Big Wheel Race

Yesterday was the Kindergarten Big Wheel Races at Abby's school. We woke up to a forecast of possible storms, so we weren't sure the weather was going to hold out, but it ended up being beautiful.

The school has 4 trikes/big wheels that they use every year for this purpose. They have been doing it for years and years. They practiced last week and Abby said she wasn't nervous. I was a little nervous about Lily because the race was right during her nap time, but she was a champ.

Here she is ready to go to Abby's school:

The Big Wheel Race:

Abby is on the far right. Her poor little legs barely reached the pedals, so I think she was at an unfair disadvantage (lots of adults commented on that during her heat). She had a hard time picking up much speed, but had fun.

The celebration of ice cream sundaes afterward:

Long Hair

Fun pictures of long hair from my phone....

Not real:

Real:

Contact your doctor if...

You know that part of the drug info sheet that says that? Yeah. I think I have to.

I started all these new inhalers for my newly diagnosed asthma almost a week and a half ago. I feel worse than before I started. Breathing is harder. When I first got them, I noticed that the rescue inhaler was great. So, I think that one isn't the problem. The maintenance one is a different story.

Here is a portion of the "Contact the doctor" part....if you experience joint or muscle pain, tingling of the arms or legs, tiredness, or wheezing. So, my symptoms are difficulty breathing (worse than before), my whole midsection is exhausted (I feel it most through my back), and I have had tingling in my hands and feet. The rescue inhaler doesn't even really help much. with the breathing this last week. Doesn't sound so good, does it?

I thought at first that I was just noticing the asthma more since now I knew I had it.

Of course, it is Saturday. I am just going to stop taking it and call the doctor on Monday. Don't you think that is probably what they would say to do?

Grrr. How annoying.

Learning to Read

Being that it's the end of the year, Abby has her sight word "test" this week. Her teacher sent home a practice sheet to practice with. I had Abby practice last night, which she really didn't want to do, and she read them like it was a piece of cake! How far she has come this year! It is so cool to see your child become a reader. You would think that it wouldn't be as exciting for me since I have taught first grade, but it still is.

We got some books from the series "Cat the Cat" by Mo Willems (LOVE him) at the library and she was so excited because she could read them. It is becoming a whole new world for her. It should be a fun summer for her as we explore reading library books some more.

On a completely different note, have you tried the new Frozen Strawberry Lemonade from McDonalds yet? I've been wanting to try it. I pretty much love all versions of Strawberry Lemonade. :) We stopped on our way home from Ohio on Saturday at a McDonalds so I tried one. It was pretty good, but I would say that Fazoli's version is a little better. I like it a little more tart than McD's was, theirs was a little too sweet. BUT, it was good and I wouldn't turn one down.... let's be honest, I will probably buy one again. Just make sure you mix up the strawberry and lemon when you gets yours, it makes it taste way better- just a helpful hint.

Have a great Tuesday!

Loving on Jacob and Tidbits

We FINALLY made it to visit some family this weekend. Our calendar has been so busy that it has literally been impossible to find a full weekend to travel. This time we did our best to make it work and picked Abby up a half hour early from school and took off early Friday afternoon and came back late Saturday evening. Lily was one exausted toddler. She was very fussy Sunday morning at church, but we had a nice time visiting.

Most of all, the girls had the best time ever loving on their new cousin Jacob. We had a hard time holding off Lily, as you might be able to tell in the pictures below. If you see her arms held out, what she is really doing, is trying to pull him toward her with all her might, or hug him with much force. The girls would love him to pieces if we'd let them. I love the bottom right picture. Abby is in his face kissing him, and Lily is trying to pull him toward him to hug/hold him. Poor baby. Assaulted from all sides. All I was trying to do was burp him. In the end, he has no shortage of people who love him.

In other news, I can't believe after temps in the 80's last week, it was 43 degrees this morning! We had to go from air conditioning to the furnace being turned back on! Goodness gracious. I am in summer clothes mode, now I don't know what to do.

