For Sale!

We participated in our community garage sale this summer for the first time. We got rid of a bunch of junk taking up space in our basement, made 160 bucks, and got a bit of entertainment out of the deal as well. Will we do it again? Eh, it's doubtful. But was it an OK way to spend two days of our summer? I'd say so! The kids were excited out of their minds for the garage sale to start, all the prep got them all fired up. But the sale started out slow on Friday, and they ended up watching quite a bit of tv that day. Sales picked up on Saturday, though, plus Dad was home, and that always makes life more interesting!

Our 5 year old neighbor and blooming entrepenour, Wyatt, saw sales opportunity and set up an Otter Pop stand. He made quite a chunk of change selling those things for 50 cents a pop to people who wanted to barter over a two dollar bracelet with me.

Addie's sitting in her new princess papasan chair, given to us by our neighbors to sell in the sale, we ended up buying it

While Chris ran the sales table for a bit, I took the big girls around the neighborhood to shop. They each got a dollar fifty to spend on whatever they chose. They both bought fruit snacks and lemonade, which ate up a third of their money. Then Addie found this treasure for a buck. Princesses. One of her current favorite things. Oy.

Emily found a hanging stuffed animal/toy organizer for $2. I split the price with her because it's actually quite a handy way to organize all the stuffies they have in their closet.

Chris tagged Elizabeth with "make an offer" and tried to put her in the sale. One lady wanted to buy her, but only if we threw in the changing pad for free. No way I was letting that thing go for free!

Little Lights

Emily has been so curious and excited about preschool ever since Addie started back in February. I enrolled the girls in a summer fun program one morning a week at a great little preschool by our house called Little Lights. While the summer fun program isn't technically preschool, we treated Emily's first day there as her first day of preschool, because really, why not?
Little Lights is a pretty small school, but I have met so many moms in the neighborhood and around town who send or have sent their kids there, and I've heard nothing but wonderful things. I was hoping to get Emily in for the fall, but they filled up fast and I enrolled her at our second choice, TLC. But we got exciting news last month - a spot has opened up for Emily, so she'll get to go in the fall, which will mean she will get to continue going to a school she's come to love, and she won't have to transition (change is HARD for Emily) to a new school. Yay! :)

Emily's FIRST day of preschool, June 4th, 2014

The big girls have been having a BLAST at Little Lights this summer. They have a favorite teacher, "Miss Shell" (Miss Michelle) and they bring home the most creative art projects each week. Plus, snack is provided and always contains at least 2 food groups, how awesome is that?

Each week there's a theme, and so far this summer they've had:
Exploring Music - There was a keyboard set up and they had fun playing piano
Pizza Parlor - They painted with noodles!
Workshop Days - Hammering golf tees into peg boards, and they came home with door hangers made from popcicle sticks
Art Show - One wall became dedicated to the colorful acrilic paintings the kids created
Sports/Fitness - A ballet teacher came and taught a routine, which included arabesques, which the girls were obsessed with doing across the room, across the yard, anywhere they could, while saying "arabesque, arabesque, arabesque"
At the Beach - They wore their swimsuits, played in water, and ate popcicles
Bible and Drama - They learned how much God loves them

We only have four more weeks left: Culinary Camp, Science Exploration, The Great Outdoors, and Ice Cream Shoppe

I say it every year at the end of July, but I'll say it again. Where did the summer go? It's just zipped right by. I guess we have 4 more weeks, but they'll be gone in the blink of an eye.

While the big girls have three hours of fun fun fun on Wednesday mornings, I have three hours of Elizabeth all to myself. We've been having quite a bit of fun ourselves. That first Wednesday, I took advantage of being one-on-one to let Elizabeth have her first shot at finger painting.

Even with one-on-one attention, some paint got ingested

We had a fun photo shoot outside, and Elizabeth got to play with my phone. Joy!

Love that belly button

Happy Girl

Addie's Last Day of Preschool for 2013-2014

Addie got to enjoy three months of preschool during the 2013-14 school year. Our neighborhood school, Tarver, was full when Addie started in February, so she was sent to Woodglenn Elementary. We are so blessed that Woodglenn has team of talented, kind, and loving preschool teachers. Addie's knowledge of letters and numbers definitely improved during her days at school this year, which is wonderful, but even more wonderful is the fact that she came away with an excitement for and a love of school! She's excited to start at Tarver in the fall, and while she's going to miss her old teachers, I know she's going to do great with her new teachers. Go Addie!!

Before her last day of school, Addie made cards for each of her teachers. She spent a long time painting a picture for each of her teachers. I was proud of her hard work!

Each card had her handprint and a teacher thank you inside.

A few days after Addie's last day, the official last day of school for the district came with a preschool picnic at Woodglenn. The whole family got to head to the school to say thank you and goodbye to all her great teachers.

Here's Addison with her speech teacher, Ms. Marissa.

And here she is with her preschool teacher, Ms. Rachel.

Addie truly fell in love with these ladies. They obviously know what they're doing because they made a big impression on her heart. We're pretty lucky because Ms. Rachel is a mom of one-year-old twins and she's part of my twins' group, Darling Doubles, so we'll get to see her at club events in the future.

Dressing Up

The dress up box came out in May and no one's gotten sick of it yet, so it's still out!

My Birthday and Mother's Day

My mom came over for a visit with the girls on my birthday, and I got to go get a massage!Happy Birthday to me!

Then after a great dinner from Chris, he presented me with my birthday cake...a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, my favorite!

A great birthday with my Loves

On Mother's Day, we got to spend some time over at my mom's house with Dylan, Britney, Cal and Annie, and my grandma. Special times and great memories.

She's a Climber

While Elizabeth isn't quite walking yet, she definitely is climbing. It's becoming more and more common for me to find her on top of things.

lots of fun on top of the play table

going for the kleenex box, boy those things are fun to empty out, one tissue at a time

we have 't gated the stairs yet and Elizabeth likes to venture up there when she gets the chance

this time she decided to carry some stuff up there with her, which made me a little nervous

up at the top, rearranging her stuff, and undoubtedly headed for Mom and Dad's bathroom, where she loves to unroll the entire roll of toilet paper

Ooo! It's fun to play cars on top of the coffee table!

Feeling very happy and proud on top of the patio table

Watch My Show

We have a new phenomenon in our house - putting on shows. I don't know how or why it started, but in the last month, I've been hearing, "Hey Mom, watch my show!" a lot.

I had the video camera handy when the first show aired. Emily was in a dancing mood. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the swimsuit, but she felt like putting on a SHOW.

"Hey Mom, watch my show!" The arm moves, the hip wiggling, the serious "I'm so cool" face...it all made for fantastic fun. I asked her to do it again for the camera, and she happily complied. Addie got in on it too, and their cool moves had tears coming out of my eyes as I tried to suppress the giggles.

Our Crazy May Weather

May was all over the place with its weather. We started out in the sprinklers, then we played in the snow, and ended the month in the pool. Gotta love Colorado!

SIX days after our first run through the sprinklers, we had SNOW!

The girls and their "Olaf"s

A few days later, the melted snow had everything looking jewel-tone green, and our Olafs were turning into memories.

And two weeks after that, we were in the pool celebrating Memorial Day.

Lovely, just lovely, all of it.