Awesome Boots and Shelter Cats

Since school has started, Gretchen and I have been having a lot of morning adventures. One sunny Monday Gretchen dressed herself in an awesome patriotic outfit and we went to see the sad, sad cats at the Humane Society.



These boots were made for walking through the geriatric cat room. Yeah, it smells funky! So what?

We visited the dogs too. They were loud. It made it easier to leave them at the Humane Society. (If even your crazy loud three year old is overwhelmed by a dog's volume, that is one LOUD DOG.)


ROCKY! BE QUIET!

Here, lets quit yelling at Loud Rocky the Chihuahu and hang like monkeys from this random bar. Ok!



But not every morning is free now. Gretchen had her first week of preschool. It's at Mrs. G's house and it is SO FUN! They have a circle rug and cubbies for their backpacks and tables with their seats labeled. It's very official. Gretchen approves. To celebrate, she wore her "Linus Hates Reno" t-shirt. (She likes to keep you guessing. Wait, does she like me? Does she not like me? Is she going to leave a mark?)



Then we met our friend at the Coconut Bowl. A whole cheese pizza to ourselves and a 3-story play area to play hide & seek in? Yes please!



On Friday, after Girl Scouts, we drove up to our friend's campsite at Donner Lake to have a barbeque and campfire. It was everything good about camping without having to, you know, actually camp. It is ah-mazing how dirty four children can get in less than 20 minutes. But so pretty. Look at these little angels.





CRAFTING NEWS: I had a sewing day with my friend Shawna & we made lovely pennant banners. I am so in love with them. I hung them in the girls room. LOVE. Ella is not quite as impressed. She just wants to chill on her bed and read her book (she is SO my daughter!)



So Ella's tooth has been hanging. HANGING. for the past three weeks. She won't let us near it. Remember last time? Yeah, this child does not like change. Or wiggling her teeth. Finally tonight we got her to work on it a little. I told her that if she doesn't yank it out by tomorrow night, that's what we'll be doing for our Family Home Evening Activity. "Tonight we're going to learn about PLIERS! Yay!" I'll update you next week on our progress...

You'll Be Sad!!!

I have three things to share today...

1. This week Gretchen got really mad at me. I think I made her sit still so I could brush her hair, or some unforgivable like that. She was furious as only a 3 year old can be. She thought of the worst, most hateful thing she could say to me to convey her emotions.

Gretchen: When I grow up I'm going to move out and get MY OWN HOUSE and MY OWN CAR, and I won't live with you AND YOU WILL BE SAD!!!

Me: (Not quite overcome by horror as she expected) That's right, sweetie. That's what happens when you grow up. You move into your own house and get your own car. You can get married and have your own family.

Gretchen: And Ella can have her out house and her own family too?

Me: Yes!

Gretchen: And you can come over and visit me at my house?

Me: Sure, that would be so fun!

(Anger forgotten. Hair brushed. Drama over.)


2. When we went to the $1 store, I let Gretchen pick out anything she wanted from the whole store. Anything. What did she pick out? Wound tattoos. Fake tattoos of scabs, stitches, pencils through your thigh, nails piercing your flesh, etc. When we got home I gave her a wet washcloth and she happily applied horrific flesh wounds to her entire body. "I want this one on my neck!" (I stopped the face tattoo. But she did have a huge hickey on her neck all week...) Later that day I asked if she'd like to wear tattoos like that for Halloween. She said, "Yes! I can be a zombie princess!!!" I was super excited about that idea! But then she decided to be Jesse from Toy Story. So instead of this:



We'll have this:



Se la vie. (I'm kind of sad about it. I was really excited about making a zombie princess costume. Come on, how awesome would that be? Sigh...)

3. Ella and Gretchen both swam without floaties this week! It took a lot of peer pressure (mostly seeing a little kid 1/2 their size doing it. Then they realized that having your feet off the bottom of the pool does NOT result in immediate death.) Hooray for the girls!!!

Ella was home the last 1/2 of the week with an ear infection. Let's just say that I'm REALLY HAPPY she's feeling better, and that I am so so SO thankful for a school with nice teachers that make learning fun. Because dude, I do not make learning fun. Colby had to step in at one point when we were working on her packet of missed work. "You're driving your mom crazy right now, so I'm going to help you now..."

That's what happened this week. What about you?

