Ella's 1st Sleepover!

A little girl from church stayed over last night. Her younger sister had been pretty ill, in and out of the ER, so we thought it would be a fun break for Cora to spend some time here with us!

McKenna had a VERY HARD TIME giving Ella some space with her friend. McKenna really tried to dominate the evening (not with bad intentions, but...). I like to say that she is honing her leadership skills!

Cora came home with us from the last day of Mom's Day Away (the program that I teach in @my church). The girls played dress up, played with musical instruments, drew with sidewalk chalk (Boy, this sounds like a previous post, doesn't it?), played in the backyard, did spin art, watched The Bee Movie with a popcorn snack, took a bath, had story time and finally went to bed at 9:45pm.

I must say that Cora was a VERY GOOD listener! She was also brave to spend that much time away from her family. What a trooper!

Yes, I was very much pooped out after teaching 10 2-3 year olds all day then pretty much doing the same thing at home with the addition of cooking dinner and cleaning up after it. Arthur was home and he was able to spend some time with the girls. That was helpful!

Princess or ballerina?

McKenna had a friend from preschool over the other day. We had missed her birthday party and wanted to have her over to play and give her a birthday gift. They colored, played princess, played ballerina, played in the back yard, drew with chalk on the driveway, etc...

Playtime with Ella and McKenna

The other day we had some friends from church over to play. Ages (of the little ones, not the big ones) ranged from 10 months to 5 years. Ella and McKenna enjoyed playing with Sophie, while the younger ones: Levi, Jack and Owen explored the playroom.

We sang songs with felt stories, did an art project, played outside, played in the playroom, watched the girls perform a pet show/circus, ate lunch, etc...

Jack doing art!

I should explain the art project. It is mess free painting! Squirt a dab of paint onto a sheet of paper that will fit into the container or bin. I used a big round tub of cheese balls from Sam's Club. Toss in a golf ball (marbles would work) and roll away. The ball leaves neat impressions on the paper and it is fun for the toddlers/babies to roll, kick and shake the tub.

Levi's turn!

Ella pushing Sophie in the car.

McKenna pushing Ella on the swing. Can you see Ella's animal friend, Fifi, squished between her legs? It's a gray kitten about the size of a beanie baby.

A-tisket a-tasket, a cheap Longaberger basket!

Boy, oh boy! Did Adrian and Joann hit the jackpot for me!? While perusing other people's treasures at an up-scale, city wide garage sale event, Adrian managed to get 5 Longaberger baskets for less than $50.00!! Wahoo! If you know anything about these baskets. They aren't generally less than $50.00!

They also found several other wonderful treasures for our family. Many were quite cheap!

Beware! Cheap and shameless plug ahead:

For more info on how to get Longaberger Baskets visit this site:

http://ic.longaberger.com/esuite/home/lyndamiller

I need your advice!

Puleeze, can someone help me? My cat seems to enjoy nibbling on my house plants. The girls (in their various Sunday School classes and ECFE classes) have planted a few flowers for me over the course of the past month. The cat has nibbled the plants to, literally, to death.

Please leave a comment with your suggestion.

And, I know many of my family members (Jim and Sara, I am talkin' to you!) will sarcastically say something about dumping the cat. Well, I am not sure that is an option. So...

...please leave a comment with your reasonable suggestion.

Super Secret Super Spy

McKenna and her friend Gabe play VERY well together! He is quite the young man. Currently, they plan to marry and live in Disney World so that they can give me (and Gabe's mom) free tickets.

On this day they were playing a spy game of some sort. They called themselves Super Secret Super Spies.

What Do Women Do All Day?

I thought this was good!

What Do Women Do All Day?

(By: Marshall H. Hart)

Every minute, to and fro,

That's the way my hours go;

Bring me this, and take me that,

Feed the dog, take out the cat.
Standing up, I eat my toast,

Drink my coffee, thaw the roast.

Empty the garbage, make the bed,

Rush to church, then wash my head.
Sweep the kitchen, wax the floor,

Scrub the woodwork, clean the doors;

Scour the bathtub, then myself;

Vacuum carpets, straighten shelves.
Eat my sandwich on the run...

Now my afternoon's begun.

To the baseball game I go,

When will there be time to sew?
Meet the teacher, stop the fight,

See the dentist, fly the kite.

Help with homework, do the wash,

Iron the clothes, put on the squash.
Shop for groceries, cash a check,

Fight the crowds, now I'm a wreck;

Dinnertime it soon will be,

"What's for dinner?" they ask,

Wait and see.
Dirty dishes crowd the sink,

Next there's popcorn, then a drink.

Will they never go to bed?

Will I ever get ahead?
"Bring me water."

"Get the light."

Turn off the TV, lock the bike.

"Where's my pillow?"

"Hear my prayers."

"Did you lock the door downstairs?"
At last in bed, my spouse and I,

Too tired to move, too weak to cry.

