Field Trip!

Meg had her first field trip for school today! She got to go to the zoo. It was a perfect opportunity for me to take the day off and join her, so that I did. Now that Mamaw is retired, she even joined us. Meg was most excited about getting to ride the school bus though. HA! I got to meet her new BFF Maddy that I always hear about. The teacher even told me how inseparable they are at school. It was so cute to see them walking hand-in-hand everywhere. As soon as we'd walk up to an animal, they turn right back around and say, "What's next?" I guess that's why a couple of hours at the zoo was plenty of time for a preschool class. :) After we left the zoo, they stopped by McDonald's and had lunch. She snarfed her nuggets, apples and drink right up, then we headed home. I was hoping for a nice long nap, but Meg wanted nothing to do with that. She was wound up and couldn't sleep. :( No rest for Mommy today, but that'll make for an early bedtime!

A little of this and a little of that...

Hmmm...seems like there's lots I could share, just not sure where to begin. Maybe a numbered list is the way to go this time.

1. I've been teaching Meg to read. I promise I'm not being that pushy teacher-mom person, it's just that she's interested and eager, so I feel guilty ignoring her urge. We have letters on the fridge and I make consonant-vowel-consonant words for her to sound out. She know most all of the letter sounds pretty well and we keep practicing those tricky vowels. So far words like bat, sat, sit, pig, gum, pin, etc...are a piece of cake. She even recognized a couple of them in a Dora book I read before bed the other night. With the craziness in my own classroom at school this year, it's nice to know I really can teach someone, something important.

2. Right this very second she keeps repeating...."Who farted? Who farted?" She's obsessed with farting right now. **That's even a word she spells on the fridge on her own and sounds out!** Let's keep our fingers crossed she doesn't show that one off in preschool someday. She asked me a little bit ago why her farts smelled bad. I'm ready for this gross phase to pass.

3. The new babysitter is still as amazing as ever. Meg takes a great nap there. She even tells me how comfy Miss Beth's nap bed is for her. They have an awesome play set and they do at least one craft everyday. Most days it's two. And....Meg loves her food. Yesterday she ate 9, yes 9, fish sticks and two bowls of macaroni! OINK OINK!

4. She has figured out how to tilt her head to the side and bat her eyes to try and get what she wants. She even realizes what this is supposed to do for her. She even said the other day, "Mommy! Didn't you seeeeeeeeeeee my eyesssss!!!"

5. Finally...her memory. We were driving by Lilly's the other day and she said to Greg and I, "It's too bad that won't be Lilly's anymore, what's it gonna be?" Neither one of us could figure it out after a few attempts, so she let it go. On the way home when we passed she yelled out, "I remember! Covance!" We both just stared at each other dumbfounded and told her she was right. Amazing.

Circus Fun!

We took our own little monkeys to the circus today. It was a great show, the kids had a blast and so did we! :) We got to go to the Animal Encounter before hand and see the elephants, tigers, horses and even goats, up close. After that we went down to the floor and got to watch some clowns and other acts performing up close. The show lasted a good two hours and for those two hours, the kids were silent and still! AMAZING! When I asked Meg what her favorite part was, she told me all of it, but the one thing she keeps talking about is the dog act. There were several cute little yappy-type dogs that they had dressed up and they did various tricks with. The hat you see Meg wearing below came from a $12 bag of cotton candy. Uh huh! If you take sugar, spin it around, put it in a plastic bag and stick it inside a cheapo hat at a circus, you can charge $12 for it! Talk about sticker shock! HA HA! After we got home, it was time for some jumping on the trampoline and four-wheeler riding time. What a short weekend! Back to the grind tomorrow...

Bunny Tales

Big news on the Bodell/Carter compound......we have bunnies! Yep, that's right, we now have 2 pet bunnies. We've got no idea what kind they are, but one is primarily white (Belle) and the other is black and white (Oreo). They were free (WOHOO!) and came with a huge rabbit hutch w/ bunny bathroom on the side, feeder, a large container of food, waterer, small carrying cage and two leashes. Uh huh....leashes, so we can take them on walks. They are not exactly leash trained, but so far Meg's pulled Belle around a little bit, so I'm sure they'll catch on that they better walk next to the kid pulling them or they're gonna have a sore bunny neck. HA! While they are residing behind the princess playhouse, they are bunnies for all. They did belong to a family who had a 23 year old that didn't give them much attention, so they are glad to have them in a family now where they'll get plenty. Pics as promised....