The Art Show and Summer's Close

The girls entered their first art show in July. It was part of Art Town's festival, hosted by their awesome dance studio. It's all about presentation. To make it like a real gallery show, we included descriptions on their info cards.

“My Favorite Pet; Invisible Friend at Dusk”
By Elisabeth
Age 6
Created during the artist’s Purple Period, “Invisible Friend at Dusk” is an homage to Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. The purple color adds a somber and thoughtful background, contrasting with the whimsical “Invisible Friend”. The image strikes a delicate balance between dark and light, anchored at the top by an impenetrable layer of clouds. The crescent moon is a common theme in many children’s paintings, and serves as a strong focal point. When asked why she choose this particular subject matter, the artist responded, “Because I like it.” We look forward to seeing more of Miss Stott’s work.



“My Favorite Pet Frolics Under the Sun”
By Gretchen
Age 3
When interviewed about this work, the artist declared, “It’s a reflection of doggies.” When asked to clarify, she added, “It’s the girl. It’s right there {artist indicates towards lower right corner}. She’s walking. That’s her heart on her stomach. Because that’s her eye and her nose and her mouth and her dog. We have noses too.” Yes indeed, we do have noses. And if we were to walk under a yellow dripping sun, surrounded by primal red handprints, perhaps we too would show our hearts on our stomachs.



Ella with the Winner's Circle.


It worked. Ella and Gretchen BOTH WON PRIZES. To be fair, every kid who entered won. But Ella's painting was on the morning news! Which I did not wake up at 5am to watch because I was exhausted! But I thought about it!
*Unfortunately Gretchen was sick & unable to make it to the event. She got to stay at home with Daddy.
**Please note Ella's awesome Art Show outfit. Black beret bought special just for the event.
***Just in case you didn't notice, the theme was "My Favorite Pet"...

Then school started ridiculously early. Gretchen peers longingly through those doors, kindergarten is a magical land still TWO YEARS AWAY.


Yes. Two years.


Because I am crazy, I picked Ella up from school last week and drove up to Lake Tahoe. It was our first trip to Sand Harbor of the summer (which is just a tragic shame!) and she'd already started school. But there was so much snow in the mountains that the beaches are tiny! The lake's water level is so high! So we beat the crowds and had a late afternoon dinner picnic.




Auntie Adrianne sent us the most amazing package. It was full of Sample Sale treats. And since then, Gretchen and Ella have been very well accessorized. At our trip to Costco last week, some guy said, "Wow, that baby doesn't need a bib!" You know, because she was wearing that ginormous rhinestone necklace...


PS - We love Uncle Ian.


So how is your summer ending?

But for my lack of athletic ability, I would totally run full marathons

Question: How long do you think it took us to walk that 1/2 marathon yesterday?

a) 4 hours
b) 2.5 hours
c) 3 hours & 18 minutes

Answer: It took us 3 hours + 18 minutes!!! That's an average of 4 mph. Yes, you could drive through the Disneyland parking lot faster than that. (But just barely.) When we signed up, Lismarie said she did it in 2.5 hours last year. Then she called me and said that she had accidentally but totally lied. It was 3.5 hours. So we changed our starting corral to the underachievers and had SO MUCH FUN. We actually went further than 13.1 miles. We had to walk about a mile to get to the starting line, and then to the ferry terminal downtown after that. But we finished faster than we were expecting, and we still looked cute at the end. In fact, while I was on the phone with Colby after the race, Lismarie got picked up on by some random dude.

Random Dude who may be slightly drunk at noon on a Saturday: How far did you run today?
Lismarie: Ummm, 13.1 miles. (We didn't run, but she didn't want to tell him that).
Random Dude: Whoa, you didn't do the whole thing?
Lismarie: (avoiding eye contact) Nope.
Random Dude: (Eyes her up and down) Yeah, you don't need to run the whole thing. You look gooooooooooood.
Lismarie: (throws up in her mouth)

Good times.

So this was my first race. I never understood why people did these things. But it was SO FUN!!! How can you not have fun when people keep telling you how great you're doing. There were about 10 sets of local cheerleaders along the course cheering on from the sidelines. (My favorite were the 80's rocker cheerleaders and the zombie cheerleaders). Maybe that's what I need, to have people standing next to me all day telling me how awesome I am. Even if I'm just walking and not running (preferably people wearing theme costumes). Plus, according to Gretchen, I got a "winning thing". (Where is your Winning Thing, mom? Can I see your Winning Thing? Why did you get a Winning Thing?) Why indeed? It's a participation medal that will look lovely on Gretchen when she steals it to wear with her princess outfits.

