1. We love the swimming pool! We went Sunday as a family after nap. Then again Tuesday after work.
2. On Wednesday the girls started swimming lessons. They each received a free month of lessons when they joined the club. Who am I to pass up free swimming lessons! They both did great and I was really impressed with the instructors.
3. I took a quick trip to Montana/North Dakota on Thursday and Friday. I don't think I have ever seen oil rigs in person before... but I saw a lot of them!
4. Ellie's first tee-ball game was rained out.
5. Ellie, Neve and Daddy had a picnic in work's multipurpose room on Friday. (It was too wet to be outside.) It sounds like they had a great time!
Friday, June 12, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
5 on Friday
1. The girls and I are driving home in the car and out of no where Ellie tells me that if I want to make some money I should go to "Diko dot com." (We have been stressing to her that when we go and buy things we have to pay money, and in order to have money we have to work hard for it and it is not just given to us.) I ask a few more questions to figure out what she is talking about. Questions such as "Where should I go?" and "Where did you hear this?" She heard it on the radio. A few minutes later a commercial comes on the radio. One about finding money under a rock and how you can save money by going to... Geiko.com. Ellie pipes up, "See mom, this is what I was telling you about!" Oh my. The kid hears things even when we don't.
2. Ellie started her second year of t-ball last night. She was pretty excited and seems to like it. One of our neighbors is the coach this year and she knows a lot of the other kids on the team. That helps- I just hope they pay attention during the game instead of play with each other.
3. "Our" park is complete! The kids are super excited and Neve loves swinging. I wish they had added more to the park, or at least left the original equipment and added to it. The park is now geared towards kids ages 5+, which makes it a little nerve-racking for Mommy when Neve climbs across the rock bridge to get to the tall slide.
4. Wednesday night is girls night in our house. I gave the girls the option to: play at the park with the neighbors, go to a class at LT or go swimming at LT. Can you guess what they opted to do??? Swimming it is! I am going to have little fishies by the end of the summer (which is perfectly find for this big fish.) I remember riding my bike to the pool all the time during the summer as a child. I feel bad that my girls won't have a similar experience with two working parents, but this works for us.
5. Ellie is participating in Waukee's Safety City program offered for kids entering kindergarten. She is in the session with a couple of the neighbor kids and loving it. Lucky for us our neighbor offered to watch her for an hour + before the program and transport her two and from the program each day. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!
2. Ellie started her second year of t-ball last night. She was pretty excited and seems to like it. One of our neighbors is the coach this year and she knows a lot of the other kids on the team. That helps- I just hope they pay attention during the game instead of play with each other.
3. "Our" park is complete! The kids are super excited and Neve loves swinging. I wish they had added more to the park, or at least left the original equipment and added to it. The park is now geared towards kids ages 5+, which makes it a little nerve-racking for Mommy when Neve climbs across the rock bridge to get to the tall slide.
4. Wednesday night is girls night in our house. I gave the girls the option to: play at the park with the neighbors, go to a class at LT or go swimming at LT. Can you guess what they opted to do??? Swimming it is! I am going to have little fishies by the end of the summer (which is perfectly find for this big fish.) I remember riding my bike to the pool all the time during the summer as a child. I feel bad that my girls won't have a similar experience with two working parents, but this works for us.
5. Ellie is participating in Waukee's Safety City program offered for kids entering kindergarten. She is in the session with a couple of the neighbor kids and loving it. Lucky for us our neighbor offered to watch her for an hour + before the program and transport her two and from the program each day. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!
Monday, June 1, 2015
A little behind: 5 on Friday (sort of)
Where does the time go? Or should I say- where did May go? I am not sure, but we kept very busy during the month. Here is an update on our happenings:
1. Ellie did great during her dance recital. She was a Lollipop Kid from the Wizard of Oz. Each class danced, and then they did a medley with all of the various characters from the movie. It was very cute and she loved celebrating with frozen yogurt after the recital! I cannot wait for the video to arrive in the mail, since I was behind the scenes and didn't get to watch the entire dance.
