The dancing queen has retired

I bet you didn't even know she was a dancing queen! Several months ago Morgan asked if she could take dance at school. The school offers several programs throughout the week and several of her friends were already in dance so we agreed. The next time the sign up sheets went out we were very happy to sign her up. She was so excited! We went and got her a dance outfit complete with ballet shoes!

Every Monday the dance teacher would come to school and for an hour they would dance! It took awhile but Morgan finally showed me some of her moves and they included stretching and simple ballet moves. We thought she was loving it......but the last time the sign up sheets went around she said she didn't want to take dance anymore. Instead she wanted to do Tumblebus. After asking her several times we came to the decision that Morgan was over her dance phase.

So instead of signing her up for Tumble Bus we opted for soccer which was her second choice. Although now it's all she talks about. So there will be many....and I stress many more posts about Morgan's soccer career. She will be playing with the Carmel Dad's Club beginning in April. The first year her team will be co-ed and they will practice and have actual games once a week! Luckily the field is right down the street from us.

So for now Morgan's dance career is over...but we are working on our soccer skills.

The Children's Museum Outing

One of the presents we got as a family for Christmas was a Membership to the Children's Museum (Thank you Aunt Mary, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa 'B'!). And shortly after Christmas we made our first of many visits this year. We hadn't been in awhile so there were lots of new things to see including a couple of new dinosaurs climbing into the building, the Christmas Yule slide and the Barbie exhibit.

We got there a little before they opened so we actually got to see the entire opening of the museum. They have a character come out and tell you all the ways to have fun and then all the staff cheer for you- it's actually pretty cute. So the girls waited patiently to be let in. But once we were in there was lots to do!

We made a stop at the Barbie exhibit first. I made Morgan pose next to Barbie herself.

Then immediately when you walk into the exhibit there is a desk with a cool phone and if you pick up the phone Barbie will actually talk to you! So Morgan and Elizabeth both had to hang out at the desk for awhile.

They have a fashion show area with a ton of dress up clothes. The kids can go backstage, get dressed and then walk the runway and strut their stuff. There are lights, music and camera flashes! Morgan picked a pretty modest outfit compared to some of the stuff that was there. And what you can't see in the picture is the little dance she did at the end of the runway.

Our next stop was Playscape which is the exhibit designed for kids. It's full of fun stuff that they can play with including a water table. Elizabeth really liked the water! This is actually the first time we have been there and Elizabeth was actually tall enough to reach the water so she has entered a whole new world!

There was also a sand table. Elizabeth spent most of her time going back and forth between the water and the sand which as you can imagine made for some messy hands.

One of our last stops was to the top floor to ride the carousel. Morgan loves it and Elizabeth was finally able to experience it too. I broke the rules and put them both on a horse that went up and down and they both really enjoyed it. After we left Elizabeth kept telling me she wanted to go "up and down" which I finally figured out meant that she wanted to ride the carousel again.

Since the girls didn't have daycare on New Year's Eve that was the day we went to test out our membership and at noon they did a countdown to noon for all the kids. At the time we were standing in line to go down the Yuleslide so I got a good view of all the people in the lobby for the countdown.

When the clock struck noon lots of confetti and balloons were flying it was so much fun! Both girls fell asleep on the way home so I think it was a good trip!

Fun in the snow

Ever since it started getting colder (think Thanksgiving or early December) Morgan has been wishing for it to snow. She asks me all the time when it will snow and I never had a good answer for her. So finally shortly before Christmas the forecasters started to predict snow for the area. Well that turned out to be the lightest dusting ever....not even the lawn was covered. But poor Morgan really wanted to play in it. I finally convinced her that she just wasn't going to be able to make a snow angel in less then an 1/8 inch of snow so she continued to wish.

So again the forecasters started to predict snow for the weekend after Christmas. Our friends Kate, Seth and their little boy Noah were coming over to visit and while we waited for them it started to snow- and it quickly added up to more then the previous 1/8 inch. So when Noah finally got to our house we all bundled up to play outside. Special thanks to our friends Joey and Katherin for the new hats!

Morgan immediately wanted to make snowballs.

There was enough cover on the ground to make some small snowballs.

They played outside for all of 10 minutes before we were all cold and wanted to go inside. They had fun but there still wasn't enough snow to really warrant snow angles or snow balls. But it at least calmed down Morgan's intense desire for snow.

