Monday, August 15, 2011

Ready or Not, Another School Year Begins

The kids had Meet the Teacher last week.


Andrew has the same teacher Olivia did when she was in 5th grade.

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First Day of School 2011-2012
This was the first year ever that Phil and I were able to watch the kids go off to school and even take them to school. We've always been back to work ourselves. Tomorrow is our official day back to work. It was great getting them ready w/o feeling rushed. What I loved was being home when they came home from school and listen to them tell me about their day.

Looking so grown up. Olivia is starting 7th grade.


Olivia will be riding the bus with a friend across the street this year.


Ruthie waving and saying "Good-bye, Ya, Ya." as she watches Olivia walk to the bus.


Clare was all smiles on her first day of 1st grade.



Andrew in his usual pose by the door. Last year in elementary school. YIKES!!


Walking to the back of their school.


Andrew will be walking to school this year with a neighbor boy.


And....there off!!!!


One More Time

Clare wanted to get the pool and sprinkler out on their last day of summer vacation.

Ruthie is trying to squirt me.







Clare and some neighborhood friends.


A Shout Out to Omaha

Ruthie is driving in her car to Omaha. She is jabbering on her toy phone saying," Hi Danny, Raye, and Joe, Joe." Ruth is BIG on names these days and anything and everything people say. She will string together a bunch of people names in our neighborhood as well. She is quite the greeter on our street.



Sunday, August 7, 2011

Splash Station

We went to Omaha Friday/Saturday to visit Dan, Raye, and Joseph. Grandma Mary was there to so it was great seeing her there as well. We were able to squeeze in a visit before school begins next week. The next time we return will be meeting our nephew/niece in November. On Sat. Dan and Raye took us to Splash Station in Fremont, NE. It is about 30 west of Omaha. We headed there after lunch. I thought Ruth would nap on the way there but nope. The kids were all excited to get in the water and get wet but not Ruth. She was cranky and wanting nothing to do with the water. I gave up with trying so I laid her on the tanning chair to see if she would fall asleep. I felt terrible b/c we were totally in the sun. Soon a family was leaving that was under a nice shady umbrella, and we were able to score some shade. Ruth relaxed for about a half hour and she was a new person. She wanted to go in the water and finally enjoyed it too.



Every 2 minutes the water tower would blow its whistle and the water would spill out. Ruth was absolutely scared of this pretty much the whole time we were there.


Grandma in the water with her grandkids. Joseph loved the water. Ruthie on the other hand wasn't fond of it and cried the first hour or so of being there. She was very tired and wanted to nap.


Raye and Dan in the wave pool.


Gettin' some sun.


Doing much better now in the water after a little 'relaxin' time in the shade.


Clare was tall enough to go down the yellow slide. She thought that was pretty cool.



Time for a snack.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Time for a Trim

I was originally going to grow Ruth's hair out, but she refuses to wear clips or pony tails for any length of time. So we went to get her first haircut. Ruth climbed in the chair with no problems but as I was talking to the hairdresser, Ruth became nervous and scooted out of the chair. We bribed her with a sucker but she still didn't want anything to do with getting her haircut. I tried to sit with her too but nope. Shawna, the hairdresser, thought we could try again later in the day but I figure she would react the same way.

For those who know Ruth, she doesn't throw huge tantrums but when she does get upset, it is short lived and she comes out of it rather quickly. Not that she threw a fit at Cost Cutters, but she did fuss. As she was standing by the door holding her sucker, I asked her ONE more time, "Do you want to get your haircut?" She said in her sweet little voice, "Yes." and walked over to the chair. She climbed right up and Shawna put on the animal covered cape. Snip, Snip and 15 minutes later Ruth's first haircut was over. As you can see from the 'after' photo, Ruthie likes her new look.




Other photos of her first haircut.