A special Girl Scout meeting!

This month, our Daisy Girl Scout troop was working on earning their Purple Petal, which represents the ability to "Respect Myself and Others." As a part of respecting ourselves, we learned how to care for our bodies, and invited a special guest to come speak to us. Nearly every girl in our troop sees the same local pediatric dentist, Dr. Brandon, and so he agreed to give us some of his Saturday time to show the girls the importance of brushing, flossing, and eating right.

He even brought his family, and his 3 year old, Duncan, got to join the girls! :)

Camryn, Emma, and Mara are "the bottom teeth"

After eating, they have "chicken," (a rubber chicken), "licorice," (a pink lei), and "jelly beans," (a large squishy egg) stuck in between them. A splash of "juice" (silly string) tops off their meal!

So they "brushed" their teeth, but still had to "floss" to get all the gunk out. Hilarious!

Thank you, Dr. Brandon, for the good reminders, fun activities, and goodie bags too! If you need a pediatric dentist in the Tigard area, I highly recommend him!

Then it was time for our Daisy Chefs to get cooking!

They worked together to prepare a healthy snack, representing all 5 food groups!

Pita bread for grains...

Cucumbers and carrots for Veggies...

Cheese for Dairy...

Pears for Fruit...

And hummus for Protein... YUM!

What a special Girl Scout meeting!

Thrifty

Aubrey (sitting on top of toilet lid, and perusing Highlights magazine while I brush her sister's teeth): Look at dis! Look at all dese!

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch multiple subscription cards flutter to the floor.

Me: MmmHmm.

Aubs: Dese are my coupons! I have so many coupons!

Me (chuckling): Do you know what coupons are for?

Aubs: Yep. You can use dem to buy stuff!

Me: Well...not quite. But you can save money when you use coupons.

Aubs (Now tearing out every. single. subscription card. and collecting into a pile): Look at all my coupons! I have so many coupons! I am going to save so much money, I can buy something big!

"Long I" words

Tonight was a first.

We got a phone call. At home. In the evening. From Camryn's teacher. Luckily, Brian was the one who answered, because I'm not sure I would've heard anything she said after "Hello," being that I'd be stuck on the fact that we were receiving a phonecallathomeintheeveningfromherteacher!

She said she was calling because she just HAD to tell us a story about Camryn's day today. This is the teacher who sent us the "tights" story, and who emailed me a photo at work when Camryn decided that cherry chapstick was just as good as lotion for dry cheeks in the winter time. (Yeah, let your mind go wild with that image!) She gets a good kick out of our girl, and it's certainly a good thing for all of us involved!

She said that in Reading class today, they were discussing and brainstorming "long I" words. As they compiled their list, the district Superintendent happened to walk in and sit down in the back of the room to observe. (Um, hello!?!? Nothing like the Sup to get a teacher's heart pounding!) It was just then that Camryn's hand shot up in the air. "Oh, oh! I know one!" Mrs. Cox called on Camryn to share her "I" word.

"How about 'wine'? Like the kind my mom drinks!?"

Mrs. Cox's eyes glanced over to the Big Boss, who just shook his head and smiled, as if to say, "How do you do this everyday?" and then back to the class, as she steered the conversation to the other type of "whine."

As we laughed uncontrollably at this story, I had to hope one of two things was true:
#1-Mr. Superintendent did not know/realize that she was MY kid, or
#2-He knows the group of 5th graders I work with well enough to know why I need to drink wine at night.

Either way, I hope he thought it was as funny as Mrs. Cox did, who made a point to tell us that if she weren't paranoid about us thinking she was stalking our family, she would call us every night with a funny story about Miss C. And I believe it too. I'm just so thankful that her teacher finds her as hysterical as we do. :)

Keira's "half birthday"

We can't believe it's been six months already!
Happy "half birthday" Keira!
We love you!

Happy (belated) Birthday Auntie Beffie!

We sure enjoyed our afternoon with you. You're the coolest Auntie ever!
♥, Your Girls

A dusting of snow...

...is still enough to play in! :)

New Year's Eve

This year, our friends the Fryes joined us for a kid-friendly celebration. Since none of us (kids OR adults) could/wanted to try and make it to midnight, we opted for a pizza dinner, followed by lots of playtime, some fun New Years dress up, jammies on, and indoor confetti poppers at "New York New Year" (9 p.m.)

Shortly thereafter, everyone had had enough partying, and it was time for bed. We said goodbye to our friends, and promised to see them "next year." :)