What's Happening Wednesday...

What an exciting few weeks we had.  I don't know if I can even be organized enough to write my thoughts into a list or note but I will try...

1. Pom ended and with it so came a lovely performance by both girls. They did a nice job.  Lilly was especially good at kicking her legs up high and Katherine also really had a good one too - even got it on film.

2.  We went camping and had a great time and the girls made a lot of friends while we were there.  Lilly hung out with some kids and caught bunches of frogs and one little girl she was with even got two snapping turtles.  Katherine also had a "date" while we were there.  She befriended the young man in the camp across from us that was 9 and they hung out together all weekend and he invited her to play video games with him one evening and he even offered to pay... 

3. Fair food, fair fun.  We went to the fair with my girlfriend "Aunt Anne" last Friday from 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.  Really!  We didn't get home until midnight!  Aunt Anne had a great time spoiling the girls paying for treats and the bungy jump and other fun stuff.  

4. While at the fair we were able to see a piglet being born, and we learned all about how yarn is spun from sheeps wool - ask Katherine she could tell you.

5. The girls have both gone curly!  Lilly had a perm last school year and this year Kate decided to join her so both girls got one - my what a difference two curly haired girls...

6. We enjoyed our long weekend - went and saw Fly me to the moon - what a silly movie, did some bowling, haven't done that in forever and just hung out.

7.  Mark and I got to take the girls in to their first day of school.  They were both pretty excited about that - too bad we were a little late and couldn't visit with their friends but oh well.

8. The first day of school was pretty exciting for both girls in particular Katherine.  She came home and was overly anxious to tell us all about what she learned and she learned the names of all the continents on her first day!  What a feat.  Let's see how long she keeps that up.

9.  Lilly of course was happy to see all her friends and is in the same class again this year as they do looping so she told us all about the class pet (Teegen - the school dog who belongs to the teacher of her class) and her new collar.

10. I also started back to school all around.  Work school and school school.  Classes started just tonight for me and I am looking forward to another busy semester albeit fun.

What's Happening Wednesday...

On Tuesday I sat down to do the Ten on Tuesday like so many of my "siblings" do and then remembered wait, I do Wednesday.  Boy am I glad I waited.  I have much more fun to speak of waiting an extra day.  I will do my best to save the best for last...(no peeking)

1. The girls completed their play "Pied Piper of Hamlin" at the local theatre and it was a great success.  Gma and Pinka Farmer drove 2 hours to watch the 1 hour production - a bit off in calculations of time but you know...what we do for love.

2. Speaking of the play the girls were fabulous - in one part they both were adorable in carrying a prop off the set and squealed perfectly not to mention they were very good at drowning.

3. Registered for dance - Katherine is all registered for dance class.  She has signed up for ballet again.  She is unsure if she wants to do tap again or try out jazz.  She will be sampling jazz the first week of class to decide.

4. Lillian is going to return to gymnastics this year - she has done it before and loved it and we are going back to it.

5. We went to the zoo the other day and had so much fun - sadly it is the first time we made it there all summer long - with any luck we will make it once again next week.

6. Floatie night- Tuesday night at our neighborhood pool.  Where else can you get a hot dog, a bag of chips a scoop of ice cream and a soda ( we generally all choose A&W for root beer floats) and they encourage you to bring your pool floaties.  We went last night - next week is the last one of the season!  You know what that means.

7. Camping season is coming to an end - so much for our 4 -5 weekends of it.  I think this weekend marks our 2nd time out...the joy of new jobs.

8. The girls have been working on riding their bikes all summer long and while we have been working most with Katherine to be on two wheels Lilly has been on 4 with her other 2 unbalanced.  We decided to try her without training wheels tonight since she was to the point her training wheels weren't touching much and the first time out she was off like a race horse...she even rode around the block with the neighbor!!  (This is the big news of the evening)

9.  I am struggling here so we'll leave it at nine for tonight...Enjoy the photos, a friend of mine took a few hundred (yes that is what I said - 487 to be exact) these are just a few.

What's Happening Wednesday...

Well since the family trend is 10 on Tuesday I figured everyone will be pretty tired of reading and may not have time to get to all of our sites in one day so I thought I would make my day Wednesday so I will have my 10 be on Wednesday.  Or well, whatever number I come up with as some others of you have found - depends on how challenged I am feeling mentally at that moment.

