Teacher Renee

We are all still struggeling through our colds, but despite that we have a had a great couple weeks. I just hope these colds are gone by next week when we leave for Disney!!

Mike nominated Emma's preschool teacher last year, Teacher Renee, for teacher of the year through his work, and she won! The school received $1,000 and a bunch of office supplies and Teacher Renee recieved $100 gift card. It was a really huge deal and we all kept it a surprise from Renee. The Wayzata School Superintendent and principal were there, the local media, her whole family came with flowers, Mike Emma and I , and Mike's HR Manager. Everyone read thier letters they wrote and presented her with a huge check. She cried, she was so honored and suprised. Even her son in Iraq wrote a letter. She gave Emma a big hug. It was so special and I am so proud of Mike for nominating her. I was very happy to honor such a fantastic teacher- she really deserves it. So I will be on the lookout for our pictures in the paper.

We also visited the Renissance Festival. It was a really hot day and it was so crowded we could barely manuever the stroller. Emma rode a llama and a pony, and of course we had a turkey leg. That was about it. It was way too crowded to even see any of the events. I think that will be best saved for when the girls are a little older. I really hope Disney is a little more manageable. I am VERY excited about Disney, but I am going into it with very low expectations. I am mostly excited to see family and have Em spend some time with her cousins and see her reaction to meeting the princessess she loves. I am looking forward to being in warm weather and chilling by the pool with the girls. Above that anything else is just frosting on the cake. I am NOT going to fight with Emma and plan all kinds of excursions when I know it will just be exhausting and frustrating for everyone involved. Low key. Let's hope.

We went pumpkin picking today. Emma did a great job of picking out one for everyone in the family. It was a nice crisp fall day. Mom and I took the girls out lunch before and it was a really nice day. I kept Emma out of school today for her cold. She has a raspy voice, runny nose, and cough but it sure doesn't seem to be slowing her down at all.

My best friend Ann Marie had her baby! 9 days late, she was induced. 6 pounds 13 ounces, baby girl named Nora Andaman Sweeney. The pictures looks so sweet. I cannot wait to get out to Oregon to see them. I already packaged up my most favorite baby items to send her way. Now that I know it is a girl, I can unload some serious pink that Abby has grown out of.

Thats all for now!

Fall Fun

What a beautiful week we have had! What a great indian summer it has been- reaching 80 this past weekend! We have been busy with school, church, dance, and other sorts of fun. Last week we took the girls apple and raspberry picking. They had a blast. Abby loved riding in the wagon and gumming a slice of apple. Emma made me a proud momma when she chose a regular apple over apple donuts, or carmel apple at the bakery afterwards. I have been waiting for these times when we can do things like this with both girls. Although it makes me sad how fast Abby is growing, it is nice to get glimpses of the girls doing big kids things- it is a lot of fun and so much easier than the sleep/eat/cry/poop stages of babyhood.

So, Emma started a new dance class through the city of Plymouth. It is at 5pm at night which is an awful time for a new non-napper. I called to cancel, but could not get my money back, so we decided to try it. The teacher was awful. The class is made up of 13 3 year olds. She would stop the entire class if one of the little girls was a couple inches off her "dancing spot." Hello- they are 3 years old!!! At one point Emma said, "I don't want to point my toes, I wanna do this!" and swung her legs in the air. The teacher said, "well, then you are telling me you don't want a sticker at the end of the class." I couldn't believe it! Did she expect these 3 year olds to be little robots for a whole 45 minutes? Emma promptly replied, "I don't want a sticker AND I just tooted!" Oh my god! The class was full of parents rolling with laughter. I hid my face with my purse and pretended she wasn't my daughter (although I secretly thought, "thats my girl!") Not sure about going back to that class, but afterwards Em did say she loved it. Any excuse to wear a tutu.....if I made her pick up dog poop in the backyard wearing a tutu she would love that too.

Emma recieved her beginners bible yesterday in church and is loving Sunday school. When I ask her what she learned she will not talk about it right away (her new thing.) But later in the day, she told me, "momma, god is knocking on the door in my heart." So sweet...... Abby does great in the nursery despite skipping her am naps on Sunday. Everytime we pick her up we get comments on how happy she is. MY little smiley monkey! She now has 2 teeth and of course we all have our back to school colds. It wouldn't be September without them!

Nana and Pappa are still in Italy and we miss them so much! We can't wait for them to get back and tease us with stories of quattro formage and all that good stuff.

