Oh BOY, Oh BOY, Oh BOY

I have probably posted in the past about the 2 neighbor boys, Carson and Henry. Carson is Shelby's age and Henry is about 6 months older than Morgan. Carson and Shelby were in preschool together last year, are currently in WeeBall together and will head off to kindergarten in the fall. I am not sending Morgan to 3 year old preschool this fall, but she will catch up with Henry there when they are four. We have a little playhouse in the backyard that is used as a sitting post to call the boys out or talk to them when they are out playing (there is a fence that keeps them from being on one side or the other all the time). I think my girls would be over there more because they have a better swing set with a slide and tire swing. :) The other place they like to chat with them is through the windows of the front room of their house. I have a couple of pictures of the two just waiting on the boys. Morgan is up on the house top and Shelby took her lawn chair over and parked it in their yard and sat with a book and waited for Carson to come to the window. I have childhood memories but I don't believe any of them include boys at that age! We're doomed.....

Canoe Fest 2009

Last weekend I took the girls back to my hometown for the 43rd annual Canoe Festival. A small town celebration with canoe races down the river as the main attraction. The 4 high school classes vote before school is out for a class representative. They sell tickets, and the one who sells the most is the Canoe Fest Princess. The parade on Sunday is well over an hour and a half. On Saturday night my parents and I took them to the carnival. Both girls love the rides. Shelby is able to ride a few of the bigger rides with me. We went on the Spider which is a ride that dips up and down as you rotate in a circle while your individual "car" spins around. My sister and I took her on that a couple of years ago and she yelled go faster! So as we get on, the ride operator told her if she felt sick or wanted off just to raise her hand. I said not to worry, she would be yelling for the ride to go faster. While they are filling the cars, you slowly creep up higher and higher. She says, "Doesn't this go any faster"? And then when we are sitting at the highest point, she is looking all over and says, "I can see the whole carnival from here"! I don't think she stopped laughing or squealing the entire ride and she yelled, "I am laughing with joy"! I think as I get older, it is getting harder and harder for me to ride that stuff which is disappointing because I do like the rides. I don't have a problem while on the ride, but after I feel like my brain has been rattled. From that ride we headed to the Ferris Wheel and while waiting in line I could hardly carry on a conversation with a couple of my high school classmates! I took both girls on the Ferris Wheel which is my least favorite ride! If I am going to be up that high, I prefer to keep moving. It is torture to sit up at the top with the little seat rocking back and forth with 2 kids who keep leaning forward! I don't know how many times I said, "Sit back"! I could ride every roller coaster at Six Flags just fine, but those carnival rides are something different all together! After we did the rides we watched the fireworks and then headed home for bed. As we were going down my parents' driveway Morgan says, "I'm not very happy. I didn't get to ride that ride". We finally figured out she was talking about the Gravitron! I didn't go on the ride but I think it compares to the ride at Six Flags where you spin in a circle at a ridiculous speed and when you stick to the wall the floor drops under your feet. I think it will be a few years before she is allowed to ride that ride! Here are a few pictures from the carnival.

At the parade, Shelby loved the UW-Wisconsin cheerleaders & Bucky Badger. She also liked the flag twirlers in the high school band (I know they have an official name but I have been out of HS too long and I was never in the band). I think it is probably the sparkly outfits they get to wear. The ladies walking on stilts are pretty good too. They both like the fight for collecting candy. (Sorry for the sideways photos in my latest blogs, I can't get them to flip)!

Ready for Kindergarten!

Shelby recently had her physical for kindergarten. She weighed in at 38 pounds and is 42 1/2 inches tall. She doesn't have medical problems like Morgan, just some attitude issues a pediatrician can't fix! :) Now that she has had the physical, eye exam & dental exam she is ready to go. All that is left is to enjoy summer and before we know it school will be starting. We have been picking up a lot of books about kindergarten at the library this summer to help prepare.

The day of Shelby's physical, Morgan went along to get the staples out of her head. I had Nate go with us because I had no idea what to expect as far as the amount of pain Morgan would have and how Shelby would do being in the same room. Nate took Shelby out into the hallway to wait. When we came out he thought maybe the doctor hadn't taken them out yet because they heard nothing. Morgan didn't cry at all and barely fussed. We counted each one as they came out and that kept her mind on something else. She's one tough chick!

Some Summer Fun

We have started summer off with a couple of trips to grandparent houses. A few weeks ago we headed south to Greenville to visit Nate's family and celebrate a couple of graduations. The girls had fun playing in the country and riding on the 4 wheeler at Nate's dads and the Barbie Jeep at Nate's moms.

Shelby loves flowers and picking them (especially the ones she isn't supposed to pick!). She helped Nonny Martha pick flowers and make arrangements. She is pictured with the centerpiece they made for the supper table.

Morgan helped Papa Russell drag the baseball field that the church softball team was going to practice on the next day. Nate gave both girls rides down the road to explore some of the places he used to go when he was a kid.

Another thing they look forward to doing there is playing dress up.

Morgan decided she was ready to try the Barbie Jeep again. Last summer Shelby scared her a bit and she thought it was best to stay away from it. Shelby wasn't too excited to have a co-pilot and tried to take off before Morgan was even seated, but eventually had fun with her. Morgan even decided to try and drive it herself.

Trip to the ER...... AGAIN!!

The girls and I headed out this morning to play at a park with some of Shelby's preschool classmates. When we got home we headed into the toy room for some serious cleaning. I put one of the small chairs up on the little table so we could vacuum. I left the room to plug the vacuum in, and soon heard a loud crash and crying. I went in to find Morgan getting up off the floor and she said she hit her head. I put my hand on the area just to comfort her a bit. When I took my hand off it was red from the blood gushing out. I really couldn't tell how bad it was so I decided it was best to take her to the ER. The girl has such a high tolerance of pain she was done crying by the time we were half way to the hospital. Big sis on the other hand was somewhat distraught. She felt bad for little sis and I think partly responsible. She was able to pull it together shortly after arriving at the ER. I had forgotten I put the chair on the table and after I gave the Dr. the information about what happened, they confessed the chair was up on the table and Shelby had gotten up there to sit first. Morgan decided to try it and somehow tipped over backwards and hit her head on the toy kitchen. Their kitchen is made out of solid wood, not plastic like some so she had a hard land with the head. God gave me a very accident prone/klutzy monkey in that girl but thankfully He filled her with pain tolerance as well. She did great and only fussed a bit when the nurse cleaned her hair off to find the wound. She got tired of me holding gauze with some liquid stuff on it to numb the area for the staples. And she didn't get too worked up when the Dr put 4 staples into her head! She cried a little bit and then she was ready to go home. Shelby did good waiting as the TV can always keep her occupied and she got to watch Spongebob (we never watch that at home). It was the only thing on the TV for kids. Here is the battle wound. If you don't have a weak stomach and want to see it closer, click on the picture. Just a reminder, 6 months ago I took her to the ER after she fell down the stairs at my parents house. Let's try not to make this a habit Morgs!