First Day of Kindergarten!

We had an excellent summer!

Scenes from two birthday parties

Two Years Old

If you read my previous post you can probably tell that I am feeling more than a little sentimental about the gals' birthdays. I suppose that Harper turning five just makes us want to sop up even more of Margot's "still little" years. Watching her little personality emerge in all the wondrous ways that only a two-year-old can pull off is so amazing.

She's ridiculously precious. Her teachers often comment that it's hard to scold her when she's mischievous (which is A LOT) because she's so darn cute. She knows exactly when to flash that toothy smile to make it virtually impossible to do anything but kiss her smooth little cheeks. She loves music and will bounce to the beat of anything she hears, even the windshield wipers. She finally SLEEPS! It only took her 22 months (good grief). She has this precious little off-centered run that almost looks like a limp (but not in a sad way). She loves hugging, candy and saying, "Ohhh mannn."

She's pretty close to perfect and she's made the Phillips Family Four complete. Happy Second Birthday, Margie!

We'll be celebrating on Saturday (yes, same day as Harper's) with an Elmo themed birthday party. Stay tuned for pictures.

Five Years Old

It's almost more than I can comprehend. Harper is going to be five-years-old on Monday. I distinctly remember Buster and I listening to Loudon Wainwright's tribute to his young daughter, "Five Year's Old" when Harper was little and thinking - thank goodness that is YEARS away....five seems so grown up that it makes my heart hurt.

There was certainly no way for us to predict that it would go so very, very quickly. Sure, the day in and day out of child-rearing can be monotonous, and I suppose that's why it's more than a little shocking to realize that the cumulative result of that day-to-day is time evaporation. Poof...here we are.

She's so amazing. She crosses her legs like a little lady now. She's got a very keen (and unique) sense of fashion. She sometimes speaks with a British accent. She's thoughtful, caring, imaginative and inspiring. She starts kindergarten in the Fall. She's our big girl now. She's five years old. Sniff sniff.

We'll be celebrating on Saturday with an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday bash at FairyTales. I promise to post pictures after.

March!

Well, we've successfully (at least somewhat) managed to entertain a four-year-old and one-year-old through winter time. I think they fared pretty well. See for yourself.

Harper's new obsession: the iPad. We have to limit her time as she would play on it all day if we let her. It's the new "Harper TV."

Margot's new obsession: talking. While she still has a ways to go, she's quite mastered "yeah" (not yes, but yeah), "no" and "Mommy." She has found that if she says mommy twice to no avail then if she screams it as loud as she can that will usually illicit a response. Oh, Margot. She's certainly not short on personality.

Merry Christmas Pt. II

Merry Christmas

Finally, Winter

It seems like this has been the longest summer/sorta fall ever. It's finally cold and dreary and, while we may have changed our tune by mid-February, for now we're loving it.

Today is parties for Harper's friend, grocery shopping, tree-getting, tree-decorating, possible warm-cocktail-making and enjoying being inside in general.

More pics to come once we get all Christmased up.

In the meantime, we hope it's cold outside and warm inside wherever you are.

Fall!

We have some catching up to do...

We love Fall! It hasn't exactly been crisp but it's been eventful. We celebrated Mac Daddy's birthday (61!) in the mountains. We had a big time including Harper's first official touchdown!

We carved pumpkins and made pumpkin muffins, which believe it or not Harper actually ate! BTW, she also eats carrots now...huge deal around this place. We've been to several "on ice" productions including a very impressive Princesses on ice show (thanks, Nana!) that Margot watched every-single-second of (it was an hour and a half long) as if it were the most incredible thing she had ever laid eyes on. Professional ice skater maybe? (As long as it doesn't require much sleep, Margot will be great at it.) She clapped and smiled and waved at every performance.

As you can probably tell, we had an awesome Halloween. I think Halloween might be my new favorite "holiday" (as Harper calls it). Harper was a "pretty witch" named Spiderina, which thanks to Nonnie was quite an impressive costume complete with broom, hat and "armins" which is what Harper called the sleeves. Harper was so polite and told everyone Happy Halloween and thank you for the candy. "Margot the dog" toddled behind Harper and Jane to about 15 houses saying "twic twea" until she passed out from sheer exhaustion in the stroller.

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed making them!

The Lineup

It's still summer, technically. If feels like it should be fall already though, doesn't it? End of vacation, schools are back in session, football. Yet the temperatures make it feel like it's still summer. Which makes sense, I suppose, since it still is.

Anyway.

In honor of the reluctantly fading summer, here are a few more pics from our last little summer vacation up to a local state park.

Margot flies a kite...

...briefly.

Labor Day Perfection

Funny how one's idea of paradise changes through the years. We found a little chunk of it this past weekend when Amanda and the girls and I retreated into the local woods of a state park and set up camp for three days. And when I say camp I mean a cabin with central air, appliances and a DVD player. But still. Quietude, good food and wine and the Phillips Phour made for a flawless weekend.

We've been having some technical difficulties.

Hopefully this new computer that actually works will be a new beginning to sharing some more photos and painfully cute stories of the two littlest Philllipses.

I'm late for work though, so we're going to start slow.

Hope all's well wherever you are.

Nothing but love