Playgroup at the Library Fountains

 Playgroup at the library fountains is probably one of my favorites.  These fountains are turned on around 10:00 and stay on most of the day.  The kids love running in and out of them.  We haven't been to them for awhile, so I made it a priority to go to this playgroup.  We were a little bit late since I wanted Char to nap a bit, but in the end we made it.

 Lily dove right in and started playing with friends.

Allie was much more hesitant.  She did not like how loud it was in the fountain.  To her credit it does get quite loud, especially if you go into the middle of the fountain.  She danced around the edges for awhile until I drug her through the middle of it.  Then she was done being fearful : )

 

 

Some friends brought buckets and when they were done using them we got a turn with them.  Lily enjoyed hauling water to a little puddle that was forming on the edge of the grass.  It made a nice little pool for the younger kids to play in.

Charlotte was having fun as usual.  She didn't like to go all the way into the middle of the fountain.  However, at one point one of the well meaning older girls walked her into the middle of it and left her there.  It was interesting to watch her maneuver her way out.  I was quite proud of her that she didn't cry about it.  She is kinda of distressed in the picture I took of her though.

All to soon it was time to go home for lunch.  It was a good thing we left when we did, because a huge rainstorm rolled in right after leaving!  Hopefully we will be able to make it back many times this summer.

Doing dishes

With Russ working on the shed, dish duty has fallen on me.  Tonight I was loading up the dishwasher while the girls played in their bedroom.  I heard Charlotte come toddling in but I wasn't paying much attention to her, I was focused on rinsing the dishes.  Charlotte toddled back out awhile later.  About this time I turned to put more dishes in the dishwasher when I found that Charlotte had already done them for me.  Apparently their little teapot needed washed!

Summer Journals

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about schooling for the girls during summer.  I didn't want Lily to lose the knowledge she had learned in First grade, and I know that I really need to start preparing Allie for Kindergarten.  One day while on Facebook I stumbled across a schedule that a friend said she was going to be implementing with her girls.  I loved it because it focused on many of the things that I wanted to hit with the girls.  One thing I hadn't thought of that she was going to do was writing each day.  I decided to give it a try.  I knew that my girls would need somewhere to keep all their writings, so today we made our Summer Journals.  Quite simply it was a regular notebook with a piece of construction paper glued on the front.  The girls were then allowed to decorate it however they wanted.  Allie of course drew our family.  Lily drew a winter scene with a snowman.  Yeh, not exactly summer-ish but whatever!  The girls were super excited and proceeded to do two journal entries.  

For Lily, I'm pretty much giving her a topic and allowing her to draw picture about the topic.  She then has to write five good sentences about the topic.  That is a huge task for first grader, but we are working on it.

Allie gets a topic, and draws the picture.  She then gets to narrate to me what it is about.  With her I'm not very concerned about writing.  I'm really trying to get her to verbalize things better.  I've noticed that she mumbles a lot, and sometimes can't clearly tell us things that she needs.  I'm hoping this will give her more practice in sharing things in a more orderly fashion.  Also, if she gets done before Lily I think I will give her a few words to practice writing in her journal.

I hope since we put in the effort to make these that the excitement will continue throughout the summer!

Time to Read

My goal for the summer is to go to the library every Tuesday so that the girls can check out new books.  The girls love to read books, and our library has a really fun reading program during the summer.  My goal should work perfectly with the library's program. I'm also hoping that I can get the  girls to settle down and read about 30 mins each day.  We'll see if that pans out our not!

I loaded up the girls today and we headed off to the library.  We made it there just in time for story time.  Unfortunately Char wasn't a fan of story time.  We survived it....barely...and then I gave the girls five minutes to check out their books.  They were so excited about new books.  Arriving home both girls pulled out books and began reading.  I couldn't help but watch Lily as she read this book.  It was so fun to see how many different sitting positions she went through while reading it.

My next step will be finding better books for Lily.  Our library doesn't have reading levels posted on any of their books, so it is always difficult to find the right ones for Lily.  Hopefully her and I can start sitting down before library time and finding books online that we want to check out that are difficult enough for her.  Sometimes it is easier being Allie's age and just getting to enjoy reading whatever she pulls off the shelf!

The Shed: Part 2

It seems like all Russ has been doing every night is working on that dang shed.  We knew this was a big project, but who knew it would take this long.  We've been very grateful that a handful of people from our ward have come over to help Russ on nights that he has been working on it.  Slowly but surely it is coming together.  Russ is gunning to get this done this weekend.  We'll see if that happens.  We've also been very blessed that it hasn't rained since starting this thing.  So far Russ has been able to cut and replace all the beams he's cut out. Plus on each end he has added small wood sections in between each beam to add stabilization...I think.  Today he started the particle board roofing.  He's been cutting it down to size, and then nailing that thing down.

