2008 -- New Year's Eve -- Celebratory Fun!

Note:  This is the second post of the day.  Please enjoy the post below this one first as it summarizes Christmas.  Thanks.

This morning, we hopped in the car and headed to Des Moines.  We met an old friend of mine from the college days, along with her four kids and celebrated the Noon Year at the Science Center of Iowa.  We arrived in plenty of time and had a blast playing.

We created bubbles.

This is my favorite picture of the day.

You'll see a video of the balloon drop at the end of this post.   Big Sis sat on Cool Daddy-O's shoulders and caught a balloon.  Lil Sis sat on my shoulders and caught a balloon.  A friend of ours from our home town caught a picture of us, but I don't have it.  I have a picture of our friend's son on his dad's shoulders taken from a distance (not posted).
Here are the girls predicting stormy weather for our forecast.  There's a green wall where the kids can stand and view themselves on a TV screen.  This seems to be a favorite spot.

After we returned home, Lil Sis thought it was dance party time.  

She's so goofy sometimes.

More dancing.

Next came the jumping.

Jumping and dancing.  It was a wild scene.

Mid-air for Lil Sis.  Post jump for Big Sis.

Big Sis takes off.

Mid-air... someone's head is missing.

More jumping and general craziness.

First Day of the Last Year of Preschool

She wasn't looking forward to going to preschool this morning. She tried pulling the old, "I'm going to miss you" routine. It didn't last long.
Here she is waiting for the elevator. She loves riding it and was instantly snapped out of her funky mood.
Here she is happily standing in the elevator. We walked toward the classroom, deposited her back pack in her cubby and then did our hugs and kisses routine (kisses, hugs, cheeks, ears, eyeballs, forehead, and chins, with the grand finale big hug). We walked into the classroom, where she instantly reverted back into the funky mood (see photo #1). We did the hugs and kisses routine again, wrote her name on a coloring sheet, and I told the assistant teacher I needed some help. She engaged lil sis in conversation and I left. She didn't cry though. I didn't either.

When I went to pick her up, she was so excited (much like she is in photo #2) to show me the little book she drew in class. She drew a picture of her house, family (I think she forgot she had parents, because we weren't in the picture) and herself.
The other day, Big Sis tied Lil Sis up. They were playing some version of Wacky Races and Lil Sis filled the role of Penelope Pit Stop. They switched roles later, but had the most fun this way.
Over the weekend, at one point, the girls were being kinda wild and crazy, so we sent them to the toy room. They returned to the kitchen a few minutes later looking like this. It's not uncommon for them to dress up silly when they're in a bit of trouble. I think they've found it lessens the tension in the house when they do this.

Soccer Season Starts as a Cool Front Approaches

Tonight was Lil Sis' first ever soccer practice. Not surprisingly, yet ever so frustratingly, she was extremely shy and refused to participate at the beginning. I struggled between holding her hand and walking her through the steps, to standing with my hands on my hips in frustration.

I finally had a little heart to heart. She said she wanted to play soccer, but wanted everyone else to leave. I reminded her that soccer is a team sport and they need to play together. She then asked if she could still keep her shirt if she didn't play. I told her no, she'd have to give it back. Her shirt is her favorite color (yellow) and I knew that would have an impact on her.

Soon after that, she started participating, first taking turns kicking the ball across the field with me....then before we all knew it, she had this huge grin on her face after she kicked the ball! From then on, I was able to stand on the side lines and cheer her on. She returned often for high fives, low fives, etc.

Near the end, her team had a scrimmage with another team. She did her thing and was soooooo cute with her shin guards, soccer socks, and soccer cleats on. Once after a big play where another kid kicked the ball when she was trying to, she came walking toward me with a weird look. I thought her feelings or foot had been hurt, but when I asked her what was wrong, she said she was thirsty. She got a little drink and ran back on the field. Next time we'll encourage her to wait til there's a break in the action, but at that point, I was so happy that she was participating, I didn't care.

After practice was over, Lil Sis insisted on staying at the soccer fields and kicking the ball some more. Fortunately, we had our 2 soccer balls in the trunk, so the girls went to one of the full sized fields and practiced scoring goals against Cool Daddy-O!

On another note (pun intended), the song that Uncle John plays drums on is #1 on the Country charts this week! WhooHoo!!! Big Sis wants to know if that means he's famous now. Kudos to Jimmy Wayne and "Do You Believe Me Now"!!! If you're looking for some good music, go buy the CD or download it! Yeah, I'm biased, but I think it's pretty awesome, and I'm not really even a big country music fan! I just like all good music!

My Ill Fated Attempt To Clean the House

Lil Sis: I'm having so much fun today!

Me: Why?

Lil Sis: Because I'm making a big mess! (loud laughter to follow)

I think I've lost control! I'm attempting to organize and throw things away today....we also call it taking control of horizontal surfaces. As I'm making progress in the living room and kitchen (slowly), the living room floor is being covered with game pieces...Memory, Go Fish, Candy Land, and a Little People fishing game. There would be another fishing game in this mix, if the pieces weren't soaking in soapy water.