2. I was the "Dance Mom" for Ellie's class. Thirteen little girls in the basement of Stephens Auditorium... I didn't lose a single one and kept them pretty busy while we waited to go on! I did have help getting the girls up to the stage, off the stage, in a new order for dancing and back on stage for the medley. Not sure I could have done that myself!
3. Our oldest nephew graduated from high school a couple weeks ago! I cannot believe it... he cannot be that old! Nick and Ellie went to the graduation, Neve and I joined them later for the party. Our nephew is bright young man, we are very proud of him, and wish him the best in the next stage of his life.
4. I cleaned the windows on the outside of the house for the first time! Sad, I know. But they cleaned them before we moved back in after the fire and I never got around to cleaning them last summer. They were looking pretty dirty. Six hours of hard work later they were sparkling clean inside and out. Let me tell you--- as pretty as the super tall windows look, they are not fun to clean. Hoping I can wait to do it again until next spring/summer. Although the clean windows are really nice to look through.
5. Two + years later, we are almost done with our bags set (corn hole set). I had made the actual bags a while ago, but we hadn't finished the wood portion (dang the legs that are not that fun to cut). I only have one more coat of polyurethane to put on, then Nick has to add the handles and lights under the holes and we are good to go! I have to say- they are pretty fancy and I love how they turned out. The upgrade is a longer board set than our original ones (regulation size). And the lights under the holes. The slight downgrade is we opted to do a decal instead of hand painting the Tiger Hawk head. They still look pretty nice- although I do miss the original ones we lost in the fire. Nick and the neighbors tried them out yesterday and they seem to work great. Just need to break the bags in a little.
6. Our spare bedroom is officially cleaned out! It had sort of become a catch all room for the past three years. My brother and sister-in-law came to stay with us this past weekend, so it forced me to do a little organizing and cleaning. I made two trips to Goodwill and had a bag or two of trash. The closest still needs a little organizing- but it is a great start and I love looking peaking in at it when I am downstairs.
7. Nick, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my sister all ran the Dam to Dam race on Saturday. Megan and Nick trained together each week, while Eric and Jess kept active in Iowa City. I am very proud of all of them--- not something I think I will ever do.
8. We had everyone over for a pre-race dinner on Friday night, although the timing worked out that the Ankeny crew had to leave before the IC crew arrived due to work delays and kid bedtimes. We ate in shifts and it worked out just fine. We had a great time and loved seeing everyone over the course of the night.
9. Ellie loved having her IC cousins spend the night. We would not let her sleep downstairs with all the girls (because she wouldn't sleep), but did let the second oldest cousin sleep in her room... the cousin may have wished she was downstairs when Ellie turned on the light at 3AM because she was awake and wanted to play! They were up and ready to go at 6AM (most likely because Ellie was awake).
10. All six girls and I ventured down to cheer the runners on at the race (signs and all). My parents, brother-in-law, nephew and niece joined us there. Pretty fun having all 12 of us there to cheer everyone on (even if it was a little cold).
11. Ellie graduated from preschool on Friday! It is hard to believe that she will be moving on from the place that she has gone to since she was 7 weeks old! I did get a picture of her with her best friend, another little girl that started a week after her and has been there the entire time. Super cute!
12. On Wednesday I joined Neve and her class on a field trip to the zoo. Neve loves the zoo and was very excited to see the lions (since she is known as the Baby Lion).
13. We have been making the most of my Christmas gift--- memberships for Nick and the girls to LifeTime for the summer. Seriously--- Nick did a great job with that gift! The girls LOVE doing the classes (they did yoga last Monday and we have already highlighted other classes like tennis, cheer, and karate that they want to try) and we have been to the pool (indoor and outdoor) multiple times since they joined over Memorial Day weekend. I had the day off on Wednesday (for the field trip), so I picked the girls up from day-care after nap (and after I had my errands completed) and we hit the pool. It was a beautiful day and none of us wanted to leave when it was dinner time. On Sunday Ellie was asking if she could go to a class at LT. She enjoys going to a class and I get a workout in--- how can I say no to that? So Nick biked to the gym and joined the girls and I for a swim after I worked out and the girls did an Arts & Crafts class. It was perfect. I can already tell it is going to be an amazing summer!
