5 on Friday

1. We ordered new upstairs furniture on Saturday.   The new couch and loveseat are a little out of my comfort zone, but I think the color will look good in the main room.  We also looked at appliances, but have yet to order those...  It is a good thing I like to shop.  When I talked with the guy in charge of our rebuild on Monday he mentioned that there was a chance the house would be ready in 3 weeks!   I think he was a little optimistic (and he said he might be, too).  But even so, getting back in mid-September would be amazing.   The end is near!

2. We ventured out to the fair on Tuesday for Farm Bureau's annual "Day at the Fair."   We took the girls with us, which meant no nap for Ellie (I was hoping she would take a cat nap on the way to the fair, but she was too excited for that).    We ate some food, saw the horses, ate some more food, got a Hawkeye tattoo (the wash-off kind of course), picked up a yard stick for Mommy and grabbed some cookies to take home with us.  It was a fairly quick trip--- 2-3 hours (I carried Genevieve in my baby carrier and Ellie walked with Daddy), but we had fun.  Ellie's favorite part of the entire trip: the bus ride to and from the fair.  

3. Nick left on his fall biking trip yesterday. He is gone from Thursday-Sunday up in northern MN.   At first he was not going to go on the trip (he usually goes in mid-September, not August), but I encouraged him to go.  It gets him out of the condo (he gets a little stir crazy stuck at home for extended periods of time) and my parents are home so the girls and I can stay with them during the weekend (last year they were out of town during his fall trip).   And this way he will be around when we get back into the house and we do not have to worry about moving and the bike trip being at the same time.

4. Ellie is excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa's.  She called them Wednesday night to let them know she wanted to go get ice cream with them.   I cannot wait to show them the pictures I took of her when she was on the phone with them... that girl loves to talk on the phone.   Yesterday morning she thought we should go to Grandma and Grandpa's house instead of to day-care, she was a little upset when I told her no.  

5. Since it is just the girls and I on our own (until Friday anyway),  I let Ellie decide where she wanted to go after work  yesterday (for a fun adventure)... she picked the mall.  I tried to talk her into a picnic at the park, but that was a  no-go.  To the mall we went.