Chocolate and Peanut Butter

I introduced Lulu to my favorite nachspeise treat this week:  85% dark chocolate with peanut butter.  She truly is my child--she LOVES it!  Due to my ahem, "regime" as the French would say, I was careful to weigh out my peanut butter and chocolate, so she wanted to weigh hers, too.



The pictures are pretty entertaining:





But nothing holds a candle to the end product:

Lulu's Merryhill Classroom

I snapped a few pictures of Lulu's classroom when I was picking her up earlier this week and thought I'd share with the folks far-away who might like to see where she spends her time away from us.



The wooden lockers in the back is actually their pretend-play/dress-up area where they play house, etc.  Each table is set up as a separate "station" when we drop her off in the morning.  Her teachers have set up either coloring or building blocks or puzzles, etc. for them to play with independently until Circle Time.

The Reading Nook with books

Spanish vocabulary bulletin board

Christmas-themed board with Santa and Reindeer

Snowmen and Gingerbread Cookies

This is where they do Circle Time in the morning:
what day is today?  what's the weather like? what are the letters in your name?

The stuffed to overflowing cubbies

The Bulletin Board in the background is the Links to Parents information about menus, what they're doing that week, how we can reenforce what they're learning at home, etc.

V-day is around the corner...

....and I think I figured out Valentine's Day cards for Lulu's classmates at Merryhill:

Won't you be my Valentine?

Pretty, awesome, no?  Now, I just have to get a cute photo of Lulu holding out her fist and round up some lollipops....

Self-Conscious

Someone is starting to become self-conscious about getting her photo taken and that makes me a little wistful for the enthusiastic yelling, "CHEESE!" with a goofy grin that she had determined was her "smiley face."

Now, when I ask to take her picture, I get this:

Her new dress from Tante Hellen

Or this:

Still adorable but growing up.

My favorite time of day...

...is the quiet book-reading before bedtime.  Especially when Lulu decides that she wants to read a book with Daddy.  :)

Christmas Presents from Oma and Opa

Walter and I saved the presents that his parents sent for Lulu to open until after we came back from Texas in an attempt to spread the love around this Christmas.  The expression(s) on Lulu's face were too funny not to share!

First up, a set of towels with embroidered fairy princesses on them! Lulu, of course, loooooooves them!

And then she opened two packages that had two new dresses which we both loooooooove. Seriously, they are adorable. I have made it my personal mission to snap a photo of her in them for posting soon.

And she was excited by the new set of pink, horsey pajamas, too.



And, finally, she opened the card and "read" it to us.