1. Ellie did great during her dance recital. She was a Lollipop Kid from the Wizard of Oz. Each class danced, and then they did a medley with all of the various characters from the movie. It was very cute and she loved celebrating with frozen yogurt after the recital! I cannot wait for the video to arrive in the mail, since I was behind the scenes and didn't get to watch the entire dance.
2. I was the "Dance Mom" for Ellie's class. Thirteen little girls in the basement of Stephens Auditorium... I didn't lose a single one and kept them pretty busy while we waited to go on! I did have help getting the girls up to the stage, off the stage, in a new order for dancing and back on stage for the medley. Not sure I could have done that myself!
3. Our oldest nephew graduated from high school a couple weeks ago! I cannot believe it... he cannot be that old! Nick and Ellie went to the graduation, Neve and I joined them later for the party. Our nephew is bright young man, we are very proud of him, and wish him the best in the next stage of his life.
4. I cleaned the windows on the outside of the house for the first time! Sad, I know. But they cleaned them before we moved back in after the fire and I never got around to cleaning them last summer. They were looking pretty dirty. Six hours of hard work later they were sparkling clean inside and out. Let me tell you--- as pretty as the super tall windows look, they are not fun to clean. Hoping I can wait to do it again until next spring/summer. Although the clean windows are really nice to look through.
5. Two + years later, we are almost done with our bags set (corn hole set). I had made the actual bags a while ago, but we hadn't finished the wood portion (dang the legs that are not that fun to cut). I only have one more coat of polyurethane to put on, then Nick has to add the handles and lights under the holes and we are good to go! I have to say- they are pretty fancy and I love how they turned out. The upgrade is a longer board set than our original ones (regulation size). And the lights under the holes. The slight downgrade is we opted to do a decal instead of hand painting the Tiger Hawk head. They still look pretty nice- although I do miss the original ones we lost in the fire. Nick and the neighbors tried them out yesterday and they seem to work great. Just need to break the bags in a little.
6. Our spare bedroom is officially cleaned out! It had sort of become a catch all room for the past three years. My brother and sister-in-law came to stay with us this past weekend, so it forced me to do a little organizing and cleaning. I made two trips to Goodwill and had a bag or two of trash. The closest still needs a little organizing- but it is a great start and I love looking peaking in at it when I am downstairs.
7. Nick, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my sister all ran the Dam to Dam race on Saturday. Megan and Nick trained together each week, while Eric and Jess kept active in Iowa City. I am very proud of all of them--- not something I think I will ever do.
8. We had everyone over for a pre-race dinner on Friday night, although the timing worked out that the Ankeny crew had to leave before the IC crew arrived due to work delays and kid bedtimes. We ate in shifts and it worked out just fine. We had a great time and loved seeing everyone over the course of the night.
9. Ellie loved having her IC cousins spend the night. We would not let her sleep downstairs with all the girls (because she wouldn't sleep), but did let the second oldest cousin sleep in her room... the cousin may have wished she was downstairs when Ellie turned on the light at 3AM because she was awake and wanted to play! They were up and ready to go at 6AM (most likely because Ellie was awake).
10. All six girls and I ventured down to cheer the runners on at the race (signs and all). My parents, brother-in-law, nephew and niece joined us there. Pretty fun having all 12 of us there to cheer everyone on (even if it was a little cold).
11. Ellie graduated from preschool on Friday! It is hard to believe that she will be moving on from the place that she has gone to since she was 7 weeks old! I did get a picture of her with her best friend, another little girl that started a week after her and has been there the entire time. Super cute!
12. On Wednesday I joined Neve and her class on a field trip to the zoo. Neve loves the zoo and was very excited to see the lions (since she is known as the Baby Lion).
