Up in the Sky!

Katie filled up her marble jar and got to pick a prize out of the treasure box! This time she chose to go for a ride on the sky buckets nearby! It was a fun family Saturday afternoon celebrating Katie and enjoying a great view.

You can see the sky buckets in the background here.  They run along the river.

Yeah Katie! 

This little one didn't enjoy the day as much as the rest of us.  She had a pretty bad cold complete with a fever.  No fun!  Now all four of us have or had the same lovely cold.  Oh the family togetherness!

One Month and One Day

Today Carly is one day and one month away from 2 years old.  When Katie was one month and one day away from 2 years old Carly was born!  Katie seemed older than Caly does right now... maybe because she had a lot more hair than Carly does! 

Sweet Carly girl has about 4 more months before she becomes a big sister.  It'll be a big change but she'll be a great big sister, I'm sure!



First Day of School!

Well, this post is over a month late but my little lady started back at her preschool at the begining of September! 

She was very excited to get back to school since she hadn't been there since December.  I don't think it was quite what she was expecting though, because in the last several months being away from the language and mostly speaking English she has forgotten most of what she knew before we left.  Poor little thing cried, not when I dropped her off, but when I picked her up the first day of school!  I felt so sad for her.  She said, "It was harder than I thought it would be..."  And I think it was.  She didn't realize how hard it would be to not understand most of what was going on around her.  On top of that there were several new kids who have come since she was there last so it wasn't as familiar as she remembered. 

It has gotten better but I think it's still very tiring and draining for her - but fun too!  You can be praying for our little one that she'd remember the language quickly and make friends again.  Thanks! 

At the Park

Just a few cute pictures from an outing to the park this week.  I told you that this blog was mostly to keep the grandparents happy!  :-)

Have a great day!

A Fun Day Out

Last week we got to spend some fun time with some good friends.  They have a little girl the same age as Katie so it was great to see them get to play together.  The park we went to had a canoe "ride" and the older girls got to"row" around a couple of times.  They didn't have to do much work - which was good because on the 2nd or 3rd time around Katie said, "My arms are tired!" and gave us the paddle as they rode past. 

It's fun to discover new things that are so close to where we live. There's a lot to do if we just know about it!

Carly REALLY wanted to jump in on the fun but I was afraid that she'd just jump in the water.  Since the sign said they had to be 2 to ride we kept her out.  She kept saying "My turn, my turn" as the canoes went past.  Thankfully she contented herself pretty well just splashing in the water.

Later we went to a large street fair and all of the girls got to ride on a merry-go round.  The picture is fuzzy but Carly got to have the whole boat to herself and she was super happy getting to hold BOTH steering wheels the whole time.  It was pretty cute!

So, today I'm thankful for sweet friends and sweet kiddos!

Pea Pod Tents!

This is something that I meant to blog about the whole time we were in the US and somehow never got around to it.  I think I was waiting to get a picture of both of the girls in theirs and that never happened so neither did the blog post! 

Anyway, we LOVE our tents!  These are Pea Pod travel beds by KidCo.  I was first introduced to them by my older sister and, I have to admit, I thought it was a little strange.  You put your baby to sleep in a tent and then zip them in???  Really?  But, oh man, am I a believer now!

After going on vacation with my sister and her family last summer and seeing how well my nephew slept in his we decided to go for it and buy tents for our girls.  We knew that we had a long trip to the US coming up and that during that trip we would be traveling quite a bit and sleeping in several different places and these seemed like a good option for our kiddos during that time. 

The girls LOVE their tents!  During our time in the US they only slept in their tents even when a bed or a crib was available.  It was great because no matter where we were, it was one consistent thing that they could count on.  I think it helps too that they're enclosed so the kids feel safe and secure and they're not staring up at the ceiling wondering where they are now.  We'd read a book, sing our songs and put them inside.  Katie slept with a pillow and blankets but Carly just wore her sleep-sack and was just fine. 

One of the great things about these is how easy they are to set up and take down.  Also, they're small and light - at least compared to a regular pack-n-play.  Now I'm starting to sound like a commercial! :-)  But really, we LOVE these things!

I don't have a picture of Carly sleeping in hers but here's one of Katie zonked out in her tent.  Carly's is a little smaller and bright green.  They both have air mattresses – one is self-inflating and the other came with a pump.  That reminds me – great customer service!  As I don’t think these were meant for CONSTANT use over the course of several months, Katie’s mattress started to leak air (could that have anything to do with the bouncing the girls did playing in there???).  We called the company and they had us email them a picture of the mattress and they sent us a new one within 3 days!  Impressive! 

So, anyway, we LOVE our tents!  Have you heard of them before???

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

A section of our local park  has a small lake in it (isn't it beautiful, by the way?  So... brown.) and there are row boats that you can rent for a half hour.  We'd never tried them out before so a few weeks ago we decided to give it a try.

The first thing that Katie said was, "And lifejackets - So we can be safe!" Quoting Dora the Explorer.  Of course, this isn't America, Sweetheart, so there were no lifejackets in sight.  Let me tell you, it was a bit of a challenge to keep little Miss Little Sister IN the boat!  She did NOT want to sit still!  She and Mommy only lasted 20 of the 30 minutes before it was time to abandon ship. 

Not that much would have happened if she had fallen in - I think the boat was a foot and a half deep and the water was about 2 feet deep.  We wouldn't have even needed to jump in to save her - just get a shoe wet.  :-) 

This is a little hard to see but there is an airplane landing that you can see between the trees.  That's life in the big city!  Rowing boats in the park with airplanes landing overhead! 

A stop in the park and then on to home!  It was a nice adventure trying something new!