nails all around

Last Friday was the annual VNA gala that I've been in charge of the past two years. This year though I just got to go and attend and I have to say...it's much more fun!! I found a dress at younkers for $38 so I felt like I could splurge a bit and I got a spray tan and my hair done! Shortly before leaving for the event, I wanted to paint my finger nails, but Chris was gone so I knew I would have a couple of helpers.

These two little girlies were in heaven. I have been reading a lot of books to Ivy about colors, but she didn't seem to be catching on until I got out the finger nail polish container. She knew all of her colors! I was shocked. I let her paint her own (there was no use stopping her...she was going to do it regardless) and Mya is better at painting her own than I am!



Then the next day Chris was hanging something up in Max and Mya's room and these two were helping complete with their own tools and all! Whenever Chris gets tools out, Max is very quick to help, but now we know the girls are as well. It's pretty cute watching them imitate us:) I just love my tomboy girly girls!




Happy Monday!

Half Dozen and a half

Max turned 6 1/2 on September 3rd. I've been meaning to get this post written since then, but that's how it goes these days. I decided to do a little question and answer session with him!



1. How does it feel to be 6 1/2?

Good. Really cool. Better than being 6. I can't wait to be 7.

2. What do you like about school?

Lunch and Gym

3. What do you not like about school?

That it's so long

4. If you could do anything you want after school, what would it be?

Go to Jumpin Janes with Cooper

5. If you could go on an airplane to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Japan

6. What is your favorite thing to do with Mya? Mom? Dad? Ivy?

Mya-wrestle Ivy-run around with her Dad-make stuff Mom-go to places shopping

7. If you could have any pet you wanted (besides a dog because you already have one) what would you get?

A hamster

8. what do you want to be when you grow up?

Football player

9 what your favorite sport?

Football

10. who is your favorite team to watch on TV?

Broncos

11. What's your favorite snack?

Jelly Beans

12. if you were 16 and could drive, what car would you want to get?

A Mustang

13. What do you want for Christmas?

An iPod

He wasn't too interested in this survey so the answers aren't very complex:) I have no idea why he likes the Broncos. Football is pretty much the only sport we haven't exposed him to, yet it's his favorite??!?? There's no chance he's getting an iPod for Christmas and believe it or not, he's a really good student despite the fact that he only likes lunch and gym!

He has lost 8 teeth plus the one that got pulled from the roof of his mouth. He's kind of over the tooth fairy because the other day he lost a tooth and didn't even ask to put it under his pillow! We did anyway and he didn't even check to see if there was any money until we reminded him to look. He's pretty busy right now with cub scouts, gymnastics and tennis. It's definitely enough for him and his parents! He's still a sweet, sensitive soul and hates when I get mad at him. I would love it if he were a bit nicer to Mya when his friends are around, but I assume it's pretty typical behavior. He still loves the ipad, prefers to watch the Disney channel and his favorite family show is the American Ninja Warrior:) That's about all I have to report right now! Growing up way too fast.....


Here he is at 6 months...his first "half birthday"

another iphone post

It seems like these are the easiest posts for me these days! Sort of encompasses everything we've been up to! I have a 6 1/2 year old post almost ready to go, but I need a little more time so this one will have to do until I get a chance to finish it!

Here goes...

2 Saturdays ago I drove over to Platteville to spend the day with a few of my high school besties and their kids! I hadn't met 2 of them so it was such a great day with such great people! Here are all the kiddos lined up before bedtime:) I just love seeing my friends as moms.



Last Friday there was no school so 10 other moms and our 30 or so kids drove down to the Niabi Zoo in the quad cities for the day! We had a great time. Here's a photo of Ivy and me on the train.



