Morgan's Open House

Last Thursday we went to Sharing Tree Preschool's Open House for Morgan. She met her teachers, wouldn't talk to anyone, did a scavenger hunt to get familiar with the room, played a bit, discussed her allergies with a nurse, wrote a big check and headed home. She starts on Wednesday, September 1st. She will go on M-W-F from 9-11:15. She is excited. We will see what she thinks on Wednesday when I drop her off.

Shelby the 1st Grader!

Today was Shelby's first day of 1st grade. It was a 1/2 day with the first full day tomorrow. She had fun and is excited about going back tomorrow. That is always a good sign. Last night before bed they got their back to school gifts. Here are a few pictures from the night before and this morning.

Waiting Patiently Fun Hello Kitty Bags

The Night Before First Grade

Junie B Jones First Grader

(at last!)

Posing with the new backpack

Close up of our pretty 1st grader!

Morgan starts preschool on September 1st. I will post her pics with her new books next week.

After we picked up Shelby at 11:30, I took them to Carl's Ice Cream for lunch and a treat. On the way to the van, Shelby tripped on the sidewalk and went down hard. She scrapped her knee pretty bad and the ice cream went flying. She is doing pretty good. Tonight was her first soccer practice and she said it didn't bother her. She was excited on the way to learn this was an all girls team that would be playing other girl teams. No boys! I asked her if she had fun and she said yes. She also said it was more fun than she thought it would be. We'll see what she thinks as she learns more about the sport, practices more and plays games. I think she will continue to enjoy it and be a good player. She has the ability to be one.

All Ready to Go!

Tonight was Back to School night for Unit 5. Shelby was able to go to her school and meet her teacher and put her supplies in her desk. Her first grade class room is in the same room she was in for Kindergarten. Mrs. Ghrist, her K teacher, left Oakdale to go to a new school to teach first grade. Oakdale had four 1st grade classes last year but with the budget, they cut one at the end of the year. Everyone was panicking because those 3 first grade classes were going to have 34 kids in them! Well thank God, someone in the district has a brain because at the last minute they added a 4th class. Shelby was moved into the 4th class. Ms. Hoelscher came from another school where she previously taught 4th grade. I don't think she could be a better fit for Shelby! She is young and cute, just like Mrs. Ghrist and we loved her. Here are a few pictures from tonight.

Ms. First Grader!

Writing her name in all her books

With Classmate & Church Friend
Emily
Shelby & Ms. Hoelscher

Shelby has a K classmate at the desk across from her. Shelby's desk sits at the end of the row. Next to her is a boy with a lot of energy. He had a balloon he was bouncing around in the room tonight. I'm giving her until Monday after school before I hear her first complaint about him. In my mind I already complained to myself about him tonight! We have one more quick trip to WI for the weekend for my cousin Amy's wedding and fun with the Mosley cousins. Then Monday is the big day. I think she's in for another great year of learning! GO PANTHERS!

One Busy Momma!

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you have seen other posts of our little Momma Morgan. She loves her babies and plays with one or all of them at some point every day. We have many battles of taking or leaving baby in the van at various places. When she is playing Momma she is a "grown-up" and her name is Mrs. Britnell. Although this one is pretty creative, she didn't just come up with that name on her own. Mrs. Britnell (Nicole) is a friend of ours and Morgan's past Toddler Church teacher. Nicole obviously made an impact on this girl! It is hard to know whom I am dealing with. If I call her Morgan I get a frustrated response, "I'm not Morgan, I'm Mrs. Britnell"! If I call her Mrs. Britnell I will hear, "I'm Morgan now"! All this might explain why I don't sleep at night! I am including some random pics of the girl in her element.

Momma just before baby's arrival

At the hospital after baby's arrival

Baby all loaded in the back of her car

Momma & baby getting gas

The other day she said they were coming to visit me in Minnesota. I think I counted 7 kids on this trip. The couch is her van. Note the green piano. That was that baby's bed. I guess in any family with 7 or more kids you may not know from night to night what you could be sleeping on! And a smiling momma on a trip with 7 mean success!

On the road

The crew. I can't begin to remember all of their names!

As I said before, this one will either have no kids or a ton. Time will tell!

This summer Nate and I attended the wedding of his pitching coach Josh and his new wife Emily. The girls got to spend the day with Jenn and Seth. There are always high pitch squeals of delight and lots of jumping up and down when Jenn is the sitter. That is why I usually don't tell them she is coming. They spoiled them as usual and took them up to El Paso to swim at a little lake that belongs to Jenn's family.

