Class Day

I took this picture of Isabel as we were heading out the door to go to school. We call her ECFE class in our town "school" because it is in the preschool room we will go to. She did some painting at school, played with play-doh, played kitchen, played puzzles & computer (& everything else she did during the last half when the parents & kids separate.)

This morning was gymnastics. It went ok. She was an emotional child this morning and I am not sure why, but she was clingy one moment and then independent running all over the place the next minute. She is getting better at listening to me in class, but there is still some work there.

Right now her & daddy are playing kick the ball in the sitting room. I am sure someday something will get broken and we will tell her we can't play ball in the house. Daddy is mixing kicking & & gymnastics. He is having her kick the ball and then do a pike jump or a straddle jump.

The Weekend & Today!

Well, today we spent the morning at home because mommy made and canned 9 quarts of spaghetti sauce. But we did get out this afternoon to meet another mom & her kids at the River Bend Nature Center. You can watch this little video (coming soon!) of Isabel fishing pond plants. She's a funny girl. We spent about an hour and a half there at the turtle pond and in the kids outdoor play area building things & exploring. I really like this nature center.

After we came back from the nature center & grocery shopping we had dinner & mommy chopped and froze 8 quarts of tomatoes. Then daddy came home and we played outside as long as we could with the shortening of daylight on this first day of Fall and then went down to her playroom to play until bathtime.
We went to Grandma & Grandpa's house this weekend. We were there for a visit, a birthday party and a baby shower. Busy weekend. Isabel was enjoying wearing the dress-up cowboy hat that was there and the other dress-up hat as well. You can't really tell from the picture, but she is standing on a mini-trampoline that she loved jumping on. In the other picture she is playing in the pile of sand that was just delivered to the farm. She would climb up, jump down, slide down, & dig in the sand. Good fun.
Here is a little collage of pictures of Isabel at the birthday party. It got a little chilly that afternoon/evening so we had to dress a little warmer than we had to in the previous week. It was a good time with good food.
The birthday party is for Isabel's cousin Blake who is actually turning One tomorrow. Instead of digging into the cake like a lot of kids do, he just stuck in one finger to get some frosting & lick it off. It was cute.

The New Arts & Crafts Room

Since the drumset was sold, this room was just being used for storage. It is a small windowless room in the basement. You can see 2 of the corners in here, the other corners have an easel in one and a cabinet (filled with supplies) in another.

So, we did some painting & stamping today and then some coloring. That antique wooden desk was mine when I was a kid (not original to me, of course!) The seat says "Miranda Sit" on it. I have a hunch that Auntie Phanie wrote that on there. She has a little table & chair to use to do painting at and play with play-doh. I bought the foam puzzle mat from Target so that it will hopefully be an easier cleanup on that than on the carpet. I also put up a couple of double hooks to hang her smock and old t-shirts for painting. And then on the wall you can see how I repurposed some items to make it a place to hang her artwork. I was going to make something like my friend Lori has in her basement for the girls, but I don't think I really need it since I have the cabinet to use to store everything.

Isabel is loving it in there. Now we can get messy and then I can close the door on it if I don't want her to go in there and play. It will be a fun room to use.

Today

Well, today was pretty productive for me. I got 2 coats of paint on the arts & crafts room and put up the wallpaper border & assembled it. I will get a picture of Isabel in there later on. Between coats I took a break to do a Yoga Kids video with Isabel. She only did about a quarter of the poses, while the rest of the time she was rolling on the exercise ball or crawling all over me as I tried to do the poses. So, I got more of a workout than intended. I did some yardwork as well. Then this afternoon we took a bike ride to Isabel's old daycare to visit and then I taught Isabel how to put up a wallpaper border. She was excited to use the adhesive. She helped me make supper too. And after daddy got home we all went outside to play football & do somersaults. And when she did the nighttime routine stuff with daddy I made a Target run. I spent a long time there just looking at things. I never get to look anymore, as I am usually trying to keep Isabel from filling the cart with everything she can grab.

Tomorrow we have a playdate at the park with a little girl Isabel's age that we met at ECFE class on Tuesday night. And we may go to storytime at the library tomorrow night.

Gymnastics - Week 2

Well, this week gymnastics went much better. We talked quite a bit this morning about listening to mommy so that we can stay for the whole class. She did a much better job of listening, but it also helped that others kids had more confidence this week and were running around a bit & not listening to their parents.

Isabel is wearing her dress-up wings. She loves wearing them, although usually when she is wearing them she wants to "fly" which means we have to carry her around so she can fly.

Today for supper I asked Isabel what she wanted and she said "Eggs!" So, she helped me make friend eggs, toast, & sliced strawberries. She was such a good little helper.

Tonight we had our first ECFE class in our town. It is 1 hour and 15 minutes and is in the preschool room, which is nice that she can spend time in there before she will go to preschool next year. We made a craft while we there and played with lots of toys & play-doh. Then about halfway through the parents & kids separated and the kids had snack time & played more while the parents talked. It was a good class.

