Just life...

One final post for July. Grandma and Aunt Mary have gone home and we are back to regular schedules. No more company for awhile and we set are sights on the upcomoing school year. It will begin in less than a month and Matthew is for sure ready for Kindergarten. He had a jump start program this week and had lots of fun with it. I think Ella Jane was wanting to join him. She'll get her chance as she heads off to her own program this year 2x a week leaving me with just Sara. Mmm....I sense some good running time in our future!

Make a wish...

We had birthdays this week. Matthew is now 5yrs. old and Ella Jane is our big 3yr. old girl. WOW! It was a little bittersweet for me since last year at this time we were in Maryland and were able to have a WONDERFUL party with all of our friends. The memories are still fresh, in fact last night I was just telling Matthew about the day he was born. That day involved our good friend Liz; we had to borrow her car to go to the hospital and I asked if he still rememberd her. "Of course!, I remember everybody from Maryland!" came his enthusiastic reply.

Grandma and Aunt Mary are visiting this week so along with two of our new little friends, they were our special guests this year. We put swim suits on the kids, set up the pools and the slip and slide and let them play.

Among Matthew's gifts...a spiderman lunch box, a spiderman t-shirt, a remote control helicopter, and a scooter. Among Ella Jane's gifts...a Dora magnet playset, purple nail polish, her very own "towel" to hold all of her toys, and a scooter. What fun they are having with these new treasures!!

Changes...

Sara is not the only one changing around here! We've painted two rooms; the office and dining room. Don't they look great?

"That's not cool..."

We had a fly in the house just now and Matthew hates it when a fly gets in. The kids were at the table having a snack and of course the fly was buzzing around. Ella Jane says to Matthew, "you can just take your hand and shoo him away, how cool is that?" Matthew's reply? "That's not cool." They are so funny.

Romona Quimby Age 2

The kids got haircuts yesterday and the first thing I thought of when Ella Jane's hair was finished was Romona Quimby. If you grew up on the Beverly Cleary books then you know what I'm talking about. She's pretty cute. No more baby hair whispies. Matthew looks really sharp too. The professionals can do so much better than I can!

While Jim was gone we had a fun visit with Maria, Nick and Isabel. They were such a huge help and Nick even tackled some of Jim's projects in the garage which helped us out tremendously.

We've pulled out the slip and slide this week as the weather has become warmer. Below are pictures...you can see how much fun Matthew has with this. I will say slip and slides have come a long way since I was kid. No longer are they just a piece of yellow plastic that you have to keep straightening out!


Maria, Isabel, and Nick on the Mississippi River

Ella Jane with her new haircut

Go Matthew!

More fun on the slip and slide

In search of...

Happy Father's Day

Sad Sara

My girls

Loves her boots

Playing in the rain

Auntie and Uncle with one child, preferably a 20 month old little girl, to fly to Iowa to help with child care, holding fussy infant, and restoring sanity to temporarily single momma.



Jim is out of town for the next 10 days. We've managed two on our own and reinforcments are on their way as I post! We are looking forward to seeing Isabel. Our kids have never met her and Ella Jane is excited to have someone "just her size" to play with. She is usually the third wheel when Matthew has a friend over so you can imagine her excitement to have Isabel come stay with us.



Matthew ended up really liking his nature program and Ella Jane and I loved the time to just be with each other. We had a great week planting flowers, doing puzzles, packing picnics and watching movies. She's a fun little girl and it was nice to focus on her for a few days.

A house a home...

Paint swatches, trips to the furniture stores, and acquiring furniture inherited from our grandmothers; this house will start to feel more like home in the coming months. As of now it looks just like we did when we bought it. We are at a place in our schedules where we have a little more time and energy (well that could be debated) to think of how we can make this a home to us and our likings. It's fun to imagine. So the coming months will be full of changes, but good ones that aren't too stressful. :)

Ella Jane was peering into my eyes this morning and she told me that my eyes looked different. I knew what was coming but humored her and asked what looked different. She told me they were red. I laughed and said, "yes, mama is tired." Tired but able to see changes in Sara that are fun. She's falling into a ryhthm all her own. Still a bit of a sleeper during the day; very peaceful, and then up once at night. She's smiling now and it's so funny to just stare at her because she thinks it's the greatest thing in the world.

Matthew starts a preschool nature program tomorrow which I hope he's as excited about as I am. It sounds just like something he would love; hikes, snacks, playing outside etc. He'll be among 20 or so other kids for the remainder of the week for 2hrs. in the morning.

As many of you have asked let me just say that we are fine in regards to the weather. Dubuque is dry and not flooded. Cedar Rapids is underwater however and that is just 90min. away. Dubuque sits on the edge of the Mississippi which separates us from Wisconsin and Illinois. The river is definately higher and technically at flood level but overall it does not affect the city. We've enjoyed two days in a row of sunshine now and I think it's something we could get used to!

"Mama, why is the sky blue?"

It's that age old question and my little Ella Jane asked it of me yesterday evening when we were all in the van coming home from the store. Uh...well, because God decided that he wanted it to be the color blue. It seemed to satisfy her curiosity for now. Why is the sky blue anyway?