The First Day

Today was the first day of school here in Michigan.  Well, for public school kids, anyway.  One of my friends teaches at a Catholic school and they started back last week.  But they also get out a full week ahead of my kids, who will be trapped in their classrooms until June 14th.  AH!

Anyway, today was the first day back for Elizabeth and Alexandra. 

Elizabeth is in 3rd grade this year, so this was all old hat for her.  In fact, after we got her and her stuff to her room I said "well, after we get your stuff put away....." she interrupted with "you'll leave?".  Even though I had been planning to say "I want to get a picture of you", I said "Yes, we will leave".

Alexandra, on the other hand, was starting at "real" school for the first time this year.  She went to preschool last year, but that was only 3 mornings a week, for a couple of hours.  This year is every day, every afternoon.  She's doing a young 5's program this year since she doesn't actually turn 5 until the end of November. 

She did really well though at our drop off.  She was very shy going into the classroom, but settled in all right, and once she was busy working on something, I left.  I cried a little, but only a little, and only after I was out of her sight.

Both girls had good days.  Elizabeth likes her teacher and only one kid in her class got in trouble (compared to, oh 50% of the class who got in trouble multiple times a day last year).  Alexandra said one kid got in trouble for not sitting "criss cross apple sauce" (not sure he actually got in trouble, but, we'll go with what she says) and only one kid wet his pants.  Success!

What's in YOUR Wallet?

OK, I suppose, since I have a purse, this post should be called “What’s in YOUR Purse”, but I was sort of going for the sound of that credit card commercial where the Viking asks “What’s in YOUR wallet?”……OK. Nevermind.

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, the girls were upstairs in their rooms getting the stuff they wanted to take to the babysitter’s.

Later, in the car, I asked to see what they had brought with them.

Elizabeth:
• 5 handmade paper airplanes – one for each kid at the babysitter’s; each one has a nice, original Elizabeth drawing on it
• Zhu Zhu pets

Then, just to prove how random 4 year old really are,

Alexandra:
• Small stuffed sheep
• Small stuffed cow
• Small stuffed horse
• Leapster
• Sunglasses
• $17

How cute is she?  I know.  Very.

In the Meantime.......

I know....it's been a while.  But I promise!  I've been busy.  I should have some time to update this weekend.  I took today off work to get all the stuff I normally take care of on the weekends finished, and we have Monday off for the holiday, so I should have plenty of relaxation time between now and Tuesday (she says, snickering......).

But until then, here is a sampling of the pictures I took of the girls yesterday.  I have my name on them because I'm suddenly paranoid about seeing them elsewhere.  But it looks cool, too, I think.  Like I know what I'm doing or something!

Enjoy, and we'll talk soon.

A Day at the Beach

Greg and I took the girls down to St. Jospeh yesterday so they could play in Lake Michigan.  I was a little worried that:  1) We would get there so late, it wouldn't be any fun; and 2) The water would be freeeeezing.

But, of course, like always, I worried for nothing and it WAS fun, and the water was NOT freeeeeeezing.  Yay!

For obvious reasons (well, maybe not to you, people that can't see me, but they are to me!), Mommy didn't wear a bathing suit, but instead stood just out of water's reach and took pictures.

So, we got there, stepped out of the car and turned our backs on Alexandra for about, oh, 11 seconds.  Then we turned around and saw this:

After getting her all cleaned up, it was time to head to the water.  Elizabeth can swim now, so she was brave and headed right out:

Alexandra, she mostly splashed:

One going one way and the other going another.  Makes for interesting supervision!

Sand!

Mommy's artsy shots:

We do the feet thing every year.

Getting the freckles!

Alexandra feel asleep on the way home.  Greg dared me to stick my finger in her open mouth.  I did.  She didn't wake up.  And Elizabeth did stuff like this:

I know.  We are mean.  But it's all in good fun.  And plus, these are the pictures I will save and pull out at high school graduations and weddings. 

