Mara’s Blog Influencing the world one day at a time since 2005…

This past Saturday we celebrated Mara’s 5th birthday. The theme was zebras, and Mom organized a wonderful party for the little miss. We had a few activities to keep the kids occupied. For the most part they went off with no issues, which was great.

First we started with a zebra puppet craft. It was a little difficult for the kids to accomplish, or at least the first sewing step. There were a lot of parents doing the sewing. But the second step of putting on the faces and fur was right up their alley with a bit of gluing and placing.

Just waiting for the kids.

Next, the face painting was also a big hit. We have Lisa to thank for that idea, and also the execution as we had no idea what to do for the painting. She nailed it because the kids absolutely loved it.

The big 5.

Lastly, the pinata was probably the most tenuous part of the party. Having young kids swing a big stick wasn’t the greatest of ideas, but it went off without a problem. We didn’t anticipate the scrum for the candy either and that got a little hectic. But, everyone survived and made it to the end.

This is the end of the road for you zebra pinata!

It was great to have all the friends come out to celebrate with us. We know that Mara loved seeing everyone, so thank you.

Friends make parties the best!

To see the rest of the pictures, visit the Birthday10 gallery.

About a month ago, Mara complained that she had hit her mouth on something. Like most occurrences like this that are not seen by the eyes of Mom or Dad, getting details was a little sketchy. What was clear, however, was that Mara said one of her bottom teeth hurt and now it was loose. So, did she knock her mouth on something hard enough to loosen her tooth?

Mara seems to be growing up faster than we think. It seems early, but a week or two later we could see that behind the loose tooth there was white in her gums and another tooth was coming up. Her tooth was certainly loose because she was loosing it for her permanent tooth.

Since that time the other tooth in the center right next to it is loose too. These teeth were her first to come in, so now they are the first to go. We have been working on the tooth for quite some time. Mara has been pushing it around trying to loosen it up, but gets scared and says it hurts.

Ouch!

Well, tonight was the night. Mom asked to see how loose it had become and Mara went to push it over to show her, and “pop!” Out it came. Now the tooth fairy is coming for a visit.

Now it’s out!

Just this past Saturday Mom came up with the idea that we should take the kids ice skating. They were really excited and had been anticipating it for a couple of days. When we got to the rink that day we were surprised to see that the parking lot was full and the place was really crowded. Luckily inside and on the rink was not as bad as it possibly could have been given the numbers of cars outside. We were also lucky that they had the right sizes for all of us to wear skates. The sign on the window coming in said they were out of many of the common sizes. We made it work.

Mara was REALLY enjoying herself on the ice. Even at times where she was beginning to fall she found it fun. Of course, she was being held up the whole time so she wasn’t really falling all the way to the ice. So swinging around wildly around daddy was a good time.

Having lots of fun on the ice.

Campbell on the other hand wasn’t having quite as good a time. It was great that he had no hesitation to getting out on the ice and no fear at all. It was just that the whole thing wore off for him a little sooner than his sister. He got tired a little faster too. However, we were impressed with how much he did.

I’m skating!

We think this is going to be an activity we will go back to do again.

Umm, hope he doesn’t fall down.

Mara has been having so much fun at her school so far this year. She just loves it. And they do so many fun things to make it so easy to love.

Like this week, on Thursday, they had a little Halloween party. They were nice enough to let siblings come in as well if they could. Campbell got a kick out of that. He stopped in at the end of the day for lunch and hung out. Now when he goes by the church he says “Mara’s school!” and tells us how much he likes it.

Mara has made some new friends already and is always excited to go off for the day.

Wow. Time has gone by so fast. Mara is already going to school. Maybe it’s too early to really call this school, but she is going to pre-K. That is more of a classroom setting than she has been so far.

She was very excited to go. It just so happens that we saw her teacher at Chick-fil-a the day before on chance. That got her even more ready.

With backpack, ready to learn. Cutie.

We were all excited for her, although brother Campbell seemed a little sad that he wouldn’t be with his sister today.

Pouty lip.

