Fishin' with Family

What a glorious day it was on Saturday! We had some family over for a cookout and then spent some time on the paddle boat out on the water. What a blessing!!  Thank you Lord! We sure missed a couple of peeps that didn't make it (you know who you are) - but enjoyed the ones who came. Here are a couple pictures. ((hugs)) E1

Picture Time!

First Day of First Grade

I am SO excited for school to start!! Mom had me fill out a sheet of paper that asked what my favorite thing about school is and my answer is, "SCHOOL"! I love it all! Except I did tell Mom that "when I get older and I have a kid in the first grade, I'm going to go easy on them. I won't give them time limits."

Mom told me to get my finger out of my nose (not that it was in there or anything) and E2 thought that was so funny that she'd give it a try for the picture. Nice.

And here we are laughing at that silly girl!!

And, since we have school at home, we are barefoot, because we can be!!  Woohoo!

Birthday Pictures

What a super fantastic birthday! Who knew that a birthday could be this much fun even without an official party. It started off with a scavenger hunt (I requested that) for my present - which is a super cool new bronco swing for the playset!

Then we headed to Cincinnati to spend the day at the zoo and to make a quick stop by the Creation Museum to see the best planetarium show EVER!

And just look at THIS! I got to go on a camel ride! I felt like the Queen of Sheba! The hardest part was being quiet. They warned me not to make any loud noises while I was on the ride - I only messed up once when I yelled for Dad to look. Good thing that camel didn't get to upset.

Carwash

Let's just say, I do not like the carwash. I was so brave this time and didn't cry, but I had my super special (it's a new one that is super soft) Penny the Penguin snuggled up close. It made me feel a little better that Pooh and Piglet were in there, but I still was very happy when it was over. ((hugs)) E2

New Happenings

Do you remember that E2 had a birthday and that now she is 2 (Mom won't let me say she's a terrible 2, but she is. Don't tell her I said that.)? Well, I have noticed a few changes with her now that she is 2 - and it has only been a month!

Now she calls Mom, "Mom" and she says it ALL the time. She must think that big kids call say "Mom" instead of "Mommy". But even I sometimes call her "Mommy", and I'm almost 6 (way bigger than lil E2). I think that E2 uses this as some sort of homing beacon; you know, kind of like playing Marco Polo. It is constant.

She also says, "Why?" a lot now. I don't know if she is going to be a scientist like me and wonders why things work or why Mom makes certain decisions (like we have to wait 5 more minutes for lunch). But she is always asking why. It is usually followed up by a little groan of disappointment, "oooohhhh". Poor thing. It is hard learning that you are not the center of the universe. I'm still learning that myself, and I already know a lot about the solar system.

Side note about me for a second here (come on, give me a break. I dedicated the first 3 paragraphs to lil E). I am going to be learning ALL about the solar system and stars this year for school and I am super duper excited! I have already started reading the school book. Mom took it away because she said I had to learn the value of anticipation - whatever THAT's supposed to mean. She said we are even going to build a model of our solar system - WOW!!! I can't wait!

Ok, back to E2. The other big thing happening with her is that Mom is trying to teach her to go to the bathroom on the potty. At first, Mom thought she was coming to tell her she wanted to sit on the potty after she had already went in her diaper. Not exactly how it works. Now she seems to be understanding a little better. She already has a couple of reward stickers on her chart and her other reward is a bite of ice cream. She is SO silly! Jelly beans are way better than ice cream (which is what Mom gave me as a treat for going potty)! Well, we thought she was understanding better until last night....

Mom said that after she put E2 to bed, she was sitting on the couch reading on the computer when E2 started saying (you guessed it), "Mom, Mom, Mom." So she went in to see what she wanted (this usually means that poor Penny was chucked out of bed and Mom has to retrieve her). There she found E2 standing in her bed, bare bottomed, and saying "potty." Uh oh!! She must have felt "the urge" and decided that she needed to remove her diaper to go pee pee. The part she forgot was that she needed to be sitting on the toilet!! She peed all over her bed. BLECH!!!! The kicker is that she was so proud that she thought she deserved a reward sticker. Oh that lil sister of mine is so confused!

After much cleaning, Mom and Dad finally got her put back into bed. I am surprised Mom didn't put that fancy "duck tape" on her diaper. No way she could tear that off.

Hopefully your evening was a little quieter than ours. :)

((hugs))
E1

Still Dark?

We always wondered what was happening at 5 AM. It was still very dark outside but nothing too exciting was happening - so we decided to color. The good news is that we got to spend more time with Daddy before he left for work. The bad news is Mom says we have to have a nap today (even me, and I'm almost 6).   ((hugs)) E1

Fun day!

Now that it is August, I can tell summer is almost over. Yes, I know it is still very, very hot outside, but I can tell that my summer break is coming to an end. Yesterday, I helped Mom put the schedule and information pages into the school binder. She keeps organizing and rearranging in our office / homeschool room. But you know what? I am going to soak up as much of the summer break as I can! Here are some pictures of what we did today for fun.

With Mom's help, we built a fort in the living room!

 Mindy wanted a little head bump to show us some love.

 E2 goes back inside...

 Oh, there she is!

 And now I'm getting attacked!!!!!!!!  She loves to wrestle me down to the ground.

 After we got home from the mall, I played with Fuzzoodles - they are so cute!!!