Summer is ON!

Hannah being the responsible big sister and lathering them both up in sunscreen

 It's about time!

We are finally starting to see some decent weather around here.  

Nice weather and sunshine brings swimsuits and swimming pools....and don't forget Brody!

 

Two wheel scooter

Two wheel scooters are the coolest things ever right now.

Hannah got one about a month ago and since then Hailey has been showing a little more interest each time she sees Hannah riding.  Tonight we decided to go out to eat and then make a stop at Target to get her her very own two-wheel-scooter.  After we paid she insisted on carrying the box to the car herself.  It was a little heavy and big for her but she was not giving it up to anyone.

As soon as she got in the car she yelled with excitement "Hurry up!"

The handle on this one adjusts so it fits her perfectly!

This kid is in heaven right now!

"Best. Day. Ever."

Today was Hannah's first day at Adventures Plus.

I have felt sick all week.  Excited for this day but also dreading it a little bit.

I was nervous.  REAL nervous.

I was not nervous about her.  I knew she was going to do great.

I am just nervous and worried about whether or not she will be safe, will she like it here, will she make friends, will she eat ok, will she know where the bathroom is, will she tell someone if she needs something....do I really need to go on?!

 

She was sad to leave Jackie's but she is SUPER excited to start doing her own thing.

She is super happy that her new daycare is at school and she is excited to be with kids her age.

We went to an open house last night and got the low-down.  Bring a change of clothes, sunscreen, water bottle, pillow, and blanket. They told us all about things they would plan to do and when, gave us the lunch menu, showed us how to check in and pick up and informed us about the daily schedule that would be available each day.  Nice to see each day- especially when you are getting ready to pick up, you can see where they plan to be and then plan accordingly.

Brian picked her up tonight and by the time I got home she was sitting on a chair in the driveway.

She didn't get up and come running over to the car like most days.  Nope- she just sat in the chair, perked up a little bit and gave me a smile "Hi momma'.

Me:  "Buddy!  How was your day?!"

Hannah:  "It was awesome (said with a little giggle/breath between each word).  Best. Day. Ever."

She was exhausted.

Tonight is also the 2nd night of T-ball.   Hannah is on the blue team this time.

Tonight the weather was perfect!  Hailey and I sat on a blanket watching Hannah and her new teammates warm up.  You can see from this picture how serious they all are about this game.  I kinda love that my kid is the only one is 'ready position' waiting for the ball.  I love her focus and interest.

 

They had their first 'game' tonight.

'Games' consist of all players batting, no one gets out, you can only run one base with each hit and the last batter is always a home run.  Tonight Hannah played first base their first time in the field.

 

I brought my MyChart workbook to read tonight.  I have my certification test in the morning and have not done any studying yet.  Hailey grabbed my book and started paging through it. Then she looked up at me and with the most serious face ever said "Mom, I don't want you to be a punch momma."

Me: "What?"

Hailey:  "I don't want you to be a punch momma.

Yep- that's what I heard....I started thinking in my head about what could possibly be going on.  Did a friend of hers tell her that her mom punches her?  Did she see another kid get punched by her mom? Better get some more information

Me: "Hailey, honey.  What is a punch momma?"

Hailey:  "I don't want you to learn punching.  Like here in your book."

LOL!!! Whew!

 During the game we noticed a little girl sitting near us with her mom.

Hailey started to wave to her and she waved back.

The next time I turned my head to see if the girl was paying attention to Hailey and to assess whether or not I should help this relationship along I see this....she had moved her chair closer and was facing us directly.

Hailey: "What's you name?"

Girl: "Lexy"

Hailey: "Hi Lexy"

Hailey: "Mom, how old is she?"

Me: "Lexy, how old are you?"

Lexy: "I'm three"

Hailey looks at me and in the sassiest way possible says "Is she free an a half?"

Lexy (overheard her asking me): "Yes!"

Hannah was up to bat so I stood up to get a picture (none turned out too good because she hit too soon and I was late to get a good shot) and when I turned to walk back to the blanket I see this...

 

How adorable!

Mom and Hannah day starts.......NOW!

 I took today off so that Hannah and I could spend a day together before she starts her new daycare tomorrow.  We started our day dropping off Hailey then heading to Cafe Donuts for breakfast.

