Button pusher....

Gracie's favorite thing to do is push people's buttons. Especially her sisters.

Wednesday, Maggie had Speech Therapy at the hospital. As we walked down the hall, Maggie said, "Gracie we have to get on the elevator." Gracie said, "yep we're getting on the Elephant." Maggie was totally irritated by the inaccuracy, and Gracie kept repeating it. Finally after Maggie's pleading Gracie complied, or at least that's what Maggie thought was happening......Gracie looked right at her and said, "ok, it's no Elephant"......long pause, Maggie looked satisfied, then Grace piped up....."it's an alligator!" Grace laughed hysterically all the way up the elevator (or alligator) and Maggie just got more irritated.

I wish I had a camera...

One of the girls favorite things to do after school is take their Gator and drive out to the mailbox. Yesterday it was WINDY but I didn't think of that when the headed out. I heard some commotion and looked out the front window.....newspaper parts were flying everywhere!!! Grace was sitting in the back of the gator, at the end of the driveway yelling at Maggie (because she knows she isn't supposed to go in the road) and Maggie was running around on the road like a kid in one of those carnival money machines. I took off across the yard to help them....without my camera! When I got out there I realized Gracie was sitting on the papers Maggie had already collected. We got all the papers contained, we're glad daddy was out of town so no one would really miss them. It was a pretty crumpled mess by the time we finished! We decided from now on maybe they should take a bag when they go.

This weekend we camped at Camp Merrill. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. We spent Saturday putting together the girls old swing set in the campground. We're so glad it has a new home!


We even found a use for Uncle Deems head....

My children look homeless....Gracie has no shoes and a dirty face, Maggie has a dirty
shirt and her shoes are untied and dad had apparently been crawling on the ground??

Arnie was headed out of town, so he went to Lincoln and the girls and I brought the camper home and unloaded it....we took this picture to prove we made it!

When we got home our butterflies had just hatched....all 5 of them made it. The girls are enjoying watching them, but I think it's probably about time to let them go.

Grandmas Day!

Wednesday was Grandparents Day at Maggie's school. The Grandpa's were tied up but the Grandma's were both there. Maggie was SO excited. She got up before her alarm clock and was ready to go way before Dad was ready to take her.

I was at school to help with Grandparents day and take pictures of all the kids with their Grandparents, but Maggie made it clear, I wasn't supposed to follow her and her Grandmas around. Apparently that would be cramping her style :)

She got to give them a tour of her classroom and introduce them to Mrs. Marsden, then they had lunch together and went to recess (where Maggie taught them how to play 4 square).

Maggie generally thinks school lunch is "awesome!" She especially likes Wednesday because it's always pizza day. She really wanted the Grandmas to get to have school lunch too :) yum, yum....let's just say, the pizza didn't look like Pizza Hut and I have no idea what "Cowboy beans" are, but I wouldn't recommend them. Next year maybe they'll bring Subway!

It was fun to see all the kids with their Grandparents, I'm glad she goes to a school with such great kids and involved families. We really are lucky to be there!

Gracie's favorite time of the day is still picking up Maggie. She's getting more used to our days without her, but she definitely misses her!

Tuesday night Gracie came in from the deck with her lip sticking out and her best sad eyes...and said...."Peanut no talking to me!" hmmmmmm, I wonder what the cat usual says to her :) I think they've made up by now and peanut is once again telling Gracie all her secrets.

Just in case you forgot, Gracie is 2!!! :) and can be found carrying
at least 2 or 3 purses at almost all times.

Creepy Crawlies and the rest of our week.....

Ben & Jess gave Maggie a butterfly house for her birthday....do you know what you start with when you have a butterfly house??  A cup of caterpillars....cute, right? Not so much, the caterpillars are brown, hairy and a little gross, but the food and other gunk in their "habitat" is really icky....anyway we have really enjoyed watching them make their cocoons, hopefully in the next week or so we'll have some beautiful butterfly's.

Gracie was giving the little guys a pep talk before they built their cocoons.

...getting ready to spin their new homes....

....isn't that cool?? they're almost metallic and shiny gold.... the whole time they were building
their cocoons (6 or 8 hours) they shook like they had the shivers.

 

...and now we wait....
 

Besides watching caterpillars, this week we had all the usual stuff: School, horses, church, gymnastics, etc.

On Wednesday after school Maggie had her first appointment with the speech pathologist. She thought it was pretty fun. They played games, did flashcards and chatted. It was the therapists determination that Maggie does have significant "hyper-nasal" speech due to her tonsil and adenoid surgery, she also thinks Maggie could use a little help with her s and z sounds. So for the next few weeks we'll add a couple of speech therapy appointments a week to our calendar....

Tuesday was picture day, Maggie asked to sleep in curlers....her hair was pretty curly when she woke up.

On Friday, I got to go to Kindergarten! Maggie's teacher asked if I could start coming in on Fridays and read with the kids for a little while. I was SO excited to get to see her in her classroom and to be a part of her day. For 5 years I've pretty much known everything that goes on in her life, and all of the sudden for the last 20 days her world has been a mystery to me....not any more. Now I know what happens, how her classroom works, where she hangs her backpack, where she sits for story time, who she spends her days with and how wonderful her teacher is. I'm so glad I have the time to be able to be there with her and that she wants me there. I can't wait to go back this Friday!

