Audrey's 3rd Birthday

Audrey had her 3rd birthday party the weekend before she turned three. It was a great turn out! Audrey requested a Strawberry Shortcake Birthday which is no surprise give how much she LOVES those characters right now. The pictures above are self-explanatory. It was a hot day, but the kids had a blast in the Dora bouncy house. I think we had a record 16 kids at the party! Thank you everyone who helped Audrey celebrate turning three!

MOCA Run/Walk 2011

Sisterly Love.

Walking with family.

Audrey running her race!

What a fast girl! She won her heat!

Lily ready to run her race.

The big finish.

We walked at the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance Silent No More Walk/Run. It was obviously tough to be there this year since memories are so fresh of last year when Chris was walking with us. It still felt good to be there with family and support the cause. The girls also LOVED running the kids races. Audrey was still in the two year old race and won! Lily ran super fast in the big kids race too. Lily was very in tune with the day and what it meant. She said several times that we are to think about Nana today and that she is watching us run from heaven. I think she was.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Lily posing in her new shirt...ready for school!

Ready to ride to school.
Sisters waiting for the doors to open.

Lily started Kindergarten today! Audrey and I dropped her off this morning amidst the chaos of the first day of school and she handled it beautifully. I was the only one with misty eyes as she walked in through the doors all by herself. I know she's ready and I know she's going to thrive in Kindergarten! When we picked her up, she said she had a lot of fun. I'm definitely glad I fought for morning kindergarten even though I'll have to always drive her. She was pretty tired after lunch! One interesting thing is that she said her teacher calls her Lilian. In all of the forms and information sheets, I always wrote "Lily" so it must be a mix up. There is another Lily in the class who is called Lily, which complicates things. I told Lily she could ask her teacher nicely to call her Lily. Well, she said she wanted to be called Lilian now. Yikes. I told her I'm going to keep calling her Lily. I think she thinks it's neat that her NEW teacher is calling her a NEW name so we'll see how long it lasts. We've never called her Lilian so I'm not sure she would even answer to it! All in all a great first day!

Summer 2011

I bet you all thought I've given up on the Quale Family blog, right? No, I'm been meaning to update all summer long. It just never happened. I guess that goes to show you we had a very full and very fun summer. So, in order to catch up and hopefully start with a clean slate in time for school to start, I've put this slide show together of the highlights of the summer.

The slide show starts with Lily's first Dance recital. She did one ballet and one tap song. She did great and knew the dances very well! The next big thing was sports camp. Lily did a 4 day camp with one of her good friends from preschool. It included soccer, T-ball, and basketball (yeah!). No pressure:) She really enjoyed it and I have to say...she has quite a good shot! It was a great way to expose her to a couple of sports to see what she likes.

I took the girls up to Kidstock in Maple Grove. It was a all day kids festival with live bands, face painting, activities, etc. They had various arts and crafts to try and even musical instruments to try out. they had a lot of fun and of course the cotton candy is always a bonus:)

We've had a lot of projects going on with the house after we had a flood and water issues in our basement. The first project was to re-grade the yard and re-do the landscaping. That was quite entertaining for the girls to watch. After that was completed we had a new deck put on since we had to remove the old one so they could re-grade. It's something we would have eventually done anyway. It was frustrating not having the deck for a while so wow did we love it when the new one was done. Before we moved the patio furniture up, the girls spent hours riding bikes on the deck. I almost didn't want to put anything on it. We've really enjoyed it this summer.

My mom and I took the girls to the Science Museum for the first time and boy did they have fun! They were SO excited to see the dinosaurs. I think Lily's favorite thing was looking in the microscopes (apple doesn't fall far from the tree) and Audrey loved the little red car (pictures above) as well as the dinosaurs. I can't believe we did take them earlier!

Our original 4th of July plans were to head to the cabin for a long weekend. That all changed when a tornado went through on that Friday night. Thankfully the cabin was not hit, but the shed had a tree on it and the driveway had close to 20 large trees across it. Absolutely amazing that the cabin is standing. The woods will never look the same. There are huge clearings in the thick woods so the trip up the driveway is totally different. Anyway, since the cabin was not an option (no way to get to the cabin and no power), we went to visit Papa on Sunday. The girls got to fish and play in the pool. They even roasted marshmallows for the first time (although they prefer them uncooked). Monday we drove straight from New London to my parents house. The girls had a ton of fun in the kiddie pool with the hose. It was a water-filled, giggle-filled, and lemonade-filled day. Even though it was plan B it turned out great!

