Long Live the Queen of Black!

Marika insisted on wearing all black yesterday to preschool, because she wanted to be the "Queen of Black". We had no idea why, but Marika usually has a reason for these kinds of things. We dressed her up, but minutes before we left, she spilled milk all over her clothes. I tried to blow-dry it, but we all KNOW how stinky old milk gets. I told her she either had to be smelly at preschool or she had to change her clothes. She looked like she was going to cry but bravely agreed to get new clothes. I felt really bad for her (apparently, dressing in all black was very important to her), so I dug through the "too small" clothes we had removed from her closet - just 2 weeks ago - and put them on her.

So, here is our "Queen of Black", dressed up in her too small clothes for school! Everything she's wearing is 2T!!! But she was happy as a clam. When I asked her teacher if she knew anything about being the "Queen of Black", she laughed and said that every month, she picks a color (the color for the entire month of October was black) and on each day of school, whoever is wearing the most of that color, is named the "Queen" or "King" of black. Undoubtedly, Marika won the title yesterday - with no contest!

It was also their "Outdoors Day", where they got to spend the entire morning outside! They did a bean bag toss, went on a hike, ate S'Mores and played in a tent. Apparently, the Santa Ana winds were blowing and blew the tent a good 30 feet! They seemed to have such a great time.

Afterwards, we brought a picnic lunch to Daddy Dude at his office. Who doesn't love fried chicken with a juice box? Marika was exhausted, though (she ran at Jogger's Club in the morning at Mika's school) and passed out on the way to pick up Mika.

The girls were busy over the weekend, being creative in all sorts of interesting ways. On Saturday, I gave them a bunch of foam stickers and asked them to create a picture. They ended up just going crazy with Halloween foam stickers, until I reminded them that I had asked for a picture. Mika ended up paper piecing a bunch of circles that Holly had given them - and created Batman! You can't see it, but he DOES have a cape on (it hooks onto the lace to keep him on the picture). Marika decided that Batman was lonely and made Robin to keep him company. I cracked up when I saw Robin's mask and letter! I love the ideas they come up with!

The girls also decided that the stairs needed to be livened up a little bit. We had to limbo under those things for awhile... =)

Mika sent a couple of emails this week, something I don't like to push her to do, since she has so much homework and reading to do (she needs time to be a kid!) on most days. I loved how serious and intent she was, as she diligently typed her message to Daddy Dude. I guess in a few years, she'll be a texting fiend!

In other news, we've been taking care of Flower, a friend of Daisy's. Flower has settled in very nicely with us, allowing the girls to pet her and not scurrying away. Flower's mom had told me she didn't eat lettuce, but she whined so pathetically (for the first couple of days) when Daisy got her lettuce at every meal, that we gave her some anyway. Flower apparently thinks that lettuce is the best thing in the world - she scarfs it down even faster than Daisy! We've also discovered that she loves tomatoes and likes carrots. Grapes and apples were still a no-go. I do believe, Flower is growing rather fond of us... and why shouldn't she? Two little girls constantly chatter and coo at her, giving her biscuits and hay whenever they can... =) (but Daisy may be feeling a little jealous!).

And in case some of you were wondering how the ladybug larvae were doing... well... we're down to one really big larva. I think that the larvae must have been eating each other (despite getting aphids) and finally, only the strongest has survived. I hope/expect it to pupate any day, but until I can find a recipe for making ladybug artificial food diet, this may be the last time we raise any ladybug larvae. Watching the ladybug larvae prey on slow-moving and clueless aphids is a little disconcerting... like watching the Discovery Channel without the music and narration! We call it our "Ladybug TV". Marika, however, has really been enjoying the experience.

Supplies: patterned paper (Hot Off the Press, DMC), cardstock and templates (Bazzill), floss (DMC)

And finally, I finished a layout! This took quite a long time to create, for all for the stitching I added! I'd been wanting to use my In'Stitchz Bazzill templates for some time now.