Singing and Dancing and the bag factory

 

The girls have been really interested in singing songs from The Sound of Music, especially Maria.  Although it was Anna this day that was obsessed with "So Long, Farewell."  So, they do get the words a bit muddled, but pretty good for a 2 and 4 year old.  And of course Anna has to add some "Twinkle, Twinkle."

 For the last part of our vacation we spent some time in Goshen.  We visited the Old Bag Factory.  And it is just that...an old bag factory that has been converted into shops.  They had a small historical part, and this was a cart they used in the factory.  At the factory they made bags for items such as cabbage, onions, animal feed, popcorn, and they were the original makers of the Hershey Kiss flags, for about 50 years. 
We also went to a wonderful park, which the girls thoroughly enjoyed playing at for at least an hour.  Times flies at the park!

  We came back today just in time for Maria's first dance class.  She was pretty excited and wanted to pick our her own outfit.  She said "I really like the teacher, she's nice."

We have plenty to praise God for; singing and dancing.

laugh

Anna is finding herself quite funny these days...at the very end Larry caught her doing it.

Twinkle, Twinkle

One of Anna's favorites!

storytime in the tub

The girls love tub time, and Maria was having a good time telling a story.  Anna, not to be outdone, had to put her two cents in also.  She was saying "Once upon a time" quite a bit!

We have plenty to praise God for; imagination.

Daddy's Little Helper

We have plenty to praise God for; the awesome task of teaching our children.

a snow day

We broke in the girls' Christmas sled and took a ride around our yard and down the hill at the playground across the road.  It was the perfect size for Maria, and I didn't have to help her up the hill each time.  Anna was having nothing to do with sledding, or in fact much to do with the snow at all.  

 She had a blast!

She looks like she is having fun huh?...not so much!

Here is the video to prove that she was not a fan of snow today!

The girls wanted a tent to play in, yep, fleece blankets are lightweight and work well, but also make a very electrifying atmosphere.

It was a great hiding place from the witch(Daddy).

We have plenty to praise God for; easy ways to entertain.

The Friendly Beasts

Okay, I know Culver is small, but 8 deer in our yard at 10:30pm, seriously.  I was sitting on the couch and our the side window I kept seeing a shadow pass by the window.  I am sure that since we are on the edge of town, by the ball fields, which are the closest thing to the woods on this side of town makes the deer feel a bit safer.  But we did drive down our street the next morning and noticed deer tracks all across town toward the other set of woods.  I had fun watching them out the window, and couldn't believe when I finally counted that there were 8 of them.  They were eating what they could of the community garden corn stalks, a cauliflower plant in our garden and from the looks of their tracks some of our bushes, which shouldn't hurt them too much as they are in need of a good pruning anyway!  It was a nice treat, especially since I grew up in the country and never really saw many deer that close to our house(too far from the woods and too many dogs.)  The videos aren't great(and I wish I had a way to splice them, my software refuses to do that!)...I need a night vision camera or something, but when they went under the street light you can see them better.

a bicycle built for two...in honor of dk

church pageant

Maria really, really wanted to have a speaking part of the play, but we thought that would be a bit too much for her yet.  So, she was part of the choir that sang a few songs.  Can you tell Maria really wanted to stand by a certain girl, she kept moving around.  I did my best to video while Anna was hanging on my leg and getting into lots of mischief, so I apologize for the crazy taping.

Hi, Elf

Maybe you remember this post 2 years ago when Maria enjoyed looking for Elf?  That video is so funny!  Anna is almost the exact same age and enjoys it just as much, and really likes to run over to where Elf is hiding out for the day and say hi...Larry said one morning it was about 50 times, maybe a slight exaggeration, but still, alot...she has fun with it in the video, he is sitting on the windowsill in the bathroom.

gingerbread cottage

Well, it's not exactly the size of a house, so we call ours a cottage!  Maria had fun helping, Anna just wanted to eat everything...she kept saying AHHHH, and opening her mouth like a little bird.  During the video you can hear her saying AHHH, and then she does in fact eat one piece, but who can blame her!

 anticipation...

 the goods...

 starting...

the result
We have plenty to praise God for; the generous church family who gave us this fun kit to do as a family.

QRS's

Anna is quite the musical girl lately.  She can sing several songs most of the way through.  She really loves the ABC's or maybe after this clip we should call it the QRS's...she seems especially smitten with that part of the song.  We are pretty consistent about singing it when we brush teeth each day, and the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics toy she is playing helps too!

We have plenty to praise God for; kids who love music and singing.

Future Olympic Skaters?

They were really into the skating, Anna was especially excited about spinning.  And yes, she is a bit creeped out by ladybugs, especially real ones, but evidently pictures of ones too.

indecisive...you could say that.

Anna can't wait for one song to be finished before she requests another song.  She basically askes for "little star=twinkle, twinkle", "baker's man =pat-a-cake" or "EIEIO=Old MacDonald", just lately she has been asking for Baa Baa, Black Sheep.

don't ask?

Who knows why our kids do some of the things they do...I don't even try to figure out some things, it's part of the fun!



We have plenty to praise God for; just having fun!

have a laugh

Anna says many words very clear, but sometimes just the way she pronounces another will leave us laughing every time.  She has a very unique way of saying necklace.   

I thought it quite funny watching Anna try to sit on the small dollhouse sized furniture.  She was a very determined little girl, but it just wasn't going to happen without a few broken pieces.

We have plenty to praise God for; laughter.

tub time

She loves to be in the tub, especially the duck.

 

She is such a talker lately...saying just about everything we do.  Do you notice how she says "ummm" when we ask her questions.  She has gotten that from sissy.  And she does a little "twinkle, twinkle" solo.  She also does a "evil baby" laugh!  And don't you love the hug and kiss for the duck.  What a fun stage she is at.

She just loves to tease us and fake cry when we start to sing Twinkle, Twinkle.  Not sure where or why it started, but she also can sing part of it herself.  She says "little star"...so cute.  She is big into saying her name right now too.
We have plenty to praise God for; a very talkative girl.

A video for great grandma

playing dead

Whenever we play chase/tickle, tickle here Anna has been doing this thing where she drops to the floor and freezes for a bit...like she's playing dead.  I wonder if she thinks we can't see her if she stops moving??  Who knows what goes through the mind of a 15 mo. old.
We have plenty to praise God for; playtime with the girls.

the case of a broken record

One thing is for sure, no one can accuse Anna of not saying thank you.  Just watch the video and see what I mean.

Thank you for Anna can be interpreted in many ways:  literally, thank you or can I have that, I really want that, here take this, so, it gets quite confusing.  She does know the word please, as much as she didn't want to say it for me in the video.  She will if she really, really wants something.
She is learning new words at amazing speed...just the other day at the doctor's office, she said doctor, today it was cracker, and in recent days; walk, purple, pickle, button, all gone, and this is in addition to the other 15 or 20 words she already says and the animal sounds...my favorite is her fish noise...gotta get that on video for you.
We have plenty to praise God for; a communicating little girl.