School Days

At Clara's school, the seniors get paired up with the kindergartners and act as mentors and buddies to them throughout the year.  I am not sure what all this entails but I think they just become friends and the seniors play with them at recess and the kindergartners go to their seniors sports games or other activities they are involved in. 

Laura and Clara.

We carpool with another family to school.  The back of my car Monday through Friday from 3-3:30 pm.

Almost Vacation

 We decided to skip town one Saturday and head over to La Torretta Lake and Spa Resort.  It was a lot of fun!  They had about 5 different splash pads and pools each one dedicated to a specific age range.  The girls loved the water slides and Clara absolutely loved the lazy river.  She wanted to go back again and again and again. 

The kids also enjoyed the small lake beach area.  The water was warm for swimming and it was Brynn's first time in sand.  The girls amazingly found buried treasure in the sand.  It was an Estée Lauder lotion container with a note inside buried in the sand.  The note was from a widowed wife to her late husband professing her thanks to God and her love for him on their anniversary.  It was a very sweet and touching letter.

That was our first day.  Then night came and Brynn decided to be Brynn.  We could not get her to go to sleep for the life of us.  It was all nicely planned out that Clara and Reese would sleep on the pull out sofa in the living room and Rob and I would sleep on the king bed with Brynn or Brynn could sleep on a pallet on the floor.  By 12am or some time around then I really have no idea, Rob was sleeping sideways on the end of the pull-out sofa with Clara and Reese and Brynn was finally asleep on my chest in the king bed.  Needless to say we were very tired the next day and went home that evening.

Brynn enjoying being part of the self-portrait.

Hanging out on the beach.

Some nice Houston mud with algae growing on it.

Reese enjoying the 80 degree lake water.

Brynn's first beach sand fun.

The lazy river.  Clara loved swimming in and out of her tube.

3rd Child

 I think by the 3rd child, our expectations as parents are greatly lowered.

Why my backdoor window is never clean.

Another typical Brynn look.

See she can be normal.

Feline Fancies, Cat Cravings

We have a really, I mean really, weird cat. 

Typical Siamese, she is attached to one person, me, and couldn't care less if any of the other family members live or perish.  If I am away for the night, Kaiya will actually get on Rob and my bed and howl at him in annoyance that I am not there to sleep with her.  She also gets satisfaction from screaming in the middle of the night acting like she has lost me until I call for her and she comes running into the bedroom purring and nuzzling me.

Kaiya can only eat one brand, one flavor indoor adult cat food or she throws everything up until I give her the one brand, one flavor indoor adult cat food she wants.  It's pleasant.

She does however broaden her palate with some non-one brand, one flavor indoor adult cat food.  She LOVES watermelon.  The knife will be halfway through the watermelon and Kaiya is at my feet in high hopes I will give her a miniature morsel of Kaiya manna.  If I am not expeditious enough in providing the tasty tidbit, she will jump on my shoulder and eagerly watch and wait.
  

Kaiya poised for pouncing on the prize.

Kaiya gawking at my audacity to throw away any watermelon.

Kaiya also enjoys the occasional strawberry, mango, and uncooked spaghetti noodle.

Itty Bitty Bug Brynn

Rob teases me that each subsequent kid we have goes to preschool/mother's day out younger and younger.  Clara started at 3 years old, Reese at 2 (but really I had to take her out after 1 month and put her back in the next year, so technically she really was 3) and now Brynn at 18 months has joined their ranks and started Mother's Day Out.
 
She will go 1 day a week and has gone twice already.  Her little report card they send home indicates she's been happy and playful there but not a great sleeper.  Apparently, the first day they had to remove her from class at nap time because she was screaming.  So she went on "errands" around the school with another teacher.  She has even been going potty for her teachers.  They are sweet ladies and seem to do a lot of fun things with the little ones.

A very talented friend of mine (one of the same talented friends from Reese's birthday party) makes nap mats.  She gave me a deal on one in exchange for doing some editing work on her Etsy site Ponytailskids.  When I saw this nap mat with little Asian stick figures all over it, I had to have it.  It's so stinkin' cute!!  She embroidered Brynn's name on the back too. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PonyTailKids?ga_search_query=ponytailkids&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

Here she is all ready for school, crazy hair slicked back and snack trap in hand!

Raccoon Reese

Reese started her 4 year old pre-school class last week.  She is a Rowdy Raccoon and will go two days a week. Her teachers are the same ones she had last year and we are very thankful for that.  They are two women in their late 40's or 50's, one has older teenage children and the other has kids grown and gone.  They are such sweet, gentle ladies, perfect for Reese's sweet nature.

Reese is quite popular at the school and gets warm smiles and high fives from a lot of the teachers.  Clara's teachers from last year, who we just love, will often make a special stop to say hi to Reese.  And many of them affectionately call her "Reesie".

Reese modeling her My Little Pony backpack that she picked out all by herself.

