North Shore Fire Station Field Trip

Audrey's K4 class had a field trip to the fire station today. It was a little chilly out but was fun. Audrey got to sit in a fire engine, walk through an ambulance, see the fire house, meet the fire dog Ashes, and watch how a fireman gets ready to go fight a fire. I am always amazed at how they can put 50 lbs of gear and still move quick enough to help others.

I think this is a really nice looking fire station. What do you think? The inside has a super nice kitchen, all stainless steel appliances, and nice leather chairs too. They seemed to be spoiled! :)

The fireman that gave us our tour. Can you tell how dirty the bus window is? Mmm. Yummy.

Meeting the fire dog Ashes. What a sweet dog. Audrey said she was really soft.

We had to pose with Ashes! The cute little girl standing next to Audrey is her friend Brenna.

Smile!

Audrey said this was her favorite part of the tour. She really liked walking through the ambulance and seeing everything that is kept inside.

Waiting with her class to have a turn sitting in the fire truck.

We had a fun morning and Alexis had an early release day so now we're just hanging out at home the rest of the day. I initially thought I would hate these early release days but I like having Alexis home once a month in the afternoon. I told her that today and she looked at me and said, "Well, I really like school." The nerve of her! :) I said, "What you mean is, I love these days too, right?"

Homework Packet

Okay, I need some feedback on this. All third grade classes at Alexis' school got homework packets sent home. It is her homework for the month. Each subject like reading, math, spelling, writing, and social studies has four or five spaces to fill in what she did for homework. Then there are suggestions as to what she can do for her homework. So basically I am deciding what her homework is. I have to look up things on the Internet and print pages out. Now, for the spelling for instance, I have no idea what words they are studying. I get nothing sent home for that. I went to a website that a list of third grade spelling lists and I printed one out not even knowing if that is correct or not. Is it just me or isn't this the teacher's job? Isn't she supposed to be the one who decides the appropriate level/kind/length of homework? I am suddenly wondering why she is isn't sending home the sheets Alexis needs to complete. I've never encountered this before. Has anyone else? I mean, I'm all for helping out at home. Last year I even asked for extra work in spelling and math. One of the problems is that I don't know which words they are learning in spelling and I don't always know exactly where they are in math. I don't know. It seems like the teachers are getting a month off of some prepping and grading? The other thing I wonder is how many parents are actually going to do this? How many will take the time to look things up and print things out and record what they did? I'm guessing not all of them. And I can't like make up my own stuff or just decide not to do it because Alexis would freak out! Oh, she would be in hysterics if she didn't turn it in on time and with every space filled in perfectly! Oh well. I'm stuck with this no matter what. I'm just hoping they don't keep it up throughout the whole school year!

He's The Best Around

That's right. My awesome husband is the best around. He surprised me with a day away together last Saturday. Three weeks ago he arranged for friends of ours to watch the girls all day so he and I could have a day together. We went to Six Flags and it was awesome. The last time we went was two years ago, around the same time actually. It's FrightFest time and the park is really fun at nighttime. There are people all dressed up and scary and then walk around scaring people. It's so funny to watch. Six Flags also has this FlashPass thing where you pay more money but you essentially get to butt in line on certain rides. So we set our little device for say the V2 and it tells us we can ride it in 10 minutes. Then we wait for a maximum of 10 minutes. So we went from ride to ride. So much better than waiting 1 1/2 to 2 hours for each ride. The last time we went we went on four or five rides and we were there for like 8 or 9 hours. This time we were there the same amount of time and rode on 9 rides and saw three shows. It was totally worth the extra money. It was so thoughtful of Ben to arrange all that. He said he saw that I was having a hard time three weeks ago and decided we needed a day away. He is wonderful! I love you babe!

