Newport Aquarium

The girls and I went to the aquarium with Poppy last week and had a nice time. I thought it would be something fun to do during these super hot days. Unfortunately, everyone else thought so too. It was crowded, but the girls had fun.

Emma weighing herself in a shark scale.
The birds would drink nectar straight from the cup. Emma got a huge kick out of that.

Time out for Soph

I snapped a photo of Soph in a time out. I felt the need to document this for possible future use :)

She's scheduled

Emma saw Dr. Miner, the ENT, yesterday and he said her tonsils and more that likely her adenoids too need to come out! Coincidentally, she has had a fever the last few days and Dr. Miner dx'd her with strep and put on on some meds for that. She has maybe only had strep once before so good timing on that one I guess.
She's scheduled for next Thursday morning. We have to check in at 6:45am! She has asked a few questions about it wondering what they're going to do. She asked if they cut them out with a sharp thing. She's too smart so I had to tweak it a bit saying I think they use some special tonsil removing tool, but you won't feel a thing because you'll be asleep. She said I'm not good at sleeping (so true! at least she acknowledges it) so I said they give her medicine so they know she's asleep. And I told her that her throat would be sore like it's been in the past but we can give her medicine. She know she can have smoothies and ice cream all week so she's working on her smoothie recipes in her head.
Right now I'm more concerned about getting her blood drawn on Monday. The ear piercing episode last winter was traumatic so I'm kind of expecting the worst for this.
Listening to her again this morning (in our bed) I know she has to have them out. She is having so much trouble getting comfortable to breathe and not sleeping well at all.

Brave Soph

Soph had to go to the dentist yesterday to have a broken molar fixed. It's a tooth that had a filling in it and has broken once and was patched in Feb. Well it had broken again and I had a feeling that she would need to have a crown put on similar to Emma's. So just she and I went. Grandma watched Emma and Lily so I could focus only on her.

She had to get numbed up on that side but her dentist is awesome at helping kids be as comfortable as possible. She got "giggle gas" that smelled like cupcakes and cookies. She was a brave little girl! She held still as she squeezed my hands and we had her beloved blankie on her lap too. She got to pick out two things from the treasure chest there and then we stopped at Target to get her a surprise too along with some Motrin. She picked out a Tangled fleece throw that Emma is now so jealous of. All afternoon she said "Mama, I don't want to go back there." Poor little thing. I hated not telling her what was coming, but she wouldn't have understood. Just one of those mommy moments where I glad to bear the anxiety about it, but wish I could have it done on myself instead of her. She's our tough little chick.

On another note, I'm sitting here listening to Emma snoring on the couch. She came down early to watch cartoons and feel asleep again. She is going to Dr. Miner, and ENT, this Thur to see if she needs her tonsils out. I've noticed that she's been having sleep apnea lately. She'll fidget in her sleep sometimes every 10 seconds to find a position to breathe easier. One of her tonsils is so big it's touching the uvula! I think her adenoids are large, too. I know she's not getting the good sleep she needs. I'm glad we might have this done before Kindergarten starts. She's already on the books to have this done next Thurs if the ENT thinks it needs to be done. So the following week, we'll be laying low around here.

To round up medical/dental procedures around here, I have to have a dental implant put in sometime soon which I am SO dreading! I have a tooth with an old root canal and crown that broke off a few years ago and had a new crown and post put in. I guess the small amount of remaining tooth under there is disintegrating so implant is my last option and I'm opting to be sedated! The process will take about 6 months to be completely done. Geesh! I'm going to channel some of Soph brave attitude to get through that!

Lovin' Costco

The girls and I hit Costco after my dentist appt today (it's on our way home:) and got bit by the sampling bug. We tried all natural chicken patties, chicken and veggie potstickers, pancakes, fruit smoothies, pizza and fuze drink. We only bought the patties and the potstickers of the samples. But then we also added newly discovered Belgian Milk Chocolate Gelato. All I can say is, WOW! I didn't realize what I was missing. Dinner tonight was premade calzones from costco for me and Tim, the girls ate the chicken patties, fresh corn on the cob from Grandma and gelato for dessert. Delish! Ok... gelato was my appetizer too while I was making dinner.

After a stinky visit to the dentist, Costco makes me smile.

Costco always sells Carter's kids clothing which I'm a sucker for. The new fleece footed jammies are out now so Emma and Soph picked out their "Christmas" ones. They chose matching ones with horses on them. I found some super cute Hanna Anderson ones for Lily. I'll try to post pics later.

Visit to Grandma's

The girls and I headed to Batesville today to visit with Grandma Lois. We were originally supposed to cook and cut off fresh corn and freeze it. But since she knew I couldn't stay too long today because I had to work at the donut booth, she took care of it last weekend! So I am now the proud owner of 10 ziploc bags of frozen fresh sweet corn that will taste delicious this fall and winter when we're cursing the cold. AND...we got 2 dozen ears of fresh corn to cook up tomorrow night for dinner! We love our Indiana sweet corn. Poor Emma will need hers cut off the cob this season. Poppy says she looks like a jack o lantern. :)
Emma's at the top, Soph & Lil's on the bottom.
I got the idea for this photo from one I had found on Pinterest.

