Monterey -country fun

I saw as many as 7 feeding at once, but am told there are at least 12.




Riding granddaddy's four wheeler.






Picking up acorns under the trees.

Drawing with side walk chalk.

So finally we made it to Monterey to visit Billy's parents this past weekend. It's just a job to pack up and go even just for 2 nights. I felt like we were moving out for the week. Going over we stopped at Ali's favorite place to eat dinner, Donald's house, also known as McDonalds. Both girls ate very well. Starting over the 3rd mountain Ali had a funny look on her face and kept rubbing her belly. I thought maybe she ate to much and was getting sick on the mountains, but nothing happened. Once we got to Billy's parents it took her a long time to warm up and act herself. That evening we visited with Randy and Nancy. Saturday we played outside, went to town for lunch, and took a nap, and then to the Earth Roast for dinner. Sunday we headed out mid morning so that we could be home before nap. On the last mountain coming home Ali started saying her tummy hurt. Great, was my thought, but we made it over without her getting sick. Then just as we get on interstate and are 30 minutes from home she decides to throw-up. She hadn't had much to eat that morning for breakfast and I guess her empty stomach couldn't handle it anymore. This will make our trips to Monterey fun, worrying about her getting car sick going over the mountains.

Playground Time

Going down the "big" kids slide.

Going down the "little" kids slide.

So finally after months and months of wanting to go, we finally got the girls to A Dream Come True Playground. They had a blast and caused a few moments of scare. They wouldn't stay on the playground for kids their age, they had to be on the big one. We went on a Sunday morning when most, including us, should be in church so it was not busy at all. Most of the picsI took that morning were of Emma because she was the one that I was following around. We were also the only ones there running around without shoes. The girls think as soon as they get somewhere, doesn't matter where, that they have to take off their shoes.

Bridgewater Lawn Party

They loved getting candy. They thought they had to eat each piece as they got it.

Emma eating her dinner, she LOVES her food.

Then one pic of each girl watching the parade.

As a child I remember going to all the lawn parties and parades around the county each summer. I always looked forward to it. Now I want to share the same fun with the girls. We did the Bridgewater Lawn Party/Parade again this year. We ate lawn party food before the parade and then headed home as soon as the parade was over. We didn't need to fight the craziness of people after the parade, didn't need to ride any rides, and it was also close to bedtime. This year the girls loved the parade. It was super HOT, but I think they enjoyed it.

Back to Work

My summer is almost gone. I have one, that's right, ONE day left home with my girls. We have had a good summer. We've been busy at Kinetic Kids, play dates, and some shopping but at the same time I'm ready to speak with adults every day and not watch so much Disney and Nick Jr TV. As the girls nap/sleep schedule allows I'll update the blog with some of our recent activities.

RAIN

The one thing I noticed the most when returned from the beach was how our grass had turned brown. Our first week back didn't help either. Temps around 100 all week and no rain. Finally we are getting a little rain and it almost seems strange to see puddles in the backyard. Although it is a very pleasant one. Now if the grass would just get green again. If you look close you can see puddles under the hammock.

Potty Training Sucks

I don't like failure and right now I feel like a failure when it comes to potty training my girls. They are smart little cookies and can easily tell you when they have peed or pooped. Well getting them to tell you before they do it is a totally different thing. We hit the potty hard before vacation, I was having them sit on it every hour with no success. One evening I left Emma's diaper off and she did pee sitting on an old towel, but all she did was get up say she was wet and move to another part of the towel. Didn't seem to really bother her. Then we went to the beach and took a week back home to recover, so this week we have tried again. I even went and got TWO NEW potty seats. I thought maybe they didn't like the one we had because it had a hard seat. We got one with a really soft seat and one that will play music if there is success. They will seat for me, but just won't go. Ali did pee twice and pooped once last night, but that's been our only success. It also helped that everytime they would sit on it last night I would give them food. I've even put them in pull ups this afternoon, calling them big girl pants and said mommy would have to work hard to clean them out if the went in them like a baby diaper. That didn't work either. I'm about ready just to give up. I attempt to bribe them with gummies and M&M's, but that's not getting us anywhere. HELP!