The Weekend

Well, we will start with Friday morning. We had the first of our Owatonna ECFE class first thing on Friday morning, which means getting up, getting dressed, eat & out the door. It was a good class. Isabel had a good time and the hour and 15 minutes flew by. So, I think that will be fun. Afterwards, we met a couple moms from playgroup at a (new to us) park. Even though we lived here before we never really had the reason to go to all these parks. She was so little that we only went to the one park in town, so now we get to explore all sorts of parks. When Isabel got up from her nap our friends (Elizabeth, Sofia, & Tommy) from WI came to visit us for the weekend. I made us a nice meal of veggie lasagna, spaghetti for the kids, garlic bread, wine for the parents, and steamed peas. That night my friend Carrie came over to hang out with us & laugh.

Pretty much all day Saturday it rained, which meant we pretty much stayed inside. We did get a chance to go outside and do some puddle jumping. Puddle Jumping is one of Isabel's favorite sports and she has become a pro ans seeking out the biggest puddles and getting the biggest splash. So, she had to introduce Sofia to this wonderful sport. Sofia loved it and they took home a pair of rainboots of Isabel's to borrow this next month until we see them again.

Saturday evening we went to Target and then to El Tequila for dinner. It is our favorite local place to dine. The girls were very intrigured by the pink drinks their mommies were drinking, so we had to get them their own in a kids cup. Once I had finished mine I had to pour the rest into my cup for her.
Here are a couple of pictures of our wonderful friends. All three kids were so nice and went down easily and earlier than their normal bedtimes, so us parents had time to chat and watched a movie (In the Land of Women) we had Tivo'ed . They left late this morning. We will get to see them again at the end of October when we go back for a visit.

Thanks for coming to visit us!

U of M Southern Research Center Open House

This afternoon we went to the U of M Southern Research Center's Open House. You can see the bullet points in the collage below to see what we all did. It was a fun time. Remember that you can click on a picture/collage to enlarge it.

Tomorrow our friends Elizabeth, Sofia, & Tommy from Wisconsin are coming to visit us for the weekend. We are looking forward to having them come stay with us. Tomorrow morning we have Isabel's first ECFE class since being back (that other one we were supposed to do on Tuesday was canelled, bah!)

Cabela's Visit & Lunch at Wendy's

We went to Cabela's today to look at the animals. Isabel has been asking to go to the zoo this last week (she's never asked for that before) and this was the closest we were going to get. I'll try to take her to an actual zoo in the next week. She was pretty happy with it and when we were in one area of animals she would say "Let's go another zoo" and point to another area she wanted to go to. Very cute.
After Cabela's we stopped and Wendy's and went inside for lunch. I guess I never eat inside there (& haven't been there in a long time) because we were not of the dinig demographic profile of this Wendy's, as everyone was either elderly or a trucker (since there is a truck gas station with parking net door). I was also surprised to see that the things I would have normally ordered (small chili, side salad, baked potato with chives) were no longer 99 cents but were $1.49. That's a pretty hefty increase (not like it's breaking the bank, but it's a 50% increase.) It didn't stop me from ordering the chili though, which was yummy. In the picture above you see how Isabel uses crackers. She loves having crackers with things, but she doesn't eat them with the item, she uses the cracker as a sort of holder for other food and after she is done eating the food (cheese, chicken nuggets, etc.) off the top them she will eat the cracker separately. Funny.

Straight River Park

We went to the Straight River Park (our park here) this morning after we had someone come to look at the roof to give is a quote (there is also another guy here as I type is looking at it to give us another quote.) Anyways, we took a bike ride there and played & had a snack. We played on the equipment for a while and then I decided to introduce her to the river, which I had been putting off because I wanted her to enjoy playing on the equipment.

You can watch a short 10-second video of her throwing rocks as well. She had fun when we went by the river. We talked about the different sounds larger & smaller rocks make, how some things float (leaves & some sticks) and some things sink (rocks & some sticks) and we watched the ripples we made. We walked on a trail along the river and she was excited to see an island (the river is really low, so normally you wouldn't see that) and picked a wild flower, walked on some rocks & stomped in some mud (my pants are filthy from her mud.)

It was a good morning. This afternoon she was rather cranky with me as I had to wake her up because she was taking too long of a nap. I had some friends here for a Happy Hour and she was not very friendly towards them.

Looks Can Be Deceiving

So this morning we had her first gymnastics class. Yes, we have done a free class once & have gone to several open gyms at gymnastics centers, but this was the first time she took a class that I signed her up for. I bought her this cute little outfit to bounce around in. And when we got there we were a little early and she did not like that we couldn't go in & start playing. I should have known then that this might not be so fun for us.

She looks so cute & sweet, but she didn't act anything like sweet. On her third & final warning, we ended up leaving from class 10 minutes early. She was not good about taking directions from me and I pulled her aside twice and gave her a warning to start listening or we would go home. I really didn't want to, but I had to follow through or it might never get better. The straw was when she wouldn't get out of the foam block pit because she wanted to jump around in it, not walk from one shirt side to the other like instructed. Would she have done better if I wasn't there and she just had the instructor to listen to? I don't know. She always seemed to do good at the Y when she had her classes by herself and had to take instruction from another adult.

