Halloween Dress Rehearsal

Bri and I did a little dress rehearsal for Halloween tomorrow night! My parents came over this afternoon to see Miss B in her costume, so I thought I would snap a few pictures before the craziness of trick or treating!

Look at my sweet Ariel. I think she is too stinkin' cute! I can't wait for trick or treating tomorrow. It will be so fun! Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Our Pumpkin Carving Creations

Doug was out of town the entire week on a business trip and he is finally home! We decided to hold off on carving our pumpkins until he came back into town. Tonight, I asked Briana to draw a pumpkin face on a piece of paper and I told her I would carve it as close as I could to her drawing. This pumpkin is a 100% Briana design.

Here we are working together to get all the inners out...

This is the finished product...

As Briana and I were working on our pumpkin - Daddy was diligently working on his. Yes, my geek husband made a Cylon pumpkin...

Halloween Goodness

We have been full of the Halloween spirit in Casa de Briana this past week. We put together a gingerbread haunted house yesterday. It was fun once I managed to get the stupid thing to stick together. Most of it is held together by icing, but I have to admit, I finally grabbed the glue for the roof in a few places to keep it from falling in. We aren't going to eat it, and I was desperate. Next time, the whole sucker is getting glued before decorating. Miss B had so much fun sticking on all the candy. And she got a little overzealous with the green icing!

And she got a little overzealous with licking all of the icing too...

She worked very hard on her project...

Big smiles...

It's pretty bright! I think it turned out really cute...

And here is the front of our house. Doug loves Halloween and he did this about a week ago...

And I must thank our neighbor at the end of our street. I don't know them personally, but Briana absolutely loves looking at this witch every time we pass their house...

And here is Briana on her way to school Thursday morning. She was all dressed for the pumpkin patch day they had at school. She had three looks for the camera - silly, sassy and sweet...

I'm going to be sad when Halloween is over. Well, I'll just have to concentrate on Thanksgiving next!

I'm Proud Of Her

First, I want to thank everyone that commented on my last post. The consensus seems to be that I gave the right advice to Briana - which helps me breathe a sigh of relief. Many of you have experienced this situation and/or are experiencing it now with your kids, so it is nice not to feel alone in this.

I am so proud of my girl. The very next day, Briana ran up to me when I picked her up from school and she told me that she said hello to A. She is a total rock star - and one sweet and smart cookie if I do say so myself. :)

The above picture is of Briana and her friend M. They were buddies on the school field trip. And below, I just love the little sea of red fireman hats...

Here is the firefighter explaining everything about a fire truck...

The next day at school was Spirit Day. The kids were supposed to wear their favorite sports team shirts. If you don't know already, we are big Notre Dame fans in our house, so of course, Briana wore green, white and gold. I'm sure she was the only Fighting Irish fan among all the Bulldog and Yellow Jacket fans. We are in the deep south ya know. ;)

Go Notre Dame!!!

She Doesn't Like Her

This is kind of a tough post to write. Now that my girl is 4, she is in school four days a week and is getting her own social life - not just the social life that I have created for her. Briana honestly loves all of my friends' kids, and I have been very lucky so far in that regard. I've never really had to deal with Briana not liking someone before. But there is a little girl at school that Briana is not too crazy about.

This particular little girl (I'll just call her "A") was in Briana's class last year. She came into the class mid-session and ended up sitting next to Bri. Unfortunately, she had (and still has) a bit of a behavior problem. She would try to take Bri's food during lunch and she got in trouble a quite a bit according to Bri's teacher. Now fast forward to this year. The good news is that this little girl is in a different class, but all the pre-k classes play on the playground at the same time. Bri has gotten in a car a few times this year and when she is telling me about her day, she will mention that she doesn't want to play with A on the playground, she only wants to play with her friends M and K. I started to notice recently that when I pick up Briana from school, A will be sitting in the hallway and will call out to Briana to say goodbye and Briana will ignore her. I thought at first Bri was just excited to see me and maybe didn't hear her, but now I am pretty sure she is just ignoring her. I told Briana that even if she isn't thrilled with A, she still needs to be friendly to her. 

