The Last Preschool Jams

Today was the last Preschool Jams for the summer. The library will now take two weeks off and then resume normal story time. Sigh. It was a good one though.

I guess we'll have to crank Laurie Berkner and bang on plastic buckets at home from now on. Totally kidding, we already do that regularly. After that we did a short stint on the adjacent playground before heading home for some PB&J (for her not me, ewwww!).

Nap time was a bit of a struggle. Riley's sleep got messed up before the weekend and she's got a bad habit of getting up multiple times a night which means she's cranky. Mommy's cranky too. I think she may have been over tired by nap. She'd been begging me to take her to dance class all weekend and now the day was here so at least I had a bargaining chip. She finally slept just in time to squeeze in an hour and change before class.

Can you tell she's pleased to finally after all. those. DAYS be on her way? Oh yeah.

Oh, I'd been meaning to share this one:
Riley: (says something silly and incoherent)
Me: What you takin' 'bout Willis!
Riley: (Highly Offended) I not Willis! I'm not talking about Willis. I'm Wiley. (points to herself)
Later
Mike: Hi, Riley. Did you have a good day?
Riley: What you talking about Willis?!?

School Days: Fashion Edition

On days she's home all day there's less...style. If she wants to wear dress-up clothes or run around with food on her face for a bit, ah well. School days are different. Friday's ensemble consisted of her Star Wars shirt, a blue ruffle skirt and strappy brown sandals. If I went out the door even half as put together as she does I'd be doing well for myself. It's really important to her that things match and look feminine. She likes to think of anything with ruffles As a tu-tu. She's so concerned about clothes I have to get her settled with her breakfast (aka distracted) go into her room and pick out two choices of outfit and then let her choose from those. Otherwise, she changes her mind 10 times, there's fits and everyone's late. No good.

For hair I usually offer two choices within my hair abilities and go from there. Generally it's pony tail or braids or some variant of those. I call this look the "lazy Leia buns." I experiment when she's good and distracted, thank you Jake and the Neverland Pirates. She approved of it and I knew when they came loose she'd still have cute pigtails. Plus, note the hair bands and barrette match her outfit and each other.

As for today's look, see for yourself.

Ready for school! Even cute from the back. Rocking a regular high pony tail and a little pink bow.

Modeling on my mat. A little 70's in pattern, but very modern with a girlie ruffle. Colorful Dora sandals complete the look.

Sometimes accessories don't cooperate...

That's more like it! Have your people call my people.

High fashion is effortless for some people.

Ok, seriously mom let's roll!

Who Needs A Water Park?

Riley makes a splash!

I hadn't been on the slide since Mike put it in. If you recall I injured myself and decided I was too old to try again. However the heat made the whole thing entirely too tempting so I tried too.

Mike went down too. I was anxious he'd rip right through the back of pool, but he made it. As Riley says in the prior video "went down like a shannon ball!"

I only have still photos of Isaac shooting down the slide, but after we'd had an enough of the pool Riley insisted Mike then Isaac wind up the swing so she could spin. After she's had a few good turns Isaac took his.

My favorite part is when he crumbles dizzily to the ground and Leeloo attempts to revive him with kisses.

Backyard Burgers

Some days are just so summery. Today, the kids played in the pool and on the slip-n-slide. When the house had become just the place to fill ice waters and potty Mike decided to grill burgers. The kids attacked the toppings with vigor and just when I thought they'd polish off every single pickle, onion and tomato the burgers were done.

Pickles!

Licking her lips at the mention of burgers. She ended up eating her dinner inside shortly after.

A burger as big as she is, check!

Loading up and diving in!

My burger

Party crasher, Mr. Toad.

After their belly's were full the kids hit the swings. Swinging in the dark is super novel. They were thrilled. After that we packed it in and hit the sack.

Mr & Mrs Mouse giving each other nighty night kisses. Riley kept saying "their noses are the same, Momma!"

Puppy Update

Remember my little tiny peanut of a puppy? The one who fit in my lap and under the wheelchair? Well, she's not so little anymore. She's 4months and just shy of 40lbs and still very much a puppy. She is house broken and create trained, but she will (and does) eat anything! Good grief. Unattended food sure, but the weeds we just pulled out of the garden? A napkin? Sidewalk chalk? She's just getting her molars so some of it, like chewing on the swing set, is teething.

She's just as sweet as they come. Lots of energy, more than any living thing should possess, really. She's grown so much we're getting ready to get her "forever crate" and (sniff, sniff) start moving her out of our room.

No, we do not allow her on the furniture, but this was too funny. In fact I'm not entirely sure I didn't post in on the blog already. It's so: "Someone's been sitting in my chair."

She's just huge compared to when we got her and she has no idea. She still tries to squeeze into tight spaces and sleep under my chair. Now, she can still fit under my chair, but before it was like being in a cave and now only her head and shoulders fit.

She loves to run and play in the yard. We used to let her dig in the sandbox, but she got overzealous. She dug down to the tarp and (you guessed it) started ripping shreds off and eating it. She's just learning how to behave on a leash, but I'm excited for our future walks. She does super around the wheelchair now, but we have major work to do on when Mommy's on crutches. She knocked into me full force the other day when I had my kindle in my hand and it landed on the tile breaking the screen. Afterwards she was super sheepish and careful, but 4months is still a baby.

