Busy Saturday

The girls were kept very busy all day Saturday! They played games, learned about archery, swam, ran, sang, went to a camp fire and roasted smores. They were so tired!

Amelia was delighted to learn that before we could leave in the morning, we would have to sweep and mop the dining hall. She could not WAIT to mop. She probably asked 100 times if it was time to mop yet.

The wagons

The wagons were small! The first picture shows all the girls squeezed into one of the wagons.

After sleeping in one, I'm not so sure I was cut out to be a pioneer! I may be hardy and stubborn, but bugs and mice are not my favorite thing!

After the first night, we decided to just wear the same clothes the whole time and be super dirty. It didn't make a lot of sense to change into clean clothes only to get dirty again!

Amelia wore the same socks for so long, she ended up with polka dotty legs from the design on the sock!

The last picture shows the "door" of our wagon.

Girl Scout camp

Amelia and I signed up what felt like eons ago to go to Girl Scout camp the last weekend in August. We were signed up to camp out in the covered wagons.

I assumed this meant the name of our camp area was called "covered wagons", but I did not expect to be sleeping out in a canvas covered wagon.

Imagine my surprise when we pulled up to see a circle of covered wagons.

Covered wagons without a door.

I will say that I love camping, hiking and enjoying nature. I will also say that I enjoy my zippered tent with screens that allows me to enjoy nature during the day and to sleep at night critter and mostly bug free.

This was a whole new kind of adventure. The wagons slept 4 people and we were sharing with another mom and daughter. Because of the age of our girls, all girls camping needed an adult with them.

The first wagon we checked out had the biggest spider living in it that I had ever seen. The web stretched across the whole wagon. It seemed wrong to dislodge Mr Spider, so we checked out a few other wagons. One had tiny holes all over it. The chance of rain the first night was 75% for light showers. Next!

The next one was looking pretty good, but as I poked around I noticed a lot of evidence of a mouse in the house. Namely, there was a good deal of mouse poop. I wished hard for my own mouse free tent!

I went and got a broom and then started cleaning things up. I got all the sleeping area cleaned up ( yes. Mouse poops on and around the mattress. You should be proud that I didn't make a big deal about it. I can be very brave when it comes to my girl. Also, I packed sheets to wrap around the mattresses as I knew they might not be super clean.). As I moved the last mattress, a honest to goodness fat mouse came running out. I let out a small yelp, but got myself under control. Another mom heard me and came to investigate. The mouse scurried down the side of the wagon and then right in front of her.

Neither one of us was excited about sleeping in the wagon after that- we didn't tell the girls, but we both were worried the mouse would try to come back to its house later in the evening. Yuck.

Gemma's first dance class

August 27th was Gemma's first dance class. She will dance with the same teacher as Amelia, which was very fun!

She is so excited! She has been waiting for this moment for at least 2 years.

Gemma meet the teacher!

Gemma and mommy went to meet her preschool teachers on August 24! I am so behind!

Of course, our little ham can't just smile for the camera!

Innovative Gemma

Gemma loves to play golf. She is always frustrated when the ball rolls in the street. She is not allowed to go in the street. Sometimes she gets away with getting out in the street when we don't have all our eyes on her. This day, she decided she could solve the problem. She took rocks and pushed them into the crack of the driveway to block the ball from rolling into the street. She came up with this solution all on her own and executed it all by herself. Such a smart girl!

Cooking

Cooking with googly eyes....

Seems reasonable, right?

Crafty project

I have been making some crafty projects for a classroom project and for Girl Scouts that involve Google eyes. Gemma, Amelia and William are totally in love with these eyes.

Gemma in particular, carries them around and we find them in the oddest places.

Mama's 2nd job

I haven't talked about this much, but I have picked up a new position. I am still teaching adults who are preparing to take their high school equivalency exams. I teach 2 days a week for 4 hours a day. It is a cushy schedule.

Last year in June, I was approached at our state wide teacher meetings by our state teacher training entity if I would assist in planning a science training session for other teachers to develop their knowledge. The pay was.... Let's just say more.