We took a field trip the firehouse today. A was roaming all around, not staying with her class and not paying attention to what was going on. She kept getting in Bri's face, trying to talk to her and saying her name. Bri kept looking at me with a frown and then she would try to scoot away from A.

Ugh. I don't know if I am telling Briana to do the right thing. Bri and I had a long talk again this afternoon about needing to be friendly to A because I know she doesn't want to hurt A's feelings. But I did tell Bri that she doesn't have to play with her either. I asked Bri why she doesn't like A. She said because she is always calling her name and she remembers the things she did last year in school. I don't want to force Briana to play with this little girl (A does have a bit of a behavior problem). I know if I don't enjoy someone's company, I have a choice not to hang out with them. 

As Bri and I were talking today, she mentioned in passing another little girl named G. She says that G doesn't talk to her that much and sometimes gets mad at Bri when Bri tries to hold her hand. Bri said it makes her sad. It was a good learning experience because I said "Well, now you know how A might feel when you do the same thing to her." Then I told her that if G doesn't want to hold her hand, then she needs to find another friend's hand to hold.

I have to admit, I got a lump in my throat thinking that there might be an actual human being on this earth that doesn't think my daughter walks on water. :D

Wow - this parenting thing is really hard. I want to protect Briana all the time (which I know I can't always do) and I want to give her the correct guidance. As she gets older, she will encounter more and more of this whole social dynamic thing. I want to guide her correctly, but I don't always know what to say. In a perfect world, everyone would love everyone else. But we all know, we are not in a perfect world.

Something makes me think that as she gets older, it is just going to get more difficult. Anyone know where I can get a prescription for Xanax?

Double Birthday Party and Soccer Practice

Saturday afternoon, Briana attended her friends C and S's 4th birthday party. It was a double celebration! Bri had so much fun. There was face painting, a parachute, shirt tie-dying, balloon animals, hot dogs, hamburgers and of course cake! I think her favorite part was the face painting, though I know she enjoyed playing with her friends. Here are a few fun pics!

Bri's friend Matthew...

Miss S...

Miss C...

And on Friday, another session of Briana's soccer class sadly ended. But she will start another session in two weeks. The kids got medals and posed for a super cute picture...

And here is a cute video - "What Time Is It Mrs. Wolf?"

Just Every Day Stuff (With A Little Sickness Thrown In)

There has been some sickness at Casa de Briana this past week. Poor Miss B got a nasty cold. And as you can see above, she was pretty worn out. She missed preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday as well as Chinese language class and gymnastics. She was luckily well enough to go to preschool on Thursday and soccer practice on Friday.

Here is Briana all ready for school on Thursday. She was wearing her groovy spider earrings that we bought in Huntsville. She wasn't 100%, but she was definitely feeling better...

Today, Bri and I met with my good friend Carole for lunch. We hadn't seen each other on months. It was so good to catch up. I brought along Doug's iPad for Bri to play with and she got Carole in on the action...

A few weeks ago when the weather was starting to get really pretty, Bri and I decided to take a walk. She started out on her scooter...

Five minutes later, she said her legs were tired and she wanted to ride in her wagon. I ended up wheeling her through the neighborhood instead. How the heck did that happen? I'm a sucker...

Of course we took a trip to the HD recently - Briana's favorite store besides Michaels and the Disney Store...

And several days before Bri got sick, Briana and I went to the park with her friend Matthew and his mom Suzanne...

Bri and Matthew on the spin chairs. They got so dizzy they fell down. Nice. Suzanne and I laughed pretty hard though. I remember as a kid when I used to like getting dizzy for fun. Now, not so much...

Snack break...

And an added bonus was that we ran into a school friend of Briana's. His name is Kyan. I hear a lot about Kyan. Another one of Bri's crushes - sigh. They had lots of fun together...

And here is my girl singing a little made up song called "Listen Today "...



I'm so glad Miss B is feeling better. I hate it when my sweet girl is sick. :(