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

February 17, 2008

Happy Third Birthday!

Filed under: Friends,Pictures — Tags: , , , — Luke @ 4:37 pm

Mara’s real birthday has yet to come, but yesterday we celebrated with a little party at the house. It was a Prince and Princess party for our little one. The kids had quite a bit of fun making crowns and tiaras at a craft station that mom put together. We also played pin the crown on the princess too. There were some other games that we had planned, but really the kids just wanted to play with toys and it would have been like herding cats to get them to do much else. As it was, we passed two hours along in no time. This party was pretty special because there were quite a few children that came that Mara has not seen in a long time. Since leaving Primrose for daycare, she hasn’t seen her former classmates and they were nice enough to come see her. Thanks!

We took quite a few pictures and tried to catch one of all the kids that came. Sorry if we missed you! It was chaos.

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Birthday princess surveys her kingdom.

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Presents are better with buddies.

Cousin Grace is turning one and her birthday is really close to Mara’s, only two days before. So she was in town to celebrate as well with the family, and she got a cake of her own.

We also got some video of her. Here is the smaller of the two files. Auntie Jen, we will have to send you a link to get the other one and download it.

Grace Is One Video
Grace Is One Video

11.0 MB / Time 0:06

All partygoers got to leave with a CD of songs that we played at the party. If you didn’t get one let us know.

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Mara’s first album cover.

January 13, 2008

Gymnastic Skills, Or Just Playing?

Filed under: Pictures — Tags: , , — Luke @ 2:48 pm

Over the holiday week, The Little Gym had some open sessions where anyone that was enrolled could come in for scheduled open sessions. This gave Mom and Dad an opportunity to see Mara at the gym since she had been in classes this winter session and Lisa had been the one taking her during the week. Needless to say she was a little wild, and it was hard to tell if she was learning particular skills or just horsing around. To be fair, since it was an open session there wasn’t really any controlled play. We got her to show us a couple moves. This is the first time I’ve seen her in the gym since her birthday. There are more pictures as you click through to the album.

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What is this?

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Jumping that gets the curls bouncing.

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OK. This looks like she has been practicing.

December 23, 2007

Will Santa Visit This Year?

Filed under: Pictures — Luke @ 11:30 pm

Some pictures leading up to the big day. Taken on Saturday.

Naughty?
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Or nice…
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Naughty?
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Or nice…
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December 5, 2007

It’s Crafts Time

Filed under: Pictures — Tags: , , — Luke @ 2:19 am

As the holiday approaches, Mara has been busy preparing. Lisa is great for getting Mara to do some crafts. She indicates that Mara’s top request during the day is “let’s make something.” I am always surprised at the ideas that Lisa comes up with.

Last week she took the kids to the mall for Ladybug Club, which is a monthly event they put on. The event is different every time. This month, in addition to other things, they gave away a kit to make a snowman card. Guess which one is Mara’s.

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Proud Artist

This past weekend Mom went up to Richmond to go to an event called Bizarre Bazaar where they have different vendors. There Mom got Mara and Campbell both a mini Christmas Tree. Just yesterday Mara and Lisa decorated hers.

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Here Are The Finished Products

If you click through you can see a couple of other pictures.

October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween

Filed under: Pictures — Steph @ 7:18 pm

Our little ones are suited up and ready to get some treats…no tricks! This year Mara was able to choose her costume. Surprise surprise (I mean this sarcastically of course) she picked Dora. Since mom was hoping for a theme between the two of them Campbell became Boots the monkey, Dora’s sidekick for Halloween. I must say Campbell makes a sweet monkey! And Dora, well how authentic she looks considering the blonde curly locks of hair underneath. We loved the brown yarn wig with her costume.

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Be sure to click on one of the pics to see the rest!

September 18, 2007

Last Day At The Pool

Filed under: Pictures,Videos — Luke @ 12:06 am

This past Saturday marked the last day at the neighborhood pool for the Evans family. Luckily the season went a little long for us, as they decided to keep it open past the Labor Day weekend. That is the beauty of taking over ownership of the pool by the neighborhood.

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I Love The Pool

Mara has come a long way this season in her abilities. She began by using swimmies for the first time, and followed that up by swimming alone without anyone touching her. She has even gotten to the point where she is willing to jump in the pool by herself with little coaxing. On Saturday she was running and jumping in. Click a picture to see more photos from the day.