New appliances

Why is it that I get so extremely giddy about new appliances? When I bought our stove months back it suddenly was a delight to cook dinner. Usually it never is. Yesterday I got a new dishwasher and disposal installed. It was so exciting! I now have a disposal that doesn't spit water on me and shout at me! It's so quiet I can run it while talking on the phone. And I can't say enough about my dishwasher! It's exciting to have an appliance that I picked out and not one that came with the house. It is quiet (at least I'm pretty sure it is. I haven't heard it full tilt yet because I usually run it at midnight while we all sleep. Our old one sounded like an army tank) and actually dries all my dishes. I used to have to empty the dishwasher items onto my kitchen counter to dry. What's the point of that? And my plastic items did not have any soap scum left on them. I used to have to rewash those. Once the dishwasher was installed I wanted to dirty a bunch of dishes just so I could play with the buttons and see how it ran. Anyway, it was a pretty exciting day yesterday! :)

This is for my lovely friend Nellie. I get all my birthday ideas off of the web. I type in birthday party themes on the google search and scour tons of different sites that come up. I take the suggestions that I like and put it all into one party. So none of my ideas are new or fresh they are just completely stolen from others! But when you get the best ideas off of each site you get a great party! I would even type in 11 year old party themes to get really specific. I absolutely love planning birthday parties. It's so much fun and I love the day of the birthday. That is why Audrey's birthday is already completely planned and invitations already given out five weeks early! :) Good luck and let me know what you end of doing!

Random acts of fun

We went to the Brown Deer Village Park after school last week. It was such a gorgeous day out. I just sat and read a magazine while the girls played.







We are experimenting with wigs for halloween and Christmas talents. I thought this was a hilarious picture.

These are Audrey's birthday invitations. They turned out so cute! She is having a luau party, hence the invitation in the bottle. These were fun because she could put them together all by herself, which of course was thrilling for her. Now we get to hand them out! We are a month early but that is how I operate! I always know at least a month ahead what we will be doing for their birthday parties. Every detail. Right down the decorations, cake, and games. I already have all the decorations! :) Did I mention that I LOVE birthday parties?

Some friends of ours that moved away over the summer came back for a day visit and stopped to see us! It was super fun to see them and play. What a cute picture!



And now you are all caught up in the happenings of our life!

The Mystery Ball

Last Saturday night Ben and I went to an Auction Mystery Ball for the Arthritis Foundation. We got to dress up all fancy (which I love because we only usually do that once a year), eat yummy, expensive food, and stare at how everyone is dressed! Loads of fun! Well, as you can see from the picture below Garrett Weber Gale was there also. If you don't know who that is, shame on you! Mostly because that spoils my guess who I got to meet excitement. He swam in the Beijing Olympics. He was in the 4X100 relay and the 4X100 medley and got golds for both races. He is from Fox Point, WI which is literally three miles from my home. Anyway, that is the closest I will ever get to anything Olympic related so I think it's pretty cool! It was kind of funny to watch all the women oogle him too. Shame on them! :)

We got to even bid on a couple of items that were selling. That was fun because we really knew we would get outbid but we felt like we did our part!

The theme of the night was horse racing. I know! Alexis would have been in heaven! They had these horse finger puppets around so we took like eight of them! The food was good and I was so relieved because there is always that chance that it is the fancy gross kind and not the fancy yummy kind. You know what I mean? Anyway, it was a fun evening.

Apple Farm

Audrey and I got to go to an apple farm a little while back for her first class field trip. It was fun. Audrey loved riding the bus, of course. The first week of school she came out of class and told me, "I want to ride the bus!" She said that every day for the first week. She must have come to terms with reality because she only rarely says it now. :)

The kids got to learn all about bees. Why the are important, where they live, how the beekeepers get the honey out, etc. Then they watched a seriously lame video about Johnny Appleseed. I guarantee you that not one of those kids cared a lick or payed any attention to it. I almost wanted to throw a tantrum!

After the lame movie we got to pick two apples and one pear. We really had to dig for the pear!

Audrey holding up her spoils on the bus!

Grocery store rudeness!