She loves water! Climbs willingly into the tub to be bathed, jumps with glee into the kids' pool and flings herself at the slip-n-slide. She's not much of a guard dog yet, but if I'm ever attacked by a lizard, bubbles or someone who hates kisses she's on it.

Bow Tastic

So, my beautiful Minnie's Bowtique invitations have all been delivered by hand or post at this point. They went winging out into the world each with either a bow tie or a hair bow attached in Minnie Mouse's favorite color/pattern combo.

Shortly after getting them all out I realized what a jerk I was. Addressing pretty handmade bows to children in late July and asking that they wear them to a party in early September. What was I thinking? At my house I had extra bows made up so I gave Riley one to wear until the party and saved one for the big day. Here kids! Aren't this great? Now give them to your mommies and forget they exist so they don't get lost or damaged. Sorry.

Opps! I assumed I'd be a hero for addressing/handing each invite to the little one themselves because when do they ever get their own mail? In reality, I just made (to borrow Riley's expression) llama drama. Speaking of addresses and drama, unlike I insinuated (and initially believed)in the post about making the invitations they could not be mailed in regular envelopes.

Apparently, because the wired ribbon and barrette backs/safety pins wouldn't fit neatly through the postal machines meant for flat things they're considered Special Handling. They had to go in bubble mailers luckily they had polka dot bubble mailers at the post office. I was pretty thrilled. I also added Minnie stickers to the front of each and addressed them with hot pink Sharpie. See what I mean about making everything appealing and then the mom's having to "put them away for later." Sigh. So, after all the re-addressing and re-using of stamps, etc I found one still in my bag the next day. I was especially bummed. Thankfully, I was able to drop that one off, phew.

I can't wait to see all the hair bows and bow ties at the party. I'm so glad I went with bows instead of ears. I think it's going to be a great group. Especially if everyone comes. I have a great start on the planning already. Not that it's a challenge this theme has so much room for creativity. Yay! Although, Riley seems far more concerned with when Halloween is than her birthday. We might have to do a Halloween themed birthday next year. It's always been her favorite holiday, but it's all she talks about lately.

Fun in the "Wet-ten-us"

Fun in the "Wet-ten-us" - slideshow dvd

Books & Beats

We continued our regularly scheduled summer camp at home program today. I actually got a phone call last night that I won the summer adult reading drawing at the library this week, yay! So, I was very excited to go pick up my $15 Barnes and Noble gift card. Isaac's reading list books got a little backed up on us and we had to settle up his fines, but he's only got one book left on his summer reading list for school. Exciting stuff!

I got Riley two Pete the Cat books and our newly discovered favorite Skippy John Jones this one is the dinosaur adventure. I'm so excited to read them. They also had not only a Hello Kitty coloring page, but an Alcie in Wonderland as well. Riley was over the moon. She's such a skilled colorer these days. I know I've said it before but this time I mean it I'm donating crayons to the library.

Not that the morning could've improved a bit, but then it was time for Preschool Jams. Isaac got a book about drawing airplanes and spacecraft and got to it. The summer music program at the library is winding down and this week was all about instruments. Drums, rythem sticks and bells (oh, my!). When they passed out the little tubs to drum on Riley realized mine matched her outfit better and we HAD to trade. They marched around druming and did the sound effects to a story with all three instruments. We ended all the fun with jingle bells. That was my personal favorite. After the library we were off for happy meals and (at least for Riley) a nap.

After some chicken nuggets and a nap it was off to dance class for Miss Roo.

Ballerina bun + Monster barrette for the win!

"Lorraine I Am Your Density"

After two weeks off (one for behavior issues and one for Science Camp) Molecular Monday returns. Let's be honest for a moment, I was all gung ho when summer started, but now I'm counting the days until school starts again like everyone else. I'm burning out on all this one on one with an angst almost 10yr old. Less than prepared to start this week I picked up a book of Isaac's called The Way Science Works and flipped through it until I found an experiment that didn't require a trip to the store or a big clean up. So "The Effect of Heat on Density" was the winner.

Water Volcano

Materials

• Large Glass Jar/Vase
• Smaller bottle
• String
• Food coloring
• Tap Water

As usual I found the experiment directions incredibly vague. They simply tell you to fill the larger vessel 3/4 of the way with cold water. So, our first attempt we did just that. It was a flop. It needs to be full enough that the smaller bottle is completely submerged.

Once you've got the larger vessel filled with cold tap water to a level that will submerge your smaller bottle fill the small bottle with hot tap water. Dish washing temperature is perfect. Than secure the string around the bottle and drop in some food coloring. We used yarn and red food coloring. The string is the handle you use to lower the bottle to the bottom of the vase. The food coloring makes the effect visible.

That's all there is to it. Be careful not to tilt your bottle lowering it in. The hot water will escape upward erupting into the bigger container. It slows down and stops as the temperature equalizes.

Why it works:Cold water molecules are closely packed together. They do not have enough energy to move far. As water heats up, the molecules gain energy. If enough heat is applied, they will fly off to become water vapor. The colored hot water rises because it is less dense than the surrounding cold water. The Way Science Works