Pre K

Somebody started Pre K on Monday.

Somebody picked out her own outfit for the first day.

Somebody did NOT want me to walk her into school on the first day because the carpool line is so cool.

Somebody had a fabulous time at school.

Somebody is growing up too fast.

Playing Catch Up

I know it's been a while since our last post. I'll try to catch you up on what's going on with us :

Daddy started school for his MBA at Georgia State University. He had orientation one Saturday and classes the past two Saturdays. Going forward he will be in class every other Thursday night and every other Saturday. So far he is really enjoying it. This was a hard month since he had to go three Saturdays in a row, but going forward it should be much better. He has mapped out his study times during the week so we can plan things around those times. He also had his first test his past Thursday which I am very proud to report he got an "A" on. This has definitely been a big adjustment to our family. The girls know daddy isn't around as much but we are also hoping they see his study habits and his dedication to school.

The Bear is mostly potty trained. I say mostly because we still put her in a pull up at night. We tried really hard to train her at night. She just is not ready for it. We monitored her fluid in take. We would wake her up about two hours after she went to sleep at night, take her to the potty and then put her right back to bed. I would wake her up and hour earlier each morning to try to catch her before she peed in her bed. Nothing mattered. No matter what we did every time I went in to get her in the morning, she had peed sometime during the night. Many kids will wake up if they go potty in their bed. The Bear will just sleep right there in her pee. I guess the wetness nor the smell bothered her. Well it bothered me so it's pull ups at night until I'm ready to try again. During the day she is fine. She doesn't really like going to the bathrooms in public ( which doesn't bother me one little bit) so I take her little potty in the car and she uses that if she won't go to the public potty. Curly on the other hand loved to explore each and every public potty. She found them all fascinating and exciting. Mommy did NOT share her excitement. The Bear will have the occasional accident but that is to be expected. So long diapers!

Curly is anxiously awaiting her first day of preschool on Monday (and so is Mommy). We had orientation a few weeks ago and we met her new teachers, Ms Kris and Ms Carol. She is in preK this year and will be going 4 days a week. Our little social butterfly is just chomping at the bit to get in the classroom and be around other kids each day. I am looking forward to only taking one child to the grocery store and other errands now! Curly is also starting Upward soccer this fall at church. We aren't too sure how much she will like it but she's at least going to try it out. I'm sure she would have chosen to take ballet again. Two of her best buddies are taking soccer with her so they will have fun learning a new sport together. We've got our cleats, shin guards and socks ready to go. We'll likely do ballet or perhaps gymnastics this winter. Curly started Children's Choir a few weeks ago at church. It's on Wednesday nights. We can go eat dinner at church before choir. The Bear and I hang out with friends while Curly is in choir. It's our first experience with Wednesday night as a family at church. It's pretty crazy. So many people and so many activities going on, but it's fun.

As for me, I am looking forward to being back on a regular schedule once Curly starts school. Summer is great but it I like having a normal routine. I started a bible study on Covenant - God's enduring promises. Our church has a wonderful Women's Ministry. Moms get to go to bible study while they watch our kids for free. So for 2 1/2 hours on Wednesday mornings I get to go my study while The Bear stays in the nursery. The nursery workers are so wonderful as well. It's really like a day of preschool for The Bear and 100% free. Woo Hoo for free. I also helped through a surprise party for one of my sweet friends, Lori, last week. She was totally surprised. It was her 40th birthday. We didn't want to do the whole black thing, so we went with the theme of 1970. We dressed up, listened to music from 1970, and hung out down by her neighborhood pool. I was a good time with great friends. Happy Birthday Lori! Love you!

The Super Groovy Hostesses

Me and Steph

Lori with some of her best dressed chicks

Take Two

I think it so fun when The Bear wears one of Curly's old outfits. The outfits bring back memories of when our 4 year old was little. The Bear wore one of my favorite dresses of Curly's this past Sunday to church. It is covered in blue paisley pattern. The Bear kept calling it her alligator dress. She apparently thinks paisleys look like alligators.