Go BIG Red!

Yesterday we decided to take the girls to the Husker game. We make this mistake about once a season....and usually quickly remember why we swore we'd never do it again. They were very good, it's just a long time, especially when the Huskers are loosing and people are unhappy! Maggie and Gracie were both really excited to go. Gracie was eager to wear the "boy jersey" she picked out with her daddy last week (so much for my cute little cheerleaders!) The weather was great and we all had a good time, it's just exhausting trying to keep them entertained and from bothering the people around them.

Gracie wasn't very fond of the tailgate, so we went in and watched the band
and all the people fill into the stadium.

 Then the game started and the girls were over it....

 

What do you do when the Huskers are loosing by 20 and you're tired of watching?? Headstands, of course.....

By the time we headed for home, everyone was worn out. It was a fun day and I'm glad we took them, but I don't think we'll do it again for awhile.

Answers...

Gracie currently has 2 answers, no matter what the question....
If you ask a question that contains "when", the answer is almost always, with confidence, "on my birffday".....to any other kind of question her current answer is "GOD MADE EVERYYYYONE!!!!" Then she cracks up.

2 of a kind...

Friday and Monday, Gracie's friend Lauren got to spend the days with us. It was SO fun. The girls are like 2 peas in a pod, they just really enjoyed having each other. It was nice to not have to be Gracie's playmate all day.


I think they were working on a secret hand shake....or maybe overthrowing the government :)





We went out for lunch and a sweet older man stopped at our table to ask if they were twins....he said they sure act alike, but they just don't look anything alike.





When Gracie got dressed Monday she wanted to wear "lines" like Lauren....


Everything is easier with a buddy!


We couldn't find paint brushes so we painted with weeds, pinecones and rocks...they thought it was pretty great.


I'm not ready to start a daycare but we sure hope Lauren comes back soon!! Poor Grace is back to boring ol' mom!

Will this drive ever end???

All in all, this weekend ended up ok. But there were a few moments I'd rather not repeat.

Saturday morning Gracie had a fever and was complaining about her ear hurting, since we were in Omaha I thought it warranted a quick trip to the pediatrician. While she and I were sitting in the waiting room I noticed an awful rash on her leg. By the time we got into the room, it had spread all over both legs and up her arms. I could pretty much watch it grow- I was really glad we were at the doctor.


Turns out the poor girl had hives!! The nurse quickly gave her a dose of Benadryl and the spreading slowed. Good news, her ears were ok. Bad news, she had a little stomach bug and her bodies reaction was the hives! They looked awful. After that we mostly laid low and took it easy.

Today Gracie is definitely doing better. The Benadryl seems to have her totally cracked out (the opposite of what it's supposed to do), but the hives are gone.

We loaded up about 2:45 to head back to Norfolk....50 miles later my dad called and pointed out that we had forgotten Reagan....seriously?? How does that happen? We turned around to go back and get her....poor dog, she's gotta make more noise!


On our way back to Omaha, Maggie was talking about vacations. So we decided it was a great time to tell her about the Disney Cruise we have booked for November. It's been really hard to keep the secret from her, we thought she would be really excited. I wish we'd taped the conversation, it was pretty surreal....it went something like this
Me or Arnie: "Maggie, we're going on an awesome Disney cruise"
Maggie: didn't say anything at first, I turned around, she was teary eyed and said, "No thank you. Can we go when I'm a bit older?"
Arnie: "crap, do we have trip insurance???"

Maggie is a little bit scared of characters and she thought on a Disney cruise they would sleep in your room. Now that we've talked about it more and shown her some videos she is more excited!! I hope she gets over her character issues in the next 2 months, but I guess I shouldn't hold my breath!

The best news of the weekend is that we just pulled back into Norfolk, finally at 8:30 pm....AND we have both of our kids and Reagan this time!

Happy Labor Day!

We had a nice long weekend. We spent most of it in Omaha, then were home on Monday to get a few things done and to get everyone to bed early! Arnie braved the Husker game, it was too hot (and too late) for me. The weather has finally cooled off a bit, it's been nice to open up the house a little and get some fresh air.

Two ornery, peas in a pod!

It was a busy weekend in the kitchen...

Maggie and Grandma cut 'the watermelon'. Maggie wanted to make it into melon
balls, so there would be some for everyone. It was a pretty good watermelon, hopefully
we'll have a few more before too long.

Maggie and Grandma also made an Apple Pie.
Maggie has now made 2 more pies in her life then I have....She says she'll teach me :)

 We went to Aunt Trisha & Uncle Jeff's for a picnic and swimming.....


 

On Monday, back at home, we made some pickles and apple butter. It was really our first attempt at canning. The jars all sealed, so I guess we'll call it a success!

Yesterday the weather was beautiful! Maggie got to ride in the outside arena for the first time, she loved it...Gracie really LOVED it. She was so dirty by the time we headed home. That girl LOVES dirt!

Gracie always has her shoes on the wrong feet....even her flip-flops. This looks
so uncomfortable, but she wouldn't hear anything about changing them!