Neighborhood Night Out

A church around the corner from us, Ellerbe United Methodist, was sponsoring a Neighborhood Night Out tonight. They had inflatables, tethered hot air balloon rides, and a fancy face painter. Leslie, always true to Hayden, chose to get a Spiderman painting. Lacie chose a pink tiger.

They really enjoyed the tethered balloon ride. On one of their favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy gets on a hot air balloon to go back to Kansas. Lacie and Leslie's GranNanny (my dad's mom) lives in Kansas, so when they got on, they shouted down, "Bye! We're off to Kansas!" We are planning to go see my family in Kansas later on in the year, but the girls will be disappointed to learn we will be travelling by car, not hot air balloon.

That's My Girl!

Today Leslie and Lacie's class studied apples. They colored Johnny Appleseed, ate different colored apples, and talked about apple things. Leslie told her teacher Ms. Edie that she knew a song about apples. When Ms. Edie asked to hear it, guess what Leslie sang? "She wears Applebottom Jeans and the boots with the fur (with the fur)!"

I love it!

Other Weekend Funnies

Noah's Ark was the story lesson at Sunday School today. When I asked the girls to retell me the story of Noah's Ark, Lacie said the reason God told Noah to put the "aminals" on the boat was because it was going to rain and he didn't want them to get wet.

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Also, last night we went to our friends, the Sumlins', house for the LSU game. There were about 4 other families there, with children ranging from 4 to 10 (all girls, and 1 boy). After the game was over (Go Tigers!), we were treated to a "show". All the girls took turns coming out in makeup and dressup clothes and singing and dancing to "High School Musical". Leslie, as usual, was the ham, and Lacie needed a little more coaxing to perform. Lacie is much shyer than her sister, and sometimes she just wants to be by herself. She spent most of the night playing with Maggie's "big girl toys" in Maggie's closet, while the other girls ran around playing and chasing each other. Each time I went to check on Lacie (worried that she was being left out), she was happily playing alone. I love how even though they look so much alike, my identical twins have two completely different personalities.

I'm the Real Boss

Last week, the girls were stalling at bedtime telling me about how they get lonely sleeping by themselves. They were looking for an invite into our bed, but I told them if they got lonely they could get in bed and sleep with each other. Well, tonight when the girls went to bed, apparently the nightlight next to Leslie's bed wasn't working. Lacie came and told us that she told Leslie she could sleep in her bed with her. Del didn't know the conversation I had with the girls earlier and told them they couldn't sleep together because they wouldn't go to sleep. I told him I told them earlier that they could, so we let them both get in Lacie's bed with a stern warning that if they didn't go to sleep, they would be separated.

I went to check on them about 10 minutes later, and they whispered, "Thank you, Mommy, for letting us sleep together. Daddy told us no." I said, "Well he didn't know that Mommy told you yes." Leslie said, "That's right. Because you're the real boss of us." Lacie: "Yeah, he's only a tiny little boss of us. You're the big boss!"

At last!!!!

Weekend Happenings

The girls have had a pretty eventful weekend. Yesterday, we went to my parents' house for a playdate with their neighbor. Dante's birthday party is today, and because we couldn't make the party, we went over yesterday to play and to bring Dante his present.

I think their friendship is so sweet because they are all so young and innocent. They don't see color; all they know is they like to play with each other. Normally when they play, Dante has a toy jeep, and they let him drive them around the circle... sometimes they drive him!

Today was a very big day for Leslie Marie Johnson.... she got her ears pierced!!! Yesterday, out of the blue, she asked if she could get her ears pierced. She had the idea once before, but she changed her mind when it was time to go.... Not today! She was completely prepared. She told us that it was going to hurt "just a little" and she would cry for a minute, but she would stop once she looked in the mirror.

So we headed to Claire's in the Boardwalk to day after church. I called yesterday and they told me they would have 2 people there today so she could get both ears pierced at the same time, but when we got there, only one person could pierce ears.... I saw this ending badly and us going home with only one pierced ear, but she was such a trooper!

She picked out her purple birthstone, and the longer she sat in the chair waiting, you could see the apprehension growing on her face. I kept telling her she could change her mind if she wanted to, but she was so determined.

This was her coping mechanism:

As she promised, she cried for a minute, but after she looked in the mirror, she quit! Even though Del's face is in the way, her initial reaction is priceless!