The Bear twirling in her alligator dress while wearing my shoes.

Curly on Easter of 08 just a few weeks before she became a big sister.

Second round of potty training this week for The Bear. Potty Boot Camp starts tomorrow. I'm stocked up on flushable wipes and big girl panties. Hope we are successful this time around.

Family Reunion

Last Friday morning we embarked on a loooooong road trip up to Pittsburgh for my family reunion. It's always the on the last Saturday or July. I try to go as often as I can. Last summer we couldn't go because Lauren and Luke got married in Savannah. I was excited to go this year. Without two kids the drive should be 10 hours. With two kids the drive was just over 12 hours. When we were less than 30 miles from the hotel, The Bear got car sick. It was quite miserable cleaning it up on the side of the road. Curly spent the time picking wild flowers while Daddy and I did the dirty work. We were VERY happy to finally get the hotel and see our family.

My dad is the youngest of 16 children. 10 boys and 6 girls. This past Memorial Day my Uncle Paul (#13) passed away. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died about 8 days later. It was very sudden and very sad. This was going to be the first reunion without him. A little over a week prior to the reunion my Uncle Donnie (#7) went into the hospital. He never made it out. He died the morning of our reunion. We were all understandably sad at the loss of two great men so close together. However, we were all able to take comfort in being together and knowing that neither of them suffered long. They died quickly surrounded by their loving families. There was really no better way to celebrate the lives of Uncle Paul and Uncle Donnie then the family being together at the reunion having fun, sharing past memories and making new memories. God blessed us all with an absolutely beautiful day. Bright sunny skies, temperatures in the low 80's, and a nice breeze all day.

This is the day the LORD has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Lunch is the big meal at our reunion. And let me tell you my Aunts can cook. Every single thing served was amazing. If you leave the reunion hungary it's your own silly fault. We all ate way too much, but it was all so tasty.

The Bear enjoying one of my cousin Luann's gobs. They are so yummy!

The girls enjoyed the playground, face painting, a little corn hole, and kids games and crafts my sweet cousin Amy organized. The peanut pick up and the egg toss are games that have been played since I was a kid. It's fun watching my kids participate in these traditions while remembering the times I played them.

Playing a little Corn Hole

Julie painting a rainbow on Curly. She smeared it with her hand about 10 seconds after Julie finished.

Who can pick up the most peanuts?!?

Egg toss with cousin Amber

Curly and Pap Pap

Uncle Chuck trying to get the Bear to be his friend.

My Aunt Alice broke her foot a few weeks ago. Curly tried to make her foot feel better by picking wild flowers and rubbing them on her foot. When she finally finished she declared Aunt Alice's foot healed and asked her to get up and walk, which Aunt Alice did after she put her boot back on and using her walker.

The Bear finally took a nap. Unfortunately it was in my arms. She got heavy after a while.

The Bear was NOT in the mood for family pictures. Notice the lovely scowl on her face. Curly on the other hand not only smiled for our family picture but remained on the bench for several other families as well. She just figured everyone wanted her in their pictures.

On Sunday the family always gets together for lunch at my grandmother's old house, which my cousin Luann now owns. She and her husband, Bobby, have done a great job renovating the house and making it their own. I love that the house is still in the family so we can all enjoy it when we visit. Monday morning we headed out for our looooong car ride home. While driving through the Kiss Your Sister State, I mean West Virginia, on the way up, Daddy got pulled over in the small town of Oak Hill. The town is right by the New River Gorge. He was not pulled over for speeding. He got a ticket for staying in the left hand lane too long. It was a ridiculous ticket. We think the cop just saw out of state plates and needed to meet her month end quota for tickets and pulled us over. So Daddy was determined to not give that state any more of his money on the way back. We made sure we had a full tank and ate breakfast prior to leaving Pennsylvania we didn't to do anything in West Virginia. However, we did stop at the New River Gorge overlook on the way back. It was beautiful and it gave us a nice break from sitting in the car. We thankfully made it home Monday night safe and sound and very tired.

The Bear had a bear of an attitude and didn't care about taking a picture

Nice scowl Bear!

