Adjusting to our new schedule!

It's so hot here! Holy smokes...It's 4:15 and still 94 degrees outside. Today was the second day in a row they've had an early release from school and we've already gotten the call that tomorrow is another one. It's a good thing for Mya...she is still struggling a bit with the whole school thing, so being able to tell her that she gets to come home after lunch helps a lot! With the early outs this week and next week being a 4 day week, she won't have to do a full week until the 4th week of school which will be nice. Her allergies could be another reason she's struggling a bit...check out pic below. That was from this morning. Doesn't even look like her...



Ivy and I are adjusting to life at home just the two of us! It is actually really nice and I feel like I'm going back to when I just had Max and Mya home with no preschool and we'd do all sorts of fun things to keep busy. I also had forgotten what nap time was like since Mya hasn't napped for over a year. It's awesome to know every day I have an hour and a half of free time. It goes really really fast of course!

Here are a few other pics off of my phone. Stay cool everyone:)

Ivy has been helping me clean and we spent some time at Petco this week walking around looking at the animals.



Chris helped me out last week one afternoon with Ivy and managed to work from home with her!


Ivy experienced her first bouncy house last Friday at the John Deere summer picnic. She loved it and I ended up having to climb in the house to get her out multiple times.


This is the daily routine while we wait for the bus to come home!


Chris bought some painters plastic and we attempted a homemade slip-n-slide. It didn't work that well, but with a little help from the dawn, it ended up being okay! We're going to look for a stronger material next time.

first day of school

This post is a little late, but there has been a lot going on the last few days! My sister came down to Dubuque on Monday through Wednesday to spend some time with us before she leaves for Japan. (she was supposed to leave today, but her flight was delayed in Des Moines, thus causing her to miss her flight in Denver to Tokyo:( She will arrive in Okinawa Saturday morning (our time) so just 24 hours after her original arrival time. It was great to see her and great that she got to see the kids start their first day of school!

Here are the kiddos on the first morning. They were pretty excited to get up and get going on Tuesday. They were outside playing with the neighbor kids by 7:30 and the bus comes around 8:15. I had to force them away from scooters and basketballs to take a few pictures, but so did all the other moms so they didn't seem to mind too much.




Wish I could say the day went off without a hitch, but it didn't. Mya didn't seem to have any trouble with both getting on the bus and saying good bye at school. (I followed the bus to school to make sure she got to where she needed to go), but apparently after I left, things started to go downhill. When she got off the bus that afternoon, she reported that she cried a lot. I texted a friend to confirm, and found out that it was true. I was shocked. I really did not expect it. Later, her teacher told me that several kids in her class had trouble, so I'm wondering if other kids breaking down caused her to break down. I know if she's anything like me, when I see someone crying, I HAVE to join in!! Here are a couple of pics getting off the bus. They were pretty happy to be home!



Wednesday she got on the bus no problem, but proceeded to have some more trouble at school. I feel really good about where she is, the people there care about her so much. Her teacher is the same as Max's teacher last year so she had my cell phone and called me yesterday to let Mya talk to me. I brought Starbucks in for the teachers after school and really wished I could have spiked them with vodka or something because I'm pretty sure they needed it after dealing with several crying kindergartners all day!

This morning started out rough again, but when she got on the bus (in the pouring rain)she looked better. It's not helping that her allergies are acting up so her eyes are already swollen even without all the tears! It's absolutely breaking my heart and my days are filled with worrying about her and my sister. Both of them will be fine, but I can't help but worry.

As for this little one, boy am I glad I have her right now...I'd be an even bigger mess without her! She has been better than I thought with missing the older kiddos. She starts asking for them after her nap, but goes most of the day without mentioning them. She loves to say "Max Mya Bus School" for about 30 minutes after they leave!

Polite, Sassy, Demanding 21 month old!

