Another weekend in Tuttle!

Friday evening after supper we left for Tuttle. We had a few projects we wanted to get started but have several things going on tomorrow (Sunday), so we came back home this evening. Our friend, Steve Adair, and his two kids, Ellie and Alan, joined us as they wanted to try out some fishing at Lake Josephine. Scott, Steve, Ellie and Emma went out fishing in the boat last night while Gage, Alan and I stayed at the house and played a few games of Sorry. After a few games, Alan made up his own game for him and Gage to play. I had my book with me so sat and read a little (and eavesdropped a little too!). It was funny listening to them play. Alan was making up the rules for the game, and changed them to his liking as they went along. Gage desperately wanted to go outside to play, but Alan wanted to continue with the new game that he was winning! :-) Finally Gage did talk Alan into going out, but by then it was getting darker and chillier outside, so they didn't stay out too long. When Scott and the gang got back after catching quite a few walleye, we roasted some marshmallows and made s'mores. I seem to end up the one in charge of holding onto everything. I need 6 more arms for that job! I ended up with sticky marshmallow goo all over my hands and face! They were delicious though!


Here's a picture of Steve and his big walleye. Emma had fun watching him club them between the eyes before filleting them. They also were introduced to fish eggs.

One of our projects was to paint the laundry room floor with epoxy paint (designed for concrete garage floors and basement floors). Hopefully the guy at Menards is right in telling us it would be okay to put down on wood subflooring! I guess it won't surprise me too much if it doesn't work and we end up with the paint peeling off there, just like on the siding outside! We took out the indoor/outdoor green felt-like carpeting that was on the entryway floor at the back door and put the paint down there as well. It really looks pretty good! MUCH MUCH better than it did, that's for sure!

Scott rolled the paint on and I sprinkled the paint chips over it after he was done with each little section. My sister, Kysa, put this stuff on her basement floor and it really looks good. Steve and Laura put some in their basement as well. It's really neat stuff! Scott got a little carried away with the paint chips as he grew impatient scattering them onto the floor, so he tried dumping them out of the bag. Not a good idea. He ended up with a great big clump of chips. Thankfully that spot will be hidden by the dryer. I quickly took over that job.

I forgot to take a "before" picture of the room, but here's a little glimpse of the after shot.

Our next project was to put Scott's sign out in the front yard. He had his Dad make him a sign and we brought it back at Christmas time. He borrowed a post hole auger from work to dig the holes. They have upgraded their auger, which was a nice thing! I remember when Scott borrowed it several years ago when we moved into our house here in Bismarck. We were putting up the fence in our backyard and Scott nearly ripped his arm completely off of his body at one point! That was quite scary!

Of course Scott didn't think to bring a level with us. I don't know who does this sort of project without a level? He devised his own little way of checking the posts as to whether they were level or not by hanging a string in the middle of the post and attaching a bolt to the end of it. I don't know that it worked too well, since the wind was blowing like crazy. Scott was pretty proud of himself though, so that's all that matters! :-)

Scott hard at work digging the second post hole. Believe it or not, he hit rock and had some troubles getting this hole dug. After he got most of the rock removed, he finally was able to get the hole dug deep enough.

Here's the completed project. Tuttle is located at the 100th Meridian, hence the name "100th Meridian Duck Shack" "Edge of the west, heart of the duck factory". He actually did a pretty good job and it was fairly level when I stood back to check it out! I wonder how many of the drunks leaving the bar will use it for target practice? I hope to do a little landscaping around the sign and rock, to put some finishing "girly" touches on the project.

I'm sure no one will get lost now, when trying to find Scott's hunting shack this fall! Apparently the plan is to hang the daily bag on the sign for pictures. Won't that be lovely?