Maybe she just wanted to admire the view.

Favorites

Sorry for yet another new background. We kept getting notifications that our background was going to expire so we needed to get a new one. Perhaps this one will stick for a while. We shall see.

This past weekend, Daddy's family was in town for a visit. Curly and The Bear got to show off their swimming skills for everyone. We all spent a lot of time swimming, shopping and eating. The Bear has no issues with playing favorites. She's always been a mama's girl. She loves her daddy too, but mama is her favorite. She loves her Gran, but PaPa is her favorite. She also loves all three of her aunts, but she got a real special place in her heart for Aunt Katie.

Yay! Aunt Katie is here!

This is the face we got after Aunt Katie left. She kept saying "Where Katie Go?" "Where Katie Go?"

Today we attended a birthday party for one of The Bear's favorite little friends, Abby. We spent the morning playing water games in their backyard and eating yummy food. I love watching my girls play with their little friends. It's so fun to just say "Okay go play" and they just do. Nothing has to be organized or planned out. They use their little imaginations to come up with fun things. I know it won't always be that sweet so I try my best to soak up these moments. Like this one of Curly and her friend Claire.

Rub a Dub Dub, Curly and Claire in a Tub

Conversations with Curly

Our conversation on the way home from Music Camp:

Curly : "Mommy will Daddy be home after work"

Me : "Yes, he will be home at his normal time"

Curly: " Is he going to watch those people play golf across the ocean again?"

Me: " No sweetie, the golf tournament was over on Sunday"

Apparently she noticed how much daddy watched the British Open this past weekend.

Tonight Daddy and I put the girls in the wagon and walked to the church next to our neighborhood to vote. This is what Curly said after we left.

Curly : "Are we leaving already?"

Daddy : "Yes, we voted, we got our stickers and now we walk home."

Curly : " But we didn't worship yet. When are we going to worship?"

Guess she doesn't understand going to a church and not doing some sort of worship. It was funny.

Catching up!

Sorry I didn't get a post up last week. No real excuse. The girls and I went to Montgomery for a few days to visit Grandma and Pap Pap. Summer swim and tennis lessons are both over now so we are just enjoying as much pool time as we can. Curly continues to do well with swimming. The Bear is fairly timid in the pool; however, just today she actually allowed me to let go of her so she could float on her own (with a floatie of course). This is a HUGE improvement for The Bear and she normally clings for life to someone's arm or neck or hair or whatever body part she can grab. I am hoping this is finally the beginning of her becoming more independent in the pool.

This week the girls are in music camp at church. It's a Rodeo theme. Curly goes to her class by herself for a few hours each morning. I go with The Bear to her music class. She was shy at first today but thankfully her sweet friend, Kate, is in the class. Kate is full of happy energy and she got The Bear in a dancing mood. It didn't take long for her to really start enjoying the class. I am finishing up my last few weeks of Boot Camp and Zumba classes. Have you ever tried Zumba? Well you should. If you don't know what it is, just google it. It's a lot of fun. Boot Camp, though, literally kicks my bootie. My teacher is tough but great. Only two weeks left for both classes.

I just realized I never did a post about the 4th of July. The four of us went to the parade in downtown Woodstock. It's very kid friendly. The girls had a blast. We also had some good friends come into town Saturday afternoon for the weekend. We went back to Woodstock for their fireworks show Saturday night. We tailgated in a Lowe's parking lot until they started. This was the first time we took the girls to fireworks on the 4th. Curly had seen fireworks at Disney World but never on the 4th. Since fireworks didn't start until 9:30, we didn't want to go far from home or get stuck in hours of traffic in Atlanta to see a bigger fireworks show. The Woodstock show was perfect for us right now. Thanks to Alan, Jenny , Laura and Jeffrey for spending your 4th with us. We loved having you all visit. Here are some pictures from the 4th:

American Girls

Not really sure what The Bear is thinking here but she appears to be annoyed at Curly (which often happens).

Waiting for the fireworks

Love this picture of Jenny blowing confetti at Laura. Perfect action shot.