End of School...Beginning of Summer

Kaelin's school year has come to an end...and summer has begun!  I have a few pictures to post today ... and her concert video - but that will come in a few days.  

Here's our last two weeks:

Justin drained the hot tub, scrubbed it out and filled it.  Now the water is cleaned and stabilized.  However, instead of returning it to hot tub temperature, we kept it at 90 degrees.  The girls now think they have a built in kiddie pool :).  They LOVE it!  I remember swimming in my grandparents' hot tub when I was little, so it makes me laugh to see them doing it as well. AND we don't have to drag out their pool, blow it up, fill it, and wait for it to warm a bit!

Memorial weekend was a fun extended weekend for us with Justin home.  We had a picnic in Grove City on Sunday, and were able to visit with a few friends.  Monday was a day at home with the girls getting to play outside and Justin doing yard work.  Here is a picture of the girls from Sunday that weekend.

Kaelin's end of the year concert was SO CUTE!  Several classes sang 4-5 songs each, except for K's - they sang 8!  And were adorable doing it! Then at the end, all of the classes came together for 4 more songs.  We have it all recorded, but I need to load it and then edit down a few songs to post.  Here is a picture of K singing.

Kaelin's end of the year picnic had gorgeous weather!  I was very grateful!  We were out with the kids from about 9:30-11:30, including a picnic lunch.  Kaelin was excited that I drove and that she got to play with her friends.  

During the picnic she loved this thing.  

Scared me, but she climbed through/over it several times.

Kaelin's class with Ms. Doyle 

(the ones that attend on Fridays, each day is a bit different.)

The girls like watching Uncle Ray walk on his hands when we are out in the yard, so they wanted to try too.  Here are pics of them 'walking on their hands', or as I remember from childhood, wheelbarrow style.

Cute pic of the girls one night with Mommy getting a treat while everyone else was traveling.

Side Note: Our baby birds flew away.  At least that is what I am choosing to believe.  They were there one day and just gone the next. :/

Upcoming this next month:  Dominic's 3rd Birthday Party! Carlee's Graduation Party! 4th of July! RJ is coming for a visit!

Babies R Us Contest

Hey all! If you have a moment please go to: Babies R US Ultimate Shower Sweeps.  I have entered a contest to win all the items of my baby registry - up to $5000! If friends and family play they they get a chance to win an egift card and increase my chances of winning!

Thanks for your help!!

May Update

We have had a lot going on in the past 2-3 weeks.  We had our ultrasound, and found out the new baby is a BOY!  Time to start shopping! hahaha Actually we have received promises of a ton of clothes, towels, blankets, even boys' bedding.  It appears we are only really low on Newborn-3months clothing.  We are so blessed and thankful to everyone who has offered to help: Mom, Caitlyn, Mandie, Josette, Josh and Mandy and Carrie!    Baby is measuring well and appears to be healthy.

I had some issues with palpitations and rapid heartbeats, dizziness and migraines - on top of the nausea.  I am on some new medication that is working well with the nausea.  The dr. had me get an EKG, and Ultrasound of my heart, as well as wear a heart monitor for a week.  Unfortunately she is now on vacation till later this week, so all I know is what her partner dr. told me - I have an elevated and rapid heart rate.  Apparently it isn't too serious, because he wants to wait until my dr. gets back from vacation to take any steps (aka medications) if necessary.  For now I am only to be working short, 4 hour shifts, and 'taking it easy' -- whatever that means! :)

Monday was my birthday - I am now 30!  Doesn't really bother me as much as I thought it would.  We had a fun day. (weekend actually).  We met Justin's Mom and Keith for dinner Saturday night, and then went out with his Dad, Barb, Amy, Brad, Dominic and Jason Monday night.  Justin got me a pregnancy massage (I just have to schedule it).  Ray took me to the movies - we saw Pirates 4.  I also got some new charms for my charm bead bracelet and some money (which I will probably use to buy more charms).  :)

Tuesday was our wedding anniversary - 8 years.  Justin and I went out to dinner at the Springfield Grille all by ourselves (Thanks Ray!).  It was fun, and because our steaks were very undercooked, we got free dessert!  Overall, it was very yummy!!!

Other happenings:
Justin has been traveling - busy, busy.  He has a trade show in New York coming up and a Sales Meeting in Chicago in the next few weeks.

We received a package from Grand Grandma Jan a few weeks ago.  In it there was a tin of Pink Hot Chocolate Mix.  The girls recently had a tea party with it and thought it was so cool!

Our baby birds hatched!!!  We have been watching them constantly!  I try to take a picture every other day.  We haven't touched the nest or babies, and mom doesn't seem to mind us getting near the bush to take a peek.  However, she doesn't like Ray!  hehe  she has dive bombed him a few times.  These pictures were taken May 16-23.

Coming up:
Kaelin is finishing preschool.  She has a field trip Friday to the local library on a school bus - just like she will ride to kindergarten - and is very excited.  Then next Wednesday is her end of year concert.  Next Friday is her last day of school - which is a picnic at a local park.  I can't believe she is almost done and will be in Kindergarten in August!

