Wacky Wednesday

This was my Wednesday today:

6:45am:  Awoke to Bri saying, "Mommy, I ready!"  Wow, she actually stayed in her bed all night for the second night in a row.  The "special treat" we told them they'd get if they stayed in their beds all night for 5 nights must be working!

7:15am:  Preheated oven for egg bake, planned to put it in oven at 7:45 in order to be ready in time for MOMS group.  Got in shower, got ready, feeling pretty on-time this morning.

7:59am:  Oh no, I forgot to put the egg bake in.  Oh well, I'm usually a few minutes late to MOMS group anyway, I'll just turn the oven up a few degrees.

8:15am:  Made pancakes for the girls and one for me.  Still feeling pretty on-time today. 

8:50am:  I should be leaving now but I'm running around the house trying to get everything ready.  For some reason I always forget to allow time for those last-minute things like:  do the girls' hair, get their shoes on, pack the diaper bag with sippy cups, make sure they go potty one last time, etc.  I see that there's jelly on Emily's dress and try to do a "spit bath" on it.  Doesn't work, oh well, at least the dress is pink. 

9:01am:  Pull out of driveway.  Supposed to be at MOMS at 9:00;  oh well, at least it's close by.

9:06am:  Arrive at MOMS group.  Tote in 2 girls, diaper bag, purse, roster, egg bake, coffeecake, and banana bread.  Help set up for the morning, sign in the many new ladies we had, eat a hot breakfast, laugh, almost cry, get to know many new moms, laugh some more, chat with old friends, pick up my girls, help clean up, feed the girls coffeecake and fruit for lunch.

12:05pm:  Load the girls into the van, see that their faces are covered in coffeecake crumbs.  Luckily find two wipes in my diaper bag, pass them back to clean their own faces. 

12:10pm:  Arrive at preschool, take Emily to her room, wait a bit and then take Bri to her room.

12:30pm:  Drive across the road to Target to kill time before my haircut at 1:00.  Decide I needed a break more and sat in the van to organize coupons.

1:00pm:  Haircut

1:50pm:  Quick stop at Rainbow for groceries.  Hey, gotta hit double coupon day!

2:30pm:  Picked Bri up at preschool. 

2:45pm:  Picked Emily up at preschool.

3:00pm:  Laid with Bri to get her down for a quick nap before swimming lessons.  Pondered, What if I fall asleep too and we miss lessons?  Better get up before I do. 

3:15pm:  Phone calls, emails, . . .

4:00pm:  Woke up Bri, got the girls into their swim suits.

4:30pm:  Swimming lessons at the Y.

5:30pm:  Breakfast dinner -- french toast, bacon, applesauce.  Wait, that makes 3 breakfast meals for us today.  Anything wrong with that?

Ok, that's enough.  It's 10:00pm and I'm going to bed!

New things all around

This past week was full of lots of new stuff for the girls.  On Monday was preschool open house which wasn't too exciting but went well.  On Tuesday was AWANA open house -- both Emily and Bri will be in Cubbies this year.  On Wednesday was their first real day of preschool.  They were excited to get their backpacks all ready and were not hesitant at all to go.  Here they are on the rainy first day:

They are in different classes but right across the hall from each other.  They both had a great day and keep asking when they get to go back.  It is only Mondays and Wednesdays for 2 hours/day, so it's not much, but means a little break for me which I'm really excited about. 

Also on Wednesday they started their second round of swimming lessons.  And on Thursday they started dance class at the YMCA.  It's a pretty casual class but I'm sure they'll enjoy it;  they do ballet and tap.  Bri is in the 2-3's class and Emily in the 4-5's.  They have a little recital in December at the Andover High School auditorium, so that'll be fun to watch.  Here are my little dancing queens.  I'll try to get some little videos in the future!

State Fair - Part 2

99% of my friends and the people who read this blog are on Facebook.  One is not.  I won't name any names but her initials are C.L.S.  Oh Courtney (oops), I forgot, my grandpa isn't on facebook either.  :)  Anyway, most of you saw this picture on facebook, but since we love going to the State Fair, I thought I'd do a quick post of "State Fair - Part 2."  Jer and I went again last Thursday since we got tickets to the MercyMe / Jeremy Camp concert.  We of course had to get there early so we could eat some more food (most of the same old standby's -- cheese curds, corn, deep fried Twinkie, deep fried Snickers. . . )  Speaking of deep fried Snickers, while we were walking up to the deep fried candy bar stand, Jeremy goes, "Hey, there's Jeremy Camp!"  If you've never heard of him, he's a Christian singer, the one we were going to the concert for that night.  Lo and behold, Jeremy Camp was right in front of us in line to get a deep fried candy bar.

 

After he had ordered, Jer tapped him on the shoulder and asked if we could get a picture with him. He said, Sure!, was super nice and friendly, and kept reassuring us that all the deep fried items in his bowl weren't all for him. A few minutes later his band was all standing around him eating, so sure enough, they weren't all for him.

After that we met up with our friends the Lewis', got some cookies, got caught in a rainstorm at the milk stand (see below),

and while standing under the milk stand's awning, saw a full double rainbow, which was neat. 

We then watched our friend Andy (on the left below) take part in the "Ghost Wing" challenge.  It was no sweat for him. 

Then we watched a rodeo awhile. . .

before heading over to the grandstand for the concert.  The concert was good but chilly.  Jeremy Camp was great, MercyMe was ok.  Here's a little snippet of Jeremy Camp singing 'Jesus Saves,' which is one of our favorite songs on his new CD. 

Fun with the Palms

This weekend we decided to take a last minute trip up north to visit some friends.  Our good friends the Palms moved from Andover to Aitkin about a year ago and we still hadn't been up to their place to visit them.  Luckily they didn't have any plans this weekend and neither did we.  So we spent Friday evening through Sunday morning at their beautiful acreage a few miles outside of Aitkin.  The kids had a blast riding around in this little trailer,

feeding their two ducks (don't they look like something right out of a movie?),

seeing their garden (even got to pick a few carrots),

having a campfire complete with s'mores,

and just hanging out. 

Here are their kids Alex and Abby with the girls. . .

and their 3rd little one Kate (who I sometimes forgot they even had because she is such an amazing sleeper!)

Henry and Jess, thanks for the best time this weekend!  Your place is amazing!  I'm sure we'll be back to visit again real soon.