We'll keep trying (& leaving if neccessary) through this session because I paid for it and can't be refunded (plus I had to pay the yearly membership fee as well, so that would kinda suck if we paid that for a year and we only do one session.)

I don't think the open gyms helped us, as she knew how to use everything and wasn't afraid or unsure. She was overly confident and wanted to do everything right away, even if we weren't working on that particular piece of equipment. During the open gyms she could just run around and do what she wanted, which is what she wanted to do today. Now she has to be taught how to be a gymnastics student and I hope she catches on soon, because I don't like the looks I got from the other moms. Looks that said "Control Your Child" or "She's Mean Making Her Leave" or "Been There". I wish more of the looks were for "Been There", but I don't think they were. I think for the most part most of these kids had never seen a gymastics center before and never tried the equipment and were just too scared to be sassy or overly independent. There were a couple of other kids I noticed that would run off & moms go chasing them, but then Isabel would run after them as well, like it was permission to do what she wanted. So, other moms might have been frustrated as well, but I was too busy trying to get my child to listen that I didn't notice.

This afternoon we have an ECFE class called "Your 5 Senses". They have these themed classes and you can sign up for whichever you want. This is the only one we signed up for because starting next week she will have her regular parent-tot ECFE class in the evening here in our town and I thought 2 things in one day was more than enough. I would have rather just done one thing a day, but as it turns out this is the only day of the Tiny Tots gymnastics and the only day for our town's ECFE class. We are taking an ECFE class on Friday mornings in the neighboring town and I chose the one & only separating class (out of 5 Two's Classes) so that she could get instruction from someone other than me.

Godather's Tour & Weekend Photos

Today we joined our playgroup for a tour of Godfather's Pizza. It was kinda neat because we got to see how they store things, make the dough, make the crusts, and got to put our own topping on personal pizzas. Isabel was all sorts of brave in the restaurant until we got in back by the big equipment and strangers. But she was intersted in seeing how it was all done, as long as she could hold on to mom's leg or be carried. They even gave us a deal on lunch. We basically paid for our pizzas and got pop & salad bar for free. Very cool.

Here is Isabel & daddy in the Big Sandboxon Saturday. The actual sandbox at this park doesn't have much sand left in it, plus the volleyball courts of sand is so impressive & much more tempting.
We got out the puppet theater that Isabel's grandparents made her last year. It was packed away and not has surfaced and we set up in her room (since we keep the puppets in there, and it can fold us nicely & go in the closet.) She didn't quite get how it all works yet as she didn't actually want to sit & watch, she just wanted to play with the puppets and not necessarily have a show. what she likes using the theater for was to drape blankets over it & her desk chair to make it her "house". She kept trying to get daddy or mommy to get her her house with her, but we didn't fit very well.

Isabel has been a big sweetheart today. At breakfast she told me she liked the banana muffins I made and thanked me for them. Then she saw I didn't have juice & asked why, when I told her I gave her the rest she gave me her juice and said she was going to share with me. And we had lots of "bonkas" and kisses at breakfast. And while at Godfather's she insisted on sharing her lemonade with me and giving me hugs & kisses. What a sweetie!

No Pictures, Yes Videos

Well, I do have pictures from this weekend, but for some reason when I try to add them Blogger freezes up. Well, at least YouTube is working correctly so you can watch 3 different little videos of Isabel Smashing Sandcastles (35 sec.), Trying to Play Volleyball (40 sec.) and Running Around (1 min.2sec.)

Later, when it is working properly, I will add a picture from our playing in the "Big Sandbox" and our puppet theater play.

We stayed home all day Saturday & Sunday, with the exception of doing some grocery shopping.

Minot Brown Park

Yesterday we met our new playgroup at Brown Park. I had never been there before. They have a very nicce new pavillion. The playground was quite large and she had a little fun. It was a little overwhelming at first for her because she didn't know what to do first. Some of the stuff there is definitly geared toward an older child and there isn't as much to do for the real little ones.

She spent most of her time in the "big sandbox" as she puts it, but really it a sand volleyball court. One of the moms brought some fun sand toys, so she had fun with those. We played a "big sandbox" a couple days ago as well. I really need to get her "traveling" sand toys back in my car. She doesn't need all of them in her sanbox anyways.

Last night we had a "picnic" meal with the neighbors & some of their friends. Their son was back for a visit and we had this really nice potluck. It was supposed to be outdoors, but it was sprinkling, so it was mostly indoors. Isabel did a great job entertaining herself. Mary had an art set there and a coloring book, so she spent a lot of time painting & coloring. Now I just have to see if I can get the paint out of her hoodie, the arms are covered in different colors.

Not much else planned this weekend, just probably finishing upacking & tidying up for visits from friends this week.

