iCarly Comes To Memphis

Lily watches iCarly a lot on Nickelodeon, and the cast came to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis to raise money for St. Jude. We saw Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, and Gibby and got autographs and pictures. We bought a poster before going there, had it attached to a firm backing, and got the cast to sign it. Lily loved going to the event.

Kidz Kountry

A boy in Lily’s school named Klaybon had his 5th birthday party today. It was at a farm called Kidz Kountry, and all the kids got to pet and feed goats, cows, chickens, and bunnies, and ride on a pony. The difference between this and several other ride-a-pony parties she’s attended is that this time, Lily actually rode the pony!!!

And she touched a chicken, fed bunnies, and even milked a goat! Doesn’t she know we Obenauers are city folk?

Here’s Lily with Klaybon (on the right of her, in a blue plaid shirt). The party ended with a horse piñata. After one kid knocked the horse off it’s string, it was re-tied up by its neck. It looked like a lynching! Lily managed to knock some candy out of the piñata when it was her turn to hit it.

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween, Lily said she wanted to wear a princess costume … again. Sigh. She was a princess last year and the year before, and our house is full of Disney Princess merchandise. However, we found a Wonder Woman costume at Wal-Mart and showed it to her, and she was very excited to try it on. She didn’t want to take it off and slept in it all night. Here she is in her costume. Michelle took her trick-or-treating, and when they came back, Lily stayed in costume and helped hand out candy to the other kids.

Zoeya’s birthday party

Zoeya Khan was Lily’s closest friend at Lausanne last year. Since Lily’s not a student there anymore, we don’t take her to most of their birthday parties, but I was sure she’d want to go to Zoeya’s party. The two girls spent most of their time playing together, even though there were about 50 other kids there. It was a costume party — the girls were princesses, and the boys were superheroes. Lily went as Snow White (holding a “poison apple” in the first picture), and Zoeya was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. (At last year’s party, Lily was Belle and Zoeya was Snow White!) The last photo shows all the kids crowding around to watch a juggling clown (and later a magician). If you look closely you can see Lily and Zoeya near the front.

Letters

Lily’s at a fun age, because she keeps asking what the letters on signs say and how to write words and names. She’s been writing “Lily”, “Mom” and “Dad” for a long time (a year I think), and later could write “Lola” and “Papa”. This week she asked how to spell “Open” and “Moo” (and wrote them), and today she filled a page with words she wanted to learn (picture below). The page says “PRINCESS”, “INKIE”, “I LOVE EVERYBODY”, “BEVERLY”, “JOHNO”, “JOYCE”, and “MICHELLE”. Inkie is what she calls the inside of my elbow, which she likes to hold, especially when she’s tired. Beverly and Joyce are her teachers.

Here are pictures of Lily when she was just 8 weeks old, and even then, she always wanted to put her hands on “Inkie”. She just made up the word “Inkie” in the last few months, though. Before that, if she was tired or sad, she would just say, “Can I have your arm?”. It always seemed like a weird request, but it calmed her down.

Video game

I took Lily to see the double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D, and we had some time to play video games before the movie started. She found a motorcycle game she liked, and rode it three times.

Afterward, we came home, and rather than taking a nap, she wanted to watch her DVD player. But it still resulted in a nap.

Birthday cake

Lily made a cake for my 42nd birthday. Michelle cracked the eggs and put it in the oven, but Lily added the ingredients, mixed them, and decorated it. I was a little worried about eating it, because the middle looked undercooked, so we ate around the edges. It was actually pretty good! I voluntarily ate a second piece. She did a great job!

Catholic school

Last year Lily started pre-kindergarten at Lausanne Collegiate School. She had a great teacher and a small class size (just 6 kids). But it was very expensive and a long drive from our house. When we found out the cost went up this year and would keep going up every grade, we decided to find another school.

The school we picked was Sacred Heart, a Catholic school very close to our house. It costs much less and tuition is the same for every grade. Though we’re not a very religious family, Michelle and I had both gone to Catholic schools, so if Lily turns out warped from it she’ll fit right in with her warped parents. Here she is in her school uniform. You can wear a plaid jumper, or a “skort” with a red or white shirt. Getting her dressed every morning is a lot easier with uniforms. In the last picture she put two headbands on, one sticking up from her head. I didn’t let her go to school like that!

It was funny hearing Lily tell us what she learned in school with no prior religious upbringing at home. She told us she knew who Jesus was: “He’s Miss Beverly’s father.” Miss Beverly is her teacher, and I can imagine her starting class prayers with “Father, we ask you…” We also heard about “Nora’s Vark” and how it was filled with animals, but Lily thought they should have left the lions out, because they’ll try to eat the other animals.

So far we’re happy with the new school. The staff and teachers treat the parents well, and Lily likes her teacher and classmates. It only goes up to 8th grade, so we’ll have to choose a high school nine years from now. At that age, Lily can have some input deciding between high schools.