Painting is such sweet chaos...

 It's been a full week... and it's officially summer and I can wear white shoes.  Not that I have yet. 

On Monday the girls and I went to the Memorial Day service at the park.  They were antsy, but we made it.  I was worried that Emmy would be scared by the guns, but she likes loud noises.  Cecily, on the other hand, about jumped out of her skin all three times.  *grin*  And then she told me the soldiers "killed the sky!" 

Little miss Emmy likes to stand up.  And clap for herself. 

 Cecily likes to stand next to her standing.  Hehe.

We like to go for walks in the 'ce-mur-tary.'  Actually, that's the only destination Cecily ever requests.  Probably because there is a large stump I let her climb.  My poor children spend more time at the cemetery than the park...

 This is her favorite water bottle.  *sigh*  It was mine. 

 Oh these two... 

 Thursday afternoon we picked Bob up from his car appointment and went to Menards and the park.  Emmy fell asleep in the car, of course, so I got to hang out in the van with her while Bob and Cecily played. 

Then on Friday, Bob took the day off to help me get started on some things in the kitchen.  He put up our new range hood and helped sand the cabinet boxes for painting.  I rarely used the hood fan because it didn't seem to work very well... come to find out the ductwork was closed off... and it was an ancient hood so it didn't have a non-ducted option.... curious.  Anyway, the new one can be used non-ducted.  So that's what we are doing.  And it's white and not badly painted over.  Woot woot. 

The girls think the paper on the floor is the best thing ever. I could never live with the open shelving look.  Too much stuff I would rather shut the door on.  Although, it is nice to not have to open cabinet doors...

I started painting on Saturday.  It's going to be a long process and I can't wait to be done already.  Ha.  I should have done it before Emmy was mobile.  Oh well.  Saturday afternoon and evening we spent at my cousin's graduation parties.  I'm not sure how Trent and Kandace are old enough to be out of High School already.  So we got to eat supper twice and the girls had fun playing at Cliff's house with the kids and at Tate's house with different kids! 
Blessings.

Time, oh good, good, time, where did you go?

Yikes... I'm falling behind on posting.  O well, such is life. 

What have we been up too...

Emmy had her 1 year checkup.  She is slimming down!  She's only in the 78th percentile for weight, down from being off the charts.  Hehe.  Still adorably squishy though...

Jon and Nicole had fondue night for potluck.  It was really fun and really yummy.  I'm just glad I didn't try the jelly beans.  *grin*

The girls and I went to the farm one afternoon to see the baby chicks.  I forgot my camera, so all I have are not so good phone pics.  Emmy loved the cows.  Cecily was brave enough to try and hold a chick.

 They both loved the feeder pigs.  I however, could hardly take the hot humid air in the hog house... the smell still doesn't bother me.  Little pigs are so cute and their noses are so wet.

 Cecily got out grandma's tractor riding toy and Emmy climbed into the wagon.  So funny.  She was very pleased with herself.

They went straight to the tub when we got home to wash off the hog house smell.

She likes to color with a pen. 

 Her favorite things are food and outside. And it seems like she's only happy when one or both of them is happening. 

 We went on a Pinky's run and she got a huge "small" cone. 

 Last Sunday my friend Amy got married.  It was a lovely wedding.  Then Bob and the girls went to the farm to hang out and I went to the reception.  I got to talk to Elise for the first time in ages!  It was great.  Amy's a pretty great girl...  she has lots of good qualities, but she has this fantastic ability to be a great friend.  It's so good to see her so happy with Fritz.
The girls and I walked to the park one evening. Emmy loved the tunnel.

 And Cecily was determined to try the monkey bars.  She didn't get very far, but she tried!

