Kay talk

Kay: MJ's soooo cute in that outfit!

Garden update - 5/27/11

Yesterday we finally started planting some things in the garden. We planted some spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, cantaloupe, carrots, watermelon, pumpkins, and radishes. The hardest thing for me this year will be trying to keep Kay from walking in the areas where things are planted. She thinks she can just run around anywhere in the garden and she keeps stepping on the lettuce, onions, carrots, and strawberries that are already planted... I was also able to put flowers in our flower pots earlier this week.

Blondie's first goal!

Last Saturday Blondie scored her first goal in a soccer game! It happened at the very end of the game and she was very excited that she actually got it in the goal! She kind of had a breakaway at about midfield with just her and the ball and she got all the way down to the goalie and then kicked it in past her. She actually had a couple of other opportunities to score during the game, but didn't quite make it in.

Trip to the Park

One of the things that we were able to do while DH was out of town last weekend was walk to our neighborhood park. While we were eating dinner we were trying to decide what to do for the evening. We had talked about getting a movie at RedBox, but there really wasn't anything there that we all wanted to see. Finally I thought for a minute and suggested a quick trip to the park. The kids all jumped on that idea so we got dinner cleaned up and got shoes on everyone and headed off down the street.

I could tell from the comments & questions of the kids that we probably don't take them there enough. It's a really nice park and it even has a huge open field area so it is great for playing sports or flying a kite as well as having a great playground for kids. The only thing that it doesn't have are swings. The park is just 4-5 blocks down the street from us - easily within walking distance. As we were walking there after dinner on Saturday the kids kept asking, "How do we get to the park?", "Where is it?", "What do they have at the park?", "I don't think Kay has ever been there." - Which is so not true! I don't think she has been there since she learned how to walk, but she has definitely been there!

Now I hope none of you think that I never take the kids to the park! During soccer season they play at a park at least 1-2 times a week. There are playgrounds nearby at all of the soccer fields and at most of the fields where the kids have soccer practices.

The kids had a great time and it helped them to burn off some of their energy! Plus Saturday was the only nice weather day that we had all week long last week!

I had a hard time getting a good picture of Kay because she had a hard time standing still and when she would she look at me for a brief second and then look away as she said, "Cheese!"

This picture cracks me up! I love seeing Blondie trying to get into the picture! It's also funny because every time I was near Kitty, she would stop and pose for a picture. Right after I took this picture I told her to watch out because I could see that Kay was not waiting for her to get off the bottom of the slide. Unfortunately Kitty wasn't quick enough as you can tell from the next picture!


Our neighborhood park even has a little kid area with little play areas and crawling tunnels. Kay had lot of fun over there and MJ enjoyed herself too once I put her shoes on and took her over there to play with Kay.
MJ loved going down the slide!
MJ fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep for a couple of hours! Long enough for me to bathe the three middle girls and finish mowing the back lawn.

Reach the Beach 2011

The annual Reach the Beach bike ride took place this past Saturday up in Oregon. DH took his annual migration up there on Thursday and then returned home again on Sunday night. This was the fifth year that DH and his dad and brother have participated in it. This year DH's dad picked up all of their registration packets ahead of time so they didn't have to wait in a long line to register the morning of the ride and they were able to get their numbers put on their shirts beforehand as well. I think they were also able to start much sooner than they have in previous years.

The weather was much cooler this year and it rained a little bit on them as well. They were all wearing long pants, long-sleeve shirts and even jackets this year. DH said that he took his jacket off partway through but then put it back on again as they got closer to the coast and the winds picked up.

Let's try not to look too happy Dad N!
DH said it all went really well except for his knee that started hurting him at about mile 33 (out of 104 miles)... Oh... and also with the exception of the speeding ticket that DH received in Oregon on his drive home. That definitely turned it into one expensive trip... Next year it might be cheaper to just buy a carry case for his bike and fly him up there...

Technology

Wow technology is amazing! My husband tried to surprise me with an ipad 2 for my birthday this year. I say he tried to surprise me because he wasn't able to get one to actually give to me on my birthday because every store he tried was already sold out (my birthday was just a couple of days after the initial release of them). So in place of the actual ipad he gave me a printout with a picture of one and said that we would get one as soon as one was available. To make a long story short, we tried several places over the next week or two and no one had any in stock. We even tried Best Buy that supposedly had a waiting list you could put your name on, but the Best Buy near our house had too many names on their list and decided that they wouldn't add any more to it until the current list was shorter... So we ended up just ordering one straight from Apple's online store and I was given a shipping estimate date that was about 6 weeks out.

Then we started planning our spring break trip and kept thinking how nice it would be if we were actually able to get the ipad before our trip so we could take it with us. The estimated delivery date I had was for the week after our trip. A little over a week before our trip I got an email from Apple informing me that my ipad had shipped! Amazingly we got it on Monday afternoon and we were leaving on Wednesday afternoon.

It definitely wasn't a necessity for our trip, but it was nice to have and fun to try figuring things out on it. We really used the Maps app a lot. It was fun to type in a search for a store or restaurant and have it show how to get there from our current location. It also came in handy when my parents' GPS system took us to the wrong place when we were trying to find their friends' house for our Friday evening dinner.

