Building a boat!!

It's been raining like crazy around here. Yesterday when I took Maggie to school there were deserted cars all over town with water up on to the doors, it was nuts! The water was knee high in the street in front of Maggie's school. We don't need anymore water for a few days.

Last Friday after school we went to the office to help Pop's with his ice bucket challenge :) Maggie thought it was pretty fun to get to drench him.

Saturday we went to Lincoln to see Grandma Lea and Papa's new digs. The girls love it there, they have a movie theater, a popcorn machine, an arcade and best of all and ice cream machine! We had a nice visit and are getting settled.

 Ridin' in style to lunch :)

Saturday afternoon and Sunday we did lots of swimming and Grandma and Grandpas. The girls are going to be sad to see summer go. Maybe Grandpa should enclose the pool :)

Tuesday Gracie and I were cleaning out some closets, she found this lovely hat that Brandon left here....she wore it ALL day.

Including to school pick up. She kept saying she loved "Brandon's Kitty Hat" :)  I've successfully hidden it, with any luck she'll forget about it.

These 2 crack me up! Arnie was out of town the first half of the week, so we used it as an excuse to eat dinner at the softball field. Gracie was sad they didn't have any milk, but apparently she decided 7-up would do!

 

Maggie has the first spelling test of her life tomorrow. She's pretty pumped and practicing hard, I bet she'll ace it :) She's also on her 2nd chapter book of the school year. It's so fun to watch her be successful and proud. Gracie is very excited to have gotten to start "drawers" at school, that's Montessori's method for teaching almost everything phonetic. She's working hard this week on "A" and "F". She likes to do her "homework" while big sister works on hers.

First week of school....

We have the first week of school almost under our belts. Maggie has had a great week. She's really enjoying her new teacher and class. I think having a combined classroom has been (and will be) good for her, she doesn't have to worry about being the best at everything because half the class is second graders. She did GREAT on her reading placement test, she skipped a couple of levels over the summer. She's proud that all her hard work paid off.  Every morning at school they sing the "Fifty Nifty United States" song.....the song has all the states in alphabetical order, when you get a chance ask her to sing it for you :) I hope I get it recorded before she actually learns them :)

Gracie is back into the school routine. She really likes being there. Loves playing with her friends, taking her lunch and comes home SO dirty. Her favorite thing to do at school is play in the sand....when I get there she is usually shoveling it nicely into some kind of container, but by the looks of her I'm pretty sure sometime during the day she rolls in it!

Tuesday Maggie (and Chevy) tried out an English Saddle. She was pretty nervous about it and it was very different but she did good. We (by we I mean a really nice, strong guy who works at the barn) had to punch 10 extra holes in each of her stirrups to make them short enough, before she could get started. It will take some getting used to and I'm not sure she's sold on it, but she's being a good sport.

Gracie and her barn buddy Rufus! It was 100 degrees, who wouldn't want to snuggle a furry cat.

Yesterday was employee dinner at NIM, so we went to eat with Daddy. I'm pretty sure Gracie only had frosting for supper and Maggie had beef and cake :)

Ride along with Gracie....

Gracie and I have been riding our bike a lot. I should get one of those little cameras to tape the whole ride....she's pretty funny. She likes when I quiz her on the fields....what's that Gracie?.....she quickly replies with corn or beans or occasionally cows (duh!) 

She loves this field....

...she's just sure this farmer likes to eat his corn and beans mixed up! 

Tuesday we rode past a field that had old cars ALL over it. She quickly spoke up and said "they are growing cars!" Then laughed hysterically :)

All of the sudden today there were thousands of grasshoppers, she was not amused.
http://youtu.be/5HzdDTcG4dk

Poor thing. It was pretty traumatic. When she wasn't screaming (which was most of the ride) she was asking why we were stuck in a Grasshopper storm. She will have a new appreciation for the plagues during Passover. 

I hope they go away soon or my workout buddy might bail!
__________________
Another Gracie story from today....
Me: Where did your gum go?
Gracie: It found it's way down my throat, all by itself.
Me: You mean you swallowed it?
Gracie: NO, it got down my throat all by itself.
This girl is going to be a handful when she's a teenager!

...and then it was just me!

Today it was Gracie's turn...

