Back to School

A few weeks into this summer Anna asks "Mom, when am I going to preschool again?" I explained that we didn't go to school during the summer. She was a little bummed. Anna and Megan also asked if they could go swimming again this week. I explained that the lifegaurds had to go back to school, so the pool wasn't open during the day anymore. "But mom it's still summertime outside, and we don't go to school in the summer!" Anna reminded me. This last week we started up our little Mommy Swap preschool. I have been working this summer on organizing and planning for it. I was more excited than Anna. We had a great time, the kids and moms involved are really great! Megan even thinks she's a big girl, and packed her Diego backpack with supplies to take with her while she went to another mom's house while we had preschool. Anna talks about her new friends at preschool, and misses some of the ones from last year. I can't believe only one more year and she will be starting kindergarten!

Adventures of Tyler and Maddi

Today Anna and Megan have renamed themselves. Anna is Tyler and Megan is Maddi. Several times when I have asked them to do something they respond "I'm not Megan I'm Maddi" or "Mom call me Tyler now okay." They also wake up begging to go swimming. Anna says "at the town pool, Mom". We have had a fun summer!

Swimming: They enjoy swimming (on there own terms). Anna is pretty nervous and doesn't want to "fall under". She wades around and floats in a tube most of the time. I tried to get her to float out where she can't touch and she threw a fit! Megan loves jumping off the sides, but says "that's scary" if she goes under. She never wants to leave and is often crying and kicking when she does.

Playing with kittens: They sure love packing them around! Yesterday I woke up to meowing sounds outside my back door. Sure enough all 5 kittens were waiting there with their mom. What a good Mom to take care of all of them and her "toddler" kitten.

Riding Bikes: Yesterday Anna got a new bike, paid for with Mommy's money from selling bows in Vernal. She does really well with it. Megan has taken over the trike, she says "big bike is too scary". They sure like riding around on our big pad of cement we poured this summer for our pavilion. It is a work in progress, but already has been a lot of fun. Anna decorated her trike at a Primary Activity and followed a bike course (chalk line drawn around the parking lot.) Now her and Megan keep adding stickers and whatever they can find to decorate their bikes. Today they put screws in holes on the handlebars. Anna also draws her own chalk line to follow. Kids sure can entertain themselves!
Just Pretending: They also love to pretend they are dancers, doctors, Mommies, Daddies, little kids, the list keeps growing! Megan's favorites are "baby bird". She pretends to be a baby bird that blew away, and wants someone to be the Mommy bird to come take care of her; she also loves to be the Daddy or Baby brother. Anna loves pretending she is a teacher or ballerina or the Mommy and wants someone to be her "son daughter".

Decorating crocs/clogs: We call them clogs. Anna has seen all the cute decorations on other's. We found some at a store and bought one for each of the girls. These got lost and broken though. So we found some jewel decorations and hot glued them on. A fun activity and cheaper than the real ones!
They sure keep me busy, but I love little everyday things like these!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Trip to Salt Lake

I have been wanting to take a little trip with our girls before we add another one in the mix. After looking at what Phoenix, AZ or Las Vegas, NV had to offer and adding in the airfare I decided we could have enough fun in Salt Lake.
We have been fortunate enough to tag along with Grandma to Salt Lake several times. Anna gets really excited when I tell her we are going. She asks "Do we get to stay in a fancy hotel?" and "How many nights can we stay?" It seems like she never wants to come back home. But Wayne never gets to go with us, so this little family trip was specail.
We stayed Thursday and Friday night at a nice Marriot hotel. On Thursday night we went swimming at the hotel. The girls are getting a little better in the water, and Wayne has lots of fun playing with them.
Then on friday we went shopping and later at 5pm went to Lagoon (for Date night discount). The girls were so excited to go on the rides. We had been talking about it all week and Megan kept saying "Go to Lagoon!" It was a little cooler and got kind of breezy, but we didn't mind. We rode the kiddie rides and went to Lagoona beach. After we ate some dinner we thought we'd go on the ferris wheel to give our stomachs some time to digest. Anna was insistent that she didn't want to, but we talked her into it. She didn't do to well though, crying most of the time. After that she kept saying she just wanted to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately she didn't get a nap and was pretty tired. Our favorite rides were: Oddesy (octopus ride), Puff the magic dragon rollercoaster and baby boats. After some cotton candy and a couple more rides we headed back to the hotel around 10pm. We were all ready for our beds.
On Saturday we went to the Hogle Zoo. Wayne couldn't remember ever going and it was the girls first visit too. When I told Anna that we were going to the zoo she said, "But Mom the zoo is in Kentucky" (We went in March) I said that there was also a zoo in Salt Lake. She wasn't so sure "With real animals mom?". It was also nice and cool at the zoo, and we had a fun time seeing all the animals. Anna was nervous about the white crocidile, but she liked the frogs and snakes! Silly girl! The favorites were: monkeys, elephants, girrafes, leopards and penguins.
We had a fun little adventure, and a great time making memories together.

Our Kittens

 

In late April our cat Jade had a litter of kittens. Only one of them survived. Anna and Megan have loved playing with it. It's their "baby", they pack it around, find new houses for it and sometimes are a little too rough. In July Jade had another litter of kittens. We were a little surprised! Especially because Anna and Megan's "baby" is still nursing her. A week or so after the new litter was born we went camping, and when we came back the kittens were no where to be found. We were a little sad. Then this last week Anna was saying our family prayer. She prayed that the baby kittys would come back. The very next morning she was playing outside and she came running in. "Mommy, I heard some meows in the white freezer!" Sure enough we found all five kittens inside our old deep freezer. (The lid doesn't close, we use it for storage) What a coincidence?! We took them all out and they wandered around for a couple of days. I wanted to take a picture, but alas, they are once again missing. This time though, I am not so fast to say they are gone for good.