On top of the corn, Grandma gave us:

Dried noodle and veggies for an easy soup recipe

Chocolate zucchini cake

She had an extra package of queen sized batting. I'll use that for a t-shirt quilt I'm making for my nephew.

Extra flannel fabric

Her new-in-the-mail-that-day American Girl catalog that Emma and Soph went through to circle what they wanted (pretty much everything was marked)

Directions and visual instruction on how to make a microwave potato bag (now on my craft list)

Thanks so much, Grandma!

Poppy was also there for a while too to replace the tailgate struts on my Envoy. They were shot and the door was just dead weight. Not easy to get stuff in and out while holding a 50 lb door up with one hand. Unfortunately, I ordered the wrong size parts at first, but Dad got it straightened out and fixed for me today. Thanks, Dad!

So that delay meant no bike riding for the girls at his house around his large circular driveway. I heard about that ALL the way home! They were really upset. I don't blame them. They really love riding there. It's like a racetrack for them. I promised we'd go back soon.

Donut booth shift #1 done. As I sit here, I smell like a greasy donut, but not sure I have to energy to shower before bed. My mom and I took turns running the fryer tonight and I have to say they turned out darn tasty if I do say so myself. It just took some slight tweaking on grease temp, batter temp and fry time and they were little golden circles of sugary goodness. We raked in $2000 today, the best of the week so far! Can you guess what we're having for breakfast tomorrow?!

Tim brought the girls up to the fair tonight for dinner while I was working. They had pizza, grilled cheeses & milkshakes. They petted the sheep and now Soph wants one as a pet. They also scored 2 large pink inflatable dolphins. Daddy got suckered again :) They had a blast and were pretty tired so Tim said they went to be pretty well. Which is where I'm headed...

The Van...The Bus...The Beast...The Capen Cruiser

I had to post this late entry about the van we borrowed from my uncle for our Gulf Shores trip. It is a 9 passenger Chevy Explorer. You may think that we couldn't fill it up with half of the crew being little people, but we sure did! It was packed!
This thing was awesome. It was like a living room on wheels for us. We could all stretch out, we had a cooler, a toy bin, snack bin and dvd player. I think the girls watched 6 movies on the drive down and maybe only 4 on the way home. It was a Disney Princess Movie Marathon.
I am standing up taking this pic if that gives you an idea of how tall is was. Thanks, Uncle Bill for letting us borrow it! It worked out great for our trip.

busy day

I'm ready for bed. I just finished my dinner of triscuts with pepperjack cheese and a snack pack of fudge grahams...all washed down with a cold shandy. My favorite shandy combo lately is Stella and Sprite. My brother in law, Scott, learned from a true Englishman the proper way to mix one up and he then showed me. If you're curious...pour half the Stella into a pilsner glass add 2/3s of a mini can of sprite and then pour the rest of the Stella on top. But pour down the inside of the tilted pilsner so it doesn't foam over. I know most men would say that's just an awful thing to do to a beer, but I like it!

The girls and I had a bit of a busy day. I make the mistake of taking them with me to get my nails done. (current polish removed and new french manicure done) I thought we would be in and out in 30 minutes or less. Boy was I sadly mistaken! We were there for an hour and a half!! The girls did great. I'm so proud of them. I promised I wouldn't take them back there again. I will never go back there again! Ridiculous. That was the longest manicure I've ever gotten! ever! Anyone who knows me that well, knows how impatient I can be sometimes. So frustrating!

I had a long dentist appt today, too. I was in his office for 2 hours. Thankfully, the girls were having fun at Grandma's.

Tim still at work. Girls sleeping. 2 in their beds, 1 in the swing. I might take the swinging baby

up to her crib later tonight. Nah, that might be pressing my luck. That baby loves her swing!

We're excited to go to Great Grandma's tomorrow to pick up some fresh corn and see what new sewing project she's whipped up lately. She's so creative! I keep telling her she should write a book. Hmmm.....maybe a blog is in her future :)

bummer

Oh darn! My camera memory card isn't reading my photos. I think it's done for. Unfortunately, I had photos from the fair and the parade today. The girls rode in a truck for Bradley Preschool while Tim and some the teachers walked along side and handed out flyers and candy. It was HOT! The girls said they had so much fun. Mind you, they were under the beach umbrella with a cooler full of drinks and a bag full of snacks with little fans, too! No wonder they had fun!

After the parade we headed into the fair for some corn, milkshakes, grilled cheeses and donuts. We walked through the goat barn where the bunnies were housed too. We'll be back later this week.

Symphony on the Prairie- 4th of July