Playing Dress-Up

Daddy & I were playing dress up with Isabel last night. She loves to play dress up and has developed quite a collection of play dress up clothes to use. She was also enjoying dancing to her Leapfrog Guitar as it plays little songs and you can watch a video of that on YouTube.

Today, Isabel helped me with grocery shopping and this afternoon we went for a walk with mommy's friend Linda. We ended up and the park and someone left their volleyball there, so we had fun playing with that. Mom got a good workout lifting her up high so that she sould throw the ball over the net to Linda.

Upcoming Festivals to Make Note of:

Sept 11 (Thurs)
U of M South Research Center Open House

Sept 12-13 (Fri & Sat)
Airfest

Sept 13-14 (Sat & Sun)
Tree Frog Music Festival

Sept 27 (Sat)
Culturfest

Oct 25 (Sat)
Enchanted Forest

Gainey Park

Today we met a new mom (well, new to us) Melissa and her kids Abigail and Logan at Gainey Park today. It was nice to get out and talk to someone. Yesterday we were at home all day, which was fine, but I just can't stay home all day for too many days in a row or I get stir crazy. Anyways, we had fun and here a few pictures of Isabel on some of the equipment. Next week we will start her gymnastics class and ECFE class, so we will start to get in more of a routine.

She did play nicely in her playroom yesterday while I worked out on the treadmill & with weights. We took turns checking in on each other and the mess of toys in her playroom wasn't too bad either. After I finished working out we played with Tinker Toys together and made a big castle. She is really into castles the past few days.

Right now I am reading The Why Cafe for book club. It is a relatively short book and very fast read, but really makes you think. I only sat down and read it for a short while yesterday and am half done and while she naps now I hope to finish it up.

Isabel's "Coffee"

This morning when I was making my green tea she wanted some, so I decided to try hot chocolate once again. She LOVED it! I made it with milk, in hopes I would have some other way to get her to drink some milk as she really doesn't care to drink much milk. Sometimes daddy & I have coffee as well, and she sometimes says we are having coffee when it is indeed tea. I think she thinks hot chocolate is a version of coffe because she kept saying "Bel has coffee, hot chocolate." She refers to herseld as Bel often. Mommy's family usually calls her Bel, but we tend to call her Isabel, although I have been calling her Bel more & more since that is what she calls herself.

Until it was cool she kept using the spoon. After it was cool (not just warm) she picked it up and drank it all. I had a feeling she would love it as she has a weak spot for chocolate.

Garage Kitty

This is our garage kitty (for the time being). We saw our neighbor kid come over and stick it in our bushes. The kitty went around the house to practically every door trying to find a way in. So after hearing it profusely mewing, I went out & took it into the indoor/outdoor garage dog kennel and stuck it in there with food & water. It lives there now, won't Molly be surprised when she comes home at the end of the month. Our town only has a dog catcher, so I called the neighboring town's animal control and they said they only work within their city limits and to call the Cty Humane Society, which I did and they are a foster home based program and said they didn't have a foster home for the cat but would try to find one. They never called me back. Now I am going to have to call the neighboring county Humane Society (who has a building) and see if they will take it. It's such a nice kitty, so playful & energetic. But we just can't have another cat. Larry already has enough personality for seven cats and is big enough to be two cats, plus we have Lucy & our dog Molly. So, if anyone out there that is nearby wants this kitty, let me know. I did put up Found signs, but turns out there are other Found signs out there that have the same cat description on them. Poor kitty.

River Bend Nature Center

Well, since daddy is still not feeling well we called mommy's friend Linda and she came with us to hike around River Bend Nature Center. I am glad Linda remembers what it is like to have a toddler who likes to stop for every little stick & leaf and explore it and climb the rocks over & over again. I look a little drunk in that picture. Oh well.

She loved fishing in the turtle pond with a stick. I think mommy & Isabel will come back again and bring some nets and a bucket with us ad play some more in the turtle pond.

Yesterday

Yesterday was kinda a lazy day. We did go to church and she had a fun time playing in the nursery. We are trying out churches trying to find one that is the right fit for us. I think we might check out 1 or 2 more. The rest of the day we stayed in the house. Daddy has been sick (bad allergies maybe) and so we closed up the house & turned on the air. We did play quite a bit here. We had a party in her playroom with cake & juice (all pretend) and we made some other pretend food. It was cute to see her playing pretend. She also had a Care Bear at her little table so it could have a party with us. We also played lots of "soccer ball" and ring-a-round the rosie and jumped on lots of pillows. Isabel will say, "Mommy, play soccer ball, come play soccer ball." She had this Dora ball that she likes to kick, which I am certain we are starting something that will be dangerous in a couple of years (or maybe even tomorrow) when something gets broken.

Hands Down

This morning we did some projects involving Isabel's hands. The first was a handprint in plaster. Someon had given us a set of tins with plaster to do handprints from age 1-5. It was here in MN, so we couldn't do it closer to her birthday and so now we finally did it, 3 months late, but oh well.

