Don't just take my word for it (Miss C, July 2016)

7-5-16: Charlotte is really improving at her handwriting! I am very excited for her! :-)

7-6-16: Charlotte had a lot of fun on the water slide this morning. She didn't want to get off the slide to come inside. She so funny!

7-11-16: Charlotte liked using a pink pail outside on the playground! She said she was pretending to "go on vacation to the beach!" Very smart and creative! :-)

7-12-16: Hula hoop hopping! Go Charlotte, go! :-) 

7-14-16: Charlotte loved using the special sprinkler we had outside during water day today, to fill up a divot in the ground with water, making a muddy puddle! We loved jumping into it when she had it all filled up! Hooray! :-)

7-19-16: Peepers, the giant turtle, was a hit! Charlotte wasn't afraid at all to touch his shell! :-)

7-22-16: Charlotte had her furry friend, Clifford helping her with art today! So funny! :-)

7-26-16: Charlotte was looking at the attendance sheet this morning and yelled " look that says Charlotte!!" She is so smart :)

7-27-16: Charlotte cracked me up during lunch today! When she saw she had broccoli, she immediately told me she doesn't like it. I tried to reassure her that broccoli helps us to be big and strong. After thinking about it a second or two, she said, "Well Ms. Liz...I already have big muscles, so I don't need that yucky broccoli. See here?" And with that, she made some muscles for me, and what a photo opp it was! LOL! :-)

7-29-16: My pretty princess decided to build her daddy a sun out of attribute blocks today. What a sweet girl you are, Charlotte! :-)

More cousin fun!

Have I mentioned we love the pool? We made a trip to Lexington to visit with my Mom's brothers and sisters, including our favorite Aunt Judy from Seattle, and had a ton of fun cooling off at the pool before heading to Gigi's to play and visit. We went to the neighborhood pool I went to growing up and it was fun to walk down memory lane ... and drive, because I made the girls humor me with a trip by my old house on the way : ) I loved that the kids could access the splash area during adult swim, because apparently sitting still at the pool is harder work than actually swimming : )

Cutest cousins award definitely goes to these three!

It's a good thing she's cute

"Charlotte, are you making Mommy dinner?"

"NO! I am NOT making you dinner!!"

Small victory here is that her double "Anna from Frozen" French braids held up all day while she was at school, so I've got that going for me : )

Friday Funny

I love the honesty ... because we all do it!

Newspaper soup

As Anna was looking over my shoulder while I clipped coupons* a few weeks ago, we came up with the idea of cutting out all the pictures of food and making "soup" when Charlotte was up from her nap. I'm pretty sure they've done this at school, but I prefer to take credit for the idea : ) The girls love anything involving glue and scissors and had a blast choosing their "ingredients"; it was a fun and easy craft project that used something going into the recycle bin anyway!

* No, I'm not a "couponer", but I do like to look through our hard copy Sunday paper and clip coupons for anything we will use in the near future

Threenager support group

As sweet as she may be, Charlotte has given this pregnant mama a total run for her money the last few months and has worn me down in ways I didn't even know were possible. I've had more breakdowns than I can count, have raised my voice about things I never thought I'd have to verbalize, and have felt like a parental failure many times over.

I had a breakdown over the weekend when I couldn't get my children to rest at my Mom's house. Afterall we'd had a "calm" morning that included: fighting to get them dressed in Cincinnati to drive to Lexington; getting yelled at because the TV screen in the car wasn't in the exactly correct position; being told I didn't pack the right kind of snacks; not wanting to put sunscreen on; cleaning up poop in a swim diaper after which my child refused to let me wipe up and instead squatted and scooted her bare, poopy bottom on the floor of a public pool restroom; packing the wrong hairbrush; not letting them play for long enough; not giving them 10000 chances to prove they could nap together (I gave up at 5) ... the list could go on and on.

Most days I'm honestly surprised no one has called CPS on me.

Then I read this: To the Lady at the Pool Who Spoke Up During One of My Lowest Parenting Moments

And it couldn't have come at a better time. I'm doing my best most days, but it's HARD. I'm a million months pregnant and physically and mentally exhausted all.of.the.time. But it takes a village and I'm thankful for mine. Thank you to my Mom and to Mike for reminding me at my lowest (and usually when I'm ugly crying) that you support me and see that I'm trying. Thank you for verbalizing what I need to hear instead of assuming I know; words mean a lot at times like this and I hope I can provide the same support to the next Mama I see struggling.

The name game

We've been pretty settled on a name for a while now, but always reserve the right to change up to the time we meet our babies, so I still find myself perusing our book of baby names from time to time. On this day, Miss C decided she needed to review as well; "here is is Mommy, Elsa Riley, that will be the baby's name!"

Charlottes name choices have included Charlotte, Anna, and now Elsa. Anna's choices have included Nala, Kiara, and now Riley. They go back and forth as to whether Elsa and Riley will be first name or middle : )

Friday funny

Word(less) Wednesday

Princess PJs, a tiara, necklace, wand, and (fuzzy) shoestring ... just a regular old Saturday morning with Charlotte!

Friday funny

Related: I really miss wine!