Monday, September 26, 2011

Blowing Bubbles, Ice Skating, and More

So much has been happening around here, so I'll just start by sharing some of the pictures that I've collected. One day after a birthday party that Victoria attended, Victoria and I decided to take an hour for ourselves, so we went and played hide and seek at a park and took a nature walk. This is her under the tree on our nature walk.
Bella goes to school every afternoon for two hours, but in the mornings we still have our time to play. One day I taught her how to catch a bubble on the stick after you've blown it.



We found out that Bella has grown to over 42 inches this summer, so she asked us to take her to Six Flags to ride a real roller coaster. Of coarse, she wanted to ride the one that her sister has been able to go on the entire summer- the Judge Roy Scream (Victoria's favorite ride). She liked it. Jer took her. He said she was in awe after that first drop and yelled "Mommy!", but after the second drop she was screaming in delight. Later, she also went on the Shock Wave (double looped roller coaster) and Crazy Legs (looks like an octopus that spins and dives). She loved all of them. I preferred the Parachutes. Jer got to ride the New Texas Giant- he said it lived up to all its hype and felt like he was flying.

Victoria is in Girl Scouts this year. They meet once a month and have lots of mommy-daughter things to do, like ice skating at the Stars Arena. This was her first time to skate. I was very surprised to see how natural Victoria picked it up. In the beginning she held onto the rail and used it to scoot around the rink. A couple of minutes later she was holding my hand and skating with me. A couple of minutes after that she was skating all by herself. She fell about three times, but said it didn't hurt. Wow! I don't remember ever learning something so fast- must be Jer's side of the family.





Stephen, Jessica, Stella, and Roman came over Saturday night. The girls put on a Princess show and showed us how to wave like a real princess.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

School, Soccer, and Church Fun

With Victoria back in school, Bella and I have been working on writing letters. Last week she made an artwork for her Sadowski grandparents (a picture of her and Grandpa Joe- in plaid- and Grandma Mary) and wrote two letters, one to them and another to Chloe.
"Dear Chloe, How are you? I am fine. I like school and soccer. I miss you. Love, Bella." (Obviously I helped her by writing what she wanted to say on a dry erase board, then she copied that onto her paper.) Victoria is doing great in school. She came home yesterday with this story that she wrote in school all by herself. This year they'll be working on spelling, but it hasn't quite gotten there yet... "I went to my grandma's house (Grandma Carol) for a sleepover. She is a sugar Grandma. She has yogurt pretzels. Her house is awesome. We played dress up together." Precious!

Last Friday, Victoria sang at her school for Friday Morning Live (basically it's their morning announcements and a school wide pep rally for the kids and any parents who want to come.) It was a cute song and I was impressed that she remembered all the words and movements in just less than 2 weeks. I couldn't get any really good pictures of her- the girl in front of her had a side pony tail that kept getting in the way. This was the only picture I got that I could see her whole face- she's in the second to top row beside the blond boy.
It's official. I am now a Soccer Mom! Bella is number 10 on the 4 year old soccer team called Cherry Bombs. She played in her first soccer game on Saturday. It was a blast! Here she is shouting "Cherry Bombs!"

Practicing before the game.

The girls in a huddle before their game started.

The game and my star player :)



Bella scored a goal and was a little surprised, especially since everyone was yelling so loud.

I love her look of determination with her tongue sticking out, she played this way a lot.

Bella got another goal.

It was a great game and she had so much fun.

Victoria went to her first CCD class this past Sunday. They gave her the Hail Mary to memorize, although she really already knows it. After church I decided to take some pictures since we were all dressed up.








Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor Day Weekend

Victoria has been asking to go to a baseball game for quite some time. (Last year we went a couple of times and I guess she remembered what it was all about.) So we went to a Rough Riders game on Saturday night.
We ate the classic hot dogs, a couple of nachos, pop corn, and Cotton Candy (what Victoria really wanted and had been asking about.)



The Rough Riders creamed the other team- something like 11 to 2. Afterward we got to give our mascot a hug.

On Sunday we went to see Carol and Dick after church. We ended up spending the whole day with them- shopping, playing card games, watching movies, and playing the new game that Jer and Carol are addicted to Frontier'sville. The temperatures finally were nice enough to go sit outside at night. Carol was telling Victoria and Bella stories from her and Jeremy's youth. I love how Victoria snuggled into Carol's lap.

The next morning, Labor Day, I decided it was a great day to go for a hike. So I loaded up everyone and took off to Little Elm's park. We decided to take the lake shore trails. It was about 70 degrees outside and a strong wind was blowing off the lake, but it was fantastic after the 100 degree streak that Dallas was having (100 plus days for 68 days this summer- our hottest summer ever was in 1980 with 100 plus for 69 days of the summer. Yes, it was a bad summer!)





On our way to the car, there was a broken water fountain that shot water three feet away. Jer asked Bella to stand three feet away while he tried to shot water into her mouth, then he asked Victoria. They got a little wet, but not too bad. Then the girls asked Daddy to stand in the place. It was quite humorous to watch.



Little Elm park also has a man made beach. We let the kids build sandcastles, while Jer and I read from our book- the Fire and Ice series. A perfect Labor Day!









I didn't bring the girls' bathing suits because I thought it would be too cold for swimming, but they ended up getting a little wet from playing in the sand. They pleaded with us to let them go swimming- "since we're already a little wet; it'll be okay to get all-the-way-wet." I told them they would be cold, but they really wanted to go swimming so...

They had a great time playing in the water in their shorts...

until it was time to get out- and they were cold! It was 2 blocks to run back to the car.



Later that day, we had Papa Murphy's pizza and beer with Carol and Dick. We also got a couple things around the house done, like trimming the bushes. But mostly we just sat outside and enjoyed the wonderful day.

Build A Bear

Lake Ray Roberts

Memorial Weekend 2009

Brothers Visit

Christmas '08

PA Vacation Slideshow