The second thing we did was collect fingerprints , although as you can see she got more than just her fingertips in the ink. We got one of those little ID kits so I was working on that so that we have a complete set of her fingerprints, a saliva DNA sample, and a hair DNA sample. Hopefully we never have to use it, but I am glad we have it just in case.

Her New Playroom

Here she is playing in her new playroom. It is in the basement. It's not difficult to convince her to go down here to play now. So, maybe mom will get some exercise in down there while she plays. There are certainly lots of things with many, many pieces. I am soon it will be a disaster. Wait until our first playdate in here, it is going to look like a tornado went through.

Washing the Driveway

Well, while daddy was busy cutting in the paint in the playroom, we came outside to paint the driveway with water. Isabel wanted to do some painting and we weren't about to give her latex paint. I gave her a couple of big brushes and a small roller brush. She was thrilled. I painted her name and was trying to take a picture quick of her by it before it dried.

We painted the playroom an aqua color. Yesterday I had taken down the wallpaper border & primed the walls. I was really hoping to have gotten to that sooner, but that was where we stored everything I packed last summer and there was A LOT packed in there. So, daddy started the cutting in and I went down and helped while she napped and now it is all finished. I will try to get a picture of her in it this weekend.

I would draw things on the driveway with chalk and she took it as her job to "wash" it all off. I asked her if she wanted to walk to the mailbox with me and put letters in there (which she normally loves) but she responded, "No mommy, I want to wash." I guess next time I want my floors mopped I will just have to draw on the floors and she will wash the floors for me.

On a completed unrelated note, we've been doing cloth diapers. I figured I had bought them before she was born and we did the cloth thing for about 2 weeks and then put them aside. So, I decided I was sick of buying diapers and thought it might help when we start the heavy-duty potty training, which it seems to because now after she pees she is saying she peed and is starting to want to be changed right away. I don't do cloth at night though because it just doesn't absorb enough.

We don't have much planned for this weekend, which is ok. There are a couple things we may go do, like go to Oxbow park for Children's Zoo Hour tomorrow and we might go hiking at River Bend Nature Center and we'll probably go to church. The only real thing we have planned is to go have cocktails with our neighbors on their deck tomorrow after naptime. I miss sitting on their deck having cocktails. As much as I miss our friends in WI & daddy misses his job, we are glad to be back.

Outside with Daddy

We got a lot of rain last night & this morning (& this evening again). We really needed it because things were really dry here and the river. Daddy & Isabel went outside to play in the yard & i n the puddles while I went & did some grocery shopping. Daddy starts his new job tomorrow.

This evening we went to a community dinner at a church we are trying out (link on the sidebar). So far it seems like a good place for us. Every Wednesday, they do a community dinner where they have food there for members that want to come and then after that is a 30-minute intergenerational service and after that is an adult bible study. On Sundays they have a regular 60 minute service where the little ones go into the nursery and the older kids stay until half way and then leave. On Sunday we will go check out the regular service. They were all very nice there and I knew some people that go there that I used to work with.

In the picture above, daddy found her this enormous grasshopper and she is watching it hop around.

The Past Week

Man it feels good to sit on our own furniture and sleep in our own bed. Isabel seems to be adjusting nicely. She has been playing quite well be herself so that we can get things unpacked, moved, and do projects. Although, today she was kinda shy & wanted to cling to mommy. We went to our first playgroup here and Isabel knew she was going to meet knew friends, but it's hard with so many new people to meet. They were all very nice, but they weren't our Moms & Tots. We miss them. Tomorrow we are going to meet with a mom & her two kids to go for a walk. Her oldest is 3 weeks younger than Isabel.

Isabel has really enjoyed having her dress up clothes out. She plays dress up several times a day. Often she is wearing the hat pictures above and quite often mommy gets a Bob the Builder hardhat to wear.

We ride our bikes to the park most days. Daddy tuned up the bikes and put the bike seat on the back of one of them and we take the long way around town to get in a nice little bike ride and end up at the park. It's such a fun park. Isabel has loved going there and loves going on bike rides. While we were there the other day a church youth group had an outing there and I asked one of the adult organizers if she recommended any of the kids for babysitting. She asked the kids and found one that babysat and lives in our town. I should ask my neighbors if they know her family; my neighbors seem to know everyone. But it will be nice to have babysitter to use occasionally.

We did talk to Isabel's old daycare provider today when we saw her at the library. Isabel & I are going to go over there for a visit in a couple of weeks. Cathy will be my daytime backup if I need someone to watch her if I have a doctor appointment or something. So, I am glad that we will have that. We really like Cathy, so I am glad Isabel can go there occasionally if needed. It won't be often at all, but it's just good to have it set up.

Here is Isabel in a couple other dress items. Check out her first pair of heels. She is learning that heels are not the easiest things to walk in.

On Friday we had a playdate with Carrie & Gavin. Isabel is not very good about sharing her stuff right now. We'll have to work on that. The other thing she has taken to doing is empasizing her "NO" with a high-pitched scream. She did that 3 times today at playgroup. It's embarrassing. She just appears so naughty when she does that and it's the not the first impression I want to make.