1. The girls have been practicing right along for the Pied Piper of Hamlin and the show is in a week - it is getting pretty exciting now, they had a 3 hour rehearsal tonight.

2.  Katherine and Lillian both wear the same size clothes - well I do buy bigger shirts for Katherine only because she is taller still.  But in pants they are the same.  After all they weigh the same and they are within 2" of the same height!

3.  We have already been school shopping and the girls have quite a sense of style all their own - each one separate and unique.

4.  We made mashed potato donuts earlier this week - for those of you who have no idea what these are I am sad to tell you that you are really missing out on something pretty special.  We even invited the neighbor girl over and taught her how to make them too.

5.  Pom Pom.  Both the girls are in pom class and loving it.  They are learning a dance routine that they will perform for us at the last class.  Lilly's is to some Barbie song - go figure with it being younger girls, she is eating it up even more so than Katherine.

6.  It is rhubarb season - you know what that means, I will be making pie for Mark (supposedly he is going to go visit with Joey this weekend and take the pie to my Dad's to share - we'll see)

7.  Did I mention fresh zucchinni from the Stuck's - well, since I can't get it from Gpa Mr. Stuck is the next best option.  I have enough to make at least 6 loaves.  I think tomorrow might be the day for that.  I will freeze them and they should last at least a few days.

8.  SWEET CORN - need I say more, went home this weekend and ate it at every meal, at least 2 pieces and brought home at least 3 dozen or so ears - my Dad is good to me. :)

9.  The girls went out to the fields all weekend with my Dad when we were home, there was lots of watering to do since it hasn't rained in a while so travelers to move and pivots to check and at every meal the girls were quick to speak up - now that they know how Pinka's schedule is - "Can I go" and they both went at once or took turns helping him.

10.  4 wheelers - the girls begged for a week before we went to Pinka's to go on the 4 wheeler's, despite his busy schedule he took the time out to take the girls on a ride to satisfy their urge - what a good Pinka.

More photos from our Vacation as promised...

As promised more photos from our wonderful trip to 

North Carolina!  Hope you enjoy them!!

Lilly can always make friends with any local wildlife.

Weee!  As you can see Lilly and Kate were having a great 

time on this ride front and center!!

Who doesn't love Squidward - well except maybe Spongebob?

Lilly feeding a Giraffe

Kate took a chance at feeding too.

Our Vacation to North Carolina

We have been having a great time in North Carolina visiting family.  We came down and visited Mark's parents for several days and then spent a few days with his Grandma as well.  Also, we were able to have dinner one evening with out Aunt Kim and Uncle Roger who live about an hour from Mark's parents and we spent lots of time with our Aunt Ruth and Uncle Keith who live within a block or two of Grandma.

 

Since we have been in North Carolina we have done many fun things.  Matt and Lori and the girls were her the first few days and we enjoyed visiting with them and the four of us adults were able to go out White Water Rafting and the place we went to was where the Olympic teams practice.  After they went home we went with Mark's parents to Lake Louise and Chimney Rock and we were able to go up the mountain and my what a beautiful view it was.  We also took a boat tour and discovered that in one of the little alcoves on the lake is where most of Dirty Dancing was filmed.  

  Not quite sure where I went wrong - this house is about 20-30,000 square feet and was a gift from a wedding gift to their son when he was married.  Now, the parents also have their sand flown in from Florida where the sand is the only true white sand too and they also live on the lake...

We also had a great time going to a local amusement park - kind of like a Cedar Point but named Carowinds.  With much convincing Lilly went on the upside down rides and LOVED them.  She thought all the other rides that she went on were pretty fun except the one that was really rough - the wooden one - that truthfully none of us liked. It was the first one we went on and it was rougher that the other wooden one but it gave Lilly an aversion to the other wood one and to the really big ones for about an hour.  The water park was pretty fun too that they have there and we really were glad to have it once the mid-afternoon heat struck as it got down right hot.

Finally, on the way to Gma Rice's house we stopped and visited a drive through ranch that had semi-exotic animals.  While there weren't lions and tigers there were Zebra's and Giraffe's, antelopes, Water Buffalo, etc.  Mostly animals that wouldn't cause harm as they are all allowed to roam free amongst one another.