She had a very good day. Mom took a picture of her with her certificate after the first day. Let’s see how many the teachers continue to hand out (is this going to go on every day?) or how many Mara can get.

It took us a little while to remember our last visit to Emerald Isle. We had just forgotten that the trip we had in 2005 was to this location. But now we remember again because this is a beautiful vacation spot.

We are sharing a house with the McDonough Mob and the Poythress Pod and having a great time. The kids are at an age that we plop them on the beach and they have a ton of fun. Better yet they are both getting more accustomed to the ocean and will spend a little more time in the water. Having that and a pool out in the back of the house make for a great week.

The kids ready for the beach.

Who knew? Mara likes to be buried in the sand.

What a body!

Cruisin’.

Grace is chillin’.

This past weekend we were lucky enough to be invited up to Smith Mountain Lake to the Sowell’s lake house. This was the first time for most of the family to ever visit there. Mom was the only one that had visited in the past. So to get out on the lake in a boat was a new adventure for Mara and Campbell. They absolutely loved it.

There was a lot of riding on the boat. Lots of swimming in the lake. And some riding in the tube. And the weekend also meant that there was some yummy food to eat like ice cream. The lake has an ice cream boat! Just like the truck that comes to your neighborhood, only on the water. Who would have thought?

The princess.

All my children… I mean two only.

The fam on the dock.

The other fam in the boat and on the dock.

This past weekend we braved the holiday traffic and took the trek down to Wilmington to spend time with the g’rents. The kids were happy to see them and they were happy to see the kids.

On Saturday we made a little trip to Southport to check out the action over there. The kids enjoyed getting some lollipops and rock candy and chasing seagulls in the park at the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

Strolling the waterway with Mom.

The more memorable moments for the kids came on Sunday when we went to the beach. We got there early enough to beat the big crowds and got a parking spot. None were left when we were leaving and we could have sold for a pretty penny. Mara was making bucket runs for water with grandma in order to build a sand castle. Campbell was playing in the sand with cars. Pretty soon it turned into burying Mara and putting sand castles on top of her. Unfortunately we didn’t foresee Campbell’s confusion by the burial, and we would hear Mara saying, “careful Campbell, you’re stepping on me.” She really enjoyed it and stayed there for a while.

Kiss the head.

It was tough to get them to settle up to leave. Campbell tried to stay. Getting back in the car, Mara spontaneously said, “thanks mom and dad for taking us to the beach!”

You can click on either picture to get to the full album.

Yesterday we celebrated Easter with the kids and got some time to spend with the grandparents. The weekend was busy with Campbell’s birthday the day before, so the events were a little crammed together and not well planned. Luckily the Easter Bunny showed up on time to eat some carrots and lay some eggs.

The kids had fun finding their bags, and not baskets this year. And that provided more candy then they know what to do with. Now meals start with wanting M&Ms or jelly beans. That is a tough battle to fight.

After breakfast we dressed the kids up a little and took them to The Bicentennial Garden to see what we could see. Of course there were flowers planted all about. And halfway around the park we took a stop to blow some bubbles. Mommy snapped some pictures and below are some results. Also pick any of the pictures to click through to the rest of the album.

Mara hit a milestone today by reading her first book ever! She has been making a lot of progress on her letter sounds, and also at sounding out words. She will often do some of it by herself. She has gotten to the point that sometimes she will read a word on her own while we are out and about, or even recognize some simple words quite readily.

Since she was doing so well I really wanted to see what she could do if motivated to try a whole book. Most of the ones on her bookshelf are too hard. Also some of the beginning reading books she has are hard too (of course she wanted to start right in on the princess book). I was looking for something like, “see spot run.” Steph reminded me that we have BOB books. I am not familiar with them, but it is exactly what we needed. We pulled out book 1 from collection 1, named “Mat.” It is only about 6 or 7 pages, with things like, “Mat sat. Sam Sat. Mat sat on Sam.” (that would be 3 pages, and don’t ask me why it’s not “Matt”)

Perfect. She sounded the words out and did it all.

Wanna hear me read?