A day at Magic Waters

Shelby and I went to Magic Waters on Monday with her friends Olivia and Lucas and my friends Meghan and Kara. She had a BLAST, but came home and collapsed for her nap! Her favorite thing was the frog slide in the pic just above which she took on head first her third time down. Nevermind the sputtering of water, she got up giggling. The girl is fearless, I tell you! Sarah stayed home with Nana S. Maybe next year when they can both play together, but for now she just wouldn't enjoy it enough. As for Shelby, she is already asking when we can go back to M.W. I have 2 more free adult tickets to use this summer from school (normally $20 a pop), so I'm sure we'll go back before summer ends. Think sunny thoughts everyone!

Just some summer fun...

This is the critter Nate found just outside of the girl's sandbox...our "fearless" girl Shelby wouldn't go near it, but was heartbroken when it got away. She kept asking "Where did the froggy go?" I convinced her that it went home to see it's mommy and daddy.

clothes?

These two pics are of the "naked girls." We are in trouble at sometime in the future since Shelby loves to be "naked girl" she runs away from clothes and leaves hers off after using the potty whenever possible all the while screaming "I'm naked girl!" all throughout the house! Fun for us. :)

The runaway artists are on the loose!

This is a pic of our dining room wall...after Shelby and her friend Olivia finished redecorating it for me. Apparently they agreed with Nate and were ready for a change from the yellow wall. Luckily it was dry erase marker (they were supposed to be drawing on the easel) and the Expo spray that you use to clean whiteboards took it off pretty easily, but not until I had tried lots of other methods unsuccessfully. That's alright Shelby and Olivia, I'll know who to call when I do want to redecorate!

I've been tagged!

Alright, my dear friend Jaime has tagged me. I say this with some sarcasm because it's something like a chain letter in a blog, but I will play along because I really enjoyed reading hers.

5 things I was doing ten years ago:
(that was the summer before my senior year in college, so...)
1. Nate and I got engaged that summer.
2. I was getting ready to student teach second grade in Chicago.
3. I was working for my dad at CamCar in the shipping office.
4. Living in a tiny dorm room but with my own bathroom because I was a Resident Assistant at Concordia my junior and senior year.
5. Living in the suburbs of Chicago when I wasn't home for the summer (I miss being so close to the city sometimes).

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. brownies
2. chocolate cake with vanilla frosting
3. nachos
4. cheese and crackers
5. Blizzards from Dairy Queen

5 songs I know the lyrics to:
1. most anything by Laurie Berkner (thanks to Shelby's love of her)
2. almost any REO Speedwagon song
3. my Keith Urban CDs.
4. my Kenny Chesney's CDs.
5. This song called "Grumpy" by David Weinstone (thanks again to Shelby and Jack's Big Music Show)

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Put plenty of money away for the girl's future
2. Buy Nate that Porsche and the other cars he always dreams of having.
3. Travel more and see the world.
4. Allow myself to shop more without the guilt.
5. Still teach but maybe part time

5 bad habits:
1. I bite my nails (always have, for as long as I can remember)
2. I can't say NO when I really should
3. I worry too much about what others think
4. I interrupt others because I'm afraid I will forget what I want to say
5. I eat way too much junk food

5 things I would never wear again:
1. leggings with baggy sweaters and shirts
2. maternity clothes :-)
3. tight rolled jeans (an example of my worrying what others think because I couldn't stand them)
4. jelly shoes (and those plastic clogs they have out now, yuck I say)
5. anything that even sort of shows my stomach to others (too many stretch marks)

5 things I like to do:
1. read
2. exercise
3. teach others
4. play with Shelby and Sarah
5. ride my bike

5 favorite toys:
1. Candy Land
2. Life
3. Barbies
4. Paper dolls (used to love those things)
5. the sandbox

I'm supposed to Tag 5 others here but I don't know anyone else with a blog, so you get to enjoy my post without having to join in on the fun.

Still no time?!?

So... one would think that I should feel like I have lots of free time on my hands now that summer vacation is here, but I don't. I feel just as rushed and busy as before. Could be because my principal called this week and asked if I wanted to spend $5,000 right away for next year (who wouldn't want to do that?) so I have been spending my "free time" (that means when the girls are napping or in bed) writing up an order for lots of books for our reading program. I am also trying to psych myself up to start pricing things for the garage sale my mom and I are planning to have in early July. I am very excited to start purging the baby things the girls no loner need since our basement feels extra full after I brought most of the contents of my classroom home last week. I also have scrapbooks to catch up on and my cupboards and closets all feel like they are overflowing and need BADLY to be cleaned out. I am going to blink and August will be here and I will still have a large to-do list!

I am enjoying my extra time with the girls, despite my complaining of lots to do! They are both growing and changing a lot right now. We had them both out in the pool this morning (some relief from the heat) and they had a great time. I will have to get some pics of them next time we are out and post them. Shelby is like a little fish, Sarah had to get used to the idea, but once she did she really enjoyed it too.

More later when hopefully my to-do list is a little shorter!

Some walking pics...and The LOOK!

Sarah is trying out her crazy walking skills with a little help from the baby stroller.

Shelby's off to the grocery store. Shopping List: orange juice and pop-juice

Such a ham!




The LOOK! Do you see that, the LOOK?

Jumping like a frog. Ribbit! Ribbit!

My careful girl.

Finally walking, sentences, and looks like - acts like

Sarah is now a genuine walker! After weeks of not really wanting to try walking except around furniture, she has gotten brave and taken off! She has been working at it every chance she gets and this weekend she started taking more than 2 or 3 steps before falling and walking across the room and between rooms. She still has that Frankenstein-like walk with her arms out in front of her, but her balance is really good overall. I will post some pics of her new skills!

Shelby is talking more and more all the time and in the past week she has been putting more and more words together. Last night she was eating jell-o and told Nate "Daddy come and get some jello, you will like it!" It's really cool to see her language developing so quickly right now. Her favorite new thing is the question, "What's that?" Which I hear about 20 times a day. Her temper, however, is maddening! She can be sweet and cuddly one moment, and then you ask her to come here or do something and BAM! She is running away or throwing things...ahhhh! I keep telling myself this has to be a phase, but I'm not quite sure when it will end.

Our children are just amazing to me...it's such an interesting mix of Nate and I and it produced 2 really different girls! They look somewhat alike we are told, but really Shelby looks much more like me (chubby cheeks, round face) and Sarah looks much more like Nate. However, when it come to how they act, it's just the opposite! Shelby has a TEMPER and needs to have what she wants when she wants it and she is FEARLESS. Guess who that is like? (One hint, it isn't me.) Sarah on the other hand, is very sensitive and gets her feelings hurt easily and she is more cautious about trying new things (case in point, walking). She is also somewhat content to sit still and play with a toy for a few minutes at a time while Shelby never was at that age. My mom says her temprament is much more like mine as a little girl.

Only two more days of school with students, and if all goes well, I will be done packing my room and moving out of it and into my new office by Friday. That may be a tall order, but I am ready for my summer to start. I have lots of projects for the summer including getting ready for a garage sale, exercising more, getting the girl's scrapbooks caught up, planting some flowers around the house, organizing my recipes which are a mess, and doing some reading (personal and professional). Is that all, you ask? Yep, that should do it, but I know I'll never get it done.