The other project was to get the yard mowed. Unfortunately I worried more about getting sunscreen on the kids than myself (as usual) and fried my pearly white legs. I guess I should have been more careful since this was actually the first time I have spent any length of time outside this year with shorts on! I'm paying for it now I tell ya! My legs, from my knees up to where my shorts ended, are fire-engine red, along with the insides of my arms, from my wrists to the antecubital space of my elbows. I used my stupidity as a learning tool with Gage and Emma and told them, "This is why you should ALWAYS wear sunscreen!" They seemed to understand after they put their hands on it to feel the heat that my legs were generating! I'll surely wise up one day?!?

Catch the Reading Bug

Sorry I wasn't able to post last night, but we left for Tuttle just after supper and I didn't get a chance. I will fill you in on Friday's and today's events.

Friday Gage, Emma and I met our friends Kara, Jadyn and Kya at the Heritage Center for the Summer Reading Program Kickoff with the Bismarck Public Library. (Click on the link to see Kara's post and more pictures of Gage and Emma). We had a really good time. They had a few different things going on this year, i.e. a food tent put on by a local Boy Scout group which made lunch very easy, and also allowed us to stay longer, since I didn't have to listen to Emma whine that she was starving to death! They also had some inflatables set up in the yard and if you bought a $5 wrist band the kids could jump all day (10 a.m.-4 p.m.)! Luckily I got away with the kids not throwing too big of a fit about not getting to go on them. We were too busy with the other events and when we were ready to leave, we were READY TO LEAVE! :-) I think we were there from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. so we made a pretty good day of it. Scott and Kara's husband, Guy, met us for lunch on the lawn outside of the Heritage Center. We had a great time.

Spiderman showed up at the Heritage Center! The kids were pretty excited about that!

Geronimo Stilton was also there at the Heritage Center. We have not yet read any of the Geronimo Stilton books, but we're going to have to check one out sometime to see what they are all about. Gage has listened to one of the audio books, and I think he enjoyed it? We have so many books on our "to read" list it isn't even funny!

Emma gets a firecracker painted on her face. How fitting! :-)

Gage, Jadyn, Emma and Kya having fun in the craft/face painting room. Gage had gashes painted on his face!

Gage working on his black widow spider craft project. Emma made a butterfly and Jadyn and Kya made cute lady but hats.

Now, all we have to do is start logging the minutes we spend reading on the reading logs and turn them into the library every week for drawings. Gage actually won last year and won a library bag with all sorts of goodies, including the Get a Clue at your library t-shirt he has on in these pictures. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to win again this year!

Near-death?

Today I woke up with a headache for the third day in a row. It wasn't horribly bad, but bad enough. Nothing would take it away, not prescription-strength Aleve, not Tylenol, not a hot bath, nothing. I wasn't feeling too awfully bad, except for feeling a bit tired and the headache. Shannon came over just before lunch to get Gage and Emma, as she had invited them over for a play date today. I decided I should take advantage of them being gone, and schedule an appointment at Biolife. Now that the kids are out of school, I don't have free time during the day to go. I didn't really feel like going, but I wanted to add another $20 to my Biolife debit card. I made my appointment for 12:45 so I would have a little time to eat something before going, as I didn't really have too much for breakfast. They always say to eat a well-balanced meal and drink a lot of water. I needed to get some groceries (which I was also planning to do while the kids were at Shannon's and after my appointment), so I didn't have too many choices for lunch, and ended up eating a container of yogurt and a Nutrigrain bar and drank a few cups of water.

