At Last, The "New" Room!

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting about the kids' new room! They've been sharing it since the beginning of August and, I must say, the transition has gone really well. They both love having the other to keep them company and they also enjoy the extra playtime that they get when they wake up bright and early!

Anyhow, here are some before and after shots of their room and how it turned out!

Before: A sweet little-girl's room

After: A fun room for two!

Feeling Fancy at DinoQuest

Emily has recently gotten into the Fancy Nancy books. The other night, while Cubby and I were at the temple, she and my mom made me a "crown" of roses. It was very pretty! We kept it in the refrigerator so it would stay fresh and today Emily wanted to be "fancy" with me as we all ventured over to DinoQuest at Fontenelle Forest. So, we both wore our "crowns" and she dressed up in things she felt were fancy. Very cute!

DinoQuest was a lot of fun. Basically, there were just a bunch of life-size dinosaur statue-type things along the trail. The kids could also "dig" for dino bones and compare footprints w/dinos, etc...They really thought it was cool and we had a good little Saturday morning. Here are some pics!

School Has Arrived!

The other day, Emily told me, "Mommy, all of my friends are five. I'm so tired of being four. Can I just be five now?" Poor girl! I told her that once she got into school, she'd find that there are plenty of kids who are still four, waiting, just like her, to be five. At long last, that wonderful first day of school has arrived!

This year, Emily will be attending pre-school five mornings a week. One of her best buddies is in her class and she even knows her teacher from being in the classroom last year. She was super ready and had a wonderful first day! We're both very excited for the coming year--I know it'll be an adjustment to have Emily gone every morning, but it will definitely be good for her to have her little "thing" each day. Christian and I will also get a little one-on-one time before Kari comes along too. Hurray for preschool!

Christian wanted in on the green shirt action and is wearing Emily's shirt from last year! (Emily shirt this year shirt is a slightly different shade of green. Thankfully, she wasn't too put out by it NOT being blue!)

Are You Ready For Some Football???

On Friday we took the kiddos to the Papillion vs Papillion-South game. Regular, old-school Papillion is where I went to school, but we also have friends who have kids involved at South. So, it was just fun to get out and cheer for everyone. (The Monarchs, however, did end up winning though--hurray!) The weather was also FANTASTIC--a perfect weekend really!

Emily and Christian both had a good time, although they had a tough time sitting still. Christian LOVED the big blue Titan mascot and was CONSTANTLY climbling all over and looking for him. Emily wanted to go and run around on the grassy hill with a hundred other crazy children. (Which wasn't going to happen.) One minute she would say, "Mommy, this game is so boring." Then, when the cheerleaders would cheer or the band play a song (or we'd go up and get a gatorade), she'd give me a hug and tell me, "this is the BEST game EVER!" We left at halftime (bedtime and all) and the kids were all tired smiles so I'm pretty sure the night was a success.

We Have Cucumbers!

So. My first attempt at gardening had mixed results this year. The squash, that I thought would do so well, got too much water and rotted out. The carrots, though they did well, were stumpy b/c we didn't dig down deep enough and the couldn't push through the clay to get longer. The peas grew okay, but there weren't that many. The cucumbers, however, really came through! I had to replant the seeds in June (they didn't take in May) and since then, they really have grown! I could hardly believe my eyes when I finally got out there today (after rain and humidity all week) and there were sooo many! I picked a dozen large ones today and that was just the first batch! Anyone know any good cucumber recipes??

Christian looked so cute in both of these pictures...I had to post them both :-).

Go Sharks!

Today is a rainy day. However, the kids club at the zoo was learning about sharks so there was no way we were going to miss out on that! (Emily is just mildly obsessed with sharks these days!) We just wore our raincoats and brought along an umbrella and headed out.

Showing their shark fins to the sharks

It turned out to be a really fun little morning! The kids enjoyed reading shark books and singing shark songs. They even got to make little shark-fins that strapped on like a backpack. We then proceeded over to the aquarium (of course) to visit the sharks! Today was "Navy" day and so there were members of the US Navy there and they had divers swimming around with the sharks. Emily said she wanted to do that too, but then she realized she'd have to put her face in the water and said maybe when she's bigger.

One of the Navy's exploratory robots

The Navy guys also had these exploratory robots out for display, moving around and all. Christian was fascinated, but a little scared just the same! He wouldn't get too close for a picture, even though he couldn't stop looking at them.

Just hangin' around!

After the aquarium, Christian wanted to see the snakes in the jungle so we made our way over there. We usually have a stroller and so we only do the top portion. Today, however, I knew we weren't going to be walking too far so I didn't bring a stroller. We ventured down to the lower portion and had a fun time "hiking" around and even got to see some fun little monkeys really close up!

We finished up the day in the Wild Kingdom Pavillion (more snakes, turtles, fish, etc...). It was nice to be able to take our time and see a few different things, especially since it wasn't crowded. I'm so glad the sharks got us out into the rain--go sharks!

Deep Thoughts, by Emily

Deep Thought #1:

Emily: Mommy, I think I know what I want to be when I grow up.

Me: Oh, what's that?

Emily: A newspaper thrower.

Me: Well, we'll make sure you can be a paper girl when you turn ten, okay?

This makes me think of when Cubby was little. He told his parents that he wanted to be a milkman so he could deliver milk to his little girlfriend :-).

Deep Thought #2:

Emily: Mommy, I'm tired of Earth. I want to move to a new planet; probably a blue one.

Apparently, she's seen enough of our blue planet and has decided to venture out.