Yeah, we had a wasp in the house and sprayed poison to kill it. Well, in our haste to kill the wasp, we didn't remove everything that was exposed to the poisonous fall out before annihilating it. The good news, we successfully killed the wasp. The bad news, I had to wipe down a lot of stuff that the spray dripped on. You see, the wasp was in the living room light fixture and ... well, I had a little lesson in gravity.

Fortunately, Snickers (who was also chasing the wasp) seems to be o.k. In fact, it was Snickers who alerted us to the wasp flying about the light fixture.

Hopefully we don't suffer any ill effects from spraying poison in here. I did turn off the A/C for the first time in many weeks and all the windows are open. It's a cool day and kinda nice to have the fresh air in the house.

Just last night, we moved all the games to a spot where the girls can have easy access to them, in hopes they'll play with them more often. I guess my wish has come true!

Oh, and she's still wearing her jammies! I think she's really getting into her element of being the only kid at home during the day.

No, I'm Not On Vacation...Yet!

Edited on 8/11/08 to add the photos previously described.

Oh, Man! I've read about people having problems uploading photos in blogger before, but, until now, I've never had a problem. I have cool pictures, too! Bummer!

My first non-existent picture is of Lil Sis sitting on Cool Daddy-O's lap with her eyes closed at a restaurant in Amana. We met my dad, brothers and their families there for breakfast on Saturday. Since only 3 of my immediate family members had their eyes open, we didn't have to pay for Lil Sis. We had a very nice waitress who understands shy 4 year olds. There were just too many people there, and she was overwhelmed with all the attention, I guess.

We did enjoy some yummy family style eats: fruit, toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, fried eggs, fried potatoes, coffee, juice, milk. Too bad Lil Sis missed it. Poor Cool Daddy-O was stuck holding her the whole time. Big sis complained about the flat pancake (she's used to the fluffy pancakes I make). The girls had been up very late the night before and we had to wake them early to get to Amana in time for breakfast.

This weekend was the annual tax-free holiday in Iowa. All clothing and some select other stuff (like diapers) isn't taxed on the first Friday and Saturday in August. On Friday, I took the car to the dealer for some routine maintenance. I rode the Honda mobile to the mall and hung out for a few hours. I bought some good stuff at Target and I've been so busy since then, I haven't even unpacked all the bags.

The most fun things I bought were new cell phones for Cool Daddy-O and I. We both have new numbers and they're actually easy to memorize.

My next grouping of pictures includes one of Lil Sis standing by a baby zebra (her favorite zoo animal). We spent Sunday in Sigourney where there was a big celebration for the local John Deere tractor dealer's 10th anniversary. There were inflatables, a petting zoo with camels, goats, llama, baby zebra. There was also a monkey show, but we missed that part. The food was provided by Cookies BBQ (an Iowa company), chips from Hy-Vee (Iowa based grocery chain), and music by the Oak Ridge Boys. The only bad part was the 95 degree temperature with high humidity.

We managed just fine. Our next picture shows Big Sis spraying me with water. We carried the spray bottle with us everywhere and regularly sprayed the girls. During the Oak Ridge Boys performance, Big Sis was putting ice in the spray bottle and spraying me. It was AWESOME!

Today, the girls had swimming lessons and Big Sis had "reading camp" at a local college. In the afternoon, I filled up the little pool on the deck. The girls spent 4 hours there. I had grand hopes of doing some organizing of new purchases, etc. but I ended up sitting in the shade programming numbers in Cool Daddy-O's new phone. I did spend some time with my feet in the pool. That was nice.

Big Sis's big swimming lesson accomplishment today was holding her breath under water and blowing bubbles. She also was able to move from one side of the pool to the other today without the noodle while wearing the flotation cube thingy around her waist. Lil Sis was able to blow bubbles under water today. She's afraid of holding her breath under water, but she was moving around in our pool today holding her breath with her head above water. All in good time. She's getting more comfortable with the water...it's just going to take her some time.

Well, hope you enjoyed my non-existent pictures....I'll try to upload them another day.

She Decided To Stay...

We've been going to the fair a lot! Yes, we're crazy! Yesterday, we went to the 4-H and FFA horse show. It rained all day, so it was good to be inside. Big Sis had her 3rd corn dog.

Tonight we returned to the fair for supper and the demolition derby. Big Sis ate her 4th corn dog. I had my second tenderloin (yum). The girls lasted through 4 heats and a final round of the compact car class. Then they were done. Cool Daddy-O made arrangements for me to get a ride home with our neighbors and he took the girls home. I'm glad he did. There was only one heat of full-size cars, but they were DEAFENING! It was fun to watch.