Next up was Lily's 5th birthday! Thankfully, it fell on a Tuesday so we were able to have little family celebration with Dave. We spent the day at the Mall of America and did Nickelodeon Universe, Moose Mountain golf, and the Sea Life Aquarium. It was one of my favorite days with the four of us. The girls had an absolute blast! It's nice that they are older and can do so much more and can last a whole day without naps. The other HUGE thing with this day is that Audrey kept her underwear dry the whole time and use the public bathrooms with no problem. This was the first big outing for her being potty trained! That weekend we had Lily's My Little Pony-themed birthday party. Thankfully the rain clouds parted and we were able to do the pool/sprinkler party we had hoped for. I can't believe my little girl is 5!

My mom and I took the girls to Como Town/Zoo for a day too. Now that Audrey is old enough both the girls got to do tons of rides. Of course we will had to visit the animals so it was a full, but very fun day.

In August, we finally got a chance to get up the cabin sadly for the one and only time. The girls really enjoyed fishing, swimming, and kayaking with Grandma. Lily discovered the game Hotels which we used to play when I was a kid ALL the time. Thankfully Grandma was willing to play 6-7 straight game with her:)

The next pictures are a few from our Monarch butterfly "farm". We raised 12 Monarchs this summer in Lily's new butterfly house (made by Grandma). It was awesome! We even saw several of them turn into a chrysalis from a caterpillar. The girls named each butterfly and got to hold almost all of them. It was a great learning experience for the girls and also fun to have temporary pets for a few weeks.

A few weeks ago, Lily was complaining her teeth hurt. Well, when I finally asked her to show me which one, I discovered her first loose tooth! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since she got her teeth really early as a baby. I madly rushed to make her a tooth fairy pillow. She wiggled it almost a week and then one morning just took it out all by herself! She was so excited about the whole thing. She put the tooth in her pillow found 2 shiny quarters the next morning. She insisted the pillow be hung on the outside of her door so the Tooth Fairy's sparkle didn't wake her up:) It's weird to get used to her new smile.

Lastly, is of course our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair. The girls have been excited about it since we went last year! It did not disappoint. We saw the animals, did the rides, went down the Giant Slide for the first time, went in the butterfly house, and ate lots of yummy food. The new thing we did this year was the Little Farm Hands. They got an apron and pail and collected corn, fed "animals", planted seeds, rode tractors, and went to market. It was a hit with them and we will surely do it next year. This was the first year we went to the Fair without a stroller for the girls. They did very well although I think got a bit tired by the end. What a fun way to end the Summer!

I'm sure I missed things, but you get the idea of our Summer. It has been busy and fun, but we are all looking forward to Lily starting Kindergarten and Audrey starting a new ECFE class. It will be an adjustment but all very exciting!

Lily's Preschool Graduation

Lily walking in to the graduation song.
The kids sang their favorite songs before the graduation ceremony.

Lily getting her graduation cap. Congratulations Lily!

The graduates.

Lily and her teacher, Ms. Jessica.

Lily with one of her best buds, Rhiannon.

This year has been so wonderful for Lily. She started school a bit shy and she has blossomed into a social butterfly. She's learned to read and has improved her handwriting leaps and bounds. Plus, she's met some really great friends. I feel so blessed to have found her preschool. It's wonderful to feel so good about sending your child to school knowing she will have a great experience. Audrey will definitely go there when the time comes.

On a side note, her teacher told me at graduation that she'd been having Lily read to her and found her to be reading at the 2nd grade level! Not bad for a 4 year old:)

Audrey is 2 and a half!

This picture captures Audrey perfectly. First, she is dressed up with Fancy sunglasses, necklace, crown, and bracelets...her precious Princess blankets is snuggled in her lap...and of course she is reading to herself:) Audrey loves reading out loud to herself. Of course I don't mean really reading, but she looks at the pictures and tells her own story out loud to herself. In fact, I even get "kicked out" of the playroom when she really wants to read by herself! She is fanatical about the library and would go there every day if she could. Her love for books is definitely impressive!

Fantastically Fabulous Audrey Queen of the Library Books! VERY proud that she can use the potty and is wearing new Dora underwear! A few days after she got her big girl hair cut, she decided to be a big girl and use the potty! Up until now, she has peed on the potty a few random times, but I wouldn't even say she was potty training because she didn't care enough to try. To my shock, she was dry from 8:30 until 2:00 one day so I encouraged her to try the potty again. She sat an sat an sat and they did it! Lily and I went ballistic (and so did she!). We showered her with hugs, praise, treat, prizes, and stickers. We was just beaming with pride. Sure enough, she peed on the potty again that night. I wasn't sure if she would wake up and change her mind about the whole thing. The next morning she didn't want to try right away (because she had to go #2...that will take a little longer to get down on the potty). Then she went 4 times on the potty with one mistake! Awesome! I'm in SHOCK. This is what it is like to have a kid actually potty-training and not potty resistant. We'll see, but I hope there is no looking back! Audrey has always loved to paint and we certainly don't do it enough. So, I signed her up for an Abrakadoodle art class through Park & Rec for April. She goes while Lily is at preschool so it's perfect. So far we've been to one and I think she'll really like it.

