Teddy bear room!

Mia is so excited to begin preschool next week! She will be in Mrs. Wexler's Teddy Bear room M,W,F. We decided to send her to FCC preschool that takes place at our church, but it's not affiliated with them. It's a beautiful building in a very pretty neighborhood, a great playground and we just really like the community of parents involved. I am so happy I can be her room mom and volunteer to help out as much as I can.

Last Saturday was a Popsicle Social on the playground which was great for us to meet other new families and to see the kiddos in Mia's class (there will be 15 in total, plus a teacher's aide). Then last night was Parent Orientation which was great. I had to go solo since Dad had to watch and put the girls to bed as it was an adult only event. Today was meet your teacher day, so I took Mia to meet her teachers and check out her classroom. She loved it and didn't want to leave! The curriculum is very hands on and very geared towards social development. Which Mia will do great with, she has such a strong academic background (she seriously could start Kindergarten with her skills) she will enjoy the free play aspect of learning. The kiddos start their day with free play in which they choose a center. This morning Mia went right for the puzzles and her teacher said that she was the only one today to do the puzzles, hehe. Annie had fun too, it will be hard next week to drop Mia off and tell Annie that we can't stay.

Next week she will start school for just an hour each day then the following week will be the real thing. They offer enrichment classes too (like drama, cooking, etc) so we will be excited about doing that too.

It's bittersweet to see if go to school...she is so ready for this but I can't believe how big she is getting! I feel like just yesterday she was saying her name for the first time, now she is writing it, recognizing sight words, writing words, counting to 100, and her memory is amazing! Mom and Dad are very proud of her!

Weekend

The summer is slowly winding down. We are trying to take advantage of the last of the nice weather. Today we took the girls to the pool this afternoon after church. Here they are sharing a snack on the pool chairs.



Saturday we had playground clean up at Mia's preschool. Lots of parents showed up so we had it looking great in no time. Mia is super excited about the low monkey bars with stools to reach up to.

Friday night daddy took Mia to see "Tangled" our towns's movie in the park. We would have all gone but Annie was tired and it was pointless to try to keep her up. So dad and Mia walked over to the park with snacks and enjoyed the movie under the stars. Mia stayed up way past her bedtime but had fun.

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Today was Mia's last class of Ballet at the park district - so they had a mini-recitial again which was super cute. Annie even knows how to Plie and will do it when asked! Mia loves ballet so much that I signed her up for classes at a real dance studio - she starts September 7th and they will end the semester with a Christmas recital which I am super excited about.

Mia starts preschool in just a few short weeks - we have lots coming up like a popsicle social and playground clean up. I am so excited! Also, I was picked to me her room mom which I am thrilled about too. It'll be fun to be on the other side of the things in the classroom.

Mia with her flower dad brought her home.

It was nice to be home this week. This summer has been so fun getting to travel so much but it's also good to be home. The girls and I had a nice week. A few playdates at the park/splash pad then finally a trip to exploration station (kids museum with a farm and huge playground outside). They really enjoyed it. This weather has been great - hope it keeps up!

Last night Mia and I made pizzas and a triple chocolate cake for Papo's bday. We had lots of fun.









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15 months - Annie!

Our little Annabel is 15 months old now! She is doing just fine and growing right on track. At her check up this morning she is weighing in at 20 lbs and is 29 1/2 in long. She is hitting all her milestones and Dr. Roome said she looks just great!



*Fiesty personality - she will bite, pull hair, scream if she doesn't get her way. It's hard not to chuckle at because she is so darn cute

* Sucks her thumb when she is tired or hungry. She is sleeping 11-12 hours per night then usually a good nap in the afternoon still.

* crawls up the stairs alone but needs help coming down as she wants to just walk down

*much better with strangers, she is actually very social, loves other kiddos and doesn't cry if I leave the room anymore

* squeals with delight when she sees the park, or the pool, dogs, other kids, her favorite food, anything she loves

* words are still Dada,mama, she started to say diaper the other day and lots of other workds although she does point to things we tell her, she can identify her head, nose, shoes, specific books and toys. She tries to say dog, milk, stairs but usually just says the beginning sound

*loves the slides and swings, pool and LOVES the splash pad, animals (she is partial to the cow and will say MOOO and horse will say Neighhh)

*happy baby and so easy to love!

Girls week!

It was our annual girls week in Sister Lakes at our summer house. We actually came up on Tuesday since grandma treated uncle Brian and me to the Paul McCartney concert at Wrigley field! It was an amazing show. I am so excited I got to see a Beatle perform live in my lifetime!



So we got to our house bright and early Tuesday morning and headed right out to the pool. Mia does great with her water wings and noodle working on swimming all around. We then hit some fruit stands and a short visit to Contessa winery but it was just too hot. So we ordered pizzas back home and Mia had a campout movie night in the living room.


Wednesday we took the girls to the Deer Forest to feed the horses, deer, pigs, cows, goats, and ducks. In the afternoon we took them to the indoor water park Safari Joe's. Mia loved going down the water slides and going down the Lazy River. She was brave and went down the big twisty slide a bunch of times. Annie enjoyed it too, especially the warm lazy river.



Thursday we spent the day in St. Joe's. First we went to the children's museum and both girls had a blast. We then went to the new section of the museum on the pier, saw an animal show - Mia was so brave and was able to pet a turtle, tree frog and snake, she also proudly took home some snake skin. The girls rode the carousel then we went out for lunch.



Friday we found a new farm with the cutest play area ever - they had a ton of play houses set up, jungle gyms, a pole barn full of trains and a neat Gem stone exhibit. We bought some fresh fruit then headed home to hang out in the pool. Uncle Brian came up and we had a big taco dinner.



Saturday, grandma and the girls cheered me on as I ran in the Glad Peach 10K race in Coloma, Mi (a town about 10 miles from our house). The race went around Paw Paw Lake which was very pretty. It was a tough (hilly) course but I did it and met my goal. It started to rain so we came back to the house and hung out, went into the pool then had a nice dinner at our local restaurant on the lake.



It was a wonderful week, the girls had a blast with their grandma and Uncle Brian. It was nice I was able to go running in the mornings while grandma played with the girls. The beagles had a great time too with lots of walks


Annie and Mia love grandma's summer house and can't wait to go back - Mia keeps asking me when are we going back? We are very blessed to have this special place. My mom and I had a great time after the girls were sleeping each night, watching movies, drinking wine, playing games and talking. We had a great time too when Uncle Brian came up as well and even had a poker night.









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1st Dentist visit - Mia

Last week Annie and I took Mia for her first dental check up and she did great! She let the hygienist clean her teeth, brush with fluroride and did great when the Dentist inspected her teeth. No cavities! She received stickers and a prize from the treasure box. She has 20 teeth.

Here she is before her exam - she looks nervous but she really wasn't at all.