13. We have been making the most of my Christmas gift--- memberships for Nick and the girls to LifeTime for the summer. Seriously--- Nick did a great job with that gift! The girls LOVE doing the classes (they did yoga last Monday and we have already highlighted other classes like tennis, cheer, and karate that they want to try) and we have been to the pool (indoor and outdoor) multiple times since they joined over Memorial Day weekend. I had the day off on Wednesday (for the field trip), so I picked the girls up from day-care after nap (and after I had my errands completed) and we hit the pool. It was a beautiful day and none of us wanted to leave when it was dinner time. On Sunday Ellie was asking if she could go to a class at LT. She enjoys going to a class and I get a workout in--- how can I say no to that? So Nick biked to the gym and joined the girls and I for a swim after I worked out and the girls did an Arts & Crafts class. It was perfect. I can already tell it is going to be an amazing summer!
Friday, May 15, 2015
5 on Friday
1. Last Friday Nick and I decided to have lunch in early celebration of our 7th wedding anniversary. We thought it would be fun to leave the kids at day-care (pre-paid babysitter), hit up Table 128 (local and awesome) and enjoy a free afternoon. We had a great time and even got all of our flowers and gardening supplies purchased before Nick went home to mow the lawn and I picked up the girls from school.
2. Friday night we planted some flowers (with the help of the girls and the neighbor girl) and then went in for dinner. The weather was so beautiful we had to take advantage and ventured out after dinner to plant the garden (once again with the help of three little ones). So the flower and garden planting I thought we would do on Saturday was all done Friday night! Perfect!
3. Saturday morning we worked in the garage (cleaning it out and putting up some organizers) while the girls played outside. After nap we were back outside to play with the neighbors. Given the beautiful weather we had dinner on the patio and invited the neighbors over for s'mores afterwards. Turns out the neighbors behind us had the same idea. By the end of the night we had countless kids riding toy tractors down the little hill in the backyard and running between yards playing. Ellie even meet a new friend that will be going to kindergarten at the same school as her next year. This new friend was THRILLED to find out there were two other little girls in the neighborhood, as they just moved in in the fall and the neighbors around them have all boys.
4. Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day and our Anniversary. It was pretty low-key (I did laundry and cleaned the house since I spent most of the prior day outside playing). We did go swimming (which the girls loved) and had an amazing dinner. Overall, a pretty perfect weekend.
5. Ellie had her dance dress rehearsal in Ames on Thursday afternoon. We road with the next door neighbors and picked up Hickory Park for dinner after the rehearsal (win-win!). This weekend is the recital.
2. Friday night we planted some flowers (with the help of the girls and the neighbor girl) and then went in for dinner. The weather was so beautiful we had to take advantage and ventured out after dinner to plant the garden (once again with the help of three little ones). So the flower and garden planting I thought we would do on Saturday was all done Friday night! Perfect!
3. Saturday morning we worked in the garage (cleaning it out and putting up some organizers) while the girls played outside. After nap we were back outside to play with the neighbors. Given the beautiful weather we had dinner on the patio and invited the neighbors over for s'mores afterwards. Turns out the neighbors behind us had the same idea. By the end of the night we had countless kids riding toy tractors down the little hill in the backyard and running between yards playing. Ellie even meet a new friend that will be going to kindergarten at the same school as her next year. This new friend was THRILLED to find out there were two other little girls in the neighborhood, as they just moved in in the fall and the neighbors around them have all boys.
4. Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day and our Anniversary. It was pretty low-key (I did laundry and cleaned the house since I spent most of the prior day outside playing). We did go swimming (which the girls loved) and had an amazing dinner. Overall, a pretty perfect weekend.
5. Ellie had her dance dress rehearsal in Ames on Thursday afternoon. We road with the next door neighbors and picked up Hickory Park for dinner after the rehearsal (win-win!). This weekend is the recital.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Grocery Delivery Update
Way to go Hy-Vee! They really nailed it on the home delivery of groceries. We had our first order last week and it worked out nearly perfect. The only issue was they did not have the diced chicken I ordered and didn't have any substitute options (according to my receipt--- but really, no other options?). Overall I was very please and the delivery guy was super polite (I think he may have put the groceries away in the fridge if I would have asked). I would highly recommend this option to people who make lists and stick to the lists when grocery shopping- if you don't have a list you could easily forget something and end up having to run to the store anyway.