Other than my throbbing headache and being a bit tired, I felt okay. I was reading my new John Grisham book, The Appeal (which is very good by the way!) while I lay on the reclining chair/table donating plasma. I decided my head was bothering me too much to keep reading, and my eyes were feeling quite tired, so I just laid still and closed my eyes to rest them a bit. It was getting close to the half an hour mark, and usually it takes about 45-50 minutes to donate and I started feeling a bit weird. I wasn't sure if I was feeling nauseous and was possibly going to puke or what? I told myself I should get one of the girls' attention and let them know, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself because I figured it was just nothing. Then I started feeling clammy and was breaking into a sweat. I got a little bit restless, but still couldn't make myself ask for assistance. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew I wasn't feeling well, and I also knew the donation process was nearly over, so I kept giving myself a pep talk, "You can get through this Stacy, you're fine! This spell will go away and I will be done in a few minutes and can then go home." Well, after several minutes (probably 10-15) the clamminess went away and I thought maybe I was getting over it. Finally my machine beeped and they came over to take the bag of plasma, then start the normal saline to flush the line and rehydrate me after the donation. Typically they ask if everything went alright, and then say "5 more minutes". I told myself I should probably say something if they ask, but I didn't know if I wanted to make a big deal out of nothing? Well, they disconnected the bag of plasma and started the normal saline and didn't say a thing to me. I wasn't sure what I was going to say anyway, and continued for 5 more minutes. When the process was completed she came over to disconnect me and she asked if everything went okay, and you know me, "I-cannot-tell-a-lie-Stacy" confessed that I wasn't feeling well. Of course then they had to get the blood pressure machine and fill out a report. At this point I just wanted to go home. I was quite shocked when my blood pressure registered at 88/24! CRAP! No wonder I wasn't feeling well! I was probably near death and was too embarrassed to call attention to myself!! My blood pressure has never been that low, and being a nurse, I knew that was way too low. In fact, I think the only blood pressure I have ever taken that was lower than that was on a patient that was dying!!!! Another gal came over to see what was going on and asked the first gal what my blood pressure was and she showed her the form she was filling out and she replied, "NO WAY! That can't be right!" So, she proceeded to take it again, and this time it didn't even register. They tried again, and again, it didn't register. She went to get the nurse and a new blood pressure machine and at that point, I must have gotten a little excited myself and thankfully the new reading was 109/74. Much better! Whew! I had to wait around awhile until I was feeling better and once they determined I was okay they took the needle out of my arm and I was able to go sit in the chairs by the nurse's office and she told me to eat a snack and brought me a bottle of water and a bag of mini oreos. There was another guy sitting next to me, and he was there waiting for a physical as a new donor, and he looked at me all concerned and said, "Is it really that bad?" I told him no, it wasn't and that this has never happened to me before. Probably not a good place to put me, next to a new donor who was scared to death! We decided it was probably due to lack of sleep (I had tossed and turned until 4 a.m. the night before last), or my menstrual cycle ending just recently (sorry, I know that's personal, but I know my Mom is going to be freaking out and in the process of dialing my number when she reads this post), and I didn't eat a very good meal. I learned a little lesson today! Not sure if it was worth the $20 or not, but one good thing about the whole situation was that I forgot about having a headache! :-)

The dreaded "nut cup"

I knew this would come back to haunt me. I haven't scrolled back to look, but I believe I posted about this very subject sometime last fall.

Gage is in the Bismarck Youth Baseball Cal Ripken T-ball league. We have now had our third practice and next week (Tuesday) he will have his first game. One of the rules in this league is that all kids are required to have a "nut cup" as Gage calls it. I sent Scott out to Scheels last week to buy one. Monday night was Gage's first opportunity to use it and he refused. The protective cup comes with a pair of underwear which has a pocket that keeps the cup in place and there is no skin contact. He tried it on and absolutely refused to wear it. Scott told him he had to and all that did was make Gage quite angry. I went to his room to talk to him about it and also check it out to make sure he had it on properly (like I know anything about that!). He was mad and did NOT want to wear it and I told him he didn't have to wear it that night, but that he would have to the next time.

We went to practice and there was another kid at practice that was having a terrible time with his "nut cup". He was constantly readjusting it and when he was running the bases, it looked as though he had a broken leg, or perhaps there was a turd in his pants that he was trying to keep from falling out. I mentioned to his mother that he seemed to be having equipment malfunctions. She agreed and didn't know what his problem was, and thought maybe he had his older brothers underwear on which were too big to hold the cup in place. After practice Scott talked to the boys about the athletic supporter/protective cup, which Gage quickly pointed out the other name "nut cup" and all the boys got a kick out of that, and you know the conversation went downhill from there. Scott told them all they needed to have one to be able to play, and to have them for tonight's practice.

