Here's to you, girls: October 2013

Monday, October 28, 2013

Great Weekend, Part 3....Trunk o' Treat!

Saturday was a pretty quiet day around here. I had to make a presentation at a church in town and Arnie and Maggie worked on putting away all the patio furniture and getting the yard ready for winter. Saturday night Miss Lauren came to babysit. Lauren's Birthday is this week, so Maggie decorated the kitchen and we had some cupcakes. I wish I'd taken a picture....

They would have waited at the window ALL day if I let them. They started asking how long till
Lauren would be here, from about 10 minutes after they woke up.

Sunday was a BUSY day! We had church, a benefit pancake feed, Maggie had softball practice, then Trunk or Treat at church, and poor Arnie had a School Board meeting after that.

Our Trunk theme was "The Break Room"....Arnie was a good sport :)

I was really proud of Maggie. She has a beautiful Princess Sofia costume that she has been SO anxious to wear, and we broke the zipper while we were putting it on. Dad rushed home and grabbed last years Dr Maggie costume and without even a tear she wore it and had a great time. She told us several times how disappointed she was, but she didn't cry and she didn't let it ruin her day. She helped pass out candy to the trick or treaters while she waited for Arnie. The broken zipper has been removed, Gracie and I are headed out to purchase a new one right now. Hopefully I can have the princess dress all fixed up before she gets home from school.

We topped off the night with a hay rack ride and then 3 tired girls came home to eat a little supper and GO TO BED!!!

Great Weekend! Part 2... Pumpkins!!!

Friday night the Carlisle's had their annual Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza! We had the best time. We are truly blessed with great friends, who have great kids and who we can really just relax and enjoy. (well, maybe not relax, we did have 11 kids with knives in one room)....

Having a dear friend who is an Art Teacher comes in handy!

We take our pumpkin carving seriously! Scaffolding is always helpful!

My little pumpkin and her little pumpkin!

My bigger pumpkin and her (not so) little pumpkin.

Maggie and Haylee decided to carve another pumpkin, all by themselves!

Time for a snack!!

Not bad!

Whew, the knives are all put away....enjoy the movie kiddos!

Great Weekend! Part 1...

We had such a great weekend. It was very busy, but lots of fun things going on.

Thursday after school the girls and I headed for Omaha (Maggie was off Friday). We ran some errands and spent the evening with Elsie (Laura, Mark and Deem, too). Then Friday morning, we headed for the Children's Museum...

Yep, that's pretty much what my grocery cart looks like...Milk for Gracie, Steak for Maggie and
carrots for Chevy.

This is how you know when it's time to go home!

The girls and I had lots of fun. We were all worn out by the time we headed for home!

Here are a couple of other pictures from last week, I don't want to forget....

For the last 6 weeks Maggie has been working on a reading challenge. She had to read 30 books to earn a Princess Makeover
on our Disney Cruise in a few weeks. She finished with 19 days to spare. We're really proud of her, she worked really hard and read all 30 of them herself.

Gracie loves this cat. Most days she doesn't even want me to lay in her bed and she FREAKS out if
Reagan tries to lay with her....but apparently the dirty garage cat is welcome to her pillow!

Proof that every once in awhile they get along. Apparently when we're at Grandma's without Grandma and Grandpa they have to snuggle with each other.

School time!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Last night we went to our first Parent/Teacher Conference. Maggie was really excited about it. Surprise, Surprise, her teacher said she was a great student and that she is settling into Kindergarten very well. Mrs. Marsden told us that Maggie is very good at following the rules, and that she's a joy to have in class. Her report card was excellent. I get to help in Maggie's classroom every Friday morning, I have really enjoyed getting to know her teacher and classmates. It's fun to know all the kids by name and to know who Maggie's talking about when she refers to them. It's also nice to see the Montessori philosophy in action. It really is a very different learning environment then a standard classroom and Maggie thrives there. The kids choose "jobs" or "work" to do each day, they have to complete that job, report on it and clean it up before they can move on. They are free to work together and choose things that interest them. There are no desks, a few scattered tables but mostly the kids work on rugs on the floor. It was definitely the right learning environment for Maggie, I'm so grateful she has the opportunity to be there.

Gracie was a little under the weather this weekend, so we mostly stayed home and took it easy. We were planning one last camping trip but decided it was a little chilly, so we stayed home. I was sorry to lose the camping weekend, but it was kind of nice to have an impromptu weekend at home, with nothing on the calendar.

Grace really didn't understand why we were making "wisheys" or really what
a witch was....

....but she keeps talking to the lady in the window.

We had to go to the appliance store yesterday, Gracie really liked
this chair (and they gave her some M&M''s), today when we drove by
she asked if we could go back.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

My kids....

....are opposites this week. Maggie seems so grown up all of the sudden and Gracie is doing her best to drive me CRAZY. It's only 9am and I've already picked the wrong shirt, made her wear socks, told her to sit in the wrong spot for breakfast, put her milk in a cup she doesn't like, made her go potty by herself (if I had offered to help, that would be wrong too) and turned on the water "too loud" while she brushed her teeth! I wish I was kidding. I feel like she spends more time in time-out then doing anything fun these days. I'm tired of being frustrated with her and I feel bad for her, I hope she figures out who the boss is soon, so we can go back to our happy existence. Monday afternoon she threw an open bottle of water at me...when I went to see if she was ready to talk and get out of time out, she said "Nope, go away." I kind of forgot she was sitting there, so it was awhile before I checked on her again...that time when I asked why she was in time out, she said "because sometimes I naughty." If she only knew how right she was!

Maggie on the other hand, just seems like such a grown-up these days. She gets up with her alarm clock and pretty much gets herself ready. She has figured out that if she can convince Reagan to stay in bed when she gets up, it seems like a fairly good excuse to not make her bed....I may have to nix that....Reagan seems to be a willing participant.

Last weekend we spent Friday night at Aunt Trisha and Uncle Jeff's for a fall party, it was a great time. I wish I'd taken a few pictures before it got dark. My car still smells a bit like camp fire from all of our clothes and blankets on the way home, but I'm getting used to it.

Maggie had a big (big girl) weekend...Saturday she got to go to her first Pink Panther Dance Day. Our high school dance team puts on an all day workshop, the high school girls teach the little girls a dance and then everyone performs at the end. She loved it. We've had a lot more be-boppin around here since then :). On Sunday she got to go to her first "real" Birthday party, for one of her classmates. The kind where mom and dad just drop her off and come back a couple of hours later. It was a spa party at the YMCA, she thought she was pretty big stuff, they got their toenails painted, played dress up and had chocolate facials.

Here is a video of the whole dance....
http://youtu.be/e8o7fEXbpjM

After dance day, we went across the street and did a little bowling with the Carlisles! Maggie went bowling once when she was really small and Gracie's never been. Maggie picked it up quickly and rolled a 99 her first game....she even beat her Mama!