Busy Week!

Whew, what a week....Although I was sad not be making the weekly road trip to the cabin this weekend, we have been so busy this week, it has actually been great to have a weekend at home. Emma and I just had a discussion of all the new teachers in her life this week. There is teacher Karen at preschool, teacher Fran her babysitter, her new ballet and tap teacher, and teacher Susan who she met today at Sunday School. Yes, I said Sunday school. We reluctantly went back to church today. I say reluctantly not because I have anything against organized religion- I have had nothing but positive church experiences. But we are always reluctant to make comittments to things that cut into our weekly family time. Abby has yet to be baptised and I really wanted her and Emma to have some sort of formal introduction to relegion because Emma thinks God and Santa Claus are the same person (I am ashamed to admit this.......) The hardest part of the whole church thing is really just getting everyone dressed nice and out the door by 8:45 on a Sunday morning. However, once there, Abby loved the nursery, Emma loved the childrens sermon, and Mike loved the singing (so funny and he will be embarassed to admit it, but he loves to sing!) We are planning to have Abby baptized in November. It is nice to be back at the church I grew up in.

Other than that, it was a great weekend. It started out with a Friday night on the town with Kate and Laura. We hit Joe's Garage downtown and had dinner and drinks on the rooftop patio. Then onto Keegans for some keltic music. We met creepy Larry and he got a little handsy with Kate....definately glad to be sporting a wedding band that evening. Fun night.

Saturday, Emma and I attended Sunny's 5th bday party and made a scarecrow for thier garden. Oh, how I wish I was a little more crafty. Surrounded by these waldorf eath mamas, I was embarrased that I could barely sew a patch on the scarecrow. I am such a domestic failure. Poor Mike has to sew the buttons on the girls dresses when they fall off. Good thing I have other redeeming qualities, right honey? Emma was the runt of the litter at the birthday party, which seems to be the story of her life so far. It is sweet watching her work so, so hard to be one of the big kids. It is kind of heartbreaking too though. She really wanted to play with Sunny and her big kid friends- but they would see Emma coming and hide from her! The momma in me wanted to help her fight this battle and make the girls come out and play with Emma. But she was so blissfully ignorant that they were trying to ditch her, I just let it play out. She must have ran around that house 100 times looking for them- they would see her coming and whisper, "here she comes, let's hide!" I guess this is the first of many times I will have to let my kid fight thier own battles. I definatley don't want to be the mom that comes to the rescue all the time. And Emma was so pink cheeked and happy- why let her in on the fact that she was the brunt of a joke? Anyway, last night it was rainy and the girls were exhausted. I gave them a bath, gave each a massage, and put them in thier snuggly pjs. They were so clean, soft, and smelled so good I could have eaten them up. My love for them is just overwhelming at times.

Today is rainy again. Abs is napping, and we set up Em's Zebra tent inside. She is quietly playing with her cars in there. The house is cozy and quiet for a rare moment. I love Sundays.

Copy Cat

9/2/08

I confess.....I am a copy cat. The start of the blog rides on the coat tails of my friend Ann Marie who just created one to document her final days of pregnancy, labor, and life with her newborn. Thanks for the idea, AM- hope you don't mind I'm following your lead (not the first time :) :) maybe this blog about my crazy girls will give you a little taste of what's ahead.

We just returned from a weekend at the cabin. It was blast. Emma and I went tubing, I went waterskiing, lots of floating, drinking, and of course, eating. We had the annual Lake Sylvan Labor Day BBQ. Emma charmed the pants off (not really) two 12 year old boys and had them playing hide and seek with her for hours.
Anyway, back to school day! I just watched the school bus pick up some thrilled looking high schoolers outside the window and Emma was full of questions about when she will get to ride on a bus. We go back to Peppermint Fence today to meet Emma's preschool teachers (she doesn't start a full week until next week.) Abby is starting ECFE (mom and baby class) at the same school and I can't wait to have some time just devoted to her. Emma is a professional spot-light stealer, so I am ashamed to say Abby has been just along for the ride the past 10 months. So we are gearing up for a fun and busy fall. I am working Mon and Thurs evenings so for the overlap time before Mike gets home from work, the girls will be at the home day care across the street. Emma is very excited about the variety of princess dresses they have there. They also have a few other babies so Abby will love that.
Thats all for now... Let me see if I can figure out how to post pics.