1st day of school- round 2.

So rory started back at school today and lucy had her first day ever. I'll start with rory. She did fantastic- she has the same teacher, but moved up to an older classroom. she is one again the youngest in the room. she didn't remember her friends from last spring, but quickly jumped in and all reports were that she did great and had a lot of fun. one distict difference between this year and last year's first day was the dressing. last year she wore (at my choosing) tights, orange boots, matching brown jumper, pig tails. all in all- total cuteness. this year she came out of her room (where she goes each morning for "privacy', shuts the door and comes out with a "ta-da!") in orange bike shorts, a white tank top w/ butterflies, a headband, 4 hair clips, and some beads. she then requested i add a bandana. needless to day, cute in an entirely different way. i insisted she add something over the bike shorts, so in the end she added a skirt and sweater and looked fairly put together. she was very proud of her "grown-up passenger bag". i think she meant messenger bag, but she loves it either way. you will also notice in the pics her new haircut. this happened while i was in vegas, but grandma swears that the lady told her that the long hair was very damaged due to chlorine and just needed to be cut off. it is pretty cute.
so lucy was very excited to get to go to school just like rory, until she realized that meant that we were all leaving her there by herself. she did great for 4 days w/o pat and i, but appearanly 3 hours of school was too much. when it was time to go home, she left happy, and blew her teacher kisses, so there is hope, but the first report was "she had a rough day' and i returned to very red and swollen eyes. we'll just have to wait and see how next week goes. My favorite part was how excited she was to wear her little backpack.

she kept turning around and showing it off. we are very lucky that they have such a wonderful place to go learn, play and grow.

rory's 1st "graduation"

Before school starts again, i thought i should catch up on how school ended for miss rory last year. she ended up having her tonsil surgery right near the end of the year, so was out for a few weeks at the end. she did recover just in time to participate in their 'graduation" celebration. really it was for the kiddos going on to kindergarten next year, but for rory's class it was an end of year celebration. it was super cute and the kids all sang a couple of songs, some in english and some in spanish. they each got to wear a hat (rory refused) and walk across the stage. they each got a certificate and a big hug from miss angie.

grandma dawni and baba were able to join us, and after the program was dinner and music for dancing/playing. we ended the evening with some special frozen yogurt treats. it was really fun and a good way to introduce rory to the concept of summer break. that being said, it is almost september and we are ramping up for lucy to start school one morning a week and for rory to start her second year with miss angie.

1st boat ride

I am so far behind on blogging, it is tempting to scrap the whole thing and just give up, but since this is the ONLY form of baby book/memory keeping i have for either child, i am determined to press on and just do what i can- even if it is out of order and very delayed. that being said, we recently got invited to take the girls out on their first boat ride. i had just ordered them new life jackets so the timing was perfect. rory was nervous at first, but agreed to just tour the boat. once aboard she was in her element and loved it. She especially loved driving. lucy wanted to touch the water the entire time and showed absolutely no nerves or fear. she'll probably be on skiis next summer! anyway, it was a fun day- a little too cool to get in the water, but a great way to spend the afternoon. looking forward to lots more boating adventures.

Lucy at 17 months

I am actually not really sure of the date today, but i know that it is somewhere near the end of the month and that means that lucy is about 17 months. i thought i should write a little about where she is at, since i remember this time in rory's life as being one of very fast paced change. so lucy is still a bit of a bruiser, but has gained a ton of coordination and is actually becoming quite athletic. she can climb up anything and will do so at any opportunity. she loves to dance, which mostly consists of her twirling and "singing". She loves to swim/play in the water and is a total adrenaline junky. the bigger, faster the slide the better. she is just always on the go. she doesn't like to eat any fruit- but will tolerate bananas. she loves to any anything protien- meat, cheese, yogurt etc. she will only feed herself and will not tolerate help or a high chair- making for some messy meal times. i am okay with the mess b/c the trade off is the freetime i get at meal time. she loves shoes and is obsessed with getting rory's shoes on and then walking/tripping around. she likes to immitate rory in almost everything, and they are just now beginning to play together peacefully, sometimes. she can sign a bunch of words, including: all done, more, help, mom, dad, car, baby, food, binky, water, please, thank you, cat, dog, sad, sleep, tiger, elephant, monkey, fish, music. there are a lot more, but i can't think of them right now. she can verbally say, mom, dad, all done, bye, dog, duck, grandma. but she only says these things when SHE is in the mood. she is not really into performing on command. she has a new love of books- which i am excited to see. she is very determined and knows how to get a rise out of her sister, and frankly out of me. she loves her crib and sleeps great- although gets up really early. 6 is the norm, but can go earlier on some days. ugh. overall she is just a happy, healthy little ball of a toddler. she still has beautiful blue eyes and her hair is turning blonder this summer. she loves to ride bikes or really anything that moves. she continues to love dogs, but is an agressive lover, so we have to find really nice and patient dogs. that's about it. we love you lucy!

bend 4th of july pet parade

The 4th started with our annual sunriver porch maloney girls photo shoot. that lasted about 3 seconds and then we were off to the bend pet parade. after that it was the fireman's picnic with the unlimited free bounce house- also a hit. we ended the day with a FEAST of bbq steak and pork burritos. i would love to take credit for the cooking, but pat with the help of his brother managed to cook for 7 adults and 3 kids while managing said kids. i gotten taken out on a tour of sunriver's happy hours- a much needed break and so much fun!