On Kaelin's last day at school, Ray's friend, Matt Bob is flying in for 10 days!  The boys should be busy.  They are going to NY with Justin for a few days, hoping for a trip to Niagara Falls and also to Cedarpoint Amusement Park.  It should be a fun visit. 

Mother's Day

Today was a busy but fun family day!  Justin (and the girls) got me a Tiffany necklace - it is very pretty and simple (very my style), so I can wear it a lot!

We had a nice brunch at Ironbridge Inn with Justin's Mom, Keith and siblings etc. (Thanks Cin and Keith!)  It was YUMMY (as it always is), and thankfully, not as busy as we had feared!

We then stopped at the outlet mall and bought a few summer items for Hailey (the poor girl has NO 3T summer clothes, apparently Kaelin didn't wear 3T during summer months when she was that age).

After that we headed to the Magee Farm to visit Tom and Barb and later Great Grandma and Grandpa.  We took a golf cart ride and saw some of the new calves.  I received a new bracelet with a MOM charm on it that I hope to add too soon (very similar to a Pandora style bracelet).

Picture of Daddy and the girls on the pond dock at the farm:

Pictures of tired girls (no naps and poor Hailey is sick) on the way home - but they did VERY well today! I was SO proud of their behavior both at the farm and the restaurant this morning!!!

After we got home we had some crockpot stew dinner and then enjoyed some time outside!!! YEA for sunshine!!!!  

Nature...

For Easter the girls received a Butterfly Garden.  You send away for a container of caterpillars, watch them cocoon, then hang the cocoons in a netted container and wait for butterflies to emerge.  The information that arrives in the kit says you should end up with 3-5 butterflies.  We had 5 caterpillars....3 became butterflies.

I learned new things about butterflies during this process:
1.  Butterflies are cannibals - if one dies, the others will consume it!
2.  They only have an approximate 2 week life span once they emerge from cocoons (so we will release ours quickly. I am NOT ready to explain that process again!)

Here are a couple of pictures of our process:

 

Second nature study at our house is actually in nature!  FYI - if you come to our house avoid the front spiral bush at the corner of the walkway :).  We have had a bird that startles (and sometimes tries to dive bomb us) when we get near.  Today we were able to see (and show both girls) why.....there is, not only a nest, but 3 blue robin eggs in our bush.  We didn't touch them, and I won't move them (I would feel bad if something happened!).  So, I guess we are going to avoid the bush for a while.  I think it will be neat to let the girls keep an eye on the process (if all goes well of course).  :).

Here are some pictures of the nest -  if all goes well there will be more to come in a few weeks:

Mom's Night at ACC

Kaelin's Preschool hosted a Mom's night today.  We spent 1.5 hours with the kids in their normal classroom setting - they sang us songs, showed us around their room, painting, discovering and playing with cornstarch goop.  They made us little framed poems and the teacher gave us a photo keychain.  

The funniest part of the night occurred when the teacher had us play a guessing game.  Earlier in the week she had asked each student a series of questions and wrote down their exact answers.  She then read the answers to us without telling us who the mom was.  The answers were hysterical, especially when we found out who the mom was (some mom's favorite drink was beer, and another's favorite thing to do was 'drink' - though later we found out it was tea.)  Ms. Doyle says she always has one beer drinker and that she doesn't judge, but it was very funny!!!!

I thought it would be fun to share Kaelin's answers about me.  A few were totally random, but most were dead on.

What is your mom's favorite color?  -- Pink

What's your mom's favorite animal? -- A Panda Bear (??)

What's your mom's favorite song? -- the break, break, break, break your heart song (haha she loves it!)

What's your mom's favorite thing to watch on TV? -- big people's movies

What's your mom's favorite thing to drink? -- tea...I think Coke and sweet tea...no diet though (YEP!)

What's your mom's favorite thing to eat? -- salad with blue cheeese dressing (I do like them, though I prefer them with a filet :) )

How old is your mom? -- I think she's like 12 years old (better than the 30 I'll be in 2.5 weeks)

What is your mom's favorite thing to do? --to take care of me when I'm sick ( :( I hate when she's sick!)

What is your mom really good at? -- Really good at cooking and doing laundry

I love when my Mom_____? --snuggles and watches Spongebob with me

My favorite place to go with my mom is ____? -- the toy store

My mom loves _____? - Me

I knew it was me with the sweet tea and not diet remark.  Totally made me laugh!  I loved her.  We had a great night together!

Easter Sunday

We arrived home from our DC trip Saturday at 8pm.  The next day was Easter.  The girls were excited to see their baskets and later drive to Grove City to visit grandparents.

Tangled washcloth - we are obsessed with anything Tangled!

New Veggie Tales!!

Candy before breakfast for both girls :)

Big Papa and Grandma Magee with K. (Great Grandparents)

 

Could've been a great picture if Hailey wasn't sticking her tongue out!

I had to show these next two pictures.  Hailey is lining up her candy, Kaelin is lining up her stickers. I have NO idea where they get this from. ;)