Those are the 3 words I will use to describe Ivy right now. Seriously her manners are outstanding. She says please and thank you constantly and now even says excuse me when she burps and bless you when she or anyone else within an ear shot of her sneezes or coughs. Thank goodness she has this good quality because most of her other qualities are exhausting! If any one of us (Max and Mya included) tell her no-no, or to sit down, come inside, stop jumping, to let go of someone's hair, etc. she lets you know she's not happy to be corrected. She says "mommmmmmmmmm eeeeeeeeeeeee" or dadddddddddddddd eeeeeeeeeeeeee" with the cutest, yet sassiest voice ever! She also does the same for Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. I need to get it on video because as much as it drives us crazy, it's pretty cute too:)

Her favorite phrase right now is, "Mom, watch this." If I hear that followed by "3, 5" it means she's going to jump so I usually go running. I don't know why she says 3, 5 before she jumps, but it means I have about 2 seconds to get to her before she does! Whether it's off the side of the pool, the steps on Max and Mya's bunk beds, the slide at the park or wherever she thinks she wants to jump, I need to be ready! I was at the park one day with her while Max and Mya were at swimming lessons. She was climbing up this rock wall and a little girl (probably newly turned 3 year old) said, "Look at that baby mommy" and the mom said, "Oh I know, her mom won't let her climb all the way up there." I just looked at the mom and said, "oh yes I am...unless you want to see a major tantrum!" And of course she climbed up with ease. Other favorite phrases include "watch out" and "climb up".

She loves to get wet and drink from the hose. Max and Mya think it's just hilarious because one of their friends told them that hose water was the same as toilet water:) She talks non-stop and repeats the last two words that you say to her all the time. It's pretty funny to hear her say some grown up things. I was thinking it might be quiet around here next week when Max and Mya go to school, but the more I think about it, Ivy will be able to make up for the other two no problem! She has the same ability as Max and I do with names. She loves to say people's names and knows every kid in the neighborhood's name. Adults too and it totally melts their hearts when she says "Hi Carole or Hi Chris Nevins!" (yes..she even uses last names once in awhile:)



She's obsessed with shoes. So much so that when the neighbor kids come over here, they put their shoes up because they know they won't be able to find them once they need to leave! She's happiest when she is wearing someone else's shoes, holding her blanket and pacifier while putting on chapstick. She hasn't noticed the TV yet, still loves books, calls herself baby Ivy, doesn't play with toys very much unless they're the toys Max and Mya are playing with, says "hold you" when she wants to be held, she's an average car rider, is a total lover when she's tired, is tough as nails, still allergic to milk, loves to "chew" gum, knows exactly what she wants 99% of the time, calls all fruit strawberries and all vegetables apples and is a royal pain in the butt to take shopping.



I think that pretty much sums up this 21 month old sweetie! One things for sure...she's going to miss her big bro and sis next week when they start school. It'll break my hear t when she starts yelling for them:)

1st haircut!

Ivy had her first haircut last week! She had quite the mullet going so I decided it was time to trim it up a bit. Her bangs need to be trimmed too, but I really want to grow them out so I resisted the temptation to cut them despite the fact that they're in her eyes all the time! She refuses to put "pretties" in her hair at this point so hopefully that changes soon.

The cut went pretty well...she started with the cape on and ended with it off, but that was the only glitch! She loved the water spray bottle and having so many people looking at her:) I didn't save any hair...bad mom I know. I did for the other two, but honestly I have no idea what I'll ever do with it and so I decided not to save it. Besides...since starting this blog, I haven't written one thing in a baby book so I guess this is it! She gets some cell phone pictures and a couple paragraphs about her first hair cut:)

Omaha

Chris had to be out of town for work last Wednesday until yesterday so I decided to venture out with my kids! Saturday I drove to Storm Lake, IA for my cousin's wedding. My parents and sister met me in Webster City so I didn't have to go the entire way by myself.

The wedding was fun and my kids did lots of dancing with my cousins' kids. I was totally planning on Ivy falling asleep at the dance, but once the DJ started playing music, I knew we would have no chance because it was SO LOUD!! Tara left the dance with me and helped with the kids so it was great to see her a little more before she leaves!

