School Days

Well, it's that time again! Amelia went back to school on July 16 this year. I didn't have a hard time bidding her good-bye this time. But, I hyperventilate every time I think that next year, she will be in Kindergarten.

She went back without a single problem--such a big girl I have! She is going two full days and one half day this year. She could not be happier about getting to take her lunch in her (princess) lunchbox.

Check my little lady out on the first day of school!

She looks so much more grown up than last year's first day! sniff, sniff

Unlike last year, when I was a nervous emotional mess taking her in for her first day, I took the lead from some other parents and snapped a picture of her outside the school door. I can't get over how grown up (and blinded!) she looks.

After a LOT of debate, I decided to request the same teacher she had last year. We really got the best of both worlds because she has the same teacher as last year in the AM and a new teacher in the PM.

Much to my surprise, Amelia seems disappointed when I tell her she gets to eat lunch with Henry and I on the half day each week. Did I mention she REALLY loves her lunch box?

I am excited to volunteer in her classroom next week for the first time! I've gotten nothing but glowing reports from both teachers so far!

I Scream, You Scream

Actually, I consider myself pretty lucky that there wasn't actually ANY screaming on this outing!

For the second time since joining my playgroup, we took a tour of an ice cream making factory! I don't know, actually, the word "factory" may be a bit of an exaggeration. But, it was a place that makes ice cream--Blue Sky Creamery to be exact. And, it was yummy!

Amelia was thrilled that she got to adorn this stylish hat! She insisted we bring it home and add it to her dress up chest. Now we can play lunch lady!

This spoon of ice cream was fresh out of the loud, ice-cream machine that freezes the ice cream. (Or something like that, I wasn't exactly listening. I was too busy counting the people waiting for a sample in front of me).

The kids got to ride the lift up into the delivery truck. Pretty exciting stuff. For them, at least. Where were those ice cream samples again??

Amelia with her buddies, Natalie and Jameson.

I got to wear a hat too!

In the end, the kids got to pick a flavor to try in a cone. Amelia went with "pink". She could not have cared less if it was strawberry or bubble gum or pepto bismol--only that it was her favorite color. It was cotton candy, by the way.

Fun stuff! All 15 minutes of the tour and sampling!

Father's Day gift

Well, this post is WAY late, but I did not have a picture up until now. I was lacking some serious creativity this Father's Day, but luckily I was able to pick up an item or two at Michael's to have Amelia make. I originally went in to purchase a certain type of coffee mug that Jason and I both prefer (meaning there is never enough for both of us to both enjoy coffee in said cups), but as I was reading the instructions about how to decorate the mugs, I noticed it said you can't put hot liquids in the mug. Huh?

So, back to the drawing board we went and we settled on making Jason a coolie cup to keep his (root) beer cold. I cut out the letters, but the decorating was ALL Amelia. I love what she did!

You gotta love a useful gift, right? Not that Jason is an alcoholic or anything, but he uses it quite often!

The second gift was this homemade shirt. I took a picture of the kids and ironed it on a $2 T-shirt for Jason. Then, I had Amelia decorate around it using special fabric markers.

He loved it, until I washed it. Or, more specifically, dried it. Ooops! Maybe we'll try again next year!

Jason also got breakfast in bed--a Mother's and Father's Day tradition around here! Afterwards, Amelia and I went out for a couple of hours and did some sprucing up to Jason's car. We took it through the car wash, vacuumed the inside, filled it with gas, and got the oil changed. A good lesson in car care (and patience!).

Tilles Park

Have you been to Tilles Park lately?

I mean, sure, I've been there for the holiday lights display several times over the last few years. But, I don't think I've actually enjoyed the park outside of my vehicle since Jason's grad school days. My friend, Erin, invited us a few weeks ago and we loved it!

Not only is there a newer, top notch playground there now, but there is also a super fun spray fountain. Amelia enjoyed hanging out with Baby Elise (and eating her snacks). Henry liked it too--well, the swings anyway!