We normally hit up Fareway for our shopping. It is a lot cheaper than Hy-Vee, not as overwhelming and I love the meat there. We will continue to do most of our shopping there, but for those weeks when time is stretched thin (or the weather is too nice to be inside shopping at the grocery store), this is a great option. We will see how often we use the Hy-Vee delivery this summer... I can already identify a few weeks in May that it will be needed (seriously, our May is SO busy!).
We normally hit up Fareway for our shopping. It is a lot cheaper than Hy-Vee, not as overwhelming and I love the meat there. We will continue to do most of our shopping there, but for those weeks when time is stretched thin (or the weather is too nice to be inside shopping at the grocery store), this is a great option. We will see how often we use the Hy-Vee delivery this summer... I can already identify a few weeks in May that it will be needed (seriously, our May is SO busy!).
5 on Friday
1. We kept very busy while Daddy was away on his biking trip. The girls got their hairs cut, we did a little shopping, the girls hit up dance class at LifeTime (while Mommy got a workout in), we went swimming, visited the zoo and had a picnic on the lawn!
2. Daddy got home earlier than expected on Sunday! Perfect timing for a little water play time with the neighbors. Our next door neighbor got a huge water slide contraption for her birthday, so we put it to use and the kids loved it.
3. Ellie had her last day of dance practice for the year on Tuesday! She is already signed-up for next years class.
4. We celebrated Mother's Day early with a dinner last night. We were headed to the mall for some errands and decided a trip to Cheesecake Factory would be easier on Thursday than on Mother's Day weekend.
5. While we have had some rain this week, we have also had periods of nice weather. We so love being outside!
2. Daddy got home earlier than expected on Sunday! Perfect timing for a little water play time with the neighbors. Our next door neighbor got a huge water slide contraption for her birthday, so we put it to use and the kids loved it.
3. Ellie had her last day of dance practice for the year on Tuesday! She is already signed-up for next years class.
4. We celebrated Mother's Day early with a dinner last night. We were headed to the mall for some errands and decided a trip to Cheesecake Factory would be easier on Thursday than on Mother's Day weekend.
5. While we have had some rain this week, we have also had periods of nice weather. We so love being outside!
Friday, May 1, 2015
5 on Friday
1. I woke up Saturday feeling AWESOME! Such a change from the previous 5 days. My sister-in-law messaged me and asked if we wanted visitors that afternoon--- she was in the mood for some shopping and the girls were wanting some cousin time. Worked out great for us and the three youngest girls came over to play for the afternoon. It was so much fun watching all five girls play with each other. They got along great, are so respectful and so well behaved. We cannot wait for them to come again at the end of May!
2. Sunday we picked out a couple new trees we are having installed near the patio. It will be nice to have a little more shade/blocking of the breeze. And such a beautiful day to be outside! We ended the day with some neighbor time (much missed while I was sick last week).
3. The weather is awesome! Neve misses the swings at the park, but they poured the basketball court and sidewalk this week and the equipment is expected to be in early next week. It will be nice to have it back, but we have been making do in the meantime.
4. Nick is on his spring bike trip. He left Thursday morning and gets back Sunday night. The girls and I have our days planned and are looking forward to the beautiful weather this weekend.
5. The girls are so excited for May Day and May Day 'baskets'. We have been collecting materials for a few months now and they loved putting them together Thursday night.
2. Sunday we picked out a couple new trees we are having installed near the patio. It will be nice to have a little more shade/blocking of the breeze. And such a beautiful day to be outside! We ended the day with some neighbor time (much missed while I was sick last week).
3. The weather is awesome! Neve misses the swings at the park, but they poured the basketball court and sidewalk this week and the equipment is expected to be in early next week. It will be nice to have it back, but we have been making do in the meantime.
4. Nick is on his spring bike trip. He left Thursday morning and gets back Sunday night. The girls and I have our days planned and are looking forward to the beautiful weather this weekend.
5. The girls are so excited for May Day and May Day 'baskets'. We have been collecting materials for a few months now and they loved putting them together Thursday night.
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