What A Week

We have tried to accomplish as much as possible this week. Why? Because Tuesday is back to school day. So in order to get in as much as possible we have had a world win of events.

Wednesday: Explore a new park. This place was amazing! It had 5 different playgrounds! I am not exaggerating either. The girls had a great time until B got stung twice by a bee. She handled it great and seemed to even forget about it for a while. After the park we headed out to visit Uncle John and Aunt Cindy for the rest of the day. The girls had fun outside with their uncle. B's favorite part of the day was the long playtime on Uncle John's Wii. She has become rather good at the tennis and now claims that we MUST get a Wii. A liked it at first, but is was still a tad too hard for her to master. I did enjoy watching and even tried the tennis and boxing. I swear my arms hurt the next day due to it. We stayed late and got home even later, but the day was a good one.

Thursday: Today was a little slower than yesterday. We hit the library for a little while, got in a play date for B and A caught up on some much needed nap time.

Friday: We began today with gymnastics for both girls. I liked that I was able to sit and read some of my book while looking up every so often to watch the girls. One of the things about gymnastics is that they do the same rotation a few times so I have a number of chances to view them in action. After gymnastics we drove up to where I used to teach. The main reason was to visit B's "nanny", Grandma Kathy. This was the angel that I was lucky to find to take care of B while I went to work after she was born. My husband and I swear that Grandma Kathy might have even loved B more than we did. We try to visit twice a year and it was time. I just love to see B and Kathy together. It is as if they are still attached. B remembers many things about Kathy and the time she spent with her. Let me just inform you that Kathy watched B from 4 months till 2 years, so how much can she really remember? It sure seems like a lot. After the visit we hit up my old school, well make that 2 schools. I had a number of baby gifts to pass out. It was nice to show off the girls and visit with people that I haven't see in a long time. The best part was the wonderful surprise my friend Kristin had for B. An American Girl doll!!! B couldn't stop holding her, she was so happy. After the visits were finished the girls and I finished the day with a return trip to the outlet mall. Here we hit the stores we didn't get to when we went last week. I was a little unsure about this trip since the day had been so busy. Surprised I was. The girls were great! We got lots of new clothes and had fun too. Another long day and late night.

Today: GO WILDCATS! Today we went to the Northwestern football game in hopes of seeing our nephew play. The girls had a good time for the first half. After that things began to get ugly and I took the girls out. The game was good and the Wildcats won :) Our nephew even got some playing time. We then hit a special rock shop that B has been wanting to visit. Both girls got their fill of rocks and we are now getting our fill of popcorn.

Long days with lots of action hopefully will lead to early bedtime. Hope to post a few photos next time.

Special Day Outing

Today I took both girls to see a children's play at Marriott Lincolnshire. It is one of our favorite stories, the Princess and the Pea. I also had my parents and sister join us. The girls had a good time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Rach.
If you have not been there for a show I highly recommend it. Both their adult and children's productions are great.

The cast was very good. The play lasted a total of one hour which was just right for little A. She actually had a little trouble trying to figure out who Ruth was. She asked me more than once "What is the prince doing with Cinderella?" "Oh, that is not Cinderella" I told her. "What is he doing with Snow White?" Again I had to tell her that was not Snow White either. It was a girl named Ruth who would marry the Prince.

After the play we hit a local Red Robin and ate lunch. I ate WAY too much. In fact I ate so much I even passed on dinner. It is not often that I pass on a meal. :) The food was good, but I'm not sure I will go back. I thought it was rather loud and too much food coming at me. I don't know about you, but I don't think a burger as take home is as good the next day. So I tend to eat the entire thing as to not waste. Could be one of the reasons why my stomach hurt. Or it could be the milkshakes I drank that the girls did not finish. Or it could be all the steak fries and onion rings I ate with the burger. See where I am going with this? Way too much food in my tummy.

All in all it was a great activity for our last few days before the return to school. I am glad we were able to share the outing with Grandma and Grandpa too.

Love My Skates

B was home with Daddy for 1 day while I was taking my sister back to school. In this 1 day they both decided that B needed roller blades. They went online to various places looking for blades. I was surprised to find out that they did not buy any yet. B was waiting till Sunday to get them. As soon as she woke up I was informed that she would be getting blades right after church. I then informed her that we would go to Target and SEE about roller blades.

Well as you can guess Daddy/B won and Mommy lost this spending money battle. On the positive side the blades were only $20.00, we got top of the line ones (ha-ha!) and she really enjoys them. She has been skating tons. We even went over to the high school track this morning so she could skate on a smooth surface. She went about 3/4 of a mile before she was tired and wanted to come home. I am curious to see how long it takes for the novelty wears off.