 

Not too shabby huh?!  And take a peek at our garden.  That out of control bush by the shed is our six tomato plants.  Those things grow like weeds down here.  We can't wait to pick the loads of tomato's that are one them.  Oh and the smaller plants to the side are zucchini and onions.  They are doing well too, yippee!

Dancing Beauty Sneak Peek

Busy, busy weekend again!  I drove Lily to her dance studio today for her pictures.  Turns out I was told the wrong time and we were there two hours early.  {Pardon me while I do a huge eye roll, considering we are always told the wrong times with this teacher.} So we ran back home and I made dinner quick, and ran back to the studio.  The photographer was wonderful compared to past years, and I'm super excited to see how her pictures turn out.  When leaving Lily asked me to take a picture of her in front of the dance studio, so I could scrapbook a page about her getting her pictures done.  I had to laugh at this.  Obviously I'm training my kids well in the art of picture taking.  I don't like to show private information on here so I cropped out the dance studio name, but thought this might make a nice little sneak peek for Lily's dance pictures.

Driving Lessons

For a few months now we have had Charlotte's little walker out so she can push it around.  She loves play with all the toys on it more than pushing it around though.  Today I was staring at her playing with it I remembered that it doubles as a scoot along car as well.  I yanked away from Charlotte{I know, bad mom} and transformed it for her.  At first she was mad and glared at me for ruining her toy, but then I helped her get on it and showed her how to move her feet.  She picked up on it instantly and pretty soon was scooting around the house on it.

Sadly this only lasted a few minutes.  Char's been sick AGAIN, and we spent most of the day cuddled up like this on the couch.

I think I have spent more time like this with her in the past six months than I have actually standing.  Poor thing just can never to stay well for more than a week or two.

Last Day of School

Quite a few events led up to the last day of school for Lily.  End of the year testing, Reading Club water party, Field Day to name a few.   I didn't get to document any of these with pictures since parents with siblings were not allowed to attend. 

I sent Lily off this morning with a bag of chips.  The chips were my donation to the party they would be having at lunch time.  School let out early, and even though it was naptime for Charlotte and Allie I decided to walk down and pick Lily up from school.  We got there a bit early so we waited.  Allie was grumpy and didn't want her picture taken but I couldn't resist this cute picture of her playing in the dirt while we waited.

Lily came out and was excited to see us.  She showed off to Allie a Ariel doll that she had won at the end of the year assembly.  I was so proud of her when she handed it over to Allie and told her she could play with it first since she knew Allie loved Ariel.  She also told me about playing with bubbles and chalk outside with Mrs. Kornegay for the class party.  Lastly she asked if she could snap a picture of her with her teacher.  I of course said yes, if she would go ask Mrs. Hill to pose with her.   Mrs. Hill happily agreed. 

Soon after we walked home.  It was obvious Lily was a bit sad, especially that she would be seeing Mrs. Hill over the summer.  Lily gets sooo attached to her teachers.  We had a nice afternoon with the girls playing together.  I had to smile to myself at how nice it was to have all my girls together playing nicely together.  Now if that could only last through out the whole summer....

'A' Honor Roll

A few days ago I got a letter from Lily's teacher informing us that she would be receiving an award at the award's assembly.  I was a bit sad Russ wouldn't be able to make it, but at least one of us could.  Award assemblies at our school are pretty packed.  So even though I got there 30 minutes early, the girls and I were pretty close to the back.  The girls were bored out of their minds waiting.  A toy car and a pacifier solved most of that problem.

Eventually the ceremony started.  I wasn't at all surprised when Lily got called up to receive her award for the 'A' honor roll.  This means that she had received all A's for the past two terms.  She was so excited and proud to walk up on stage when the principal called her name.

Instead of giving out certificates for this award, Lily receives a dog tag with "A Honor Roll" on it when she returned back to her classroom.  We went down there to see her dog tag and give her a hug.  I had hoped to take a picture of her with her dog tag, but it was zoo in her room so it didn't happen. We are so proud of Lily and the hard work she puts into school!

Party at the Park, and other adventures of the day.

Life is pretty much out of control busy for us right now.  Last night Russ decided it was time to start on the shed.  Since we bought the house we knew that the shed's roof was damaged and needed replaced.  When we got those huge rainstorms awhile back we were catching rain with buckets inside the shed to prevent anymore damage.  After a couple weeks of waiting for someone to help Russ get the lumber to our house, it was time to start.  Russ spent several hours last night ripping off shingles and particle board.  He got down to the rafters and was kind of at a loss as to how he was going to get them out.  I suggested sawing them in half and then ripping them out.  He didn't think that would work, and it was too dark anyway for him to do more on it.

