Chesterbrook Circus

Today, Emma's class at Chesterbrook put on a Circus. Emma has been talking about it for weeks - her horse obsession continues - and she signed up to be a horse at the circus. Oh, and Ms. Lindsay also asked her to be the Ringmaster, which entailed saying at the beginning, "Welcome to our circus!" We practiced and practiced days before, and Emma was jubilant about her role. But Arturo and I, both introverts, were skeptical. True to form, when the time came, Emma was silent, and stood by while Ms. Lindsay said the welcome. Oh well! She had tons of fun galloping around as a horse!

Emma, the "Ringmaster:"

Bubble Wrap Fun

It's been like Christmas at our house. Many of the toys that had been packed away for storage while Old Quincy was on the market are now out, and the girls are having a blast "rediscovering" them all. But the best of all, was today, when we laid out a huge piece of bubble wrap in the family room. The piece is about 5X7 feet across and the girls (and me and Arturo!) like to run on it and jump on it to hear the popping noises of the air bubbles.

New Tree house

We have been in the house for less than 3 days, but the girls have spent most of their time outside. Their are lots of kids their age in the neighborhood (yay!) and they especially love their new treehouse. This is a huge relief, since they were really sad to leave the old one behind...

Move Day!

Our last dinner, the night before the move:

Bye Old Quincy! The girls were amazed to see the movers hauling away all our stuff into the big truck...

But equally excited to see everything in their new house!

The young and the old

Arturo recruited everyone to help out with the new house. We closed last Friday and move in this Friday. During this time, we've had the carpets replaced and Arturo changed all the door knobs and switch plates. (They were a tacky gold; now they are a polished brass) The girls also got their rooms painted with their color of choice: pink.

Emma actually did help out with removing switch plates. She probably removed 5-6 altogether! And my dad was a great help - here he is painting the trim of Emma's room.

Playing with Gong Gong

Imaginations

With all their toys packed up, we've had to pretty creative in playing these days. Here are the girls in their house/car:

Packing Up!

We spent last weekend getting ready for the move. The girls helped us (sort of ) but were more intent on helping us color the boxes once they were packed.

Cute

All packed up!

Ginny came over to visit us today, and looking at this picture taken a few weeks back made me remember a conversation she had with the girls this afternoon:

Ginny (in fake horror): Girls, where are all your toys??!!
Emma (matter of factly): They're all packed up!
Ginny (more horror): So then what do you do around here?
Emma (after some thought): We read books

This is, actually, true - but not as bad as it sounds. About 75% of their toys are in various boxes right now, and since we have to keep the house show ready, we only allow books in the family room now. Since we have been going to the library so often, they are getting new books to read every week or so. ** (see note below for slight digression)

I captured this picture on a weekend a few weeks back when I found the girls totally immersed in "Quiet time" and reading/playing quietly. The silence was golden, but so was their focus and absorption in their activity.

** A few weeks ago, the theme of our week was Hearts/Valentine's Day. (Don't ask, yes - I have "themes" each week for which I organize afternoon activities with the kids.) So one afternoon that week, I checked out a book from the libary called "The Human Body" from the library hoping to teach the kids about the human heart. It was in the kid's section -- one of those DK brand books that contain lots of real pictures, but was more like an encyclopedia -- and more appropriate for teenagers than preschoolers. The book is actually a little gory/creepy - besides a human heart, it contains big colorful pictures of skeletons and mummies, etc... The first time I showed the book to the girls, I tried to go right to the page where they explained the heart, but Emma, true to her nature was transfixed with all the other pages detailing the human body. Since that day, she reads the book almost every day, and asks Arturo questions about veins, and various other body parts. FYI, she has also been equally inquisitive about my surgery, asking me over and over again how the doctor "cut me open" and "sewed me back together again..." She is really amazed by it all.