Gingerbread House

The girls made a gingerbread house, and it turned out pretty good! They had a blast and it took them a long time...especially Taylor. She's pretty particular about how things go.

Wildwoods Waterpark

Allie did a "oops" and sort of fell into the hotub. Didn't get hurt, just wasn't paying attention and went in kind of "sideways". She comes up out of the water and has the foam all over her mouth, and looks at me and goes, "Ho-Ho-Ho." It was the funniest thing!

The girls and dad on the lazy river!

Taylor skidding down the "kiddie" slide

Allie screaming down, waving!

I was able to get 4 passes to this waterpark in Otsego, pretty cheap and thought it would be a fun thing to do. Well, it seemed like it was almost "not meant to be". It was supposed to take 5-7 business days to get the passes; it took 2 weeks! The girls were so good and patient. We finally were going to go on a Sunday and Chad called to see what time they opened. BOOM! The water heater was broken. Didn't know when it would be fixed. FINALLY, we got there last weekend. It was a blast! We went Sunday morning about 8:30 a.m. and stayed until 11:30. Came home, ate lunch and the girls took a snooze. Allie, for 3 1/2 hours! They got up, and Chad took them back for another 2 hours!! Taylor went down a HUGE slide all by herself. Allie wasn't as big of a fan of the slides, but dad and Taylor went A LOT!! (Poor Chad, that's lots of stairs!) They had a great kids area, and super hot tub. They also had another pool area that was a "whirlpool" - the current just swirls you around. They loved that part!!

Childrens Museaum & Macy's 8th Floor!!

Girls with Santa!!

Taylor ready to "work"

Allie all ready to "deliver some mail"

We went with Aunt Lori, Owen and Ashley down to the Children's Museum and to see Macy's 8th Floor display a couple weeks ago. It was the best time! The girls had never been to the Childrens Museum and absolutely loved it. They did everything that was there and just ran around like kids in a candy store. It was fun having Owen show them things since he'd been there before, so he'd show them how to do different things or "come on girls, come look at this." It was cute - they had a blast! We then went and ate a quick lunch and headed downtown to see the Macy's display. We got "fancy" and parked in the Gavidai (sp?) parking garage, which is heated and valet parking. PERFECT since it was pretty chilly. When we got to the 8th floor after SEVERAL escalators, which I think was almost the highlight for all the kids, there was nobody there hardly. We walked right in! It was great. It was a great display and the kids saw Santa's Workshop and all the elves. There wasn't even a line for Santa, so we snuck that in too! It was a perfect day!!!

Thanksgiving

I think I got everyone.... Missy, Allie and Taylor...the girls:)


Allie & Bear Taylor & Bear

We went to Steve and Gail's house in Sartell for Thanksgiving. A lot of family was there and Kyle came with his new puppy, Bear. OOHHH...so darn cute! The girls fell in love with him. We stayed until about 8:30 p.m. when Allie started snoozin' on the couch. Apparently it was time to go home! She was pooped out.

Halloween!!

Halloween was interesting this year. It is my favorite holiday next to Christmas, which I just naturally assumed the girls would follow with me too. Taylor - yep, loves it! She's all about dressing up and the trick or treating. Allie, not so much. I can't believe it...it's just not right. The first issue was costume. She could NOT decide what she wanted to wear. Every suggestion we had was a "no". Taylor LOVED the "poodle skirt" idea. Allie couldn't decide, so I got her that too. She was NOT a fan. She humored me and wore it, but didn't love it.

Time for trick-or-treating and Allie seemed onboard. Grandma Julie, Jackie and Jodi came out to go with us. We went to one house and Taylor couldn't get the doorbell. Allie dropped her bag, went up to the house, rang the bell and knocked, and goes "there Taylor...I did it for you." And walked away! Wanted nothing to do with the candy. As Allie was leaving the next house, a little boy came from out of nowhere and knocked her down! She was beside herself. She cried and cried, and the boy didn't say one word. I, being the protective mom, hollered at him and said, "You could at least apologize for knocking her down. And slow down - there are little kids all over." He didn't even look at me. Come to find out, his dad was standing at the end of the driveway, saw the whole thing and didn't say anything either! Nice! Anyway, the fun was over for her. She told me, "Mom, maybe next year I'll just stay and hand out candy with daddy." Oh geez...

Taylor was all over it! She wanted to just keep going and going! She loves it.

First Day of 4-Year Preschool!!

Well, first day of 4-year preschool:( Not sure how this came so fast. But the girls are very excited and love going! I hope it keeps up for the next 12+ years! Allie told me she was NOT going to like this new room because it doesn't have a piano! Somehow I think she'll be ok and love it anyway:)

Hey, hey -- here we are!!!

Ok, shame on mom! I know, I'm TERRIBLE at this but I'm going to make a great effort to keep up. Probably not nearly as good as the Skram's, but we'll try. At the rate I'm going, the girls can probably just do it themselves!