She is also really proud of herself for learning to roller blade in "just one day." (B's words) As am I. Perhaps all the ice skating lessons I "made" her take are paying off.

Say It Aint So

So the day that I had been dreading most finally came. Funny there was no count down for this one. Yesterday was the day that my nanny sister went back to U of I. I have said more than once that I would do very well with a full time nanny while I stayed home. This summer I had my wish. My sister came 3 days a week and took care of the girls, joined us on excursions, or chatted with me while they napped. Sometimes she even did house work. I sure loved having her around! Those were good times!

The girls don't seem to notice her absence (yet) but I sure do. I know tomorrow will be the worst. There will be no "I'm here!" at 10:00am like usual. What will I do with my girls all by myself all day long? There is still a whole week till school starts! Guess I will have to pull out the big guns and go to the zoo, or find an even better art project.

I wish her only the best as she begins her final year at U of I. She will be a great teacher and my kids can't wait to stay home so she can home school them. Just Kidding! Have a great semester Aunt/Nanny/Sister Vic.

Craft Time

I have had these photos of a recent craft for a week or so. I kept wanting to blog about it, but never got to it. Huh, sounds like so many thing in my life. Anyhow...here is a fun but messy project I came across and thought it would be good for both age groups. Why make a craft mess if only one girl can do it right?

We started with ripping up tissue paper and mixing together even amounts of water and glue. Then we used plastic wrap and covered the outside of a bowl. Turning the bowl upside down we began the fun and messy part of covering the plastic with the glue mixture and adding paper pieces. The girls had a great time using a paintbrush to spread the glue. I seemed to do more of the paper part for A. By the time we finished many layers of glue and paper my finger were stained red.

Notice the purple glue. We used the insides of a marker to dye the white glue.

Before the glue dried I broke out my glitter to add some sparkle. Now for those who don't know, I despise glitter. When I was teaching, my students lost points if they used glitter on a project. (Yes, I was that kind of teacher) My girls have maybe seen glitter used in our house 1 other time. My rules are simple and must be followed. 1. We MUST be outside and 2. I pore the glitter. The girls really liked the addition of the sparkle to their bowls. I also loved that I could use the glue mixture to add a sealing layer to the glitter.

Once the bowls dried (about 1 day) I removed the original bowl and the paper shell was left. The girls have actually used them for all sorts of things. I really liked how they turned out.

Cause I Don't Have Enough Laundry To Do

Thanks to Aunt Sally, B is in American Girl heaven! She was given a TON of Barbie and AG stuff. It took us hours to go through it all and decide what pieces we should keep.

After deciding on our keep pile B thought it would be a good idea to wash all the clothes. Why? Well, after 8 or so years of basement storage they had a not so pleasant odor. I was all for this activity for I thought B would be doing it. That was where I was wrong. She did do most of the clothes in the wash bucket, but then it was my job to do the rinse bucket and wring each piece. This alone took about a half hour. B did have fun doing it. I also decided after seeing all the outfits spread out on beach towels that the clothes line might be better. A little fresh air never hurt stinky clothes right?
















Daddy thought it was funny to see all the doll clothes on the line when he got home. What you can't see is that not all the clothes fit on the line. It is actually spread on many pieces of furniture as well.

Now all we need is a AG doll and we are all set!

Home Again!

We are back from our long trip to Philly. The drive there was done in 13 hours, straight through. We survived with lots of movies, books and travel fairy treats. The girls were very good. I was even lucky enough to drive for 5 hours. To some of you driving for 5 hours does not sound so lucky. To those of you who have spent hard time in the passenger seat know that the 5 hours driving were the best hours of the trip. I used to think it was so unfair to make my husband do all the driving. I have since found out why he wants to do all the driving. It is sooo much easier to drive than to take care of all the wants of the passengers.

The time spent in Philly was family filled. I did however take the girls to the Crayola factory while Husband played golf. It was fun. It was a lot of arts and crafts plus a trip to the crayola store for a few purchases. I even let the girls get a few things too :)

Silly A with the crayon guy.

They sure make lots of colors

Coloring with melting wax. Way Cool!

Fancy B

Our Little Mermaid

The drive back was a 2 day event. I was quickly became bored and have figured that from now on I too will be bringing a DVD player so I can watch movies too. I am not lucky to be able to read in the car (motion sickness) so I tend to run out of things to do. I think the movie option is a good one. Then let my husband drive his heart out!

I now am playing catch up with laundry and crap to put away for the trip. Plus my sister-in-law passed down years of dolls and Barbies to my girls. Lots to go through and keep , toss, or donate. A has also come down with a cold. I'm sure that was not from the many public restrooms we visited.