close to normal: August 2012

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

First Day of 1st & 3rd Grade!

Today is the first day of school. Shelby is in 3rd & Morgan in 1st. They only have to go for 1/2 a day and then we are heading to the park with some school friends for lunch and play.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tonight the girls took all their supplies to school to get them put away and meet their teachers. Tomorrow is a 1/2 day. Shelby is ready for sure. She says she's bored. Morgan? Not sure. I had to remind her she couldn't wear her new PJ pants all day tomorrow because she had to go to school. She was bummed. I told her she could wear them all day on Saturday.

Morgan - 1st Grade

Shelby 3rd Grade

Morgan with Miss Corcoran

Shelby with Miss Boline

Blogger finally let me post these pictures without distorting them. We had quite the battle. The little one was still awake at 11:00. She'd read and read and still couldn't sleep! Unfortunately, I don't think it was because of excitement! Looking forward to a good year. Oakdale opened a 4th K class & 4th 1st grade. It's nice to see 19 or 20 in a class instead of 27 to 29 like last year. 3rd grade is down to 3 classes from 4 like they had in 1st & 2nd grade, but the numbers are reasonable with just 3. They also now have an Assistant Principal who is a big, tall African American whose presence alone I hope will make a difference in their school. If nothing else, he will be a huge help to Mr. Cooper. Shelby was disappointed she did not get in Mrs. West's class because she was her 1st grade teacher and a lot of her friends are in there. But when she saw most of the trouble makers from her class last year are also in there, she soon became happy with her placement in Miss Boline's class. She does have a few friends from her K class she hasn't been with since. I think she will have a good year. I'm hoping 1st grade will bring some joy for school for little miss. She was excited to meet her teacher and happy to see her friend Kate from K is in her class. As far as it goes for her, it can only get better than last year!

WI Trip - Camping!!!

My mom wanted to spend a night camping at the campsite downtown along the river. She wanted Site 13 because it was the closest spot to the rapids on the river. It was nature's sound machine while we slept. Our plan was to set up the tent after the church picnic and sleep there Sunday night and hang out on Monday. We did set up the tent and then went out to their house to get our stuff for the night. We had two people call and tell us it was raining on the other side of the Mississippi and it was coming our way. So my mom and I went back to town to take down the tent. We returned around 11:00 on Monday morning and set up camp once again. Once the tent was in place, we grilled hot dogs & hamburgers for lunch.

the rapids

I forgot to mention Queen Au Contraire joined us on the camping trip

served her right!

her attitude anyway

S'mores - Yummy but messy!

What do you do while your are ruffing it at a camp ground? Go get manicures of course! My mom had set up an appointment to take them to get nail art done.

We went out to my parents' house for my birthday supper. We loaded up what we needed for sleeping and headed back to camp around 9. We played a couple games of Sequence for Kids before calling it a night. My mom left early to head to work. I packed up camp.

the girls entertaining themselves while I packed

We were heading home on Tuesday, the 14th. Before hitting the road, we hit the lake. My uncle Nick took us on a quick but fun bouncy boat ride.

This wraps up our end of the summer hurrah in Wisconsin. We had 1 week back at home to get ready for school. So long Summer 2012. You were dry, hot, fast but good!

WI Trip - Church Picnic

My parents go to this little church in the country down the road from the country church I grew up in. The Sunday we were in town was their annual picnic. They planned to have the service outside "casual style". But like every other outdoor event this summer, 1 of the 3 times it rained, was that morning. So church was inside but it cleared off by the time we were ready to eat. It was fun to sit and relax and watch the girls make new friends.

No friends - but perfectly content with that