Monday, September 29, 2008

Jester Park










Hi everyone! Here are some pics from our adventure to Jester Park on Saturday. The park is beautiful and there weren't many people out there. We decided to have a picnic and we found a great spot tucked away back from the road. The picnic table was back at the end of the lot and there was a whole field in between the table and the road, perfect for soccer. Olivia and I won 2-1 against Steve and Sophie. Wooohooo! Sweet victory. Once we got the charcoal going, we had hot dogs and pasta salad, grapes, and goldfish.

We cleaned up lunch together and the girls used teamwork to get the cooler back to the car. Then they were ready to play! Jester Park just built a "natural playscape". It's a playground of sorts, and is built with all natural materials. Above is a picture of the pond and the fountain there. There is also a sand pit where the kids can uncover dinosaur bones, but we did that whole thing in the wrong order. Leave it to Sophie NOT to just wade in the water but to sit in it, and we decided not to cake sand on top of those wet clothes so we ultimately skipped archeology. But it was fun to visit and the girls had a great time. On the way out, Steve found a family of tiny toads that the girls attempted to capture to no avail. They were quick, sneaky little suckers. We had a great day!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Picture updates

Here are some pictures newly retrieved from my camera. We're going on a family adventure today to Jester Park for a picnic and some play time. So I had to clear the camera out for new pics. Enjoy!

Here is the backpack babe and the cammo girls trying on daddy's hunting gear.











These are from Olivia's big debut as a anti-training wheels bike rider. Steve took the training wheels off and she took off like she's been doing it all her life. By the end of 5 minutes she had recruited the neighborhood boys and was rolling with the big dogs.













More to follow from Jester Park. Enjoy the day!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Wind sweepers

Today Sophie pointed to the ceiling of the restaurant we were sitting in and wanted me to see the tv hanging on the wall. She said, "See it Mom? Right there by the wind sweepers??" I said, "Wind sweepers?" I realized she was talking about the ceiling fan. Wind sweepers. I never thought of it that way. They do, in fact, sweep the wind.

Today, Sophie and I had a special day together since I had the day off of work and Liv was blessing Kindergarten with her presence. We watched cartoons in the morning and I made her purple cream of wheat, which she calls porridge. Hers is always "just right" as you might imagine. I visited Rosie outside and then got ready to visit my friend and her new baby. I gave Sophie a speech as we neared my friend's house who also has a daughter a little younger than Sophie. It went something like this, "Sophie, you know Connie has a brand new baby, and we shouldn't be loud and you need to play nice with Chloe and share toys. No fighting because Connie doesn't need extra stress." To which Sophie replied, "Moooom....I'm 3! And you know that I know how to be good. I'm 3. Do you know what that means? I be good."
Fair enough, and she was good.

After baby time, we went to eat (with the wind sweepers) and then stopped by Target to pick up a special gift for Sophie and Olivia. They both worked hard to clean and organize their room to earn a new petshop animal. Don't ask if you don't know what a petshop animal is, it's not worth it. But they are forever excited about tiny animals so it was a good first lesson on earning money. As they get a little older, I'll start actually using dollar bills to pay them for their hard work, but for now, the object is a good enough prize. Mainly, I'm just lazy. I want to teach them how to give some of their money to church and some to savings, but it all seems overwhelming to manage 3 checkbooks, let alone the one that I barely manage each month. It will come, in it's own time, I'm sure. Well, the prize was well received and Sophie fell fast asleep as soon as her little head hit her car seat.

We picked up Olivia in the afternoon and had somewhat of a rough evening. The girls were naughty naughty, but we managed and now they sleep. After putting them to bed I looked around and thought to myself, what now? I did some random chores and walked in and out of the living room for a while. Then I realized I needed a hobby to fill my studying void. So, I chose an old one. A LONG time ago, I started to make my mom a scrapbook calendar for each month with pics of the girls. Since I started school though, I had yet to finish about 6 of the months. So I readopted my previous hobby. It went well. I couldn't find my glue stick but I swiped the girls' school glue and made do. October came out fabulously. Very spooky. Olivia is a princess and Sophie is a duck. Frightening. But the background. Wow. Very scary. I can't wait to give it to my mom. It never ever gets old giving your mom your prized art work. She always thinks its great. That's why moms are so cool. I'm running out of folders and totes to store the girls' prized pieces of art in. Sigh. But I won't stop keeping them.

Well, at least my hobby keeps me from going to bed at 8:30, which is what I was doing because I had nothing else to do. Then I kept waking up at 3:30 sweating and awake. I'm glad I've actually made it to 10 tonight. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore but thanks for listening.

Happy night!