Barbies and Bows

One of the last minute jobs I do each morning, now that Smudge goes to school every day, is fix her hair before she heads out the door to catch the school bus. We usually put it in a pony tail or poodle ears, but whatever we do, we always top it off with a bow.

We were ready early this one morning, so Smudge had time to play with her Barbies before it was time to leave. JJ joined her, and if you look closely...
you will see that he had to have a bow in his hair too. Seeing as his hair is only about half an inch long it is darn hard to get an elastic and bow in his hair, but he insists, so I do my best. We haven't yet managed poodle ears though.
When it is time to go to the bus stop, Smudge runs down the street to greet her friends...
and JJ, with bow firmly in place, follows closely behind.

Yee Haw....

...I'm a cowboy Amma.
That's what I heard and this is what I saw when I looked up to see JJ coming into the kitchen.

Sure makes me start my day with a smile this little guy does.

Abby on the blanket

Abby had a bit of an upset tummy last week, and wouldn't you know, she threw up on the bed, the carpet in the bedroom, and the floor in the hall. Groan! The next morning I found her once again curled up on the bed. Hmmmm, what to do? Surely she wouldn't throw up again, but....you never know. I found an old baby blanket on the desk, so I scrunched it up and put it next to her on the bed.
Good girl, she curled up on the cuddly blanket and slept there all day. At least if she threw up again, it might just get on the blanket and be a tad easier to wash than the huge king size spread.
Kids and Kats...you gotta love 'em

Feeding the beast

While Sister was in Montreal visiting Grandmama, JJ came over to our place for dinner with Mommy. I think he was a hungry lion in the picture below...
thank goodness we had an ice cream cone on hand to tame the beast.

Koala Hatta

I think somebody likes his new winter hat and mitts set.
It was a rather warm day when he arrived for a visit, but came into our house with his hat and mitts on anyway, and was all smiles.

Such a friendly soul

We took these pictures a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to post them yet. Here they are before they get lost in the shuffle.

On Buppa's birthday he takes Smudge out for a date. How cool is that? She happily posed for this picture before they set off.
Then she moved right in for a big hug. She is such a friendly soul.
All decked out in her princess dress, she eagerly went to the car to leave for their lunchtime birthday celebration.
After a delicious lunch at McDonald's they went to the park...
for a walk...
and then they stopped at the ice cream shoppe for a treat. Below we see Smudge sitting with another family that had stopped at the shoppe for ice cream too. The amazing thing is that these people were complete strangers, but Smudge treated them like long lost friends.
She was pleased as punch to sit on the bench with them...
and make herself right at home in their family gathering.
She is such a friendly soul. She greets every child she meets and considers each one her friend.

Daddy's little helper

Daddy came over to help us fix our screen door the other day...
and Smudge was right beside him to help him get the job done right.

This brought back sweet memories of spending time with my dad in his workshop helping him with his many projects. To this day, whenever I smell sawdust I think of him. Sweet memories indeed.

Little Brothers...don't touch!

I walked into the kid's place the other morning and noticed this piece of paper taped to the kitchen table leg. I didn't know what it was so went in for a closer look...
Hmmm, what is the meaning of this?
I later learned that this was a drawing of JJ, and it was taped there to tell him not to touch the toy that had been sitting below it on the weekend. Before Smudge left for school that morning she again pointed to this picture and sternly told JJ that he was not to touch anything that had this sign on it. How creative and imaginative is that?

I must admit that I had a hard time keeping from laughing while I told her she wasn't to talk to her brother like that, and I would tell him what he mustn't touch during the day.

JJ didn't seem to be upset by it at all. He pointed to the picture at different times during the day and told me that it was a picture of him.

What next?

Gotta love the imagination

I looked over at JJ the other morning and asked him what he was doing...
"I'm riding my camel Amma. " He said in a tone that implied I should have known because...isn't it obvious.

I ran for my camera!

Still on duty

Yes, Winnie is still on duty, and is doing a fine job keeping JJ company while big sister is at school. They both start the day on the couch while JJ has his morning glass of milk.
You can't see it too clearly in this picture, but Winnie also has a sippy of pretend milk...
and when it was time for JJ to have his breakfast, Winnie had to have a dish and spoon too. Of course JJ had to help Winnie with the spoon.
Good job JJ, Winnie had a great breakfast and he didn't get a speck of cereal on his bib.

A good morning story and snuggle with Buppa

Buppa was called on this morning for a before school story. He was more than happy to oblige.

This is such a nice way to start the day, and brings smiles to both their faces.

School Morning

I don't know how I will handle things on cold wet days, but during this nice weather, JJ likes to get ready to go to the bus stop with Sister in the mornings. We have to find him a backpack for the short walk to the stop, but I usually end up carrying it home. Groan!
Once at the bus stop JJ gets a Good Morning hug from his pal Evan...
then they all line up and wait for the bus. (Guess who is already carrying JJ's back pack.)
The bus arrives and JJ says good-bye to sister...
and she is the first one on the bus because she is oh so excited about going to school.

New Buddy

Now that Sister is away at school every day, JJ was in need of a new Buddy to keep him company, and he found just the ticket in Winnie-the-Pooh. Here we see Winnie helping JJ with his computer problems.
He wanted to take Winnie outside with him this morning, but Winnie is strictly an indoor Buddy, so JJ settled on reading on the deck with Amma.
Once snack time rolled around though, Winnie was back on duty.

Dancing in Princess hat

The weekend zipped by, and I don't think I had my camera in my hand once. What's the world coming to? Hence no new pics to share with you today. Here are a couple of old ones taken last week to tide you over.

Belle

The little girl up the street passed this costume on to Smudge, and she just had to model it for me the other morning.
What a sweet princess she is.

While sister is at school....

JJ plays dress-up...
Rockstar...
photographer's assistant...
studious student....
and expert story listener.

Tough work without Sister's help

When the garbage man came last week, JJ had to carry the bins in all by himself. Sigh! It was tough work without his sister to help him. But he did a fine job toting...
and lifting...
and toting some more.

Good job JJ.