Then a couple of weeks ago we got a lot of snow and on Saturday when I could tell the girls couldn't stand to be inside any longer I bundled them up and we went outside again. It was much better this time because there was more snow, and the sun was out so it didn't seem as cold.

And in true big sister style, Morgan showed Elizabeth how much fun the snow could be.

They walked together...

They chased each other....

They made snow angels together....

Finally Elizabeth took off on her own to explore the snow covered yard...

Even Belle played outside....

Finally the girls figured out that they could gang up on me and throw snow my way....this is them bringing snowballs to my feet. They have little arms so they can't throw that far.

Elizabeth's reaction to her throwing a snowball at me.

We didn't get to make a snowman which is one thing Morgan wanted to do. But hopefully we will get another good snowfall this year and we can take care of that. Otherwise it was a pretty fun time out in the snow!

Christmas 2009 Extravaganza Part Two!

I thought it would be better to break the Christmas post into two because there are so many good things to show! Yet again the girls got so many wonderful gifts. Santa must not have been looking when they threw that fit at the grocery store.

Morgan was able to open all her gifts- and believe me she wanted to open them all the minute she saw them. Elizabeth needed some help and spent most of Christmas morning sitting with me. After an hour she gave up and started playing with some of her new toys. It took her until 1pm to want to open anything else.

I thought I would share some of their favorite gifts via picture.

The girl's got matching footie pajamas from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa O. Sadly they weren't able to see them because Great Grandpa got the flu and weren't able to leave Buffalo!

Morgan got a Crayola Color Explosion thingy (now that's technical) that lets you draw scenes in 3-D! It took me forever to figure it out- But she loves it.

Elizabeth got a new Leap Frog Reader. You just put that white gadget on the books and it reads it for you. She especially liked the Curious George book. She even dances to the music it plays.

Morgan got a whole set of Polly Pockets and a carrier to put the dolls and their clothes in. She really liked them and before the holiday was over everyone played Polly Pockets at least once. Even Greg!

I'm sure he will just love that I shared this picture!

Elizabeth got a Sponge Bob Round Pants doll. I didn't even know there was a Sponge Bob Round pants, but not too long ago I actually saw the episode this doll is based on. Basically Sponge Bob shrank all his square pants and then had to buy round pants because that's all the store had. ( I know you were all wondering about that!)

Both girl's got a Barbie. The Barbies can pose now and it actually freaks me out a bit. They look to jointy, but the girl's loved them!

Elizabeth got her first baby doll. To date she has just been stealing her sister's but now she has her very own. And she takes very good care of it- she feeds her, changes her and puts her to bed. Thanks to Greg and my dad her baby now has a bed. They made Elizabeth a baby cradle for her dolls. I'll try to remember to post pictures.

The girls got a couple of different board games. Elizabeth is showing off er Connect 4 skills. They haven't quite gotten the idea down yet but they love to put all the chips in together. We also now have Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Trouble. But again I warn you- Morgan doesn't play fair, and neither does Elizabeth!

The girls also got sleeping bags which they love! They use them constantly when they are watching TV, and they have even started using them in the middle of the night. For awhile they were tucked away in our bedroom and in the middle of the night we would wake up to find Morgan or Elizabeth asleep on the floor in their sleeping bags. They know we don't let them in our bed in the middle of the night, so they take the next best thing- a sleeping bag right next to Mommy and Daddy!

The other truly great gift we got was a family membership to the Children's Museum. The girls love it and we have already been twice! Don't worry that is a whole post to itself! Thanks again to everyone that helped the girls (and us) have a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas 2009 Extravaganza- Part One

Shortly after Thanksgiving the girls became aware that Santa Claus was coming to town. I blame this mainly on Morgan because she has been around long enough to know what happens when the Christmas decorations start to come out. So she quickly clued her sister into the greatness of Christmas. Now even though she knows that Santa brings her presents, she isn't quite old enough to understand the idea of a Christmas List- so for a solid two months Greg and I were bombarded with "I want that!" when a commercial came on TV.

We knew we would get them some board games because Morgan has finally reached the age where we can play with her so after buying some Christmas gifts we also decided to buy some games that we could play while on vacation. Since Greg and I both took the week of Christmas off work we knew we might get cabin fever! I let Greg pick out the games and he came home with Jenga. I was afraid Morgan wouldn't really want to play but to my surprise she did!

