Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day Fun!

We had another great Father's Day this year. The girls made a special sign on their new easel from Lorinda. (I have a lot of pictures to post from the girls' birthday party yesterday, Sienna's birthday and Isabella's preschool graduation and last day of school. I'll get to those soon! June is a very busy month between the girls' birthdays, Father's Day and the end of school!)


Isabella made a special picture frame at school that says Daddy's Little Helper.Sienna gave Mike a book called, The Very Best Daddy of All!
All three of the kids helped make a special plate for Mike.
We went to see the Brockton Rox because it was Family Fun Day. We went last year and thought it would be fun to go again, so it looks like we've started a new Father's Day family tradition! There was free face painting. Sienna asked for a dragonfly but got more of a butterfly.
Isabella wanted to be a tiger!
We met K-O, the kangaroo mascot!
It rained earlier in the day but stopped in time for the game. It only misted for a few minutes.
Elijah's first baseball game!
Isabella got a Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker for her birthday, so she tried it out as a special treat for Mike tonight! What a blast from the past!

Happy Father's Day, Papa!

Happy Father's Day to my father-in-law (Papa)! We're looking forward to spending some time with him in Wisconsin in a couple weeks!

We don't have a a picture of Mike with his dad when he was really little, but here is Larry with Tracy in 1974 or 1975 I would guess. Can't you tell by the clothes and the decor that it's the 70's?!?
Tracy, Larry & Mike in Cancun (Mike couldn't remember the year)
Isabella meets Papa-November 2003
Sienna meets Papa-November 2005
Elijah will meet Papa for the first time at the end of this month!

Happy Father's Day, Big Tree!

When I was little, my dad and I participated in Indian Princesses (not so politically correct, I know) through our local YMCA. It was like Girl Scouts but for fathers and daughters (and Indian Guides for fathers and sons). We were part of the "Hopi Tribe" and we all had Native American names. My dad was Big Tree and I was Little Flower. We did all sorts of activities but I specifically remember camping and sleeping in bunkbeds in a cabin. I really enjoyed these activities with my dad. As I was growing up, I appreciated that he always made time to play catch with me and come to my soccer games and band concerts.


Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Welcome to the world, Emma Kate!

My cousin, Liz, her husband, Brandon, and their son, Jack, welcomed Emma Kate into their family on Sienna's birthday, June 10, 2008! Emma was 8 lbs, 4 oz. We can't wait to meet her in two weeks!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sienna Rose!!!!

We had an early celebration for Sienna on Sunday because Mike is on a business trip, so he's not home to help us celebrate today. I'll post more pictures later!

3rd Birthday-2008

2nd birthday-2007

1st Birthday-2006

Birth Day-June 10, 2005

Monday, June 9, 2008

More Family Resemblance

As Elijah gets bigger, I see more and more resemblance to my (specifically my dad's) side of the family. I know, I know, Elijah looks a lot like Mike now, but he looks a lot like my dad and I did as babies. I showed the girls this picture and asked them who they thought it was. They both said, "Elijah." They got a kick out of seeing "Baby Bald-bu!" I remembered seeing this picture at my parents' house, so I asked my mom to send it to me so I could compare it to pictures of Elijah. What do you think?

My dad-early 1943
Elijah
Although Elijah was born with a lot of blond hair, he seems to have lost a lot of it which makes him look even more like my dad!! He has the big old G family bald-looking head!!

Little Entrepreneur

Isabella has been asking for weeks (maybe months) to set up a lemonade stand. I'm not sure where she first got the idea, but when she sets her mind to something she doesn't forget. We hadn't found a good time to do it before now because it was either too cold, a weekday or a holiday weekend when she asked. I suggested that we wait for a hot day some weekend when our neighbors would be around in order to maximize her customer base. It was in the 90's this weekend, so Isabella figured out that A) it was very hot outside and B) it was a non-holiday weekend. I couldn't think of a good reason not to do it, so we mixed up a batch of lemonade, made a sign and set up shop in the one shady spot in our front yard. I explained to Isabella about making change, and she definitely didn't like the idea of giving someone a cup of lemonade AND some money, too! We got off to a slow start, but our neighbors across the street came over for Isabella's first sale. As other neighbors drove by, I suggested that Isabella and Sienna wave to people to get their attention. They started doing that and got two neighbors to back up after driving past them.

