Nora is 8 Months!

Marion Weekend June 17 & 18

        This weekend was about celebrating Keenan's birthday (A day I am very grateful exists!) and Fathers Day weekend. It was the perfect excuse to just get together, catch up with each other, and have fun.  I love to see how much the cousins have bonded over the years! That is such a special relationship and I hope we can keep it going as long as possible.  Riley and Piper were almost inseparable and it seemed to me they were inventing their own special code that I ,not being a five year old girl anymore, didn't understand but could certainly appreciate.  

     The Cedar Rapids farmers market was amazing as usual and I had fun checking out the vendors and making a few splurge purchases to enjoy later from our grocery budget.  I wanted to take it all home but lets be realistic. It was fun just chatting with everyone and having a pour over coffee from my favorite stand! Yum!

    It was weird to go home and leave one of our kids but I know she is in good and loving hands and having so much fun.  She will probably be talking about VBS and her pool and cousin time until next summer rolls back around. 

 

Nora is 8 Months

Our baby girl is already 8 months old and doing so much. She is sitting pretty steady but still tips herself over when she reaches for something.  She seems to maneuver herself around the living area by means of a lot of little scoots and rolls when reaching for other toys. Nora has always been very social and chatty but now it sounds like she is trying to say things like a da or a ga.  Its fun to see these little changes and to hear her say A DA with such gusto or to watch her eyes sparkle as I respond to her with similar enthusiasm. She wants to touch and examine everything. Its especially fun to see her level of focus on an object she hasn't handled before versus something she plays with often.  She looks like there will be a test at the end of the evening and she is trying to memorize its every facet.

 

 

Last Day of Preschool

Riley's Art Corner!

One of Riley's favorite ways to spend her time is to make things!  It is interesting to hear her stories and see how that reflects in what she is creating and learning. She likes to practice writing, blending colors, creating something to reflect a dream or experience. It is exciting to see how thoughtful she is and how she makes sense of things.

This was a person that Riley made out of Legos.  She tried to give it feet and hair.

I love when she brings me drawing of the two of us! The hearts on the people make me melt.

Here she seemed like she was enjoying layering colors with marker and crayon.

 This ladybug drawing has a special story. I love how she has been using her art as a way to express her emotions in a healthy way!  She caught a ladybug on the slide in the backyard the other day and named it Riley. It was a big moment for her because she is normally too terrified of bugs to actually catch them herself.  I told her she could only keep it in her cage in the shade for 2 days or else it would die. She protested and was sad then she drew this picture of herself with a ladybug and brought it to me and told me she made a bunch of hearts around it because she loved the ladybug and didn't want to let it out. She cried and still talks about it sometimes but let it go. Kids are so funny sometimes.

Riley's First Day of Preschool (September 1, 2016)

 

Riley's Last Day of Preschool (June 1, 2017)

 


















 On the last day of school I had trouble getting a picture because the sun was in her eyes and she wouldn't put her hands down so we went to the backyard!  She was also a bit preoccupied pretending to be a butterfly.

      She had a great year!  Riley learned a lot and loved her teacher, Miss Krista!  She was interesting in what they were learning, the last section was on insects. It may be why she is pretending to be a butterfly here, Haha. I love to watch her learn and to help her when I can. School was amazing at getting her started so she would be more open and excited about trying with me at home.  We are currently spending time each day reading and sounding out words. Sometimes she is frustrated but I love to see her eyes light up when she does the work then hears the word that she just sounded out. Amazing!

      Riley loved her classmates and some of them will even be in her new school. Maybe not in her room but in the same school. 

This is a picture of Riley and her teacher Ms. Krista!

Summer!

    For a while we had a lot of rain so we made liberal use of our fort kit Kristen made for the kids!  They had a blast hiding in it and making the fire. 

     The rain was great because it was happening shortly after I got my garden in and everything seemed to get a good start.  Thank you to Keenan and Jon for building my new garden!  The beans have reached the top of the structure and the tomatoes are huge.  They have been loving the current heat wave. It has been difficult to keep them in the cages they are growing so fast. The eggplant is just starting to take off, it doesn't like being too wet. Some of the peppers are getting big and others are lagging behind.  Not really sure why they are growing at different rates but okay.  Peas didn't bother coming up and when the heat wave hit, surprisingly early, I decided against re-planting, better luck next year or maybe this fall. My summer squash sprouted and is pretty big. Now if a colony of bugs doesn't wipe it out that would be great.  Some  squash bugs killed it last year in a weekend, it happens fast. I am considering doing some preemptive dusting. I love squash in pasta with cherry tomatoes and peppers, Yum! 

 Ottumwa- Cousin Fun

 We went to Ottuwma to give the kids a chance to play and enjoy our own personal strawberry festival out of Stacy's patch. The kids were happy, they had juicy red faces and fingers and just enjoyed being wild. Later Stacy made some strawberry ice cream.  Yum! The kids loved it. As for tradition one of my kids, August, had a fever and was very tired so he had to get out of the sun and get some tylenol in him. Poor guy, he was trying to play but looked like he was going to fall asleep.
     We were going to catch lightning bugs but certain people, the moms, were too tired and attempted to put the kids to bed. It went well.  The next evening after another full day outside we made some popcorn and had a movie night. It was cute seeing them all lined up.  After the kids went to bed Stacy and I watched 2 of the episodes to the Gilmore Girls netflix series. I was so excited to finally see them. You could call me obsessed. I like to believe that Stars Hollow really exists.  Two more episodes to go, maybe next time I am in Ottumwa?