Gage agreed to wear his without any arguing because everyone else would be wearing it too, or so he thought. Still there were several without them, but a few more did actually have them. (I can't believe I'm even talking about this! Gage will certainly be ticked to know I blogged about this!) Not too far into the practice Gage came up to me and said it was hurting him. Being a Mom, I was trying to find out why, but not trying to embarrass him at the same time. He said it was hurting his skin, not his privates. He too was constantly readjusting the dumb thing and complained about it the entire practice. I can just see it now, we're going to have 10 boys out on the field and all of them are going to be readjusting their "nut cups" and not paying any attention to the game. The cups will probably end up being more of a hazard than a protective device, as instead of getting hit in the nuts, they are going to be knocked unconscious from getting beaned in the head with a line drive because they weren't paying attention. I told Scott he needed to email the man in charge and make sure that these are absolutely required, as one of the father's said the kids in the upper minors league did not have to wear them unless they were playing in the catching position. However, I distinctly remember them telling us at the parents meeting that they can't play without them, and even girls had to wear them if they were playing catcher, and they also can't play if they forget their baseball caps, as that is a mandatory piece of their uniform. Scott says he also knows they said the same thing at the coaches meeting.

Tuesday's game is going to be quite interesting!

Our weekend in Tuttle

We had a great time in Tuttle over the long, holiday weekend. We weren't sure if we were going to come home on Sunday or Monday initially, but Sunday afternoon when we asked the kids if they wanted to stay or go home, and Gage yelled out "STAY!" we decided to stay! :-) That's quite a different attitude than what he left for Tuttle with. He complained about not wanting to go because it would be SO BORING without any friends to play with. So, he apparently had a lot of fun!


Scott, Gage and Emma enjoying Dad's hammock that he got for his birthday last year. Brie wishes she could get in it too!?! Actually, she's waiting for everyone to get distracted with something else and to stop paying attention to her so she can sneak off and gallavant around Tuttle. She did that once or twice during our stay. Scott took off on his bicycle looking for her and as soon as she heard him yell her name, she took off for home with her tail between her legs! I saw her do it!

Here's the house for those of you who haven't seen pictures. The paint is starting to peel off, just like I knew it would. There's something wrong with the siding and paint won't stick, just like the locals had warned us 2 years ago when we started painting it to begin with.

We have quite a bit of grass to mow as you can see! To the very left, the white building with the 2 small windows is a garage that is ours along with the house which needs to be burned down in front of it. Then we have the 2 car garage where Scott stores all of his hunting gear, another old building which you can't really see, that is in front of that blue trailer (which is not ours), then the house.

Across the street is the Farmer's Co-op and gas station.

Down the street is the M&R Sports Bar. Gage wanted me to include that this is the most popular establishment in Tuttle. It was a happening place on Saturday. There were several guys who got out of their truck and could barely walk to the front door when we rode by on our bicycles, headed home from the park. It was a great little lesson for Gage. We had a long talk about drunk people and how dangerous it is for them AND everyone around them.

Just north of M&R Sports Bar is BSers, another bar, which is closed down. By the looks of the building it's probably a good thing!

Just thought you would get a kick out of the name. Thankfully Gage didn't ask what that meant!

At the far north end of Main Street (our house is at the far south end of Main Street) is the Tuttle School. It closed down it's doors for good in 2007. I saw some T-shirts in the Community store with some dates. I believe the elementary school closed down in 1995 and then the high school in 2007. This was very sad for Gage to think that a school like this could close down. It very much reminds Scott and I of where we grew up, as they too are small schools which are having the same problems. The kids enjoyed playing on the dilapidated playground equipment. Riding our bicycles down Main Street to go to the park was the big adventure of the day(s). Gage and I walked around the school looking through the windows that didn't have blinds pulled and saw that they still have all of trophies in the trophy case at the main entrance. We saw the science lab, computer lab and the shop. They still had all of their tools in the shop. I'm not sure if they will have an auction at some point for all of that stuff or what? Gage didn't realize that you get to learn how to build things at school! Apparently he doesn't realize that his Grandpa Stephens is a shop teacher, as well as a science teacher.

