A day at the beach
We skipped church Sunday and drove about an hour and a half to a beach on the Jersey Shore. It was a beautiful day and botht the girls loved the water and the sand. Rose trying to take all of the water out of the ocean.

Pearl discovering that sand does not taste good!

Sisters playing in the sand.

Mommy and the girls going down to check out the freezing water!

Rose and Pearl making a pond.

Rose is writing her name in the sand.

Imitating an airplane!

Pearl waving to the planes!

Mike trying to keep up with Pearl.

Me and my baby!

We all had a fun day at the beach. It was warm when we go there but after we got wet we were all freezing. Pearl was as usual the wild child and kept running into the water. She was literally turning purple when I had to force her to get out and go warm up. It was an almost perfect day except for the mean kids next to us. Sweet Rose asked the sister and brother if she could help them dig their moat and offered to let them use some of her shovels. They turned her down and told her to go away. Then she decided to build her own moat beside them, well they did not want her anywhere near them. They told her to move away. She came and told us and I said she could still play there. When she went back to her spot the little boy (5 or 6 years old) went over to her again and was obviously talking really mean to her, so I yelled down to him that he better be nice. Mike went down to play with Rose since she just wanted someone to play with and he said even when he was there the kids kept coming over and telling her she was annoying them. She wasn't even talking to him or near "his moat". The mother hen in me was so mad at that bratty little boy I could just thrown him right in that freezing ocean water. I do NOT like mean kids especially when they are yelling at my baby girl for no reason at all.

BOB BOOKS

I just bought Rose a set of books that are for beginning readers. I have been looking for something that I felt was appropriate for her skills and would encourage her interest in learning words. I highly recommend these books. During my ten years as an elementary teacher I have found that building confidence and promoting success in early readers is vital. These books allow kids to independently read a few short vowel words on their own.

There are five sets total and each set has numerous books, the first set actually has twelve books that get progressively more difficult.

(VIDEO COMING SOON, NOT DOWNLOADING AT THIS POINT)Here is Rose reading the first Bob book. She actually messes up on one page and reads the words in the wrong order. I could have re-recorded it but actually felt like her error shows that she is reading the words and does not just have the book memorized.

Rose also wanted to help write the shopping list when daddy went grocery shopping Saturday. No she does not know how to spell these words but we just help her sound it out and she does pretty well. I never planned on teaching my three and a half year old to read or write but it is something she really enjoys. I just provide her with the tools but certainly do not ever push her to learn as I really do not think there is a whole lot of value in learning these skills sooner then later. There are a lot more important things I would rather have her learn at this age, like being kind to her sister and to stop playing if she needs to go potty and to obey adults the first time they ask her to do something etc. However I will not hold her back from learning to read and spell at an early age if that is her desire. I do not think all kids should be pushed into learning to read when they are not ready as they will not enjoy it and it may affect their attitude toward learning as they get older. Learning should be FUN!

I always loved the Flintstones now I have my own little Baby Pebbles!Pearl is into ponytails lately and will bring me a ponytail holder and say "ponytail please". She keeps them in and it keeps her hair out of her eyes and it is so cute the way her hair just fans out perfectly. Now I can't wait until she has a enough hair for real ponytails.

Hurricane Rose!

Beware when you ask your three year old to entertain her sister for a five minutes until you are ready to get her out of the crib. This is what you may get! I am sure she was quite "entertained" since she had every book and every toy, even a few shoes, from her entire room in her crib. Pearl unsure how to navigate this mess!

Trying to get out!

The nice empty shelves.

Rose looking so proud of her "accomplishment".

Notice the size of some of the toys she managed to throw over the crib. I am surprised she didn't knock her sister out.

Happy 15 Day!

Rose often forgets the number 15 when she is counting so we decided we would have a 15 party on the 15th of May.  However on the 15th  we went out to dinner when we got home it was late and we had not yet made the cake.  I thought maybe Rose would forget the 15 party.  As she was getting ready for bed she remembered so I made a big deal of how we forgot the 15 party and we would have to have it on the 16th.  We talked about how important it is to not forget fifteen or we would miss our party.  So we had our 15 shaped cake with 15 candles on the 16th, she is now remembering the number fifteen when she counts!

Movie Star

Pearl may very well be an actress some day she is very dramatic.  She has reenacted her falls and bumps since before she turned one, she can also fake cry and imitate sounds like you would not believe.  She has one other very "important" actress quality, she is a DIVA!  She knows exactly what she wants, how she wants and when she wants it.   Here she is wearing an adorable jacket I got for .99 cents at the The Children's Place Outlet  the glasses were her own addition.  PS don't tell this little Diva that her mommy is a bargain shopper.  I actually bought a few extra jackets to Ebay in the fall now if only I learn how to sell on Ebay.  

Don't mind the nasty old stuffed bunny in her hand she holds him upside down by the leg and sucks her thumb while she sniffs it.  The thing is starting to look like a drowned rat from all of the washings he has endured but no substitute will do even the exact same newer bunny that I got her when she turned one, it was to late she was already attached to this "Hop".   She cannot and will not sleep without her bunny so if her gets puked on and he has we have to stay up until he has been washed and dried!  

GO BACK UP YOUR PICTURES NOW!!!!

My computer hard drive crashed this weekend and I lost every picture and video of my  girls from the past two years.  The videos are what really made me sad because I had some precious videos of Rose reading to my stomach when I was pregnant with Pearl, the girls playing together when Pearl was tiny and tons more... I can't even think about it.  I have never even printed out  a picture of Pearl in her entire life so I don't even have paper photos of my poor child.  If any of you have pictures of my girls that you could email me  I would be thrilled to get them.  Thank God for our blog as that at least has some pictures however I downsize the pictures before printing them to my blog so they are not really great printable quality.  I will now be backing up and printing my pictures of my kids.  I hope you all do the same.  If you haven't done so learn the lesson form me and save yourself the heartache.  Seriously though I am trying to remind myself that although it is sad to have lost all these precious photos and videos of my girls I am so thankful that the girls themselves are still safe and healthy.  I am off now to take and print some pictures with my new camera and new printer!!!   As for my laptop I have a Mac and the service deal is incredible so  I now have a new hard drive with lots of memory and no memories!

Please pray for baby Micah! Isn't he just adorable?This is Mike's former roomate, Mark's little baby. He was born with an extra 21st chromosome that caused heart defects. He is only four months old and had open heart surgery on Monday.

Please pray for his recovery. The surgery was more difficult then they expected and he will be in the hospital longer then originally planned. Pray for his parents Jennie and Mark and his big brother, Nathan as this is hard on all of them as well. For more updates on Micah you can click on The Dickens under our friends blogs section.

I got a new camera for Mother's Day! My old one broke when I conveniently dropped it while trying to take a picture of Pearl while holding her. I am excited because my new camera is lighter smaller and pink. It is a Canon PowerShot like my last camera however in 3 1/2 years they have gotten smaller and fancier. We are still trying to figure out how to use it. Mike took these pictures of the girls before church yesterday. Don't they just look yummy in these adorable dresses from their Aunt April. Mike thinks it is funny how two girls could look so different in the same outfit. Rose is getting so tall and thin and Pearl still has her adorable baby chub.