On Saturday, Lillie went to a birthday party for twin girls that are friends from DC.  The theme was an Animal Safari.  The day started out with some Model Magic and the kids could make any animal they wanted

 Lillie decided to go with her present favorite animal...the butterfly.

 Then it was off to play an animal game, loaded with props, some charades slash pictionary, and a lot of fun.  Notice the creature in black and white to the right of Lillie.  That was one of the birthday twins.  There was a professional face painter hired for the party.  Lillie usually NEVER likes face painting of any kind.  Mainly because it often gets her itchy and she worries about her eczema.  BUT....

 Look who took the plunge!!  It's the Asian Tigress!  Seriously, how cute can she be!!

 After asking for a mirror and trying to see her reflection in the tv, refrigerator, and anything she found shiny (I'm totally not exaggerating!), we went out for a little pinata fun!

 Go Tigress!!

 It was a very fun party, where Lillie got a soft clay butterfly, a book, "Bread and Jam for Frances", some treats, a cheese pizza lunch, lots of play time, and a makeover that lasted until she took a bath that night!

 "GRRRRR!"

 And of course, look who had to get involved!!!  Daddy Tiger!  ha ha

The County Fair...Woohoo!!

Well, it was sort of a woohoo. A smaller fair came into town at the beginning of the month, but we told Lillie to hold off until the big county fair came. The whole county closes school for a day during the fair - FUN, huh??!! Anyway, she agreed and waited. Well, the week of the fair was not the greatest weather! It pretty much rained the whole time. So on the night we planned to go, we packed our umbrellas and, slightly grudgingly, drove to the fair. On the way, we told Lillie that if it rained too hard, we would need to leave early. Well, as luck would have it, it rained the whole time we were there...ugh! Not too hard, and barely a drizzle at times, but we tried to have fun anyway. It's a good thing that all the rides Lillie wanted to go on were covered!

The first stop, however, was the lion's den! Lillie was NOT that happy, but I had to get a shot of the cool white tiger!

Then after some great carnival food (the best pit beef sandwiches EVER!), it was on to the rides! Carousel first...twice in a row.

Then Mr. Alligator took Lillie for a ride.

Lillie couldn't pass up the speed boats!

Then we ended with the all important ferris wheel.

Blurry, I KNOW! Just remember...rain, umbrella, moving object.

"I'm DONE!" Not really. Lillie loved every minute of the fair. I know through pictures it doesn't seem like a lot, but Lillie rode many of those rides twice and sometimes THREE times! We ended with some freshly squeezed lemonade, cotton candy, and some fried pickles! YUM! (I know, one goes a little crazy with the food choices at the fair!). Lillie would have stayed all night, if she could. But alas, we headed home with a full belly and some great memories.

So it's been a little while, and a few things have taken place since.  First of all, with some MAJOR help from a friend, I tried my hand at making a dress for Lillie.  True to form, we didn't follow a pattern completely.  In fact, we used the top pattern from a dress, a different skirt pattern, some made up stuff here and there, a few snips, and tucks, and voila...here it is!

 I can see all the flubs along the way, but Lillie loves it, and that's all that matters.  The circle skirt gives a BIG twirl, which you know earned BIG points from Lillie!  Happy Twirling, Baby!

This past weekend we went to an Artsfest. It advertises as the largest fair featuring local artists, food, and activities for the kids. We didn't quite know what to expect, but we had a fun time.

There was a tent of fun things for Lillie. They had tissue paper collage magnets, foam purses, and a fairy mural. They had over 100 booths of local vendors selling everything from plants, to clay sculptures, superhero capes to stained glass, and everything in between. It was fun to look around. They also had a fun little scavenger hunt for Lillie...looking for the gnome homes nestled along the wooded paths of the booths. Lillie started by saying, "C'mon, Mommy we have to find more Gnomo homes." But by the end, she ALMOST got the name right! ha ha

While we listened to local musical groups and ate delicious fair food, Lillie played in the ZANY ZONE! A cute little setup of ribbon wands, hoola hoops, puppets, BIG inflatable balls, and walking feet.And how could I forget...bubbles!Walking feet - I couldn't figure out what to call them. This ended up being Lillie's favorite.Here's daddy enjoying some fresh squeezed lemonade. I know, creepy but cute!A short walking bridge among the treesHere's my cute girl!

So with a crazy week of earthquakes and hurricanes, Lillie started school, had a break from school, and then started again. In all, I believe the county closed schools for 3 days while they removed debris from roads so buses could pass and schools got power back. Well, we couldn't let that time pass by, so Lillie had a play date with her favorite classmate, Sammy.

