Fall Apple Picking

We were very excited to go apple picking this past Saturday.  We decided to go to Hillcrest Orchards in Ellijay, GA.  It was a beautiful day, and the girls did great on the 1.5 hour drive up there.  Here is a picture of the orchard with the North Georgia Mountains in the background.

 Here is a great picture of what we were looking for: 

We started out by exploring the farm area.
Our little moonshiners!

 Lily couldn't wait to climb up on this tractor. 

 She loved it.  Maybe someday she can ride on a real tractor.

 Of course, Mia couldn't wait to give one a whirl too.

 I am such a sucker for these kinds of pictures!

Meet Buttermilk the cow.  A farmer was sitting next to her and would show the kids how to milk her.  Neither of our girls wanted to try that, but Mia was excited to pet her.

Mia thought Buttermilk was awesome!

They also had a John Deere trike tractor area, but it was pretty crowded so the girls didn't seem very interested in it.  There was also this really cool area with a jumping pillow in it.  I had never seen one before.  In case you aren't familiar too, it is an inflatable jumpy that is about 20 yards long by about 10 yards wide.  It sits on the ground and looks like a big pillow.  It was surrounded by sand, so if the child slides down, she lands in sand.  Pretty cool.  Lily was willing to wait in the very long line to get in, but once Ryan and Mia walked away (she was a little too small), she decided not to wait.  There was a small petting zoo, but since it cost extra money, and it looked a lot like the one at the zoo, we decided not to go.  They have a moonshine museum to visit, and a tethered bungee jumping set.  Of course, there were lots of delicious foods to enjoy too.  After enjoying all of this for a bit though, we were ready to get picking!

Each row of trees had a sign like this letting you know what variety of apples were on that row.  There were tons!

 Looking down an apple road.  There were lots of these to choose from.  We started by gathering Granny Smiths for our apple casserole.  After finding a dozen or so Granny Smiths, we wanted to find some red apples, so we made our way to the Gala rows.  After picking several of those, we started to head back to the barn, but we found the cutest little apples on the way!  They were just tiny, so the girls loved getting them.  I asked an employee later who said they are Arkansas Blacks; they were delicious and firm apples.

 Lily and Daddy trying to find the perfect tree for picking.

 Excited to start picking.

 Mia was trying hard too.

 Filling up the bag!

 They were having a blast!

 I love this picture even though Mia isn't smiling.  She just looks so sweet to me.

 S-t-r-e-e-e-t-c-h to get it.

 Looking for the next apple.

 Always looking for the right one.

 Showing off her prize.

Standing on top of the orchard hill.

 Ready for a little break.  We had been doing a lot of walking!

 Lily thought it was hilarious to put her sticker over her mouth.

 Such a sweetheart!

 The girls showing off their bag of loot.  It was a really heavy bag!

After we filled up our bag with lots of delicious apples, we headed to the barn.  Inside you could get samples of the different apple varieties, and purchase all sorts of delicious goodies such as fried apple pies, apple doughnuts, jellies, jams, butters and apple ciders.  We sampled several things and bought a few things to bring home.  Our favorite though was definitely the apple slushy.  Delicious!

Here's a picture on the way home.  Lily thought it was great to have her foot propped up with the window rolled down.

 Ahhh, the signs of a good time!

This was such a fun day.  We will definitely look forward to doing this again next year!

As a side note, Ryan and I ended the day with a date to see Joel McHale's stand up act.  He is host of the show The Soup which is one of our favorites, and he also stars in Community, another show we enjoy.  He was hilarious and did a great job!



Dance Recital

Last Thursday, we were invited to Lily's dance class at The Little Gym.  They were showing off what they have learned the first half of the semester.  It was absolutely adorable!  At first, Miss Maria led Lily and the other little girl (I believe her name is Ally) in some of their tap dance moves.  After that, they put on their ballet slippers and showed off the different positions.  After ballet, Maria told the girls to pick one of their spectators to dance with.  Lily picked Mia, so she gladly went up.  After a couple of minutes, Mia stopped dancing, so I got up to dance with her.  We did the chicken dance together which was fun.  After all the dancing was finished, the girls went into the gym area and worked on other skills there.  Mia joined right in as if she owned that class.  She was having a blast; I can't wait until she is old enough to take classes there too!  Here are a whole bunch of pictures from our time at dance class.  Enjoy!

We love The Little Gym!

More Fun

A few more fun things going on around the house:

1. Mia has been fascinated by shadows recently.  It is especially funny to me to watch her just before bedtime.  She seeks out our shadows on her bedroom walls each night, and she will wave to them, blow kisses to them and say "night-night!" to them.  She loves when I make shadow puppets on the wall too.  It's so funny to see how impressed she is with them!