We are counting down to Abby's last day of school. Crazy. She has 7 days of school left after today. If we hadn't had that crazy ice storm, the last day would have been this week, but now she has to go some next week. A year ago I couldn't imagine what it would be like for her to be in school all day, everyday and now I think it is going to be an adjustment to have her home for summer vacation!

Many of you already know this from Facebook probably, but I finally have a diagnosis for my shortness of breath that I've been experiencing for a few weeks. I got the results back from the Pulmonary Function Test and I have asthma. Wow. I am still adjusting to that craziness. I have two inhalers: one for daily use and one rescue inhaler. I have a doctor's appointment in a month to see how the medicines are working, at which point I will ask all my questions, which will be, "Whaaaattt?!?!??!" :) In all seriousness, the daily inhaler takes 1-2 weeks to "get into your system," so I haven't really noticed a difference yet with that. The rescue inhaler helps noticeably. Like, within a couple minutes, but I don't want to overuse it either. That will be one of my questions for my doctor (how much is appropriate to use it).

I created- what seems to be- my annual traditional mix CD for the car last week. I always crave some new fun music when warm weather comes around. You know, music to roll your windows down and sing along to. The girls and I are loving a few Bruno Mars songs (not all- some are a little too grown up). Do you have some favorite "roll down the window" songs?

ABC cancelled Brothers and Sisters and Off the Map. I am losing 2 of my shows. I am bummed. I am a 1 hour drama girl. Grrrr. I miss the days of Felicity, Gilmore Girls, and Party of Five. Heck, even Dawson's Creek. (I loved Pacey and Joey) Anyone else? No more reality!

I've been cleaning out the "Blogs I Read." I am trying to narrow it down some. I'm learning some of my favorites have changed/narrowed a little. Any favorite blogs you'd recommend?

Addictive eBay

Last summer I had this addictive little problem called eBay. Specifically, cute, expensive clothes for cheap. I would search for "Gymboree 2T" or whatever size, and then I'd sift through cute outfits that were already coordinating and score some great deals.

It has started again. My girls need summer clothes again. I'm out if money, but I did win 2 auctions last weekend and 1 package just came today. It's for Lily. Too cute, right?




I can't wait to do more bidding!

Ten on Ten

What is Ten on Ten?

Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments!

Hello May! So, I cheated a little. I didn't stick to an every hour thing- or even close, as you will see. Some of my pictures are close together time-wise, but I liked the images too much to not choose them. Enjoy!

While I ate my breakfast, Lily kept winding up this teddy bear that plays Jesus Loves Me and listening to it.

Gymboree with Ms. Wendy, today's theme was delivering the mail. It was a really fun week.

Lily is "delivering a letter" by putting it through the slot.

Bubbles on the parachute. So pretty.

Walking with Abby home from the bus stop.

Matt came to practice his part for the recital with Abby. They are doing "Forever Your Girl". The Dads have a small part.

The girls singing with me while I make dinner. We are jamming to Bruno Mars "Marry You". (LOVE that song) You can't tell, but they each have a mixing spoon that they are holding to dance with also.

Lily's coloring stuff STILL out from earlier. Will it EVER get put away?

Shoes all lined up at the end of the day.

The end.

Spring Makeover

Ah, a breath of fresh air! The windows are open at my house, are they at yours? It is gorgeous out! I decided to clear out the pictures in my blog header of the girls in winter coats and give it a little spring makeover. :)

Tomorrow is the tenth, do you remember what that means? Ten on Ten! I completely forgot it last month, but I am going to remember tomorrow if it kills me (plus I wrote it down this time, so I'll remember!). Join me if you'd like and take 10 pictures during your day and capture the beauty in the ordinary. Tomorrow is our busy day, so hopefully it will be easy to not be boring.

See you tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to wish special ones to my mom, of course, for being who she is and modeling how to be a mom to my sister and I; and to my sister who is celebrating her first Mother's Day with Jacob! I wish I could be there celebrating with you guys!