So go us. The girls who spent way too much time in High School being ansty, artsy, misunderstood, and hating everything to do with organized sports just PAID to walk all morning. Who'd have guessed we'd love it so much?

Grass Smells Like Trash

I had the balcony door open the other morning & was enjoying the smell of freshly cut grass. Until the girls came in and said, "What is that gross smell?" "Yeah, it smells like garbage." Oh my sad, sad little apartment bound children. How can you not love the smell of a freshly mown lawn? Come on!

We've now had the first sunburns of the summer. Gretchen's got a nice little tan, but poor Ella and I are just too white. The guilt mounts every time I see her little shoulders peeling. Yes, I know early sunburns can lead to skin cancer. Yes, we put waterproof sunscreen on. Twice! But it wasn't enough. Oh the guilt! I'm sorry baby. When you grow up, you can blame everything on me. Or your Dad (it is Fathers Day, after all...).

On Saturday Lismarie & I are doing a 1/2 marathon. Are you impressed? Wait till you hear the rest and then you can reassess. We are walking it. And it may take me 4 hours. I've been training. And by "training", I mean walking a few times a week. Yesterday I walked up Rattlesnake Mountain. (You may remember, we attempted a family hike last year. Hilarity ensued. In hindsight. Almost.) On the way home I cut through the Huffaker Hills.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT RENO:
You can go 10 minutes in any direction and be in open space. Here's a picture I stole from ExploringNevada.com. I WALKED to this lovely empty trail from my apartment. Sure, it was a 2 hour walk, but still!



No, I did not see any rattlesnakes. But then I did start to think about the conversation we had about spiders at Girls Night Out last week and started freaking myself out. Apparently I'm not as outdoorsy as I thought. (And really, I didn't think I was that outdoorsy to begin with. This post is all about reassessments.) Why do we talk about this stuff at Girls Night Out? You know when you start to think about spiders, and then you start to feel them crawling on you? Yeah. Now it's starting to happen to me again. Shoot. Time to change the topic.

OTHER THINGS I LOVE ABOUT RENO:
Awful Awfuls at the Golden Nugget Cafe
Nice People (seriously, people are so nice here)
There's no traffic!!!!!
and the WINCO bulk section.

But despite all that we love about Reno, we will still enjoy out vacay to see Lismarie & Janeece this next week, and their prospective sidekicks. Hooray for vacations!!!

So what have you been up to so far this summer?

Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer!

The thing that I simultaneously dreaded and longed for has arrived.

Ella is done with first grade.

And summer has begun.

And now, like this blog post, our days have lost all their structure.



Goodbye wonderful first grade teacher! You had a challenging class full of dramatic 6 year olds and strong personalities, but you persevered beautifully. Thank you for being such a great teacher! We've been so lucky to be in your class.



Goodbye Daisy Scouts! Ella had her Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony, and that finally motivated me to hunt down all the patches that I'd been holding on to for her Daisy Scouts Apron. Except that apparently I didn't "save" as many as I thought. She's missing about 1/2 her petals. But I KNOW that she earned them all. (Surely we should know by now that I am not to be trusted with small things that must be ironed or sewn or kept in a safe place.) Nevertheless, the bridging ceremony was a riotous success (most of the riot coming from the girls who shouted "WELCOME TO BROWNIES!!!" every time one of their scout sisters walked over the bridge...)

Hello Summer Olympics Summer Games! If someone ever suggest you volunteer at Special Olympics, DO IT. In fact, look up now when the next event is & email their volunteer coordinator. It will be the best Saturday you have all month. My friend Marianne & I took the kids from church and IT WAS AMAZING. So fun. The atheletes were great, the races were inspiring, the whole thing was fantastic. Here's a blurry picture of one of my favorite teenagers helping hand out medals to the swimming champions (of which there were, perhaps, 200) (I KNOW!!! SO GREAT!):


Goodbye Friends! We've lost TWO good families this week. We're so sad our friends are moving. :( But we're happy when we get to have all-day playdates while their parents load the truck. This works not only because you're "being of service" while "watching their kids" (when really, playdates are an essential way to keep the peace in our house. Too much free time = crazy screaming = Mom loosing it), but then you don't have to help load the moving truck! (I'm just kidding friend, I'll help you load your truck. But are you sure you don't want me to just keep the kids out of the way??? And watch movies with them all day? Ya sure?)

