looked at Leia at dinner and tilted my head sideways, wondering how I could have botched cutting her bangs this badly. Until I realized, ... it wasn't me. I asked Leia, "Honey, did you cut your bangs today?" Guilty face. Puppy dog eyes. "Yes." I couldn't believe this. Leia's hair was shellaked with ballet gel for the next two weeks, until it was long enough to cut tiny, short bangs with what was left. THEN, Annie just randomly walks into my bedroom, finds the actual hair-cutting scissors and cuts her own hair because it was "in her ears." Punishment for both: no scissors until after Easter. For the next infraction: a true spanking. (And we don't even BELIEVE in spanking!) Ah, supposedly the only children who do this have moms who cut their. Hmmm. True in this case.
ART:
Okay, now I'll admit that this issue is only with Annie, but she is having a real problem vandalizing both walls and furniture. First it was her sister's wall. She literally drew a bunny on Leia's wall! Here she is cleaning it up. THEN she drew with marker on our new couch!!! Thank GOD it was washable markers!

ROCKS:
Okay, no picture for this one, ... but when we were going on one of our first family bike outings with the new car, Leia Rose was sitting on the ground waiting for us to load the bikes and THREW A ROCK AT THE CAR, DENTED IT, AND TOOK THE PAINT OFF TO THE METAL!!! We couldn't even believe it! Just like the hair thing, ... it was just as stupid mistake. But the punishment for this one was watching Annie eat the promised ice cream, ... and using all of her tooth fairy money to pay for the touch-up paint. We're not even ready to admit that this could happen again. You should have seen how upset Daddy got!