Puppy Love

Growing Green

Several people have asked if we are doing a garden again this year and the answer is yes. Unfortunately, however, I've been too busy to document every step (I'm sure this is good news for those you you that remember ALL the garden posts last year). I did manage to snap a few pictures when we were harvesting some veggies the other night.

The sunflower we planted is already twice the size of Amelia! (That is, until the storm blew it down the other night).

Check out the turnip Amelia pulled up! Jason made an awesome carmelized turnip casserole that was so yummy. Too bad it took me 30 years to realize that I actually like turnips!

Henry was having a hard time figuring out what the heck we were doing. Actually, he was just trying to figure out if there was going to be something in it for him.

Note to self: plant the same cherry tomatoes next year. OMG (and I really NEVER use that abbreviation unless I'm making fun of someone) they are so good. They are the orange variety and poor Jason has only had 3 this year because I just can't help eating them while I pick them off.

Our bounty for the day: turnip, green beans, snap peas, and some cherry tomatoes.

We're also growing zucchini, carrots, onions, radishes, and cucumbers (which are by far our most successful crop to date. They are currently coming out of our ears). Green beans are our other overly abundant crop and they seem to currently be drowning out the other veggies.

And did I mention that a rabbit decided to build a nest in our garden? For awhile there was a mom rabbit and two adorable babies hopping around our yard--that is until Truman got a hold of one. Never a dull moment around here.

Independence Day

We had a great 4th of July, as usual! It turned out to be a rather busy weekend with a party on Friday night with some of Jason's co-workers, a birthday party on Saturday afternoon, and a graduation party Saturday night. Luckily, we had all day Sunday to celebrate the red, white, and blue!

As with most years since Jason and I have been dating, we went and watched the Bridgeton parade. We got there a little early to stake our spot and enjoy a picnic lunch.

Amelia loves any and all parades, but the 4th of July is her favorite. What can I say? The girl loves her country.



And Henry enjoyed himself as well. As usual, he was Mr. Go-With-The-Flow and enjoyed hanging out with all the family in attendance.

I love that this parade (a tradition of Jason's family) has grown to include my parents as well. "The more, the merrier" always seems to be a theme in Jason's family.

yea, it's a pink chair, you got a problem with that?

And there's not much that Amelia loves more than hanging out with some of her older, girl (second) cousins.

I'm not positive Henry knew there was a parade going on 4 feet from his head. He was pretty focused on these pinwheels that GG brought for Amelia and him.

Post-parade, Amelia and I made up this American flag treat. It ended up being a bit of a flop. I will definitely be trying something different next year.

After a nice long nap (for all of us!), we dropped Henry off at my parent's house and took Amelia down to the St. Charles riverfront for her first professional fireworks show. She was mesmerized by all the colors and didn't seem to mind the noise (we brought ear plugs!). It was so nice to focus on only her for a while and snuggle with her under the blanket once it started to sprinkle a little. I can still vividly remember two years ago taking her to see some outside my in-laws house and Amelia saying, "me no like fireworks". She repeated this phrase for the next 6 months. Luckily, there doesn't seem to be the case any longer!

Get in the Pool!

Swim lessons were definitely money well spent this summer! Not only did it fill our mornings for two whole weeks, Amelia loved it!

She was totally motivated by the other kids in the class going underwater, so she followed suit. Especially after I dug out an old pair of goggles I got years ago. She has since graduated to a mask of sorts that covers her nose too. In the pool, this girl is under the water more than she is above it. No joke. Her favorite thing to do is search the bottom of the pool for rocks to add to her rock collection.

Here's a shot of her class doing "Ring Around the Rosey". That is when she first got brave enough to go under.

Check out Amelia showing off her "ice cream scoop" hands. It's hard to believe that swimming has been over for only a few weeks and yet she has improved so much since then with her skills.

