Adjusting

So for a lack of better words, we are totally adjusting.  With this, comes less time for me to upload pictures, edit pictures, type up a blog post, and everything else I normally do during the day.  It’s more like, making breakfast for 3, load the dishwasher, wipe the table, circle time, playtime, break up disagreements, storytime, park, make lunch, load dishwasher again, rest time, park/outdoor time, snack time, load dishwasher again, and finally pick up time.  Throw in a few dirty diapers, a potty training 2 year old – attempting to potty train another 2 year old, bottle feeding for miles, and preschool pick up and drop off three days a week, you’ll see how busy we really are and how much adjusting is actually taking place.

Luckily for us, Miles was only scheduled to come 1 day this week, which means we do have a period of adjustments with just the girls for the most part and then we can add him in more in the coming weeks. 

It seems to be going pretty good.  The girls are having fun, not to many disagreements, and they are adjusting good to being over here all the time. 

So basically, as of now, during this adjustment period, the posts will be fewer and further in between.  I have a little time at night, but hate to take away from family, so hopefully after we get into a better/more structured routine here, I can get back into my “bloggy time” during nap/rest time.  Until then, don’t worry and be surprised if there is a couple days in between blog entries!  It’s life man!

A New Adventure!

 

Beginning today….Monday…..We are having two little friends join us during the day!  Our friend was in need of daycare for her 2.5 year old and 4 year old and we decided since Rylee and Mya were already friends, that they would have fun playing together all day. 

Madeline (4yr old) has preschool a couple of days a week in the afternoons and Mya (2.5 yr old) will be here all day Monday thru Friday.

We really think this will be good for Rylee to have friends around all the time.  It will also help to keep us busy throughout the winter months that get sooooooo long. 

Children’s Museum of South Dakota

Last Sunday, The new Children’s Museum of South Dakota opened in town.  It is located in the old elementary school building and has been renovated and is pretty amazing.

Rylee invited her friend Mya to join us for the day on Friday and take in the new museum.  It was perfect as we went at 10:00 am when it opened and not too many others were there at the time.  I love the fact that I will be able to take her during the day without the fear of massive crowds and germs from snotty nosed little kids. 

To say Rylee and Mya enjoyed the museum was a little bit of an understatement.  They didn’t want to leave the grocery store (which I must say is a little brand specific – as it was stocked with all things HyVee. 

 

Next we moved into the farm.  Can we say that these two girls are city-girls.  They refused to pick the veggies from the stalk or ground, but instead headed to the troughs where all the extra plastic veggies were stored.  There is a big pig with piglets that can nurse,  a cow that can be milked and chickens that you can pick eggs from (they have a whole under the chicken where eggs can be placed so it appears as tho they have layed eggs). 

After the farm we headed over to the sod house.  This was complete with a old stove and cow pies to heat them.  The girls absolutely loved the sod house and played in it for a good 30 minutes. 

We also took in the band/music area, the art area, the water area, the tv studio, and the mini-explorer area.  We didn’t make it to the cafe, the post office, or the cloud climber other for a quick photo on the lowest platform.  Back by the band/music/sensory area there was a giant light bright.  Rylee really enjoyed sticking the large colored pegs into the slots and watching them glow.

Last February, We painted a ceramic tile that they were going to use in the new museum.  They made three giant murals using all of the tiles that they had painted.  Rylee’s is the blue purple and pinkish/red on in the center.  Its pretty cool to think she will always be a part of the museum.

We will be heading back soon to take in another days worth.  We are going to be purchasing season passes so we can take the museum in whenever we would like to this winter.

Wordless Wednesday – Big Kid Story Time

Fall Fun!

 

Fall officially begins tomorrow, or today, depending on where you live and what your calendar says! (Apparently some calendars have it marked on the wrong date)  Either way, the fall weather is here for the most part…….except for yesterday in which we had a sporadic heat wave with lots of humidity.  yuck. 

For us, With Fall, comes all sorts of new fun and concerns.  We start Story time today.  Hopefully we can continue to go for the majority of the time without worrying about germs/colds/illnesses.  Last year we began it in October and after the first session we ended it because of all the “yuck” that was there.  But we will try again this year. 

Fall also brings the opportunity for us to go pick apples, pumpkins and gourds.  We do love the cooler weather and going for walks and stomping on all the crunchy leaves.  It’s perfect park weather during the fall.

We do have many concerns once fall sets in tho.  It brings the beginning of flu season, cold season, threats for pneumonia and just overall germ phobia’s set in for us.  We are planning to not seclude ourselves to the house this year, but we will be taking lots of precautions.  We will not be taking Rylee to our local Walmart as it seems that Everyone there is coughing or waiting for a prescription.  Of course this is just my germphobia talking as we do take her there during the summer months.  In general we try to keep her away from places with pharmacies.  We also are very willing to leave a location (restauraunt, story time, museum) if we feel that there are too many airborne germs from people coughing. 

It is not going to stop us from having fun this fall tho.  We have lots planned.  We have started up our tot time again……..and today we plan on making sugar cookies.  Rylee has never really helped other then to sit on the counter or table and watch, but she’s gonna get to get her hands dirty today!

No pictures today, but plenty to come! We have fun stuff coming up.  :) Lots of Fall Fun!

We belong in the circus

     Last week the Kristi-Kole James Circus made a surprise stop in our town so we made a spur of the moment decision to attend.  I am glad we did because Rylee really enjoyed it.  She kept saying circus the next day which was a sign to me that she liked attending and remembers it. 

This circus is much smaller then the Shrine circus that we attended last spring.  There was only 1 clown, 1 elephant, 5 tigers, like 7 dogs and 3 acrobats.   There were a couple of different acts to including the great “Clothes Switch” act similar to the one shown on America’s Got Talent this season.  Regardless of how they switch their clothes and how many layers they have tucked into their outfits underneath, it is amazing they can do it so quickly. 