The first one is of Meg in front of her playhouse. **Yes, it really is that bright purple and pink** Good thing we've got an "in" w/ the neighbor or he might've made us move it!

What princess doesn't love a good wedding?

Meg got to attend a wedding. She was so excited for the big event and had to make sure she had on her "dancing dress." The best part of the whole night for her and the boys was the dancing at the reception and the candy bar that was a kids' paradise. At least they were able to burn off some of that sugar buzz with dancing. :)

Our version of "boxing"

Grammy (Greg's mom) got new cabinets. The kids have hi-jacked the boxes. We spent a great deal of time, and paint too, decorating Meg's. I think it took just as long to wash the paint off of us....but it was tons of fun getting messy!

Sneak Preview

One word....Halloween. It's over two months away, but I had a coupon for free shipping and Meg made the decision for her costume, so I ordered it. She's in heaven and cute as can be. She may drive me nutty before then asking every morning when she wakes up, "Is it Halloween yet?" but I"m sure we'll get lots of good out of it. Here's a sneak peek...just follow the yellow brick road....

I said I would...

Better late than never. I said I'd put some pics of our most recent camping trip to Versailles on here. I'm a few weeks late, but here are a couple. We found a creek bed that was full of rocks that had fossils in them. It was one of the coolest places I've seen camping. :) The kids loved it too and Greg and I had fun pretending like we really knew something about them. Of course, the environmental dude and the science teacher should know something about fossils anyways, shouldn't we?!?! HA! It was a pretty good hike to get there. Meg made it just fine, with the exception of one minor fall at the beginning that resulted in ***hold your breath*** a little scrape and blood. Accck! Thank goodness I stocked the camper up with special medicine and bandaids earlier this summer. I was proud of her for walking the whole time, not whining and not making us carry her.

We spent a good amount of our time at the pool. They had a huge 100 ft. waterslide that Miss Thing **by herself** and the boys went down about 100 times. Greg and I were on it about half that much. It was fun! There was a high dive too. Brave Mommy decided that after Greg went off of it, she could too! Man...that sucker is high! They don't call it a high dive for nothing. I got up there, walked out the end, and turned around and went back down the ladder. Some kid on the ground walked up and said, "Don't worry, there's always next year." I was mortified, so a little while later, I went back up and jumped. The boys made fun of me b/c I held my nose and was flailing my arms, but I DID IT! I must say though that the amount of respect I had for those Olympic high divers is now much greater. :) *Swimming pics are on Greg's camera, and I haven't uploaded them yet*

The rest of our time was spent riding bikes, playing on the playground and relaxing by the fire. One final story...the raccoons there was wicked. They ripped open our Mt. Dew can and drank them all, opened our cooler and drank the kids Caprisuns too. Wow! All in all, it was a very fun trip!

Who's up for a Grocery Donation?

My child is starving! Today, she managed to eat 4 (yes, 4!) bowls of Cookie Crisp cereal and a cup of peaches. Lunch was a half of a huge hamburger, vegetables, cottage cheese and even french fries (which of course are made out of potatoes that she doesn't like) Dinner, which she could hardly wait on without a snack, was an entire cup of Easy Mac, half a grilled cheese, plus another half she stole off of my plate, chips, applesauce and some chocolate ice cream for dessert. Wowzers! How in the world can I afford to feed her and pay for my $200/month increase in health insurance!?!?! HA! Good thing the new sitter is feeding breakfast and lunch. She has no idea what she got herself into. **shhhhhhhh**

This weekend was great. Friday night, I think Greg realized that I was done for the week. School is stressful and tiring, my Master's program is consuming any extra time I have, and all in all I've been exhausted. I got a call after school on Friday and he said the magic words...."I thought I'd take everyone out for dinner tonight." Wooooohooooo! So Mozzi's it was. Kids were happy, Kim was happy, so all was great. Saturday morning, I even received a cup of coffee and a Diet Mt. Dew after waking up. :) We ate doughnuts and headed to Beech Grove for a day of football. Talk about hot! I 'bout melted, but held back my complaints b/c I know in a few weeks we'll be freezing our tushies off and wishing for hot chocolate. After we finally got home, we packed the gang up and headed to Mamaw and Papaw's for a swim. How refreshing! Today entailed work in the morning and then we went back out for a swim. It was a pretty relaxing weekend, but going back to school tomorrow is not really something I want to do. Is it May yet? I need a vacation.....ugh!

