Cute! Cute! Cute!

This is "Teacher Appreciation Week" at our school, so the kids are bringing in some fun and thoughtful gifts! I'm going to miss this part of teaching next year! *grin*
Today, a gift was on my desk that I just had to blog about. A mom had made me a "photo album" that was in scrapbook form, if you will. She took 3 brown lunch bags and folded them in half. She then punched holes in the fold of the bags to make a binding for the photo album. She decorated each page with a different piece of scrapbook paper, and now I have a cute photo album to add some special photos of Anna Claire! I'm so impressed with this mom's creativity.

Cool Girl

Anna Claire got some new sunglasses. Did you notice? *grin*
And apparently, she has discovered a new way to sit in her chair. Comfortable? She thinks so!

Melt My Heart....

Anna Claire's friend, Brennan, came over to play tonight! These two play well together. I turned on "The Wiggles", and Brennan sat down in AC's chair. She was distraught that someone else was in her chair, and quickly, Brennan said, "Here sit", and he scooted over, making room for her. Precious.
By the way, we don't make kids wear name tags when the come to the house. We had been at a church function, and Brennan was still wearing his name tag. *grin*

Boomer Sooner?

Anna Claire was very proud of herself when she came around the corner, wearing her daddy's OU baseball cap! She just HAD to show it off to her "friend in the mirror"!

Hilarious!

I just had to post this....couldn't resist. It has absolutely nothing to do with Anna Claire or our family....just hilarious. Enjoy.

Fun With the Grocery Cart

When AC isn't pushing her stroller, she is proudly prancing around with her grocery cart. Her two favorite things to do with the grocery cart are 1. knock it over, allowing all the treasures in the cart to spill on the floor and 2. once the cart is on its side, she climbs in it. I was able to capture both tonight. Silly girl, I tell you!

Let's Take a Walk...

After dinner this evening, we decided to go for a walk. Our "neighborhood" is our street (a cul-de-sac) with 6 houses and 3 churches. A "walk" for us consists of walking down the street and around our church parking lot. Tonight, we also played in the grass that separates our house and the church. The dogs were with us also, so that always makes things lively.

Beautiful Saturday!

Today, the weather was beautiful! Anna Claire loves playing outside! Today, she wanted to push her princess bucket in her baby stroller....silly girl!
We went to a kid's birthday party this afternoon, and the family lives out in the country! Anna Claire was able to run all over the place, and she was a happy camper! Daddy got to ride a 4-wheeler and a horse, so he was a happy camper too! They had a crawfish boil, and AC took great pleasure in playing with the crawfish heads! She got a good laugh out of them!




Needless to say, we hardly left their driveway, and she was sleeping soundly.

And She's Off....

Anna Claire knows one speed....fast! The kid loves to run! The minute we step outside, she takes off running down the sidewalk. When she gets to the end, she stops, turns around, laughs, and runs back!
And the other day at school, she thought it would be more fun to go down the little slide head first. So, this is the result of her face meeting the bark on the playground (left cheek).
Tonight, Anna Claire pushed the new box of diapers in front of the tv, propped herself up proudly on the box, and turned on the TV!

Mail Time

Tonight, Anna Claire felt it necessary to push her princess bucket around in her baby stroller....well, right. That's normal. She had collected some leaves, sticks, and flowers (ok, they were weeds...but she didn't know) from our time out in the backyard this afternoon, so maybe she felt she needed to take extra good care of that bucket tonight.






Recently, she has received several cards in the mail from her grandpa in Oklahoma and her grandparents in Texas! She had a great time tonight "reading" her mail and then putting it in her mailbox.

Anna Claire and her slide

For Christmas, Ma-Maw and Pa (Anna Claire's great-grandparents), bought her a slide. She loves when we bring it out for her to play on. Today, you would have thought we brought out the world's largest jungle gym - she was so excited!

The Dinner Bell

Today, Brad and I went on an adventure. Anna Claire got to stay with her best little bud from church, so she was one happy camper!
Off we went to The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi, with the senior adults of our church. This place is an experience! Basically, you sit at a huge round table, and there is a seriously large lazy susan in the middle filled with all kinds of good Southern dishes. When you need something, you just "spin" the lazy susan, and when a dish gets low, out comes a fresh family-style serving of that dish! On the menu today was fried chicken, BBQ ribs, sausage, corn-on-the-cob, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, fried eggplant, red beans and rice, dumplings, rolls, and cornbread. Dessert...banana pudding. Delicious.




And on our way home, we passed through Kentwood, Louisiana...home of Brittney Spears. Yes, I took a picture of the sign.
Finally, here are a couple of cute pictures of Anna Claire from today. Her school is doing a fundraiser, and she is fascinated by the magazine that shows all the items being sold. This morning, she had it in her grocery cart. And this afternoon, she was enjoying the beautiful weather we are having by riding on her daddy's shoulders.

How Tall Is She?

Aunt Elizabeth is using Anna Claire as her 'subject' for some nutrition class project. I had given her all the necessary information, except I didn't know Anna Claire's height. As is evident in her pictures, Anna Claire is never still, nor would she understand the concept of, "Anna Claire, stand still so I can measure you." Not going to happen. So, we waited until she was asleep, and we went in and measured her. Yes, I took a picture. It was a funny sight. The best was she started stirring as we were finishing, and Brad said, "30 inches...GO!" and we were out before she even knew what happened.

I, myself, will do it....

This was a phrase that rang thoughout my house when Elizabeth was little. I am reminded of this phrase on a daily basis with Anna Claire. She wants to try everything by herself, and she makes sure you know this!
Case in point....she has recently discovered that when eating, she can use her own spoon and have the food make it to her mouth with about 85% accuracy; therefore, she has mastered the skill of eating with a spoon/fork (or at least that's how she sees it). Tonight, she had ravioli.....and here is the result:
We still needed to go to Target after dinner, so a quick bath was in order. She cleaned up nicely, and we were off. She picked up some random items and we were on our way...

Whoa....

Please take a minute and visit The Jenkins Johnson Gallery website to see the latest exhibit. This is a gallery in NYC that is featuring the work of a lady who did a photographic gender study based on the colors pink and blue. You can read the article in the NY Times by clicking here.
I can't imagine setting this all up and then sitting the child in the middle of it. Anna Claire would go nuts!

A New Accessory?

When Aunt Robyn was here one time, she bought Anna Claire this Disney princess bucket at the mall. Every once in a while, Anna Claire will play with this bucket. Recently, though, she has taken a strong liking to this bucket and she carries it all over the house. She keeps the same items in the bucket, and she likes to "unpack" the items. She then finds great delight in putting all the items back in the bucket and away she goes! Here are a couple of pictures from this afternoon. She knows she is not to play on our treadmill, so she likes to sit on the very edge. And just in case you are wondering, the contents of the bucket include: a small cloth ball, a green cup from a stacking set, a plastic piece of pizza, a plastic bunch of grapes, and a necklace. Odd.