Cool Daddy-O said it was kinda hard for him to watch the cars get demolished. He's very much into vehicle maintenance and getting as many miles as we can our of our beloved Hondas. On a good note, there were no Hondas or Toyotas in the derby. Fortunately, they're mostly still out on the road.

This morning, the girls were not allowed to watch TV (in part due to yesterday's behavior -- long story). They decided to play with Lincoln Logs and then Big Sis built a log cabin she was quite proud of. After that, the girls became quite irritable with one another and a fight broke out. I decided I was going to put the Lincoln Logs away and out of reach for a consequence. oops!

Big Sis came unglued when she discovered what I had done! She stomped back to her room, screaming and crying. After some time had passed, she stomped out and placed a hand written note on the kitchen table. Here's what it said:

I am going to the othr sid the wrld. frome big sis

I took the note back to Big Sis's room and talked to her about it. I couldn't quite understand what it said, so she told me she was packing up her things in her backpack and she was going to leave to go to the other side of the world. I asked her how she was going to get there. Her plan was to take a plane. I was able to talk her out of running away and all was forgiven.

Here is Big Sis pretending to be sad and posing with her run away note.

On another note, the girls had their first swimming lesson on Wednesday. We finally convinced Lil Sis to sit on the edge of the pool and dangle her toes in the pool. I think she will be more brave next time. It's too bad the lesson only lasted 30 minutes and half of that time was sitting outside of the pool talking about safety. I think another 15 to 30 minutes and she would have been in the water too. At least they both left wanting to go back.

That's all for now. We're going to hang out at home tomorrow and will do some cleaning, laundry, mowing, etc.

My Boring Week

The lack of posting is due to lack of excitement around here. Let's see, we had lunch on the porch one day. They weren't very excited about getting their picture taken. Big Sis is taking a big bite of cauliflower. Notice the dresses...they've been choosing their own outfits this week. They've worn dresses nearly every day. They have shorts, but the dresses must feel cooler. Notice, their purses are from Happy Meals and they each are armed with a magnifying glass to check out any ants that come to visit. Here's a picture of the steak, mashed potatoes/ice cream sundae (not sure which it is) and green beans I was served during a marathon play dough session. Yes, they used real plates.

I think the highlight of this week is the cat faces they apply with eye liner pencils. Big Sis came home from school one day with a cat face. Below, you'll see Lil Sis after she applied her cat face. Totally independent, I might add. She's good. Soon after this photo was taken she washed it off. She said it felt funny. Silly girl. We have yet to go out in public with the cat faces.

Cool Daddy-O informs me that the dryer is no longer producing heat. The repair guy is coming to check it out tomorrow. Hopefully it's repairable. We are saving up for both cars to have major service check-ups at the Honda dealership this summer / fall. A new dryer isn't exactly what we're planning for. Our 11th anniversary gift to ourselves was a dishwasher. Perhaps the 12th anniversary gift is supposed to be a dryer. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Tune in and see....

Who Can Sleep With All That Noise?

We've had a busy weekend so far...and it's only Friday night!

Yesterday, Lil Sis was "plugged up". We made a team decision and bought some prunes. After her first "dose", she was snuggling on my lap and before long was twitching....that tell tale sign that she was falling asleep. She fell asleep at 4:45 pm and didn't wake up til after 6. Her "problem" resolved itself during the evening. She was soooo HAPPY! She was also quite AWAKE, so she helped me make brownies and hash brown casserole. She finally fell asleep around midnight.

This morning, she was bright eyed at 7 a.m. and ready to go to the parade and family reunion. The bag of candy and other stuff rivaled anything they could dream of after a night of trick-or-treating.

We spent the rest of the day visiting with various family members. We headed home, the girls bathed, then we put on sweats, jackets, and drove to the soccer field to watch fireworks.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the fireworks started. The girls grew increasingly impatient. By the time the fireworks display started, Big Sis was snuggled up on Cool Daddy-O's lap and Lil Sis was snuggling with me. During the "grand finale", I noticed Lil Sis wasn't moving or talking. I assumed she was faking it and was really awake, because who would fall asleep during a fireworks finale??? She was really asleep! Cool Daddy-O lifted her out of my lap and placed her in her car seat. Big Sis made it to the car, but by the time we were ready to get her out of the car, we noticed she, too, had fallen asleep! That was the easiest bedtime routine we've had in a long time.

The Scent of the Ocean

Big Sis just asked if G-ma and G-pa were back from their vacation in Florida yet. I told her she would see them tonight at the band concert. She gasped, and in a quiet, yet excited voice, said, "They'll smell like Florida!"

Hmm...what does Florida smell like anyway?

There's a rock under her pillow...

As I was making Lil Sis's bed this morning (rare event), I noticed a rock under her pillow. The other day I found the same rock under her pillow and placed it on top of her headboard.

Me: Why is their a rock under your pillow?

Lil Sis: It's for hopscotch.

Hmmm....I'm still wondering why it's under her pillow. Do little girls wake up in the middle of the night and go play hopscotch on the sidewalk?