Brave Spelling

Regan continues to work on "brave spelling". A concept where she writes words and sentences by sounding things out and not asking for help. Apparently the idea is that children become more discouraged when they have to repeatedly ask how to spell something, while gain confidence as they try spelling on their own. We like brave spelling around here for a number of reasons; think of how tiring it is to constantly hear "mom, how do you spell _____" minute after minute!

Last night I caught her brave spelling her middle name.

Any "brave guessers" out there willing to guess what she was trying to spell?

Update

Knock on wood....but Sidney is doing amazingly well in her new 'big girl bed'. She sleeps through the night, with minimal assistance from us (she called out a couple of times on night one and two, but went right back to sleep after covering up again and a little reassurance) and best of all....she's sleeping in until 7am! We are loving it :) Nap time has gone very well also. The only difference is she now can get herself out of bed when she wakes.

Let the fun begin....

Sidney is our poor sleeper. She just can't figure it out. Some nights she is up for an hour, other nights she has a night terror and it feels like 5 hours. Lately she has been begging for a move into her big girl bed. No more crib. Today she pleaded for me to transition her bed. And I finally caved. On one condition: she stay in her bed ALL NIGHT LONG. She was so excited, stating "I think I'm tired now!" as she waited for us to announce bedtime. Regan kept saying "I'm so excited for you Sidney!".

As for the rule, well, Sidney agreed....until bedtime when she whimpered about being scared. A few extra minutes holding her hand and talking her through it and she was fine.

It could be a very very l----o----n---g night. Sweet dreams little one.

Trimming the trees 2011

I climbed into the attic tonight and pulled out tote upon tote full of Christmas decorations. It's really quite ridiculous, but the girls seem to love it just as much as me. In fact, they scolded me for doing a little decorating during nap!

Regan was thrilled to put together the tree for her bedroom.

And then they both couldn't wait to hang ornaments on the real tree. Unfortunately, I only put glass ornaments on the tree....and let's just say not all of them survived Regan or Sidney's handling tonight.

Parade of Lights

We ventured downtown New Ulm to watch the Parade of Lights while in town celebrating Thanksgiving. This years' weather was downright balmy compared to last, and the crowd sure showed it! I couldn't believe the number of people waiting to watch the lighted floats go by.

Regan's only complaint was not being able to sit; so she sat atop Ryan's shoulders for a bit and took in all the sights.

And at the very end of the parade, Santa graced us with his presence. Regan stood in complete awe...literally, it was a precious moment in time for her. She really couldn't believe that he was right in front of her!

It's officially Christmas season...

Just girls

We had some fun taking pictures of just us girls.....first it was serious:

and then it was Regan's favorite, "SILLY FACES!":

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Much food and surrounded by lots of family. We spent the day in New Ulm as we celebrated what it is we are thankful for.

Sidney was thankful for an uncle who would hold her upside down over and over again while she giggled and laughed.

Regan was thankful for sharing lunch with T-Hud and P-Money and later enjoyed racing around the farm with Hudson in the lead.

I think most of all, we're thankful for family.

Turkey day on the brain

Apparently Regan learned a new song about Thanksgiving at school this week. She was pretty excited to "perform" for us tonight at the dinner table.

Poor turkey...

First Snowfall 2011

It's officially winter around here seeing as though it snowed on us yesterday.

Regan initially looked into the backyard at the snow covered the pool and said "I hate the snow" (she read my mind, which by the way I have been very good at concealing so as not to spoil winter for the rest of the family).

Turns out, she doesn't hate snow. She loves it. That girl went sledding in our front yard for 2 hours last night. The neighbor boy is teaching her to go down on his sled standing up...it's pretty darn cute to watch their lessons.

And occasionally the girls went down together, Sidney head first. The wee one of the bunch is a bit more like me. She enjoys it, playing hard for an hour and then she's cold. Time to go inside. There's no delaying it for her; when she's done, she's done.

Friends from a far...part 2

Last year, we got a wonderful visit from Paul and his family. This year, we were lucky enough to get to see at least Paul again.

When this group gathers, there are a lot of kiddos involved! We're a little heavy on girls but it makes for one heck of a playdate!