 So she's been wishing for Elsa jammies for months... I finally got her some.  She was ready for bed all day long.  Sometimes she wants me to refer to her as "Elsa Izzy Cinderella." (eye roll)

 
Otherwise, my vacuum died so we made two trips to P-town for that, and another to get Emmy's one year pictures taken.  And I started tearing off the trim in the kitchen to prepare for our kitchen refresh. 
So it's written down so I won't forget, and for your reading pleasure- Cecily-isms:
"It's just being so crazy." (anything that isn't doing what she wants it to do.)
"Hustle down!" (settle down.  Ha.)
"I will just deal about it."  (I maybe tell her to 'deal with it' a lot.)
"Kid-cul-A" (Chick- fil- A.  It's a good kid pepper-fry place. They have a slide.)
"I'm so tired I could eat a, a, a fish!"  (Oooookay then.)
"Oh Grud." (Hm... guess I say crud too much...)
"Don't sharp me!"  (Cut.)
"Snow Pink" (Snow White, and don't anybody dare correct her!  It's too cute.)
Blessings. 

One year old!

Little Emmy turned one on Tuesday- so crazy.  I can't decide if this year has gone fast or slow....  Last spring and summer seem sooo long ago, but at the same time it seems like time went fast.  Maybe it's just because she doesn't like to sleep all night.  Still.  And my brain is a foggy mess. 

She figured out how to do this.  Woot.

 I made cupcakes for her birthday.  She was so happy.  I made the mistake of leaving them on the counter while we ate supper.  She wouldn't eat supper, she kept pointing at the cupcakes.  *sigh*

 Yummy.

 And presents!

 Poor girl has had a cold all week and is teething.  She's very drool-y and snotty.   Cecily "helped" her open her presents.

 We played with chalk one morning. 

 I bought a bag of lemons to use in a demo for school and she thought she wanted to play with one.  Then she tried to eat it.  *grin*

 Friday morning was our last day of 'teaching school'.  I'm having a hard time believing we're already done!  There's just so much more chemistry to learn!  Ha.  I was kind of sad to read the last chapter in the textbook... somehow I think all my students were rejoicing. Cecily is going to miss playing with the kids every week. 

We were talking about redox reactions and batteries so we hooked up lemons to multi meters and built coin batteries.  We even got LEDs to light using washers, pennies, and vinegar!  Pretty cool. 

That evening we had the families over for Emmy's birthday party.  Grandma Schlipf liked pansies, so Emmy Marjorie got a cake with gum paste pansies and pansy shortbread cookies.  I had a lot of fun learning how to make the pansies for the cake.  The cookies have real pansies on them... they're so pretty... they don't add any taste, but the texture is a little funny.  Now we can all say we've eaten a pansy. 

 She got roses too... lucky little birthday girl.  *grin*

 She enjoyed getting presents.

 John Deere socks...

 Cecily really wasn't jealous.  She was too busy having fun with Grace and Eden.

 Aunt Shelly got her the Jabberwocky. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves...'

 Then it was time for cake! 

She was very dainty- almost stuck her face in and then backed off...

 Until Daddy gave her some silverware and she proceeded to destroy it.  Hehe.

She went straight to the bathtub after that.  *grin*

On Mother's Day we went to Herb and Lori's for supper.  Cecily was excited to play with Kebe and Shena again, and of course Cliff and Tate. 

Blessings.  

We took to the woods

So backing up a bit- last Friday we went to Greg and Mary's and babysat all the potluck kids...  there was lots of dress-up and shrieking and raccoon watching.  A good time was had by all.  

Bob sent me flowers for our anniversary, and I got him a new bonsai tree.  Meet Bonsai San II.  He's quite cute and has a little pond with a fisherman underneath his boughs.

 Our anniversary was on Sunday... I made Bob wear his wedding tie to church.  The rest of the day was not that great, honestly.  I think I just let my expectations get too high, but the girls weren't having the best day to start with and Sundays are never easy.  We went to Avanti's for supper; Cecily was acting really squirrely, hardly ate her supper and tipped over backwards in her chair, Emmy was grumpy, hard to keep happy, and loud.  Woot.  The rest of the evening was about as bad. 
Some nights I can not wait to put them to bed... they're so sweet when they're finally sleeping.  *grin*    

 I've been watching craigslist, varagesale, and garage sales for a bike for Cecily without any luck.  The neighbor girl has a princess bike with a basket shaped like a carriage and a matching helmet that she's been coveting. So she went push-mower shopping with Bob and they came home with this. 

