School Days Part 4

Abby's very first day of big girl school! On Fridays, she has preschool at the local elementary school. She knows a couple kids in her class and has the same teacher, Miss Anna, as her other classes, but it's a different location than the other classes and she goes all by herself again. Abby loves to be there. She gets her backpack and her folder, carries everything by herself, puts her backpack in her cubby, hands her folder to Miss Anna, puts on her name tag and goes to sit in the circle. She's gone twice now and gotten great reports both times.

Anni, on the other hand, does not like Abby's preschool...and for the simple reason that she doesn't get to stay there too. When we drop Abby off on Thursdays, Anni tolerates it. On Fridays, she gets very mad at me. The first day, she marched right over to the circle, sat down next to Abby and waved goodbye to me. When I told her we had to leave and it was Abigail's turn to have school, she stuck out her lip and cried these huge tears. Poor thing. She hated to leave her sister. And all the way home, she kept telling me she wanted to go to school "all by myself!" Something tells me she'll be more than ready for preschool when her turn comes.

School Days Part 3

This was Abby's first day of school all by herself. She wasn't the slightest bit nervous or upset. She walked right into class, got her name tag and sat in the circle with her book. She barely glanced at us when Anni and I kissed her goodbye and told her we'd see her soon. How happy am I that my kids are excited to go to school and are more than happy to go there on their own?


Right before class started

Anni was not at all happy about leaving her sister at school. Luckily, there's a carousel in the mall area, so I could bribe her out of the classroom pretty easily.

School Days Part 2

Anni was very excited for her first day of school! She got to go play with her friend Adam and meet some new kids. She also has the same teacher as Abigail, so she had a familiar face when she walked into the classroom on Wednesday morning. Anni did so well at class! She tried out all the activities and didn't fuss once. I was so proud of her!

Ready for school! She insisted on being Floor Guy!

Both girls dressed and ready to go!

School Days Part 1

This year, the girls are signed up for several classes through our local ECFE. Both girls will take a class Monday mornings starting in the middle of October, but their individual classes started the week of Labor Day. Abby has preschool readiness on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, I go to class with her and Anni goes to sibling care. On Thursdays, Abby goes all by herself. On Wednesdays, Anni and I go to 1s and 2s together, while Abby goes to sibling care. Then, on Fridays, Abby goes to preschool, all by herself!

Here are the girls on the first day of preschool readiness:

Hotel Sleepover

Dana's been really busy with work for the past month or so, and for some reason, he's had some jobs pretty far out of town. One week, he had to drive out near Redwood Falls for a job and it didn't get finished, so he suggested we pack up the girls for a hotel overnight at the local casino/hotel near the job. He had stayed there the week before and the hotel had a really nice kiddie pool for the girls, so he thought they would really enjoy playing there. Daddy was very right on that thought!

Here's Anni swimming like a dolphin:


Close up

Both girls getting used to the water

Nanni

Abby after her first time down the water slide

Apple Orchards

The girls and I have had play dates at two apple orchards so far this year. The first time, we met our friends Riley and William at an orchard near their new home. Apparently Miss Riley was quite intrigued by the idea of picking raspberries, so we headed out on a Saturday morning to pick some raspberries and some early apples. Zestar apples, if anyone's looking for suggestions, is definitely the way to go for an early Fall apple.

Here are the girls post picking:


Sir William with his picking basket and the horse he never let go

The girls on the hay bales. The tractor wasn't running rides that day, but the kids were more than happy to climb up there and have a seat.

The whole crew

Anni taking a break from the strenuous labor of raspberry picking

Abby really enjoyed picking the raspberries

For our second trip to the orchard, we met our friends Cole, Caleb and Olivia at an orchard in Hastings. At this orchard, they had lots of things for the kids to do besides pick apples. They had a big playground set, an observation tower, wooden trains to drive and a little track for riding bikes. We did more playing at this orchard than picking, but the kids all had a great time!

Riding the bus

Abby and Anni at the top of the observation tower

State Fair 2009

We made it to the Fair again this year and yet again, it was a blast! We've definitely got Fair kids! It took us a while to get there this year, since Dana's been so busy with work, but the wait was definitely worth it, as evidenced below:

The infamous Super Mega Corn Dog...the ultimate in measuring sticks and our personal favorite pictures of the year.

The ride home - both girls were asleep about 3 minutes after we got them buckled in:

This is always one of my favorite scenes - Daddy and his girls

Anny and Anni sharing a Rice Kristie bar

Face paints! Abby picked pink Spiderman and Anni picked purple sparkly.

They sat very still for the face painting

Both girls were all about the rides this year. Luckily for Dana and I, they were big enough to ride a couple of the rides by themselves.


The boat ride:

The bee ride:

Driving the cars:

Disembarking from the twister ride. Mom had to ride this one.

Teacups with Dad:

Carousel was the first ride of the day:

Abby eating her Fudge Puppy:

The infamous Super Mega Corndog...the ultimate in measuring sticks and our personal favorite pictures of the year.

Dress Up

Abigail has a new obsession - playing dress up. She particularly likes to dress up as a princess/movie star. There are rules to these outfits, of course. If she has her princess dress, shoes, cowboy hat and all her jewelry on, then she's a princess. The same outfit with a feather boa added makes her a movie star. The movie star outfit plus the bow tie from her Halloween costume last year makes her "getting married." And, lucky for us, she insists on getting her picture taken when she gets all dolled up.

Breakfast Requests

Breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day. And for some unknown reason, my children tend to wake up and they're hungry! So, pretty much every morning, we go through the "what to you want for breakfast" discussion. Lately, Abby definitely wants dirty milk as her beverage of choice, while Anni prefers juice. As far as food offerings go, we usually have either smoothies (if they aren't overly hungry), scrambled eggs and toast, yogurt and cheerios or oatmeal. That's about as fancy as I get in the morning. The girls, however, like to request other types of food for breakfast. For example:

Me: Anni, what do you want for breakfast?

Anni: Goldfish.

Me: You can't have goldfish for breakfast.

Anni: Goldfish and juice.

Me: No, no goldfish in the morning.

Anni (big sigh): Cheerios and juice.

And immediately thereafter, having heard Anni's and my entire conversation:

Abigail: I have root beer and Cheetos for breakfast, please?