Allison Update

Age: 5 years old

Likes: Playing board games, putting together puzzles, completing her workbook, and reading.

Dislikes: Hearing about anything "fun" that Mia did while Allison was in school.

Wants in life:  A dog and a trip to Disney World.

Strengths:  Allison is very sweet and is always concerned about others. She is doing well in school and is starting to read words which makes her very excited.

Things she needs to work on:  Knowing she can't get what she wants all the time. She also needs to know when to stop bugging her younger sister.

Memorable quotes:

On the way home from school:
Allison "Mom, I gave someone my phone number today, because he is my best friend. And he gave me his"
Me - "That's nice, what's his name."
Allison - "I don't know. I forgot."

Amelia Update

Age: 4 years old

Likes: Playing Little People, riding her bike and other outdoor activities, playing with Leapster and Wii, dogs (real and stuffed), and reading books.

Dislikes: Timeouts and taking naps

Wants in life:  A dog and a trip to Disney World. She REALLY wants both!

Strengths:  Amelia has a wonderful imagination and sense of humor. She continuously cracks us up with her dramatics.

Things she needs to work on:  Controlling her temper and keeping her hands to herself.

Memorable quotes:

I was trying to talk Amelia into eating her fish sticks and told her that they look yummy and if I were her, I would eat them. She replied back with: "If I were you, I would eat them too. But I'm not you, I'm me."


Amelia - "When is Penny going to get here"
Me - (blink, blink -what?) - You mean Porter? When is he going to get here?"
Amelia - "Yeah, Quarter. When is he going to get here?"
Me - "It's Porter, with a P."
Amelia - "Oh, ok Porter."

1/2 hour later.. "When is Quarter coming."

  

Halloween Fun

Halloween was so much fun this year as the girls were really into it. Allison and Mia couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating.  Allison was dressed as Strawberry Shortcake and Mia was dressed as a witch - a "mean" witch according to Mia. It rained all afternoon and the temperature didn't make it out of the 30's; however, we didn't let that deter us. I layered them up in clothes underneath their costumes to the point I was afraid they wouldn't be able to walk. Luckily, the rain stopped in time for us to go outside. It appeared that the poor weather kept a lot of the trick-or-treaters away, so the girls didn't have to compete with other kids until the end.  Other than Amelia wiping out and falling face first on the sidewalk, the girls had a lot of fun and collected a bunch of candy.

Celebrating Fall

 

What We Have Been Up To

So, I kind of neglected the blog a bit. I have to admit that I lost motivation for it. I had to remind myself that this blog serves as a our family journal as well.

Here is a brief recap of what we did in October.

We "ArtPrized' several times. Amelia and I made a few trips downtown. Allison and I had a special night out and visited a few sites.  Brian kicked me out of the house the last day and I was able spend some time wandering around downtown by myself. Three glorious hours later, along with a piece of chocolate cake and a fountain Coke, I felt completely rejuvenated. It was exactly what I needed.

Amelia turned four and we celebrated her birthday with the grandparents. My Dad gives each grandchild a glass piggy bank filled with pennies when they turn four.

I went on a field trip with Allison to the apple orchard. I also started volunteering at her school one afternoon a week to help during their lunch period. I am now known as "Allison's Mom". 

The girls took swimming lessons. 

Amelia and I spend quality time in the car every afternoon on our way to pick up Allison. Sometimes she plays her Leapster games and other times she is content with looking out the window. I love looking back and seeing her face.

I also volunteered at Allison's fall harvest party.  

We spent Saturday mornings relaxing. By the end of the school week, Allison is beat and makes it clear that she doesn't want to go anywhere on Saturday - all she wants to do is stay in her PJs and play. 

Art Graces the Sky

This past weekend we brought the girls downtown to a special event taking place at ArtPrize. One of the entries was the release of 15,000 - 20,000 Chinese lanterns. Due to poor weather the weekend before, they rescheduled it to the following weekend, which meant my Mom was going to be in town and could attend with us.

We didn't say anything to the girls that we were going until that evening at dinner time. We told them that the lantern launch would be just like the movie Tangled.  They were every excited. We arrived about one and a half hours early and kept ourselves busy with a game of Uno and taking funny pictures while Brian patiently waited in line to get a couple of lanterns for the girls.  After that, a long wait at the Ford Museum for the bathrooms kept us busy until it turned dark and it was time to light and launch the lanterns.