**On another note.  I edited all of the above photos with my trial version of Photoshop CS5.

Man.  I WISH I had $600 (or is it $700?) to spend on this!

I also downloaded the trial of Lightroom but have been too overwhelmed by CS5 to try that yet.  We'll get there.  And then I will wish for another $200 ($300?) to spend on that.

Happy Week Everyone!

Holy Smokes!

Well, I know I ALWAYS say it, but dang! have I been busy!

Let's see......since we last talked, here's what's happened:

I've gone to obedience school twice with Trixie.  I was concerned that they were going to ask us to leave the first week, because Trixie does not enjoy meeting other dogs for the first time.  There was a lot of growling and standing up of the fur.  But, they didn't, and they even let us come back for the 2nd class.  She's doing alright; I've determined that she has two main "problems".  First, she jumps.  Second, if something catches her attention, she will NOT listen to me/Greg/anyone.  That is mostly an issue when she escapes and runs away.

Trixie has escaped and run away 3 times in the last two weeks.  Once with Greg, twice with me.  The 2nd time with me was through no fault of mine - she actually managed to crawl UNDER our fence and run off.  That problem has been solved, but she's no dummy and hangs around the area from which she escaped every time we let her out, looking for another way to break through.

I have been told by the people I work with that I need to write a book called "Bad Dog, Trixie" (you know, similar to "Bad Dog, Marley") because I have SO MANY stories about her.  When I mentioned this to Greg, he said "Hey, the people I work with told me the same thing!".  That tells me:  I tell good stories and also that I talk about my dog too much.

Alexandra graduated from preschool!!!!!  Our little girl will be a Young 5's student in the fall.  Oh, how the time flies people.  I JUST BROUGHT HER HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!!  How did this happen?

Elizabeth found out who her 3rd grade teacher will be next year.  We got a letter in the mail today.  Of course, she didn't get the teacher she wanted.  But that happened for this year too and she seems pretty happy so, it all works out.  I did remind her though that the teacher she wanted teaches the advanced math class, so she'll have him for at least that time every day.  That promted her to tell me "I think I should be doing 3rd grade math next year because division is super hard".  That prompted me to tell her "Well, you've already done the 3rd grade math this year, so if you don't do 4th grade math next year,  you'll be really bored.  Plus, division is kind of hard until you get the hang of it, so you're right on track!".  Oddly enough, that did not seem to make a difference to her.

Elizabeth is going to be 8 YEARS OLD in 24 days.  Again, how did this happen?  She is having her party at one of the local theaters in town and we will be enjoying the movie "Toy Story 3".  I am a big fan of Toy Story and I think I might just be a little more excited than the birthday girl.  So anyway, since it's so close, there is a lot of talk about birthday gifts.  Of course.  Obviously, I have no idea what I am going to get her.  I need to wait until the last second to buy that.

I found an awesome new site to order pictures from:  Mpix.com.  They do professional printing, so it's a little more expensive (OK, it's a lot more expensive......Shutterfly is 15 cents for a 4X6 print...this place is 99 cents) but I'm super excited to see how the stuff I ordered turns out.  I track my shipment multiple times a day to see where it's at and was thrilled to find out that they were finally in Grand Rapids tonight.  Which means a couple of things:  1.  They should be here by Saturday, and 2.  The truck they came in on from Missouri probably drove (literally) right by where I live to take the prints an hour away and then bring them back again.  Crazy, I tell you.  Just crazy.

OK.  I guess that's enough boring stuff to bore you with. 

Oh!  We also went to the Memorial Day parade, the cemetary, had a cookout, bought me some new shoes to replace one of the (multiple) pairs that Trixie has chewed up, played tennis, gone to work and done a ton of laundry.

NOW I think I'm done.

Lemonade Stand

**I have to apologize off the bat.....I cannot for the life of me get some of my pictures to center.  Darn Blogger!**

Today, the girls ran a lemonade stand at the end of our front sidewalk.  They charged 25 cents a cup and they made $4.25.