Much of the day was spent playing house, store, dress up, and princess.

Princess and the Castle took a good chunk of time, and the girls loved being together.They also had a picnic in the gazebo on the deck, then decided to pretend they were butterflies.

It's great to have the day off and a good friend to play with.

Hurricane Irene: August 2011

Well, we're more than ok (especially now that we have power back), but Irene sure left an impression. Here are some pictures of the aftermath.

This tree in the back was really our only casualty. Like I mentioned, nothing really.

This tree also fell in our yard, but it's technically the neighbors since "the roots" are in her yard - at least that's what the neighbors said, so we're not arguing with that.
So during in the middle of the hurricane, we found we had a problem that consisted of some clogging, some leaking, and a few new "friends." One of our windows in the basement has a metal siding barrier on the outside of the house. Well, with all the rain, the dirt/mud that formed must have clogged the drain in that little alcove. The water began to rise and unfortunately, we found the window had a leak. So, Keola and I went down to the basement to see what we could do to relieve the buildup. What we found were Friend #1...

And Friend #2

Friend #3 was a little frog, but he went AWOL before I could take a picture. I won't go into the gruesome details of how we actually got all the water out from the OUTSIDE alcove, while still staying inside the basement, but suffice it to say, water is out, the friends are "free", our feet, legs, and pants are drenched, and I'm THANKFUL I got a quick bath before our power went out!

Some leftover debris on the deck.

Now, this neighbor didn't fare so well. A tree had obviously fallen on the roof and created a LARGE hole. Apparently, the other side was completely exposed. We had found out that this happened at 8pm the night before, right when the heaviest of the hurricane began.

Other damages in the neighborhood consisted of some fallen trees at the opening of our subdivision.

As we drove around the surrounding neighborhoods, we found some pretty frightening things.

Trees fallen on power lines.

Trees fallen on homes.

And just plain 'ole large trees fallen over, some with roots and ground uprooted.

This isn't a great video, but I took a little of it while driving home.

All in all, we lost a tree or two, have some fallen leaves and branches, and lost power (which includes no water, so sump pump for the toilets, no regrigerator, stove, or oven, and NO AC!! Yikes) for almost 36 hours. We survived with minimal casualties and now, we're up and running and ready to go. Lillie was out of school today and will be out again tomorrow. So with clear skies and beautiful weather, Lillie is loving a mini vacation.

It's official...School is ON!

Yesterday was the...

I should have taken a picture without the sign, but Lillie wore one of her new dresses to school. Let me explain the significance...Lillie received a LOT of clothes from her Nana and Papa. She LOVED every bit of it, but was wanting for dresses AND a little heartbroken that we were giving away some of her old clothes (and when I say old, I mean she still had AND WORE pants that were 18-24 months!! Talk about elasticity!). Anyway, we told her we would go shopping for a few dresses for the new school year. So when we got to the mall, I asked her what kind of dress she wanted, and here was her reply, "I want a pink dress with roses and shiny things." Ok, well, we searched and searched and lo and behold, I found a dress that had pink, a rosy/heart shape on the chest, and glittery sequins on the skirt. What the princess wants, the princess gets! ha ha

Meet Mrs. Doyle! She will be Lillie's 1st Grade teacher this year.

Not a great picture, but once announcements were made and instructions were given, it was time to get to work.
After Lillie got settled, I took Keola to work up in DC and we had brunch at a new found restaurant we LOVE. They are famous for their homemade pop tarts (super yummy! Who knew a homemade pop tart could taste so good?!!?) and their milkshakes (my personal favorite - Chocolate & Peanut Butter Nanners (Bananas) SOOO tasty!! Lillie was introduced to milkshakes when we discovered this restaurant and found it to be her ultimate best dessert -
Chocolate Soup!! - As she calls it!

We're all SHOOK up! Well, not really. So many of you probably heard that an earthquake registered at 5.9 hit the city of Mineral, VA yesterday. Amazingly enough, the earthquake was so strong, we actually felt it right here in our family room - many, many miles away. It didn't seem like it was too long, but it was probably the strongest earthquake I've ever felt - which isn't really saying much. I will say it was more than just trembling, and I did lose my balance, but all in all, we didn't get much impact. A few things fell in our house, nothing big, and people were a shaken up, but all is well in Southern Maryland.

Keola had to evacuate his office, as did most buildings in the DC area. And Lillie's school was having an orientation/"Meet you teacher" day, and the school had evacuated as well. But since we were far enough away from the epicenter, we didn't get anything like this...

or this...