Saturday, August 28, 2010

Summer Faire!



Dad is up to work on the roof, so the girls and I have to clear out, or the guys will never get anything done. Penny has officially reached Daddy's girl status as well as Jane. Penny toddles towards him with hands up and screaming daddaaaada, etc. Very cute stuff. Not conducive to actually accomplishing remodeling.

The girls and I headed off to Heavenly Scent Herb Farm in Fenton. I'd seen their signs before, and I'd marked down that they were having a Summer Faire this weekend. Was the perfect place for us to spend a few hours away from home.

It is seriously beautiful there. They had some crafters with booths, but it was a little insane and tight quarters, and pricey as well. Kind of difficult to look at too much with a 4 year old and a baby in a backpack. Not sure if I was more worried about Jane breaking something, or me breaking something (or someone) by whipping around with the backpack!

Jane really enjoyed the flower displays and little gardens. There are benches, little nooks, and water features all over the place. They are also kind of big on fairies there; they have multiple little fairy gardens. Once she got going, Jane got pretty good at spying more of them hidden in little houses or by rocks.

We had a fantabulous lunch: chicken salad crossaint with some kind of apple slaw, minted fruit salad, and some.....PEACH SOUP! With blueberries. Jane said-uck, peach soup? And then she proceeded to eat the entire cup besides a couple of bites for me and Penny. Too funny, and really good.

Rave reviews on the outfits from Grandma. Jane was twirling and whirling about; she's not going to want to be a Princess forever, right? So, I'm going with it; it's pretty cute most of the time!

Got pretty warm, especially in the sun by the time we left. Jane found a crafting table on our way out, so made a couple of pencils and a bracelet, and then we hiked way back out to our car in a field. Penny was out pretty quickly, but Jane fell asleep about 2 minutes from the house. I used that as an excuse to wash my truck and get some shakes for us and the guys (who were pretty toasted from being on the roof).

New adventures await tomorrow!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Beautiful...


What a beautiful day. Although, it was downright chilly in the kitchen this morning. Don't know if I'm really that excited for fall yet! Jane had her last gymnastics class today; she wants to sign up for more, so we'll see what we do next month. She's talked about ballet as well. Jane wanted Penny to wear this pink dress today. Isn't she the cutest? This was actually MY dress! And it's kind of funny, because I had Jane wearing it as well, but she was only a couple of months old...but it fits Penny pretty well right now.

Mike got some of the metal roofing into the garage, so might be able to have a cleaner driveway now.

Gram D surprised Jane by picking her up and taking her out to dinner. She was pretty excited to have a special night.

Had some 'family night' time, which is what Jane calls it when we all come into her room for books. Little hard to settle down, though, but she finally went to sleep.

Looking forward to a nice weekend; weather looks great. Dad is coming to help with roofing stuff, and I've got a few things planned to do with the girls. We've got to get out of here if they're going to get anything done!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Classic!

Spaghetti dinner.



On her head.

What's not to love?

Sunday, August 8, 2010

15 months...


Wow, Penelope is 15 months all of a sudden. Now that she's started walking, she's not stopping! We had a nice laid back day at Mom's house (including a 2 hour+ nap for Penny and I), and then we headed for town. Do you try to surprise your 4 year olds? I love surprises myself, and I always want to do that for my kiddos, but it's so hard with Jane sometimes. She just wants to know what is going on. It was a less than fun drive to the mall, but once we pulled in, she remembered the carousel and was super excited. They were on a break, so we wandered around and came back to it. Mom and I rode so we could be by the girls, and Gram Nomi took some pics. Penny wasn't too sure about the whole thing (usually big sis is sitting behind her on the meijer penny horse, and this was waaay more exciting). Nice Mexican dinner, and we hit the road. Well...after getting gas and some drinks and a stop to feed Penny. Then we hit the road. But Penny crashed after that, and Jane was asleep by 69. I love sleepy kid drives. Roof looks very cool, and they trimmed a bunch of branches away from the house as well. I'm excited for when the whole project is done, even though that is a ways away.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Runin' around.