I went to book club tonight. A friend of mine has asked me if I was interested in joining several years ago and I had turned her down because I wasn't at the point in my life where I was interested in one, but after doing the Newcomer's book club I wanted to be apart of one, so I emailed her and got myself an invite. I think I will join the book club if they will have me. They are pretty relaxed and refer to their club name as the 4 B's (Bread, booze, books, & bullshit). Funny. BTW - this author is in our book club.

We went to check out a church this weekend but found that it wasn't the place for us. I have a couple more that I want to check out, so we will try a new one this weekend and see what we think. We had never found a church near us and had continued to drive to St. Paul to go to House of Mercy when we lived here before, but we'd really like to find one closer to us.

I have her signed up for a parent/child class through Early Childhood Family Education. That will begin in about 3 weeks. So we'll get to meet some other new people in that class. We also hope to go to storytime on Thursday evenings, which will start in about 3 weeks as well.

Well, I am tired so I am going to bed. I just wanted to get something out on the blog since it has almost been a week. I had been taking pictures, as these pictures are from 3 different days, I just never got around to posting.

First Days Back

Well, we have been here for two full days now. Even though we are unpacking all our stuff it still seems like we are visiting like we did the last year. I am sure after a week it will feel like we live here again. We have been doing a lot of unpacking as not only do we have the stuff we brought back from WI to unpack but all the boxes (there had to be about a hundred, seriously) packed in the basement that were waiting to be moved.

We decided to do a little room rearranging to fit our current lifestyle better. So, now we have a guest room by the other rooms and what was the guest room is being made into the office. And the guestroom in the basement is going to be made into her playroom as soon as I get all the boxes moved and unpacked from there (it's where I was storing them.)

She has so many toys and big Little Tikes things that I didn't want them taking up all of the room between the kitchen & living room, which is what we were using as her playroom. We'll still have toys in there, just not the bulk of them. Plus, it will be good for the playroom to be in basement so then she can play while I am in the workout room. Since I won't have a gym membership (as the gyms around here don't have childcare) I better use the gym equipment that I have.

So, we have been moving furniture & installing new light fixtures and will soon be doing some painting. Today we took a trip to Lowe's to check out roofing & windows. In a day or so they will have someone out here to do a final estimate for the windows and we will get the last 5 replaced (we already replaced 13 in the house over the last few years) by the end of the month or first week in September. And we hope to get the roof replaced this fall. It didn't fair so well through the winter winds and the last big storm.

Yesterday, I toured a gymnastics facility in the area that has a Tiny Tots class for Isabel. I was pleased with what I saw & heard and signed us up (until she is 3 it is a parent/child class) and it starts on September 9th. It's a 40 minute class which is probably perfect timing and we meet once a week. I am still waiting for the ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) classes to come out, as well as the swim lesson schedules. Once I see those things I will decide what else we might do. I have the fall library storytime schedules for both nearby libraries, although they might interfere with gymnastics or something else. So, we'll see.

We haven't been to our first playgroup here yet. It looks like tomorrow is the first playgroup we could attend, but I am not sure if we'll go yet or not. We might wait until next week.

Daddy did get out the bikes and inflated the tires and tuned them up as best he could. He also attached her bike seat. Isabel & I took a ride around town and went to the park to play. After going to so many parks in WI, I still have to say that this is one of my favorites. My favorite overall is still Sunset Park in Genesee, but this would probably be my 2nd fave. I had not taken her since last fall, so I couldn't remember what there was to climb as that wasn't something she did a year ago. So, I was very pleased to see all the climbing & swinging things.

Well, it's bathtime now. Daddy is gone to Best Buy to pick up something to do networking for the computers. Since we moved the office he has decided to try something different rather than figure out how to move all the cables across the house, plus he promises that I can send my pages to print to the printer wirelessly, which sounds good to me.

Two Minute Mess

Last Playgroup in WI slideshow

So, all I have left is to the the little video uploaded . Enjoy the slideshows.

Slideshow from playing with Rachael

This is a slideshow of pictures from last weekend as well, or I guess now it is 2 weekends ago already.

Stay tuned for more......oooh! the Satellite guy will be here any minute now to get our stuff set up. Yeah! Back in the home of digital HD cable. I was very proud of daddy for the plan he set up for us. He managed to go with a cheaper plan because he realized that we were paying almost double for a bunch of channels that we didn't use, except one he liked and he is willing to give that up. Plus he got us free Cinemax for signing up for a contract and free Showtime for signing up for paperless billing. Heard a van door.....it's either the satellite guy or the DSL guy.

Milwaukee County Zoo

This is a slideshow from the previous weeked that I am just getting uploaded, stay tuned for a slideshow of Isabel with her friend Rachael and our last playgroup to the Children's Play Gallery, as well as a 2 minutes video of the girls making a mess.

Yesterday was exhausting.