Thank goodness Jason and I opted to invest in a pool pass this summer. There was a lot of back and forth about whether or not we would use it enough to warrant its expensive price tag. Already, though, we have gotten our money's worth! We stayed after swimming class 5 of the 8 days and even came before hand to swim a couple of times. We've checked out all three pools included in our pass and we are there at least 3 times a week and sometimes more! Often Jason will take Amelia up after dinner for an hour or so to burn some energy. Sometimes it's hard to tell who loves it more, Amelia or Henry. And that makes it easy for Jason and I to love it too!

Berry Picking

For the third year in a row, we headed out to Wind Ridge Farm to pick blueberries. We got in on the blueberry action early this year and picked a prime day to go. The blueberries were so abundant (as were the pickers)! This was the first year that we didn't have to remind Amelia to only pick the blue ones. She told us actually! Which might be what she is doing in the above picture. (Someone has gotten quite bossy in her 4 year old state).

We picked 5.5 pounds this year which took us a little under an hour. One of the main reasons I like to pick blueberries is because it actually takes more than 5 minutes to do--unlike peaches or apples. We promptly ate about 3 pounds of them and froze the rest. They are great to quickly cool down Amelia's oatmeal. She also loves them in her yogurt and smoothies.

Henry hung in there during the picking, although he was less than enthused. He's all about food these days, but only if he can get a little taste too.

Going, Going, Gone

It seems like everyday Henry is getting more and more active. He isn't exactly crawling on hands and knees, but he definitely has a modified army crawl thing going on. If he sees something he is interested in across the room, he will get there--eventually.

The other day, Amelia and I were building with blocks and we noticed Henry's eyes light up each time he got close to one of our towers. So, we got the idea to build towers solely for him to knock down and he LOVED it!


Thanks to an idea I picked up on another site, Amelia has already learned how to spell Henry's name. We replaced the words to BINGO with "There was a boy who was so sweet and Henry was his name-o. H-E-N-R-Y". Amelia giggles everytime!

Going,

Going,

Gone!

Half Way There

I guess I'll start with the stats this month since that is probably the most impressive information:

Weight: 20 lbs., 10 oz. (91st percentile)
Length: 29.5 inches (> 99th percentile--the X on the computer was not touching the graph!)
H.C.: 86th percentile


The doctor thought Henry looked quite healthy! She checked him all out and was impressed that he already seemed to recognize his name when it is spoken. (I explained that that is because there is someone saying it in his face 12 hours a day). She was hoping for him to be saying "mamamama" and "dadadada" as well, but at the time we was only really saying "babababa". He has since added "mamamama" to the list which is pretty exciting for me!


After stating that at times Henry doesn't seem satisfied after 2 packs of baby food AND nursing, she suggested it may be time to start serving him chunkier food and gave us the go ahead for Cheerios and Puffs.

Other than the doctor appointment, it was a busy sixth month for Mr. Henry! It was parties GALORE around here! I think Henry went to 3 birthday parties this past month, as well as two graduation parties and a party with Jason's co-workers. Luckily he is so go-with-the-flow that he loved every minute.

He also got to meet several extended family members who were in from the East and West coasts.

Henry has definitely been to the pool more in his short life than Amelia was in probably her first three years. He LOVES to sit (or stand) and splash. The wetter he gets the better. And its best if he gets whoever is holding him wet too!

Note: When I say "been to the pool", I actually mean a real pool. At a park. Near our house. Not the blow up pool pictured below. He doesn't seem to enjoy that one quite as much. Maybe its the frigid temperature or, perhaps, its just the close proximity to his sister.


We've had to retire the bumbo and bouncer. We are very near the end of our time with the swing. Henry is always, always on the go. He has mastered a modified army crawl and can easily (and rather quickly!) make it all the way across the room.

Yes, Henry did this on his own. And, yes, I grabbed my camera before helping him out.

On a more sappy note, it is hard to believe that Henry is now closer to his first birthday than to the day he was born. I remember thinking the second half of Amelia's first year FLEW by, but it didn't go half as fast as these last 6 months with Henry. Yes, I'm a broken record I know.....