So long sweet summer...

Somehow we went from summer to fall...  I'm not a fan of fall. 

I want some snack too, mom...  hehe.  This "little" girl is in the 99th percentile for weight and height.  And she's very snuggly. Doctor B. thought it was hilarious that we can't use the bumbo seat because it cuts off her circulation in her legs...

 Checking out the Farm and Fleet ad while waiting for supper... and eating a sucker.  Happy little Emmy likes to be up where we are.

 Cecily was raising her foot just like Emmy-geehl.

 She likes to kick.  And those keys.

The second day of "teaching school" (in Cecily-ese) went pretty well... hard for me to gauge since I haven't really seen any of their work yet, so I don't know if they are actually getting it.  Little miss social likes to play with Megan and Ah-cus (Atticus... I'm guess it's from the book "To Kill a Mockingbird").
 
It was cold so we broke out the crayons while we were waiting to go to Shelly's house.

 Michelle and Nathan hosted cousins night last Saturday.  Cecily was pretty excited to go and eat hotdogs.  I was excited to see their house all moved in and decorated.  It's cute. 

We decided to go to W-ton for church the next day... because I can't remember how long it's been since we had been there. 

It's our turn to serve lunch at church in a few weeks so I've been trying to do a little bit of baking here and there.  It keeps the house warm when it's so chilly. 

So the Farm and Fleet grand re-opening sounded like fun and they had a cute kids play tent and sleeping bag set in their ad that would have been perfect for Cecily's birthday.  Yeah.  I did not realize that it was going to be such a crazy madhouse.  So I took both girls in and pretty much made a loop and came back out.  Not worth it.  Haha... as I was coming in the door with Emmy in the stroller and Cecily in a cart, someone waiting in the looong check out line who looked very familiar (but I still can't place her- annoying mushy brain) and was obviously AC offered to watch Emmy while I shopped.  Got to love it.   I had already decided not to buy anything though...

All ready to go on "a jaunt."  Poor girl gets called a boy a lot, but I don't want to put pink on her all the time, especially with her skin tone.  And bows aren't worth the time I would spend putting them back on.

 It was a stripes kind of day.

Thursday evening we went to Brent and Janelle's for potluck babysitting night.  We managed to keep all 13 kids, plus the neighbor girl alive.  Fun times.

The girls and I went to school this morning.  I wore my periodic table shirt.  We did our first lab...  ok, so my high school chemistry teacher must have nerves of steel.  Our first lab at EHS was bending and cutting glass- with open flames and teenagers with sharp objects.  I just went over lab safety and had them do an ionic/ covalent conductivity activity and that was nerve wracking enough. 

Why can't you eat and drink in lab? um... remember Willy? Willy was a chemist, but Willy is no more, what Willy thought was H2O was H2SO4! 

Bob took off work so after lunch we took the girls to the zoo.  Cecily was pretty excited.  She told me, "Shelly found me Masha and Bear at the zoo going to my Birthday!"  She had a great time looking at the animals.  We found the tigers first and she just inserted herself into this group of kids... strangers... and told anyone we saw, "we're going to find the Lions!"

 Emmy just chilled in the stroller.

 Checking out the warthog. 

 She named off pretty much everything we saw on the way home... Daddy lion in the corner and the mommy lion on top of the rock and I saw a snake and the turtles and all the animals...
At some point she got a blister from her sandals so when we got home we put a princess band-aid on it.  She's showing it to Emmy- "here's Belle, and 'Punzel, and Snow Pink."  Ha!  I died laughing.  

She's decided to be very protective of her cute baby (from Ah-cus and the other kids at "my school") and she wanted to read her a book this evening.  Green Eggs and Ham.  From the girl who "I can't want squash" the spaghetti squash I made for supper but who would eat "dead cow" (steak) with plenty of BBQ sauce.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to.  Nothing and everything all at once. 
Blessings.

School Days, School Days...

I am such a wimp about humidity...  so we didn't spend much time outside last week.  Poor Cecily.  She wants to go out, but then she doesn't want to stay out for very long, and she won't go out without me, and it's such a hassle to haul Emmy in and out...  

One hot afternoon's activity- lining up the princess dominos.  Emmy just happily plays with whatever we hand her. 

Friday morning we were up bright and early.  Yikes.  I haven't seen 7 on my alarm clock in a loooong time.  Cecily was so excited to go to "teaching school" that she asked to go to bed early the night before and woke up when she heard me get up. 

