A new year's eve reflection

Wanna know how we spent celebrating New Year's Eve 2008? The girls and my sister's two boys thought it was an occasion for dressing up. No one gave them the dress code so they went the jammies/ninja/soldier/karate kid route. And Trooper was their mascot.












Maddie kicked 2008 out with a bang and lost her first tooth. At 4 1/2 years old! I was later told that Tony started losing his teeth this young as well. So I'm not worrying about her early need for dentures when she gets older just yet. She let Uncle Eric do a "wiggle check" with a tissue and she had no idea that he popped it out until after he told her that he couldn't find it. I took a picture of her making this face and then turned the camera around for her to see for herself that he tooth was gone. She was jumping up & down and screaming with joy because now she was going to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy and she could go shopping. Well.....we got home really late after toasting in 2009 and at 7:15 am I woke up out a dead sleep and realized that the tooth was still in my purse and that the Tooth Fairy didn't pony up the dollar that she owed Maddie. After slapping Tony awake in a panic for a dollar, we managed to russle up 4 quarters and I quietly dropped it in a cup and set it on the window sil for Maddie to find when she woke up. She was so excited to get the dollar (after we explained that 4 quarters is the same as a dollar bill) and take her first trip to the dollar store to buy her own toy with her Tooth Fairy money. This is something that the girls look forward to. Any time that they get money, they get the joy of feeding their piggy banks in hopes that Tony and I can create children who like to save money instead of spend it (like their mommy & daddy). But when the Tooth Fairy comes, that's fair game. They can either go right away and buy something at the dollar store with mommy & daddy helping by paying the sales tax, or they can save up their money to buy something a little bigger. Maddie ended up choosing a plastic recorder as her first tooth fairy purchase. Feeling generous she told Emily that she could get a toy too and Emily got a recorder as well. I thought it was a good idea since it's a musical instrument that would allow them to be creative. Until we brought them home and opened them up. Eeeeekkk..do you remember playing those in elementary school? I do, but I don't remember them squealing and sounding so bad. Oh well!

Today was also the first day back to school after the long break. Both girls were super excited to go back and see their teachers and their friends. Maddie went into Emily's classroom and school office to show everyone her "lost tooth" and then promptly ran down the hall to show her teacher at her school her "lost tooth." Very precious!