We packed our storage unit into the truck in 45 minutes thanks to planning ahead how we would pack it and the strength & stamina I gained from Group Power class. Gramps would have been proud (& jealous, as he would have wanted me on the farm) to see me throwing the boxes up on the truck to daddy. I just kept them coming, no slowing me down.

Then we drove out to MN. It took is 4 hours and 35 minutes with one 20 minute stop. Good timing!

Finally, we got to our house in MN and grandma & grandpa were here to help us unload and feed us. We did get it all unloaded, but MAN! was that tiring. We will spend some time unpacking this week and figure out just where things are going to go.

Children's Play Gallery

This morning we spent about 3 hours at the Children's Play Gallery in Delafield. Isabel just loves that place. We got there earlier than our playgroup & before any other customers really and had the place all to ourselves for the first half hour. We made a lot of art projects (although I forgot them there - oops!) She had so much fun. This was our last playgroup in WI and we move on Sunday. We plan to be back in October, so we hope to attend a playgroup or two then.

It was fun watching her play. She is really starting to get into pretend play. I will have a slideshow to put on here when we have hi-speed once again. It was cute watching her play in the pretend kitchen. She was washing all her fruits & veggies before cooking & serving them. I didn't even know she watched me do that. It's amazing just what things they learn from watching us even if we never have them do it. Then she was using the pretend microwave and pushing all the buttons after she put the food in & closed the door. It was a wooden one, so it's not like the buttons did anything as they were just paint. I have never actually let her use the microwave, she just observes.
Here is another picture of Isabel with her playgroup twin. There was matching princess dresses there, so her mom & I put the girls in them so I could take a picture of our twins.

I think we may check out our first playgroup in WI on Wednesday. If they are half as wonderful as the ladies in Moms & Tots, then I am going to be so pleased.

Her First Movie

Today I took Isabel to see her first movie and she did great. I really wasn't sure if she would be able to sit through the intro stuff & previews and then an hour and half movie. But I think between the popcorn and the big screen in the dark, it was enough to keep her attention.

We saw the movie Space Chimps. It was part of the Marcus Theatres Kids Summer Film Series. Actually, it was the very last day of the summer film series. The theatre was packed and they had 3 screens showing the movie. We met my cousin Heidi there and three of her kids. It was such a good deal; $2.50 a person to see a movie & some popcorn (which was a pretty good sized.)

So, I am glad that taking Isabel to her first movie was a pleasant experience. I wonder if the theatres nearest us in MN do that during the summer. Guess I will have to wait until next summer to find out.

Yesterday we spent quite a bit of the day with our cousin Jeff and that was nice.

Tomorrow we will go to our last playgroup here in WI. We are going to the Children's Play Gallery. We move on Sunday, so we might try to go check out the Milwaukee Public Museum on Saturday since we have nto seen that yet.

Sunday

I seem to be playing catch-up with this blog lately. I suppose it's because dial-up in a PITA. Well, we are all set for DSL to be installed (as well as Dish Network) on Monday between 8-12am. Daddy got both of them set up for the same time & same day, which is great.

Anyways, on Sunday morning the three of us went to the Mke Cty Zoo one last time while we were here. We saw many animals and also checked out the stingray & shark exhibit (it's an additional cost to see that.) Daddy & I were both able to touch one and Isabel was more interested in just sticking her hands in the water. We also rode on the carousel. Isabel likes to do one of the rides while we are there and this had the shortest line, so we did that. Plus she was asking for it anyways. I am glad she didn't ask for the train instead, because that had a much longer line and we would have been waiting for a while and waiting with a toddler is not fun.

In the evening we went to the house of our friends, John, Lori & Rachael. Rachael is Isabel's best friend and she is going to really miss her. Hopefully they will come out to visit with us, but otherwise we will be back this fall for a visit. We will miss all our other friends, but we spent quite a bit of time with them and babysitting Rachael and it just helped them foster such a cute little friendship. Anyways, they made a scrumotious dinner for us and the girls played a lot and then the girl rode bikes (well, Rachael rode, Isabel just sat with her feet on the pedals while we pushed) and we went to the park to meet some of our other friends for a community ice cream social.

When I am back in the land of high speed I will have a couple of other slideshows to upload and a little video of the girls making a mess.

Yesterday we went to the Y and then went to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet with a bunch of our friends. In the afternoon (after a short nap in the car) we did some shopping. Today we decided to take a very relaxed morning (we weren't out of jammies until almost 11am) and skipped our last Nature class and then went & did shopping at one other place to get some things to work on a gift for Isabel's soon-to-be baby cousin, and then we went for lunch together. She actually has been good to go out to lunch with, as long as there isn't a long wait for food.

Yesterday I was also busy on the phone cancelling dental appointments here and scheduling new dental, eye dr., and regular doctor appointments back in MN. We got the garbage, cable & internet set up, house taken off the market, and I talked to the director of a gymnastics program about a class for Isabel. Since we won't have the Y anymore we'll have to seek out classes somewhere else & mom will have to start using her gym equipment.