Then a quick stop home so I could shower and plan our day.  The Main Event today would be a stop at Archivers for scrapbooking.  Before that we had a few errands to run and then planned to scrapbook after lunch.

We sent some pictures to Walgreen's to get printed so  Hannah would have something to work on and you can see just how excited she was after we picked them up.

 We had to make a stop at the mall to get Kiley a Birthday present and then drop off 3 car seats/boosters that I sold to employees that worked at St Johns.

Lucy is in the entrance of St Johns and on our way out I looked down to talk to Hannah and she wasn't there.  I turned around and found her posing next to her waiting for me to get a picture.

We had lunch in the mall at Panda Garden.  Hannah got her fortune cookie, opened it up and read it to me : "Mom- you have the best job ever cause you get to take care of kids and I hope one day I can be a great mom like you."

After lunch and errands we were finally on our way.

As we were leaving the hospital after our final drop off Hannah started yelling "Archivers!"

She was super super excited!

 

 I didn't bring anything to work on.  I knew I probably wouldn't get much done being that she would have a lot of questions and I figured she would want to walk around and wouldn't spend so much time sitting and working.  I didn't want to a) go through the work to get stuff prepared, lug it all there and then not even open it and b) get frustrated or disappointed because I wanted to work on something and wouldn't be able to.  So instead I planned to buy a few card kits- Archivers always has Bday card or Thank You card kits that you can buy and I always need those so I figured it would be a good project for me.  Trouble is.....nobody told me they don't sell them anymore :-(

So, now I am here at Archivers.  It's 1:00 and we will be here until 4:00...this could be a long afternoon.....

Right when we got there Hannah unpacked her stuff and started right in.  She knew exactly what picture she wanted to start with and had the paper picked out within seconds.   

 

I knew I couldn't sit here for the next three hours and do nothing so I found some pictures on my phone that I could print and bought a few things to make a page.

We need to do this more often :-)

Moving on

 

Today is Hannah's last day at Jackie's.  On Thursday she will start her new school care program called Bound.  This is an Adventures Plus program but just for Pre-K kids.  It's a way to transition them into Adventures Plus and prepare them for school.  Starting in the school year Hannah will be going to A+ for before and after school.  Jackie would be closed by the time the bus would drop her off and we couldn't guarantee to be home everyday by that time when the bus comes through our neighborhood- this way is much safer.  This way she can transition into her new daycare and then when school starts she will only have that transition to work through.  I am not really worried about her being able to transition but at least this way it feels like not too much all at one time.

She has been going to Jackie's since she was a a few months old and has loved it there.

Her favorite things about Jackie's were the art projects, going to the park, meeting friends, when Jackie let her feed the babies and her favorite thing about Jackie was that she was a good person.

 Hannah made her this card and brought a special treat for the other kids.

I have been feeling sick about this day.  Everytime I think about it I get a lump in my throat.  It's so hard to imagine that someday our morning routine of driving and dropping off to Jackie's will be over.  She has been so good to my girls and has taught them so much.  We have been so lucky to have her in our 'village'.    It has made it easier that Hailey is still there- we are not saying goodbye forever and Hannah comes with me every morning to drop Hailey off so she still sees her friends and Jackie every morning which also helps....for both of us :-)

 

I asked Hannah to say cheese for her picture and she raised her hands and yelled "NEW DAYCARE!"

Think she might be a little excited :-)

Learning from our mistakes

We almost didn't make it to the parade Friday night.

When Brian picked the girls up he was notified about an incident that happened at Jackie's today.

Apparently the girls pulled down Cora's pants while they were at the park.

That statement followed up with the usual- Cora's parents are upset, they wanna know what we are going to do about it, etc- but then Jackie also said that she didn't see it, nobody else saw it, Bruce (Cora's brother who is 9) didn't see it.  We only knew it happened because when Cora's dad got there she started to cry and when asked why she told him what happened.

Great.

When they got home we asked them to tell us what happened.  They both started acting a little nervous so it was obvious that something happened.  We explained to Hannah that it is more important to us that she tells us the truth and that she is going to get punished either way but we need to know what happened.  She tells us the truth and her punishment will reflect that- we find out something else or she lies or doesn't tell and her punishment will be bigger.