When it came time to light the lanterns, I was so busy watching Brian light them, taking videos, and watching the girls' reaction, I didn't even notice what was going on behind me. I will always remember turning around and seeing the sky lit up with the thousands of lanterns. It was one of the most breath-taking sights I have ever witnessed in my life. I was completely taken aback. I knew it was going to be a cool sight and I knew being the sappy person I am that I would probably get a little teary-eyed; however, I never imagined it would be so beautiful and emotional.

I still don't know what Allison thought of it. She was very serious about the whole thing - she watched but didn't say a word. It took Amelia a few minutes but then she was chattering away about how it looked like Tangled. Me? I was hyped up all night from the excitement. What I loved most was how the community came together for this event. I continue to  hear stories of how friendly everyone was; people sharing their lanterns with families who weren't able to get one before they ran out, or sharing their lighters. In watching videos that have been floating around (pun intended) on the internet, I hear people in awe at the sight. In reading comments on Facebook, people have been saying over and over that this will be a night that they will never forget and how much happiness it brought to their children. I also heard that the children at DeVos Children's Hospital were able to see the lights at they floated by - how cool is that! 

So to the people of Grand Rapids, I salute you. Thank you!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

On Labor Day weekend we went to a West Michigan Whitecaps game. It was the last item on our summer bucket list that I really wanted us to get to. The girls were excited to go. They went to a game last year with friends, but this was our first family trip to the ballpark. 

This is how I can best describe my trip to the game:

1st Inning  - Told the girls to sit down and that we would be getting their food in the next inning.

2nd Inning - Brian and I took the girls to get their free kids meal.

3rd Inning - Helped the girls eat their lunch (and ate Allison's unwanted hot dog)

4th Inning - Headed to the concourse to take Allison to the bathroom and for some cotton candy 

5th Inning -  Helped the girls with their cotton candy and took Amelia to the bathroom

Top of 6th Inning - watched the actual baseball game

Bottom of 6th Inning - Took the kids to the play area

7th and 8th Inning - Stood in the hot sun while Allison & Amelia waited their turn to get in the bouncy house

Top of 9th - Bought Dippin Dots

Bottom of 9th - Cleaned up after the girls

Post Game - Waited in line so the girls could run the bases

Exit out of parking lot - Listened to meltdowns by multiple members of the family

Halfway through the game, I thought to myself that I'm either annoying the heck out of the people around us by the constant up and down (luckily we had aisle seats) or there is some mom out there that is sympathizing with me. A few days after that game, I received a letter in the mail from my friend Andrea. Her sister-in-law Deb, who was our former daycare provider and the one who brought the girls to the game last year, was also at the game and had spotted us. She texted Andrea to tell her that she saw me at the game; however, I was never in my seat so she couldn't stop by our seats to say hello. She also sent Andrea this picture - of Brian sitting all by his lonesome, which I thought was hilarious. By the end of the game, most of the people sitting near us had given up on the game due to the heat, but it looks like no one wanted to sit near him.

Life as a Kindergartner

Allison started kindergarten this fall. It was a day I dreaded for five years, one month, and nine days. In reality, I was excited for her to go; however, I was a bit (a lot) nostalgic about the fact that our lives would be changing and she wouldn't be around on a daily basis anymore.

Leading up to the first week of school, Allison was excited about going. She expressed some hesitation though. The morning of her first day, she started off in good spirits; however just before we left, Allison became very quiet and refused to pose for pictures. So much for starting an annual tradition of the girls standing on the front porch with their backpacks (granted the pouring rain would have prevented that anyways).

When we arrived at the school, we realized we left our house about 10 minutes too late, which actually got us about 20 minutes behind schedule. By the time we made it through the traffic and the drop off lane, it was a few minutes past the start of school. I quickly ran Allison into the classroom and dropped her off. She gave me a hug and I ran out of there before she could get clingy.  I ran back into the car and we took off. It didn't take long for the tears to start flowing. 

At the end of the day, Brian and I left super early to pick her up so she wouldn't have to wait too long for us to get her at the end of her first day. Disappointed I didn't get my morning pictures, I was ready to take a picture of her coming out of school. I loved the look on her face. She was so relieved to see us. We celebrated the first day by going out to dinner.

So far, Allison is doing really well. She likes school and talks about her classmates. She told us on the second day that she was going to have a play date with Michael. A few days later she told us that while she still liked Michael, she was going to have a play date with someone else, so she can meet new people.  I love the innocence of this age! Brian and I showed up at her school fund racer to walk around the track with her. I tried to take it all in. How cute she looked running around the track; how willing she held our hands; the fact we had to encourage her to walk with her friends and not hang out with us the whole time; and how she held hands with her friends, even the boys.