choo choo!

i forgot to put these pictures in my most recent post. after we had cooked dinner, we all went upstairs to play trains. not a super exciting evening, but it was fun to us!

more of cooking with mk...

i continue to enjoy helping mommy cook dinner. for this meal, i counted out 30 pasta shells. i also helped to dump the Prego sauce together with canned tomatoes. but my favorite part is when i run & find daddy to say "DaDDY!! DiNNeR is ReaDY!!" i like to announce it very loudly.

camp sumatanga...

over the past weekend i went to camp sumatanga with grammy & pappy. st mark umc has a church-wide retreat there every year. this time, the retreat landed on the weekend that mommy & daddy had to work. so i got to go to CamP!! we stayed in a "camping hotel room" -- these rooms are actually the nicer accommodations at camp sumatanga, but we still called it "camping." it did not rain while i was at camp but it was very cold & muddy. we played outside some of the time, but i really liked hanging out in my hotel room. mommy got off work early on saturday & came to spend most of the day with me. since i returned home on sunday, i have been asking to return to camp. perhaps we will go again one day...

playing school...

i have decided that my "general store" can also be a school house. so i set up a teacher's desk & chairs for my students. they learn about ice cream & vegetables & riddles. also pictured here is a picture that i made at school. we are learning about dental health. these "teeth" are actually marshmallows. mommy thinks that is pretty funny!

pretty girl...

i am modeling some new dresses that mommy made for me. she got the fabrics on clearance -- only about $8 per dress!

random silliness...

these are just some random silly pictures. squinkies are some of my favorite toys right now -- and WOW do i have a BuNcH of them! i like to set them up to eat picnic lunches. and of course i am still loving my pink sunglasses. i say i am a super-star! mommy says i am a little HaM!

mcwane fun...

we love the mcwane center in the wintertime -- especially on a WEEKday. everything is indoors & warm and we like to take advantage of everyone else being in school. clifford the big red dog currently has an exhibit. you can see me walking around the town of birdwell island. and i always enjoy the "cookie wheel" (that is what i call it!) digging for dinosaurs is always great too. daddy even helped with the excavation on this particular day.

happy valentine's day!!!

on wednesday my 4K class had a valentine's day program. there are 8 classes of 4-year-old students at my school & each class took a turn of performing their song that they had prepared. then all of the classes (about 90 children!!) came up on the stage for a finale. my class sang a song called "beat, beat, heartbeat." ms patti says that it is song with indian influences, so we played rhythm instruments like rattles, drums & rainsticks. i was proud to be a rainstick girl! here are all of the 4-year-old children at my school! we were pretty impressive. after the show, we got to play with the props & take more pictures. i played the banjo & sang my songs again.

just hanging out...

these are just more random shots from my play. aunt judy gave me this flannel board for my birthday & it has been a lot of fun. i LOVE my sesame street characters. i enjoy making them act out the stories from my sesame street videos.

here is my magnet-dress-up-doll. she is a lot of fun too.

lately i have been bringing my new big loopsy to bed with me. then mommy came across these loopsy thermal-underwear on clearance for just $5! and i promise -- mommy did not pose me like this in my sleep. this is really how she found me!

random playtimes...

here are some random shots of playtime with play-doh & squinkies.

see rock city...

on our way home from north carolina, we stopped at rock city in chattanooga, TN. i had never visited this place before. it was a good break to get out & stretch my legs.

we walked through all the gardens & rock pathways. well, mommy & daddy walked, but i tried to RUN a lot.

we went across this swinging wooden bridge. i was NOT afraid (seriously!) but mommy said it made her feel a little sick!

we also walked though the mother goose village. i was very excited to see sculptures of so many fairy tales. they were even playing some of my favorite music, like "i'm a little teapot" & "twinkle twinkle."

mary kathryn's adventure...

mommy & daddy just returned from snowshoe, WV about 2 weeks ago. they love to ski & are hoping that i will come to love it also. then some friends of our family (kenneth & christy) planned an impromptu ski trip to sugar mountain, NC for last weekend! mommy & daddy thought this would be a great opportunity for me to learn to ski but not have to ride as far as to west virginia or fly out west.

there were many obstacles which i had to overcome in order to take part in the adventure. here are some of the things that i sometimes say "make me sad:" coats, boots, hats & gloves. but i said i wanted to ski. so we tried it!! before we left birmingham, mommy wrote a story for me about what i could expect. this really helped to prepare me for wearing my heavy coat, ski bib pants, helmet, buckle-boots & skis.

a big thanks goes out to my friend cadence tatum because she loaned me all of her old ski gear. she even had a ski-leash with a handle for my back so mommy & daddy could easily pick me up. i skied about 30 or 45 minutes, but then i really just wanted to play in the snow. in fact, i rode the magic carpet only one time (that's the bunny-ski-"lift"). as i rode up the hill, i was distracted by the fun snow on my skis. i bent over to play with the snow & i almost fell off the magic carpet (it's like a conveyer belt.) thank goodness daddy was riding right behind me -- and that handle from my friend cadence proved to be VERY useful! but there are no pictures of that event because mommy was a little scared for me!

it snowed a LOT while we were in north carolina. it snowed almost the whole time from the time of our arrival until the time of our departure. so playing in the snow was a big part of my adventure too. this was definitely the most snow i have ever seen.

our condo room had a little balcony & it stayed covered with snow. this was a perfect place for me to play because i couldn't get away very far! daddy built a snowman for us & he dressed it with our ski hats & scarves!

currently i am very IN to sunglasses. grammy had given me this set of pink sunglasses & i wear them almost constantly. but they came in pretty handy for this trip.

i had so much fun & i have been asking to go back. however i do not wish to ski again any time soon. but sugar mountain was a magical place to visit.