"you've got to be kidding me with this bow"

and of course the grand finale every year- the flying dog!

a year gone by...(school year that is)

Rory recently completed her first year of preschool with much success. I can't speak highly enough of her school and how much progress I have seen her make through her twice weekly classes. She would love to go everyday, but I am not ready to give up my freedom of schedule just yet. Anyway, we love teacher Angie at our house and rory often leads her babies through a day of school when she comes home. they had a really fun end of year celebration where the kids got to where caps and sing a couple of songs in english and spanish, followed by dinner and dancing. Since rory had missed several days due to her surgery, it was great for her to get some closure to the year and get the idea about this whole summer vacation thing. what i was most struck by when looking through pictures was how much older she looks at the end of the year compared to the beginning. see here for the 1st day of school.... http://pbandr.blogspot.com/2009/09/1st-day-of-school.html
here are pics from the last day of school. notice the addition of the starbuck steamer- one school day habit we need to kick this summer!

a rare sighting...

...both girls clean at one time! just thought I would take a few obligatory bath photos. someone once told me that if you have a crab then get it to water. so true- no matter how bad the night is going or how cranky they are, water always helps.

blowing bubbles!!

Jr. Rose Parade

once again we ventured out to see the jr. rose parade. the real rose parade is a big deal in portland, but pat hates parades and i am not brave enough or motivated enough to haul 2 young children into the mass chaos that is that particular event. soooo, we settle for the jr. version. this means that the floats are homemade and mostly consist of decorated bicycles and cardboard attached to wagons. the bands are all middle school instead of high school and the audience is mostly the 6 and under crowd. what this means is that it is PERFECT for us!! we have a whole system of eating lunch at one of our favorite breweries (fancy micro brew included!) and then timing it just right so there is no waiting and no crowds. the best part is watching how excited the girls get. they clap, dance, and stare in awe the entire time.

it really reminds me how simple it is to impress them- the littlest things are so cool to them. rory's favorite part is that the mascots stay in their cars (unlike various sporting events where benny or blaze try to come talk to her) and all the dance teams. every one that passed was accompanied by "ooh, mom- i am going to do that when i get older!" lucy just loved the bands. she was big into clapping and dancing and has pretty good rythm. it was supposed to be thundering and super rainy, and ended up being perfect. now we have done it 3 years in a row- officially a maloney family tradition! next year, come join us!!

off to the hospital

it's almost time to get up to go to the hospital for rory's tonsil surgery. i have been up since about 3, got up with lucy and then my brain took over and no sleep to be had. i did have a very vivid dream that i remembered. it was pretty typical i think for the current situation, just my brain processing the natural fears that go along with surgery- the weird part was the enormous role that facebook played. rory had not made it through surgery, and while pat and i were still talking to the dr. and getting all the info our phones went crazy with people saying they had heard it on fb. then at the funeral our normal friends and family weren't there, but the far reaches of our facebook friends list were. so bizarre. also- the funeral was essentially the scene from the church in the last episode of lost- nice, i think my brain has been taken over by social media outlets and pop culture. anyway, even though i have been up for hours and stewing a little bit, i feel really good about the day. not much else to share in this post, just taking advantage of the inherent theraputic effects of journaling/blogging. rory totally figured out the whole "i am having surgery tomorrow" angle and got dinner at her favorite restaurant, dessert w/o sharing, tv before bed, a super late bedtime and got to sleep with us. crazy treats all around! in the middle of the night she was restless and obviously having a nightmare. she kept saying "i don't want to, i don't want to" i immediatly start my internal monologue about how we are traumatizing her and she is processing her fears about surgery in her dreams. next sentance out of her mouth "i don't want to share that book with you." okay, so i guess she was processing her fears- the worst fear of a 3 year old, forced sharing. gotta go rally the troops- more to come later.

Mother's day

started the day with a solo run, the first in several years. w/o the stroller, i forgot what to do with my arms, must have looked silly shadow boxing while running. we then hosted a brunch at our house. it was great b/c the weather cooperated and we were able to use the patio. Pat did all the work and it was a lovely day!