Even after her first ear was pierced, she still wanted the 2nd one done. After we left, everybody we passed at the Boardwalk, she announced, "I just got my ears pierced!"

Lacie was the observer. She announced very loudly to the girl that she was just watching. She was NOT getting her ears pierced! Maybe one day. She much preferred trying on the less painful accessories in the store.

We Want Our Old Van Back!!!!

I have been having some issues with my Honda Odyssey mini-van lately. After taking it to the Honda place, I found out that I needed a new transmission, which Holmes Honda will be replacing for FREE due to some issues with Honda transmissions. I dropped it off this morning and was told it would be ready this afternoon. Unfortunately, the tech guy (whom I completely trust- we've used him several times) called to tell me that I also had broken motor mounts and needed a new air conditioner belt. When my car wasn't ready this afternoon, I was told that they would give me a rental car to keep until after work tomorrow.

So now I am driving a shiny 2007 Honda Accord temporarily. Del and I went to pick the girls up in the rental car, fully expecting they would be very excited. When we got there and picked up their stuff, Del told them we had a surprise.... The result? WAILING! not just crying, but tears and sobbing.... "We want our old van back!" We literally had to pick them up and force them into the new car and listen to their protests for a good five minutes.... until they realized they could roll down their own windows in the back seat. Having a van, they don't get to roll down their own windows. Once they figured this out, they decided we could keep it.

While it will be fun to drive it around for a few days, I will be glad for the girls' sake to have "our old van back".

Big L, Little L... What Begins With L?

Tonight, the girls had "homework." They each had to come up with "L" words and bring then to school tomorrow. So we set out with a sheet of paper. As you can see, on Lacie's homework, she drew a lollipop and drew her teacher, Ms. Edie, licking the lollipop. I know they are getting bigger because her handwriting is getting so much neater. Plus, when she drew her teacher licking the lollipop, she actually drew a tongue sticking out of her mouth, and instead of drawing sticks for just the arms, she added hands and fingers.... Now, don't count the fingers. Each hand has at least seven, but I still think that's progress.

A close up:

Leslie came up with a list of L words, all of which I had to tell her how to spell, and she wrote them on her paper. What were Leslie's words? Lick, lollipop, lamb, llama, love, and lion. The funniest part was when I was telling her how to spell lamb. I said, "L... A... M... B." Each time she wrote a letter. When she was done, I said, "OK. What's next?" Leslie wrote down the letters O and K on her paper.... Apparently, that's part of lamb. We scratched them out.

A closeup of Leslie's (it's harder to read because she opted for pencil):
I know they won't stay this eager about homework forever, but it's nice right now. Oh, and a side note! Tonight at special time, when I asked Lacie what her favorite part of today was.... Her answer? "When you drove me to school." and she snuggled up to me and gave me a kiss. I love my children!

Born Performers.... but Environmentally Friendly!

Both of the girls routinely make up long, nonsensical songs. Tonight was no exception. During special time, Lacie got in the space in the middle of her room to "perform". She sang her made-up song that started out with her driving down the street and ended with a rendition of the ABCs and numbers. She performed this with her "hip-hop" moves (as she calls it).

Not to be outdone, Leslie performed her own song. I can't remember any of the words except the chorus. This one line repeated for literally 4 minutes: "You've got the same (pause) A (pause). Uh-uh-uh-ooohh." At some point, Lacie got up and joined her. They did the whole rock star thing where they would point to each other and to us to finish the words and they would stop singing. Then they ended very slowly and softly, holding hands and looking at each other, like in the movies. They are so dramatic! This may not make a lot of sense to those of you reading, but I really wanted to write this down so I would remember it!

By the way, apparently my children have joined the trend to "Go Green." We were driving down the road today and we were all chewing gum. I had been chewing mine for a while and it was old, so I rolled down my window and through out my gum while I was driving. Lacie immediately asked, "Mom, what did you just do?" I told her that I threw my gum out the window. I was quickly scolded, "MOM! You know that is littering. And when you litter you make the Earth dirty. And when the Earth is dirty, then it can't be clean and green!" A few minutes later, Leslie got tired of chewing her gum. When she gave it to me, she told me, "Don't litter and throw it out the window." Sigh...........