2. Lily has cracked us up recently by telling us everything's "nick-nack name."  For example, she will say "Mommy, do you know Mickey Mouse's nick-nack name is?  Mick.  I think his nick-nack name is Mick."  She then laughs at her own little joke.  We just think it's really funny that she says nick-nack name instead of nickname.

3. Lily has been very kind to read books to Mia recently.  Today, my mom said they spent about 30 minutes just sitting on Lily's bed, and she "read" about a dozen different books to her.  One of her favorite ones is the new "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" that Bama gave her for her birthday.  After hearing me read it to her twice, she had it memorized and now recites it to Mia (or anyone who will listen for that matter).  She is such a sweet big sister!

Mia's shirt is a perfect description of her!  In case it's tough for you to read, it says "Happy Girl." 

 I'm not sure why, but I love this picture of Mia and her pigtails.  She was making a funny face for the camera.  I realize I say this a lot, but I can't get enough of those eyes!

On Monday, Lily was so excited to see a birthday package from Grandpops and Grandma Jan.  Here are a couple of pictures of her opening their gifts.  She cannot wait to decorate this cute purse! 

 She couldn't wait to dig into this "Rolling in the Dough" set.  We opened it immediately, and pretended to be a bakery.  We made waffles, pizzas and all sorts of goodies with this set.  I see a lot of fun in our future!

 Here is Lily making her pizza dough.

 We saved the presents from Bama until Liz came back on Wednesday so she could watch Lily open their gifts.  Lily was thrilled with all them...pompoms, googly eyes and scissors for craft projects, princess socks, new hair bands, and Lily's favorite game - Tic Tac Toe!

 Lily immediately fell in love with this adorable cat that Kendall, John, Josh and Amy sent.  She decided to name it Phoebe which is also the name of one of Liz's cat.  She loves it!

4 Year Old Check-Up

Lily had her 4 year old check-up at Dr. White's office this morning.  It went surprisingly well.  The nurse started by weighing and measuring Lily.  She is 40 inches tall which puts her in the 50th percentile, and she weighs 37.8 pounds which is the 70th percentile.  After that we went to a special room to check Lily's hearing and vision.  She put headphones on Lily's head, and Lily had a look of "what in the world?" on her face.  She asked Lily to point to her ears when she heard the beeping, but Lily refused to do so.  She said we would try again later, but Dr. White said not to worry since she is still seeing the ENT.  The nurse then checked her vision and said she is at 20/30 which is pretty good.  After that, she took Lily's blood pressure which was 96/64; according to my research, this appears to be perfectly normal.  Finally, she gave Lily a little gown to wear which Lily loves.

A few minutes later Dr. White came in, and Lily actually talked with her this time which was nice.  She checked her eyes, ears, nose and mouth.  Then she checked her tummy, hips and spine.  She said everything looks good.  At one point she asked Lily if she ate many vegetables to which Lily and I shook our heads.  She asked Lily which ones she does like, and Lily quickly responded "Carrots!" but then she couldn't come up with anymore.  Dr. White liked that but said we need to work on getting her to eat more of them.  Any suggestions for how to do this are greatly appreciated!  She also asked Lily if she is a good big sister to Mia, and Lily enthusiastically replied "Yes, I am!"  I couldn't help but agree.  They have their moments, sure, but for the most part, Lily is so sweet to Lily. 

Dr. White then went over the shot schedule with me.  Lily had to have four shots today, and we made a follow-up visit in a month to get two more.  Uggh.  She looked completely taken aback with the first two shots, but then she fell apart for the third and fourth.  She was crying so hard, and she was not comforted by the Free Junior Milkshake voucher from Steak and Shake that the nurse gave as a "certificate of bravery."  Overall, this visit went pretty well.  We are very thankful to have such a wonderful and healthy little girl!

4 Years Old!

I know I say this a lot, but I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by.  Monday was Lily's 4th birthday, and I simply cannot believe it!  She is such a wonderful little girl, and we had a great birthday celebration that lasted several days; see the previous three posts for details.

This morning as we were getting ready for school, I asked Lily a few questions about her favorite things.  I hope to remember to do this each year, so I can see how her preferences are changing.  So, here you go...a few of Lily's current favorites:

1. Favorite Book: The Mine-O-Saur
2. Favorite Movie: Tinkerbell
3. Favorite Color: Pink
4. What do you want to do when you grow up?: Go to work.  Okay, what kind of work do you want to do?: Chocolate work.
5. Favorite Game: Tic Tac Toe
6. Favorite Princess: Sleeping Beauty and Belle
7. Best Friend: Sierra and Ally
8. Favorite Food: Chicken and chips and pretzels and gummies
9. Favorite Restaurant: Moes
10. Favorite Animal: Zebras and Giraffes

So, there you go.  Now, what "chocolate work" means exactly I'm not sure; sounds good to me though!  I love talking with her; she has us laughing a lot!  Here are a few things I would add about Lily right now. 