Perhaps the most interesting place for Gage was the Tuttle post office which burned down this past fall. I took his picture in front of the building, then he took over the camera for the rest of the post office pictures that follow.


Gage was very interested in the "Keep Out" sign.

We are not sure what caused the fire. And, you would think, since it's right across the street from the fire department, that something like this couldn't happen!

It looked like it was a neat, old building before the fire.

What a tragedy.

I'm not sure, but I think this was the vault, which is why it isn't burned down to ashes?




Here is the Tuttle Community Store. It is a really nice little grocery store. They have most of the things we need when we are in Tuttle. Even though their prices are higher than in Bismarck, we try to do some business with them when we are there. The kids were VERY EXCITED that they have "Bug Juice" there. (A sugary drink with, maybe if we're lucky, 5% fruit juice!) Right next door (within the same building), is where the new post office is housed.

Despite the wind and cooler temperatures, we built a little fire just long enough to make each of us a s'more and a few roasted marshmallows as well. It had rained earlier in the day, so we figured the fire danger was somewhat decreased.

We took our new tent with us to check it out. I decided to just set it up in the living room, since we had the space, instead of getting it all dirty and wet outside. Emma had a big time playing in it. She was going to sleep in it, but since no one would sleep in it with her, she decided it would be too lonely and slept in the bed. We took it down so everyone would have a clear path to the bathroom during the night! :-) This was the EASIEST tent I have ever set up and taken down! They have certainly improved since our last tent we bought, which we still have and plan to use along with the new one when we go camping.

Despite thinking he would have nothing to do, Gage had a great time. He spent a lot of time shooting his BB gun at pop can targets. Scott also bought some little clay targets for him to shoot at. I had fun with it too. I didn't know I was such a "sharpshooter"! :-) HA HA!

We took Gage's new Wolf scout handbook and were able to do several of the achievements and electives listed. One of the activites we enjoyed was bird watching. Gage is supposed to document, for a week, all the different birds he sees. It is very handy that Scott knows all of the birds and can identify them very easily. I can identify several, but certainly not like Scott can! We will have to remember our bird guide the next time we go. Perhaps the BIGGEST hit with Emma was when we drove to Lake Josephine (3 miles from our house) to look for some different birds. When we drove into the camping area to stop and identify the ducks on the lake, 3 goslings were walking to the lake and crossed right in front of our car. Initally when I asked if we could get out and check them out, Scott said no, but then he decided it would be okay since the mama goose was no where to be seen. Emma fell in love with the goslings. She of course wanted to bring them home with us. It was very chilly out and the one she was holding snuggled right into her. She tells everyone that it "climbed up me"! She was very sad that we couldn't take it with us. When it started pouring down rain, we sent them on their way and headed for the car. Hopefully mama goose found her little goslings!

Scott got his garage all cleaned out and organized. It took him ALL DAY to do! It started driving me nuts that it was taking him so long so I would start to try to put things back because it looked like it was going to rain several different times. He told me to just stop putting things back in there and help him to think of a more organized way to do it. He then said he wanted decoys with decoys, the weights and straps all in the same place, etc. I finally told him I couldn't think like him, and that this would be just like me asking him to help me organize my scrapbooking things. He agreed and then let me go on my merry way. Gage, Emma and I got Gage's book "A Wrinkle in Time" and read it while laying in the hammock. We finished the second half of the book over the weekend and enjoyed it a lot. We plant to go to Barnes and Noble today to get the second one in the series. We have a book mark which is also a timer and I used it to see how long it would take us to read the book. We clocked in at 5 hours and 9 minutes! I wish I had done that with the Harry Potter books! I would be interested to see how long those took to read. I know we had the first 5 books read in a year, which is ALOT of reading aloud if you've seen how big those books are!