I headed upstairs to try to get Penny to sleep last night around 8...somehow I didn't make it back down to chat with Mom. I wandered down around 11 and she had given up on me! Came down for breakfast the next morning and had some yummy bran muffins and fruit, and then I took off for the gym. Mom and the girls went and picked up Gram Nomi. I like to go to Hobby Lobby whenever I'm in town with a little bit of extra time. We don't have one close by, and it's fun to poke around in there. We got some lunch at a kind of fun asian bowl place, and went to Hobby Lobby. Jane had a meltdown b/c I wouldn't buy a 'diamond'. Whew, this has been a rough month with meltdowns and tantrums. We managed to purchase a few things, but I ended up carrying her out of the store in tears (course I was ALSO carrying Penelope in the backpack.) Yeah. I'm a beast. I can carry 50+ pounds of children all draped around my body. Thought I might pass out by the time I got to the car, but we made it. Then I got in the OTHER car and sent the girls with Mom and Grandma in my car. Hung out at Gram's house where Mom started a little crocheted purse for Jane. Penny became a yarn monster--ahhh, look out! Awesome heart-attack dinner at Red's hotdog stand in pawpaw, followed by icecream. (Jane would like to relive this dinner/dessert over and over again. I keep hearing about how we should go back there....or how she's sad b/c Mommy won't let her eat hotdogs everyday, etc). Cute sisters; kind of fun that Penny's walking; we get to all hold hands now for a few steps.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Switchin' Places

Dad and I switched places...I drove the girls to k'zoo, and he headed up here to help Mike get another section roofing on. Jane was not thrilled about the idea of not seeing Grandpa, so he met up with us at Milham Park for a little while before heading east. Jane was so excited to feed the birds (wanted to give them all the salad I brought for lunch); I ran by the Root Beer Stand and got some popcorn for her. She is so sweet; sharing it with a little toddler walking by. Penny thought it was kind of interesting, but she wanted to eat it. Few more years for that kiddo! Headed out to the house and checked in on the menagerie. Penny has a bit of a love/hate relationship with kaydo. She's super excited to see him, but not super excited when he gets too close to her!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Gymnastics

Jane enjoyed her dance/gymnastics combo class in July, but said just gymnastics might be fun. So, she's doing 4 weeks of 4 year old gymnastics. I love that she's working on listening skills, and she's also getting pretty brave and confident about doing a few more physical things. Watching her bounce up onto the horse or grab the rings is pretty amazing.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

You say Tomato...

We bought a little tomato plant this spring for Jane. We'd talked about doing a garden, but I know how much work they are, and I'm just not up for it with 2 little ones. Jane repotted this and she's been watching it and watering it. She was super excited to see that one of the tomatoes was finally turning red, and by the time we were back from P.H....it was ripe! She was super excited to pick it; although, she was more excited to have Daddy eat it than eat it herself! (Since Daddy "LOVES" tomatoes).

Monday, August 2, 2010

Lake Huron: Day 3


Started off our last day in P.H. with a mostly failed photo shoot by the bridge. It's hard to find timing that works for all 4 girls... We headed back to the cottage, and Uncle Brian took the big girls on a wagon ride (Arlyn headed home to nap), and Mike and I took Penny for a walk in the backpack. It was super nice to have a few moments mostly to ourselves to talk. It seems like we really don't get to do that at all right now; by the time he's home, it's bedtime!

Penny took a nap on me this afternoon...while I was walking in Lake Huron. Too funny. We had a nice afternoon with some sun (it was hot) and little swimming. Trip home wasn't too bad, considering both girls didn't sleep at all.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Lake Huron: Day 2

Utter craziness. We were up early and over to the cottage so make some quiche for the hordes. Turned out pretty good. I wanted to run out and have some coffee with Gwyn, but it's amazing how long it takes to sunscreen girls and try to put babies to sleep, and then Jane got a piece of glass in her foot. Whew. I really needed caffeine at that point! Then I just probably scared poor Gwyn with how stressful young children are! Mike was toasted by the time I got back from dealing with both girls. It was kind of a long afternoon, Jane was waiting ever so impatiently for Averie to get back, and Penny was a little too hot and it took forever to get her to nap. Jen made some great lasagna, and we tried to stick it out for a campfire since we'd promised Jane that Sunday was 'THE' night for it. We had a few marshmallows, and we even let her hold the stick with Mike helping. Penny would NOT go to sleep, so we finally called it and headed back to Jen's to fall into bed. This is a vacation, this is a vacation, this is a vacation. I'm going to keep repeating that until we believe it.