Audrey and I went to Pick N Save today to get our groceries. Audrey loves to come with me on this errand. She loves to help pick out food, get a free cookie (perhaps the true reason she likes to go since she calls this store "the cookie store." She never calls it the grocery store.), and she especially likes to help bag the groceries. When we have enough time and not too many items we go to the self check out. That is even better because she can scan each item herself. We need lots of time for that though! :) So today I get to the check out line and the bag boy asks paper or plastic and I say, Oh, we'll bag ourselves because my daughter wants to do it. He says, sure, no problem. So Audrey excitedly heads over to bag. The checker lady says to the bag boy, "You gotta help her. She can't do it all by herself." I promptly say, "Yes, actually, she can." But the bag boy starts bagging our stuff! I tell Audrey to hurry over there and get a bag but of course she gets a little shy because the bag boy is in the way. I hurry as fast as I can to pay and I walk over, grab a bag, stick it in the bag boys way and tell Audrey to put food in. He had already bagged like 3 bags so there was only enough food left for one bag. I'm thinking, what is wrong with you? I told you we wanted to bag the food and that Audrey could do it herself. He totally ignored me. Then a lady in the other aisle gave me a dirty look because Audrey was in her way for like 3 seconds. What is wrong with you people? Let the four year old help! She wants to do things on her own and is learning! I was really irritated by that.

Okay, enough ranting. Otherwise life is hopping along. We are just grooving along in our school routine. Audrey goes every morning from 9-11:45am. We come home, have lunch, have quiet time and then play or run errands. I also signed her up for a dance class, a pre-ballet and tap class. She loved her first class. She walked right in like she was waiting for this her whole life! :)

Alexis has school everyday of course and then she has gymnastics and piano once a week and two Wed. a month Activity Days at the church. I am worried that it is too much but the gymnastics is 10 weeks long so I can stop then if it is too much. She loves it all though. She is so good about coming home and doing her homework right away and then practicing piano. She is definitely a lover of schedules and likes to check things off on her lists of things to do. She takes after her mother there! :)

Ben is busy working. Some weeks are busy and some are slow. Steady hours would be nice.

And I am trying to find the best way to use my alone time in the mornings and juggle everything else that all mothers try to do. The weeks go by fast but they are fun!

Fabulous New Haircuts!!

My wonderful friend and visiting teacher, Pam, came over today and provided me with the most wonderful service. She gave us all brand new haircuts. We decided to go short to lessen the stress of picking hair for lice and to just give us a fresh start. She also said she didn't find any eggs and there weren't any bugs. Is that some kind of cruel joke? Were the ones I found just dead ones that only surfaced after two weeks (since the last treatment)? Well, whatever, it's gone and I LOVE our new dos. Tell me what you think!













And look! Nine months after cutting her own hair, Audrey's is all the same length again! Except for a few in the very front but that's okay! I actually like her hair short a lot. And for all of you out there who also have girls hair to do in the mornings you must appreciate my happiness over a five minute total process as to my 10-15 minute one. Thank you Pam! You are awesome!