 Brynn and I dropping Reese off at her class.   (Brynn's classic face of "what in the world and why I am here" look)

Love this smile of her looking at our good friend who works at the Weekday Learning Center.

Reality is....

I don't post here as much as I would like to.  And I am not as clever of a blogger as I would like to be.  I blame it on me usually only remembering to update the blog at around 10 o'clock at night and by then my brain is in half sleep mode.  Plus all my witty comments for the day were used up by 5:45pm.  So, the result is what you get.

We've had a lot going on the past few weeks.  Clara and Reese went to the dentist where we were told that Reese had 3 cavities to fill and Clara needed 3 teeth pulled.  After seeing another dentist and getting a second opinion who agreed with the first dentist, we got the work done.  It was a hard decision pulling Clara's teeth.  The back tooth was easy, there was an infection under the tooth, it had to go.  But the front ones were loose already, but the dentist said the roots looked weird and not right.  So, Clara has a very toothless smile now.  She did great and thought it was the best day ever.  She got to eat ice cream and watch movies all day and the got to pick out a big present and got money from the "tooth fairy".  I say "tooth fairy" because she doesn't believe in it or anything for that matter.  She is such a realist and will always ask "is that real?".  We decided not to lie and so she now knows Rob puts the money under her pillow.  You would think knowing this would take away from the excitement, but she doesn't seem to care.  The next morning after her teeth came out, she came downstairs and said to me "Daddy forgot to put money under my pillow!".  I reassured her that he didn't.  She just couldn't find it right away.

We finally sold our other house.  We signed the papers on Friday the 28th!  Rob likes to say that our days as real estate moguls are now over.

Clara started kindergarten.  She was so ready.  She really loves it so far.  Getting up early in the morning is beginning to get a little old for her, but once she's there she does great.  We love Clara's teacher, Mrs. Faulkner.  Clara loves Sweetie Pie, the class hamster, and said God answered her prayers to get into the class with the hamster.

 

Clara sitting at her desk ready for school to start.

Nana and Papa came to wish her a great first day.

Finishing getting ready for school.

One of Clara's best friends on the left and a new friend on the right.

Clara's chapel uniform.  They have to wear this every Wednesday.  I think it's too cute!

Clara wanted me to take a picture of her studying her morning routine chart.

Brynn, Reese and I hit the park after we dropped Clara off at school.

One of the best things that happened this month was that Clara got baptized.  She really wanted to do it and was so brave.  We have a pretty big church and it's intimidating being up there.  She did great and we are so proud!

Pastor Rick reading her testimony in front of the church.

Baptized!

Reese turns 4!

Trying to blow out re-light candles.

  My sweet Reese turned 4 a few weeks ago.  I can't believe she is getting so big so fast.  Clara, Reese and I celebrated her birthday with cupcakes for breakfast.  To validate I am a healthful mom, there are apples right behind the cupcakes and both girls were required to take at least 1 bite before devouring the cupcakes.

 

More cupcakes were had at the pool a few hours later.

 3 friends of mine and I planned a joint birthday party for our little girls all turning 4 within a month of each other.  They are all great friends and loved sharing their special day.  Now before you wonder why Reese received a more themed and decorated party compared to Clara's, let me credit it to me having three very crafty and creative friends.  My duties fell mostly on the administrative side.

Beautiful cake made by my friend's aunt.

Love this picture of Reese, she looks so happy.

Caught red handed stealing tastes of Reese's cupcake.

Table decorations.

We had a carnival themed party.  Again someone much more talented than me made this decoration.

The 4 musketeers.

Now that's talent!  Caught a bubble mid air from the bubble machine.

Brynn and Papa trying to avoid all the chaos

My very talented friends.

Clara turns 6!

Clara wanted a dolphin themed swim party for her sixth birthday.  We had

a great time swimming and being with friends.  I got this awesome cake from Target.

They will make a cake out of cupcakes in any shape you want.  I just told them

to give me something dolphin themed and this is what they made!

Chowing on some cake before jumping back in the water.

Taking a break from all the party craziness.

A monumental birthday

We recently took a trip to Austin to celebrate Aunt Norma's 80th birthday 

with family.  We enjoyed the time to see family we don't often visit and

to spend time with Aunt Norma who is the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. 

Clara and Reese with their great Aunt Norma.

Paolillo Awkward Moment Fun Fact:  Upon helping our beloved Aunt Norma open her gifts she received, Clara turns to me as I took another opened present from Aunt Norma to set aside and asked if we got Aunt Norma anything.  I then had to explain to Clara as Aunt Norma opened another gift, that we in fact did not get Aunt Norma a gift. Just our wonderful presence.

Father's Day

Rob's parents sent each of us a T-shirt with "Team Paolillo" written on it.  It's 

perfect for us since we always refer to ourselves as "Team Paolillo".  For 

father's day, we all put our shirts on and made cookies together.  Later

we went out to dinner with my dad and brother, sister-in-law, and their new baby.

Daddy and girls making cookies.

Clara looking cute in our new hat.