We still need to work on NOT showing everyone the food in her mouth...:)

My sweet girl.

Princess Audrey. Without a bigger sister, she might not be such a big fan of the princesses yet.

Again...loving to dress up!

Do you like my earrings?

Miss Independent. I say that because she picked out her clothes this day. My girls are SO different. Audrey is all about doing things herself. She can undress and dress herself with very little (if any) help. She likes to do things on her own. In fact, I hear "I do it my elf" all day long. (I said "elf" because she doesn't say S's yet). She likes to climb up in her car seat herself, get her shoes on, get her coat on, turn the pages in a book, brush her teeth, etc. all by herself. I try to encourage this independence as much as I can (within reason).

*Please forgive the repetition in the post, I've been working on it for a few days so it's a bit pieced together. I decided to hit "publish" instead of fussing over things I should edit.

Audrey seems to be growing up so quickly! It's hard to believe that we were actually worried about her lack of speech when she was 18 months old. Now she is a chatterbox! I know I used to keep track of how many words per sentence the kids use, but I don't even know with her. I'm sure she uses 7, 8, or 9 at times. The funny thing about Audrey is when she has something to say, she will say it even if it takes a while to get the whole sentence out. She refuses to shorten her thoughts to match her speech. Because of that, I get shocked many times with the complex statements that come out of her mouth! She is still a bit hard to understand sometimes, but we have become great Audrey-interpreters. She does not use any "s" sounds yet so knowing that helps understand her. Audrey loves to sing songs and I often get woken up in the morning to her beautiful singing voice:) Some of my favorites are "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid", "Once upon a dream" from Sleeping Beauty, "The wheels on the bus", and the "Thomas the Train" them song.

Audrey is definitely Miss Independent. She likes to dress and undress herself, she likes to use her potty BY HERSELF (when means I must leave the bathroom and close the door for her to go), she climbs into her car seat herself, brushes her teeth, and much more. I hear "I do _____ all by my 'elf" all the time. She's SO different from Lily in that respect. It's taken a bit for me to get used to letting her do so much on her own given my type A personality. I'm trying my best to encourage and enable her independence though.

I already hit on Audrey's love for books above, but she is obsessed. I think she would go to the library everyday if we could. For a long time she wanted me to read to her non-stop (which clearly I can't do all day long). Within the last month or two, she has switched to wanting to "read" on her own more. Of course she is not really reading yet, but she makes up her own stories based on the pictures or memorizes books we read together and "reads" them out loud to herself. I'm not sure if it's because Lily is reading now and she is mimicking that or if she really enjoys being creative and making her own stories. Either way, I love her passion for it. I was reading to her tonight before bed and she was mouthing the words as I read...like she was trying to memorize it.

Besides reading, Audrey loves to be active. She is very adventurous and LOVES to dance. She even tries to do Lily's ballet dance from class which is adorable. She has been over the top excited about finally spending some days outside in the nice weather on the playground and just running around.

I'm not sure how to describe the type of play that Audrey likes to do. She likes repetition so we'll do things like give all the Disney princesses a magic carpet ride, or she bring multiple toys/dolls to me in our play tent one at a time, switching to the old one out or she'll dance with a toy/doll or a while then run to the playroom and get another and another. Like I said, it's hard to explain besides just calling it repetition play. As far as what characters she is into, she of course likes the Disney princesses, but has become enamored with Thomas the Train and all his friends. We have also seem a come back of Dora the Explorer through Audrey. I think she likes the involvement she gets to have in the Dora books and shows.

As for the obligatory "stats", I have to say I'm not sure about Audrey since I haven't measured her lately. I'm moving her into some 4T clothes party because she fits some that size and partly because I have clothes left from Lily. There's not reason to squeeze her into anything small. She continues to be tall and lean and weighs I'm guessing around 29-30 lbs.

I could ramble on forever about my sweet little Audrey, but then I would never get the post up. I will end by saying she's a blessing. She cracks me up daily and her zest and excitement for life is infectious.

Wow, are we in need of some humidity! We got a new couch recently and the girls decided to break it in by playing on it. That led to some hair-raising fun!

Saying Goodbye

I've started the difficult task of getting rid of our baby stuff. I say difficult not just because it's a pain to go through everything, but because it's a little hard to say good bye. For example, both girls used the playmat above for many months and I have tons of picture of them both playing under it. Lots of memories...however now a new little baby can have lots of good times rolling around and playing under the tweeting bird. Lily decided she wanted a picture with the playmat (see above). I didn't tell her what to do, she just crawled under and smiled. Ironically, I was reminded of a picture I have of her when she was about 3 months old in the same pose (see below)!
Although it's hard to say goodbye, it reminds me that we have moved into the next phase of having little/big girls and all of the excitement that comes with that!