So we were all out the door on time.  Cecily got to play with some other little kids in the church nursery- we will have no trouble getting her to go to Sunday school, or kindergarten, she's already 'you can go now Mom'...   Emmy slept the entire time we were there, thankfully.

I have 10 kids in my class (I thought there were 8... ah well, the more the merrier!).  I pulled out my old molecular modeling kit and made a bunch of water molecules and scattered them in front of the door- with a "Caution, wet floor" sign... because Chemistry jokes are the best.  And I made them fill out notecards with things like, 'one word to describe how you feel about Chemistry.'  "Unenthusiastic" um...  "mathematically intimidated"  (that kid probably had the math figured out the best...).  Since I've never lesson planned before, or lectured before, or taught anything, really, I was pleasantly surprised that what I planned to go over fit the class period perfectly.  And I wasn't super nervous.  So hooray!  I also told them to cherish their new laminated periodic tables.  Not sure what they went home and told their parents...

As my mother reminded me, I do know more than they do.  hehe.  And I have permission to use all of my old HS teacher's material.  Mr. Bill is the best.  I shall never achieve his level of teaching excellence... or his corny jokes.  I've also been reminding myself that Prof. Peter Beak is on my list of top 5 chemistry teachers, and he was probably the most boring lecturer I've had... but he cared about us, and he cared if we understood what he was teaching.  Anyway.  Hopefully it continues to be fun for me.     I'm trying to decide if I need to buy a "I wear this shirt periodically" periodic table shirt. Probably yes.

Little miss I-still-hate-pants was pretty sure she needed to double check my measurements.  We were covering wipes boxes with fabric for more pretty toy storage. 

 Since it cooled off, Bob took the girls on a bike ride in the bike trailer.  Emmy seemed to enjoy it... Cecily loves bike rides.

We attempted freezing potatoes on Saturday.  Some of them were already getting moldy, so Bob helped me peel and blanch a safeguard bucket full.  It was a lot of work- not sure it was worth it.  There's still a 5-gallon bucket's worth of potatoes in the basement that I'm not sure if I want to freeze or just try and eat before they go bad. 

She doesn't like to be left in her bouncy when we're eating, and Cecily decided she doesn't want to sit in the high chair anymore, sooo... Emmy-girl got to try it out with some blankets to keep her sitting up.  She was quite pleased with herself.

Otherwise, we had a quiet weekend.  Church today and the ordination service this evening... oh, and I have a cold.  But I think I'm getting better. 
Blessings.

Labor Day

How is summer almost over? 

Oh, these two.  I guess I'm glad that Cecily likes her now... and Emmy is so chill...

We had a good weekend... we "camped."  Ha.  The idea of tent camping with a baby who wasn't sleeping through the night (she is now! yay!!) with the forecast of rain every day...  I wasn't too sad to just hang out at the cabin Friday evening.

Emmy fell asleep next to Greg on the couch.  Hehe.  She slept there for quite a while.  

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the cabin and then the men left to dig a hole.  And plant the tree our potluck got B and J in memory of Derek.  The ladies and kids went swimming.  I'm not sure who had the more difficult task... oh wait... that would be us.  *grin*

Cecily totally freaked out about swimming.  I'm not sure if it was the moss, or the muddy bottom, or the water temperature but she did not want to swim and she was mad at me.  She decided she liked Nichole and wanted nothing to do with me.  *eye roll* 

 These two make me smile.

 There are a lot of little kids in our camping group.  Yeah. 

 Sunday evening it had dried out a little bit and the rain in the forecast never materialized so we ate supper out at the timber. 
Cecily was pretty excited to play with the kids again.  She keeps asking me if we're going to 'eat at the fire at the cabin with the kids'.  It was a good weekend, even without the camping.

 Cecily has been using the word "shall" in everyday conversation.  It's amusing.  The funniest yet has been, "shall you buy me polka dot bundies 'amorrow?"  Um...  not planning on it little girl... ha!

I spent Monday laboring... haha. Family tradition I guess.  We got some bushes for the back of our yard and I dug a bunch of holes for them.  There are a ton of tree roots back there so it was not an entirely pleasant job.  

Tuesday evening I went to a meeting for school.... ayiyiyi I'm nervous.  And today I practiced making a density column.  Little miss thought the "rainbow" was pretty cool.   

 Blessings.