pouting Prince-ess

Rachel has officially learned the art of pouting- arms crossed, lip poked out, and all. This particular day she was playing dress-up with her cousins and started pouting because she wanted to be Rapunzel and was told she could be the prince because they already had a Rapunzel. She tries hard to pout, but she can't help but smile. You gotta love this kid!

Mommy's Big Helper...

I decided to break out the sewing machine this weekend. After blowing the dust and cobwebs off of it (no, not really), I ended up making two dresses. These were my first ones to do without a pattern, so I'm kind of proud of them, even if one was too small. Of course my little helper was on hand to supervise. Sometimes she is even a little too much help, I think. :)

She was trying it on for size before I sewed it up:

She supervised every stitch:


Even under the scrutinizing eye of Princess P, sewing supervisor, extroidenaire, things happen. Things like sewing a wrong side to a right side: (oops)

That's when it becomes neccessary to break out this handy little gadget: the seam-ripper. I think I would rather pull my eyelashes out one by one that rip apart an entire side of a dress, just saying.

Once the dress was finished, Rachel put aside her supervisory duties and became my little model. And what a good little model she was. The first dress was a little snug around the waist. She bowed out her chest and said, "It's a little tight when I do like this." I wish I had taken a picture of us trying to get her out of the dress. That was an experience. Guess I'll have to save this one to sell at the Blueberry Festival next year.

The pink one turned out so cute, I think. I left it a little bigger so she can wear a long sleeve shirt under it this fall/winter. She has some pink minky pants to match.

Between dresses Rachel and I made cake balls. She was more than happy to take care of the left over icing for me. :)

After supper she even asked if she could sweep the floor. She earned her first allowance, a whole nickel. (That's the only change I had on me at the time.) I told her she worked hard for her money. She agreed and then asked for more money. Oh, and I realize she doesn't match, but she dressed herself, I promise.

Birthday Dinner and this week's "Fortune Cookie Say"

My sweet sister took us out for supper last night at my favorite restaurant- Mai Tai. We had so much fun and laughed until the tears were rolling. There is never a boring minute with Princess P around. By the end of the night Aunt Alicia was wearing the majority of Rachel's supper. She was a good sport though. :) My little love a dove just can't help herself; she loves to hug!
When the fortune cookies came, she opened hers and asked Mamaw to read her destructions (a cross between description and instructions). She cracks me up. I love this kid!
This week's fortune cookie say: "Don't panic." We got jipped on this one.

I love that smile!



Yummy rice!

Rachel was trying to choke Aunt Licia in this one. She loves a bear hug.

Moma is saying don't take my picture. She's probably thinking she didn't sign up for supper with the paparazzi. :) I love you Mommy!

"I do it by my big girl"

Rachel thinks she is grown and can do everything by herself. When she was smaller she would say, "I do it by my big girl," meaning I'll do it myself. It makes me sad, but she has outgrown that phrase now. The other night at bathtime she wanted to was her hair by herself. Here's how that worked out:

Oops! How did that one get on here? :)

our day so far...

Since I think it should be against the law to have to work on your birthday, Rachel and I are off work and out of school just hanging out today. So far we (and I mean I) have cleaned the house and washed clothes. We have played and played and sang and played some more. At school yesterday she picked up singing Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies." Thankfully she thinks it is "All the Sing a Lays," and those are the only words she knows. I'm not telling her any different. I thought I would share some pictures of our goofing off. This is what she did while I cleaned house. She is into her little Leap Frog game:

smoothies

My beautiful, precious baby girl decided to make me a smoothie last night. Jonathan has some kitchen stuff from the camper in a box in the back room. I think she'd rather play with them than any of her other toys. She has such a great imagination. She said she was making strawberry smoothies and blueberry smoothies ( out of her dollhouse accessories if you look closely). They were delicious! Good job chef Rachel!

Just look at the determination and concentration on her face:

more soccer

Rachel is loving soccer. We had practice last night, though we thought it would be a rain out. It rained on us the whole way home, which led to Rachel whining, "but I want to play soccer" the whole way home. Due to the asphalt explosion on 49 yesterday afternoon our drive home was a little longer as we had to go backroads the whole way. This set off a whole new round of objections from Rachel because she said that was not the way we go home, and she wanted to play soccer. To which I answered, "You have a point sweet pea, but there is a big hole in the road, and we can't go home the way we usually go." She got so excited about the big hole in the road she forgot about the rain. She had to tell everybody she saw at school this morning about the hole in the road and that they put a patch on it.

Anyway we did get to play soccer after all. It felt so good outside. I kind of wish it would rain everytime before practice. There was a nice breeze blowing, the sun was behind the clouds, and we had a beautiful sunset on the way home.

Her first practice last Tuesday she did such a great job. That Thursday it was sooo hot, and she just went back and forth between me and the field the whole time. I can't say I blame her on that one. Last night she started out acting shy when her coach asked her if she was ready to play. She would run out onto the field, then do a u-turn and run back to me. Her coach got down on his knees and told her if she wanted to play then she had to get out there and stretch and play like her team mates, and that it wasn't fair to the others who were out there practicing if she got to play without participating in the practices. I thought that might have been a little over her head, but to my surprise she said she wanted to play and went out on the field with her team and didn't look back. I'm glad we got the coach we did. He is very good with the kids, patient but tough at the same time. He did have to break out the whistle last night though because they wouldn't listen to him. Let me tell you, they jumped to attention when they heard the whistle. I'm thinking I may need one of those! :)

We are looking forward to Jonathan working at home for a few weeks coming up. Hopefully he can get off in time to come to some soccer practices. This girl loves her Daddy!