Overall I'd say we had a great weekend. We have a list of things we need to take with us next time we go, which I think will be this weekend. There is something wrong with the water pump and Scott wants to get it fixed. I am going to have to watch Emma, the pack rat, a little closer next time. She had so much crap with her that she just had to have. I wanted to leave some of it there, like the Tinker toys, etc., but she would not knowingly leave anything behind. I'm going to have to tighten the reins a little with her packing. She LOVES to pack things to go places. She already has had bags packed for our trip to Iowa over the 4th of July. I've had to unpack them several times. I know when I can't find something, to look in her bags.

We're back!

We're back from our long weekend in Tuttle. We had a great time and I will have to update you on all of our activities tomorrow, when I have more time!

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Long Memorial Day weekend

A year ago, on May 22, 2007, was the day we laid Branta to rest. I wanted to remember her by posting a picture. I can't seem to find others right now, so thought I would use this one. She certainly was a fine retriever and great companion. We miss her dearly.

We are headed to Tuttle for the holiday weekend, so don't think I've dropped off the face of the earth because I haven't posted in a few days. This will be our first trip to Tuttle this year, so I'm sure there will be a little work to do.

Gage isn't too thrilled about going. He's afraid he's going to be bored not having any friends to play with. We have all kinds of fun things to do to keep him entertained, and lots of books. Emma is concerned about not having a television to watch, and I saw she had the portable DVD player packed. Hopefully everyone will be too busy to watch it.

Scott is waiting on me, so I best get going.

Oh, and today was Gage's last day of school! He is no longer a first grader and that seems very unreal to me! His report card was excellent and we are so very proud of both Gage and Emma! We are so grateful to have such wonderful kids.

Have a happy holiday weekend!

Mini Olympics Relay Races

Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy from the outdoor relay races Gage's class participated in yesterday afternoon.

Tug-o-War between Gage's class (Gage is in the middle, white t-shirt and black sweatpants) and another first grade class.

Water relay races amongst 2 first grade classes. They had a great time playing in the water.

They were using frosting containers to fill up large salad dressing jugs.

The big trash cans were filled with water and they had to fill their containers then run down to the other side and fill up the salad dressing jugs.

Mini Olympics

This morning when I took Gage to school, I stopped by his classroom to ask his teacher what their schedule was for the Mini Olympics so I could come take pictures. I don't know if I embarrass Gage when I do this or not, but I know his classmates are always excited to see me. At least 4 of them waved and said, "Hi Gage's Mom!" :-)

This was one tall climbing wall! Emma and I could see the top of it from 2 blocks away! There were spots for 5 kids to climb, but the center 3 were hard courses, so only 2 kids could climb at a time. I was worried Gage might not get to do it since they only had 10-15 minutes and they were lined up alphabetically, so he was 4th from the last kid in his class to get to climb. It stinks when your name comes near the end of the alphabet, and Gage always complains about it. I told him we could all change our last names to Larsen (my maiden name) and then he could come in the middle! :-)

Last year, as Kindergarteners, his class did not get to try the climbing wall. Gage told me he was going to make it to the top! I think he was pretty confident because he made it to the top of the wall at the Superslide. This one was much taller; however.

We got to watch nearly the whole class climb the wall before it was Gage's turn and I started to think there was no way Gage could make it to the top. One girl made it very close and then she got scared and started crying because she was too afraid to let go to let the rope lower her to the ground. There were a few kids who hardly got off the ground. Then, it was Gage's turn!

I must apologize for all the hollering I was doing. I couldn't help getting excited. I wish my camera had a mute button that I could hit while I'm taking video!

