1 little, 2 little, 3 little princesses

4 little, 5 little, 6 little princesses

7 little, 8 little, 9 little princesses

10 little princess girls!

cinderella, tinkerbell, thumbelina, aurora, belle and angelina ballerina were all present for the grand ball. liza was turning 3! and the big event called for a princess party.

a party it was! however being a true little diva, liza demanded that no mommies (aka paparazzi) were permitted to take pictures. especially of her. so many of us cameraholders tried to sneak in pics here and there, but she was as sharp as an owl. many times either getting in front of her friends with hands out to block the shot. eventually we broke her down and were able to get shots of all the princesses for a group photo.

allison the ballerina princess was on her best behavior practicing her social graces and most polite southern manners.

i see the future flash before my eyes. allison was so excited about the ring favors and too excited about the white tulle draping from the tent. slow down little one. your day will come. allison loves, now i mean LOVES!, her princess dresses. and who knew there would be different classes of princess dresses:

first you have your mommy's princess dress. the one you only see in pictures, have heard about it in the box and been told it's yours one day if you really want it. oh, i can't wait to find that box!

then there is the little white monogrammed eyelet dress. this one fits you, but you can only wear it to church or special occasions. so of course you want to wear it every sunday and wednesday or any day there is mention of going to church.

next is the pretend princess dress. that is the nappy white, favorite blanket that you pretend to wrap around you before bedtime, after bathtime, first thing in the morning, anytime of day. it's the softest most comfiest dress of all.

then all the pink, polka dot and flower dresses apply. the fluffier and longer the more deserving of princess attire. it's all about the twirl factor. twirl on allison. do your thing.

unwinding

the kids came back from bobo's house this weekend. they had such a good time, they won't stop talking about all the fun things they did to everybody. so cute.

it was one of the first weekends in a long time that no one had anything they HAD to do. no festivals, no fundraisers, no t-ball, nada. we got to do whatever we wanted, when we wanted. wonderful change of pace.

so on sunday afternoon, with the wind at our backs and fronts and sides, we pulled out the kite and let her roll. i'm telling you, if you ever need to de-stress, unwind and relax, get yourself a kite and two little kids to go with it. we held good belly laughs at davis's motor sounds while taking his turn maneuvering the kite, his devilish giggle after crashing the kite to the ground (sometimes on purpose), and allison's understated pleasure at successfully flying the kite...."oh, its a bird." and we found amazement at how allison could so easily learn how to control something as big as she was and 100 feet higher.

i believe zach and i might have possible enjoyed the kite more than the kids did. while they seemed more interested in the playground, we took turns seeing who could get the kite up with all the line out first.

(there's the grin.)

eggheads

our little eggheads. they do quirky things sometimes. well, more like most of the time. davis and allison have this little ritual they do after every bath or shower. they bundle up with towels wrapped over their heads and around their bodies and run to the bedroom. where they proceed to call out for us to come find them. walk in their room and you will see this:

what is it, you ask?

well. they are pretending to be eggs. and after a short minute, they will break out of their eggs and run around naked and giggling. sometimes they are dinosaur eggs, sometimes they are chicken eggs. but lately amidst all the easter eggs, i remembered these photos and then remembered how i needed to post something!

here is allison pulling her puppy into her egg.

hear ye, hear ye!

lucky you! a video for st. patty's day :) lucky us! we get to spend everyday with this precious girl.

a girl who LOVES her princess dresses. i recently bought several dresses at a consignment sale in dunwoody. (awesome clothes. great prices.) well actually, it was closer to a dozen dresses. and allison had to try on every single one of them when we got home. the next morning she woke up and ran to the closet with each of her new dresses hanging on the outside of the doors, stretched her arms out WIDE, and said...."look at ALLLLLL my new princess dresses!" priceless. she wants to wear them all the time. problem is: she wants to put them on and THEN go play outside in the mud and puddles.

davis and allison are so much fun these days. we really never know what they will come up with and say. constantly tickling our funny bones. just last night on the way home, i turned toward the backseat and asked the kids if they were tired. davis had a different one word answer for me. "eat."

warning: this video is rated g for may contain some gross content.

favorite stuff

allison is definitely in the terrible twos. she seems to be at odds against zach 80% of the time and wants me to carry her 99% of the time. even if its just two feet - from the bathroom to her bedroom. always a whiny, crying, yelling of commands. it gets so old quickly, and its hard not to lose your cool with her.