This morning while I was crazily trying to make some chili for our ward party Russ was on the phone calling some people in our ward asking their suggestions on how to get the rafters out.  Someone suggested a saws-all.  Great idea, we didn't have one nor could we find anyone that did.  Sigh.

So with that we left shed as is and went to our ward party which happened to be at the park that is one block away from our house.  Sadly enough we had to drive there.  Lily is prepping for her ballet recital in a few weeks, so she has extra practice every Saturday.  Of course that practice fell right smack dab in the middle of the ward party.  We opted to drive the van so I didn't have to keep walking back and forth from the house to take her and pick her up.

We dressed Allie and Charlotte in their swim suits for the party since there is a fun little splash pad at the park.  I was unsure if Charlotte would even get in the water.  She loves swimming, but she hates water splashing in her face.  Russ headed off to talk to some of the men in the ward, so I steered Charlotte and Allie towards the splash pad.  Lily was given strict orders to not get anywhere near the water or dirt.  Charlotte saw the water as I headed her that way and she made a beeline for it.  Turns out she loved the splash pad.  She didn't mind the water in her face at all.  She pretty much stayed in it the whole two and half hours we were there.  We did manage to pull her out for food, but she went straight back in afterwards.

Allie enjoyed being in the water too.  She get roaming between the splash pad and the playground.  She couldn't decide what she liked best.

After a short while I took Lily of to ballet.  When I returned Russ told me he was going over to the house.  Jaime had a saws-all and was going to help him with the rafters.  They were gone for an hour or so.  I felt so bad for them working right during the middle of the day when it is so hot.  An hour or so later they returned with most of the rafters being sawed in half so Russ could rip them out.  Hmmm...didn't I say to do that ; )  The only problem was that Jaime had to go home, and all the rafters weren't finished being sawed in half.  I went and picked up Lily so she could come back to the party.  She got to play for five minutes in the water, before it was time to go.  She was disappointed, and I felt bad, but such is life right now.

Russ and I rounded up the girls and were talking to some friends about the Avatar party they were having that night.  They wanted us to come, but at that moment in time we didn't think we could since Russ really needed to figure out the shed.  As we mentioned that to them, Dave said he had access to a saws-all and would come over and help Russ for awhile so we could go to the party later on.  An hour or so later Dave showed up and they set to work.  I kept myself busy with the girls and shuttling ice water to Russ and Dave.  It was soooo hot outside!  

A few hours later they had everything cut out and removed!  Phew!  Originally we had hoped to have the shed finished tonight, but that obviously wasn't going to happen.  However, we were super grateful that we had even been able to get as far as we did on it.

We all cleaned up and hurriedly went shopping for an appetizer for the party, then headed over to Aaron's house.  The girls enjoyed talking with the Markham kids and watching Avatar with them.  Russ was just like one of the kids.  I spent most of my time in the kitchen talking with Carolyn and feeding Charlotte food.  That girl can sniff out food a mile away!  It was a fun little event and can't wait until we do it again.  It is really fun that we have quite a few good friends in our ward that share our infatuation with Avatar.  We drug the girls away from the TV around 8:00 so we could get home and put them to bed at a decent hour.

Today really was just go, go, go, and sadly enough the "going" hasn't stopped.  We still have a bunch of work to do on the shed, Lily's ballet recital is looming in the future, school is coming to end, and much, much more.  Stay tuned for updates on all of that!

Sprinkles gets a bath!

I know, I'm one of those crazy pet owners who takes pictures of their pets firsts, but I don't care if you think I'm crazy.  Sprinkles had her surgery done back in March.  They lady who we adopted her from brought her to us afterwards and gave me the care instruction papers.  Since I wasn't feeling to great at the time{morning sickness} I glanced at the papers and read that we weren't supposed to give Sprinkles a bath for six more weeks.  Darn!  She really was dirty and we hadn't thought to give her a bath before her surgery.

That night I let Russ know how long we had to wait, except I said something like six months!  A few weeks later I told Russ that we should give Sprinkles her bath.  Her fur was turning gray.  He reminded me that we needed to wait six months.  In my mind that sounded fishy, but I agreed to wait.  A few days ago I found the care papers buried on our desk.  I scanned them quickly, and saw that we didn't have to wait six months, nor six weeks, but really only two weeks!  Hmmm...guess I was a little more out of it than I thought when I read those papers.

I let Russ know and we got everything together for Sprinkles bath.  Me, Char, and Allie {Lily was at school} sat back and watched Russ give Sprinkles her bath.  Giving a dog a bath was new to me since my brother would always take his dog and just let her swim in the creek for her bath.  Sprinkles was pretty calm for the most part.  Russ did have to push a little on her to get her to submerge in the water, but over all she tolerated it well.