Swimming Lessons: Safety week

Regan's (amazing) swimming school held safety week in which the students were given oversized sweatshirts in order to show them how (difficult) it feels to swim with clothing on. Regan cried at first, not wanting to wear clothes into the water; but her instructor is a champ.....

and soon she was swimming laps, wearing that dreadful sweatshirt. She commented more than once "this is hard!" and "I don't like this", but who could blame her?

Jake allowed them to jump in and also gave them an unexpected push to mimic a fall into the water. I'm thankful for these lessons, not only is she learning how to swim, but they really do enforce the importance of safety.

Flashback Friday

November 14, 2010

I wish I had her enthusiasm about the snow

It's coming, I realize that.

Winter is just around the corner and apparently the white fluffy stuff may appear as soon as tomorrow. I heard someone this week talking about the snow and say "good, bring it on. That means spring is coming next.".

Hmph, good thinking :)

For the love of homework

Regan has an amazing kindergarten teacher and elementary school that strongly believes learning doesn't stop at the end of the school day. So every night, yes, EVERY NIGHT, she has homework to complete. We practice writing letters, numbers and sentences, reading and listening/comprehension. It is quite amazing, although a little overwhelming on dance class night or gymnastics class night. But this girl is really doing quite well! She doesn't argue when we say "time to do your homework" and quickly gets to work (most nights).

I'm happy to help her learn and glad she is in a school district that requires parental involvement in learning. Because it's just the best feeling to watch a child's success in school and know we were a part of it.

Baking cookies

Tonight the girls and I baked cookies; something we like to do, especially when the weather turns cool and it gets dark so early, minimizing our time outside. It came to my attention that they hadn't tasted a lot of the ingredients (independently), like vanilla, flour, etc. So they took the opportunity to do just that. Including the cocoa; you know, that awful bitter tasting stuff.

Here's what they thought (Regan's face says it perfectly!):

Ah there we go! Much better! I think it truly surprised them that they can mix all of those items into a bowl, bake it, and it'll come out tasting delicious!

PS: While the rest of us freeze wearing sweatshirts and pants, our sweet Sidney runs around in dress-up outfits all day long.

Fall leaves!

I used to simply love fall, but then I started to really dislike it based on knowing that winter is what was to come. This weekend was a good reminder of why I LOVED fall; the weather was downright perfect. And we fully took advantage of it, spending every waking moment playing in the sunshine.

It was the perfect opportunity to clean up the last of the fall leaves, and the girls found it the perfect time to jump into the leaves. Over and over and over again.

And when she got tired of jumping and running, she laid down for a quick rest break.

And then we pushed a huge pile in front of the slide and let them have a great time! First it was down feet first, losing shoes at the bottom of the pile, walking away with leaves attached to their pants. And then, Sidney asked to go down head first. My response: "um, sure, I guess". Regan quickly followed and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves at how hard we laughed!

HAPPY FALL!!!

Puzzles with Logie (and Nala)

I'm realizing that Regan is definitely ready to work on larger puzzles so when she pulled out this long-forgotten puzzle, I was thrilled with her energy to help Logan complete it. Just after posing for this picture, Sidney (in true Sidney fashion), did what we fully expected her to do, put her hands under the puzzle and ripped it apart.
So much for Regan and Logan's hard work!

Sidney

I get the pleasure of spending Fridays with Sidney. Just Sidney. She makes me laugh, this sweet girl. She's full of energy, language and lots of love.

Some of my favorite Sidney moments include:

* her very natural way of giving compliments, whether it's about clothes, food or home decorating. She tosses them out regularly and actually means them.

* the amazing way she can entertain herself for hours and hours. Her favorite playtime activity includes lining up (over 30) babies and putting them to bed.

* her simple fears which make her cling to me like I can save her from anything.

* but the ability to be strong and overcome those fears.

* the way she loves her sister, wanting to tell her all about her day, listening intently and asking questions about Regan's school adventure.

* her ability to hold a conversation with an adult; i.e. asking someone how their day at work went, and then waiting for an answer so she can build the conversation. Seriously, she's only 3!

* her hugs and snuggles that light up my world!

Now if only I could get her to sleep past 6am we'd be in real good shape!

Sidney's first haircut

We're not quite finished with "firsts" in this house. Sidney turned 3 in Sept and we had yet to get her scraggly, blond hair cut. She has a few curls at the end, not a ton, so it was much less traumatic for me compared to Regan's first hair cut (where I feared all of her curls would be forever gone!). Sidney proudly watched Regan get her hair cut, then exclaimed that she wanted nothing to do with a hair cut.

