Fall Break

This week is Emily's fall break at school.  Joe and I both took off work this week and have had some fun adventures together.  On Monday, Joe took Emily to the dentist to get her 2nd tooth pulled.  She needed extra room for her permanent tooth to come in.  She was a trooper and did a great job!

 On Tuesday we went to the GA Aquarium together.  Since most counties were in school this week the aquarium was not crowded.  I think it was the first time that all 4 of us went together where we felt like we could relax and enjoy it without the crowds.  We spent a long time in the Ocean Voyager room and got to see them feed the whale sharks:

 Abigail felt comfortable enough this time to go thru the penguin tunnel with Emily:

 Waiting for the 4D movie to start.  This was Joe's first time to see it:

 Waiting for the dolphin show:

 Dolphin show stadium:

 

 On Wednesday we took it easy that morning and then went to the $1 movie to see Madagascar 3.  It was funny.  After the movie we went to a nearby park to play:

  

After the park we went shopping for some fall clothes for Emily and then ate dinner together.

Today we went to the zoo.

 We happened to be at the right place at the right time because when we got to the giraffe viewing area they were feeding the giraffes.  You could pay $3 to feed a giraffe so Emily and Abigail were able to feed him.  It was really cool:

 This was the first time we had seen these guys up close as well:

 They had an instructor at the orangutan exhibit.  She was explaining to us that this orangutan was taking a quiz on a computer screen.  We could see what he was picking on the memory game he was playing on a TV screen near us.  It was pretty cool to watch.  She also told us that every morning the orangutans take quizzes in their indoor facility before they go out for the day:

 We have enjoyed our week together!  Tomorrow we will take it easy with a few errands and then on Saturday we make our annual trip to the fair with friends!!!

Potty Time

Abigail has finally decided to join the ranks of official "big girl" and FINALLY complete potty training!!!  Hoo hoo!  We tried back in April during spring break to get her on that train but once she went back to school she had accidents all the time so I had to put her in pull ups.  But last week I put her in undies every day when we got home from school and by Saturday she stayed in them all day with just 1 accident.  On Monday afternoon she did well too so I decided on Tuesday to just go for it and see how she did at school.  I packed lots of extra clothes and when she came out for afternoon carpool in the same clothes I sent her to school in I knew we were there!  Hallelujah!  So may Sept 11, 2012 be the day that Abigail "got it"!  She has been accident free for two whole days.  Yippee!!! 

Way to go Abigail . . . . we are super proud of you!!!

In other news, I got my first phone call from the school nurse that Emily wasn't feeling well on Tuesday.  I picked her up from school and luckily it was just a few hours of some tummy troubles.  I told her she must have picked up a bug from school.  She said, "is the bug in my tummy?  How are we going to get him out?"  Sweet girl.  I had to explain what a "figure of speech" meant.  She did fine this morning so I checked her in late about 9:30.  She was so excited to get to check in at the office and take her tardy note to class : )

Last week her class had the most students come to spirit night so they are going to have a pizza party for them on Friday!

Tonight Tara and Taylor came over and we cooked dinner together.  We made shrimp tacos and a yummy chocolate cake:

 

First tooth

Emily lost her first tooth yesterday!  It has been really loose for a while and her permanent tooth is halfway in behind it.  She was lining up to go home yesterday and was wiggling it and then said "it came up higher than it ever has so I checked to see if it was all the way out and it was!"  Her teacher put it in a ziploc bag for her to bring home.  She got a $1 this morning from the tooth fairy!

 Yesterday at school was Grandparents Day.  Since Emily's grandparents couldn't make it I went in their place.  I was fun to eat lunch with her.  They made policeman hats during class so they wore those to the lunchroom:

 After lunch Mrs. Reynolds let everyone come back to the class to see the classroom.  Emily had a book from the library she wanted me to read her so we tried among all the loud noise:

We also had spirit night last night at a local restaurant to support her school so we went there.  They had a special last night with all the kindergarten teachers there.  Emily reminded me of my Granny last night because while Joe stayed in line to order our food and Abigail and I got a table, Emily walked around the whole restaurant and thru the line talking to all of her friends.  She was so cute : )

Apple Picking

It's that time of year again!  Yesterday after church we went to pick apples in Blue Ridge.  Waiting in line to get on the tractor to take us to the orchard:

 Here we go:

 Once we picked a few apples the girls had to grab one to eat:

 Supporting our football colors at church yesterday : )

 

Here is a picture of Emily's kindergarten class:

 

Last week I made some Halloween bags for the girls.  Can't wait to use them!

Sewing

I've been doing some more sewing these past couple of weeks:

 I also signed up for a purse class at a new fabric store in downtown Woodstock.  I'm really excited because this fabric store is for garments and children's clothing instead of just quilting.  So I will finally have a place that sells corduroy in the winter and children's patterns and fabrics.   This is the purse I will be making:

On Saturday, the girls and I went to 1/2 off day at a consignment sale.  Emily spent some of her allowance money for the first time.  She bought 3 grab bags of Pet Shop pets to add to her collection:

 I was also able to buy several Tag Reader books for Abigail's upcoming birthday.  It came with a 2nd tag reader so I went ahead and gave them some of the books and the 2nd tag reader and they played with them all weekend.  Looks like after this sale I made $175 . . . not bad.

We also made homemade pizza for lunch.  Abigail helped me make it.  It turned out yummy:

Some of our friends from church are moving to Minnesota so we had a girls night out on Saturday and then several families went to lunch together on Sunday after church to say goodbye.  We sure will miss them!

We have now completed 3 1/2 weeks of school!  This Friday Emily will have a day off so we are all looking forward to that.  Abigail will still have school so Emily has already requested that she be allowed to paint and play with play-doh while I'm working and Abigail is at school : )    Emily is doing well and still enjoying going each morning.  Her teacher is super organized so I've been pleased with that.  Tonight I will go to the curriculum night at school to meet with her teacher.

Stuff

We survived our first week of school and homework.  Emily has surprised me with how much complaining she has done about getting homework done.  I thought she would have fun with it in the beginning, but I've had to prod her to get it done.  So I'm working on setting certain days and times that we work on it so it can become routine.  She is loving school and last week we also tried out riding the bus home in the afternoons and it has worked out great.  So for now, Joe takes her in the morning and Abigail and I meet her at the bus stop each afternoon. 

We got her plate back that she worked on before school started.  She has already eaten dinner on it:

Emily came home yesterday with her first "drop" in their behavior chart that we have to sign each night.  She had a consequence for talking too much during instruction time.  So she lost 5 minutes of recess time.  She gets her love of talking honest though : )

I also did a lot of sewing last week.  I finished a doll clothes order and also made this outfit for Emily:

A friend of ours is about to have her 2nd baby so she asked me to make these shirts for her girls:

And I monogrammed a dress for someone as well: