brownie camp.

Maddy went to Brownie Girl Scout camp this past week. It was from 8:45am -3pm everyday. The first day I dropped her off in a raging thunderstorm... Honestly, I just wanted to keep on driving right by the camp. It was so hard to drop her off for an outdoor camp in the thunder & lightning!

We gave our good friend, R., a ride to & from camp everyday. I work with her mom and the girls have known each other since they were infants. :) It was so fun to listen to them giggle & sing songs in the back of the van. :)

Before the opening flag ceremony, the girls gather to sing songs.

Maddy said her favorite thing about camp was learning about nature! They built their own campfire to make their lunch. They had pizza fondue, chicken & dumplings, cheese quesadillas, & smores! :) It was so HOT! I worried about her everyday...but, they had lots of water. The fire dept. even came on Friday and sprayed the girls with their water hoses!

Maddy received a new badge to put on her vest. In her backpack last night, I found a sweet note from the preteen aides who helped her group. "Elvis" and "Eeorye" told her how much fun they had at camp with her & how they hope to see her next year! Maddy has already decided that she is going back every single year! She wants to be an " aide" someday. :)

foul.

I am in a foul mood. I mean FOUL! I am worn out. My husband is up with the sun & gone before I get up. He doesn't get home until about 9:30pm. The girls miss him. I get grumpy because I am doing it all (and not very well, mind you.) It wears me out just getting them up & around & fed in the morning and then getting home at 6:15pm, trying to make dinner, give baths, and get them to bed at a decent time. Our house is a wreck. I can't get any errands done. Work has been hard this month. HARD. I won't go into it but, I'm all out of patience. So...if you run into me & I am kind of snotty...tell me to snap out of it. :)

happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Aunt Cindy! :) We wish you a wonderful, relaxing day! May you have many more to celebrate! We miss you & are looking forward to seeing you this summer... ******************** Many more baseball pics to come...i took 75 pictures over the course of 3 hours that afternoon! I don't know what I was thinking...you would think I had a blog & a facebook account to post pictures on. :) Oh, yeah...I do. Ha!

baseball~part II

So, to spare the family sitting next to us...I took Elly to see some of the new stadium renovations. They have this whole kid-friendly area with a playground...

What's that? Oh, it's a smile from Elly! :)

They have this base run where you pick a "royal" to run up against...to see how long it takes you to run to a base.

Waiting in line...so nicely...

then, being so silly! :P

Maddy was excited to run!

Her time was 6.1 seconds. The royal she ran against was 4.2 seconds. Go, Maddy! :)

Elly was excited, too! Do you see her little tongue hanging out? Her time was 9.3 seconds. :)

baseball~part I

This was going to be such a long post that I had to break it up... On Memorial Day, Kevin & I took the girls to a Royals game. We thought they would love it...they were so excited to go! It was an afternoon game with overcast skies & cool temps. But, this picture of Kevin and the girls should have tipped us off as to what Elly really thought...

Sitting at the game...again...notice Elly's face.

The biggest scoreboard in major league baseball. (Seems like a waste of $ to me...)

After we had our hot dogs and the game started, this is what Elly did. She cried & buried her face in my chest. It was too loud!

The poor people sitting next to us...they didn't think it was as funny as Kevin & I did! :) Elly didn't even make it a whole inning!

this dog.

This dog is pretty pampered...don't ya think? :)

these.

We've seen a few of these around our house... ...and also at work. :(

a party.

Elly's favorite friend, R., turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. They had a BBQ & invited our whole family. It was such a wonderful evening. The kiddos enjoyed the bouncy house & pinata...

Elly enjoyed raiding R's closet & changed into one of her dresses... (scroll up to the first picture to see what Elly wore to the party)

Aren't they sweet standing together?

I didn't get a picture of this but at first all of the children were in a neat little circle around the candy. I thought that was pretty funny...they all acted like they had never seen a pinata before. No yelling, screaming, or diving for the candy... :)

Enjoying conversation while waiting for cupcakes & ice cream... Elly & R.