Since my last post..in May (yikes!), obviously a lot has happened. I journal for them every day, so the "funnies" and not-so funnies are captured there, thank goodness.

Couple highlights, and then I'll just begin with now. Maybe I need to show dad how to do this..that may be the answer and then we can keep up!!

The girls went to my mom's place over 4th of July in Hinckley for a WEEK! It was too long we decided. Not even so much for them, but for grandma and grandpa and MOM! I did not like them being gone that long. The first couple days - yeah! Then too quiet. I think we'll stick to a day or two!

Spent a lot of time at the cabin this summer, which they LOVE! Dad put the slide on the end of the dock and the girls slid down into the lake...loved that. They are "little fish"... Allie and dad "chillin".....

We went to A'mazen Farm with Lisa and the Skram's which was so much fun! The kids had a great time and we probably could have even stayed longer. There was so much for the kids to do there. We will DEFINATELY go back next year!!

Random Stuff Today....

It was our last day of "nim-nastics" a.k.a. gymnastics. Miss Kathy was wonderful and we found out she lives right behind us by the "red park". The girls had so much fun and learned a lot from her. We didn't sign up for the next session, but we may look at the fall again. Now that spring is here, need to do the outside activities.

We went to an Open House at St. Andrew's Catholic School today. It was fantastic! The kids went to the kindergarten room with the teachers and the parents met with Father Joe, the principal, different parent volunteers and then the kindergarten teachers as well. It's wonderful! And the kids colored a picture, played in the room and....went on a school bus ride! Taylor and Allie thought that was the best thing ever! We left after 2 hours and they each got a little container of bubbles as well.

On our way home from the school, Allie was telling me about "Allison". Who is that you ask? Well, she was in Allie's tummy for 18 minutes. She then came out her mouth; per Taylor, that must have been "slickery". Allison drives a red car (because that's mommies favorite color), has red hair and her middle name is Johnny-O. She also likes to eat french toast sticks but with no syrup. She doesn't like to go to the bathroom, wears flip-flops and likes to sleep late. Allie is "hoping" Allison doesn't wake her up tomorrow morning so she can sleep in. I learned all this in a 4 minute car ride home from the school!

New Trees from Preschool

Preschool was giving away tiny, little bareroot Norway Pines. So we took two of them and planted in the backyard. The girl are now responsible for them! They need to water them two times a day!! The director at preschool said when her youngest daughter was 3 and went there, she got one. She's now 18 and the tree stands 20 ft! I think that is really great and hopefully ours will grow just as good!!!

Mom's Lovely Hair!!

No more going to get my hair done, I've found I have two little professionals right her at home! Not quite sure how many pieces were in my hair, but it sure took them a while! LOVELY!!

Conferences

We had conferences today for the girls for the final time. Makes me sad...this year is coming to a close and so fast! But, time moves on. The girls had a super year and had SOO much fun! Mrs. Kyle told us that Allie ALWAYS has something to tell them and tells them her schedule every day! She said Taylor is not quite as talkative, but is very outgoing and friendly to all the kids. She said both girls even pick up all the toys at the end of class, without being asked, and the toys they didn't even take out! She said Taylor is quite particular where the toys go -- that they go back where they are supposed to. We had a great report and it was sure fun to hear details.

The attached pictures are ones the teacher had the kids do, freehand. They asked for them to draw "one" person; they said our kids drew the whole neighborhood!!

This is Taylor's from left to right:

Aunt Lori, Mike, Lisa, Mom(green), Dad(orange), Mom(purple), Owen, Ashley, Abby(yellow)!!

This is Allie's from left to right:

Mommy, Taylor, Allie, Owen, Great Grandma, Puppet, Daddy (large purple one!), Ashley

What's going on in this family?

That is the question I heard after the week we had. It's been a while since we've posted, and here we are going to post a "real doozy". First of all, it was Monday after the holidays, back to the old routine. I brought the girls to preschool and went to work. At 11:45 a.m. I got a phone call from the preschool director. Said she had two little girls sitting there waiting to get picked up. WHAT?? It had totally escaped Chad's mind to pick them up. I called his cell, and he said he was sitting at work looking at his computer - yikes! I told him and he said *%^@ and hung up. The girls thought nothing of it - they got to go the lunchroom with the teachers, which was pretty cool. The next night, I came home late from work and was having a bite to eat. Allie was upstairs in the bathroom, for maybe 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. We heard her hollar for us. Chad went up thinking her hands were maybe wet and she couldn't open the door. He went in and I heard this, "OH MY GOD Allie - what, what, what are you doing??" I went running up and looked in the bathroom. Below is a picture of what we found. (If you have a weak stomach, beware!!) However, in the screaming of her dad and I, she looked at us straight faced and said, "But mom, dad - I washed my hands."