Flowers from around our house

I have often read gardening books that talk about growing a "cutting garden", and back at our old house I have since learned that I actually had one of those! Most of my flowers were the kind that had long stems and grew more flowers after you cut the buds off, thus making them ideal for putting in arrangements. Well our home now doesn't have those types of plants...yet. But the girls and I make do with the pretty flowers we do have.

Volleyball practice

Paige joined the Park and Rec's volleyball team this summer. She seemed to enjoy it, and she showed some natural ability. I hope that she continues with this sport as I'm certain she's got the height for it! (Shocking, I know.) ;-)

Emma and Abby played in the playground next to the v-ball courts while Paige had practice.

The coaches had the students practicing this move often. I still don't quite understand how it aides in the actual sport of volleyball. But it looked quite fun!

Emma's 7th birthday

Emma celebrated her seventh birthday on July 23. We had a party for her with family and her neighbor friends on the day before her actual birthday.
I know that every parent says this, but I truly can't believe how quickly children grow up! It seems like a short time ago I was holding her up in the air and saying, "So big!" and she was staring down at me with big eyes, wearing an infant sleeper. ☺

Emma is a huge help around the house. She loves things to be organized, and I'll often here her say, "Mom. Come look at the back door." and she'll have all the shoes organized on the rack. Or she'll ask me to look in the toy room, and all the toys will be put away. Of course she likes to rearrange the way that I have things organized, so I can tell that she's like me in that she wants things a certain way, and she feels her way is the best. But we all know that MY way is actually better. ;-)

Em is a huge Harry Potter fan. Last year she told me that she was going to marry Daniel Radcliffe when she got older. :-| Then we had a conversation regarding how Mr. Radcliffe is not a perpetual twelve-year-old; he's already an adult. ☺

Emma received two of the Potter movies, a poster book, and a LEGO H.P. sticker book.

It's Auntie Beth with dark hair! The little girls are two of Emma's neighbor friends.

This was THE present Emma wanted most. She's been begging for an American Girl Doll for several years now. Both Grandparents went in on this gift, and when Emma saw the gift tag and who the present was all from, she KNEW it was her doll because, "I know the doll costs a lot and all those people helped get this present so it must be expensive and the only expensive gift I wanted was an American Girl Doll." Nothing gets past her!

This doll is the "Emily" doll. Very fitting! Of course now Em wants more clothes for her doll.

Miss Gooby

Always have to have a picture with one's cake.

**I had taken more pictures, but apparently I am not the most tech-savvy, and I had the camera on the wrong setting. Thus most of the pictures were blurry. "Just point and shoot." Uh huh.

Great friends

The girls and some of their neighborhood friends were seated at our picnic table playing Apples to Apples. Much laughter ensued!

This little nugget made my day. ☺

Two weeks ago my five-year-old nephew Nathan spent the night at our house. I had to pick him up from his preschool in the afternoon. Nathan took the girls and I to his classroom to collect his things, and that's when I saw this:

I grinned! How sweet that he was so excited for the sleepover that he told his teacher about it, and they wrote it down!

Paige's 9th birthday

Many thanks to my mom for taking pictures. ☺

Paige celebrated her ninth birthday on June 6. We had some family come over and two of Paige's friends for cake and ice cream. After that I took Paige and Emma and Paige's friends swimming at the local indoor pool.

The birthday gang AND Auntie Beth!

Mom, Ron, and Paige

Miss Gooby and "Papa"--as she calls him

Myself, Dave, and Paige :)

Cherished Teddy number 9 from Gram Gram

Mosaic box from Gram Gram. Paige begged to stay up late and work on it. I found her still awake and working at midnight!

I had to include this picture because I feel that I am often smiling and laughing. :) I also have to admit that I cropped David out of the picture. But I'm sure he won't mind as he had a very "interesting" look on his face. *wink* ☺

Science Museum Field Trip--May 16, 2011

We went to the Science Museum of MN for a home school field trip. We saw the King Tut exhibit while we were there. They didn't allow us to take any pictures in the exhibit, but seeing as I hardly ever take pictures this was fine with me. ;-) The kids seemed to enjoy the trip. I know they liked the musical staircase. Beth and I liked the broadcast booth ☺ except that the kids kept speeding up the teleprompter. After the museum we headed over to the Mall of America.

This chair was huge! You were supposed to figure out how many times bigger all the furniture was versus the scale model. Yeah, I decided it was a great photo opportunity.

There was a mirror across from the chair. I was trying to snap a pic of the reflection. As you can see it didn't work the best.

Thankfully Beth jumped in and got an actual picture. Paige was not in the picture because she was over at the chemistry counter, learning about water.

Oh my word! This picture made me laugh so hard! My nephew Casey was trying on glasses that supposedly showed you how a newborn baby sees. His eyes were so huge from the magnification that I had to get a picture of him!

Beth took a picture of me at the music station.

Beth also got this picture of the kids and I participating in a lab. The kids were looking at their cheek cells under a microscope.

At the Mall of America we were looking for Angry Birds shirts, and we stopped at this t-shirt shop. There was a cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber at the entrance, and Beth and Paige playfully posed by him. ☺

"Amerikids!"

Our home school group, New Ulm Area Scholars at Home (NUASH), presented our annual play on May 15. The play was called "Amerikids!", and it discussed how the United States was founded by people of faith. I thought this play had a WONDERFUL message! The play made so much of God and brought Him much glory and honor! The children and young adults did an excellent job performing, too.

That first picture showed our stage. The children were attending a convention. Each performer was a delegate from a specific state. Paige was the delegate from Illinois, and Emma was the delegate from Oklahoma...or was it Alabama?

The kids walked in and shook hands with the audience.

David built this spectacular little house for one of the songs in the play. The young boys had to build the house on the stage during the song, demonstrating how a family ought to build their home on a foundation of God's word.

This year marked the first year that I took an active role in helping with the play. I was sort of an assistant director, and I have to say that even though I was very nervous about helping out and having to lead a practice or two, overall the whole experience was very good for me. It helped me to grow and be more outgoing. And I just thoroughly enjoy watching children perform on stage. Their acting and singing had me grinning constantly! They have such great ideas. And their costumes were fantastic! Lord willing I'd like to help again next year. In this picture the kids presented Gig and I will beautiful hanging baskets of flowers! My basket is gracing my front step. ☺