Tomorrow we both have our last classes at the Y and then are having lunch with our dear friends Luanne, Lucie, & Henry. We will miss them too. Isabel plays so well with Lucie and I think it is so cute how she says her name because it's almost sing-songy.

We have already paid the dues for a moms group in the MN area and are on their yahoo groups page and are starting to get to know everyone. They seem to have a big, active group as well.

Art Museum Slideshow

As promised....here it is....

Slideshow from Stonefire Pizza

Here is an Avocado Dip recipe that my friend Lori made that is very yummy!

Avacado Dip
1 - 15 oz can white corn

1 - 15 oz can black-eyed peas

2/3 C cilantro, chopped

2/3 C scallions, diced

1/2 Lg. tomato, diced

4 avocados, chopped

Combine above ingredients in a bowl and toss with the dressing mixture below:

1/4 C olive oil

1/4 C balsamic vinegar

2 cloves minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. cumin

Serve with tortilla chips. Can be served immediately.

Milwaukee Art Museum

We took Isabel to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We had checked out the book A is for Art (I blogged about it this winter) and had been reading it and brought it along with us to do a scavenger hunt of sorts. I have a slideshow of the pictures we took. We ended up buying the new edition of the book which had a few changes. There were a couple of things that weren't on display and something that we missed in the new book that was not in the old book. I am glad we had the book with us because Isabel found it much more interesting to look for the things in it's pages. There were a few things that she recognized on her own (like the porcupine pictured below) and she was very excited to see them. We took pictures of everything so that she can look at her book and also see the pictures we took from seeing them in person.

I do highly recommend getting the book when you bring a child to the musuem.

I think she had a fun time.

Lisbon Community Park

We met some from moms & tots from our playgroup at Lisbon Community Park today. We had not been here before. Afterwards, Isabel & I went to Noodles & Co. for lunch using a certificate she got from her reading program. We shared a bowl of beef stroganoff. And because they were super busy and didn't think to bring us an extra fork with our extra plate, I just used chopsticks. Then she, in turn, only wanted to use chopsticks and was trying her best to use them correctly but found it was best to just stab the noodles instead. Neither one of us ended up using the only fork.
We have been keeping busy, but I just haven't been taking pictures that much lately. On Monday, we found out we are moving back to MN, after we did our Y classes. We will move our stuff from the storage unit back to our house next Sunday. On Tuesday we went to hangout with our friends Aaron, Sam & Sydney and did some canning with them. We made basil jelly & dill pickles. On Wednesday we did our classes at Y and then we went to our friends Elizabeth, Sofia, & Thomas's house for lunch & play. Yesterday we had a playdate with our friends Carrie, Leah, & Ryan and then went to the library. And well, today, you read about the park. We wanted to go swimming at a beach at a county park today, but I don't think it is going to happen as Isabel is taking a long nap.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Milwaukee Art Museum and then to the company picnic of the cousin we are staying with. On Sunday we were thinking we might head to the zoo one last time and then in the afternoon we have plans for dinner with some friends and then heading to a park in Oconomowoc for an ice cream social.

Next week is filling up quite a bit as it is our last week here and we are trying to hang out with friends as much as possible before we leave.

This past week I have been looking up stuff for Isabel & I to do. I found that MOMS club that just started when we moved away and sent in my check and got on their Yahoo Groups page so I can see what is going on & planned. I contacted the libraries in the area and found out what day/time their storytimes start. I emailed the person in charge of ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) in our town and told her we were back and to let us know when the schedule is out for classes (this woman will also be Isabel's preschool teacher next year as long as we send her to that preschool.) I updated the sidebar on the blog with links in the area in MN.

We do plan to be back in Oconomowoc the last week in October as we have a week booked at Olympia. It will just be Isabel & mommy making that trip, as daddy will need to be working. Auntie Phanie is due to have her baby that week, so if all works out nicely she will and we can go see her & the baby.

So, that's the down-low.

Friday at the Park

Yesterday evening we brought dinner to the park and played. Isabel didn't eat much as she was mostly interested in playing. But we all had fun. We spent a lot of time climbing and having races down the 3-person slide with all 3 of us. She got a kick out of the fact that all 3 of us could go down at the same time. And I am sure I have nice bruises on my hip from wiggling them in the slide; I bruise so easily that doing stuff like this makes me look like I am a battered wife.

There was so much stuff to climb here that it was great. She loved it. We will definitly be back.

In the morning we went with some friends to the Mke Cty Zoo. That was nice, but it was very hot and humid. Isabel was kinda interested in the animals but was more interested in jumping off the curbs and hanging from railings.

Not sure what our plans are for this weekend. They might involve going to church and going to a birthday party.

We are still kinda in limbo as far as our housing/job decisions. We hope that on Monday it will all be settled, or it might not be and we'll be stuck with all the same questions.

Thursday

These are a couple of pictures from Thursday. We stayed 'home' pretty much most of the day. We did a little yard work, did some exploring, and some driveway chalk art. And in the afternoon we got out & did a little shopping.