First Day of School

Liz was a little nervous the first day of school.  The night before she had begged me to home school her instead, but she bucked up and went to school and did just fine.  She said that she liked her homeroom teacher, saying "she's a grandma so you know she's nice."  She said that she didn't like her her afternoon teacher.  When I probed her a bit she admitted that her teacher was nice and the only thing she didn't like was that "she teaches Spanish." 

We picked up a new lunchbox and backpack over the summer and smattering of school supplies.  I foolishly thought I could pick up the remaining items while Liz was in class that first day.  Nope, everything was sold out (admittedly I only went to one store).  I emailed the teacher to say I'd get the supplies in by the end of the week and then Liz came home backpack full of said supplies.  According to her teacher I had dropped the supplies off at the front the office and teacher slipped them in Lizzie's desk.  Nope, sorry babe.  Your mom is just not that together and your bag is filled with some random kid's things.

Week 10

Even though we had another week to go, week 10 felt like the last week of summer to me because I knew we were spending the absolutel last week at the beach.  When I wasn't busy with our Activity Girls day camp (went wonderfully), I was racing around trying to finish up everything: visiting teaching, PTA paperwork, beach packing, Lainey's final gymnastics class, prep work for Lainey's upcoming birthday party, a girl scout kick-off meeting, a 4th grade fundraiser meeting, and our last bounce house camp and water park vouchers. 

Our day camp lasted three days (three hours a day).  Day One was Silly Olympics, Day Two was our service project, and Day Three we went to Pirates Cove water park. I was jointly in charge of the first day.  We started the girls off making country flags for themselves (as in Lizzie made a flag for the country of Lizzie).  Then, we headed outside for messy games like this fun one where the girls threw cheetos at each other's shaving-cream-topped heads (they wore shower caps) to see how many they could get to stick.

We also tossed water balloons back and forth and did a relay race that involved transferring water from one bucket to another using only sponges. 

Back inside, we played some minute games and more races.

 

We had a lot of fun at our first Activity Girls day camp and are looking forward to holding it again next year.

Ready To Pop Baby Shower

{Party favor poppers}

{Balloons strung on thread: surprisingly this was a two person job and now I know to use something stronger than thread next time}

{Poprock rimmed glasses}

{Instead of cake pops we used cake donut holes which was much easier than the original}

 

{Diaper cake with wash cloth lollipops}

  {Sharon popped the balloons to find notes full of baby wishes inside}{Cupcakes fashioned from onesies}

Tea House

Laines and I went to Pink Bicycle Tea Room for a much-needed mommy-daughter date.

We got to pick out some sweet tea party hats to wear.Lainey's hat was so big on her that the brim hit the table (and all the glass dishes on it) every time she looked down.  I finally suggested she remove it because I was afraid that she'd break something.

Lainey's favorite part of the whole experience seemed to be dropping sugar in her "tea" (a.k.a. lemonade).  I cut her off at three or four cubes per glass so she ended up drinking a lot (and not eating much).

Food-wise Lainey liked the strawberries and the peanut butter sandwich the best (I had to slap that last one together for her by disassembling two PB&J's because the girl will not eat jelly or even honey on her sandwiches).

I enjoyed time with just Lainey and I learned something new about her.  Her favorite animals are "kitties and butterflies."  I have subsequently learned that she thinks cats are girls and dogs are boys.  Hmmm.  (Next pic by Lainey)

Week 9 was wonderful week, lotsa fun.  I finally finished off my Olympic experience (as in I watched the closing ceremonies late Sunday night).  Also, Drew told us who won (as in whose country placed highest).  Lizzie had picked China (U.S. was off limits because we rooted for them as a family) and she was absolutely thrilled to come in first place.  Other fun:

We attended dollar night at the Potomac Nationals (baseball farm team).  We met friends there so the kids really enjoyed themselves (though Drew was frustrated that Lizzie was paying more attention to her friend's smart phone than the game).  I arrived first so the whole group enjoyed my idiocy when it came to seating.  The $1 tickets were for the grandstand.  I figured that meant the bleachers (or everything other than "box seats") so I saved seats just left of home plate (turns out we were supposed to be in the outfield).

We turned in our library reading program coupons to get free donuts (note to any locals the coupons are for glazed donuts only, I didn't realize that until after the kids had picked fancy sprinkled-covered ones).

Lizzie and Lainey went to a half day camp at a local bounce house (and Ellie cried and cried because she couldn't go in).  Afterwards Lainey and I had a mommy-daughter date at a local tea house.  More pics of that later, but speaking of Lainey, we're trudging onward with the toilet training, but it's been unpleasant.  This last week she pooped her pants four three days in a row and peed the bed every night.  Finally we had to down-grade her to pull-ups at night because I just can't handle both soiled clothing and linens right now.

We tried out the play areas in a couple local malls (first time for most of the family at these particular play places so it was very exciting).  The first one was Virginia-themed.

The second play area was green-themed.  Technically, Liz was too big to play in these areas, but Lainey pretty much wouldn't play without Liz.  She'd either constantly come over and ask if Liz would play with her or she'd sit sadly by the sidelines with us (Ellie seemed content on her own).  Much to the delight of Liz and Laines I eventually gave in and they embarked on some sort of imaginary adventure.

One Saturday I helped throw a Ready-to-Pop-themed baby shower.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  I was also happy with the recipes I tried especially for the occasion:  rainbow popcorn and homemade pop tarts (though I cheated and used store-bought pie crusts). More shower pics later.

 After the shower, my family enjoyed the leftover Pop Rocks.

I thought Ellie would have a hard time with the candy, but she LOVED it, as in couldn't-get-enough-of-it-licking-her-fingers-and-the-bag-kind-of-love.

Lainey was more excited about the noise her Pop Rocks made than the way they felt in her mouth.