I agreed to help develop the training and then nothing happened. Nothing happened until before Christmas last year. I went to two meetings and worked several nights after the kids were in bed. Then, I was asked to present the training I helped develop to other teachers around the state as the other trainers weren't comfortable with the science. (The science teaching position before William was born paid off here, big time.).

So, about twice a month, I have been driving around the state and presenting a 6 hour training session to other teachers.

Overall it has been an exceptional experience and I have enjoyed this time. I'm also learning a lot.

I'm learning that a full time job with travel is not a good choice for our family at this time. The two times a month I travel have been a lot of work for everyone. I get to hand pick the dates, so I haven't had to miss anything. However, many times the distance has required overnight travel which leaves John on his own for night activities with the kids, feeding them dinner and most challenging : bedtime. Bedtime can certainly be done with one adult, but it is so much NICER when there are 2 people.

The first day of school, I was scheduled to go out of town for a presentation. I agreed to t before I knew it was the first day of school (my mistake). I would not miss hearing about the kids' first day of school, so we went to pick them up and then grabbed a quick bite to eat.

Everyone had a good day- what a relief!

Then, I packed up my rental car and drove to St Joeseph, MO- a 4 hour drive.

I caught a great sunset and a night game at the Kansas City ballpark.

I know I say this every time, but my husband really is the best. He is so supportive of the work I do!

August 14

First day of school! Only 2 months late!

I admit this isn't even a picture of Amelia from the first day! It is from her 3rd day!

Our schedule is a little different this year. William is at an upper elementary school building this year (grades 3-5). Amelia will be at the primary building for another year (grades K-2). She has the same teacher as William did last year, which we are delighted about.

Two different buildings mean two separate bus schedules. Amelia's bus comes much earlier than William's (hence, no picture).

Ice cream before the first day

We took the kids for frozen yogurt the night before school started.

We got back into town on Sunday evening and school started Wednesday morning. We received the kids teacher assignments when we were out of town and school supply lists. Luckily, I had knocked out most of the list before we went on our Great Minnesota Journey. I just had a few details to sort out. We missed meet the teacher, which I now regret. William, in particular, is starting at a new building with a new teacher we don't know much about. I would have felt better to meet his teacher and have him meet her before the first day.

So being out of town+ school starting + me back to work shortly after = no time to blog!

Lunch time=art time

New rug

We got a new rug in our living room. The kids cousins get enough of it! I had a hard time rolling it out with them trying to roll around on it.


I got the new rug to disguise the condition of our carpet. I'm ready to replace it, but budgets do not allow for this yet. Unfortunately, the rug does not disguise the carpet condition, but highlights it next to the pretty new rug.

Gemma speak

We are at a restaurant yesterday after spending the late morning at a festival. Everyone was hungry and the waitress stopped by to take some drink orders. I told the kids they could choose between white milk and chocolate milk. The two big kids quickly chimed in with their chocolate milk requests (as expected, but they like to make a choice on their own). Gemma continued to color on her coloring page. I knew she heard as she was sitting close to the waitress. I tried again.

Me: Gemma! White milk or chocolate milk.
Gemma: no response
Me: Gemma! What kind of milk do you want?
Gemma: no

The waitress started laughing. I tried not to and failed.

Then I ordered her chocolate milk and she happily drank it.


----/-////

I was helping Gemma into her dress for church this morning. She was very specific about what she did NOT want to wear. She did not want the first 5 or 6 options she was presented with. They were "too cold", "too wiggly" ( I have no idea what this means), "too yucky", and "too wrong". Her rejections were not helpful as you can see as they didn't provide much guidance about what she was looking for*.

I finally pulled out a pretty green dress with some pink smocking on the front. She clapped her hands and accepted. As I pulled it over her head, she declared: This dress is yove-ye. That would be Gemma speak for lovely. Where does she get words like that?

*three year olds, especially this 3 year old, are anxious to have some control over their worlds. My world is a lot nicer if I can find places to allow her to make some decisions.

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