She actually wasn't too bad at the game, until the idea of physics came into play. She couldn't quite understand why it was a bad idea to pull the last remaining block out from under the tower. So her answer to many of the tough plays was to put her hand on the top of the tower and hold it steady. So I warn those playing with Morgan.....she doesn't play fair!

Our week off with the girls was pretty fun! We had to make lots of preparations for Christmas since most of the family comes to our house (which is very convenient!). We cleaned, played games, had a movie night and rested up. Once everyone arrived the girls became pretty frustrated with the idea of not being able to open their presents. I honestly thought Morgan might go insane! Greg and I only put the presents out for other people since Santa brings all the presents for the girls, so it took awhile for their gifts to arrive from out of town family. Greg's family in Florida mailed up some presents and Morgan figured out which ones were for her. When I tried to tel her that there were no presents for her she said "No Mommy- this one, see it says M-O-R-G-A-N!" She had me there.

We made them wait---forever--to open presents (really just until Grandma got to town), but in the meantime Morgan and Elizabeth figured out other things they could do with the presents.

Morgan took each present she could find and started stacking them.

She made the tower as tall as she could.....

And then Elizabeth came and pushed them down. (We made sure there were no breakable items before she started doing this!) This process went a couple of times before they got bored.

The other all important task before Christmas was to make COOKIES! I made a couple of batches before Christmas for Morgan's and Elizabeth's teachers but I still had to feed the family. So Morgan put on her new apron (a gift from the neighbor) and helped me make cookies. She is quite the baker!

One the cookies were made, cut out, baked and cooled we got to do the fun part- DECORATE! Unfortunately Elizabeth did not join us for decorating. She was taking a nap. And it worked out better, because the previous batches of decorated cookies was a true nightmare. Let's just say Elizabeth was one giant sprinkle by the end of it.

So Morgan, Grandma, Mimi and I got our icing and sprinkles out and started making some of the most beautiful cookies ever! First we had to get our icing.....

Then we had to squeeze it onto the cookie....

Then we had to get some sprinkles (yes we washed our hands!)....

Then they were done!

Every good chef has to taste their goods!

Some of Morgan's cookies had slightly more icing or sprinkles then others and surprisingly those were the cookies she chose for herself when it was time to have one after dinner.

The sugar from the cookies made the girls bounce off the walls, floors and ceiling. And for awhile I thought they were going to be permanently addicted to sugar. At times they got very upset when they couldn't have their sugar fix.

But they were quickly reminded that if they weren't good then Santa wouldn't stop at our house. So their moods improved dramatically....

Overall Christmas 2009 was a huge success! Lots of time with family and friends (which will come in a later post) and plenty of new toys to play with. We hope you had a Merry Christmas too!

Halloween 2009

Sorry it has taken so long to get the blog updated. But it has been a busy couple of months as you will soon be able to see! So I'll start back in October and get everyone updated on the happenings at the Clark House. On October 26 the wonderful Miss Elizabeth turned 2 and she was lucky enough to celebrate twice! The first time was on her actual birthday. I made cupcakes for her and we opened some presents. She is still young enough to not really understand that it is her birthday- but she sure did enjoy the cupcakes!

The second time she celebrated was on Halloween, because we decided to have our friends Kate and Seth over and we invited our new neighbors who also have two little kids. It was my excuse to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday again and Morgan and Elizabeth would have built in trick-o- treat buddies. Everyone came over and we had dinner and then we indulged on Elizabeth's second round of birthday cupcakes. I even decorated them according to the holiday.

Then it was time to get CANDY! I did my best to corral the kids so I could get some pictures, but while I was doing that there was lots of tripping, bumping into each other and candy stealing. Elizabeth even tripped over her costume a couple of times. But she did take a moment to pose for me so I could capture the moment.

This is Elizabeth and Noah who is dressed like a monkey.

Finally I got all the kids to sit still for a brief moment and I took the best picture I could.

Since Noah and Elizabeth were still pretty new to the trick-o-treating game they spent most of the time riding in the wagon. They did however climb out when we got to the house so they could get their candy.

Morgan was really excited about trick-o-treating, mainly because she understands that this event means a pretty much unlimited stash of candy for her. And I pretty much got this same face everyday after Halloween. It was followed by a "PUUUHHHHLEASE can I have more candy."

For the most part they all walked nicely from house to house.

They lasted about a block of non-stop houses in our neighborhood and then were pretty tired. It is hard work raking in the candy!