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!

Undie Stick

I have been meaning to blog about this for over a year but haven't gotten around to taking the picture until now.  For some reason Hannah put this stick in her undie drawer and insists on the undie stick picking out which pair of undies she is going to wear for the day.

She puts the stick in the drawer, swirls it around and whichever pair she pulls out is the winner!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Kari!

Hope your 40's are great!

Lemonade!

"Lemonade for sale!"

The girls have graduated to a lemonade stand.  

I was sent home with cards and cash for them from Loriann- she wanted to purchase their daily special, this could be a tricky transport.

They were so excited to have a customer even if that customer wasn't actually there in front of them so the glasses got poured and I was the lucky one that got to drink the lemonade.

Then Hannah emptied out a water bottle and poured in Loriann's lemonade that I was instructed to deliver in the morning.

Our neighbor, Kris, came today and enjoyed a glass of lemonade as well.

"Enjoy yourself"

The girls had set up another sale stand tonight.

I pulled into the driveway, got out of the car and started to make my way to them.

I noticed this yellow marking on the driveway.

"Hey, what's this mean?"

Hailey responded "That is our sale sign.  It says we have ice cold water."

Me:  "Oh, very nice."

Hannah:  "Would you like some?"

Me:  "Of course"

Hannah:  "Here you are.  Enjoy yourself."

It started to sprinkle a few minutes later and like mini-professionals they sprung into action.

Hannah wheeled their counter into the garage while Hailey carried the cups.  Hannah came back for the chair and Hailey drew this on the ground.

Me:  "What's this?"

Hailey: "That's the sign that we moved into the garage so they know we are here because it's raining."

Seeds for Sale!

Got home from work and pulled into the driveway only to be greeted by the two cutest saleskids I have ever seen!  "Seeds for sale!"  they yelled as I pulled in.
At the time Hannah was on her scooter scooting around the driveway and Hailey was manning the station- sitting on her lawn chair with her legs crossed, sitting up and waving as I drove by.

Of course I had to get out a few dollars and go check this out.
I was presented with three choices- regular seeds (sunflower), pickle seeds (flavored sunflower seeds), and mixed (regular and pickle). I am not a fan of the pickle flavored ones so I chose the regular.  I was given and handful and I was on my way.

Throughout the evening they tried to push their product to any passer-by they could see.
Cars that drove by, kids on bikes, adults walking their dogs, etc.  Thankfully no one really understood what was going on.  The kids would have LOVED it but I'm not gonna lie I am not sure this 'Seed Stand' was ready for primetime. 

Keeping up with tradition

Adam (5), Justin (8), Hailey (3), Hannah (5), Courtney (9)

We typically spend Memorial Day weekend at the lake.

It's the weekend that we get the cabin open, which really just means turn the water on....

Since we have had kids, I can't remember a Memorial Day without going to grandma and grandpa's.

I like this tradition.  It's awesome to have enough time to be at the lake but still have a day at home to spend time with Brian's family too.  Any weekend that we can see both sets of relatives is a great weekend!

Can't get enough of any of these people.

The kids were so cute playing outside tonight.

They were playing some type of game they made up called 'Toilet tag'.  Hannah has tried to explain it to me but I am not really sure I get it.  Something to do with a ball and touching the kids with a ball.

You could go to the 'Tee' if you needed to take a break- this was a safe place where you couldn't get tagged.  They were outside most of the night and ended up playing with the neighbor girls for a little bit.

A walk down Maple Knoll

Tom came in and asked Hannah to make a sign for the old pontoon, since they bought a new one this year, it's finally time to part with the old one.

She did a pretty god job if you ask me ;-)

Even included a lake, sun and a boat on the lake in the top right corner.

This afternoon we decided to take a walk.  

At first it was just going to be a few of us but it ended up being all of us.  

As we were walking I asked my mom if we could get to the road that runs next to the lake.  The one that we used to drive in on when we were younger, before they put in the paved road and closed this way off.

Yes- she knew right where to go and we were off!

Joe got himself a walking stick and it wasn't long before Hannah and Hailey had to get in on that fun.

 As we got to the end of the first road we came to the turn.

The last time I passed by this corner there was a small trailer on the property.  I thought I remember the guy being in jail for robbery or something so his lawn was always overgrown and I remember when we would drive by I would always be curious as to how someone could actually live there.  Not just in that little trailer on this piece of land but on that street in Pine City.  Don't get me wrong, I love this place but it would be strange to actually live here.   It's a perfect cabin 'neighborhood' but in reality there are a lot of people that call this area home.  It's weird to me.  That these kids around here grow up on these dirt roads and they live in an area that must be like a ghost town during the week but then filled with cabin goers each weekend.

I had to get a picture of this corner.

When we used to come here when we were little we would turn off the main road and hit the gravel.

Our cabin is about a mile and a half off the main road but during this 7,920 feet drive it felt like forever.

We would always be so excited to get there and once we could see the lake we knew we were so close.

Many times the lake water would be so high that the road would have water on it so dad would have to drive the old black Chevy Caprice wagon on the edge of the road to avoid the water.

Once we would hit this curve there was a sense of excitement but it was always a little sad too.

Our cabin is quite a distance from the water and the lot is full of trees so it's not so easy to see the lake sometimes.  It was always fun being this close to the water.  It was also the 'big turn'.  When we would bring our friends up they would always ask where we were going once we made that turn.  The road was leading away from the lake and we would often 'mess' with them by driving into the driveway of a run-down cabin and saying we were there.

Pine City Street Sign

The girls found a ride back.

As we were walking down the road a lady appeared from the grass.  It was obvious that she was approaching us and I'm not gonna lie for a minute I thought she was going to try to get some man-help.

Instead she asked if we wanted a picture taken.

How nice, right?!  Sure do love these peeps!

Mom, Jennie, Hannah, Bobby, Kristin, me, Brian, Hailey, Tom, Kim, and Joe

Now that's what I'm talking about

The deck at the cabin has been dangerous for the past few years and this year it's in the plans to get fixed.

It started with the deck just tilting but that quickly turned into a full out slant.

We started to get squishy boards and as of now the deck is pretty much a 'keep-the-kids-off-but-walk-on-it-at-your-own-risk' platform.

It's sad to see how the cabin has been deteriorating over the years and exhausting to see just how much work needs to be done up there.  However, at the end of the day, this is our cabin.  A place we have been enjoying since I can remember and I want my kids to have those memories too.

We were all sitting around in the living room today and Hailey had gone outside.

All of a sudden we heard someone yelling from the doorway and look over to see and hear this "Hey!  Is Bobby in there?"

When it was time for bed Hannah and I layed down together- typically we sleep on the air mattress and Brian and Hailey sleep in the bed.  The bed is very floppy so to have two adults in it is less than ideal.  Everyone falls to the middle and you spend most of the night fighting your way to the edge of the mattress with no luck.

I leaned over to give Hannah a kiss goodnight- Hailey was already tucked in.

She snuggled up to me, I rubbed her back a few times, she closed her eyes and said "Now that's what I;m talking about!"