Elly doing something silly... R. imitating her...

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Thanks for a great night...we are really gonna miss you guys when you move to Minnesota! :(

crabs.

We have had some guests for the past week...5 hermit crabs! :) Now, we have only seen 3 of the 5 (the others have buried themselves in the sand) and only 1 has been out for the past 3 days. The first day, though, the girls gave 2 of them a bath.

Elly was excited to give us a lesson on how to bathe them. :)

thanks.

The Wade girls had an amazing year at school! Elly completed her first year of preschool with Ms. Ann (shown above). :) She will have another year of preschool with her & Elly will also spend her kindergarten year with Ann, too. :) We are so blessed because Maddy spent her preschool days with Ms. Ann, too. She knows our family really well. Thanks, Ms. Ann! We appreciate all of your hard work.

Miss Ashley just completed her Montessori training and is heading to Sweden for a year. Elly calls her "Ash-u-lee." :) Thank you for all of your hard work at school while you were making materials & doing homework for your training. Good luck in Sweden, enjoy Fredrik, & be safe! :)

This is Mr. Joe with a gaggle of 1st year girls who are now 2nd graders! Can you believe it? I can't. The girls love him. Thank you for putting up with me, Mr. Joe. I am a needy, overprotective, helicopter mom. Thank you for being so patient with Maddy as she came back around to the Montessori way of thinking. :) And, thank you for guiding that gaggle of girls while they learned how to be "friends."

And, thank you, Ms. Jan! This woman works so hard! You deserve your summer off. :) Thank you for working with Maddy this year & keeping an extra close eye on her. I really appreciate it. :)

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By the way, we took Red Fish home with us for the summer, so we are pretty sure that Maddy will be spending her 2nd & 3rd year with Joe and Jan, too.

PS~Red Fish is still alive. I even cleaned his fish bowl once & added more water yesterday. He's still swimming, swimming, swimming. :) Keep your fingers crossed we don't kill him.

sadness.

I found out in March that Elly's favorite friend was moving to Minnesota. I couldn't be more sad for her...

because, of course, she has no idea. We have talked about it a little. She is moving in July.

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And, if you are thinking that they have similar haircuts, you might want to know that she used to have longer hair. But, she went in to her hairdresser and said, "I want a haircut like Elly Wade." Ha! So...here they are...like 2 peas in a pod. Only one is moving... :(

the zoo.

Three weeks ago, Elly & I went with Maddy and some of her Brownie troop to the zoo. They were earning their animal /zoo badge and had workshops and fun activities throughout the zoo. Elly & I went with the troop for some of the things but, ventured off on our own, too.

Elly liked seeing Dory from "Finding Nemo."

We got to see this gorilla up close & personal. Yeah, um...going to the bathroom. This picture shows him sitting...not going to the bathroom. Ewww.

He was very active! Getting really close to the glass & climbing up and over the glass tunnel.

Watching the baby giraffe.

This iguana was not in a cage. Just traipsing through the tropical forest... After the zoo, we went for a train ride and a ride on the carousel. A really fun day!

flashbacks?

Guess what my little Elly belly did when her daddy trimmed our yard this weekend after he mowed?

Oh, yes, that would be her...hiding with her head under a pillow on the couch. And, she wasn't just hiding. Poor thing. She was crying her eyes out. "Is he all done trimming?!" "When is he gonna be all done trimming?!" I really did try to comfort her. I tried holding her & talking her through it. It was to no avail. I finally gave up & tried not to laugh at her. I did rub her back when it became obvious that she wasn't going to calm down.

When he trimmed right out front...she really hunkered down. Look how tight her little hands are gripping the pillow. Oh, she really did break my heart.

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The only thing I can think of (because she has never done this before) is that the night she hurt her foot, Kevin was trimming. He was trimming the outside of our privacy fence & the girls were playing in the backyard. They were running away from the fence when she stepped on that piece of splintered wood from the tiki torch. I think she is having flashbacks. It's gonna be a long mowing season...