One little Meg funny...she was telling me tonight about some show she saw and was quoting something one of the characters had said. When I questioned who it was becuase I had no idea what she was talking about, she said, "You know, the chocolate girl!" I had no idea and asked if it was a show about candy people or something and she gave me a really dumb look and replied, "No mom, you know....like dark people....she's a chocolate girl!" Guess it's obvious there's not much diversity in Greenfield. I decided to save that lesson for another day.

Big Day!

Today was Meg's first day of preschool and her first day at her new sitter's house. She met me at the door with a great big grin and a big loud "Mommy!" when I got there to pick her up after school tonight.

When asked how her day was and if she like preschool, she told me yes and that they got to play outside. Anyplace that lets Meg play outside and swing is tops in her book. She said she was a little shy at first, but then starting talking to her teacher. I BET SHE DID! HA! She also told me that she learned what the little things in the back of your throat is called....a titty. Aaaack! I asked who taught her that and she said one of the little boys at school. Uh oh!

Beth's was fun too. She had a cheese croissant for breakfast which was YUMMY before school. After school they played while Beth made lunch. Meg gobbled up mac 'n cheese, applesauce and her ever-favorite, bread 'n butter. She then took a 2 hour nap, which Beth eventually ended by waking her up. She figured I needed her to go to sleep at some point tonight. :) They then did a craft. She made a lovely visor with feathers all over it. I think Beth's is gonna work out just great!

Meghan Poppins

Queenie was at her best tonight and took advantage of me at CVS. I caved in and bought her a child-sized Princess umbrella. She's in love with it and thinks it's the most amazing thing ever. We went out for a walk and she insisted that she needed it. (It's bright and sunny outside, as the rain that was here this morning and afternoon has obviously moved out of the area) Anyways, we headed off down the street, yes a very busy, main thoroughfare, with her holding her umbrella as proudly as ever. I noticed many passer-by's staring at us. Hope no one writes a Hoot or Holler about us! HA HA!

We'd walked a little ways and she kept flipping around with it and talking about it, and then asking me at least 28 questions about it....all of a sudden "Gracie" tripped and fell down. Scraped her elbow up but fortunately, according to her, the umbrella saved her and we avoided tears. Whew...thank goodness for a magical umbrella. :)

Introduction to Miss Allison

Miss Thing got to meet her preschool teacher last night and see her classroom. I have a feeling she made quite an impression. She told Miss Allison that her Mamaw and Papaw and Grandpa lived on a farm. When Miss Allison asked if there were any animals, here was Meg's response:

"Yep, my grandpa has goats and they smell like pee. The billy goat smells bad because he pees all over himself!"

***covering face from embarrassment** I told her teacher that it was nice to meet her and that Meg has quite an imagination. We then slinked out of the room. What a year this will be! Maybe I don't want her going to Kindergarten in my school next year. HA!

Still planning on posting camping pics soon, so keep checking back, just too busy for now. Now I've gotta get back to writing a paper on reading comprehension. Bah!

Freedom is over for now

Well...tomorrow's the day. The dreaded words back-to-school. I think most teachers hate the phrase more than students although we keep it a secret (until now). Meg doesn't care. She's fortunate enough not to start preschool until next Monday. Lucky duck. Tonight after I put her down to bed I heard her yell out "Cock-a-doodle dooooooo!" about three times. I finally asked what she was doing and she told me she was a rooster and that it was morning time, time to get up! She's anxiously awaiting a day of fun at Mamaw and Papaw's tomorrow, so she could care less that I"m dreading the morning. HA!

We've had a busy weekend camping and state fairing, so I'll be posting pics and stories as soon as I find the time.

??????????????????

What are you doing Mommy?
Why Mommy?
Where are you at Mommy?
Why do they call it a crescent moon?
Why do kids have to sign up for school?
How do you sign up for school?
Why do they call it a trampoline?
How many days until we go camping?
How long does 2 days take?
Will you push me on the swing?
How long does 5 minutes last?
Why are they called earrings?
Why don't you wear them on your fingers?
Why is it called a computer?
What does **any unfamiliar word** mean?
Why do I have to take a nap?
Can I do it myself?
Are you mad Mommy?
Can we please stay five more minutes Mommy?
Why not?


