Going to preschool...

We took Sydney to preschool this morning to meet her teacher and see her class for the first time! She has been looking forward to this day ALL WEEK long!

Her teacher was very nice and Sydney already adores her! She explained where Sydney's cubby for her coat and lunchbox were and then showed her around the classroom a little. Other kids from her class were there and we met them as well. Their first day is Tuesday!






Then we headed outside to check out the playground! Sydney and Carter ran from one thing to the next...they had a blast! And so did the big kids ;)



This picture makes me dizzy just looking at it!


Carter was checking everything out too...guess he'll be here in a year or two! (sniff sniff)

Another first...

Sydney had her first trip to the dentist today! She was a little skeptical because she didn't exactly know what going to the dentist meant. I explained that they would look at her teeth and brush them really good!

She was fine when we got there...the lady was very nice and chatted with Sydney for a bit then began explaining what all her tools were. Sydney's favorite part was the water squirter...she shot water across the room and made her laugh! Then she pulled out "Mr. Thirsty!" (the tube that sucks the water out of your mouth). That name was cracking me up! So they practiced squirting water in her mouth and sucking it out with Mr. Thirsty!

Then Sydney got some cool sunglasses to wear (instead of safety glasses) laid back in the chair and got her teeth all polished up! She did great! The dentist stopped by for a minute and said everything looked perfect! And to top off the visit, she got a Little Mermaid toothbrush and a mini toothpaste! She also picked a toy frog out of a basket which we have already lost, but no big deal, she got a princess toothbrush!

Happy days!

These are from a couple weeks ago...they make me smile! Can't believe we only have a few more weeks left of the pool :(

I got a present today!

I was like a kid at Christmas when the doorbell rang this morning...a present for me!!




I was scared to open it...what if I didn't like it, what if it looked bad, was it the right size....

so what is it???












A 24x20 canvas of our beach picture! Oh, I love it so much! Sydney squealed "It's our Myrtle Beach picture!" when she saw it!

It's going on our fireplace mantel and I might put our other 2 family pictures beside it (with Kevin's family last year and with mom and dad from this year). I can't wait to get all finished!

Packing a lunch...

Since Sydney starts preschool in a couple weeks, I have been trying to figure out what to send in her lunch! I can't remember where I first saw this idea, but it's a bento box. Apparently they are very common in Japan...it's basically a home packed meal in a little tupperware like container(s). I wanted to have some fun with her lunches and make it exciting for her too!

So her "bento box" came in the mail the other day. It's really cute and just her style...pink polka dots! There are 3 sections...the bottom 2 hold food and the top holds a little fork and an antibac wipe ;)



Anyway, I fixed a trial lunch today to see what it would look/taste like at lunchtime after sitting in an insulated lunchbox all morning. She got a PBJ cut into 3 flowers, a silicone cup with goldfish crackers, another silicone cup with yogurt and 2 fig newtons. Sydney watched me fix it this morning and was so anxious to try it out!

The verdict...a success! The sandwich wasn't soggy, the yogurt was still cold and so was her drink. And to top it off, she ate every bite!

I'm sure the excitement will wear off after awhile but I've got lots of ideas to keep it creative!

Photo courtesy of grandma ;)

Our pool adventure...

After dinner Kevin took Sydney and Carter out to the pool for a quick swim. I was still inside and he called me to come look at something. It was the saddest thing...a little rabbit was sitting on the ledge of the skimmer (in the wall of the pool) with nowhere to go! We're guessing that he fell in and managed to find the ledge before he drowned. So we prodded him out into a net and took him over in the field. He's a lucky guy because last week we did find a dead rabbit in the pool...ewww!

At this point, no one has gotten in the pool yet. The water actually felt a little cold and I was surprised they were getting in. Sydney and I started messing around with Kevin trying to push him in the pool! You can probably guess how this will play out....

so we're laughing and pushing on his behind trying to make him fall in and what does he do? Grabs me and we both go in...arms and legs flailing! And I still had my clothes on! After the initial shock of hitting the water, we busted out laughing. So I swam in my clothes tonight...and kinda liked it =)

Picture day =)

Haisten and Judson came over to play yesterday...I got to play too and take pictures of them =)






The rest are here!

safari park...round 2!