Isabella and Sienna's friends, Collin and Cal, knew that we were going to do a lemonade stand one day, and their mom said they'd stop by when we did it. We gave them a call and they came over for an ice cold cup of lemonade (and a few free refills!). Collin even said that he'd like to set up a cookie stand next to Isabella's lemonade stand so that they could give each other business. If I had known this, we could have given him some advanced notice. Next time...

Isabella ended up making a couple of dollars after a little less than an hour. We didn't last long because of the heat, and we consumed most of the product ourselves! Afterwards, she said, "Noone even wanted to buy any money!" In other words, she didn't have to give anyone any money since all of her customers let her keep the change. Unfortunately for Isabella, Mike wanted to give her a lesson in business, so he made her give me the $1.75 I gave her at the beginning to make change. He also had her pay me $1 for the cost of the lemonade. She also had to give Sienna $1 for labor costs!!! Mike said that she was lucky that she didn't have to pay taxes!! After all of those costs, she still ended up with $4!!

At the end of last year, Isabella made a special piggy bank at school for Mike for Father's Day. It has this poem on it:

Here's a bank I made for you.

To put your change in, a penny or two.
With this money I hope you'll say,
We'll have our very own special day!


Isabella has been saving money all year for an extra special day with Mike. They decided that they will go to Six Flags by themselves. Isabella can't wait for the morning that Mike wakes her up and says, "Today's the day!!" She added her $4 from the lemonade stand to the special can.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

School Decisions

It looks like we finally have school decisions squared away for the fall for both girls. We FINALLY found out that a slot opened up for Sienna at the preschool where Isabella goes now which is what we were hoping would happen! She had a play date at school back in February, and then there was a lottery in March. Sienna was the second child on the waitlist!! We thought that a few people would back out to go to other schools but everyone paid their deposits. We had to wait for several children to be evaluated to see if they qualified for special needs to move them out of the "model" pool. Since it's an integrated program, there are peer models and students with special needs in each class. After months of waiting, we finally found out that the last two kids who were going to be evaluated both qualified for special needs, so we got a call saying that there was a spot available for Sienna. I dropped off the paperwork and deposit that same day. We're happy that Sienna will get to go to school with all of her friends since everyone else we know got in initially through the lottery. She will go to preschool three mornings a week like Isabella did last year.

Isabella had her kindergarten registration at the beginning of April and then her kindergarten screening a week ago. She met with a classroom teacher, special needs teacher, speech and language specialist and the nurse to check her height, weight and hearing. They screen all of the incoming kindergarteners to make sure they don't have any blatant needs. It turns out that there will be four full-day kindergarten classes (with tuition) and two half day classes. We chose to keep her in the half day program, and it looks like she will be in the morning class (which I preferred) based on the bus schedules. At this point it looks like I'll have three mornings next year where I'll only have Elijah! It's hard to remember what it was like to only have one child!!!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Pancake Dinner

Mike is away on a short business trip so the girls and I enjoyed pancakes for dinner like we did back in January. This time we made blueberry pancakes as big as the pan with a chocolate chip pancake for dessert!




Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sprinkler Weather

It's finally starting to feel like summer! We had some friends over to play in the sprinkler and water table.
Lauren and Sienna


Sarah, Isabella, John & Luke


Elijah stayed cool in the shade under the deck

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Water Baby!

Elijah loves having a bath. Here he is waiting for me to fill his little bathtub.


He no longer needs the newborn sling attachment in the bathtub. Now that he has more freedom to move, his arms and legs go nonstop the entire time he's in the tub!



Elijah is a bit bigger now than he was back in mid-March!

March 15, 2008

Kite Flying

Grandma brought each of the girls a new kite, and they had fun flying them in our front yard.

Ready for lift-off!
"It's higher than the house!"


Sienna's first kite-flying experience.


Dora went high in the air, too!

Grandma's Visit

We are thankful that Mike's mom was able to come babysit for us this weekend so that we could thoroughly enjoy our reunion. She is the first person to brave being alone over night with our three kids! Woo hoo!! Next time I'll take advantage of the opportunity to get a good night sleep!
Grandma was snoozing with Elijah, but she woke up
right as I was about to take the picture.




Isabella read Hop on Pop to Grandma and Sienna at bedtime.

Thanks so much for coming to help us, Grandma!!! We are looking forward to seeing you again in a couple weeks!
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