She loves books of all kinds.  She "reads" all the time which is a habit I hope she will always continue.  She loves to pick out letters and try to sound out words.  She also loves "Search and Find" books, especially the extra games that are listed in the back of them.  Lily is so smart, and I think her love of books has something to do with this.  She also learns a lot by watching a few TV shows.  She loves "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That" and "Charlie and Lola."  She enjoys "Americas Funniest Home Videos" when it is on at night too; we enjoy watching that together.  In addition to the movie Tinkerbell (all of them in the series), Lily loves Nim's Island.

Lily has lots of activities that she enjoys.  With the weather being as nice as it is, she loves to be outside on our deck.  I asked what she likes to do on the deck, and she replied "Play soccer, play basketball, play baseball, play football, play hide and seek, dance and eat."  That pretty much sums up what we do on the deck!  She also loves to cook, whether it's pretending in her kitchen or helping me prepare a meal or snack.  I think she would be happy to live on gummy snacks alone.  She LOVES these and all the varieties they come in.  She is getting much better about trying bites of foods that she is unsure of; almost every time I hear "Mommy I tried it and I liked it!" too.  I'm proud of her for venturing out and trying new things. 

She really loves art projects right now.  We do projects of some sort everyday.  She is getting really good at coloring within the lines now, and she loves to make pictures to put on the refrigerator.  She also enjoys any project that involves glue.  She loves to play pretend too; she is quite the theater director these days giving everyone directions on what their role or their dolls' role should be.  You will be corrected if you stray from these directions!  Lily is really good at puzzles too, and she enjoys putting them together; she also enjoys her dress-up dolls.  She is really trying to tell jokes now too, but she just doesn't quite get it yet.  I think she'll be funny like her dad soon though.  Really, she has a lot of interests.  It is truly a lot of fun to hang out and play with her because you just never know what direction you'll go in!

Lily loves going to the Imagine It Kids Museum and Zoo Atlanta; luckily we have season passes to both.  It is so cool to me that each time we go to either of these places, she picks a different area to concentrate on and learn about.  Her mind is always going!

Currently, Lily is wearing a size 9 shoe, and we are buying 5T clothes for her.  She can get by on 4T shirts, but 4T pants just won't work.  5T is a little long for her in the arms and legs, but she is more comfortable in them.  Like me, she doesn't like to have anything too tight.  She loves to wear dresses, and she will almost always pick out something pink or purple to wear.  Who are we kidding though, she is adorable in everything she puts on!

Lily is such an awesome little girl.  Ryan and I are so blessed to call her our daughter.  She is so smart, loving, thoughtful and kind.  She is such a great big sister (barring a few moments here and there of course!); she translates for Mia, makes her laugh and helps her when they play together.  There is nothing better than hearing the two of them laugh together.  I think they will be great friends as they grow up.  Lily has such a great laugh too.  She loves to learn and is constantly looking for new things to investigate and learn about.  She reads a ton to learn new things, but she also asks lots of questions and wants to understand what is going on.  We are amazed at her each and everyday.  I cannot wait to see what the future for this incredible little girl holds!

Birthday Celebration, Part 3

Our birthday fun continued after Lily's party on Saturday evening when the Henderson family joined us for burgers and hot dogs on the deck.  All the kids had fun eating on the new picnic table and playing together.  Our four kids are great friends, and we look forward to watching them grow up together!

We had such a big day on Saturday that we all slept in just a little bit on Sunday.  We slowly got up, ate breakfast and then went to my parent's church.  It was homecoming at First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee which is the church I grew up in.  I love returning to that church for a visit because it is wonderful to catch up with so many long-time friends and see all the exciting things the church is up to.  The sermon was delivered by John Foster who was the pastor there while my dad was in high school.  Mr. Foster and his wife remained good friends with my grandmother and grandfather after leaving to pastor another church in the mid-1960's.  I have heard about him all my life, so it was nice to finally get to meet him, and hear him preach; he did a great job.  Of course, homecoming is also great because there is a ton of delicious food to enjoy with everyone after the service!  It was a beautiful day to be outside enjoying friends, family and food.  I am so glad we were able to attend this special service!