Today, we went back to the drive through safari park in Natural Bridge. Our visit last year almost scared Sydney to death because of the camel incident! But she has talked and laughed about that darn camel ever since we got back...for a whole year! She was so excited to finally go see him again!

Just our luck...it hasn't rained all summer and the second we pulled into the parking lot, what happens? It starts to rain! Ugh! So we pay and take Sydney on a quick bathroom break. It actually stopped raining by the time we started driving through the park. Carter sat in my lap and Sydney perched herself between the 2 front seats. Their favorite animals were the zebra, llamas, ostriches, deer and of course this guy:

He's smiling at us =)

Kevin's thrill for the day was getting licked by a llama on the back of the neck. He should have known better...don't roll the windows all the way down! We learned that lesson last year!

that's my girl...

Sydney grabbed her camera today and said she wanted to take pictures of Carter!!


Here's one from her camera...I think she deleted the ones of him looking at her!

it's a war zone around here...

Last night we were watching tv and all of a sudden we heard Emma frantically scratching at the window and whimpering!! We went to see what was going on and by gosh she had caught a baby rabbit!! That was her first kill! I guess she's an official country dog now ;)

We've seen rabbits in the yard every once in awhile and if Emma's inside we'll show it to her. Once she's all worked up and excited we open the door and let her chase it...usually the rabbit leaves her in the dust but she's happy just to be running after something!

So, today I walked out on the patio and kept hearing this mockingbird squawking. The bird was really low in the tree and just kept on and on...it was getting pretty annoying!! So I started looking around to see if I saw a baby bird on the ground. I found Abby in the bushes playing with a baby bird! It was so sad but there wasn't a whole lot I could do at that point. I wish that mama bird had pecked Abby in the head!! But right now, she's eating the thing. =(

Ugh...the wildlife is taking a beating around here lately!

4 year checkup...

Sydney went for her 4 year checkup today. She weighed in at 38.4 lbs and is 41 3/4" tall. She's grown just over 3 1/2 inches and gained 5 lbs in a year!! She also did a hearing and eye test...her vision is 20/30. I'm glad someone in this family can see!

She also got 2 shots...she did really good and was excited that one of her bandaids had Snoopy on it! Carter was with us and watched Sydney get her shots...I think he was just happy it wasn't him for a change!!

After the nurse left Sydney said, "That thing was sharp! But I didn't cry...I'm not a baaaaaby!!" That made me laugh!



After the dr. visit we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch...big surprise there! After we ate, they got to run around in the play area. Today was the first time Carter actually climbed up to the top by himself. Usually I have to squeeze in there and shove his butt up each step but he was able to swing his leg up today and pull himself up (thank goodness!!) They had a blast!

To end our adventure for the day, I measured their feet, just out of curiosity. I was pretty sure Sydney was between a 10 and 10 1/2 and thought Carter was about 7 1/2 or 8. Sure enough, Sydney was a 10 1/2. Carter is a whopping 8 1/2!! Geez, Sydney wore that size last year when she was 3! He's worn his Crocs all summer though so I had no idea his foot had grown a size and a half since last winter! It's a good thing though cause I have a few pair of size 9 shoes he can wear this fall =)

playing school!

A couple weeks ago, I got Sydney some little workbooks at the dollar store for her to write in and boy are they a hit! The first one she finished had all kind of matching, rhyming, connect the dots, writing and counting games. She likes it so much, she took her pencil and erased all her answers so she could do it again! =)



Today she is working in an alphabet book. Each page has a different letter and shows how to write it. The rest of the page is lined so you can practice. She loves finding her favorite letters to write!

She started with a U but ended up with all S's...she loves a S because that's what her name starts with!