She started to spill.  Something along the lines of "They were all standing by the slide and Cora told Hailey "If I don't go down the slide you can pull my pants down" so then Hailey did and then she did it again and again and again."  Hailey started to hide her face so it seemed as though the story was probably pretty close.  

I of course wasn't there but these are 3 and 5 year olds trying to reason with each other about a 'bet' and I am sure the only thing Hailey heard was pull down pants and then after she did it the first time there was probably a laugh (at least from Hannah) so then she probably did it a few more times to get that same laugh.

Appropriate behavior? NEVER

Malicious and Bully behavior?  Nah- I can't see it

We let the girls know that we were NOT happy about this and then talked about punishment and what would happen if we EVER heard that something like this happened again.

Before they went to Jackie's this morning they sat at the table to make Cora a card to say they were sorry.  Hannah drew pictures of the girls and wrote I'm sorry.

Hailey wrote this:

When I asked her what it said she told me this:  "Cora, I am sorry that you ask people to pull down your pants."

I couldn't help but chuckle just because that is Hailey- stubborn and in NO way apologizing for something.  She isn't denying she did it, just not taking accountability for it.  

She was not happy that I made her sit back down and this time asked her to just draw a picture.

Everything is fine- the girls got to daycare and Cora was there- I heard Hannah give her the card and ask her "Do you forgive me?" and Cora said "yes". 

Fairs and Fireworks

Today we took the girls to Father Hennepin Days.

Each year we take the girls and each year we pretty much stick to our agenda- eat, rides, animals, rides, home.  The girls started with the huge slide- Hailey wasn't tall enough to ride alone so I rode with her.  Probably the last year I will have to do that.  We ate hot dogs, corn dogs, and cheese curds.

Hannah hit up the Merry Go Round and thankfully Hailey wasn't interested because this was another ride she just wasn't quite tall enough to do alone and frankly this ride makes me dizzy.

Then they tried the spinning Dinos (Tilt-a-Whirl).  Hannah loves to spin however her sister does NOT.  Through most of the ride Hailey looked like she was going to vomit.  Hannah did pretty good and if Hailey said not to twirl she would slow it down or stop for a minute.  When they got out Hailey was still smiling- whew!  Next up the roller coaster!  I was thrilled to see that Hailey was tall enough but a little nervous that she was going to freak out.  This thing goes pretty fast.

Here they are in the car ready to go for the first time- poor things have NO idea what they are in for!

 

Here they are during the ride.  They LOVED it!

We went over to see the animals and Hannah rode a pony that she named Petty.

 

Then back to rides to use up the rest of the tickets.  Hailey wanted to ride the cars.  The girls said goodbye and informed us they were going to California.  

Ha ha- must be the cool place to go on one of their shows :-)

They had enough tickets for two more rides.  Hmmmmm....wonder what they chose?!

They hopped right in and the first time sat in the very front seat.  While they were on the ride we ran into Jackson and Mason and their family.  When the girls were done, they came off the ride and we pointed out the boys to them.  They all caught eyes and then took off running towards each other.  Hannah hugged Mason, Jackson hugged Hailey, Hannah hugged Jackson, Hailey hugged Mason.  Then they stood there talking and catching up.

They talked the boys into going on this ride too so their last time around they got to ride with their friends- this time the girls picked the very last car.  I think they were a little bit excited!

 

There were fireworks tonight so we packed up a snack bag and drove to the Champlin Plaza parking lot to join the others to finish the official kick off to summer.

The fireworks were right in front of us and they were HUGE.

What a great day!

 

Little Miss Thorough

Tonight Hannah, Hailey and I walked in the Father Hennepin Days Parade.

It was for Hannah's dance studio- Just for Kix- there were about 16 kids and 10 adults all together.

The girls handed out pencils, magnets, postcards, and flyers.

Hailey started with Isabelle in the back of the truck but as soon as they were joined by one of the girls brothers she was in tears and couldn't get out fast enough.  Guess my little girl isn't completely over her shyness.  She'll get there :-)

Thankfully one of the other moms had brought a wagon that was empty and she offered to let Hailey ride the rest of the way- which was most of the way.  

 

Along the way the girls saw a bunch of their friends from daycare.  Morgan, Brenley,  Cora, Bruce, Debbie (the other daycare lady), and a bunch of kids from Debbie or Kari's.

