Back to Preschool

Today was Anna's first day of preschool, but just like last year this was a little short day where Nathan and I went with her and got her all set up with her supplies, cubby, owl name tag, etc. It was fun to see her teachers and classmates again, and it was exciting to see all of the new kids that are joining her class. Everyone said they couldn't believe how tall Anna has gotten over the summer, and I agree with them!

Even though it sort of makes me feel old, my friend Starr talked me into signing up as a Class Mom with her. I'm excited about it, and now I get to go every party and field trip with Anna instead of just signing up for one or two. We also get to help plan some large events at the school and help out with things like fund raisers and teacher gifts. Should be fun! Just imagine how many pictures I'll be able to take! ;)

The Fair

Not too much to say. We went to the fair last weekend with my mom, stepdad, sister and her boys. The kids had fun, but I think the animals were the most exciting part. Besides the food, of course.

Noah moo'd (mooed?) at some cows:

Anna saw some being milked by machines and has been asking me about that ever since. She also wasn't too thrilled with the smell, asking me repeatedly why animals had to be so stinky. At one point she looked up at Nathan and said, "Oh! This smell is never ending!". She also told him she was allergic to cows. Here she is checking them out.

Hugging Mommaw

She always looks so serious in these cut out things. Cracks me up!

And then this happened. Yee haw!

Tu-Tu Cute

Anna had her first ballet class today! It was just a trial class to see if she liked it enough to sign up for the full semester of classes, but I was signing her up before we were even half way through the class. She kept doing a move and then smiling up at me. She was so happy! All of the moms watched through a big window, so these videos have a lot of background noise, including Noah telling me about motorcycles. There were lots of little brothers and sisters out in the parent room, so Noah had a great time playing trucks with some new little friends too.

Anna is on the far right in this one, she's the only one not in tights (it's almost 90 degrees!).

She wasn't sure about tap dancing at first. She started dancing with her hands over her ears, but soon she was tapping away with the rest of them. She's third from the right, again, no tights.

She had been waiting for this day for months and I don't think she was disappointed. Her class meets once a week, but she's already asking to go back.

p.s. Tu-Tu Cute is the name of her class :)

Dream or Memory?

Every morning now, Noah tells me that he dreamed of Jesus and the babies. The first time he told me that I asked him what Jesus said, and he replied, "He said, 'You'll be happy!'". Whoa! I know it's silly, but it's like Noah was having a memory from before he was born. Ya know, when all the babies just hang out on a cloud together before they're picked up and dropped down the big slide to earth with one last reassuring word? Hee hee.

And here he was before he told me about his dream. Crazy legs. :)

The Haul

Last night was the big kids' clothing sale for the fall, and once again I got some great deals on some adorable things. Kelly went with me, and I think I may have frightened her with my overflowing basket! But I couldn't have gotten my pile down to a reasonable (trunk load) size without her help. There was so much to look at, and even with all I bought I can say that I know I didn't even see half of it.

I washed and dried all of these clothes while the kids played today, and I had every intention of taking nice pictures near a window with natural light. But I was pretty sure that if Noah saw clothes laying on the floor he would just want to roll around in them, so I waited until the kids were in bed. So sorry for the really bad lighting in these. You'll have to click on them to see them better, because the flash is terrible!

Here are Noah's things. I think there was a lot more for his size than there was last fall.

Old man pajamas (!), rocket pajamas that I had to pry out of his hands tonight, and some warm fleece blue pjs. Nathan thinks those are ugly. I think they were $2.00 ;)

I'm a sucker for cheesy word t-shirts on babies.

Hee hee hee!

I bought that same orange tractor shirt last year in a smaller size (see blog header), so I just had to get it again this year. Love the Mini Boden eagle shirt. I've always loved their catalog, and now I know they're worth the prices they charge. It's a really well made shirt!

Dress shirts, AKA: Noah's winter church wardrobe 2009.

Here are Anna's things:

I love all of these jackets.

Turkey shirt!

More cozy pajamas

Cute sweaters, and a not so cute princess sweatshirt that she will love.

I really like that fall print dress on the left and those stripey tights.

My favorite things for her. I LOVE that purple corduroy dress. It's the same brand as my favorite dress from last fall's sale. I know she's going to love that grey sweater dress, and the plaid one just might be her Christmas dress with that cute reindeer shirt.

New shoes! She really likes all of these, but can you guess which pair is her favorite? I bought them all in a size bigger than she's in right now, since she's just about to outgrow all of what she currently owns. I hope they're not too big. Tonight she was dancing in her room and one of the boots flew off while it was zipped up! And yes, I did go back into her room to take this picture after she was tucked in for the night. As you can see, she was really upset ;)

I didn't buy any shoes for Noah because he still has total dough feet that never fit into anything!

Say Cheese!

After church last week we went to get bagels like we often do. Anna sat by me and Noah sat by Nathan, but soon enough he had crawled over to my side. Nathan thought it was cute and wanted to get a picture of the three of us. We asked the kids to smile at the camera, but they had other ideas ;)

Another mini-makeover

When Nathan had his week off from work, the number one item on my list for him was to help me get rid of those purple dining room walls. In fact I would have been fine if we had accomplished nothing else, as long as we got that room painted! So we did. We also replaced the chandelier.