As for my Mother's Day weekend, it has been great. The reason we couldn't travel this weekend to celebrate it with family is because yesterday Matt ran the MiniMarathon here in Indy. He did great and set a personal best. He's a little sore today, but doing great.

Today, I got to have doughnuts from our favorite bakery. Abby was very upset that I wouldn't eat them in bed. Then, we decided to go see the movie Rio as a family. We had an old gift card that paid for it all, so it was free to us! We loved it.

We have church tonight (we took the morning off this week) and we are in charge of organizing the meal so I picked a taco bar. Yum! I am also really looking forward to the warm weather this week. Yesterday we ran to the mall and got Lily's swimsuit that was too small returned and bought a better fitting one. They had amazing deals at Gymboree, so Abby got a new one too. (When we tried them on at home the girls didn't want to take them off!) We are officially set for our beach vacation which is rapidly approaching. I can't wait and lord knows that Matt needs a good separation from work and I need a break from health issues. I will have finished all physical therapy 2 days before we leave! Woo hoo! On another note, on Friday my PT said that I have regained all my flexibility (135 degrees) in my knee. That's a pretty huge deal. I am very excited about it. It hurts to do it and doesn't feel natural yet, but eventually it will.

I will leave you with some pictures of my beautiful, silly girls....they are why I get to celebrate Mother's Day.

Kindergarten Egg Drop

Abby's class had an Egg Drop yesterday. They dropped them over their "tunnel" and then graphed the results. They also talked a lot about probability prior to the drop. There are all kinds of neat math concepts you can work in there! :)

Each child had to bring in some kind of packaging with their egg safely wrapped. This was a project I handed over to Matt. He chose a gigantic diaper box, which provided an interesting challenge at the drop. It almost didn't fit through the window! Oops! But it made it through-

And the results? Did it break?

Aha! It turned out this class had great results. 12 safe landings and only 6 broke. Not too shabby. What a fun morning.

My Mother's Day Cards from Abby

Abby was so excited when she got home from school that I got my Mother's Day cards from school right away. They are priceless. You will see what I mean:

(I swear I don't sleep all day! and I don't know where she got the idea that Barnes and Noble is a restaurant but that has come up more than once.)

(Gasp! 39!!!! I think she meant 29! Surely, right?)

Measurements

Do you have a place in your house where you mark your kids' growth? Ours was unplanned. Otherwise, I would have made it much cuter. I am so not kidding. It doesn't help that practically every time, Abby puts her finger in the wet pen after I do it and smears it. Nice. That all said, it is still a neat place to look. Maybe its imperfections make it perfect. Matt was saying once that he actually thinks it was perfect that I did it on the inside of Abby's closet door, because we could always take that with us when we moved if we really wanted to- unlike a wall. Who knows if we would...

So, our official measurements today are Abby is 40 inches tall and Lily is 33. Yup, Abby only has 7 inches on her little sis. However, she has grown a good half an inch in less than four months, which for her is a lot. It explains why all her pants are looking short. Good thing summer is almost here so I can just wait until next school year to buy pants. And Lily just keeps growing too, though she's finally slowing some, thank goodness. What amazing, beautiful girls I have.

Cereal

We've entered a new phase of "bigness" around here. Yup, that's right. Lily can now eat cereal. With milk on it. With a spoon. Isn't she big?

Kindergarten Program

This morning we had the privilege of attending Abby's Kindergarten Program. It is hard to believe that in less than a month, school will be out for Summer. I was just teasing her this weekend that a year ago I was moaning about what I would do without her all day everyday, and now I think it is going to be crazy to have her home all summer!

Here are some highlights from the program this morning (I don't think these Flip videos work on most mobile devices, sorry!):

Abby was selected to do the welcome:

(I think it's because she is so advanced as Grandma D. would say)

Kiss Your Brain:

M & N:

Hip Hop Alphabet