We spent most of Sunday afternoon relaxing.  After dinner we let Lily open her presents from the day before.  We were having so much fun at The Little Gym that we didn't have time to open presents there, so we brought them all home.  Lily loved every one of the gifts she received; it was fun to see her get so excited about them.  There are several pictures at the bottom of this post; the formatting has changed, and the pictures uploaded in a weird order.  After the presents were opened, we enjoyed dinner and then Lily and I decorated the cupcakes we had made earlier in the day.  I had promised her we would make cupcakes together and take them to school on Monday.  She wanted the icing to be hot pink and bright purple, so we did that first.  Then she decorated them with princess toppings which complimented the princess cupcakes cups nicely.  Here's a picture of her showing off the Snow White red apple topping.  I always have fun cooking with her!

 The birthday girl!

 Lily and Mia - so sweet.

 Lily and Mommy.

 Mia and Mommy.

 Lily and Daddy.

 Mia and Daddy.

We dropped the girls off at school and then came back just before noon as promised to Lily.  We had to walk past Mia and her class eating lunch to get to Lily.  Mia was so excited to see us, and then broke down crying as we walked past; it so sad!  Lily was very excited when we got back to her class which was finishing up lunch.  Here's a picture of Lily excited to have her pink cupcake.  She was also excited that Ms Amanda had given her a pink birthday tiara to wear!

 Lily's class enjoying their cupcakes after lunch.  They were all so well-behaved and polite.  I was very impressed.

My mom came over after school to keep the girls so we could return to work.  After nap time, she and Lily started working with a Make Your Own Jewelry Tinkerbell set that Lily's friend, Sierra, had given her.  She was very proud of the fairy necklace they made together.

This beautiful floral and balloon bouquet arrived for Lily this afternoon from Great Grandpa Hooks and Lois.  Lily was very excited to receive this delivery, especially when she realized that Skittles candy came with it!  She also thought the Silver Dollar they gave her was pretty cool.  Here's a picture of Lily "reading" the card that came with the bouquet.

We asked Lily where she wanted to go for dinner tonight, and she settled on Steak and Shake.  She originally said Moes, but then she realized she wanted a milkshake instead.  We had a yummy dinner, and then we decided to have one last birthday treat.  When we got home, we put Mia to bed and told Lily we were going to pop some popcorn and have a movie night.  We proposed How the Grinch Stole Christmas (she has been singing the song for a week or so now), but she wanted to watch some old school (circa 1950's) Mickey Mouse cartoons instead.  This was the first time she has had popcorn because I have a crazy fear of my kids choking on popcorn; she absolutely loved it though.  She enjoyed the cartoons too, and we agreed we would do another movie night again soon.  Here's a picture of us enjoying the cartoons and popcorn together.

 Here are some of the pictures of Lily opening her presents.  She was excited to receive a new View Finder and two reels from Charlotte; Mia destroyed her original one a few months ago.  This new one is to be kept safe and sound out of Mia's current reach in Lily's room.

She thought this Dry Erase Activity Center from Parker and Macey was awesome.  It has different pages that you slide under the board to help her learn to write her letters and numbers, plus it has games and free space for drawing and writing.  It's a really neat toy that she is already enjoying.  

My parents gave Lily this cookbook and a great "real" chef set which she is fascinated with.  She loves to pretend in her kitchen, and she also loves to help me cook real food.  This set is intended to teach young kids how to cook, and it includes all sorts of cool kid-sized items like a mixing bowl, spatula, spoon, whisk, measuring spoons, measuring cups, scissors and a sand timer.  The cookbook has some good looking recipes in it too, so we can't wait to start using it together!

Lily is all about Tinkerbell these days.  She was beyond excited when she saw this DVD from Vivian and Claudia!

When we went to New Smyrna Beach in July, our young cousin, Francie, shared her doll with Lily.  This wasn't just any doll though.  No, this was an Ariel doll that can actually swim in the water.  Lily was enamoured with this toy, and she has talked about it on numerous occasions since the beach.  Just last week when we were leaving the bakery, out of nowhere, Lily said "You know what I miss Mommy?  Swimming Ariel.  I really want to play with her again."  Knowing how much she loved this toy, I suggested it as a gift from Granny.  Lily was ecstatic when she opened the bag and saw this toy.  She has barely put it down since getting it; she has slept with, taken it in the car with us, enjoyed playtime with her...seriously, it barely leaves her sight.  She squealed with delight when she saw it and said "Mommy, it's a swimming Ariel of my very own!"  While she loved all the gifts that were so graciously given to her, this was definitely the highlight!

I think it is safe to say, this has been a wonderful birthday for our sweet Lily!