Proud Parents!

I have to say that I am starting to feel very relieved that Annie is starting to take more of an interest in "her studies" at school! :) For those of you that know Annie, she is our free spirit goof ball! Her attention span and ability to sit still is definitely not one of her better traits! Kate, on the other hand, is our little book worm. Unfortunately much like me, she tends to be a little bit of a perfectionist and over sensitive if she can't do something to the ability that she thinks necessary. We are working with both girls on trying to balance these characteristics.

Recently Annie started writing her name and I must say that for a 3-yr-old I am pretty impressed! The above is a scan of a project she did at school. The best part about it is when you ask her how to spell her name she responds by saying "Big A, two humps, an i and a little e". I told her the other day that the "two humps" were called "n's" and she said "No Mom! Those are called two humps!" That is our Annie!!!! Gotta love her!!!

A great weekend!

Well, another weekend has come and gone too quickly! But what a fun weekend it was. Friday night my mom offered to babysit for the girls so Brian and I could go out and celebrate his 36th birthday! We went and saw The Town, which I highly recommend, and also had his annual Fogo de Chao birthday dinner. It was the first time I only had the salad bar and skipped the meat. However, with only 10 more days to go before the baby is born I wasn't sure how much food I could actually get into this belly in one sitting! Brian did sneak me a few pieces though! It was a very nice and much needed evening out together.

Then on Saturday we were invited over to some new neighbors for dinner and a play date for the kids (and adults)! We enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal, great conversation and overall had a very fun time! And the girls loved playing with the kids too! We look forward to getting to know this family even better and becoming good friends! What a nice feeling it is to meet people that you connect well with and so do the kids right in our own neighborhood!

Today was somewhat uneventful but those days are much needed as well. I spent a good amount of time cleaning out the girls' closets. Kate is growing like a weed and will need a lot of new clothes this fall. While Annie grew an inch and a quarter in just a month, she is still fitting into most of her stuff from last year. How sad she will be when she doesn't get many new clothes "with tags on them"! That is her way of telling me that hand-me-downs are not new!!! My dad and step mom stopped over for an impromptu visit which was nice. Brian also made a lot of progress of on the built-ins. They are about 85% done and I can't wait to see the finished project. How lucky I am to have such a talented husband!!!

Below are some pics of my outing with the girls on Thursday night. We went to Manic Ceramic and they each picked something out to paint for Brian. Kate choose a plate for his pizza and Annie a bowl for cereal. They had a great time making their dad a present and were very proud of their work. Too bad when we got home that night they spilled the beans on the surprise. Although Kate told me it was OK since they didn't tell him what decorations were on their gifts. My question is how did they keep my birthday present a secret for like 3 days and they couldn't keep his a secret for even 5 minutes! Oh well :)

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Labor Day weekend came and went which means another summer is behind us. We took advantage of the three-day weekend to have some fun and get some work done. The big event of the weekend was the family outing to the State Fair. The girls were looking forward to this since last August!! Kate kept telling us she was having a BLAST and such an awesome time! We went on Saturday which was great weather but the record breaking attendance day, of course! It was packed to say the least. We still managed to visit all the barns (Annie is still a little chicken of animals but both her and Kate did pet a goat...big accomplishment!), Brian/Kate/Annie went down the big slide 3 times, we took a round trip in the sky-ride (I was the chicken then with the heights!), spent WAY too much money in the kiddie midway, and of course the girls had to go on the bungee trampoline again this year. Kate even managed to do three flips! Oh, and how could I forget the food!!! Kate and Annie are not quite true State Fair goers yet...Kate said she hoped they had a lot of vegetables at the fair! Well, they do if you want them fried :) So she stuck to a big pickle, apples, corn and of course mini-donuts. Annie did about the same. Dad's favorite this year was the new fried mashed potatoes on a stick with bacon and cheddar cheese. I must admit they were delish! My fav was just a simple taco! We were also joined by Grandma Sharon and crazy cousin Lorrie. They enjoyed a lot of food too and were a big help with the girls! I can't forget to mention that this was mine and Brian's second trip the fair this year. We went on Wednesday night so B could get his share of Pinball-on-a-stick in! The biggest pinball arcade in the state. We spent a few hours there and I am happy to report that I actually beat him in the first 5 out of 6 matches! He walked away with a new favorite game, Big Buck Hunter, which he proceeded to tell me the next day we could buy for a mere $4500! I think one pinball machine is all we need in our basement! :) So all in all, this 9 month pregnant lady walked around the State Fair this year for a whopping 10 hours!!! Now that is pretty amazing!

I was looking forward to Sunday morning for my day to sleep in but Brian had a last minute invite for a motorcycle ride with the neighbor and some of his buddies. He couldn't turn down the opportunity to ride on possibly one of the last nice days of summer. He was gone from 7am - 7pm! The girls and I had a nice day though and ran some errands which included buying fall mums and planting them. Monday was pretty much a work-around-the-house day! Brian got the laundry room closet all finished so that room is now complete! YAY!

We hope you all had a nice, fun and safe weekend too! Here are a few pics of our State Fair adventure. (I checked to make sure we had a memory card and battery in the camera but I forgot to check if the battery was charged so I only got a few pics!! Go figure!)

Jumper Party!

This past weekend we hosted a neighborhood jumper party for the girls and it was a great success! The girls had been very good this summer and as a treat we decided to rent an inflatable jumper and invite some of the neighborhood families with kids the same age to come party with us! It was a great opportunity to celebrate the end of summer with some fun, friends, and great weather. Here are some pics from the day!