First Day of School

I know it has already been two weeks since school started but I haven't blogged about it at all. Better late than never. So, this is the only picture I got of their first day. I got to walk them to their lines (they wait on the playground until the bell rings and then get in their classroom line). It was a gorgeous morning and Alexis was ready for me to say bye as soon as we found her class line. She found friends and was off. Audrey wanted me to wait with her and walk her into class. I was the only parent who walked her into the classroom. All the others left them at their line. But I could tell Audrey was a little apprehensive and she was very clingy. We got into the classroom and they all had to stand in a line while one by one they found their cubby with the teacher and learned the proper way to sign themselves in for the day (with a smiley face on the wall) and then sat and read a book until everyone was done. Audrey got in the line at the end so we had to wait quite a while and I could tell it wasn't helping her nerves. After she signed in she didn't want to find a book and was getting teary eyed and really clinging on to me. Then her teacher, Mrs. Schuler, said she wanted to see who knew how to sit criss cross applesauce on the rug and she literally bounded over to the rug and sat just right. I saw that as my cue and took off! It was so funny to see that Jekyll and Hyde reaction from her. But at her preschool she always sat on the rug criss cross so she finally thought, "Finally, something I am absolutely sure about!" And since that day I have not been allowed to even walk her to her line. "Mommy, you just drop me off in front of the school and Alexis will take me to my class." Wow. Obsolete after one day! :) But Alexis has taken to the big sister role of protector and helper like a champ. They both actually get along great right now. I think it is because they both have something really in common now. And I get 2 hours and 45 minutes every morning to myself. I have spent it exercising, showering (with no interupptions...ahh..bliss), reading my scriptures, cleaning my kitchen, running errands. It has been nice and the time does go by very fast but I am always ready to pick Audrey up. I miss her! She has been my little buddy for three years while Alexis has been in school. I just know next year when she goes all day that I will the lady who is totally talking to herself while running errands. Maybe I'll get a phone, one that goes on your ear, and everyone will think I am talking on the phone! :)

Pity Party

WARNING! The following post has been written for the express purpose of gaining sympathy and pity from ALL of my friends and family. If you are not prepared to ahh, sigh, cry, click your tongue, etc., in all of the right places do not continue to read this post.

So, after six long weeks I found another lice in my hair and Audrey's yesterday. Really. It's astonishing because I have used three different kinds of treatment on the girls hair and these nasty mutant suckers don't care a lick. I am on my second dose of prescription shampoo. By the time I am done the girls and I will have no hair. My scalp already hurts and is so sensitive it makes me want to cry.

I have cleaned my house so thoroughly it is is getting ridiculous. I even washed all my curtains today. I have sprayed all my furniture, beds, chairs, and cars. The first time I found the lice, back in July, I called Ben to tell him. I wasn't too concerned and he wasn't either. He even said, "Maybe this was Heavenly Father's way of getting you to clean the house this week." And looking back he was probably right. :) It wasn't happening any other way that week and we both had a great, relaxed laugh about it. Well, I'm not laughing anymore. I mean, how much more clean does this house need to be? The first two times I found the buggers I thought, oh well, at least my house is getting really clean. Yeah, that thought is not working anymore. At this point I am thinking that a dirty house is preferable!

The prescription shampoo has the most awful smell too. I thought the Rid and Nix was bad. This stuff is so strong and powerful that I gag while I do my hair. Then Audrey takes a turn and screams at the top of her lungs (which we all now is LOUD) while holding a washcloth over her mouth and nose. Then Alexis comes and she is, of course, very practical about it. She knows it has to be done so she stands perfectly still, holds a washcloth, and tells me every minute how much the shampoo stinks. Then we have to all sleep with it in our hair overnight. Yeah. Ben told me he doesn't mind the smell because it is a "clean" smell. Traitor.

Anyway, after I have been on my feet for seven or eight hours now vacuuming, folding, moving wash, putting all the toys in sealed bags, spraying everything in sight, I still have to look through the girls hair, put shampoo on them, and get them to bed. SIGH. Feel free to cry, shed a tear, and feel REALLY bad for me. And once they go to bed I have about six loads of laundry to fold and more still washing. And don't forget the best part of all of this:

THIS IS THE SIXTH TIME I HAVE DONE ALL OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waldamere

The last day that everyone was gathered together in PA we went to Waldamere, a water and amusement park. It was so much fun. We celebrated Abby's 2nd birthday too. The kids all had a blast. We were there for 8 hours and they could have gone longer. My kids have asked me repeatedly if we are going again next year. I don't have any pictures of the water area because I couldn't carry my camera around and go on the rides with Audrey. There were little water slides and big water slides. Something perfect for every age. The amusement rides were awesome too. Some for every age there too. Audrey went on her first real roller coaster and she had a horrified look on her face the whole time. When we stopped she said, "That was the scariest ride so far." Pause. "Can we go again?" We went on roller coaster three times in a row without stopping because all the kids wanted to keep going and there was no one waiting.