One of the features of the ipad that we have really taken advantage of has been the cameras for using Facetime and Skype. It has been neat for our kids to be able to see and talk to DH's parents and we have even been able to talk to my sister-in-law who is currently living overseas with their family. It is definitely amazing some of the things that can be done with technology in today's world!! (And no kids, the ipad is not just for playing games on!!)

Shower

Well, today MJ tried joining me in the shower. Yesterday she fell in the tub once while I was in the bathroom. She was trying to reach in and touch the bottom and she got herself high-centered and her heavy head tipped her over into the tub. At first she was upset because she hit her head on the bottom of the tub, but then after a few seconds she started crawling around in there and thought that was new and interesting.

Then today while I was showering, she was in there playing with the shower curtain again and then she was reaching in trying to touch the water that was going down the drain and the next thing I knew she was falling into the tub again! I quickly grabbed her and righted her up outside of the tub. Needless to say she got pretty wet from the ordeal, but luckily she wasn't too upset over it. We'll have to see if she tries again tomorrow...

As a side note: MJ used to absolutely hate taking a bath. It wasn't until she learned how to sit up on her own and was starting to learn how to crawl that she started LOVING bath time. Now she loves playing in the water and splashing and crawling around in the tub and it is a much more enjoyable time for both of us.

10 month update

Trying to play like the big kids!
MJ turned 10 months old last week! She's definitely growing by leaps and bounds! Her top two teeth just cut through last week and I think they made her even more whiney than usual. For a couple of nights last week she was up every couple of hours again but the last couple of nights she has cut that back down to just once a night and Sunday night she slept through the night and then took a good morning nap! She's getting tall and has started to climb on whatever she can. On Saturday we got both of the girls' bedrooms upstairs super clean and she had tons of fun crawling around all of the new open space and exploring areas she hadn't been allowed to crawl in the past.

MJ is starting to stand without holding on to something and she is starting to figure out how to walk when someone is holding her hands. She loves to come in the bathroom while I am showering and play with the shower curtain. This usually results in her head, arms and shirt getting completely soaked! The other thing she has started to do is imitate people. The other day Luke was making some growling noises at her and she started growling back. She also tries to imitate the sounds when someone says uh-oh.

We are trying to teach her how to go down the stairs the right way. Sometimes now she will crawl up a couple of stairs and then put her feet down a step and crawl back down to the bottom. I'll still be nervous until she learns what to do when she approaches the stairs from the top.

School project

M&M came home from school one day last week and told me that she had a project that she needed to do for her Language Arts class. It needed to be some type of visual arts display that had showed something about them - personality, likes, hobbies, etc. When she first described it to me it sounded like she had to do a poster, but then she elaborated and said it could be anything visual: diorama, collage, painting, etc. We talked about it for a minute and discussed what she could do for a poster and then I mentioned an idea that I had just thought of to her: It would be really cute to make a diorama of a miniature band. Then our discussion ended and we both thought about it some more and the next day M&M sounded excited about trying to create a diorama like I had mentioned. We discussed some ideas on what materials she could use to make the people and instruments.

On Monday I didn't have cub scouts so I was able to use that time to help her find a box to use and then to pull out some of my craft materials. Then on Tuesday she had more time to work on it because her soccer practice was cancelled due to the rain. The project was due this morning and here are some pictures of the finished project:
DH and I think M&M did an awesome job!! And the work was 99% her own. I helped a little here and there, but mostly just with suggestions on how to do something or to add something here and there. She made all of the people and instruments herself out of pipe cleaners and pom pom balls and a couple pieces of wire and toothpick here and there. She used pom pom balls as the chairs and covered some cardboard with black paper to make a podium for the conductor. At first she wanted to do multiple instruments of each kind but I recommended to her that she just do one of each at first and then if she had time and the space for more to do it then. M&M ended up making a flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, bass drum, and of course a bassoon! She was very particular with some of the details and spent some time during band class noticing how some of the instruments were put together and how they were played.

It was neat seeing M&M's creativity and dedication to completing this project. She definitely could have taken the easy way out and just done a poster or collage like most of her other classmates that she had talked to about the project. She was so excited and pleased with the finished project and she was even in bed by 10:00 last night!

Close-up of the bassoon player

Rain, rain & more rain!

That has been our weather for the last week and we're supposed to get even more! Last week we finally had some nice sunny weather so we could go out and work in the garden. Then on Saturday we had some storms go through, Sunday and Monday were nice and then it has rained everyday since! The kids and I were able to work in some compost and fertilizer into the garden soil on Monday and we planted some strawberry and tomato plants. I love the rain, but right now it is really putting a crimp in my gardening! It would be nice to be able to have another sunny day so I can plant some seeds in our nice soil now and not let the weeds enjoy it all!

And it's been a little too chilly! I had to turn the furnace back on - it's the middle of May! The temperature got down in the 30s on Tuesday and we even had a few snowflakes fall!