This is the sign that Elizabeth made and hung on the table:

Before I let them sit down to sell though, I made them pick up all the rocks I found that they had tossed over our fence.  I am not sure why, but they LOVE to throw rocks.

Finally, they were ready to sell!  This is Alexandra holding up the sign, yelling "free lemondae for 25 cents!".  There was no one to be seen - anywhere.  I think we were the only people outside.

It's hard work, not selling any lemonade.  I better drink some.

Well, I guess I'll sweep the driveway since I'm not really doing anything else......

Please!  For the love of God, man in the orange shirt across the street!  Please come buy some lemonade! 

**We finally sold some to orange shirt man, and Jamie from next door.  Whew!**

Now we're just waiting for Daddy to get home.  What should we do?  Oh!  Let's jump across the sidewalk while Mommy takes pictures!

Hey!  We found an inchworm!

Yay!  Daddy is finally home!

We had a nice hot Sunday.  I hope you did too!

Hair

Today was Crazy Hair Day at school.

Below, you can see the crazy hair creations that my kids left the house wearing.

Greg designed and styled Elizabeth’s (many skinny ponytails and bun type things with two big flowers stuck on the top).

I did Alexandra’s (one ponytail on the top of her head, which I then made 3 braids out of, and clipped some clips on). Not very creative, but I knew she’d pull it all out about 15 minutes after I dropped her off so I didn’t spend too much time on it.

And…..we didn’t have any power this morning. Yay! So my pictures are not very good absolutely horrible. My apologies. I didn’t have time to change my lens and make everyone pose, plus despite what the pictures say it was really dark, so this is what I ended up with. I promise, I’ll do better next time!

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Now, on to more important things: MY hair!

I hate my hair.

It didn’t used to be so bad – when I was young (very young, as in before puberty), it was long, light brown and nice and straight.

Then, I turned into a tween (I know we weren’t called tweens back then, but I liked the thought of using that word so I did) and my hair went C.R.A.Z.Y.

It got a lot darker and started to get really wavy. And not only did it get wavy, but it got frizzy. Really, really, really frizzy.

To make a very long, ugly and torturous story short, I have spent the last 25 or so years trying to make my hair do what I wanted it to do, rather than let it do what it wanted to do. Well, there was a time period in the early 90’s that I just said “whatever” and let it just be, but then someone asked me “are you ever going to do your hair again?” and I was low self esteemed into blow drying it straight and putting massive amounts of product into it again.

My latest phase, if you will, has been to use hair products without any yucky, cancer causing, skin irritating chemicals in them. I’ve been doing this for about….oh…..2 years now, and for the most part, things have been alright. I have noticed that my ends split really easily and quickly (which doesn’t do anything for the ever present frizz), but besides that, it still grows really quickly and I get the occasional compliment on it.

But then, last night, something happened.

I took Alexandra to get our hair cut, and without intending to, we ended up at a real hair salon. Remember? I told you about it here.

Well, the stylist washed and conditioned my hair with the yummiest smelling stuff, and then put some de-frizzing-more-shiny stuff in it and by the time she was done with me, my hair looked really good! Ask Greg – he’ll tell you that I spent a large amount of time brushing it, swinging my head around and saying “My hair looks really good!” last night.

Now, all day, I’ve been contemplating the return of chemical-laden hair products into my life. I mean, I’m old, and I’ve been exposed to that stuff for more years than I care to count, so it’s probably too late for me anyway, right? Plus, the bad stuff is a lot cheaper than the good stuff.

My plan right now is to continue on with the good stuff for the girls, since they’re young and have many years ahead of them and use the bad stuff on me again. As a matter of fact, I do believe that I have some left over Suave smoothing shampoo and conditioner in the closet that I never got around to throwing out when I switched to Burt’s Bees. I might just have to pull it out!

