Hooray!  First day of first grade = success!  It was a fantastic summer and I'm so sad that it's over.  Summer school classes, swim lessons, Door County, bike rides, hikes, trips to the pool, zoo, playing with friends and hanging with our favorite lil dude, Sully.  Being a teacher means I don't get to see them get on the bus or see them get off the bus, which makes me teary for the first few days of school. Thank goodness Roger can make his schedule work out so at least he is here for them!  I'm so proud of my little people.  They are incredible, smart, funny, kind, inquisitive and love learning.  They are also being brave this year and conquering first grade without each other.  Yes, we decided to separate them this year.  They were both a bit apprehensive about it but their classrooms are right next to each other and after today, I'd say everything's going to be alright:) 

Good times

I've recently been inspired by a couple of friends to attempt my blogging again.  When I first began blogging this was where I highlighted events, both large and small, and used this as somewhat of a "baby book".  When I got behind on my posts I'd feel overwhelmed and insist that I began where I left off, which more often than not meant that NO blogging occurred at all.  Well...it's a new day.  I'm giving myself permission to just post when I post and not worry about the timeline and accounting for all events.  I'm free!

So...here I am. It's Sunday evening and a wonderful weekend is coming to a close.  I've had one of those weekends where everything falls into place.  I was able to finish all the laundry, clean a few things, help the kids get their homework finished and have a whole bunch of fun with my little family.  Love it when that happens!


The highlights:

*STAR WARS*
- I finally decided that Ada and Emmet could handle watching Star Wars.  I had no idea what they would think or if they'd even make it through before declaring that it was too scary.  They LOVED it.  So much so that we watched Star Wars on Saturday night and The Empire Strikes Back this afternoon. Uncle Greg was about as excited for them as they were so naturally I had to text him the play-by-play which included the following observations.
- Early on in the movie Emmet stated, "This movie is pretty cool!".

- After the scene where Darth Vader and Obi One Kenobi fight I asked the kids if they thought Obi One was dead.  Emmet replied in all seriousness, "No.  He's magic".

- Ada declared that she wanted to be Princess Leia and was delighted when I told her that I did too a long time ago.

- Ada's observation, "ohhh, he (Luke) is in love with her (princess leia).  I can tell because he can't take his eyes off her." 

- After the movie was over I asked Emmet what his favorite part was...."ALL OF IT!"

- Putting the kids to bed Ada said that she would like to have her hair done like Princess Leia.  I remember feeling the same way!


- Tucking Emmet in I said, "good night Luke Sky Walker".  He replied with utter disgust, "Hey!  I'm not Scott Walker!"  This one totally cracks me up. 

*Sledding*
- After our movie watching this afternoon Roger and I mustered up some energy and surprised the kids with a spontaneous sledding outing.  What a blast!  Sunshine, fresh air and lots of laughter did us all good!  It also supplied my much too sedentary body with some much needed activity.

Going to try to "get horizontal" (as my grandma likes to say) early tonight and attempt to push out the work anxiety that likes to creep in on Sunday night with happy reflections of my wonderful weekend. 

happythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughts

August 2010

Here is my sorry attempt to recap the last 5 months...starting with AUGUST! 

Yep...typical Emmet.

I love my sweet lil man.

Emmet's family picture.

 One of my most memorable days of summer 2010...a trip to Picnic Point. The weather was incredible the kids were super well behaved, all sorts of love goin' on in the air that day!

Spontaneous hand holding...gets me every time.

After several attempts at a picture of the three of us this is the best we came up with.

 This was an after dinner building expedition one night.

Emmet had to have his tonsils and adenoids removed.  Poor lil dude.  After a month of snoring we took him in to have him checked out (this was the symptom that Ada had too) and sure enough they needed to come out.  He was such a trooper but boy it was a rough recovery, especially the first three days.  He had lots of vomiting, nausea, and pain (of course).  He lost a bunch of weight but I am happy to report that at the time of this posting (remember it's December) Emmet has gained about 6-7 pounds and a couple of inches I think too!

  

On our way.

Just waiting...almost time.  Trooper Emmet.

The week before I had to go back to work we tried to make the most of it, especially after having been trapped in the house recovering from surgery.  So, we headed to the new and fabulous Madison Children's Museum.  We had a blast, despite the place being packed...which I have to admit the three of us aren't a big fan of crowds.  It's pretty spectacular and even though we were there for nearly 3 hours we didn't quite see it all.  

July 2010

Hello July!

Sparklers!!!

Fun fun fun

more fun!

 

Uncle Greg & Mainstreet Wisdom

Uncle Greg ROCKS!

Emmet showin' off his moves

Having fun with Julie

more dancing...Emmet & Ada danced almost through the entire show - they were very entertaining!

Crazy face!

Uncle Greg taking time for some hugs on his break!

Ada & Great Grandma

Great Grandma, Ada, Great Aunt Kathy

Great Aunt Kathy, Ada, Bumpa

ho

 Ada and her Bumpa...so sweet! - Not exactly sure what the "ho" is doing above this picture and I'm even more not sure of how to get rid of it.  Hmm...curious.

  wHO KNEW CUPS COULD BE SO MUCH FUN??

whoa!!!

The cup master.

Cup Master 2

  

BALLET

We signed Ada up for a summer "Creative Dance" (pre-ballet) class.  She LOVED it and...she's really good!

My little ballerina

She totally loved doing this "photo shoot" at home!

Yep...that's my ham

Precious

Ada's class with Ms. Natalie

Practicing their routine to "You Are My Sunshine"

Leaping!

 T-BALL

 We signed Emmet up for T-Ball this summer.  We purposefully wanted the kids to do something separate from eachother this summer.  Emmet was really excited to play but really needed the reassurance of Daddy or Mommy with him.  It took him a good 20 minutes to get comfortable and then of course, would start to come out of his shell towards the end of the practice or game.

Ready to play ball!

Up to bat!

Running to 1st w/ Daddy pointing the way!

Hi Mom!

BEST BABYSITTING GIG EVER!

We had the pleasure of having Sophie and Diego spend an afternoon/evening with us.  The kids all had a BLAST and were utterly exhausted by the end of the night.

Sprinkler time

Boys on the Wii

Girls on some girly dress-up site.

Fire!

S'mores - YUM

  Uncle Greg @ Potbelly's

Greg plays at Potbelly's every Friday for lunch.

He has to crawl up in a little loft thingy...Ada & Emmet thought this was pretty cool

Dancing!

 Randomness of my cuties

We spent a lot of time this summer riding our bikes on the trail across from our subdivision.

Knee high by the 4th of July???  This pic was taken near the 4th.

Ada LOVES puzzles.  She did this one all by herself.

This doesn't happen too often.

...but when it does it just melts my heart.