 It's a flower bike and her helmet has butterflies.  She likes it a lot, even though it doesn't have princesses on it.  "Gavin and his girl will be so excited to see Cecily's new bike!" 

 Friday the girls and I went to school... and then came home and packed up to go camping!  Yay!  Bob took the day off, so we left as soon as we could.  Not quite soon enough for Cecily who didn't stop asking when we were leaving until we left the driveway.  And then we stopped to buy ice and she asked if we were at the camping.  *sigh*   We took her bike so she insisted on wearing her helmet and promptly fell asleep like this. 

 Emmy was just happy to be outside.

 We were the first ones to get to Moraine View so we got our pick of tent spots. 

 Cecily got to explore and then everyone else showed up and the real fun began...

 setting up tents...

 And a really big tent!  We had lots of tents and food.  Wysses know how to do food.

 Kacie came!  All the way from Indiana! 

 We had a delicious supper of brats, hot dogs, and watermelon.  The watermelon was cut up with a fillet knife (never been used on a fish before) because we obviously haven't done this enough yet and didn't have a big knife along.  Lots of little knives in Matt's tackle box O'knives and multi-tools, but no watermelon knife. 
We sang around the campfire and then I tried to get the girls to bed.  Emmy fell asleep pretty quickly, but Cecily really wanted me to stay next to her and I really wanted to go sit by the fire and talk to my cousins for once... *sigh*  It got pretty cold over night.  I had a hard time sleeping because I was worried about the girls being too cold (they were both fine) and because I was cold.  We had Emmy between us and she kept kicking the covers down so Bob and I were cold all night.  Plus the birds, and the train that came through; we didn't sleep very soundly. 
Little miss was up bright and early and a happy little camper. 

 Cecily was not ready to get up yet.  Right after I took the picture, she pulled the sleeping bag over her face and slept like that for a half an hour. *grin* 

 Streitmatter's brought bacon and eggs and pancakes for breakfast.

 It was pretty fantastic.  Cecily even got a snowman pancake. 

 Our fearless organizer.  Hehe.

 The girls loved all the attention and people to play with them.    I'm not sure why, but they were on stumps and a picnic table to play Frisbee.

 Just chilling in the Cecily Rose. 

 We all went over to the boat launch/ picnic area/ playground for lunch.  Emmy loves to swing.  She will point and yell until you do want she wants...

 Cecily got her first ride on Uncle Matt's boat.  She loved it.

 Emmy discovered the twisty slide.  (That's Oreo on her mouth.)  She loved it.  And wanted to go down again and again pretty much by herself. 

 Cecily and Tate went down it too.

 Oh, how I love dirt and outside!

 After lunch we mostly hung out by the tents.  Shelly and I went for a walk with Emmy.  We found Uncle Jakey fishing.

 Emmy would point to dandelions and yell until Shelly picked them for her.  Then she would drop it and do it again.

 Clayton was fishing too- he caught a fish! 

They filleted it (Cecily was very intrigued) and he fried it for pre-supper appetizers. 
There was another group in the group camp area- they seemed to be a little bit hippy-dippy... They came over and said they were going to be dancing around the maypole later and said we could join or come watch.  It sounded fun until we overheard some of their conversations... yeah... they appeared to be some sort of neo-pagans so we figured the maypole was probably not innocent fun and we didn't participate.  And leave it to Kacie- while they were dancing "guys, I feel like we should sing a hymn or something!" So we did.  How Great Thou Art.  *grin*  I love my family.     

 For supper we had campfire packets and the rest of the food. 

And then we packed up and came home.  Mur.  Emmy was not happy to be in the van after being outside and free for so long. 
I put both girls straight into the tub when we got home.  They were so dirty... there was a ring in the tub when they were done. 
It was a good weekend... although I can tell the girls are missing all the extra attention.  Cecily told me after church that "sometime we can go to the camping again with Tate and Kyle and Kacie and Lena and Shelly and..... and sleep in our tent!"
Blessings.