This was a neat new inflatable that I had never seen before! The air blowing out of the yellow cone kept the wiffle ball bouncing up and down in the air making it difficult for the kids to hit. Gage did hit the ball a few times, and one time swung so hard that he missed and nearly spun in circles almost falling to the ground! LOL! This inflatable definitely helped me in determining which kids were the stupid kids and which ones were the smart kids. I can't tell you how many kids I saw get smacked right across the head with this plastic bat as the kid batting followed through with their swing! Everyone was lined up behind the blue column you see just to Gage's left and of course they kept moving closer and closer to the one swinging the bat. The smart kids would see the bat swing right in front of their faces as they felt the breeze from the swing and their eyes got REAL BIG and they scooted farther back to keep from getting hit. The stupid kids would have the same thing happen, only move closer, and then get smacked right across the face! And let me tell you, these kids were swinging that plastic bat HARD! The lady manning the inflatable was more concerned about getting the ball placed on the jet of air than making the kids move back and I'm quite confident that there will be some kids visiting the school nurse before the day is over!

Here was another neat, new inflatable that I had never seen before. With this one they were to try to get their ball moved from one end of the line of cones to the other by passing the ball through the streams of air being blown through the cones.

Gage had a hard time with this one and didn't make it to the red cone before his time was up. He was just starting to figure it out when the lady made them move out so the next bunch of kids could take a turn.

And here is yet another inflatable that I had never seen before! This one was a difficult climb to the top of the rope ladder which spun around. The adults were holding the ladder steady on their first time through to help them get to the top.

Gage didn't quite make it to the top before he lost his balance. The gal at the top would ring a little bell when the kids would get grab ahold of the last yellow rung.

Each class was to get to spend an hour inside the gym doing the different inflatable stations. Emma was having a really hard time with "watching" all of the other kids having so much fun. There weren't any adults paying attention to her to feel sorry for her, so I finally told her to sneak in line. She found our neighbor girl, Hallie, in line for the jumping balloon and finally got to have a little fun with everyone else! :-)

After I had heard more whining from Emma than I could stand, I finally told her to just get in line for this ladder-climbing inflatable. It took forever, but she finally made it to the front of the line!

Emma was very good at this! She doesn't weigh a whole lot so she barely had any trouble keeping her balance because the thing barely moved! She climbed right to the top and grabbed the yellow rung and was thrilled when the lady rang the bell for her! I had no problems getting her to follow me out of the gym to walk home after that! She could hardly wipe that big smile off of her face!

Gage's class still has some outdoor activities that will be taking place this afternoon. We will try to get a few more pictures, and if I do, I will post them on my blog later. Due to the wind and potential for rain, they set all of the inflatables up in the gym, so the fun day would not be cancelled due to the weather.

Monkey bars video

I tried posting this video yesterday with Emma's day at the park post but for some reason it wouldn't complete the process, so thought I would try again today.

Boy, did I ever call that one!!

Well, I certainly DID call that one! Emma and I went to pick up Gage at school and the first thing he said to me was, "Mom, almost everyone in my class has a Nintendo DS. Do you think we could get me one?" UGH! I knew that was going to happen and it pretty much ruined the rest of the day. The entire walk home Gage whined about not having this toy. He even said, "Mom, I felt like a black sheep today at school because everyone else had a Nintendo DS and I didn't!" Poor kid. He's definitely deprived. When we got home he rattled off the names of 5 kids in his class who had them. I then asked him to tell me how many kids in his class DIDN'T have one. I think he got the point. A little later he told me that one of the boys in his class told him that Leapsters were for babies and they were baby games and he was so upset by this when he told me that he just started crying. It's too bad that happened. I love the Leapster games. I even play them when the kids leave them laying around on the couch, etc. They are very educational and I suppose that's why they are considered "lame" to the "cool kids". I don't care how much he whines and cries about this Nintendo DS system. The only way he is going to get one (note I said "only way" Grandpa and Grandma S.) is by saving his money and buying one himself. He said, "I'll bet Santa won't even bring me one." I told Gage he was probably right, and the only way Santa would bring something like that is if he got NOTHING else. He wanted to know why, and I think he really had to think hard about that, and if it was really that important. He is going to have to learn how to save his money and not cave in and buy little things along the way. He told me he could never save that much money, and I told him he was quite right because he usually ends up buying something else before he can get enough saved. Emma went to her room and brought Gage a penny to start his savings. They both cleared the totals on their empty, automatic counting money jars and have started over. Good Luck!!!