But e'er I doze, I hear him say,

"What do women do all day?"

Want S'more?

S’MORES

By Gregory K.

(Click on his name to see his blog.)

The campfire burns. It’s 9:08.

I feel so good cuz I just ate

Two graham crackers, and chocolate, too,

With marshmallow turned to warm, white goo.

A treat indeed, a dripping mess.

A touch of melty joy -- oh yes!

It’s bedtime soon, but I’m not done.

I simply cannot stop at one.

Because, you see, it takes three s’mores

To make a night of happy s’nores.

Bubble, bubble, bubble....POP!

Tonight I gave the girls a bath in the master bathroom. If you want to know why, click here! Well, it's a jacuzzi bath with a few jets. So, in went the bubble bath. On went the jets. Swish, swoosh, pop went the bubbles!

I should mention that we have a motto in our house. Cover your dignity. I am not completely sure where it came from; my Cioci Lynda, I think. These pictures are in line with our philosophy on nakedness.

Spiders

McKenna recently reminded me that insects have a head, thorax, and abdomen. She also mentioned that spiders are not insects; they are arachnids. (Though, she said something more like icknids.)

Ode

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. - Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love.- saying by Mildred B. Vermont


A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.- Famous Tenneva Jordan

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. - Peter De Vries

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mothers in my life.

Something I am grateful for: a prayer warrior of a mother! Thanks, Mom.

What are all of you grateful for, when it comes to your mom?

Get political!

Come on people! Vote! See the polling question on the right side of your screen? Vote!

Happy Mother's Day @ Red Robin

Today is Mother's Day Eve, so our family went out for dinner with our friends J & K! I have always enjoyed the restaurant called Red Robin but don't get to go there too often. That's where we went. They have bottomless steak fries and any type of burger you can imagine. It's good ol' Americana! Yummy!

Arthur had a peppercorn burger. I had the crispy chicken salad. The girls had cheese quesadilla and fruit!

Mom, what's the problem?

A couple of days ago, driving in the car, looking at a garage sale with lots of childrens' items...

Ella: Mom, look! A garage sale. I see toys. Can we go there? Puleeeze!?

Me: Ella, I don't have any money with me.

Ella: So, go to the bank and they will give you some.

Thorax? Who said Thorax?

While on a nature walk today, McKenna bent down to pick a "mommy it's sooo beautiful" dandilion. She got a closer look and began to pull on the stem when she stepped back quickly with a sigh.

Me: What's wrong? Don't you want it?

McKenna: Well, there's a green bug with a really fat thorax on it!

Ella the monkey

Ella thoroughly enjoyed playing on the church's new playground today!

Are you an anti-dentite?

Ella is not! We visited the dentist today. It was Ella's first cleaning and first visit. She was wonderful! I really didn't know what to expect but she cooperated with everything. She even allowed the hygienist to take her to another room and complete the x-ray of her mouth. I was able to peek in long enough to get a photo. I think she had fun! I took lots of pictures. No cavities!

In the waiting room, playing with the dinosaurs.

The hygienist let her touch each and every tool and showed her how they worked. That was really a great thing for my girls. I have formed the habit of keeping the "in the know" most of the time. This becomes troublesome when other people aren't used to explaining everything to a child beforehand.

Ella has a smaller mouth, so using the mirror to see everything was a bit trickier.

She chose bubble gum flavored toothpaste.

We had to remind Ella to keep her hands by her tummy. You will notice her friend, Stripes, by her side. Stripes is the very small beanie baby cat by her leg. Every 2-3 days Ella has a new stuffed animal friend (maybe you remember Rosie and Tiny) that stays by her side.

The dentist is counting. They are all there! Ella chose not to wear the sunglasses. The light must not have bothered her very much.

She likes her new tooth brush! It has a picture of Belle, of Beauty and the Beast on it! Getting the x-ray. Can you see Stripes' little head sticking out of the apron. Stripes rested on her chest during the x-ray.

She received a little brushing with a fluoride treatment. Then she got to feel Mr. Thirsty (the suction).

McKenna's fluoride treatment involved little trays resting on her teeth for 1 minute. It was new for her. She was a trooper!

McKenna disapproved of the boy style of sunglasses but still opted to wear them. They were Disney Cars.

Daddy's takin' us to the zoo today...

Thanks to Aunt Leigh for a really cool gift, we were able to go to the MN Zoo with our new Zoo Membership! We didn't get a lot of pictures but there are a few to prove that we were really there.

The girls were mesmerized by the Sandtiger Sharks swimming around in the aquarium. McKenna was even a bit hesitant to get too close to the glass. Arthur and I had a lot of fun with that.

We also checked out our wing span!

The MN Zoo is working on a new exhibit that sounds really cool. They will be calling it Russia's Grizzly Tundra. They have also redone a whole new indoor section called "The MN Trail" that features animals you'd find in northern MN (Boundary Water area).

I am sure that we will visit many times with our new membership.