Janet (Ben's sister) and I went on the brand new super dooper adult roller coaster. Alexis really wanted to go and I almost let her but thankfully only two of us adults wanted to go and I didn't want any of us sitting alone. After Janet and I went on it I was soo glad I didn't let Alexis go. I think she might have peed her pants and had a serious roller coaster phobia forever. Now don't get me wrong, I loved it. The faster a roller coaster is with more loops, going upside down, backwards, and with long drops is just my cup of tea. I love it. Janet was scared silly and at the end of the roller coaster I was laughing so hard at her reaction leading up to, during, and after the ride I was crying. It was so fun. I loved sharing that moment with her! :)

I can't go on any circle rides. If it goes in a circle I throw up. I even have a hard time watching it. It makes me so dizzy it's crazy. So luckily Alexis was tall enough to go on all the rides and all Lily had to have was someone who was tall enough. So presto, the perfect riding duo. They are both fearless and are the best riding buddies!

Eating dinner and cake for Abby's birthday! Yummy!



All I can say is, Thank Heaven for Corinne! She is Ben's cousin and most wonderful cousin to all the girls. She was also Lori and I's biggest help. Our girls just love her and she would ride the rides with whomever needed a partner. Which was always Audrey on the twirly rides. We love getting to visit with her every year and I am grateful she makes the drive up to see us.

Such a typical Lily face. That girl is so funny!

Audrey is loving this ride.

Do we have to take another picture? Don't you have enough already? Just let us ride the ride!

Corinne and Audrey riding the Scrambler. Audrey was so little she would slide all over the seat. Corinne had to secure her with her arm.

Now obviously, Abby was too little for lots of these rides. There were some little girl rides but when she had to wait for the big girls to finish we would try to entertain her. This is her with about five pieces of gum in her mouth. It was so funny to watch her chew.

This was Alexis and Lily's favorite ride because they made some friends. They went on this ride twice with their friends. I didn't see this for myself because Audrey and I were riding the roller coaster for the 6th time.

Cousin love. Abby and Maren.

This isn't as good as the roller coaster! :)

The perfect way to end our trip to PA. Ah, if only I wouldn't have discovered lice in all of our hair the very next morning and had to spend the day cleaning and delicing and staying up until 2am and feeling mortified that I brought this into Aunt Carmella's house and having to delice the car and not being able to leave for two more days and then having to take two days home because we could only half way for the kids and mostly my sanity and then having to come home and delice again (but only staying up until 12am this time), and clean my house again, THEN it would have been the perfect end to our PA trip! :)

Church dancing

Drew, my father-in-law, gave a little organ concert while we were in PA. The church that Aunt Carmella goes to has a really nice organ and Drew was given permission to play it. So we all went, along with some of Aunt Carmella's friends, to listen. He did a very nice job and the kids all loved it, as you will see in the video.

PA fun and the Erie Zoo

One of the nicest things about our yearly visit to PA is how relaxing it is. We get up whenever the kids do, have a leisurely breakfast, and then take our time getting ready for the day. Then we play around outside or as in the picture below, at a local park. It is so nice not having a schedule there.



Ah, the trip to the zoo. We have done this every year and we love it. I have always loved going to the zoo so this is always really fun for me.







Obviously, this is not at the zoo! Uncle Nicholas is playing with the girls and they are, as always with him, having a blast. He is a great uncle!

Okay, back to the zoo (who knows how these pics get out of order!). We always go on the train at the very end of our zoo adventure. Wasn't it nice of me to volunteer to take the picture of everyone? That way, I'm not in it!



There was face painting at the zoo this year. That was fun. Audrey picked the monkey so she had to put it on her arm.





A wonderful day at the zoo and it wasn't sweltering outside!