Emma's last day of school/Picnic at the park

Today was Emma's last day of school. Her school day took place at the park and she was soooo excited about it! She was mostly excited about taking her own lunch to school. This morning when I asked her what she wanted in her lunchbox she said, "Watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, nectarines and apricot!" That just happens to be every single fruit we bought at the store yesterday. I told her we would take some fruit, but she needed a sandwich as well. She finally decided on a pepperoni sandwich, stick cheese, apricot, Nilla cakesters (Gage had requested Twinkies and I have never bought Twinkies in the store and I seriously couldn't find them, so I ended up getting these new Vanilla wafer cakester things) and a juice box. She wanted to eat right away, but the teachers sent them to the playground first.



Emma started out on the monkey bars. Typically she just hangs there and yells, "Mom, can you help me!?" I usually end up going to help her across the monkey bars, but I saw another boy in her class go across them without help, so I knew she could do it too. I told her she needed to do it herself. After several times of hanging there and dropping, she finally took off across the monkey bars!

I was so excited for her! She was determined to do it and she did. After she went across them once, she was like an old pro and did it several more times. Yeah Emma!

Next stop was the sandbox. This had Emma entertained for quite awhile. She loves playing in the dirt and sand. There was a little sister of someone in Emma's class who decided to throw sand in the air, so I can't wait until bath time tonight! UGH! I just HATE sand!

Finally it is time to eat! I always enjoy seeing what the other kids' Moms pack for their lunch. Usually I try to make it as healthy as I can, but I caved and bought the Twinkie-like Nilla cakesters. I figured they should get to have that fun stuff once in awhile!

Bubble blowing was another fun activity!

Close to the end of our day at the park, someone pulled out a jump rope and Emma enjoyed that as well. She did pretty good. Most of them had troubles (including Emma) with timing their jumps. It was fun to watch.

After leaving the park I had to stop at the grocery store to get some hamburger for the taco salad I was planning to make for supper. I was going to make it last night, but after I got home from the store realized I had no more hamburger in the freezer. We usually go in with some people at DU and buy 1/4 of a cow and it is so nice and handy having that meat on hand. We'll have to do that again. After we got home I said to Emma, "Well it was your last day of school! Are you excited?" She almost started to cry and said she wasn't because she was going to miss her friend Livia. I don't think she had really thought about it being over until I said that? I felt a little sad as well. I can't believe how fast these kids are growing up!

Scott should be home later tonight as he has been away for work for a few days so we're looking forward to his arrival.

I have been dreading this week coming to an end because of school ending. However, I must admit I will be glad when it's over because we've had so many things going on it's hard to remember what is happening each day. Today was Game day/Music day at school for Gage. They were allowed to either bring a board game to play with a friend, or bring a CD player and/or Gameboy. Gage was excited that he was going to get to take his Leapster to school. I'm betting all of the other kids have a Nintendo DS and I'll hear about it after school. Tomorrow he has mini olympics and they will have several big inflatables at the school. That is a big thing around here this time of year. As we were driving home from the park there was another school that had them all set up on their playground. They had a great big ship that looked like it was sinking, which was the slide and it was called the Titanic. It looked pretty cool and Emma wanted me to just stop so she could go play on it. I told her we couldn't do that because it was another school. She is all upset about Gage's school having them set up tomorrow and because she can't go. Last year we went to take pictures of Gage and his classmates playing on them and Emma ended up getting to jump on them as well. One of the teachers felt sorry for her standing there watching, so she told her she could jump on them too! So, maybe we'll sneak over tomorrow for a few photos!? :-)

I was so relieved yesterday, Mom and Dad, to hear that Dad's results came back good! I've tried calling but keep getting the answering machine. Just wanted to tell you, since I know you'll be on my blog, that I'm so thankful everything turned out okay! I love you!