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Lastly:  I have finally discovered the show "Glee".  I realize I am probably the last person on the planet to watch it, and it's probably done for the summer in a week or so, but all I can say is:  What an awesome show!  I mean, who wouldn't love a show that makes teenagers sing the song "Jessie's Girl"? 

And if you don't - then yes.  There IS something wrong with you.

Chicago!

Well......so sorry this has taken SO LONG, but, well, you know.  Once the kids are finally in bed at night, it takes too much energy to do stuff like pick pictures to show.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, my mom and I took the girls to Chicago last weekend to visit the AMERICAN GIRL STORE.  Yes, I capitalized the name of the store on purpose.

If you have been to the STORE, you know that it sort of deserves to be called the AMERICAN GIRL STORE and not the The American Girl Store.

Not that I'm into that kind of thing, but WOW.  That place was something else.  Two large floors filled with nothing but....you guessed it....AMERICAN GIRL stuff.

The girls were in Heaven.  They also wanted to buy everything.  But we didn't. 

So.....we took the train there and stayed right on Michigan Avenue - literally steps away from the AMERICAN GIRL STORE.  Which was nice, because as I found out one day while walking 8 blocks to the Lego Store, a 40 pound girl is SUPER DUPER HEAVY.

We also went to the Sears Tower.  Which I guess is actually the Willis Tower now, but I just can't call it that.  The girls looooooved the glass rooms they had jutting out of the side of the building and thought it was awesome to stand in them and and look straight down.  I, on the other hand, felt like I was going to throw up just thinking about stepping into a death trap like that.  So I declined to enter.  I took pictures for Asian tourists instead (really!  I was asked a few times to please take pictures!).

So you will see below just a few pictures of our visit.  I didn't edit any of them, so they're all straight out of the camera.  Sorry.....no time to make them look fantastic. 

Enjoy.

And oh, it's really good to be home!

Waiting for our train

Our train!

First cab ride!

Outside our hotel

Dinner at the American Girl Store Cafe

Playing with the 2010 Girl Lanie camper set (notice the price tag on the bottom right corner.  AG!)

Buying stuff (notice the THRILLED look on both girls' faces)

Whoa

View from the top of the Sears Tower (I guess it's actually the Willis Tower now, but it will always be the Sears Tower to me, so that's what I am going to call it)

The girls laying out in the crazy all glass hanging off the side of the top of the Sears Tower room.  I was too afraid to go in.  Notice them not being afraid at all.

Tall buildings

Jumping between the beds

Eating Doritos in the train food car, heading home.

It's Official!

Weeeeeellllllll.  It's official.  My baby is going to "real" school next year.

Elizabeth goes to a charter school - a public school that can limit enrollment.  So, each year, they have a lottery for new students.  Today was the lottery for next year.  And Alexandra's name was drawn!

Now, just to clarify, there were more spots in the Young 5's class than there were kids who applied, but still!  I am excited.

Now I just have to decide if I want to request that she is in the morning or afternoon class.

Decisions, decisions!

A Little Sumpon Sumpon

I added a little something new just a minute ago.

Over there  -----------------------------------> under the picture.

The girls have been saying some really funny (and yes, sometimes gross) things lately, and when I remember/have time/have a good one to add, I will stick it over there (------------------------->)
so that all of you, dear readers, can enjoy them too.

:)

Just For Fun!

We had a busy (SO! BUSY!) day yesterday.

Elizabeth had a school field trip.

Alexandra had a school field trip.

Alexandra's preschool had a fundraiser in the evening.

It's always something (more on this later).

So, just for fun, pictures of our day yesterday.

Alexandra's trip was to the Library for a story and music.  Grandma took her (and these pictures).

Elizabeth's trip was to the K Wings hockey game, along with 5000 other students (Really.  there were THAT many kids there.  It was super loud.).  I took her.

Then, after having an exhaustingly good time, it was off to Jungle Joe's (place with many bouncy houses/slides) for a preschool fundraiser.

So.......here's to fun times, but hoping that they slow down and come less often!