Birthday Fun!!

Yeah Yeah Old News, We went to Chicago in Jan. to celebrate the girls' birthdays at American girl and what a fabulous time we had!!I finally am posting some photos!!

   

The night before the trip into the city           

      

       

We were told it would be 0* so we were

                 all well bundled up!!

           

What a nice brunch we had - such yummy food and surrounded by

"little" friends.  All the girls had fun.

 All of the girls had there very own china - at every age...

What a tiresome day, poor Alice couldn't make the trip home upright.

Lilly and Alice were the best of  buddies over the weekend - Alice always wanted her  "iwwy."

Christmas 2007 with our friend Tennille, Sofia and Sammy.  The kids had a wonderful time - and so did the parents.  We all even got an early gift from Santa, matching pajamas.

    

    

                                    
Okay so we are really behind on photo posting...what can I say? We are busy people. Well, this should catch you up in fast forward speed!! Enjoy the update.

Sing Along Time

I love this video camera!

WARNING! LARGE FILE!
Kate's Song


Lilly's Song

A Snowy Day

All the girls had a great day today! Kate, Lilly, and Jessica all went outside to sled and play. For whatever reason, Lilly gave the best video for the day. Here are a couple of videos from their activities...

Lilly's Birthday

Lilly had a pretty good birthday yesterday. Instead of me telling you all about it, I thought you might enjoy hearing it from her...



We sang her a song...



And watched her open her present...

Caught on Video

For a second year we have caught Santa in the act... but this year we happened to have a video camera handy!



P.S. Can you tell I got a new toy for Christmas! ;-)

Christmas Eve, 2007 - Pajama Time

Every year my family gets new pajamas from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This year our friend Tennille (no Captain) was here with her two youngest. You can see the excitement...

December already!?

It is hard to believe it is already December. Where has the year gone? We are all well and we keep busy - go figure.

Katherine is doing great at school, she loves it and Math and Reading seem to be two of her favorite subjects. She continues to grow in her love of Art too and it is always a treat to see what she will bring home. Her teacher encourages her a lot as she has faith that Katherine has great potential in that arena. As of late her mummy picture was even one of the ones' chosen to be in the glass display case in time for conferences. It is really unique, while everyone did a pretty traditional sarcophogis she did a cat one. It is beautiful!! We have yet to get her into piano lessons but she loves to play it on her own and has begun picking up some basic reading skills of music and in any given week she plays at least 5 days.

Lillian also is loving school. She has grown immensly in her reading in the few months she has been at school and it is best described by my Dad that if there weren't so many funny rules in our language she would have it down pat. Lilly is following along in the art department as well - she really enjoys dabbling in it on occassion. Lilly is as social as ever, the daily phone calls for play dates slowed down finally!

Our kitten is not such a kitten anymore. He is growing right along and provides us with tons of joy - well maybe not ZoeMay, he seems to annoy her to death! He is always after her, biting and carrying on. Once he calms down he is a real love. He always greets us at the door when we get home, he begs to be picked up and once he is he purrs unendingly and then he also loves to give kisses!!

Mark enjoys his new job - although the drive he would happily do without. It seems to offer him a lot of opportunities already - he gets to build his own team of employees pretty much from ground up and really have people he feels are compitent and able in the job. Always a good feeling.

I am still at the same job, working in a school of children with disabilites. I attend school a couple evenings a week while I am working on my Masters' in Special Education. The girls and Mark and really tolerant of me being gone these evenings - actually I think the girls love it as they have two great sitters that come and sit both evenings until Daddy gets home.

A Very Elvis Wedding

Click the slideshow to see the pictures in the web album (full screen and quality).

What a fun Month

What a fun month we have had! It seems September slipped us by and October is quickly passing as well. The girls are both doing well.


Katherine is enjoying dance class, making lost of friends, and having fun all around. Lillian is also enjoying dance class and has tons of friends - she seems to particularly attract the boys...

Lillian has already been cheering at football games...




Oh and by the way - this is Lilly - for those of you who knew me as a
small child, there is little difference. I will scan a photo soon and
put them side by side for you.

School is under way...

School has been in session now for nearly two weeks and the girls are enjoying it immensely. They even brought home their first homework a few days ago.



