Fun with Crawford

I had to post these pictures back to back to show how Lily Kate and Crawford have grown up together. The top pic was from Oct 08 and the bottom one from today. They have been buddies for a long time. Today we met Lisa and Crawford at the Childrens' Museum. We went to a Storybook Cooking class. The instructors narrated some kids acting out Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and then we all made porridge. How creative are these people?! Now, I myself have never had porridge before and I have to say it was quite good. Guess who promptly volunteered to be Goldilocks. I was actually a little surprised because, although Lily Kate is extremely talkative, she is a little shy around new people. Below she is trying out the porridge that is "too hot". And then there's Charly cheesing it up.... We had a fun day.
PS. Mom we're reading Pinkalicious and icing pink cupcakes in 2 weeks!

Pretty Girl with a Mean Mullet

"There are too many Carpenters in Heaven"

I overheard Parks saying this sentence to himself last week after he talked with Lily Kate about loosing some of our family. I know he was thinking also of his dad. Even as I'm typing I know that "loosing" isn' the right word and Heaven is a far better place for us Carpenters to be than here. I know those things are true. Still, there is so much pain. Last week our sweet niece, Gwenyth, and Parks' wonderful sister Marie went to Heaven on the same day. Most of you have known about and have prayed for Gwen through me or through her blog link here on our blog. Marie was at Falling Water, a lookout that she loved, when she fell Friday. Marie & Gwen were both daughters, both sisters, both cousins, both nieces. So many people love these two and feel such an emptiness at their absence. I have waited to write, hoping that eloquent words would show up sometime. I have concluded that they aren't coming. We feel heavy, broken, & sad. We also feel God's nearness and comfort. I have enjoyed looking through old pictures of Marie. She was really beautiful, she was really silly, she is really special. We love her so.

Patrick, please know that any sadness I had while looking at this picture was interrupted when I saw your huge affro! Thanks, man. Above, here's the fam. From bottom to top, left to right: Will & Henry. Parks, me, Lily Kate, Lane, Myers, Winship. Marie, Becca, Laura, & Sarah. Affro= Patrick :)

Above, Marie with Lily Kate 3 yrs ago & below, with Kate & Lillian last Thanksgiving

Above, Marie with my girls and below with Parks being "awesome", both last summer at Tate.

Beach Day

Yesterday I told the girls we were going to go to the beach today. So, of course when I went in to Kate's room this morning she had her sun hat on and her hands in the air yelling "BEACH DAY". We had fun. :)

Why do all babies eat sand? I mean, I understand trying everything once, but why do they eat the sand, act really offended by sand, and then eat it again? Who knows..... Okay, I really hope you can tell what's in the picture below. Kate and I went on a walk to collect shells and we found this guy. Kate said, "oh, a sting ray, Maddie and I saw a sting ray at the aquarium" I was more disturbed than she was.

...And off to get some ice cream

We grabbed some lunch after the beach and headed to the strawberry farm for ice cream. What a perfect day. I love Saturdays and I love this season. The girls were so sweet to each other today, they built sand castles and shared snacks. Precious.

Sweet & Sassy

Lily Kate's first haircut (by someone other than me) was long overdue. Above is her "before" shot. Don't worry, the "after" isn't too different. We went to Sweet & Sassy and it was a memorable experience. I recommend this to every mother of a little girl. Tuesdays are toddler days and cuts are only $10. It comes complete with glitter spray, a glitter flower painted on her cheek, and a lolly pop. It was precious.

There's the "after", see, just a 2in trim. We ran into my friend with her daughter, Lila Jane Below is the runway that the girls played on after they finished. This place has "mini-manis and mini-pedis", makeovers, up-do's, etc. It's only a matter of time......

Talkin

I just have to say a bit about how much Charlotte is talking. There are new surprises every day. I pointed to my mouth today hoping she would give me a kiss and she said "mou". (She can also point out and say "eyes".) This week she has used correctly the words: park, sak (snack), out si (outside), moomie (movie), baa (bath), shoe, daaper, (diaper), Sissie, Sar Sar (Char Char), sing (swing), daace (dance), and - clearly taught by Parks - neken... I'm sure you know - naked

2 completely unrelated things I couldn't resist posting about....

The birdies hatched! Aww, I'm so glad I didn't use their eggs for decor in my living room! Aren't they cool!? I promise we won't touch them, Mom. Knowing Parks, this is the closest thing we're going to get to having a pet....speaking of Parks......

Look at this disgusting mustache! Our YL end of the year party was tonight and the theme was "Mexican". Being from TX, it usually isn't kosher to have a Mexican themed party. It's kind of like having a "white person" costume party. Parks and Kate wore sombreros (the evening was chaotic, I took no pics) and the girls all wore shirts with embroidered flowers. Parks gave himself a dirty mustache with charcoal and he will NOT wash it off. He thinks it's awesome and I can't seem to hold a conversation with him without laughing. I sneaked this pic while he was working on the computer. It's fading but still gross.

It's Strawberry picking time again!

Lewis Strawberry Farm is a Wilmington tradition for all the locals. I admit I've called the recording 2-3 times already this year to see if the berries are ready to pick. A bunch of friends and I met yesterday morning to pick and picnic and eat ice cream and let the kids run around. Charlotte was a complete dirtball, we had a blast.

A red shirt while strawberry picking always a wise choice for a 3 yr old. We had to make an exception for Charlotte so she could wear her strawberry outfit.

