Catching Up

Last weekend we went to my friend, Bonnie's lake house.  Our friend Rita joined us.  The girls had fun swimming in the lake and playing with Bonnie's 2 dogs.

 

  

 

Friday night, Bonnie, Rita, and I sat out on the deck and talked.  At one point during the night I told them I thought I saw a roach crawling on the table where my drink was.  It freaked me out so I got up and moved and left my glass there.  The next morning this is what I found:

 

 On Saturday morning, Paul took us on a boat ride:

 

We had a great time!  On Saturday afternoon we drove to my parents house to spend the week.  Mom's friend had a pool so the girls got to go swimming one afternoon.  Emily even jumped off the diving board:

 

We got home on Thursday afternoon.  On Saturday night we took the plunge and put Abigail in her big girl bed.  She was super excited:

So excited in fact that she would not stay in her bed.  After an hour and a half of her continuing to get up and play, I put her back in her baby bed.  She was not happy.  I told her we would try again the next night.  On Sunday night she did a better job of staying in her bed and actually slept thru the night!

 We also started a chore chart for Emily.   I bought this before we left town and the minute we walked in the door on Thursday afternoon, Emily wanted to set it up.  I held her off until Friday morning and we sat down together to write down things she needs to do each week.  She has been excited about updating it each time.  She will earn $1.25 a week with $1 for her to keep and 25 cents to church.  She has done a great job so far!  We'll see how she does.

 Her chores are to make her bed, clear her dishes after each meal, pick up her toys, unload silverware from dishwasher, put away her laundry, sweep kitchen floor (with my help), and dust.  I also put "Mom's choice" on there is there is something I need her to do for me.  She earned 50 cents for her work on Friday and Saturday this week and DeeDee added $1 for the help she gave her on Thursday cleaning up, so Emily is earning her keep!

I also bet her about 3 weeks ago that I would pay her $5 if she would stay in her seat at the start of a meal and not get up once thru the entire meal.  I told her I was willing to pay her the $5 because I didn't think she could do it : )  Well on Saturday night she finally did it!  So we paid her $5.  Her piggy bank is getting full!

One week from today we go to her Meet and Greet to meet her teacher and next Wed my baby starts kindergarten.  I can't believe it.  I'm not ready for this . . .

Aquarium

Yesterday we went to the TN Aquarium and met my sister and her family there.  We had not seen them in several months so it was good to get together:

 After the aquarium and playing in the water outside the aquarium, the kids wanted to swim at hotel where my sister was staying:

 After swimming, we all cleaned up and then headed to dinner.  Then we got back on the road.  It was a great day to spend with family!

Weekly Update

This week I worked Monday and Tuesday and then had the rest of the week off.  The girls didn't have summer camp this week because of the 4th of July so we played.  Emily helped me put all of the 2011 and 2012 pictures in albums. . . over 300 pictures!

 On Tuesday both girls had dentist appointments.  This was Abigail's first time to have her teeth cleaned and she went straight back there, hopped up in the chair, and opened her mouth.  She had no problems : )  Emily got her first xrays and it was really neat to see all her permanent teeth forming under the gums.  They showed me her two bottom teeth coming thru the back of her baby teeth and said she would probably need to have the teeth pulled.  I'm bummed about that because I wanted her to pull her first tooth.  We are wiggling it every day in the hopes that it will come out on its own.  She of course has a cavity that we will need to get filled in a couple of weeks.  Here they are at the dentist waiting to be called back:

They have also enjoyed lots of dress up time.  Every time we get home from somewhere Abigail has to change into her princess outfit right away.  For a couple of days this week she walked around in Emily's rain boots and her "globes" on:

On Wednesday we celebrated the 4th of July by doing . . . . absolutely nothing!  It was a nice day indeed.  I finished a puzzle and we all just enjoyed being at home with no where to go.

On Thursday we braved the water park without Joe.  We did good.  We got there around 10:30 and when the girls got hungry I just bought a pretzel for us to share and they snacked on that and some chips I snuck in.  That allowed us to stay inside the park until 2:00 when they were ready for lunch.  So we went outside the park, ate our lunch and then went home.

We went around the lazy river and the wave pool, and went to all the kiddie areas twice and everyone was done.  I'm glad to know I can go by myself if needed : )

 

On Friday we went grocery shopping and I noticed all the school supplies were on the shelves.  So I had Emily go ahead and pick out her very first back pack before everything got picked over.  This is the one she picked out.  I can't BELIEVE my baby is starting kindergarten in 3 1/2 weeks!!!!

Water Park

We went to the water park yesterday.  Joe and Emily got on a ride before the lines got too long:

 Abigail and I hung out at the wave pool while Joe and Emily were on their ride:

 The girls liked these life jackets from the park because they could float around and rest their heads on the jackets:

 Eating lunch:

Here is a video of Emily going down one of the kid's slides:

 

We left before it got too hot that afternoon.  A fun day!