" 'G' starts with Grandma!" as Sydney puts it!




And in Carter news...he peed 4 times and pooped in the toilet from this morning until nap time (and peed in the floor once too)! The bathroom is a high traffic area these days...

I see you!

I found this little guy crawling around in my norfolk island pine tree this morning. ewwww!

my little dude...

Just playing around today and took these of Carter...not sure if I like color or b&w better.







It was a bit cooler today so we got to play outside some without sweating like pigs! That was nice for a change!

Then I came inside this afternoon to find a 6 pack of yogurt sitting on the kitchen floor. One of the packs had been opened and all the yogurt was gone... Carter strikes again! I really need a lock for that refrigerator door! At least he didn't eat all of them =)

And lately Sydney likes to say silly things like "there's a bug on your leg!" and when you look and nothing's there she goes "ha ha! I cheesed [teased] you!!"

Can't believe Friday is here already!! Where did the week go?

my new favorite spot...

One of our summer projects was redoing the patio. For some reason, the patio was sloped toward our house which is not good! Every time it rained, the water would roll towards the house instead of away from it! It's done a little damage but nothing major. So we decided to fix it now before things got worse!

It was finally finished last week and we couldn't be happier with it! Since it's stamped concrete we had to pick out a pattern and a color for it. The pattern was easy to pick...the color was a little tricky! We liked about 3 of them and finally decided on sand, hoping that it would match the rocks around it.

Here's what it looked like before:



Carter loved to watch this guy work!



And here's the finished patio! The siding guy is coming one of these days to replace the siding at the bottom of the house:



We all love to hang out here in the afternoon/evening! Now all we need is some instant grass to cover up the dirt in our yard ;) Guess that's our fall project....do the projects ever end??

Deal of the day :)

Sydney and Carter didn't wake up until 9 am this morning =) so while it was quiet I went through the coupons from yesterday's paper. Then looked at the CVS ad and matched up the coupons to the sales. Once they finally woke up and ate we headed to CVS for some deals!!

And an added bonus: when I pulled into CVS, the newpaper man was loading newspapers in his van. I asked him if he happened to have any extra papers from yesterday and he gave me one! I didn't ask him to but he looked and told me it even had coupons in it! (Which is why I wanted one in the first place!)

OK, so here's what I got:


Dawn soap:
I bought 3 for $.88 each.
Used 3 $.50 off 1 coupons
= .38 each

Pert Plus
bought 1 for $2.49 & got one free
used 2 $2/1 coupons
=.31 overage (back to me)

Oral B toothbrushes
got 2 for $2.49 each
used 2 $1/1 coupons
got back $3 in Extra Care Bucks (printed on receipt)
= FREE

Sure deodorant
bought 1 for $2.99 and got 1 free
used 2 $1/1 coupons
=.49 each

Crest toothpaste
bought 2 for $2.49 each
used $1 off 2 coupon
got back $3 in Extra Care Bucks
=.49 each

Colgate toothpaste
got 1 for $2.99
used $1/1 coupon
got back $2 in Extra Care Bucks
=FREE

So I bought all that and $8 in Extra Care Bucks printed on my receipt. I also had a coupon for free CVS Qtips. So then I got:

Gillette Razor
got 1 for $9.99
used $4 coupon
used $6 Extra Care bucks that printed
=FREE & got $3 in Extra Care Bucks

CVS Q tips
=FREE with coupon

So I still have $5 in Extra Care bucks left for my next shopping trip :)

That was fun :) I'll be doing this more often!!

Playing with my new toy!

I got a new toy this week...a new lens for my camera! I bought it using the money I made from the yard sale :)
We went out to eat tonight and then I drug everyone out to Old City Cemetary for some pictures. It's actually a pretty neat place...we walked around for awhile until the bugs started attacking!

Playing around on the swing...(trying out the vintage-y look again =) )





It's hard to keep up with Carter, but he did stop for 1 second to look at me :)


By the pond...





I love how she's looking at Carter :)