Uniform Schmooniform

Many of you commented on how adorable BabyGirl's "uniform" was for school. I do have a slight confession to make. It's not "technically" a uniform. Our school has a dress code and it reads as such: shirts and dresses must have a collar, have no brand emblem and be red, navy or white in color. Shorts, skirts and pants must be navy or khaki. Sooo, I decided to stretch the interpretation of that description as far as I could in order to have a cutie pie student! I love, love, love Olive Juice Kids. Great company, great clothes, great quality, great everything! They do tend to be a bit conservative, however. PERFECT for the private school uniform wearing set! I picked out several things over the summer that I thought would be cute. One was the dress BabyGirl was wearing in her first day of school pictures. I also bought this dress in blue and red (sorry for the sucky picture...the website doesn't have a photo of the dress anymore so this is from ebay...)



We have it with short sleeves (although I'm VERY tempted to buy this one with the long sleeves!). It's so cute and SO soft. BabyGirl loved wearing it. She wears a pair of white biker shorts from Gymboree underneath so there's no indecent exposure on the playground.

We also have these adorable cords. I actually bought them for BabyBoy last year. Poor thing...I didn't realize they were girl pants. He did look at me a bit strangely when I gave them to him to put on, but he's pretty good about wearing whatever I ask him to wear. Now I'm glad I did get them. We've passed them down to BabyGirl. Getting her to wear pants might be a stretch, but we'll see! They're so cute because the button holes are trimmed in red thread.



Another cute option I found from Olive Juice Kids was this skirtall. Ours is actually the cotton poplin fabric and has a little bodice with suspenders, as opposed to this one that doesn't have the bodice. I'll be interested to see how it works out in the restroom...



Of course, we've also got the standard skorts and polos from Land's End and Old Navy. Great staples. I love the maryjanes that Aster makes, although we're supposed to wear tennis shoes so we went with white Keds. They seem to match everything.

Gymboree had some really adorable options as well...






A very good use of my GymBucks, if I do say so myself. I didn't, however, see these little cuties when I was there. I may have to make a trip back out to the mall. Remember wearing these when you were a kid? I think I might die watching BabyGirl strut off in her pom pom bobby sox.



And how cute would they be with THESE? (also available at Olive Juice Kids)



Of course, you know that lazy hooch wouldn't even THINK about tying a shoe so we'll have to stick with velcro for now.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Uniform interpretation ah la sippycups.

Christmas in August?

Woo hoo! I just bought my Christmas cards. I actually walked into my local stationery shop just as they were putting the cards on the shelves. They're from Itty Bitty, Inc. and I LOVE them. The envelopes are a really pretty robin's egg blue. I think they look better in person than in the picture...

Empty Nest

Okay, so maybe it's not all THAT dramatic...
Today is the first day of school. We were up by 6:30am (NOT happy campers, lemmetellya), fed and dressed by 7:20am and out the door by 7:35am. Not bad. I did hit one minor snafu when I went to make BabyGirl's lunch. Seems we forgot to empty her lunchbox after a round of kindercamp this summer. What was that smell? Ugh. Nothing like the stench of rotting ham in the morning. Luckily, it had been contained in a plastic tub. The rancid mold smell, however, was overwhelming. I quickly doused the lunchbox in vinegar, then Clorox spray and then wiped it down with detergent and sprayed with Lysol. Still kinda stinky, but it would have to do, as we had no other lunchbox.
Oh, well. Just another excuse to go to Target. I did love that Hanna Andersson lunchbox, though. I just don't think that mold smell will ever die.
BabyGirl got dressed with only minor meltdown due to the lack of pink in her uniform. A compromise was achieved when she discovered a pair of white socks with pink trim that I deemed acceptable uniform material. Thank goodness! I think she was taking it easy on me anyway. Last night as I was putting her to bed I got a little weepy. She pulled my cheek to hers and said "I won't forget about you, Mommy. I'll color you lots of pictures." And then the tears REALLY started to flow. Aren't I supposed to be the one comforting HER?
BabyBoy was ready to hit the pavement as soon as we pulled up to school. We dropped BabyGirl off to her room and headed to the gym where all the students would be called up by class. BabyBoy was somewhat concerned that he might get the more strict 1st grade teacher (I, of course, was praying he would!). And he did. He was happy to run up there, however, once he realized his best buddy was also in the class.
I then headed off to Target to find new lunchboxes. Nothing like a little retail therapy to make a girl feel better.