But! There is the other 20% of the time when she is the sweetest, most polite person in our household. She knows her manners. And she knows that to get what she wants, all she has to do is use those manners on her parents. "Mommy, please can I please have some more marshmallows, please?" or just tonight at the dinner table it was, "Daddy, please can we please have some ice cream please?" And this was after I offered her some rice with vegetables and she replied, "no thanks! no thank you." in the sweetest sing-songy voice.

so there she sits, the last one at the dinner table, spooning her (what is now) ice cream soup....and she blurts out casually, "ice cream is my favorite stuff."

supercheese!

davis is super-excited about the possibility of going to school in the fall. i just hope the office of school readiness has sympathy on us and believes he needs to go too. what i want to know is how do they determine who needs the program or not? is for the gifted, exceptional children? is it for children who may be behind their age group?

of course, i will tell you my davis is beyond exceptional and extremely gifted! duh. but, do i worry he may behind other kids who will be in his same class because his summer birthday will make him one of the youngest in the class compared to their fall birthdays? you bet. not to mention that he's a lefty. most lefties do not have the most legible penmanship. zach's handwriting leaves room for improvement at times. does this wave a red-flag in my ever-loving infatuation with perfect script and handwriting analysis? does this freak out the mom who used to make rough draft lists for her lists? do i worry because davis tells me he can't color, doesn't know how, doesn't like to color, and his younger sister can color in between the lines but he doesn't care to take the time to try? can this really be MY child? yes, yes and yes. omg! maybe we need a little, family history lesson. i do have hope!!! this is the child who chose to color himself instead of the paper, walls and carpet with sharpie marker! oh, the light at the end of the tunnel of colorless questions!

then there is allison. according to our current school requirements, she will be two years behind davis in school because she wasn't born four days earlier. are you kidding me? had i know this the weekend before she was born, i would have never left the hospital when they said i was have false contractions. fifteen months apart and they will be twenty-four months apart academically. had davis been born in may and allison in august, then they would be one year behind the other. but no, no, no. no! this is not right in my world. (no room for your comments here, thank you.) this is like taking twins and putting them in separate grades. this is like taking candy from a baby. this is like we are the world without michael jackson and dionne warwick. this is like chick-fil-a without the chicken sandwich. this is like, i don't know.... ALL WRONG.

well. complaining about it isn't going to get me very far. but it sure does feel good to blow it out. now my overdramatic rant has me craving some dramatic soundtrack music. thank you ewan! so davis, if you're reading this one day: "you are a superstar in my book. and i am thrilled that you are so excited about going to school as soon as you can, a lover of books, born rockstar, tenderheart carebear, and 3 year old olympian hopeful... you go, bud!"

-supercheese! was taken at bobo's house on superbowl night-

-omg! - oh my gosh!/oh my goodness!/oh my god in our non-texting readers.-

trogdonese 101

bill cosby had it right from the beginning. kids say the darndest things. everyday is a new saying, word, meaning or excuse under our roof. i have been meaning to add their vernacular and translations to the website for a while. but our lunch today outside reminded me to do it soon or i will forget all the silly sayings.

allison dropped her plate off the picnic table and her lunch fell

partly on the deck and partly off the deck. when i came out and asked, "what happened to allison's grapes?" allison answered, "um, nothing?" translation: i don't know. davis answered, "it was magic." translation: i know what happened, but i'm not gonna tell and risk getting in trouble.

allison singing songs from annie:

it's a not hard life for us.

tomorrow! tomorrow! bet your dolly's bottom. tomorrow!

allison singing baa baa black sheep:

baa baa black sheep

have you any wool

yes sir, yes sir three bags four.

one for the master, one for the day......