When we got home from the zoo and I was looking through pictures on my phone I came across this one of Max and his friend William:) These two have been buddies for 4 1/2 years! So cute:)


Ivy watched Mya pull the chair over to get a snack and then pull it back so it wasn't 10 seconds later and she was doing it herself! She can also pull open our slider doors and shut it as well. I thought I lost her the other day in the backyard when I took my eyes off of her for 30 seconds. She was inside...just let herself in and closed the door behind her!! Wish my other two would do that...:)


She's very interested in the potty, but has yet to go. She thinks she does and loves to "wipe" herself and then put it in the big girl potty and flush. I'm dreading potty training btw. and as long as we're on the topic of things I'm dreading...I'm also dreading getting rid of that pacifier!



Max and Mya both came home last week begging to do boy/girl scouts. They get the kids all worked up about it at school so they were really excited. Max begged last year as well so we decided to let him do it this year and let Mya try girl scouts next year when she's in 1st grade. Last night was the first "den meeting" so we had to get Max all dressed up! Chris took him and clearly we didn't know how to put the handkerchief on before the meeting, but someone was kind enough to help! I have to admit he's a pretty cute cub scout and I want to let everyone know (and by everyone I mean Tara:) I did not put him in those jean shorts. He asked me to cut off a pair of jeans last week and I obliged:)





Ivy will sometimes watch a 15 minute episode of Curious George so the other day when I was putting clean clothes away I put it on for her and came out to this! My kids never hardly ever fall asleep anywhere besides their beds or the car so I was quite surprised.



Last Friday night Chris set up the tent and was going to sleep outside with Max and Mya. Mya decided pretty early on that she was going to sleep inside and Max thought that if he didn't sleep outside we wouldn't let him join cub scouts so he was bound and determined! I'm afraid my kiddos are going to be like their mama and prefer to sleep indoors:) Max and Chris made it most of the night, but Chris brought him in because they were freezing. Mya and I had a slumber party and I had to snap a picture of her twirling her hair in the night.




And lastly...my photographer friend Marie has taught me a lot about taking a good picture so two weekends ago I went out with a friend of mine and her adorable family and I wanted to share a couple photos that I took. She no longer is a mom of two boys, but rather a mom of 3 boys! Her 3rd adorable little guy was born over this past weekend.

iPhone update

Things are trucking along here in Dubuque. The kids had 4 full days of school this week so that was quite the change from last week! I started teaching tennis again this week and Ivy is growing fonder and fonder of her mom with all of this one on one time! Mya is doing better at school. She still is hesitant to go and wants LOTS of hugs before getting on the bus, but comes home reporting good things each day. Max reports that his favorite part of school right now is lunch. The reason is because all day he is starving I guess. The worst part is that PE is at the end of the day. Such problems! Here are some pictures of what we've been up to...

On labor day we had some friends/neighbors over for dinner. The kids all went for a bike ride after dinner and I thought I needed to take a picture of the bike gang!


The after school gang playing football. I love when the big neighbor kids organize games for the littler ones and I really hope when my kids are bigger, they do the same!


Ivy is finally taking to eating with utensils! We've offered them to her for awhile, but she has not taken us up on the offer to use them.


Here's Ivy giving her new best friend Chloe a hug before the bus got here one morning. We were running a little late and Ivy refused to get her clothes on so I just let her go outside like this! Lots of people were smiling as they drove by:)


Max is really into money these days and wants to make money in the worst way! So he decided to open up a pet business out of his room. $1 for 5 hours of watching your pet. Not bad!


Chris and I took the big two kiddos to Maquoketa the other night to watch Planes at the drive-in movie theater. We all had a great time!


I caught Mya reading a book to Ivy before bed the other night. Melted my heart.

semi-successful photo shoot

A few weeks ago Chris and I took the kids on a hike at the Mines of Spain and I decided to snap a few pictures of the kids while we were there. It seems like at all times, I have two kids that sit for the camera really well and one that doesn't. So...right now it's Ivy's turn to be a stinker. Just a few weeks ago she was sitting nicely for a picture and Max was making the weirdest forced smiles you've ever seen. Now Ivy thinks it's hilarious that I want her to sit still and smile for the camera while Max has the cutest toothless smile ever! Go figure. Here's a preview of our afternoon hike/photo shoot!



And here's Mya...being Mya:)

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!