Some pics from this morning...





Tomorrow should be another emotional send off. They'll both get on the bus. BabyBoy has assured me that he will make sure BabyGirl gets to her classroom safely...AFTER they stop off to the Bookstore and purchase the multicolored ink pen she's been coveting.

Don't Worry Mom...

This would be my lovely little darlings washing one another's feet in the kitchen sink night before last. How they even got up onto the counter I have no idea. Upon realizing my shock BabyGirl felt the need to reassure me. "Don't worry Mom...Jesus did it, too." Nice. This was her take home message from vacation Bible school?

It's ON

After drinking our weight in wine and getting little to no sleep, my parents and I awoke this morning in preparation to send my baby brother, affectionately known to all as Seanieboy, to VMI. As of this morning, he's officially a rat. We did our best to reassure him but I'm pretty sure it went in one ear and out the other. Boy is nervous. Can't say that I blame him. Glad I didn't actually have to go to the school and drop him off. There would most certainly have been tears involved. Heck, I cried when we dropped him off at summer school...



Here's to you, Seanieboy. We'll be thinking about you and we'll see you in two weeks. It shouldn't be too hard to find us. I'll be the one wearing THIS:



Since BabyGirl has made it abundantly clear that under no circumstances will she wear and "cheaterleader" uniform that does not include some semblance of pink. Awesome. Money well spent. Again.

hodge podge and a bloody finger

I have lots to say today, but I'm having trouble typing. I managed to slice off the outer tip of my left index finger while cooking dinner last night. Damned Cutco knives! It bled FOREVER and it hurts worse than childbirth (although that's not saying much for me...mine were relatively painless). That would be the ONLY time I've appreciated these child bearing hips.

I'm so, so excited! Dr. Daddy has finally given me the green light to have the house painted. It's a brick house with wood siding on a small portion of an addition on the back. So, not too much to paint but it will make such a huge difference. We're getting new shutters and we're going to add front porch lights on the front to match the ones we had put on the garage when we redid that last summer.

Here was the garage mid project (it was originally just three brick walls and a metal roof with no doors and an asphault floor). We raised the roof, had a side door and stoop installed, added a concrete apron and concrete floor and storage in the rafters. Our neighbor owns an overhead door company and hooked us up on the doors. I love them.



And after...




Here's the outside of our house now...you can see the shutters are in major disrepair. We also need a new roof for the door overhang but we aren't sure what we want yet.





We've decided to paint the shutters and the front door black. The trim will all be the same color as the garage doors. Dr. Daddy does not want a black door AT ALL. But, he doesn't want a red door, either, so what's a girl to do? Any suggestions?

Also exciting is the fact that we booked our spring break vacation. We decided to go skiing in Steamboat Springs in January (an excellent place for kids to learn to ski, by the way), and bagged our plans to ski in March. So we're off to Disney (again). We're excited though, because this will be the first time our kids have gone together. We're staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas. (gotta love that Disney Vacation Club) Also for the first time, our kids will both be old enough for the night time kids program. Do I hear a hell yeah?!

Dr. Daddy really has his mind set on driving but I'm going to do my best to talk him out of it. Anyone ever ridden the auto train?

Preppy Napkin Discount

Preppy Napkin has extended the sale on To Bee Named until August 31,2008. Just enter august at checkout and you will get 10% off your total order. So get your buying lists out, and remember Christmas gifts, teacher gifts, neighbor gifts and hostess gifts and of course "me" gifts!