The Beach -recap part 2

So finally 2 weeks later here I am to recap the trip to the beach. Thought I better to it before I forgot to much. First off we rented a van so that the four of us and my mom could all go down in one vehicle. The beginning of June we called and visited places about renting. At enterprise we saw a mini van that was loaded! Two screens for DVDs and perks for the driver. We ended up renting from them and when I picked it up the Friday before we went I asked how the DVD player worked. Well the one we got didn't have the DVD player and the other one on the lot didn't have it either. I was bummed but knew we could just move the players we had in the truck and use them. Just one more thing to take. Well I came home with the van, put in the car seats and head back into town in the truck to pick up the girls from the babysitters. I was almost there when I got a call and it was Enterprise. The loaded van had been returned and I could come it if I wanted. I really didn't want to because I had already put the girls seats in the one I had and didn't want to mess with moving them, but Billy said that I should so I did. Boy am I glad that I did. The girls loved the drop down screens, I loved the push of a button to open doors, shut doors, start the van. It was sweet. It even had a back up camera. So much for the van stuff, on to the beach:

The girls did well on the trip down and back. The worst was after lunch when they should have been napping. The first day we went to the sound because we knew the waves would be less and the girls might do better. Well Emma was freaked out about the sand, and the water was dirty you didn't want to really be in it. But they enjoyed their morning and we had seafood for dinner. We did the sound again for several days and it got better. One day we also went to an aquarium. The girls seemed to enjoy that as well. One afternoon Billy and I drove up to Duck and Corolla, did some shopping and had dinner. (An afternoon/evening without kids) That was a nice evening. Some nights we went out and others we cooked. The girls had trouble sleeping and it seemed like at least one of them was in our bed every night and being in a queen bed it was hard. I guess looking back the trip went well, but it was hard. A lot of work for no longer than we could spend at the water. The girls had to be heading back around 11 so they could have lunch and their nap. There was no way we could skip that nap. Maybe in 2 years things would go a little smoother and we could spend more time at the water. Just for the record: we did go the beach 2 days, we didn't spend all our time soundside.

The Beach-picture recap

I am still deciding on how to put this beach trip into words. They will follow soon, but here's a few of my favorite pictures. I still need to get pictures off both grandma cameras to see if they got anything better.

Father's Day

So I stole this idea last year from a friend. Continued with it again this year by updating the pictures, but taking them in the same chair in our backyard. Last year I got a black picture frame with the 3 vertical picture openings. It looks cute hanging in the office by his radio stuff.

Happy Father's Day William!

We Love You!

Kinetic Kids

Today the girls had their first class at Kinetic Kids again this summer. We did a 6 week class last summer. I'm all for us doing activities together while I'm home this summer. I think they need the break from the house all day, and I like the inside activities where there is AC running. I signed the girls up for a class again this summer and today they meet for the first time. The theme is "Under the Sea" and the girls had a hard time sitting down to listen to the instruction/talk about the sea. All they wanted to do was run around and play. There was only 1 other girl in the class and she is older, so she sat and talked about what is at the ocean. My two just ran around. I snapped these two pictures at the beginning before class started.

The backyard is now complete

Playing in the sand is hard work!

Sand is everywhere but in the sandbox.

The last addition to our backyard joined us today. We got the girls a sandbox. We talked about doing this for awhile but never decided the best way to do it. They have space under the tower part of their swing set that could be used for a sandbox, but we worried about all the neighborhood cats using it as a litter box. Because of that fear we went with the good old turtle that has a lid. The girls loved playing in the sand tonight or should I say they loved throwing sand all over the place. I see we will go through several bags of sand a summer at this rate. Hope they continue to have as much with it as they did tonight.

Growing

We got a pack of 4 watermelon plants back in May, and thought we would plant them for fun. Well we actually have 3 little watermelons growing. Hope they amount to something.
The same time we got the watermelon plants I also got a pack of 4 sunflower plants. This was the first to open, and I have 3 more about to open. They are beautiful.

TEETH!

