Shelby's Field Trip

On Thursday I joined the 2nd graders from Oakdale on their field trip to Wildlife Prairie Park in Peoria.  Thankfully Shelby's class had enough volunteers & her teacher was kind to me and gave me just 2 girls besides my own to keep track of!  Although, it didn't take much for the 3 of them to remind me that I am really not much fun.  I told them if they kept running ahead and tired themselves out, I would not be carrying them.  I lost track of how many times I was asked if it was time to eat and the number of times I  heard how starved they were.  And when they made a beeline to the playground equipment, I only let them play a little bit before I made them continue on the search for animals.  I figured I did not ride a school bus for almost an hour for us to do what we could have done back at school!

Avrille, Shelby & Addis

finally!!!!

After lunch we visited the nasty snake house and then we came across the huge slide and another play area.  We finished up our tour here. 

Shelby & her favorite boy Quentin

always have to be goofy

Overall, it wasn't a bad bus ride or trip around the park.  I did find it interesting that my child did not sit with me on the bus.  On the way there she sat with Addis and I sat with a dad of one of her classmates. On the way home, she sat with Dawson (her current friend that is a boy - mom's words & her boyfriend - Shelby's words) and I sat with Autumn a girl from her class.   Now I must rest up before I go with Morgan on the K field trip.  I've got a few weeks - hopefully that will be enough.

Another Day, Another Injury

Sunday night I posted these words in my blog:  Between minor injuries, ER visits and 1,000 questions a day (500 of them impossible),  it's been a crazy 6 years! Well the little monkey decided to start her 6th year just like she left her 3 1/2 year.  At the end of BSF on Monday night I had a text from Nate saying Morgan may need to go to the ER to have her ankle checked.  She thinks it's fun to job off the top of the slide in the neighbor's backyard.  She was showing her dad how talented she is when she landed funny on her right ankle.  We consulted an ER nurse friend of mine and the athletic trainer for Nate's team and we opted to wait and sleep and see how she was in the morning.  It was still hurting pretty bad so I took her in to see her doctor and they did an X-ray.  Luckily there was no fracture and it is just a sprain.  I bought her an ACE bandage and she's getting around OK.  I'm going to pick her up in a few minutes and bring her home for the afternoon to rest and ice before more walking at church tonight.  Tomorrow I am going on Shelby's field trip so she will be at school for the day.  Hopefully she is back to full strength soon and learned a lesson.  However, for some reason I see her jumping off a slide again in her future.....

Morgan's 6th Birthday!

Morgan Aaron is 6 today!  Can't believe how fast the years are blowing by!  The details are still fairly fresh in my mind.  She was born 2 weeks early on a Saturday morning.  At my Friday morning's BSF leader's meeting I was very uncomfortable sitting in a chair for 2 hours.  Even though it was 2 weeks before my due date, I told them as I left that if I didn't make it to our class on Monday night it was because I had the baby.  I headed to Gridley to work and on the way I called my mom to tell her she should pack for the week rather than the weekend as she and my dad were already planning a trip to finish some work in her bedroom.  I worked until lunch time and then headed back to Bloomington/Normal to get some final things.  As the night went on my contractions really started to come so we headed to the hospital around 5am.  She was a little high up so I remember every time the blood pressure cuff tightened I had to roll to the other side.  I was trying to help her work her way down.  Finally she was ready and she made her way into the world at 8:54 a.m. a tiny 5 lb. 13 oz & 19 in. long.

I remember she slept a lot then but has kept me on my toes ever since.  Between minor injuries, ER visits and 1,000 questions a day (500 of them impossible),  it's been a crazy 6 years!
Breakfast was a donut and she opened her gifts before church.  Daddy's baseball game was out of town so the 3 of us girls came home from church to make a cake before having lunch at Pizza Hut.  We rented a movie and watched that before eating the cake.  She will get to celebrate at school tomorrow and then has to wait for her party on May 12th.  Here are some pictures from her big #6.

 opening her gift from Shelby

 pink crocs for her dolls

EXCITED!!

