Weekend Fun...

The past couple weeks had been pretty busy, so it was nice to have a fun and relaxing weekend with the kids. I should have been in the house cleaning, but the neighbors came out and Uncle Joe was nice to blow up the water slide and run warm from his garage sink for the girls; so of course I had to stay outside to snap some pictures. The girls had a blast. C wanted nothing to do with it, so he had fun all on his own.

Look at that devilish smile! It is that cute face and little dimple that saves him from getting in trouble (most of the time).


Doesn't he just look handsome hanging out on the big boy bike. Notice his feet don't even touch the peddles!


M was loving the water slide. Nice goggles, such a goober!


This was her second day without training wheels. Yes, she did have a busy weekend. No more training wheels, horse back riding, and play with friends; such a busy busy girl. Unfortunately all the fun stopped a little after this picture. M wiped out on her bike and ended up with a horribly scrapped up elbow and a lot of tears. Looking at this picture, people might think we beat her up. Look at all the bruises on her legs and the nice scrape on her face, ugh!

Giddie Up...

M had been asking for a very long time to go see horses. So Mike arranged for her to go horse backing riding at a friends farm and obviously she had a blast.

Look Mom, Two Wheels...

On my way home from work Denise called me and said that M wanted her training wheels off her bike and that Mike was in the process of removing them. We had been bugging M to take them off because she really was not using them. Mike had moved them up, so they were not even on the ground any more. I guess her friends were riding down the grass in the green belt and Mike said she could not do it with training wheels, so she said "take them off!".

Mike being supervised while taking off her training wheels.



Mike giving M the "ride safe and watch where you are going" lecture.



And she's off....



She is so proud of herself, and we are so proud of her!



C man was watching his sister ride.



As usual I was not home for the big event, so Denise was nice to take pictures for me. Thanks Ese. I hate missing these moments!!

Don't Make Mommy Mad When She Is Holding The Camera!

It was a nice weekend afternoon and Daddy and M went in the back yard to pull weeds. While Mike and I were out there talking about re-doing some of the yard, Miss M handed him the screwdriver and said "Daddy get to work!". That's my girl!

They looked so cute out there together, of course I had to take some pictures. Mike being a dork, would not look up for a picture.



So what does Mommy do when she does not get cooperation you might ask... She takes pictures of whatever she can, even if its not pretty!



After several unflattering pictures, he gave in. Aren't they cute together?? M just loves to be out side helping her daddy.



I don't think I have ever posted a picture of Blue dog, so here he is too. Such a furry little monster. Okay, maybe little is not the right adjective to describe him :)

Snow Much Fun...

Friday night I cam home and told Mike that we were going up to the snow. We had been promising to take M all year, and with all the storms we had been getting and a three day weekend ahead of us, I figured this was our chance. So Friday night and all day Saturday we went looking for snow gear. Yeah, I had a great idea, but no supplies. We ended up buying 2 sleds, C and M a pair of boots, and me a pair of gloves. We were lucky to get the rest of the warm gear from friends and family. So by Sunday morning we were set to go. We picked up M from Grammy and Pa’s house, as she had spent Valentine’s night with them, and went up to Prescott. I had contacted my friend Mary, who lives up there, and her and her family agreed to hang out with us for the day. We arrived at Mary’s house about 12:30pm, ate some pizza for lunch, and by then M was growing very impatient, begging to go out in the snow.





Mary’s house surprisingly had quite a bit of snow and we were able to find a little hill in her front yard to go sledding down. The kids were having a blast! Then we went to a sledding hill Sean suggested. C pitched a fit getting him in the car because he did not want to leave the snow.

M loved the big hill, she did not want to leave.


C had a lot of fun too! This little guy had no fear.


Of course Mike was a big kid too!


After sledding we when back to Mary's for dinner. While they were nice to make us dinner Mike took the kids out side to build a snowman. Not bad, huh!

Happy Valentines Day...

This year for Valentine's Day we went to Mom and Dad's for a lobster dinner. It was wonderful! Thanks Mom.

Happy Birthday to Grammy...

Today is Grammy's birthday, Happy Birthday Grammy!

Mike, I and the kids, Deb and her kids, and Denise and Nell got together with Mom and Dad to celebrate Moms XX Birthday (see mom, I was nice, no numbers). Hope you had a great birthday weekend Mom.

Miss Spelling Bee...

Kindergarten has really picked up the pace since winter break. The Kindergarten reading groups were restructured and M was placed in the first grade reading level. We went from no home work to approximately 15 pages of homework a week. And last, but not least, M started spelling tests. I do not ever remember doing spelling tests in Kindergarten, boy have times changed.

The first week was a real challenge. I realized it is really hard to spell when you are just to learning how to read. The first weeks words were: a, and, of, that, to, in, is, it, the, you. These words are quite difficult because some of them can not be phonetically sounded out. We were really excited when she got 8 out of 10. The teacher told the parents that the kids were all extremely nervous and a couple of them starting crying during the test(no M was not one of them).

The second week the spelling words were: I, as, are, was, for, he, on, at, they, with. M struggled all week with: are, was, they, and with. I will say it was not an easy week, I lost count of the number of eye rolls she gave us! So needless to say, I was ecstatic when I heard her little voice on the phone say "Mommy, guess what. I got'em all right!" Yep, our smart little girl got 10 out of 10.

M did a lot of practicing, even spelling her words in chalk on the drive way. It was very exciting see all her hard work pay off. Good Job M!

Yee Haw...

Ain't she just the cutest cowgirl you have ever seen!



We took M to a classmates birthday party at Goldfield Ghost Town today. I had never been out there before and we had so much fun! The weather was beautiful and there was so much to explore that even C was kept busy. It backed up to the Superstition Spring Mountains, which were absolutely gorgeous (except for the haze, yuck).



They had gun shootouts every hour, which scared the crap out of the kids and adults. Although C did like to watch.



It was quite a birthday party. The kids had caricatures done, went on a carriage ride, a horseback ride, and a train ride. It was nice to get to meet some of the parents from M's class. We talked about things going on in the classroom, as some of the parents volunteer time in the room, so I was able to catch up on what really goes on at school.









It turned out to be a great birthday party and family outing.