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Look At Me…

On a whim, we decided to use the video function on our digital camera for the first time. It didn’t turn out too bad and we were impressed. For the sake of it, here are the raw videos, no fancy editing (warning, the file sizes are a little larger than typically posted here). Oh, and in the 2nd video, that isn’t added theme music for the south. That is a couple of guys that were sitting and playing in the pool area. Nothing like a little Banjo.

Jump In The Pool 1 Video
Jump In The Pool 1 Video

40.8 MB / Time 0:22

Jump In The Pool 2 Video
Jump In The Pool 2 Video

144 MB / Time 1:21

September 15, 2007

The Little Traveler

Filed under: Pictures — Luke @ 10:12 am

Going on a plane with Mara now, we need to get some things for her to do and put them somewhere. Last month when we went to NY Mom thought it would be a good idea to get her her own bag to carry along in the airport. When I saw it for the first time, it seemed a little bigger than I expected to need. But, there were really few choices so that is what we ended up with. After a little trial and error, Mara became pretty adept at handling herself and the bag through the airport. Her worst problem is that she tends to be quite the people watcher and can’t keep her eyes on the road. In a busy airport that isn’t the best combination as you can imagine.

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The Little Traveler.

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I Rather Enjoy My Bag.

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Too Fast!

June 26, 2007

Pool Is Back On

Filed under: Friends,Pictures — Luke @ 8:42 pm

For those that don’t know, for a while this winter it looked like our neighborhood pool was going to be lost to us. The company running the development was going to reclaim it and turn it into some housing lots or townhomes since it didn’t recruit enough members. A long story later, and we were able to get them to turn the club over to the neighborhood and the pool is open again for the summer!

This past weekend we had some friends visit from VA. Amy, Danny, and their children Brittany and Preston were in town so we went to the pool on Saturday. We had a lot of fun.

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Brittany and Preston Loungin’

Mara has been getting better and better in the water. This year she is starting to kick and move her arms. On our way to the pool before we even get there she is talking about swimming and moving her arms. On Saturday we put her in the water with the flotation vest, but this time she asked to have one of the noodles. The only problem with the flotation vest is that she is not balanced from front to back or side to side, and she doesn’t understand how to control that at all. But, with the noodle in front of her it provides the balance side to side and something for her to lean on. We got pictures of her swimming without anyone holding her. It was tough to get her to commit to leaning forward though.

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Mara With No One Holding On

There’s not much for Campbell to do yet at the pool. In fact the last time we went he was pretty cranky and cried the whole time. That was tough for the little man, but also tough on Mom as she had to sit with him the whole time. This time, Campbell was more calm, and Mom got to get in the pool.

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Little Man C

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Mom and Mara

Click through any of the pictures to see some more shots.

June 8, 2007

Joint Picture Session

Filed under: Pictures — Luke @ 9:45 pm

A few weeks ago we went and had pictures taken of both Mara and Campbell. For Campbell they were his first set of pictures and he was four weeks old. For Mara, we had missed her two year old pictures around her birthday because she kept getting sick around the days she was supposed to have them. So these were for her second year.

We went to a new photographer for us. We had gotten a promotional card in the hospital when Campbell was born and we were in for a change. The photographer is Carolyn Albright Photography and her example pictures on her card and website looked good so we gave it a shot. The pictures turned out really good. Here are a few to get you started.

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We expect that Carolyn will be making it possible to order pictures from the web, but that is not possible at this point. When we have more information we will let those interested know. If they don’t get up there soon, we will post more here.

May 16, 2007

Maybe this little fella is OK after all

Filed under: Pictures — Steph @ 4:46 pm

Today for the first time Mara asked if she could hold Campbell. This morning while we were getting her dressed for school is when she asked. Her brother was hanging out in her pink bean bag chair. I told her she could sit on the bean bag and I’d put him in her lap. She was very sweet with him. Kissing him and holding his hand. We compared her feet and hands to his and she was entertained by how little his were compared to hers. I guess this really makes her feel like a “big sister”. So entertained in fact that when I asked if she was ready to go downstairs to eat breakfast she said, “no”. This is totally unlike her because she loves breakfast and it is by far the meal in which she eats the most. This isn’t necessarily the first time she has been sweet. She usually says, “Goodnight Campbell” once we are done reading her books at night before being tucked in to sleep. This would be the first time she proactively wanted to hold him though. Here are some sweet shots I got of the two of them hanging out together.

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