Finally, a Bike-A-Thon!

Maggie's original Bike-A-Thon at school got snowed out! She was pretty sad, but she did say, "It's more important to give money to the kids at St. Jude then to ride our bikes at school." BUT yesterday the weather was beautiful and they finally got to take their bikes to school. It was a little bittersweet for me, I'm used to Maggie being the little one at the bike-a-thon, in the middle of the circle on her tricycle....this year she was the big girl, on the outside of the circle going like a speed racer on her bike. Some days I'm amazed at how much she's grown-up, and how fast!

Anyway, enough sappy Mom! Maggie's grand total for St. Jude was $715. Thank you to all of you who helped her reach that goal. She was very proud of herself. She's pretty sure that's enough money to "help ALL the kids." :)

 

Oh, JJ!

The Bike-A-Thon is TOTAL chaos! This is just over half of the girls bikes....their are kids, helmets and crashes everywhere!

A little monkey-ing around while she waited her turn.

Atlanta

Last weekend we made another quick trip to Atlanta. This time we all got to go. Arnie and Gracie were happy to meet baby Lauren and it was fun to spend the weekend celebrating with the whole family.

She's so sweet when she sleeps :)

Maggie taught Gramma Lea how to play Skee Ball on the iPad.

Lauren is pretty sweet, we thought about stealing her.

 

Aunt Diane surprised Maggie with an early Birthday trip to the American Girl store. She thought it was AWESOME! They were sweet enough to pick out a baby for Gracie while they were there.  Maggie's babies name is Margaret Emma Robinson and Gracie's goes between "Baby" and "Baby Tater".

Lauren might have felt slightly under attack at this point :) She handled it well.

A little sisterly chit chat.

Grandma Lea & Papa and all 5 of their Great Grand kids.

Cousins!

He didn't get much chance to snuggle her (because I took his turns:)), but Uncle Arnie and Lauren are pretty
tight already!

The weather in Atlanta was less then impressive, especially Sunday. It's a good
thing we had great company and lots to do.

 

Sometimes she's sweet when she's awake too :)

School!

I had to be in a LONG meeting all day yesterday and last night. Arnie was on dad duty! He took the girls to the end of the year carnival at Maggie's new school. Maggie got to see the building, look in her kindergarten class and best of all meet her teacher. She was all smiles.






As you can see, so was Grace! She was pretty proud of herself for winning the bottle of pop in the ring toss!

Chelsea!

Last night we stopped at Carly & JJ's house so they could introduce the girls to their new baby sister....





Chelsea and I had a few minutes to snuggle earlier in the week, so we were already tight :) she'd been waiting for me to come back, I could tell :)....



Miss Chelsea is beautiful and snugly. We all love her already! I can't wait to watch her grow.

"New hat"

Today, Gracie rounded the corner and said, "Mom, Gracie new hat".....


....then she got a bath! I hope wearing a potty chair doesn't become a habit! So gross!

A couple other pictures....


Gracie woke up from her nap and said "Gracie wake up happy"....maybe I called her a grouch one too many times??



Maggie planted these beans last Tuesday, one of them is 12" tall already. Maybe she should be a farmer.


Look, 2 kitties drinking their milk :)

- Posted using BlogPress

Maggie's Homework...

I have been awful about recording what a great reader Maggie has become. Here are a couple of pages from her homework book tonight (she is VERY proud of having homework, she already complains about doing it, but she's happy to tell anyone who will listen that her teacher gives it to her.)

http://youtu.be/UUr1P1BrvHo

100%

 

Outside!

I'm so glad we have a barn cat who never comes in the house.....









....said the lady with cat hair on her couch!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A regular week....I think?

They say the mind is the first thing to go.... I have to remember to blog mid week, by Sunday night, I seem to have forgotten the best stuff that happened all week.

Gracie's sentences and vocabulary are growing every day. I'm amazed from one day to the next how much more she says. This week she officially seems to have ditched her night time pull-ups. Last Monday she declared she would wear panties to bed, and she did. I think we may officially be a diaper free household! She's also been eating a little more, YAH! She's decided "no no bars" (granola bars) are what she wants for breakfast, which is a big improvement over "no eat, milk?"

Maggie had a busy week, school, gymnastics, horses, church, Grandma & Grandpas, softball....all the usual. She asked about playing soccer this week. I told her she was welcome to try it but we'd have to take a break from something else. It sounds like maybe in the fall she's going to take a break from gymnastics to try a season of soccer. I'm not sure she'll love soccer, but I suppose if we're going to try it, fall is better then summer! She may change her mind by then, who knows!

Reagan had a toe nail incident last weekend, so she had to have a little surgery to remove it on Monday. The cast
is gone now and she's on the mend. The girls were really glad it was purple.

Even with her cast on she wouldn't let the girls go to the mailbox without her.

The baby chicks "cracked out" at Maggie's school this week. Gracie had to go
in and check on them every day.

Here is a video of Gracie talking about the baby chicks, (sorry I couldn't edit myself out, I'll talk quiter next time).... http://youtu.be/7BQP1xMUUj8

"Hey Elsie, splash Grandma, NOW!"

Maggie finally had softball practice outside today, they got rained on a little, but they were tough!
She was really excited that she got her new cleats dirty and that she could eat licorice through her mask.

This afternoon Carly came over and we had sewing school. Both girls did great and have
cute new pillowcases to show for it!

 

She made very clear that it was HER pillow and if she wanted
it to say Margaret (not Maggie) then that's what it would say! Good night Margaret!

I'll try not to wait a week before I post again. Unless my kids are boring this week....ya right! (wishful thinking!)

Horses, Birthdays, Gymnastics and more...

Friday night Arnie, Maggie and I went to a horse jumping show in Omaha. I didn't know what to expect, it was really neat. Maggie was totally into it, surprise, surprise...

 

This giant Percheron was tied up, getting ready for the big opening. Every time Maggie
turned her head and smiled the horse did the same thing. I really wish I had taped it. He
was a ham!

She had a seat, but she spent most of the night right down in front.

Saturday, Arnie and I went to get him all outfitted for the Kentucky Derby....long story short, I made him try on a bow tie (he was a good sport), I laughed so hard I cried, we didn't buy the bow tie :)

Saturday evening we had a Birthday dinner with the Westerfields...I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. We had lots of fun. Uncle Jeff taught all the kids to slide down the steps head first....I have a feeling that may come back to bite us one day :)

 

Yesterday, Maggie had a gymnastics program. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mark, Uncle Deem, Elsie, Amy, Carly & Michelle came to watch. She was really excieted everyone was there. She did great and seemed to really enjoy herself.

The bar is her favorite.

A little wave for her cheering section.

 

Look at these BIG girls! Elsie looks so much like Gracie...

 A couple more pictures...

Sunday at softball practice Maggie got her helmet and her uniform. She thinks
she's BIG stuff. She gets to be #5 just like Miss Lauren :)

This morning Gracie and I cleaned the pantry....I'm not sure how I thought that
was going to work....now that she's sleeping I better go finish!