When we're alone, the boredom is overpowering, but magically the girls find plenty of things to do when friends are over. Like makeovers...



Yes, she really did her own makeup.



Then dress up and Glamor Shots.



Which, of course, degrades in to this...



..and the inevitable GLOW wrestling/hugging match (which, just like the real GLOW matches, must be stopped before they lead to tears.)



And so we continue our summer, our days random and adventurous, and none of them alike. Except for swimming at the apartment pool and eating pickles. Both of which, according to Ella, no summer day is complete without.

So what are you up to this summer?

I Hate Dance Class

Hello Dears. I'm sorry I didn't post last weekend, I was busy taking a nap. I'm pretty sure everyone is panicking that the school year is almost over (sniff!), and so we've been JAM PACKED for the past few weeks. Also, I am lazy on Sunday. (It's the only day I get to be lazy. I pretty much live it up. Case in point: The girls and I ate cookie dough for dinner tonight. Then we had soup from a can. Colby is out of town, so we are just one tub of ice cream and Lifetime Movie Marathon from completing the Girls Weekend checklist.)

As you know, we have two little ballerinas in this family. Usually Ella is the happy cooperative dancer. She is excited to be at class, she participates and listens to directions. But a few weeks ago, she had one of her quarterly meltdowns. I got a series of notes, dramatically handed to me between door slams and screams into pillows.

Ella hates dance class. (Please note the sweet little dancer at the bottom who has been vehemently crossed out. HATE.)



She hates dance class and she HATES GOING TO DANCE CLASS. Add heart. Cross heart out.


Also, Dance Class is Stupid. (Yes, she used the "s" word. Strongly worded letters, I know.)


But here's the real problem.

I know, sweetie. Sometimes I'm just not having a good day either.

After a discussion (you know, once the door slams and pillow screams died out), I found out her day was ruined when her table mate wouldn't share her peach crayon at school. Ella NEEDS peach to draw the skin tone. Brown just wouldn't work for this picture. I can understand that. But Izzy couldn't. I'm not sure if you know this, but sometimes people make decisions that may hurt your feelings. But writing notes is a good way to get those feelings out. And really, Ella will be too self aware for me to share stuff like this for much longer, so I'm going to enjoy exploiting her angry notes for our entertainment while I can.

Luckily Ella recovered from her HATE of Dance Class in time to make it for the last practice before the recital. I went into the whole Dance Recital experience assuming Gretchen wouldn't really participate. And yes, she lived up to my expectations.

EXPECTATIONS:
Gretchen will look SUPER CUTE, and be SUPER EXCITED about her costume, but she will not dance.

Ella did fantastic! Smiled & did all the steps. Good job! (She's smack dab in the middle, the tall one.)



Gretchen looked cute.





The thing is, Gretchen loves making people laugh & being the center of attention. BUT ONLY ON HER TERMS. Friday, I took Gretchen with me to volunteer in Ella's class. Usually the last hour of Friday afternoon is spent watching science videos until it slowly degrades to dancing cat videos on youtube (it's pretty cute, all the kids get up & dance along. Besides, their test scores are fantastic, so I thoroughly approve.) I wasn't too worried about Gretchen being a distraction. How can you be a distraction from dancing cat videos? Oh, I'll tell you. You can lift your shirt over your head, spit through it, and do a crazy dance. I finally posted her on top of the cubbies, where she could no longer dramatically fall out of her chair or sit on anyone. She lost her "Happy Meal" privileges and ended up eating a hamburger with a cup of water for our special Girls-Weekend-McDonalds-Dinner. (I'm so mean, I know.) Nothing would get through to her! I'd taker her for time-out in the hall, and as soon as we stepped back inside, kids would say "There's Gretchen!!!" and it would begin all over again. (Maybe next time I need to put her in her dance outfit and tell her she'll be performing for the kids. That'll stop her!) As soon as all the kids left for the day, she promptly grabbed a book and started quietly reading to herself. ARGH!!!!

And in zombie uprising news... Gretchen saw a big van for Green Thumb Lawn care next to us (the logo was a hand with a green thumb). She wanted to know why there was a zombie finger on the truck. She is REALLY into zombies lately. Maybe because their favorite grown-up-book to look at is Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (they like the pictures).

So how was your week?