Happy Birthday, Jules!

Happy Birthday,  Jules!  You are such an amazing sister, aunt, sister-in-law, and friend!  We love you and hope you have a great bday with Joe and Lulu!  Since I can't sing...I'll let someone sing a little tribute to you on your bday (although  it has nothing to do with your bday cause I don't want to forget you or hit you!!  )Have a great day!!!!  Happy Birthday!




H

A Love Letter

Dear Las Vegas,

Thank you for having my sisters and me to your town this weekend.  We had a great time!  Our brother-in-law sent us to you to celebrate Jules bday, and the trip was more than we imagined!!!!

From the moment we arrived,

our trip was full of adventure,

entertainment,

and family

that left our heads spinning!

We stayed very active

and pressed our luck a little!

There were BIG drinks 

and even BIGGER winnings

(5 cents)

It was like a little slice of heaven....

with angels!

And the trip ended with the sweetest treat of all!

(Sugarland)

Thank you so much for having us!  It was a trip of a lifetime we will never forget....but next time we will try to remember a camera between the 3 of us to capture more memories!  See you soon! 

Love,

1st Dentist, plus Class and Concert

This week Caitlin had her 1st dentist appointment.  She started a lot earlier than Abigail, who didn't go until she was 3, but since we are already there, they said they wanted to start seeing her.  Both girls got great check-ups and it looks like they may have their daddy's GREAT teeth instead of their mommy's BAD teeth, so that makes me happy!

Caitlin did GREAT!  She was a little scared at first, but with Elmo in grip, she did wonderful!  We are working on getting rid of her paci because it's starting to buck out her teeth.  She sleeps without it at night with no problem (except she wakes up at 6:15 instead of 7:15 now) and some naps.  There are some naps she still needs it, but we are working on it!  Caitlin got a Winnie the Pooh toothbrush at the end (along with tons of presents, it's like Xmas at the dentist office...timer, toothpaste, floss, balls, pencils, etc) which she was very proud of!

Miss Abigail did great too!  Next time she gets her first x-rays, so we shall see how that goes!

The girls went to my mom's classroom while I had a cavity filled (see, bad teeth).  They thought it was so much fun!  Not sure they helped so much, but they had a lot of fun "helping" Grandma!

Grandma and Mommy have a lot of the same music (cheesy kindergarten teachers) so they had a lot of fun dancing to the songs!  And my dancing, I mean running in circles!

Last week was the last Concert in the Park in our town.  We didn't make as many this year as we would have liked, but we ended on a bang with a big family turnout!!!!!

Nana, Aunt Tina, Chelsey, Trevor

Caitlin, Abigail, Daddy, Christina, Papa

Oh, these chairs!!!!  They spent an hour sitting down, standing up, moving the chair, sitting down, standing up, etc.  They were dancing queens!!!!  Looking forward to next year's concerts!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  In 3 short hours, Daddy will be done with his old position and heading the cabin with the girls for a weekend of fun and relaxing with Nana and Papa before he begins his new job next week.  And in 9 short hours, Mommy will be with Aunt Julie and Aunt Katie on a plane headed to Vegas to celebrate Jule's bday!!!!!  Viva Las Vegas...Watch out, the Muskovich Sisters are coming!!!!!

Stretching Out Summer

Summer is quickly coming to an end.  The pool is closed now during the day.  There are buses passing our house in the morning.  I am watching my 2 cuties 3 afternoons a week, plus one more 1 day a week.  We started our back to school shopping!

Check out the girls' new shoes for school.  I'm a little OBSESSED with them...they are so cute and sparkly!  Not to mention it's a great brand.  When you buy a pair, a pair is donated to a child in need.  If you aren't familiar with TOMS shoes, you should check them out!  Mommy may have even bought herself a pair...sans the sparkles!  Thanks Grandma for our back-to-school shoes!!!!

As we prepare for the start of school and a busy schedule that involves preschool for both girls, ballet, gymnastics, library classes, music classes, speech for Caitlin, and lots of fun activities, we are trying to just enjoy the last few weeks of summer.  Lots of trips to the park.  Lots of trips for ice cream.  Lots of staying home and enjoying our time. This weekend we had a fire in our firepit and made smores, just another small glipse of summer! 

They rebuilt a park that is close enough to our house that Abigail can ride her bike, so we have been going there A LOT!  I know when we pass that park on the way to school each day this year, I'll remember what a fun summer we had there!

Crazy Slide

Caitlin is a monkey.  She doesn't know she's only 1 and shouldn't be going up the climbing wall.  (I also had Rosie this day, so these 3 had a fun day).

