Parent-Teacher Conferences

A few take-aways from the parent-teacher conferences we had this week:

Neve
- Happy
- Independent
- Loves art
- Loves to eat
- Interacts with all teachers and does not have a 'favorite'
- Plays with a select couple of girls in her class

Ellie
- Can follow 3+ directions at a time
- Communicates with adults and kids, each at their own level
- Falls down frequently
- Soft spoken
- Plays with everyone (teachers and all the kids in her class)
- Can identify her name and her friend's names (a step towards reading on her own!)

Both of the conferences were very positive and the girls are doing awesome!   I love meeting with the teachers and hearing how the girls are doing.  We get notes home each day and talk to the teachers frequently, but it is still fun to have one-on-one without little kids around.  We also recieved a portfolio for each of the kids.   Check out Ellie's hand-writing skills:

Not bad for a 3 1/2 year old!

Dress-Up

 How cute is this little princess?

5 on Friday

1. Last Friday was our 5 year anniversary.   We lined it up so Ellie and Neve would go to my sister's house, while Nick and I enjoyed a dinner without children at Latin King.  Nick had flowers that matched my bridal bouquet sent to work for me to enjoy.   It was the annual Mommy and Muffin's at day-care that morning.   Then Neve got sick Wednesday afternoon.... she was still sick Thursday.... and Friday!  Nick had work meetings he couldn't miss Friday morning.  Which meant a frantic call to my mom at 7:20AM to see if she could come down and watch Neve for an hour while I went to Mommy and Muffin's with Ellie (Ellie was already really sad she was not going to get to go to Mike and Megan's).   My mom dropped everything and was at our house a little before 9AM.  Thanks, Mom!    Nick brought the flowers home with him over the lunch hour, so I could start enjoying them.  And we ordered take-out from The Cheesecake Factory in lieu of a dinner out.  It may not have been what we planned, but it was still amazing.

2. Saturday we were able to help a dear friend celebrate graduation with his Masters.   We were super proud of him and all the work he has put in over the past couple of years.  Nick is also excited to have a buddy to play video games with at night (since he won't be studying anymore). 

3. I had an amazing Mother's Day.    I was able to sleep in, and awoke to a very excited Ellie showing me the Mother's Day card she had made me.   I got some studying in, organized the pantry, went on a family bike ride to the ice cream shop and enjoyed watching the season finale of Revenge.  I am so lucky.

4. Not sure where she came up with it, but Ellie thinks that if the trees are moving/blowing in the wind it is cold outside.  If they are not, then it is warm and she can wear shorts.   It is hard to explain to her that just because it is not windy does not mean that it is not cold out. 

5. Ellie had her 6-month visit to the dentist this week.  She didn't want the dentist to wear a mask (I am thinking she got it from Finding Nemo?).   Lucky for her, Dr. Matt does not wear a mask.   She did awesome as usual and gets to start flossing on top of brushing now!  She is excited.

Eat Cake

Gender Reveal

As I mentioned in a "5 on Friday" post a few weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to help a friend out with a very special project--- one of my college roommates enlisted my help with the gender reveal photo shoot for her second child!  They did not find out the gender ahead of time with their first child, so this was new for them and I knew it needed to be extra special.    I was honored to be asked to help with such a fun event, and to be the first one (outside of the ultrasound tech) to know the gender of their little baby. 

My friend had lots of ideas, and we went  from there with the planning.  I loved designing how the crate was going to work and how the signs would look, and was really proud that she thought I was creative enough to put it all together.  She hired a photographer to capture the special moment(s), and they created a video to send to friends and family announcing whether the baby is a boy or girl.

Here is the finished product:

Who Will You Be... He or She?

How cute is that!?!   I think the video captures the excitement and nervousness of them finding out the gender for the first time.  I love the song they picked (I had never heard it before), and thought the timing of it and the "reveal" was perfect.   Ellie loves the video as well, and has watched it many, many, many times.   So many times that she now sings along to the song, comments when "Little G" (the stuffed giraffe we gave to them as a congrats present) shows up on the video, and tells the little boy to "not run away from his parents" at one point in the video.   

We are so excited for them and their family of four, and were honored we could help out with such a special event!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!   Five years ago today we started the next stage of our journey together.  While the day was such a blur, I was on cloud nine and loved every minute of it. 

Back then we merged our families together into a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, no garage house.  My two cats with your two dogs.  We separated household duties, with you taking care of the outside and me taking care of the inside, splitting the cooking (and cooking together when possible).  While we did not like the same TV shows, we loved to brew beer together, and often times found ourselves drinking a bottle of wine and talking for hours.

Now we have an amazing family of four, us and our two beautiful daughters.   We traded in the Norwalk house for a slightly bigger house (with more bathrooms) in Waukee (closer to our friends).   We even have a third stall in the garage for you to work on your bikes.   Our household duties still stand, although they seem to have grown with the corner lot and extra little kid clothes.   When we watch TV together (and this is rare), we are watching a Disney movie with the girls.   We still enjoy brewing beer together, and can still talk for hours over a bottle of wine with the music playing in the background.   We love our family time with the girls, and sitting down for dinner at the table each night is a tradition I hope we continue through the years. 

We have faced obsticles through the years (a little water in the basement, the house on fire), but there is no one I would have rather gone through them with than you.   We worked hard to get where we are, and I cherish our life together every day.   I still feel like the luckiest girl on the planet, even five years later.   God has looked out for us and has blessed us with each other, our girls and our life together.

I look forward to many more years, and the fun that is yet to come.   I know there will be challenges along the way, but as long as we have each other we will get through them.

Thanks for a wonderful five years.

to the moon and back...

5 on Friday

1. On Friday Ellie played in the snow.  In May.   She was upset that she didn't have snowpants to wear (because I had packed them away), but that didn't stop her from sledding down the hill in the backyard.    Of course we forgot to take pictures.  At least we have memories. 

2. I have to admit, I secretly love the crappy weather.  It makes studying so much easier, and I do not feel like I am missing out on as much as I put my nose in a book for hours on end.

3. My parents stopped over on Sunday and gave Neve part of her birthday gift (we have not seen them in a long time).   The girls loved playing with the bubble machine outside this week... we have gone through a few containers of bubbles already.
4. Genevieve's transition from the portable bath tub to the big bath tub has been a challenge to say the least.   She would scream bloody murder from the minute she heard the water start to run until she was wrapped in her bath wrap and being rocked in her chair.   Until last week... when after about 8 minutes of screaming she finally decided the water was not the worst thing ever, and even smiled a little.   Now she goes in the bath without a single tear.  Thank goodness!  

5. My baby is officially done with bottles.   When we used up the last of the stored breastmilk we decided that whole milk would be given in a sippy cup (as we did with Ellie).  At first she was a little unsure of the sippy cup and she spit out the milk the first time I gave it to her.  Once she realized that was what she was getting she drank it up.  Now if we could just get rid of the pacifier...  One step at a time and with the teething she has going on right now I am not going to even try.