Katherine has the same teacher, Mrs. Sparling and thus the same classmates as last year with a few exceptions as there was some redistricting that took place this year. Katherine is at her first sleep over at a friends tonight, one of her girlfriends from last year and this, Valeria. The only challenge is that her family is Spanish speaking - her Mom speaks no English and her dad limited so her brother was in charge of interpreting for us. What a nice family and Katherine was very excited about the event.

Katherine is dancing again this year - tap and ballet as well. She is enjoying both thus far and has picked right up where she left off from in tap - ballet seems to be coming to her just fine even though it has been a while since she has taken it. She is also participating in Girl Scouts again this year.


Lillian has Mrs. Siarto and will again next year as they do looping (same teacher 1st and 2nd grade). She has lots of new friends and went to the first of what will likely be many birthday parties today. Also, the very first day of school she came home and announced she had given out her phone number and sure enough a little boy called mere moments after we walked in the door that day - and every day for the week!

Lillian has decided to resume dancing, ballet to be exact. She is thrilled to be back into it again. She is also in Girl Scouts again this year, in Katherine's troop.

As for Mark and I we are keeping pace with the girls, or at least trying to. We keep pretty busy with their schedules and I have returned to school to work on my Masters in Special Ed. so that ties me up a few evenings a week. Thankfully golf is over for now so Mark is home each evening. He tries to sneak to the course )or elsewhere) when he can...Just today he went to the U of M football game with Joe - yes you read right, Mark went to football, he is even planning to go again next weekend...if they can get tickets. I will be at adult Girl Scout camp as I am the girls' leader and very active in scouting and it is the annual scouting retreat if you will that all registered adults can go to so we can learn about fun activities to do with the girls and have fun being girls ourselves.

Made it through the first day and loved it.

The girls had a great first day and are looking forward to a great year.

Dawn of a New School Year

Our Summer Vacation is Flying By...

We are really enjoying our summer vacation together! What is not to enjoy. The girls and I have been doing a little of everything from Vacation Bible School, visiting the library, swimming at the neighborhood pool, and visiting the local petting farm (Pinka even did that with us.) Daddy has joined us on a couple adventures including the big summer kick off of spending all day at the local fair on the first official day of our vacation together and as of this past weekend we went camping and we even caught a 10 inch bullfrog - we think he was bigger but he fought being measured. (yes we really measured him - we were trying to win the contest.)

Here are more details:

The official kickoff was the local fair - we arrived late morning and stayed ALL day and had a blast it was a perfect day and we rode all the rides we wanted time and time again as there were hardly any lines. The downfall - Lilly was about 1/2" too short for a few rides she wanted to go on - next time the pony tail will go right on top of her head. The favorite ride was by far a big water log ride. We went on it at least 6 or 7 times. Also, Katherine loved the Hymalain. She giggled the faster it went with the centrifical force pushing her into whomever she was riding with and could hardly wait to go again.

We kicked our summer off with Vacation Bible School with our church in Northville and had a reallly fun time. The theme was a country theme so the girls are always shouting Yee Haw about something these days.

Our local library has a reading link that you can track your minutes you have read and earn prizes from June 18-July 31. Katherine has more than 1400 minutes that she has read either on her own or someone has read to her - trust me most have been on her own - if she is being really quiet it is because she is reading to herself. Lillian has over 1200 as well. She is working on reading more on her own but still prefers being read to and Katherine often happily obliges.

Camping has been long anticipated - the girls have been bugging us all summer to be honest and we have been wanting to go as well but have had other things come up so we finally forced the issue and went. What a great time we had. We went pretty local - only about a 40 minute drive away. It was a really friendly campground. We rented boats for $5 for 2 hours and went out for a row boat ride -which is where we found or fabulous frog. Also, in the evening there was karaoke and both girls bravely participated and also there was a huge bonfire! We filled our jar with lightening bugs for a nighlight and had great fun all around. Oh and by the way the girls got to ride horses! We will definately return to this campground.

Skittles and Starburst

After helping Katherine do a load of laundry Skittles and Starburst
decided to stick around and check out the new washer. We think they got a
little sea sick watching all the water go in and really dizzy trying to
watch the clothes spin out. But, they really like being able to watch it.
Even Lilly's bunny Snowdrop hopped in and watched but she was too quick for a picture.