A little barter and some catchup.....

Sunday Maggie wanted to make cookies for a couple of our neighbors. (We've purchased a shamrock cookie cutter since the last episode.) She made some for the high school boy down the road who played at state basketball and she made some for Ned and & Lorri, who live right next door. Ned and Lorri's were just a ploy to get more deer sticks......

....and it worked. She'd eaten 2 of them before she got back to our house and she was SUPER excited that Lorri had given her a giant deer summer sausage. We may have to teach the kid to hunt, in order to feed her habit :)

Now for a little blog catch up....last weekend was State Basketball. The Panthers had an unbelievable win in their first game (triple overtime). It was so fun, we all left sore and hoarse from cheering so hard. Unfortunately they last the next 2 games, it was a great season and we can't wait to do it all again next year!



 One day last week Lauren got to come play. The girls had a fun day. Despite our enormous play room, their favorite place to play was under my desk??? goofy girls!

Friday while we waited for our second State Bball game, we had the best surprise!! Halie and Connor had come to Omaha for a visit. Leslie, Dennis and I took the kids to the zoo. It was so good to see them. It was a little windy and chilly but we had a great time. The girls were so happy to have H & C here.

Our 4 little monkeys! I wish Elsie had felt better so we could have had the 5th monkey too!

Gracie was done!

 A few other recent pictures.....

Maggie had taken a bit of a break from headstands....the break seems to be over!

Maggie and Grandma reviewing her report card.....she did AWESOME and was very proud to share it.

If the workers don't get busy soon I think maybe Maggie and Grandpa will finish digging the pool themselves!



Gracie room has been half done for a year. Last week I finally got some things hung on the wall and now I think it really is done. I still haven't decided for sure about the girl on the wall....it might be a little scary, but Gracie seems to like it, so for now it'll stay.

HAPPY ST PATTY's day from all the O'Robinson girls!

I've spent the last 2 days cleaning and reorganizing the garage. Gracie must be tired of "helping" me. Today she took the Gator and said she was going to Omaha.....then she came running back and asked me to teach her how to turn right :)  

Pledge...

All of the sudden Gracie just belted this out.....

She must pay attention at school.

Maggie is almost exactly the same age in this video as Gracie is today (gracie has lots more hair)....
http://youtu.be/bSDGO3DPy54

Their preschool teachers get all the credit :)

Birthday party....

On Saturday Gracie went to her first Birthday party without Maggie. Shelby was Gracie's friend from Northern Hills. Shelby's mom was the teacher in Gracie's room and the girls were great friends the year they were there.

I was kind of dreading taking her. Gracie is so funny and happy but she is also painfully shy. She rarely talks to adults* and won't usually interact with kids she doesn't know. She hasn't seen Shelby and Laura since June, I was sure it was going to be a disaster. BUT it wasn't. She was awesome. She and Shelby were like long lost pals, she hugged Laura and talked to both her and Shelby's dad. I was stunned. It was fun to see and a nice relief from the usual. She seemed so grown up.

After the birthday party the girls and I made a last minute trip to Omaha.....and no trip to Omaha would be complete without some hammering :)

*I say rarely because on Sunday Gracie decided to randomly tell the cashier at Costco that we were buying "toilet paper for our bootys"....but otherwise she doesn't speak :)

Kindergarten Boss!

Maggie's teacher called this morning and asked if I could help her walk the Kindergarteners to the bank. The have been collecting pennies, with hopes of "adopting" a penguin at the zoo. I told Gracie what we were going to do and she immediately decided she was going to be the boss of the Kindergarteners and make them all stay in line :) she was pretty excited. 

Maggie (in the pink) took her job as line leader very seriously :)

After they watched their change be counted, the bank manager gave them all a tour of the vault. They were hoping to have $25 to adopt their penguin....they ended up with $94.25.

The happy little boss......

After school the girls enjoyed the awesome weather. Hopefully spring will be here soon!

Notice her shoes are on the wrong feet :) I tried to fix them, she wasn't having it!

Another one bites the dust! (And a few other notes)

Since the Tooth Fairy left a note last time and mentioned she was afraid of Reagan, Maggie left a response.....


:)
Gracie thinks if she wears sunglasses she's invisible.....


.....and if she wears a cape she's a "swooper hero".....








I walked into my office today and found this at my desk.....


....it must be more dangerous in there then I thought!!

Aunt Bobbie's sugar cookies....

There are 2 reasons Aunt Bobbie's sugar cookies are the best.....1#- the recipe, it's Aunt Barbara's, it's old and well tested. #2- most importantly Aunt Bobbie makes them, which means I don't have too!

For whatever reason, yesterday I decided that we should try to make them.  I blame Aunt Bobbie, when she gave us a box of Valentine cookies, she included a copy of the recipe. We were going to make St. Patty's day cookies.....Problem #1, I didn't have a shamrock cookie cutter and there is no where in Norfolk to buy one on a Sunday (apparently I have to learn to plan ahead)....I should have quit then. Maggie picked a cookie cutter out of our box that looked like sunglasses....great idea, think spring.....WAIT, sunglasses cookies end up looking a lot like bra cookies.....

....Maggie wanted to take some to the neighbors to barter for Deer Sticks, she didn't understand why I didn't think these were appropriate.  I guess we'll have to make something else to feed her deer stick habit!

Anyway, we made a huge mess, which always makes my OCD kick into overdrive. But the girls had fun and we successfully stayed inside all day!

Everyone stayed inside, except Arnie, he had to go out and deal with the snow....It's so cold, he came in to add to his warm clothes.....

...notice the pink Hello Kitty scarf. He was so cold he'd resort to whatever worked. (Maggie quickly made him a more appropriate looking "boy" scarf, so he wouldn't have to use hers again.)

Saturday we went to Lincoln to watch the Panther Basketball team play. We had a great day playing with friends. Maggie was so excited when we got the basketball game and Brandon was there to sit with her.

A few other pictures from last week.....

Gracie spent a lot of time in time out on Thursday....maybe too much?

On that note, we are officially counting down to the end of the "Terrible Twos"!

"Would you wike some books from me wibwawee?"

Nothing like getting fancy to go to bed :)

Traumatic new do....

Friday Morning Maggie said "Mom, I want a haircut. I think I'll cut it to my chin." She didn't have to tell me twice, I've been suggesting a shorter cut for awhile and have been mostly met with screaming. I called and got her in with whoever could do it RIGHT after school. I wanted as little time as possible to change her mind.

She watched Gracie get her bangs trimmed, then climbed up in the chair and confidently said, "I want it cut to my chin." She chit chatted with the gal and all seemed fine. About 2/3 of the way through the haircut, I said, "it's SO cute, Maggie." She looked up, saw her reflection in the mirror and started SOBBING! The poor girl cutting it had no idea what to do, she asked if she should keep cutting or stop....Uh, keep cutting! She never did stop crying until after we were back in the car. She had a whole cheering section of people telling her how great it looked, but it didn't help. At one point she even said, "I meant my other chin."???? It was obviously shorter then she was envisioning.

It's absolutely darling by Saturday morning she admitted she liked it and this morning she couldn't wait to go to school and show her friends. I told her I thought we should go back and tell the girl at the salon that she liked it.