Not to fret, we got her settled into Vicky's chair, holding my hand (no bribes needed) and washing her stinky pig smelling hair (see previous post).

Those first snips were a little emotional for me...a few tears.

She was beaming with pride as she showed off her new hair cut. Not that it really looks much different than before, but it's one more "first" crossed off the list.

Packing it all in

People have been known to say to me "boy, you sure don't waste a second!". It's a blessing and a curse sometimes, but I do tend to pack a lot of fun in our days. This weekend was certainly no different. We ventured to New Ulm to help my very best friend move into her very own home! I was so proud to be helping her move, paint, unpack....repeat for hours Saturday. The girls cannot wait to come back and PLAY with her kids! Congrats Kari.

And after all that moving, my dad had to teach me how to use his new "toy". Not the remote control helicopter he insisted on flying around, no, his new pellet gun. Complete with a target practice; just look at my form!

"Take that baby!!!"

Not bad for my first time.

Don't worry, the girls were safely away from all the pellet gun action, nestled in the living room reading stories from when I was in the 3rd grade. Piles upon piles of Berenstein Bear books.

Sidney even read them to her students, lined up in rows listening intently as she showed them pictures.

Sunday morning, the girls showed Papa...or maybe Papa showed the girls, some dance moves on the Wii. Click HERE to watch a video; and enjoy a laugh. Nice job dad!

The big adventure of the day was heading out to Uncle Lon's farm to check on the piggies. The girls have asked many times to visit his piggy barns, but we knew the smell would be tough for them to handle. Turns out, Regan (and I), had the hardest time; yes, I was nearly gagging as I brought up the rear of our parade. Sid wasn't too phased and started petting it as soon as Lon brought it out.

Man alive there are a lot of pigs in this barn....and to think there's more than just this one barn. Despite how clean it is...the stench was BAD news!

Eventually, Regan asked for a pink pig to be brought out and then started to pet it. They enjoyed pushing on his nose, apparently it's pretty soft. Lon tried to get him to make some squeals and noises but he was just too calm. Turns out he was taking a poop on Lon's leg and maybe a little too busy to squeal!

Tried as I might, no amount of fresh air was going to take the smell off of my body/hair. Thankfully we were heading straight to Vicky's salon and I immediately washed my hair.

Because before our short (but incredibly busy) trip to New Ulm was over, we had lunch at the infamous Happy Joe's and the girls watched in awe as they made pizzas right before our eyes! Apparently, my picture taking was added stress for the pizza makers, because this poor guy had to scrap out a few ingredients and an entire pizza he nervously tried to assemble!

We sure like to "pack it all in", but life's too short to sit around!!

I'm so thankful the girls are up for our daily adventures, ready and waiting to experience it all.

Family Fun Night 2011

We've stayed pretty busy this school year. Between dance classes, gymnastic lessons, swimming lessons and the day to day tasks of homework, housework and life in general, it's been more than chaotic at times. Regan's school hosted a "Family Fun Night" tonight and although it was one more night out of the house, on the run, and slightly chaotic, we opted to check it out. At first the girls were apprehensive about the DJ and waited (im)patiently, for any of Regan's classmates to show up. By golly, once a few friends were a part of the fun, FAMILY fun night was a great hit! Apparently the family part of it isn't necessarily to spend time AS a family, as much as it is to spend time WITH other families! We met many other parents and siblings while the kids danced, ate and ran around. Sidney couldn't stop talking about it as we left 2 hours later...."mom, I just had SO much fun!"

Here's a short video of the girls dancing. Bust a move Ninie, you go girl!

Grandparent Breakfast

Regan's elementary school sent home a flyer last month to announce "Grandparents/Special Person's Breakfast". By the look on her face in this picture, you can tell she understands just how special she feels that ALL FOUR of her grandparents were able to attend this morning with her.

The comment by my mom later in the day was "she was so excited it was like there were ants in her pants!". While many children don't have relatives close (enough) by, we are incredibly grateful that these 4 made the 100 mi trek at 6am to visit with Regan at school for less than an hour. It certainly made her day; and she's already asking when they can come back again!