Sunday we went to brunch at my aunt's house and then I headed out of town with two of my mom's other sisters! My aunt Kathy moved in January to Omaha and we've been wanting to go see them so I thought it would be a good chance since we were over halfway there already! My aunt Mary went with me and we just took Max and Mya while my parents took Ivy home with them. (thank goodness!)

We got there right after lunchtime and the kids immediately started asking to go fishing! Their first experience fishing was with Kathy and John so right when I told them we were going, they started asking to go fishing! They didn't have as much luck as the first time (most people don't catch a fish every.single.time.they.cast) but Max and Mya did the first time so that's what they expected. They still had huge smiles on their faces when I saw them.

Monday morning we got up and headed to the zoo! It was an awesome zoo and we were lucky enough to get some complimentary tickets to enter from someone my aunt works with! We loved the zoo and even had luck with the rain holding off until we were on a covered train! My favorite part were the lion cubs eating and being trained by the zoo staff, Max loved the orangutans and Mya loved the butterfly garden. The penguins were being fed too while we were watching so that was another favorite of ours. Overall, a very cool zoo...one I could go back to again!




After the zoo we went shopping and had some afternoon appetizers/drinks at the Old Market in Omaha. It was fun and I got some fun jewelry! Later that afternoon my uncle John turned on their sprinkler system for Max and Mya to run through and you would have thought they were in heaven! They had so much fun running around in those sprinklers. I got some fun pictures.



The other really fun thing for the kids was sewing with Kathy. She was very patient and sewed some little bags for them to keep rocks and other trinkets and then they even go to make little blankets and pillows for their creatures they bought at the zoo gift shop. They loved it and are still talking about when we can sew again! (sorry kids...probably not going to happen here:)



So glad we went and I felt like I got a little break too! Big thanks to my aunt and uncle for hosting us and to my aunt Mary for riding with me so I didn't have to do that alone and to my parents for keeping Ivy!

iPhone post

Time to get rid of some pictures off of my phone again!

Last week replicas of the Nina and the Pinta from Christopher Columbus's voyage were here in Dubuque stationed in the harbor. I took the kids down to see them. It cost me $20 for us to get on the boat and we stayed on each boat about 1 minute and 30 seconds so I'm not sure it was worth it, but at least we got a history lesson about Christopher Columbus, the world being round, how long ago 1492 was, etc.



Ivy is becoming a little daredevil. I'm constantly gasping and she thinks it's hilarious and continues doing whatever she was doing, but just with a shitty grin. The big kids get on this car and ride down the hill and she managed to get herself on top of it this week. yikes! She also has figured out how to move a chair to help get herself what she needs. Below is a picture of her reaching for something in the snack cupboard.




My sister in law Amanda brought her girls down here for the day last Wednesday. We had a great day. We took them to Jumpin Janes and then out for frozen yogurt and to the park along with lots of play time at home! I thought this picture of all of the big kids was pretty cool.


Olivia and Grace LOVED the cars at our house when they were here. They could have driven for hours!


I took Max and Mya school shopping last weekend and we didn't get very far. I wasn't too impressed with sales so we decided to start school with what they have and get some better deals once fall gets here. They love to ride the escalator at the mall so I snapped a pic and then realized the guy next to them is going up the wrong side!


My college roommate Leslie and her family just moved to Cedar Falls from Ann Arbor, Michigan. So Bree and I went to CF for the day a couple of weeks ago and snapped a pic of the kiddos. I left Max and Ivy with Chris so I just had Mya with me. They all played so nicely and I'm really looking forward to more Happy House playdates! Mya was obsessed with Hattie and Hattie was obsessed with Mya so it worked out well:)



We finished soccer last Sunday. This is their last huddle of the season. (more on soccer to come..just need to get some pictures off of my camera!)


Mya got a new bike for her birthday so we were swapping out bikes and Max noticed his old green bike (that used to be his friend Tate's a long time ago!) and decided to start riding it again and popping wheelies.