This is my great friend Emily, I've noticed she's often holding my run-away kids in pictures. That's because she's a HUGE help to me all the time :) Someday soon I'm going to get to hold a baby for her (we'll just let mine run) Below is the half moon of strollers we lined up while we ate lunch. This is only about half of the kids that were with us. It was wild fun.

Oh, what to say about Lily Kate and Will.... He is her sweet friend that she loves so much. They hold hands and hug and have so much fun. When she's at home she picks "white blow flowers" (aka dandelion weeds) for their wedding that she talks about pretty often. I think she has good taste, he's a keeper.

I love these two

I know I'm biased, but I think they are so cute. I wish I could get their cute faces together in one picture. Charlotte is 15mo old and I haven't been successful yet. Below is Kate and the fish she "caught" at the Children's Museum. We have been going to a kid's cooking class there weekly. Charlotte comes too and she eats each ingredient as it is handed to her so she doesn't really cook anything but she has fun.

Out of the mouth of babes...

I love what Lily Kate comes up with. Parks and I were talking tonight and we decided that sometimes kid words for things are better than the real words. Maybe I'll start adding these regularly. This week it was:

• Pillow Bags when she was helping put the pillow cases on while making her bed
  
• Bug Pile when referring to the ant hill she stepped on
  
• Foot Thumb when pointing out which toe the ants from the bug pile bit

I love that crazy girl!

Days around the house

Kate and I made cookies (which we do often these days), then she did some water-color painting which included painting her face, and then we played in the yard. We found this nest with beautiful eggs. Parks convinced me that is wasn't worth killing the baby birds to blow the eggs and put them in the house in a cool little bowl. Would have looked nice with our robin's egg blue walls.... probably couldn't have justified that to Lily Kate

We had a great Easter at our church. Potluck after the service and a great egg hunt for the little ones. Both of the girls loved it.

We really tried to get a picture of Charlotte and her buddy, Oliver. I love the result. She won't sit still (surprise, surprise) and he wants to eat candy (surprise, surprise)! I'm hoping Steph got a better shot than I did. Aren't they cute? There are Stephanie and Lily Kate in their pretty yellow Easter dresses.

Childrens' Museum

Too bad Lily Kate was born 30 years too late to know what Care Bears are. I, on the other hand, was excited to see the costume.

Park Day

Time for some playin' and some picnic-in'. Just to clarify, Charlotte's face is a happy one. This is the face of the scream that she's already famous for, swinging and loving life.

Days at Home

Charlotte loves to read books. This is especially fun because Lily Kate didn't sit still long enough for books until just recently. I found Charlotte sitting in her bookshelf reading. I didn't get the camera quick enough to catch a shot, but this one was cute too. Also, THANKS Aunt Sarah for the sticker you sent Kate. They were put to use immediately!

Couple More Words....

Charlotte is a chatty little one... today when I was pushing her down the isle at Harris Teeter (see last post) she pointed to a little boy in another cart and said, "baby". I was shocked. Yesterday she said "bubbas" when I was blowing bubbles for her. I am surprised at what she can say so this is fun for me to report. I much prefer these words to her usual high pitched screams that my girls are famous for.

Speaking of the screams. Yesterday at the Teeter (yep, two days in a row) I was pushing Charlotte while Parks had taken Lily Kate to the bathroom when, across the entire store, we heard Kate let out a quick high pitched scream (her usual). So, of course, Charlotte screams back. Like two birds communicating, they continued to scream back and forth across the store. I was desperately trying to quiet Charlotte - who likes to look back at me and say "ssssss" with her finger up to her lips just before she screams again. A lady walked by and said, "that other little girl likes to scream as much as yours does". My pride wouldn't let me tell her that both little screaming crazys are all mine :)

My favorite hobby....

For over 2 years I have been couponing and, over time, it has become one of my favorite things. This week is triple coupons and Harris Teeter and my birthday all in one week, ahh life is good. Anyway, I have an obsession - I got the stuff in all three pics for 16.03 total. Who wouldn't get addicted to that!

This is a sweet sight to me...Daddy and Kate making cookies. Lily Kate is very into baking these days but (like her mother) she seems to prefer the batter over the baked product. I took her to a cooking class at our childrens' museum and she loved it. Let's hone these skills, maybe between she and Parks I can stop cooking all together. Below are the finished starfish cookies.

Time for an update....

It's been a full week and I have slacked on picture taking.

Charlotte is chatting it up these days. The other night I was carrying her in to her room at night to put her down and she looked at me and completely unprompted said "nigh nigh". She's catching on. She also says appa-sauce and eye (which is said accompanied by a quick finger in your eye).

We went to the park for our buddy, Jacob's birthday earlier this week. I didn't get a shot of him, but here are the some "big kids" - don't they look OLD! From the left is Crawford, Kate, Maddie, and Jackson.

We've been talking with Lily Kate some about sin and the condition of our hearts. The other day during dinner out of the blue Lily Kate said "so when Daddy was mad and he threw my shoe on the bed that was sin, right? Daddy, that was sin." Probably the first of many times when one of us will get called out. :)

Parks was dressing Kate today and she was putting on her gold sandles and she said, "you see these shoes, Dad, Jesus weared these shoes when he dood (aka did) all that stuff" Hmm, "you mean Jesus wore sandles?" "Yes Dad, just like me!"