Braiding news

After a brief resurgence following a trip to Trinkets & Togs for a $2 mixed bag of new yarn colors yesterday, business has slowed to a crawl in Emily's braid shop.  Austin has been traveling for work for most of the last two weeks, and Lincoln & I can only be customers so many times.  Thus, Emily made a newspaper for her braid shop:

Some further explanation:  Emily recently found one of Austin's old Dilbert comic books on the bookshelves in the basement called Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business.  Since she didn't understand the sarcastic humor behind it, she has been taking some of the advice literally.  That's why she has meetings from 11:00-1:00 with consultants on how to stop the thieves.  Overall, Emily could use some real Four-P's marketing advice (product, placement, price & promotion) and a bit of training in the customer service department.  She's a rather bossy shop owner. :op

As far as the tornadoes go, it was a rather crazy evening last night.  Recurring severe thunderstorms caused the tornado sirens to go off three times in three hours in Waverly.  We actually only spent time in the basement once.  The worst of it always just missed us.  There were a few tornadoes that actually did touch down and do damage, including in Belmond, IA.  Since they had a coin drive at school to raise money for the tragic tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma City a few weeks ago, Emily decided to have a coin drive in her braid shop for the tornadoes last night.

With limited outside business, Emily started working on a new braid creation using an idea from the ChildCraft "Make & Do" book.  This is the braid doll she named Miami.  Miami is held together with a lot of masking tape. ;o)

A hike and water fun

The Kids' Adventure summer program in Hudson is run by my good friend, Julie.  Emily & Lincoln are in the same age group yet this year.  They meet from 9:00-11:30am on Tuesdays & Fridays from June through the beginning of August with a 2-week break in July for swimming lessons.  Since I have to go to Waterloo at least once/week anyway for bookkeeping (and more with the upcoming remodeling project), this was a great opportunity for the kids to have some fun, structured activities and allow me to get some much-needed shopping/errands done--even if it means some extra driving.

Besides fun games and crafts, Julie has planned a lot of neat field trips.  The first field trip was to Babcock Woods in Waverly!  We just met the bus there.  Since the path hadn't been mowed in a long time, and it was extra buggy from all the rain, the crew just took one hike around the circle and then went to Kids' Kingdom to play and eat snack.  It was Lincoln's first time riding a school bus.  I'm pretty sure that was the highlight of his day!

After the kids spent the morning in long sleeves and pants to protect against ticks & bugs, we hauled out the water table and kiddie pool for the first time in the afternoon.  Handy Hint: A fish tank gravel cleaner makes an awesome water/pool toy!  It's also the easiest way I've found to empty the kiddie pool when it's too heavy and full to be dumped out.

Cousin visit

This weekend my sister and her two boys came to visit.  Lincoln & Emily were very excited to play with Cousin Ryan (Baby Cohen isn't quite as interesting yet).  Two of the highlights were the bouncy house in the backyard and a trip to Duos for ice cream.

Braid Shop Day 2

Today Emily added more specials, a cash register/box and a nametag.

 

Emily's Braid Shop

Today was the first day of the Kids' Adventure program in Hudson, IA that Emily & Lincoln are attending (more on it in future posts).  Emily was thrilled that she learned how to braid.  She spent the rest of the afternoon setting up a braid shop in the toy room with "specials" made out of yarn.  Each special has a unique name and a listed price.  After establishing the rule that they could only use play money and not the money from Lincoln's money jars, Lincoln became her best customer.

Start of summer

Emily had early dismissal at 12:30pm, so our summer officially began this afternoon.  It was a beautiful day, and we started it off with a bang doing every kind of summer activity you could think of.

We started out with freeze pops at the picnic table set up in the front yard.

Then we blew some bubbles.

We had a lot of fun with the Stomp Rocket until we were down to only one rocket because one was stuck on the roof and two were in the trees.

Last was a brand new box of sidewalk chalk.

All that summer fun caught up to Lincoln, who skipped his afternoon nap.  At supper time he said he was too tired and curled up on the couch for an hour instead.

Meanwhile, Emily & I made our 2013 Summer Bucket List. 

I had grand plans to celebrate the end of the year with a trip to Duos for ice cream.  However, the fatigue finally caught up with everyone.  After a serious meltdown in the driveway following a slapping incident over bikes, I cancelled the trip.  Emily went to bed screaming at 7:00pm.  Lincoln played outside for a while longer, but also went to bed early.  Welcome to summer!

Last day of Kindergarten

We made it!  After seven snow make-up days, the end of the school year finally arrived.  Emily picked a special outfit.  Crazy enough, it's the same dress she wore for the first day of school her second year of preschool (9/6/11 on right)  It probably fits like it's supposed to now. :)

Emily LOVED her teacher, Mrs. Nuss.  We loved her, too!

 

Here is the whole school (K-4) during the last week.  

Emily is in the black shirt/skirt with white flowers in the front center.

Emily's year-end school art work.

She is so excited to officially be a first grader!

May 2013 videos

Des Moines getaway

This weekend my sister and brother-in-law ran the Dam to Dam 20k race in Des Moines.  My mom went along to watch my niece.  Since they had an extra hotel room, they invited the kids & I to join them for swimming and fun.  We stayed at the Sheraton West Des Moines.  Both kids were fascinated by the glass elevator (we were on the 5th floor). 

We ate supper at Jordan Creek Mall.  The kids enjoyed "hiking" around the pond and watching the geese.

Then it was pool time!  Emily did really well floating around the pool in a blow-up ring.  Lincoln was mostly a shore-dweller, happily filling and emptying buckets and bottles.  Cousin Saylor is a little fish and will fearlessly jump in at any time.

Emily slept on the hide-a-bed couch in Abbie & Wade's room.  Lincoln slept in a queen bed with me.  It was not a restful night.  :op  My mom & I got the kids up and out the door just in time to see Abbie & Wade cross the finish line in downtown Des Moines.  Abbie made her goal of a sub-8:00 pace, and they finished together in 1:37:59.  That was good enough for 26th in her age division.

The kids had one more round in the pool before heading back to Jordan Creek Mall for lunch.  Emily was so excited to go back and picked Subway.  I am thrilled we now have another option besides McDonald's!  After lunch the kids & I headed back home, arriving almost exactly 24 hours after we had left.  It was a fun little getaway and a nice visit with family.

6 years + 7 months

Another month has come and gone.  Emily is counting down the days until she is a first grader.  She (& I) are suffering from end-of-the-school-year fatigue.  We are both extra grumpy.  I am worried about her complaining about being bored when school is out, but she/we just need to be done and have a break! 

One effect of the fatigue has been near-constant shrill shrieking.  Sometimes I just want to hear something come out in a normal voice!  When she does speak normal, Emily's favorite "game" is to ask how many letters are in a word--e.g. congratulations.  I'm not even sure why she's asking.  She is fascinated with the idea of a spelling bee (from the American Girl Molly books) and says she needs to practice first grade words.  I'm pretty sure most first grade words aren't 8+ letters long!

Below is art work from school.  They painted flowers for May and made a guessing game picture to hang in the hallway for Mother's Day.  I figured out which one was hers right away. :)