Hmmmmmmm.....just a few of the 3 GAZILLION questions I've answered in the last two days. They are endless. I swear Meghan is the most inquisitive child on the planet. Lots of kids ask questions, I know, but seriously....when I find myself answering questions about why certain objects have certain names, I'm at a loss for an answer. If I do come up with a creative response, it just leads right into another question. It's a vicious, never-ending cycle. Don't get me wrong here....I've truly enjoyed my time off work and all the extra time with Meg. We've had a blast, but my brain is fried from all these questions. The time has come for me to return to the working world (only to answer the many questions of even more children!). Good luck to the new sitter. Maybe I should give her a heads up, but I think I'll just let her fend for herself! :)

Gotta get busy now...I have a paper that has to be posted online before midnight and the clock is ticking. We've got a busy weekend planned of camping and State-Fairing, so I'll be sure to post an update w/ pics on Monday or so.

Fancy Schmancy Nancy

Miss Thing didn't wake up today until 9:42. Yep...that's right....the Ever Early Riser is now sleeping later....just in time for school to start back up. Oh joy! At about 10 AM we received a call that my glasses were ready, so we decided to make that our big outing for the day, since we had little else planned. I hopped in the shower and laid out clothes for Meg to put on in the mean time. Midway through my shower, I hear "Taaaaa Daaaa!" She had gotten dressed, put her new Crocs on, and even snuck into the bathroom quietly to apply about 5 layers of lipstick and lip gloss. What a beauty she is! :) She also informed me that she didn't want a ponytail, but was choosing to wear those "bar-things" in her hair. Barrettes, I guessed, although I was corrected in the way that I said the word. (Of course, she's always got to point out all my flaws!) We finished getting all ready, which also included the ever-popular stick on earrings. I felt like I just had to share pics of my Fancy Schmancy Nancy girl...

***Please make note of her new pink camo Crocs***

These are in honor of Greg. She insisted she get them, but refused to wear them until she got to show him first. We even had to make a phone call as we were leaving the store to tell him that she has camo Crocs now too.

On a quite sad note....only three days of summer vacation left. BOO HOO HOO! Anyone out there feel sorry for me?

Perspective of a 4 year old drama queen

Meghan, the queen of all preschool drama queens, fell down tonight and scraped her hand. Of course this was traumatic, especially since there were traces of blood on her hand AND ***gasp*** her knee. I made all over her, washing them off with a wash cloth, putting on my special medicine that makes all pain go away, and getting out bandaids. As I was walking back to my room to put the bandaid box away, here's the comment she made to Kyle:

"Well.....at least I didn't mess up my fingernail polish!"

I about lost it. In a matter of less than 5 minutes, we went from me thinking that there was a broken/missing appendage due to the loudness of her scream, to being quite happy and thankful that her not so fresh and new Ice Blue Sparkly fingernail polish wasn't scratched up. Love this child and the way she makes me laugh! All in the day of a preschool drama queen......

Celebrating good times

Greg's home finally! Yeah! He never got anywhere to buy the kiddos any souveniers on this trip, so had a special celebration last night and today. He took us all to That Fun Place last night. The kids were as excited as ever. It definitely is a fun place for them. We ordered pizza and while we waited on it, the kids blew through 100 tokens on games. Meg loved the one where you put the tokens in and rode in a car and drove it. They all got plenty of tickets which they turned in for real "treasures" like plastic rings, tattoos, dice and fake vampire teeth. Woo-hoo ~insert sarcasm here~ :) They loved it so that's what counts! After we ate, then we played a very non-serious round of black-light golf. Meg was so excited that she could actually get the ball in the hole. I laughed though, because I don' t know how she'd really miss since she placed the ball right next to the hole, then just kind of scooted it in. HA HA!

Today we went swimming at the public pool so the boys could jump off the high dive. Meg showed off all of her swimming and underwater skills to everyone. They were quite impressed to say the least and she's just so proud of herself. And I'm a pretty proud momma for having a four year old that can swim that well.

I did get a pic of her all decked out in one of the boy's football gear tonight and will try to get it on my comp to share soon. It's pretty funny!

Playhouse update...