Here is a little Jenn and Seth history for any blog readers who may not know them. Jenn was our afternoon sitter when Shelby was a baby. My sister watched her for the summer when my 6 week maternity leave was over. When Ashley went back to school in the fall, we found Jenn to take over in the afternoons when Nate left to do baseball lessons. She was a great sitter and has come through for us in a few minor emergency situations. Considering we have no family in Bloomington/Normal, that has been huge. She has become a great friend to our family over these last 6 years. Along with my next door neighbor, she is listed as an emergency contact for school and church. We go way back with Seth. He played Jr. High baseball for Nate during his first coaching years at Gridley. We sort of lost touch after we left Gridley but our paths crossed again when Seth was a student at ISU. He did an internship with Nate's summer college team the summer Shelby was a baby. Since Jenn and Seth are both from Gridley and have grown up attending the same church, they were not strangers. So we didn't introduce them. They did attend birthday parties and trips to Chuck E Cheese or ended up at our house at the same time. For anyone who doesn't know, I dream pretty much every night, all night. Back in the days that Jenn babysat for us, I dreamt twice that she and Seth got married. We never shared this info with Seth but I did tell Jenn. Both times she said, "that's never going to happen"! Well the Lord worked on her heart, because one day they show up on our front porch holding hands and Seth asking the girls if it was alright if he married Jenn! The only problem for us was it was April 1st. Fool's Day! So Nate was almost sure they were pulling a fast one on us! But they recently celebrated another anniversary so no joke there. Of course, for their wedding gift we gave them an engraved picture frame that said, "Dreams Do Come True". At least mine and Seth's any way! Here are some pics from all the fun that day.

The "Beach"

Seth diving like a frog & Shelby swimming
Seth watching Shelby hang on
He's probably trying to convert her to a Cubs fan
Seth dancing while Shelby is still
holding on!

Shelby getting ready to float

Shelby and Seth floating

while Morgan swims

Morgan snacking on a cookie

Being Cheesy

Shelby

Shelby joining Seth

He looks like he is asking her why

she won't like the CUBS?

Shelby answers as she pushes Seth in!

Because they stink and are cursed by a goat!

Shelby

Seth and Morgan in the canoe

More swimming fun

Thanks to Jenn for the pictures. I copied them from her Facebook photos. After the lake they came back to Normal and hung out at Jenn and Seth's. We picked them up at like 8pm and both of them had a fit when we showed up! They were helping them water flowers and spray for weeds. Thanks guys for adding another day of fun for the girls in their summer 2010!

Shelby's Week Away in WI 2010

Since we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of Shelby's 2010 week stay at my parents, I thought it would be a good idea to post some pictures of all the fun things she got to do. Morgan and I dropped her off at Ashley's and the two of them headed to Papa & Nonny Moe's house. It wasn't too far into our trip back home that I got a text from Ashley saying Shelby was crying for me. Seriously? I don't get this girl! When we are home together I know she can't hardly stand it, but when we are apart for any amount of time she misses me. There were also a few nights at bedtime that she shed some tears for her dear ole' mama. I thought this type of thing only happened with teenagers. You know, the love-hate relationship. Despite missing me, I think she had a lot of fun and was lucky to get to do a lot of stuff with Nonny, Aunt Ashley & Uncle Luke. Ashley took a ton of pictures and this post includes a bunch. So sit back and get comfy and when you start to get bored, just remember this post is more for Shelby than for you! :)

My great Uncle David owns a horse stable. Shelby had been there before and rode a horse with Ashley, but this time she got to ride all by herself. She did good. The only problem she had was when she pulled the reigns too tight, her horse kicked Ashley's horse who was riding behind her.

Shelby with her great-great Uncle David

making a new friend

Shelby & Mitch the horse

heading out on the trail

Shelby with her Nonny

hanging out with the horses

riding horses wears a girl out!

Next up on the activity list was a trip to Madison to the butterfly garden. From what I saw in the pictures, this place is full of beautiful flowers & greenery and butterflies flying freely about.

Shelby wore her butterfly shirt & had 1 land on her chest

strolling along with Uncle Luke

with Nonny by the waterfall

have to play some Sorry!

Shelby lined up to win!

she won!

coloring with Luke

Next fun outing was to Yellowstone Lake for some boating & swimming.

speeding right along!

check out Nonny's grip on that rail! She does not like water!

thanks to Great Uncles Nick & Doug for providing the boat & the fun!

meeting Ashley's friend Eryn's new baby

Finally, before heading home, she visited Nonny's Spa for a manicure & pedicure.

fresh out of the shower & ready to be pampered

excited about the nail stickers

inspecting the work

beauty can be painful!

checking her nails in the mirror

quick drying so she can hit the road

One piece of fun she doesn't even know about and probably wouldn't go back if she did, was the not so much fun bats in the house while she was sleeping! She slept through Ashley moving her from bed to bed and all the chaos involved with either killing bats or getting them out of the house. Some day when she reads this she will have to have her Aunt Ashley fill in the details.

This year Ashley, the girls and I are going to spend the week together in WI to close out summer vacation 2011. I'll try to post details of that trip before this time next year! Stay tuned!