My mission this weekend will be to get a good picture to go along with this post. Here's our story:

A month or more ago I noticed this large gap between Emma's teeth on the top left side. I was showing everyone and anyone because it really bothered me. It was a huge gap! Well this weekend, actually I'm not sure when, I noticed that a tooth was trying to grow in this gap. I would look and look, count and count. There should be no tooth there. Now this bothered me even more. Tuesday morning I was telling the babysitter and she suggested I call a pediatric dentist. I called Dr. Green because I had heard from numerous people he was the man to go to. Normally they have a waiting list, but the lady who answered the phone said that they could see her early since I believed there was a problem. So Emma had an appointment for August 31st. There was no way in this world that I could wait that long plus that would be the second week of school. I then called my dentist and asked to speak directly to the dental hygienist that I always see. She could work us in Thursday. I had to wait 3 days not 3 months. Linda said she would look, possibly do an x-ray but didn't think there was anything to worry about. So we go today and Emma was a trooper. She didn't fuss, didn't cry, didn't try to cling to me. I sat in the chair and she sat between my legs. Linda looked once, then again....yes she did believe there was an extra tooth. So she took two x-rays. Once again Emma was great, I couldn't believe this was my Emma being so good. The x-rays confirmed it. Dr. Fowler came in and said the same thing. My Emma has an extra tooth. How crazy is that!? At this point there's nothing that needs to be done, and I shouldn't worry. (That will be hard to do). So from now until my child is at least 6 ( or when she loses it) she will have an extra tooth. Dr. Fowler hopes that when the permanent teeth come in they will push it out and everything will be fine, but we have to wait and see. If that doesn't happen then we will deal with it at that point.

Life Happens

Not sure why I have waited until the last 2 days of May to post anything. Life has just happened this month and there isn't much to post about. Get up, go to work, come home, play, eat dinner, bath and bed for girls, clean up the girl's mess, and then start the same routine all over the next day. Nothing to post about. The middle of the month Ali did have a UTI. That cleared up and it was the first we had to go to the doctor's in quite some time. These last few weeks of school have been crazy busy, and meetings and paperwork continue to grow. I'm looking forward to being home with the girls this summer and finally taking them to the beach the last week of June.

Update on the Gardens

We just got these things planted the beginning of May. Hopefully they take off soon.

Picture above taken about a month ago.
Picture below of same bed taken today.

Picture above: check out the back bed, you can see the seed just starting to break through and grow.

Picture below: same garden, taken today, the peas and beans are going wild along with everyone else squeezed into that bed.

Baby Pool aka The Beach

We finally have plans made for the beach and have started talking to the girls about going to the beach this summer. Now the girls think that the pool we set up for them in the back yard yesterday is the beach. They want to go out and play at the beach. They are loving every moment of playing in their pool and at least for this summer I'm glad we got them one like this and not the big blue ones everyone else gets. This one is just right because I still have to watch/worry about them going down the slide head first and getting under water, but they can also get in and out on their own. They will get out, run through the yard or dump water somewhere and then come running back. After 2 days of playing at the beach Emma still tries to go down the slide head first and get a mouth full of water. Hopefully she will learn soon.

Hair Cut

The girls had their first official hair cuts on Saturday, May 15th. Ali was a trooper and sat in the chair and let Robin do her thing. She did want to turn head around alot and check out what was going on, but other than that she was great! Emma on the other hand would have no parts of sitting in the chair. I had to hold her.
Both girls had about the same amount cut off. Just enough to made all the edges line up. With Ali's hair being so long you can not tell at all she had her hair trimmed. Emma on the other hand looks like a completely different person.

Where has April gone?

I can't believe that this month is already 1/2 over. I have wondered the past few days where it has gone, then I quickly remember our week at the beginning of the month and how we managed to survive on such little sleep. The allergies and colds got the best of all 4 of us. We were done and out for the count. Many nights we all slept in the same bed together, and I would get minutes of sleep in between the girls fussing. All the junk in the girls' heads finally led to ear infections. We have just now gotten over them and finished the medicines. As I look back at that week I often wonder how I managed to get anything done at school. It was rough.

The next few blogs will be my attempt of catching up on the month.

Egg Hunt

Daddy and Ali finding eggs
On the search

Hunting eggs

Attempting to get a picture of all the kids

Another attempt of getting a picture of all the kids

Having fun on Kid's Castle

The ARCMOM group did an Easter Egg hunt the Saturday after Easter at Kid's Castle in Harrisonburg. It was on a Saturday morning ( a little chilly, but nice). One plus was I could go the day after Easter and get eggs already filled with candy 1/2 off to take. The girls had fun! They also had fun playing on Kid's Castle. I can see we will have to visit again this summer.