Riding with Mommy (mostly is in her car from Aunt Julie and Uncle Joe on the ride to the park.

The view from the stroller.  CUTE!

Another busy week....getting prepared for our weekend of FUN!  In four short days, I will be on a plane with my sisters headed to Vegas for a sisters' weekend to celebrate Jules bday (thanks to my brother-in-law for the trip) and see Sugarland!  Rob will be taking the girls up to the cabin and is so excited for the weekend alone with them...and they are equally excited.  I hear they may actually get to go to the golf course....

Then next week, Rob starts his NEW JOB (same company, new position).  We are all really excited for this new chapter in his life.  There will be some adjustments for all of us as his job is now next to Sox Park, and he starts at 5am...but he now has bachelor pad (aka Grannie Frannie's place) to stay when he needs.  We went down to Grannie Frannie's place this weekend to set it up and it brought back so many great memories for me..so I'm so happy we still have this place because to me it lets me spend some more time with my grandma!  We also went and paid our respects to my grandparents, drove past their first house, and stopped at Superdawg, so it was a great day! 

Happy Tuesday!  We are off to enjoy summer!  ;)

Happy Friday!

Hope your Friday is GREAT and relaxing!

(This is a much needed moment for mommy!  It's been a week full of fighting but this morning they made a pact to be "friends" and made a bed on the couch together.  I give it 5 mins before someone's in timeout for fighting...but I'll take it!)

Oh, The Places We'll Go!

The last week, we went to lots of fun places!  We are enjoying our summer and using all our free days before the craziness that will be the school year begins!  I don't have a lot of great pictures thanks to the GREAT CAMERA LOSS OF 2011, but I did get a picture here or there from some of our latest adventures!

MORTON ARBORETUM

We went to the Morton Arboretum with our neighbors, the Staniaks.  It was a really fun day!

Abigail playing in the tadpole pond

Abigail and Caitlin in the rock throwing creek

Miss Reese

The girls in a playhouse

More rock throwing

Abigail and Chase braving the rope course

Mr. Chase!

LAMBS FARM

On Saturday, Auntie Mo Mo and I took the girls to Lambs Farm while the hubbys golfed.  It was a nice morning out!  Lambs Farm is such a special place and I think it's wonderful that it's in our area!  (It was also a free day which was great for us!)

Auntie Mo Mo and Abigail on the Merry-Go-Round

BROOKFIELD ZOO

Yesterday I took my 4 lovelies (my 2 and the 2 I watch) to Brookfield Zoo.  I wasn't sure how it would go being outnumberd 4 to 1, but it went really great, thanks to 4 really well-behaved kids!

Waiting for the Dolphin Show

Funny Picture.  There was this peacock walking around with it's 2 babies...and the kids really wanted a picture with it...but everytime I tried they couldn't concentrate on the picture cause they didn't want to get too close!  Look at the 3 brave kids...and how far away the peacock is!

PIRATES COVE

We went to Pirate's Cove to celebrate Chase's 3rd Bday and Blakes 1st Bday.  It was our first trip to Pirates Cove this year and we had a blast.  Not many pictures, but the kid were busy the whole time!  Check out Caitlin's cute shirt...the Staniaks made pirate shirts for all the kids!  Abigail kept asking if we were going where the "maties" are...I was confused until I realized she calls pirates "maties".

Caitlin LOVED the water ride!

Those are a few of our adventures the past week or so.  We are back to watching kids this week, and in a few weeks Abigail starts preschool 3 days a week.  A few weeks after that, Caitlin starts preschool 1 day a week.  I can't believe how busy we are going to be...but I'm so lucky that I'm able to be with my kids every day and do outings like these!!!!

I Love Her!

This weekend Aunt Julie and Uncle Joe watched the girls while we went out with Rob's cousins. (And Aunt Katie and her friend Jess were there too...so there was lots of fun to be had while we were gone).  We decided to bring Lucy's bday gift down early because we wanted her to use is as much as possible while the weather was good.  She is the cutest niece EVER and we love her so much!!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Lucy!  We can't wait to celebrate with you in a few weeks!  We hope you enjoy cruising the streets on your new bike!  You make us so happy!!!!

(And thanks to all involved in watching the girls!)

What's Bug Up To???

It's time for a Caitlin Bug Update:

*First, I'm not even sure how she got the nickname "Caitlin Bug" but it has somehow stick and we continue to call her "bug"...and I am a mom who doesn't like when moms give kids nicknames...oh well....  (But I do have one pet peeve that I will NEVER allow...when someone calls one of my kids "Sissy" for sister.  Nails.  On.  Chalkboard!)

