Raccoon

I had the urge to wonder through Walmart late last night and unwind. I got home around 11ish and as I pulled into the driveway, my headlights caught a raccoon crossing through our yard. Weird. A few months ago, we saw a fox. Anyway, I told Mikayla that I saw a raccoon last night in our yard and she dryly said, "Yeah, raccoons are nocturnal." Nate was as stunned as I was by her response and asked her if she knew what nocturnal means. She correctly defined it. Such a smarty!

First Day of Kindergarten!

She was excited until we got to the school and then was pretty clingy. I gave her a kiss on her left hand, Nate gave her one on her right. She "put" our kisses in her pocket to keep all day. Here's some pictures of this big event. When Kayla got in her line up, Elyana wanted to stand by Mikayla as you can see in the last picture.

Fall is in the Air

Even though school starts next week (yikes) and some trees have started dropping their leaves it doesn't feel like Fall yet as it is 86 degrees out and the kids have been playing in their swimsuits all day.

Here's a few pictures of what static electricity does to Elyana's hair when she's on a trampoline:




What's New Since My Last Post?
Ely has wanted to try to potty. I still haven't gone hard core yet with her and put on the underwear, making her go every certain amount of minutes. Perhaps when Mikayla goes to school. I don't have that drive in me yet and she is only sort of interested.

I've started a cleaning/organizing job on weekends for a friend. I'm having a blast at it too and earning some good money in the process. Once I get her house complete, I'll be up to doing someone else's if you know of anyone here in Rochester...

At the end of September, I'll begin a daycare type job where I'll be watching a friend's new baby a few days a week. I'm excited, yet nervous as I know this is a huge responsibility.

You Tube Video of My Triathlons!

My training partner and dear friend, Jen made this video for me. I will be forever thankful. I tear up each time I watch it.

Crazy Weekend Continued

We drove to Tomah, WI for Nate's nephew's wedding. We got to the wedding and I let Elyana wonder up the aisle for awhile before it started. It was about to start and I lifted her up to discover she had taken her diaper off before we left Nate's parent's home. Yikes. It was hilarious though to see her barecheecked in this beautiful custom made dress (Thanks, Shirley for giving it to us). There was a pretty garden at the church I took a few pictures of the girls.



On the way home, we stopped to take this cute picture of two fawns.


After a brief nap, we left for the wedding reception. The girls had fun dancing. On the way home, we received a phone call that my sister and her family were in a serious car accident. The car was totaled and they had to use the jaws of life to get my sister out. It was a tough hour waiting for a phone call on her status. Thank you God that she's okay, just sore and bruised. I finally got to sleep that night to have Elyana wide awake and ready to play at 3:00 AM! She never went to sleep again until lunchtime for a 2 hour nap. I am so happy to just now be home and that this weekend is behind us.

Mikayla's 5th Birthday!

Well, crazy weekend for us. We had Mikayla's party tonight (Friday) and will leave early in the morning to go to Nate's nephew's wedding in Tomah, WI tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the birthday party. It went well. Mikayla had fun, no one got hurt (physically or feelings-wise) and that's what matters.

Here's my #5 cake Mikayla asked me to make. She wanted chocolate frosting. I ended up using a round cake pan and an 8" square cake pan.



For games, we played, "pin the #5 on the Mikayla," and "pin the sunglasses on the sun."



After cake and presents, we adjourned to the garage where we had sea shells burried in pink and purple colored sand (Mikayla's favorite colors). Each child had a beach pail and shovel with their name on it. After they found their amount of shells, I put their party bags in their buckets.



Nate also made a race car ramp for each kid to race cars with. Can't believe I didn't get a picture of it...

We ended up with a whole hour to kill and ended up playing games such as paintbrush (reminded me of "What Time is it Mr. Fox, except with colors. You yell Paintbrush and everyone runs), Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, Sack Races (with pillow cases), and Dodge Ball.

Hot Summer Day Fun!

What to do on a hot summer day when your little sister is napping? Play in the sprinkler. Mikayla put on an old sun dress and pretended it was raining outside. I discovered the other day, if you let your kids play with a bubble machine (a highly productive bubble machine) and then let them play in the sprinkler, voila, it acts like natures washing machine.