Such a cute picture of Sprinkles giving me the look of "why are you letting him do this to me?"

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sprinkles.  It really shows off that she is part Dachshund which isn't always apart when she is all fluffified..

Poor Lily came home and found out Sprinkles had gotten a bath.  She cried and cried because she had wanted to help.  I guess we will just have to give Sprinkles another bath soon so she can help out!

Our bun in the oven is....

I don't think I mentioned it on here, but I decided to change doctors this pregnancy.  I totally blame the switch on being absolutely spoiled in Idaho by amazing doctors and midwives.  The doctor who delivered Charlotte was a good enough doctor, but man did that lady have mood swings!  At first I just thought it was me being emotional since I was pregnant, but then Russ came to two separate appointments with me and commented that he could see the difference too.  I am a firm believer in that the doctor should serve you and listen too you and believe you when feel like something is going on.  Whenever my Charlotte doctor was in her grumpy state, I wasn't 100% sure when it came to delivery time she would listen to me.  Turns out she was in a good mood that day and things went well.

I really didn't like that uneasy feeling I got about her moods, so when a friend told me about her doctor who happened to be part of the same practice I decided to switch.  Doctor T is great!  She has a very sweet personality and so far I have not ran into any problems with her.  As an added bonus, she comes down to my local office every week, which makes scheduling appointments soooo much easier.  Also, she is a bit more relaxed about where I get tests done.   She was completely okay when I asked if I could do my ultrasound locally instead of traveling the hour to the big city for it.

Earlier today Russ and I dropped Char and Allie off at our friends house and drove the five minutes over to the Imaging Center.  We filled out the paper work and then we waited.  I asked the receptionist for the third time if I was supposed to have drank a bunch of water.  She again assured me that no, that is only if I was coming in for my 6 week ultrasound.  Hallelujah!  After a short wait Russ and I were both called back to the ultrasound room.  No waiting around for him! 

Our tech was a really nice lady who happened to be pregnant herself.  The ultrasound started out pretty normal with her showing us the baby's face.  Turns out though the baby decided we were invading her personal space and decided from that moment on to not hold still.  Russ, the tech, and I got a pretty good laugh as we watched the baby hit and kick at the ultrasound thingy.  The baby kept rolling away from it too!  The tech kept apologizing for pressing so hard on my stomach, which made me laugh because she was barely pushing at all.  After a lot of missed tries due to angry baby, the tech was able to get all the measurements she needed.  She tried multiple times to determine the sex of the baby.  In the beginning she got one shot that she thought she knew what it was but she kept checking back for a better shot.  In the end she came to the conclusion that we are having a.....

GIRL!!!

Surprise, surprise huh?!  The tech was fairly sure, but I'm secretly hoping for another ultrasound so they can make sure.  I get nervous when things are clear as a bell, and this one was a bit blurry. LOL!  

And of course what would an ultrasound post be without showing off our little alien?  Here SHE is...

 

So Russ and I are back to square one with girls names.  We ran out a long time ago!  Any suggestions are welcome as long as they are "normal" names!

Blowing bubbles

I've been dropping the girls off at babysitters quite a bit lately so I can go to my doctor appointments.  Every time I drop them off with one friend she takes her kids and my girls plus a dog for a walk.  One time she took 7 kids for a walk!  I felt a little sheepish after seeing how awesome she is, and decided I need to do more with the girls outside. 

Our weather has been gloriously cool for this time of the year, so my commitment to go outside more hasn't been too difficult.  Allie has requested that we blow bubbles from her newly acquired Easter bubbles.  I happily comply since I can sit and blow them while Charley and Allie chase them.  I wish I could get some pictures of how excited Charley gets when she see the bubbles, but I'm not talented enough to take pictures and blow bubbles at the same time.

Today Allie requested that she give blowing bubbles a try.  Turns out that she still puts the wand a little too close to her mouth.  She got a good taste of bubbles before handing the wand back to me.

Bubbles are fun, but there are so many other things outside to do.  Allie ran off to play some football...

some hula hoop...

when Allie was done with that Charley thought it would be fun to try out!

you can't see it in the photo but Allie is throwing this ball for Sprinkles to go ahead and chase.  It was hilarious watching them chase after the same ball.  I was quite surprised to see that occasionally Allie could over take Sprinkles and get the ball back.

Meanwhile Charley did what any toddler does...EXPLORE!

 

Besides exploring Charley loves sitting on her red chair.  She gets a very pleased look on her face every time she manages to climb up onto it by herself.

Towards the end of our time outside Allie decided to pick weeds flowers for us all.  She even made sure to pick some for daddy and Lily so they wouldn't be sad they missed out.

I love these brief little outings the girls and are getting to spend together.  I hope the weather can hold out so we can keep doing them.