The playroom!



Big things are happening under the house in Brentwood!  Our Playroom, once a yuck, dark and dirty converted garage is now (da da da DUM!) the playroom!

Here are some before and afters.  Mom was very gung-ho to make this a do it yourself project, but neither she nor Dad could deal with the floor.  So they got Lumber Liquidators to install the laminate.  Much better, I think!



 Before

After

 


We are very happy for all our space to play! On play side, we have music, art and books.  On the living side we have a lounge and a dress up section. Luckily, we were able to pull most of the items in the room from other places in the house, except for the new toy storage, to help keep us tidy-- and the new TV, which Dad got at 12 AM from Target on Black Friday.
Inside is way more fun now, but we still like to play in the world a lot too!  This week, Mom took the sisters to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville with our friends Laura and Grant. They made lots of things- like papyrus bookmarks, paintings and scribbles! They brought me back a bookmark, since I have school on Mondays and the little kids don't.

Jess and Laura also got into the blocks and caused a little crazyness in the museum, as they are apt to due.

Over the weekend, we had a lot to do with Marina.  At 8am, she had her first basketball game! The Lightening won 12-4, which was very exciting.

After Basketball, we ran right over to the preschool for Marina's Christmas Pageant, which was very sweet!

Jess loved it, as you can see!

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! This year, we had the whole week off and nowhere to be! We spent lots of time together playing games, making playdoh, and fighting (only occassionally!)

We had a feast on Thanksgiving, and ate it up all the way until Monday.  It was left over city at our house!

And after a meal like that, it was time to run around.  We went over to a local elementary school for some basketball practice and monkey bars. 

 

 Dad was home on Thursday and Friday.  We love some Dad time!

 Unfortunately, Marina still struggles to stay fever free! She had two fevers over the break.  Both cleared up quickly, but that sort of sick means we have to stay super clean and sanitized- which is no problem in the jacuzzi tub! Bubbles!

On Sunday, we put up the Christmas tree.  It was a cold, rainy day, so tree trimming inside was the perfect activity.



Getting the holiday spirit!

 

This week, we've been celebrating a whole week off of school, with no practices, no meetings and play, play, play- all the time!  We  decided Yogi needed to join the party too, as you can see.  He obviously likes the dress up as much as we do!

And we are having fun! We're learning too though, just look at Marina's latest skill:

Although I didn't actually teach her anything, Marina says she picked it up by watching me!  What a great sister I'm turning into!

Besides tying our shoes and dressing our dog, we're also hitting the town with our new friends.  Bass Pro Shops has a wonderful Christmas Wonderland with Santa all set up for us, and it isn't even Thanksgiving.  Mom thinks that's terrific, because most people don't even know to look our for Santa yet, on account of it being so early, and so there are no crowds!

Jess likes to spend lots of time with her two year old friends outside of preschool.   

Tres Amigos



 

A tent!

And of course, we sat down with Santa, and gave him our lists and made sure he was feeling strong going into the Christmas season.  Everything looks good, we think!

It's been raining a lot this week, so we spent Sunday and today (Tuesday)  at the indoor science museum. Sunday was just the family.  I think she likes it a little better when she can spend a little time with her BFF! 

As for me and Marina, we ran around with Laura's big brothers and also a neighbor who just happened to be there with her Grandpa.  I love science stuff and I love friends, so it was a very, very good day!


Tornado Tunnel!



feeling unbalanced!



The rest of the story

 Grandma and Pop Pop came to visit last weekend.  And that's not all!  The brought back our Yogi Bear!

Grandma and Pop Pop are very super nice grandparents, and they told Mom and Dad to take a night to themselves at The Opryland, to celebrate their anniversary.  That was nice, alright.  You know what's nicer?  Well, I'll tell you.  While Mom and Dad were hanging out, relaxing on Saturday night at Gaylord's Opryland, my sisters were doing this!

them

us

It appears I (Maddie) brought back the virus from school on Thursday, and half of my class was absent with it on Friday.  This means this was one catchy bug! But, on Saturday evening when Mom and Dad left, the sisters and I were all well again.  It lasted a few hours.  Then everyone was puking.  Yuck!

Grandma and Pop Pop, being the heroes they are, did not tell Mom or Dad about the throw up situation until they got home on Sunday.  There were lots of hugs!

Grandma and Pop Pop and the trouble with Blogspot.

Mom knows better than to complain about the free stuff, but Blogger is all boogered up today, and so we've just got about half of our pictures up.  We'll post again when things are working! This week, there were two BIG events.  The first, and more important event, was the visit from Grandma and Pop Pop.  We had so much FUN.  That is, until the second big event- which was the stomach virus. 

Before life hit the highs and lows, though, we did our regular things.  The regular things pictures are all we've got up so far.  But hopefully, we've got you interested in the rest of the story!

This week, before all the excitement, the sisters spent time with all our friends at the Do Everything Park after preschool.  They do this lots after preschool.

And of course, I swam in the heated indoor pool! The hardest part is definitely getting there.

Marina is playing basketball twice a week now- and having so much fun with all those boys! She has impressed us all with her quick improvement, and her very focused attention.  She really doesn't miss much!

I've started Girl Scouts.  Here's my troop at our first outing, which was a tour of Publix Supermarket.  Very fun.  Esspecially for the sisters!