At this time last week, we were on somewhat of an eating strike from the little miss.  She was refusing almost everything we offered.  At the circus however she indulged on popcorn and SDSU Icecream.  Probably not the healthiest items out there, but both loaded with fat and when she is refusing to eat, Something is better then nothing. 

Sneak Peak – Rylee’s 2 yr Pics

 

We headed out yesterday to snap some 2 year pictures.

Here’s a sneak peak at what we got!

Flashback Friday

Crazy to think that last year at this time we were still in shorts and t-shirts.  Hopefully our nice weather returns for just a little bit longer!

Jacket Weather

It’s crazy to think that another summer has come and gone, yet we are loving the cooler, non humid temps that we have been having.  I was a little sad that it almost completely skipped the jeans and short sleeve weather, but I do love the sweatshirt/jacket weather too. 

We spent the afternoon in pants and jackets, playing on our playset in the back yard.  Rylee loves the slide and swing.  I can’t wait till we can finish the entire swing set next summer and get her a big girl swing.

View Full Album

The Birthday Bash Part 2

 

Rylee was more then spoiled at both of her parties.  At her friend party we attempted to get a picture with the cupcake cake.  Try to get 9 kiddos to look at the camera. YEA RIGHT.  These are the best that we got.

She had lots of help opening presents.  She got so much stuff.  She got 2 dora dolls, silly bands, stickers, a dora microphone, dora birthday movie, princess and the frog movie, 2 new books, pencils and paper, magnets, and a mini trampoline.

She loved the trampoline along with all of her other presents.

The favors were bug related as we originally thought we were having a lady bug party.  The kids all loved them.

We had a family party on her actual birthday.  Again, spoiled was the theme of the day as she got soooo much stuff. 

We loved having almost all of our family there.  Rylee got a new bike and helmet, a chair, a bubble lawn mower, twin baby dolls, a crown, a necklace, play food, 3 new tag jr. books, a leapster and 2 games, a purse book, 4 dora movies, a dora book, ponytails, another book, a doll stroller, highchair and playpen, and a toy kitchen (which isn’t finished yet).

Grandpa Jeff worked hard to put the doll stroller together.

Our neighbors restaurant catered the lunch for us so we had the Backyard Grills pulled pork sandwhiches, baked beans, potato salad and lemonade.

Both parties were so much fun and Rylee loves all of her gifts.  She couldn’t have asked for a better day. 

RYLEE SAYS THANK YOU TO ALL HER GENEROUS FRIENDS. 

The Birthday Bashes – Pink and Green Party

 

The theme for Rylee’s 2nd Birthday Party was Pink and Green…..Well it actually started out as Red and Black ladybugs….It soon turned to Pink and Green Ladybugs……and then finally just to Pink and Green. 

The Gift Table.  I made the Banner and Painted the letters in her name.  The Thank You bags are just Pink and Green bags from Hobby Lobby with Pink tulle bows.  Inside the bags was a bug catcher and net from the Dollar Tree, a magnifying glass from the Easter Section at WalMart last spring and a swirly pop from WalMart.

The treat table was sorta squished for the first party.  We didn’t have enough tables and this ended up on a smaller table.  Oh well.  The Pink container on the left held pink and green silverware.  I stuffed tissue paper in first and then added some lime green Easter grass.  The polk-a-dot plates are from hobby lobby.  We had Pink Lemonade with Limes in it and there was also pink and green starbursts (did you know you could buy bags of light pink and yellow and dark pink and green starbursts), pink and green fruities, Jumbo Strawberry marshmallows, and strawberry whopper balls.

 

Again, I made the banner.  They were not perfect as I do not have a cricut and I was out of ink in my printer to print the letters, so I ended up tracing them off of my computer screen.  Oh well, we did what worked for the time being!

Here is a view of the tables…nothing too fancy.  I made the pom-poms from tissue paper that hung in the corners and in the back I had made some accordian circle things out of scrapbook paper.  I also made this banner the same as the “gifts and treats” banners.

About 3 weeks prior to her party, our oven broke.  As in the stove still works, but the oven is out of commission.  I was going to use a friends oven to make cupcakes and cake balls, but time got away from us and it didn’t get done.  So to HyVee we went and ordered a Dora the Explorer 2 shaped cupcake cake.  She loved it.  On her family birthday party I had just ordered 2 dozen cupcakes with pink and green frosting.  They threw on some purple dora and boots rings which made Rylees day also!

More Pictures of the actual parties to come later!

Sad Not So Wordless Wednesday

 

On Friday night, I recieved a horrible call from one of my good friends.  She called to tell me that our other friend, Megan and her family had been in a car accident and that Megan didn’t make it.  What a sad night it was.  Their pickup was hit by a car and driver who failed to stop at a stop sign.  The driver of the car and Megan were killed.

I could not stop thinking about her family.  Her husband, at 24 years old, alone to raise the couples 11 month old little boy Lane.  So Sad.  And Lane, to not have his mommy right there with him to watch him grow up, kiss his boo boos, and tuck him in at night, although I know she will still be doing that, just from another place and that someday, he will get to meet his mama again.

I have on various occasions, watched little Lane, while his daycare lady was off for the day and what not.  I also had almost daily chats with Megan on facebook throughout the day discussing everything about weekend plans to the best deals on baby clothes.  She was such a good, loving mama, and her life revolved around her little man.  She loved him so much.

It’s so hard to think about a young mother being taken from her young son and husband so early, however I know that god has a bigger plan for her and that she will forever watch over this area and her family.  We love you Megan!  You will be missed greatly!