Hannah was a rockstar!  I am not sure there was a little girl on the North side of the street that was missed.  She handed stuff out to everyone.  Infants, teenagers, and every little girl she wanted to tell about her dance group.  All in all I am pretty sure we walked over two miles.  The parade route itself was 1.7 miles and then to walk to the staging area, through those streets before the parade started, then to meet Brian afterwards- it may have even been more.  Hannah walked the whole time and many times even ran as we were trying to make up ground or would get a little behind since there were so many little girls.

When did the teenager move in?!?!

We went last night and picked up Hannah's Tball shirt for the summer season.  

She will be on the blue team this summer.  

While we were there we saw a table that had T-shirts from past years on sale for $1.

Hannah asked if she could get one and had her eye on the purple and pink ones.

We bought this cute Champlin Parks and Rec shirt for $1 and she put it on as soon as we got home.

We were playing Uno and she was sitting across from me on the floor, I looked over and was shocked at how old she looked.

Just something in the way she was sitting, the sweatpants, the shirt....

 

If you give my kid a cookie

If you give my kid a cookie you have to know that she is probably not going to eat it.

This cookie was STILL laying on the counter from Hannah's Tball party on the 22nd of May.

She didn't want to eat it that night so it was put in a bag for her to finish at another time.

A few times I have offered this up and she turns it down each time.

Neither of my girls are huge cookie or cake eaters- they definitely get this from their parents.

Hailey would rather have chips like daddy and Hannah would NEVER EVER turn down ice cream!

Can't believe nobody was hurt!

The deck at the cabin has been looking rough for the past few years.

Like most things, it's been on the list of things to do but has yet to have any plans to actually do something about it.  Brian took some measurements and did some work to find out just what it would take to get the deck repaired.  Turns out most of it needs to come down and get rebuilt.  

Finally a decision has been made- the deck will be getting fixed.

Brian went to the cabin alone this weekend to start tearing the old deck down.

Throughout the day I was getting pictures texted to me of his progress...

It's going to be so nice to finally have the rotting boards gone.  It's going to be a lot of work to get this rebuilt but the stress of not having to worry about it anymore will be so nice!

So thankful for Brian and all of the work that he has put into this for my family!

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!

 Our day started with Morgan's Birthday party- she turned 4.

 The girls were so excited to be there and Morgan loved having them there.

As soon as they saw her they all waved goodbye to me and they were off.

Morgan didn't want to go in the ticket blaster by herself so Hannah went in with her.  As soon as the air started and they were suppose to collect tickets they just stood there looking at each other giggling.  They were let out and before anyone could talk to them about it, they were off again, enjoying their kid-freedom.  I do have to admit that although it makes me a little nervous to let them just run around, I love that Chuck E Cheese makes a very good effort at assuring that no kid gets lost.  They stamp your hands with invisible ink when you get there and the only way to leave is to have your hand checked to make sure the kids you are taking with you have the same set of numbers stamped on their arms.  Because of this there are always staff parked at the door so at the very least kids can not get out without you.  

 Hailey wanted to hang out with me for a little while and as we were walking around she decided she wanted to climb in this playland thing.  She kicked off her shoes and started her climb to the top.

I was nervous watching her go- she can get very shy at times and there were a lot of kids up there.

I was nervous that she would get started and then someone might talk to her and she may want to get out- like NOW, or what if she gets lost?!  It's not like it's that confusing to find your way but what if?  There is always a chance that something could go wrong and it's my job as the mom to think of those things and be prepared for the worst.

 I thought I had a pretty good eye on where she was going until I she was out of my sight.  I tried to look around in the tunnels above to see if I could see something when she started to call out "Mommy!  Hi-O (hello)!"  (she was happy- whew!)

She found her way to the slide and then spent the next 10-15 minutes climbing up and sliding down.

Brian went to the cabin this weekend to start working on the deck demolition so we were on our own for dinner.  Kimmy graduates from grad school tomorrow and we aren't going to be able to make it so we decided to see if she was free tonight so we could take her out to celebrate.

We met Kim and Jennie at Benihana for dinner to enjoy some shrimp and shrimp sauce.

 CONGRATULATIONS KIM!

What a great accomplishment!