So the playhouse is nearly finished. It only took 9 months or so to get it actually moved on to my property, another 3 months or so to get it fixed up! Greg had successfully redone the floor and siding right after we moved it here. Dad and Ryan finished up putting in the windows, making the door and loft/ladder this weekend. We still need to touch up painting on the outside, paint the inside and put some flooring down. Mom will help to make curtains, a covered cushion for the loft and some pillows. Hopefully this can all be finished up in the next couple of weeks. Meg sure is excited about it! She told me that she wants to put a sign outside that says, "No boys allowed except for The Boys." HA HA! I'm sure that they'll just be dying to play inside of her purple/pink palace. :) Pics to follow soon as the progress continues and it looks more like a finished project.....off to bed for now. School work is all done for now and I'm pretty sleepy.

On another note...Greg finally gets home tomorrow from his fire trip! Yeah! We sure will be glad to see him. Meg's been asking everyday if this is the day he'll be home. He's more fun than me and gives in to her sometimes bizarre requests, although his doll playing skills are lacking at times.

TGIF

Thank goodness it's Friday! It's not like we've had a long hard work week to recover from, but we sure had lots of fun tonight! Our evening started off after Miss Thing woke up from her nap. We had to feed Greg's dogs, which included a 4-wheeler ride and checking our garden for more cherry tomatoes. **yummy** Meg was patient while I mowed Grammy's grass, so I told her she could pick what she wanted for dinner. I was secretly hoping she'd pic mac 'n cheese or something simple, but, as usual, she wanted Pizza Place cheese pizza. I spend enough time there working and didn't really want to, but Princess was in charge. She even insisted we walk and take her baby and her pretend cell phone. So....off we went. We had a great dinner, she loves the attention everyone gives her when she comes in. She made sure that everyone realized she and her baby had on matching dresses tonight and blue painted toenails and fingernails. (No clue where all this girly-girlyness comes from!) After dinner, we headed to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard. Not needed, but since Greg's been gone for two weeks, we've been suffering from Ice Cream Withdrawl. Mommy NEEDED some tonight to help soothe my summertime cold and sore throat. ~ugh~

Anyways, after relaxing on the back porch and finishing up ice cream, we checked on all of her Webkinz, played with the princess dollies...then things got a little wild. We were playing ball with a big green balloon and it turned kinda silly, somehow into a rodeo/cowgirl show. We had fun snapping these silly pictures. You can practically hear her laughing in some of them. I just adore that giggle that she has when she's having some much fun. I wish I could somehow can that laughter and have it to listen to when she's 16 and has no time for fun with mom.

Anyways, that's what weekends are all about.....fun times just being silly and laughing. We made the most of tonight and that makes me a very happy mama!

Sweet Summer Time

Summer sure has been lots of fun. It's bittersweet writing about what we spent time doing, but the reality is.....school's just around the corner. I guess I'm ready to go back. I usually always get that way, but am not having any feelings of wanting to go back yet this year. :/ Maybe it will come in the next couple of weeks, but for now I'll enjoy looking back at the fun things we've been up to.

We kicked off the summer by heading to Missouri to fire school with Greg. While he learned all about fighting wildfires during the day, Meg and I spent the days finding things to do. We visited the capital building (gorgeous inside!), went swimming in a few different pools, did some shopping, rode the elevator in the hotel, visited a nature center, and saw a veterinary museum. Good time! In the evenings we had dinners with Greg and usually found some ice cream for dessert.

A couple of weeks after that we took off and headed to Spring Mill State Park int the camper with our whole gang. We spent lots of time swimming, biking (the boys loved the dirt bike hills), playing on the playground, and exploring caves (not my favorite thing!) After a couple days there, we headed to Holiday World to meet up with the rest of my family. Holiday World was a blast...I think between all of us we rode every ride at least twice! :) Pics from the fun:

After Holiday World, we spent time at home hanging out together. We've enjoyed many visits to the library, lots of time swimming at Mamaw and Papaw's and then the county fair. Read below for details of that fun. Greg's been gone for the past two weeks fighting wildfires in California, and we're both anxiously awaiting his return sometime this next weekend!

There is one last of big summer news. Meg is swimming by herself now! Yesterday, she just took off in the deep end by herself. She didn't realize it really and it scared her at first. Once she realized what she did though, she just kept doing it. She can swim about halfway across the pool. In typical Meg fashion, she just decided she'd do this and that was that. I'm so proud of her! :)

Well...we're headed off today to have a playdate with some new friends/new babysitter. She's excited about going so I'd better get moving.