(skip to) baa baa black sheep have you any wool?

yes sir, yes sir three bags four.

allison's answer to most questions: "uh, nothing." "uh, nowhere." "um, no one."

translation: i don't know.

driving in the car passing pasture or lawns recently fertilized with manure.

davis: " i think darby took a steamy dump."

and as of ten seconds ago, davis asks me to "hey, leave." the room before he gets in bed for his nap. i told him i would shut the door as soon as he climbed in bed. he slowly lifts his arm to reveal the noisiest toy in the house, his "grill" (drill), that he is trying to sneak into bed with him during our designated quiet time. nice.

my all-time personal favorite?

allison adding "ie" at the end of everything - i.e. milkie, soapie, cupie, juicie.......here it is.......zachie

makes us giggle every single time.

the pictures added today are from many yesterdays ago. more like yesteryear. these were taken the day we went to ride the train in charlotte to see santa. the train was a hit. santa was not. as soon as allison saw santa's grand display in the mall, she clings to her dad and immediately insists that it's time to go home. now! on the other hand, davis would only walk up to santa holding my hand and whisper to him his christmas list from 3 feet away. however, running up and down the train station stairs and dancing on the platform were the kids' highlights of the day.

oh beautiful for spacious skies

and warm afternoons outside!

everyone is a little sun-kissed today after spending the day hiking with the martins: stella, jasmine, christie and mathew. davis and allison jumped out of bed this morning asking, "is it time to go hiking yet?", "where's stella & jasmine?" all the kids did great except allison who said she was dizzy and grumpy the whole walk. (the two words she substitutes for tired.) the only way I could get her to keep going was to say we could go back (to the parking lot and car) or keep hiking to go see the chickens. she went for the chickens. on the way back I offered to take her back to the farm with the chickens or we could walk back to car to go to jasmine & stella's house. she opted for jasmine & stella's house. although she did break me down on a couple of hills and get me to carry her.

davis, stella and darby could have all lapped us twice blazing the trail ahead of us and back and forth again. stella taught us not to put our fingers on the chicken wire, that chickens are always looking for food, and gloves do not beak-proof. no blood shed, just a few tears and frightened circles run around the coop. precious stella, we apologize for laughing at your expense.

however, i will not apologize for sharing this story:

back at the martin ranch, the kids were getting ready to eat dinner and claiming their seats at the kids' table (which has two purple chairs and two winnie-the-pooh chairs). davis and stella yell, "I Want To Sit In Poo....(h)!" each time we would tell them to take their seats.

davis and stella reflect on the simple life.

allison and davis touch up on the history of farming.

jasmine and allison hide in the sewing room.

four little wranglers

i heart mac

our newest little bundle is finally here! now only to learn how to use it.

an apple today is much different than yesterday........my first computer in elementary school was an apple iie. my my my how the times have changed. i remember the screen only had two colors to it - green and black. and my one and only game to play on it was the oregon trail. however, it was a cute little computer then too.

songs in my head

where o' where has my little blog gone?
o' where o' where could it be?

well, i'll tell ya - it's on its way to boiling springs in a Fed Ex truck. yippee! not the blog specifically, but our nice, new, tidy mac all-in-one-machine. oh the speed! oh the memory! oh the non-viral computer! oh the new printer and wireless everything! oh boy! oh boy! oh boy! christmas has come again. can you tell i'm just a little wee-bit excited?

i'm backed up on photos to share, and allison's been (literally) backed up. davis has grown up beyond description in the past months into a caring and doting big brother. quite the basketball player, now. and quite the thinker. he remembers that he specifically asked Santa for a black train for christmas instead of the train table he was given. he suggests that Santa made a mistake and will bring him the right, "black train from the magazine" next year. and allison can have his other train. so generous, right? i keep telling myself that instead of admitting the reality.

everyday is either valentine's day or someone's birthday according to allison. it just depends on which drawer she is going through and which gift she stumbles upon. then, it's a shout out "happy birthday mommy!" or "happy valentine's day darby!" too cute.

however i feel i need to shout, "happy new year to all you readers!"....those of you still out there..... can you believe we are already one sixth through 2010? makes me want to sing a new verse to the little diddy above: where o' where has the time & year gone?