 Kit's Accessories

 more shoes for her doll

 a Fairy Cookbook for baking

 she likes to play restaurant so I made her some menus

for Morgie Mae's Cafe

 I've had this game hidden in the basement for like 3 years

 she really likes it!

 new outfit for her little baby she likes to take everywhere

 Hello Kitty purse

 she saved the biggest gift for last

it turned out to be her favorite

getting so big! :(

flower delivery from Papa & Nonny Moe

yellow dahlia

 the poor girl has the lungs of a 96 year old instead of a 6 year old!

she had to blow each candle out 1 at a time and in true Morgan fashion

burned the tip of her nose getting so close to the blue one & it took

4 or 5 blows to get it to go out!

HaPpY 6th BiRtHdAY MoRgAn AaRoN!

Young Author's Workshop

Back in February I posted the girls' books they wrote as part of the Young Author's program at school.  I am a little behind on posts as it seems I have neglected to post that Shelby's book was picked as 1 of 3 to represent their school at the district level!  Morgan of course was biffed that her book was not selected.  Shelby had to prepare a poster to display her book at the Normal Public Library for the month of April.

Coming up in May we will attend a Tea at her school in honor of the 3 representatives.  But today she was able to participate in another great activity for all the Young Author's selected to represent their schools.  The Normal Public Library hosted a Writer's Workshop presented by published children's book author Carolyn Crimi.  She was hilarious and gave the young writer's tips for their future writings.  We were able to purchase her books and have them autographed.  Morgan chose the book she said was the one she felt was the funniest of those she has had published.  It is called Dear Tabby and I agree it is pretty funny.  Shelby picked 2 books about a bunny named Henry.  They were able to get their pictures taken with her as well.

We will be looking for more of her books in the library or to purchase.  It was a great opportunity and a fun time.

Spring Break 2012

The girls had spring break the last week in March.  I took them up to Wisconsin for a few days.  We kept busy before we returned home on Saturday so the girls could sing in church on Palm Sunday.  We headed up on Wednesday and our first visit was with my cousins Terra and Lisa and their kids.  Out of my 43 first cousins, I was closest with these 2.  

We left Terra's and went to the AWANA Grand Prix at my parents' small country church.  It was fun to see how they do it compared to the fancy event at our church.  When we got back to the house, Morgan got busy playing with some of Uncle Luke's farm equipment from his early years.  My mom and dad are in the process of cleaning out their attic of 30+ years of "stuff".

On Thursday, we visited with my friend Kim and her crew of kids.  Lisa and her 3 joined us for awhile too.  Kim trimmed the girls' hair for the first of their usual 2 haircuts a year.

That evening Nonny and the girls did some baking for Uncle Luke so they could take his favorite cookies to him when we visited Madison on Friday.  She gave them aprons to use when they are at her house.

Friday we met Uncle Luke for a yummy lunch at Olive Garden before hitting the mall for some shopping.  The girls still needed something new to wear for Easter and we found a few other good spring deals.  When Morgan came downstairs on Friday morning she said to Nonny, "What's for breakfast, blueberry coffeecake?"  So we had to stop and buy some blueberries and when we got home they made coffeecake.  Take note of one of Morgan's new purchases, Hello Kitty sunglasses.  Always helpful for cooking!    

Another attic treasure was the stack of animal puzzles I can remember putting together as a kid.  Morgan and  Nonny put this one together Saturday morning.

Before we left on Saturday, cutout cookies were on the agenda and a small Easter Egg hunt.  The sunglasses made another cooking appearance.

Let the hunt begin!

I don't know how many times they walked right by some of their eggs!

Checking out the treasure

 Easter Baskets from Papa and Nonny

After our quick Easter celebration we hit the road for the trip home.  We delivered a few cookies to Ashley, Erik and Ian before we headed to get ready for the big day of singing at church.