No more training wheels...

for Vivian! She's very excited.

Ice skating, tooth fairy visit

The girls just finished up several weeks of ice skating lessons...Sabine didn't want me to take her picutre on the ice, but here's Vivian:





And another couple of the second child with a special gift from the Tooth Fairy -- Vivian now has 5 teeth missing (and she turns 5 in early October). TF thought that was good reason for a specail gift of an Ugly Doll. Happy girl.

Steak on a stick

I think that's all we need to say.

Excitable girl

Vivian was given the right name for her...it means:

Full Of Life, Vibrant

Little movie star

Must remember to get the girls their own sunglasses...mine keep getting absconded with...

Little Pocohontas

We finally succumbed to Netflix...I had so many friends in Jackson who said they loved it, but I never wanted to deal with going to the PO Box just to get a movie. And there's this really cool looking independent movie rental place right around the corner from us...which I really DO want to support, but my girls...they just don't like leaving the house very much...soooo...here we are.

We watched Pocohontas (both one and two, if you must ask) and Vivian wanted me to make her a Pocohontas dress. Now, I can sew...but from scratch, I figured she'd be over it by the time I finished it...so we modified a dress that was in the dress-up box...cut off one sleeve, and sewed one shut. Fortunatley it already had a stretchy neck in place...She's pretty pleased with it.


She's also going through this phase (please, it must be a phase...) of drawing on her face...with pens, markers, whatever...


And here she is making...soup. What else could it be?

The world through Vivian's lens

toes


mama, Catalina


the wall


the tv and globe

Hair today...

...gone tomorrow! It was a good, long run with Vivian's voluminous hair...she let us brush/detangle it for a little over 3 years, and it was lovely...but for the past few months she hasn't wanted us to mess with it...and then there were the little episodes with scissors last week...so this morning she agreed to a mommy-haircut. I tried to tell her we could go to the beauty parlor, but no.

First she said she wanted it to look like her friend Acacia's hair (which is curly...) and then like her friend Kate's (who has really cute bangs, but I don't want to deal with regularly trimming bangs). So here we are.

It's not too crooked...and only a little shorter than I intended...and it grows, right? That's the water spray bottle I used to wet her hair - she and Sabine played with it for about an hour after the cutting was done.

Channel your inner headband

Vivian likes headbands...her way. I think we need to stop letting her read this.
(PS - thanks Granny Jean and Boopy for the dress from Turkey -- they fit and both girls love 'em.)

If you've been thinking of a visit...

Vivian's latest thing to say after guests leave is:

"You come here, you stay here. You don't come here, you don't stay here."

Hard to argue with that.

She first said it after Kat and Marley left. Marley, Sabine and Vivian invented "fun land" -- a game in which the king and full size mattresses get pulled onto the floor (well, part of the way) and much jumping ensues.

The photo above is of Vivian, Kate, and Sabine on a display bed at IKEA. We had a great visit with the Fredrick/Fleury clan -- the girls played pretty much non-stop for 7 days. Wahoo!

Viv turns three

Happy Birthday, little one!


The wooden blocks and animals from mommy, daddy, Sabine, Granny Jean and Boopy (Sabine helped me pick them all out)


Block madness!


And Barbie. She sings. Sabine got one too. This is what I got for her with her birthday check from her Great Aunt Jean and Great Uncle Dick. Sabine got one too. They sing together, actually...the girls LOVE them! So, therefore, do we. Wow. Barbie strikes again.

We had the good fortune to be invited to friend Astrid's belated 4th birthday party on Viv's actual birthday, and Astrid was so kind as to let Vivian have a few candles on her cake, and share in the birthday glory. Grandmother Joan is visiting from LA, fun to have family around for the celebration!

Buddies, and Viv's phone obsession

Here are a couple of shots of Vivian and best buddy Acacia on our last (or near to last) night in Jackson. Can't wait for her visit in Novmeber!



And Vivian on the cell phone (not really...but she does love calling everything small with buttons a phone...). This photo was from a few weeks ago, honest...just a few days after the movers were here...Just wanted to get in another photo of the under-represented second child.

Makeup fun

Maybe there is something scarier than a clown...

Our little "Braveheart"

See the resemblance? Face painting is fun.

Under-represented second child

Poor Vivian...she really gets the short end of the stick sometimes...but just so you know, we do take photos of her too!

Oudoor winter fun...

Sabine has her own style of skiing...Vivian had given up on her skis...

Vivian...not so sure about the igloo...

And just in case you haven't gotten enough of the igloo-cam...