I don't think I have any good pictures of the walls before we painted them on this computer, but you can get a glimpse of them here. Of all the purples out there, I really do think the previous owners of this house chose the best one. But I am just not a purple dining room sort of girl! They had to go. The chandelier was also just not our taste. Mostly because it was too BIG and heavy looking. I wanted something lighter, but I was torn between the fancy sparkly one I have liked for a long time, and something simpler. After much debating, I went with the fancy one. Anna says it's covered in jewels! I know it's a love it or hate it sort of style, but I love it :)

The old chandelier. Big, shiny, brass, with fabric covered cord thingie:

The new chandelier, and our new red walls! Yay, no more purple! It's hard to take a good picture of a light so you can see it more clearly here.

After even more debate (Nathan won) and test driving several others, we also got a new rug for the family room. Anna is thrilled, as you can see.

So glad this house is starting to feel like us! Even with all that still needs to be done, just getting these small projects tackled makes us feel like we're not too far from having it where we want it to be. Next up: the entryway, and a big boy room for Noah :o

Everybody Dance Now: The Sequel

The rhythm is inside him. He can't keep it in.

Huh?

Sometimes Anna gets so engrossed in her imaginary play that she'll run up to me just bursting with exciting news, and I have no idea what she's talking about. Today's installments so far:

Mom! Teeth are just like bones, but with little hooks on the ends!

I'm a turtle, now I'm just shy a fox, a raccoon, and a whale.

Mommy, how do you draw nostrils?

Mom! Quick! I need a large basket with points that reach up to the stairs!

Strangely enough, on that last one she was pretending to bake a cake. Sounds much more exciting than any cake I've ever made!

Anna, on her first day home. Awww......

Say what?

The other night we went out to dinner and we were surprised to see both kids really chowing down on their food. They both had sandwiches, and it looked like they were both going to eat the entire thing. I mentioned this to Nathan but then said, "Well, it is white bread", which is something they never eat at home so it's sort of new to them. Anna was listening of course, and she asked why it mattered that it was white bread. I started mumbling out some answer about how it probably wouldn't keep her tummy full for very long and how it wasn't very nutritious, and then I jokingly said to Nathan, "...and it has a very high glycemic index". Anna sat very still and looked like she was thinking it over and then looked up at me and said, "Mommy, are you talking to me?". And then she polished off the rest of her sandwich :)

More random photos (Charlestown, SC and Hilton Head). My laptop goes to the computer hospital first thing tomorrow morning.

All photos taken by this guy:

Technical difficulties

Well, not really. This computer is working fine, it's my laptop that needs help. I've mentioned before how much the kids have abused it over the last few years and my poor power cord has to be twisted and turned and held at just the right angle in order to work. But it looks like that perfect angle no longer exists so off to the repair shop it goes. So now I have this computer, with all of our old photos, and that one, with all of the most recent ones. Plus we're just really busy these last few weeks of summer, so I'm not sure how much I'll be on here even if I want to be!

Today's random old photo: Beware the pregnant ninja!

Access Granted

Yay! I finally have access to the pictures from our old computer! I should be blogging Hawaii and all the other more current photos, but I couldn't resist looking at some old ones.


Anna in Arizona, Spring 2006

Anna in Boston, Fall 2005

In New York with Great Grandma, 2005

Rhode Island, 2005

Massachusetts, obviously 2005 since she's wearing the same snow suit!

San Francisco, 2007

Those curls!

Outside the Exploratorium in SF. This is where she first picked a flower for me, and I'm pretty sure that I still have it.

Pebble Beach 2007

Noah was there too, as you can see by my giant belly. He was born just 3 weeks later!

I didn't mean for this to be a Travels of Anna post, but those pictures are fun to look at. I can't believe she was ever that small!

Indy

Another trip to the Children's Museum! Since Nathan took this week off of work, we've been getting a lot done on the house and have knocked out a few to-dos that have been lingering for months. But we also wanted to do some fun things for the kids. Yesterday we drove back to the museum, and they were thrilled.

The big attraction was King Tut. We didn't realize that we would have to buy (not cheap!) tickets for that area on top of our museum membership. We also didn't realize that the real King Tut is never allowed to leave Egypt and we walked through the exhibit for over an hour expecting to turn the last corner and see him there. But it was just all of his stuff! Cool, but a bit of a let down. Are we the only ones who didn't know this?! The kids were sort of bored with this exhibit, but the gift shop was fun.

Later, Anna pretended to be a turtle...



..and Noah drove a simulated rickshaw.

The trains are always Noah's favorite.



A giant giraffe is never a bad thing. Anna (behind him) wanted any horse that would go up and down.

After the museum we went to dinner (the kids were so hungry so both are mid-bite in these pictures!)

A walk around the fountain, and we were ready to head home. Both kids slept the whole way and we finally got them into their beds just after midnight. It's been such a fun and productive week. We want Nathan to stay home every week!