*She loves dancing and music.  We did gymnastics, but all she wanted to do was hang out by the stereo and dance.  She loved Mommy and Me Dance, so I think we'll be doing that again soon.

*She LOVES wearing sunglasses.  It's the first thing she grabs when she gets out of bed and she wears them all day and night.  It's so cute!

*She still loves all things Elmo.  It's one of her first words!

*She loves carbs!  Toast, bread, rice, etc!   And she loves fruits and veggies.  However, she's not a big fan of meat...we are working on adding more protein to her diet.

*She loves Abigail, and is actually the leader of the two of them.  She tends to dictate what they play, where they play, etc.  It's funny because even at this young age, I can see she's going to be more of a leader in the classroom. 

*Saying that she's a "leader" is a teacher's way of telling parents they have a strong-willed child on their hands...and we know that!  Caitlin does what she wants, when she wants.  It becomes a challenge at times, like when you are trying to look good in front of someone and she decides she's not going to go along with you...but I have embraced her strong-willed personality...most of the time!

*She is starting speech (STUPID United Healthcare isn't approving it, so it's going to make things more difficult, but she starts Monday so I'm excited.  I love healthcare insurace.I mean, she has a 45% delay in speech and they say "No!"...what is wrong with this country's health care...I digress).  We can't wait to give her more tools to tell us what she wants.  She obviously knows and wants more ways to tell us!  She says "Mama" "Dada" and "Elmo" clearly.  She also repeats a lot of sounds and mimics a lot of words when we say them first!

*She is 21 months old and weighs 24 lbs!  God love my kids and their skinny genes!  :)  She's in 18 months clothes.  She's tall, but not as tall as Abigail, so hopefully pants fit her this winter.

*She always wants to have her shoes on.  She does not like textures on her feet!  She's the kid at the pool with the sandals on.

*Speaking of the pool, she loves swimming.  She has no fear and she'll jump right in, even if I'm not looking.  We spent a great summer at the pool!!!!

*We LOVE our lil Bug to pieces!!!!!

Only a few more months till our "baby" isn't as much of a baby....but it is fun to think about all the future holds for our "baby" and our family!!!!

Summer Classes

Last week, the girls' summer activites came to an end.  In addition to swim lessons and VBS, Abigail also did gymnastics and Caitlin did Mommy and Me Dance. 

Abigail liked gymnastics, but she had a rowdy group.  The last day the parents could watch...and it explained it all.  These two girls ran around like crazy and didn't listen to the teacher...and the moms sat in the corner and talked the whole time.  It was actually eye-opening!  Of course Abigail and one other girl were getting the looks from their moms, so the two girls followed the teacher, but the other 5 kids were wild.  I was not very impressed with the control (or lack there of) of the kids.  It's not that the kids have to be perfect, I mean they are 3, but they were literally running around doing other things and the teachers spent the whole times chasing them and not much time teaching.  That being said, we are looking at a different place for fall gymnasitcs if that what Abigail wants to do (in addition to3 year old Hip Hop Class..I'm beyond excited for that one!)  Here are some pictures:

Getting ready for the class

Rings

Hanging Around

My lil gymnast

Balance

Hand Stand (which she does on walls all around our house now)

Ta Da!!!!!  Great job Abigail!!!!

Caitlin started Mommy and Me Dance this summer.  When Abigail did it at this age, she had a bunch of older girls who's parents took it super serious (leotards, etc)...but Caitlin got in the PERFECT class!  4 girls all her age (one girl named Lucy, one named Rosie....so cute the names were familiar to us), 3 out of 4 moms were teachers...it was like a perfect group!  We had so much fun!!!!  Caitlin did great!  She listened really well and followed most of the teacher's instructions.  She is very social so had no problems going up to get props, etc.  She had so much fun and I can't wait for our next class together!!!!

My Dancing Queen...she loves music and dancing!  I really think dance is her thing right now!

Bippity, Boppity, Boo!  The Princess Scarves Dance.

The girls loves her maracas!  (Abigail came the last day to watch too)

Caitlin and her adorable group!!!!

I'm sad the summer classes have come to an end, as it's one more reminder our summer is coming to an end.  However, I think Abigail is ready to get back to school...and I am looking for a few classes for Caitlin for the fall.  Then in January, if there is an opening, she may go to school one morning a week too!  Off to enjoy our last few days of summer...and do EVERYTHING we said we'd do this summer and never did.  Off to Splash Park!