She helped to pack her lunch last night, she was REALLY excited about her Frozen lunch box. If you asked her, she would tell you she was taking "raisins" but don't worry, she also had a muffin, yogurt, cheese and bologna (all staples for her).

I was worried that she would cry when I dropped her off, she's a bit of a Mama's girl, but she did great. They got a fish tank at school over the summer and it's hard to compete with fish :) She gave me a couple of extra hugs and then was off to play. I'm so glad to loves it there.

Seriously Mom, can we go in yet????

I know she went to Preschool last year, but this feels different. She's bigger, eager and really ready for school.....and I am not.

I'm having a tough time with school this year. I'm not sure why it seems so different, I'm just not ready to send them off into the world. The world is such a screwed up place these days and my girls are my world....I'll get used to it, it'll be a tough week, but we'll find a routine, right? :( I know homeschooling isn't the answer, and we would all get tired of that too, but man it's hard to give them to someone else for the day and for whatever reason seems to be getting harder. Not to mention we LOVE summer, our friends are home, we can come and go as we please, sleep in, stay up late, go to Omaha, travel on a whim and PLAY! I think I'm in a funk....maybe chocolate will help!

1st Grade!!!

Yesterday was Maggie's first day of 1st Grade!! She was so excited to go back to school and it sounds like she had an awesome day. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Vanness and she is in a combined 1st/2nd Grade classroom. Last night was Open House so she got to show us her locker (BIG deal in first grade, Kindergarteners don't get lockers) and classroom. I always worry when I send her off, but I should know better, she handles it all with grace and maturity....she jumps in with both feet and is always ready to conquer the world :)

 

....and off she goes!

 What a difference a year makes!!!!

Airplanes, watersides, vacaction, oh my....

Friday, August 1st around noon we all loaded in the new camper and off we went. (Don't worry, the girls are wearing seatbelts and it didn't take Reagan long to stake out her space on the couch.)

Our first stop was in LeMars at the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor.....

Maggie has been BEGGING to sleep in a Walmart parking lot since we got the camper.....hey, a girls gotta have goals :)  So after a long day of driving....she got her wish....

Admittedly it wasn't quite as exciting as she had hoped, but she was glad we did it. We will likely do it again some day. Makes for a good safe place to sleep on a long drive! We were up early and off again...this time headed for Oshkosh.

Maggie was very proud of her photo bomb :)

 After a few hours of driving through Amish country (we saw a horse and buggy pulling a ski boat, I wish I was quick enough to get a picture), we arrived at the largest airshow in the world.

Arnie and Maggie were in pilot dork heaven. I can't even really describe how BIG the show was. There were conservatively 5000 campers parked in the fields around the airport and miles and miles or airplane vendors, military planes, experimental planes, pretty much anything that could fly....we could have used a couple more days to explore it all.

This is the start of the "campground", it went on and on and on.

Maggie spent more then an hour learning to preflight. She was supposed to find 10 things wrong with the plane, but leave it to her to be thorough....she find 12 :)

 

Maggie made good friends with a guy at the Embarar (sp?) booth. They make luxury private jets, she had to redeem herself from the Walmart thing :) Anyway, right before the Saturday night airshow she ran into him again, and he offered us special seats for the airshow. That road in front of us is the runway, most of the people around us are the families of the pilots. The night show was really cool.

Sunday we explored some more, got SOAKED in a down pour and reloaded the camper to head for "WinsConson" as Gracie calls it (she means the Dells). Next time we go to Oshkosh we'll allow more time, it was really something to see and it was definitely on Arnie's bucket list.

 

Our first day in the Dells was really rainy. We played in the camper, got settled and Maggie and I did a little shopping...first on the list was raincoats...

The rest of the week was spent visiting waterparks, playing at the campground and enjoying the beautiful weather.

I think Reagan pulled rank of Gracie for cartoon watching seats :)

I love this picture of my 3 favorite girls!

Everybody needs to ride a Duck Boat at least once in their life...glad we can check that off the list.

We couldn't leave baby behind while we went on a hike!

 

Gracie wanted to switch chairs with me so she could be in the "3" chair.

Gracie was a little vacationed out....until....

....she found this to perk her back up!

Very lady like Miss Gracie!

Before we knew it, it was time to load up and head for home! Reagan was going to be sure she got her seat for the ride home!

 See you later "WinsConson"!