Kerstin Goes to Prom

Yesterday, Kerstin and several friends went to Prom. Most of the girls in these pictures are exchange students from all over. They had a blast and made lots of memories!
At the hair salon:



And the limo picked up all the kids and took them first to the state capitol before taking them to dinner and the dance.

Food Fight and Cowboy Boots

Last Tuesday, for St. Patrick's Day, Brad sent green mac 'n cheese in Anna Claire's school lunch. Well, when he went to pick her up that afternoon, AC's teacher informed him that she and 3 of her little friends had a small food fight at lunch. Brad asked if Anna Claire was mad, and she said, "Oh no. All of them were laughing at the food flying."Ha. Can you just see 2 year olds slinging mac 'n cheese and other small bites of food? Anyway, when she got home, I had her retell me the story, and at the end, I asked, "Anna Claire, did it make you sad when you didn't get your sweet treat after lunch because you threw food at other kids?" She said, "Yeah, this sad" and here's the face she made: (How genuine is that??)
And then, on Saturday, Anna Claire went and hid in our closet. When she came out....this is what she was wearing:

Also, Kerstin is going to Prom this weekend, so stay tuned for a picture-filled post of the exciting event!

From the Phone...

Here are some random pictures from the last couple of days that I took with my phone.
1. AC in the ball pit (read: 2 small inflatable swimming pools filled with plastic balls) at church. This is in the toddler room for our Friday Nites outreach, and AC asks us to take her over to the gym EVERY day so she can jump in the balls. We make her wait for Friday, so when she is finally able to jump in, all is right in the world for her! :)

2. AC riding the merry go round at the mall. Last night, she wanted to "ride on the tiger". Remember we live in Tiger Country (Go LSU!), and there are a couple of tigers on the mall merry go round...silly. We payed the $2 and walked around to find the tiger. AC quickly changed her mind and insisted on sitting on the bench of the ride! Seriously? I paid $2 for us to sit on a bench, but she was glowing. At the end, she asked if she could ride the tiger. I made her promise (She's 2, I'm not sure she really understood what I was asking or what she was committing to!) not to ride the silly bench again, and she agreed. We paid another $2 and she rode on the tiger! She was a happy little camper.
3. The Grass Head Girl. Gigi has nicknamed her "Hairy Hilda". Fear not, pigtails will be coming soon.

Are You Hungry?

Yesterday and today, our youth group participated in the 30-Hour Famine, raising awareness of world hunger. They had sponsors for the event, slept in cardboard boxes, and didn't eat for 30 hours! I will take a moment to brag on Kerstin...she took this whole project very seriously and managed to raise over $500!!! Way to go, Kerstin!
Tonight, we met up with the group in our church gym to have pizza with them to celebrate the end of the 30 hour "famine".
Kerstin and her friend, Karin, showing me just how hungry they were! The last 30 minutes were the longest and they kept asking us "How much longer?" every 5 minutes...but they made it!
One of the teens (an exchange student from Italy) went all out on her cardboard "house". Rick, our youth sponsor, referred to it as the Italian Hilton! Anna Claire got to bring this one home, and she is thrilled! She and Hannah had a blast playing in it at the gym!
When we got home, Kerstin went right to work making a "drop off box" for me to collect Easter eggs and candy in for our annual crawfish boil and Easter egg hunt at the church (only in Louisiana would those two events be combined and it be accepted as "normal"!) Anna Claire supervised Kerstin and then they both celebrated the finished product! Have I told anyone just how much we are all going to miss "K" (as our family calls her) when she leaves at the end of May?

Sweet Dreams, Baby.

Anna Claire received some money for having no accidents at school, so tonight, she bought a new baby doll at Wal-Mart. She is starting to take an interest in her dolls, and she enjoys rocking them, singing to them, pushing them in her doll stroller or swing. She even has a little doll crib for her babies to sleep in; however, she felt this new baby would sleep better on the living room floor tonight....on two of my dish towels.
And because I know you've all been hiting the refresh button to see if I've added a new picture of our grass hair growing friend....here you go! A&M bow and all. Gig'em.

Always Growing Something....

A couple of weeks ago, it was the ginormous frog, and this week....it's this:
a little chia head-like creature that grows grass out the top of his/her head. Gigi sent it to Anna Claire with the optimistic proclimation that "when it's hair fully grows, you can make pigtails!"....Clearly, Gigi thinks this thing is a girl and has full faith that "she" will grow enough hair to make pigtails....Oh dear. We'll keep you posted on this one. I know you can't wait. Gigi sure can't.

Bring on the Crawfish!

Well folks, here in south Louisiana, CRAWFISH SEASON is in full swing! This means a few things:
1. The local news stations will usually feature at least one story a day about the price of crawfish, where to find good crawfish, and how the crawfish may not be as good as last year's catch.
2. At Wal-Mart and any other local store, bags of lemons, onions, corn on the cob, and potatoes will sit at the front of the produce section as the "featured produce" (all necessary items for a crawfish boil).
3. People will get together and have a crawfish boil - which is an event that people from around here take very seriously and know how to do well.
This brings me to today...we were invited over to some friends' home for a little crawfish boil, and oh my, was it delicious! When we lived in Houston, Brad and I ordered a pound of crawfish at a restaurant to celebrate our move to Louisiana. After eating them, we weren't sure what all the fuss was about. Now that we live here, we realize that there's an art to preparing these little 'mud bugs', and with the right spices, they are outstanding.
Before the party, we ran by Target to pick up a few things. Brad spotted this flower-like headband in the Dollar Spot section, and AC took a strong liking to the little accessory. She even wore it to the party....silly girl.
The weather was absolutely perfect today, and the kids had a blast being outside! This bubble gun was a hit with all of them!
Here's AC chasing after Allen, a man in our church that AC thinks is pretty funny!
The kids (and Brad) checking out the live mud bugs before they tossed in the boiling water!
And the crawfish are now ready to eat! YUM.
Last year, Anna Claire was too young to eat crawfish, so this was her first time to try them! She loved them and kept asking for more! She thought they were a little spicy, but that didn't slow her down!
On a totally different note....tonight, the teens from our church participated in a fundraiser called "Terrible Caroling" where they go to people's homes and sing loud and obnoxious until the people pay them money to leave! Kerstin, Karin, and Ethan came to our home! We not only made a donation, we also gave them ice cream bars....AC thought this was awesome!

Update

So, here's an update to the previous post...
Anna Claire is only wearing diapers when she sleeps! And, she's only requested her pacifier once to which I quickly reminded her that it was she who flushed them all down the toilet. She agreed and went on with her life!
The little darling is growing up!

Are You Kidding Me?

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A toddler with no pacifier

Anna Claire tossed her "bah-bahs"/"nu-nus" (as she calls them) in the toilet last night and flushed them away! She did this on her own and without us prompting her! She had one left that I was going to let her take to school today for nap time, but she flushed that one this morning before we walked out the door. So, off we went to school wearing "big girl panties" and no pacifier in the bag....should make for an interesting day!!