Childs Play and the rest of our weekend with Auntie

To continue on from my last post, we took the trax into SLC so we could go to the Gateway and the Discovery Museum. It was quite a neat little place. The first floor was geared toward Casey. He got to play with construction equipment, ride in a truck and play in the water. The second floor was more Emily's thing. She got to be an anchorwoman for the news and also a meterologist. Unfortunately, this is the floor when Casey became sick and wanted to go home. I feel bad that Emily didnt get to enjoy her floor more but we made it up to her later that night. Jen, Emily and myself went to Texas ROadhouse while Chris and Casey stayed home. Us girls, had a great time and came home with full bellies. We had to say goodbye to Auntie Jen on Sunday afternoon when we took her to the airport. She made it out of here just in time for Casey to vomit all over the place. The poor boy was riding home from the airport with a mailing envelope over his mouth because I couldnt find a plastic bag in the car. He did manage to make it home before he "tossed his cookies".

All Aboard!

I promised you some infor about our adventures while Auntie Jen was here. We decided to bring the kids to the Children's Museum in downtown Salt Lake City. The museum and planeterium are located in an outside mall. This complex is called the Gateway. I was very impressed with it! I thought it would be cool for Casey and Emily to ride the TRAX into the city instead of driving and trying to find a parking space. We got on the train at the first stop and rode it for about 30 minutes. Casey was amazed at the train and the sights he was seeing out the window. It really isnt a train, more like a couple of trolley cars hooked together. Emily thought it was cool too but didnt like riding backwards.

A visitor!

Yes, you heard me right, we had our first out of state visitor. Chris's sister, Jen came for a little visit. Jen used to live in Portland when we were stationed there about 5 or more years ago. She would come over to the house alot and we would eat Sunday dinner together. Emily was just 4 then but she and her Auntie Jen had a special little bond. Emily is the spitting image of Jen. I can look at Jen and know that I am looking at what Emily will be like when she gets older. Jen calls her "Mini Me"LOL! The last time we had seen Jen was back in Mobile when she delivered JoJo the cat to us. She was living in Seattle (which she still is)and flew across country so we could be reunited with our cat. That was the weekend that I found out I was pregnant with Casey. So you see, we havent seen Auntie Jen in a LONG time. She flew in on Thursday afternoon and the kids were very excited to see their auntie. Casey had never met her but took to her very quickly. He and Jen played at the park and in our garage for quite a while on Thursday. Emily was very happy to see her too. We had a lot of fun adventures while she was here. I will tell you about them in upcoming posts. Let me just say that when Auntie left, I had a 9 year old that was heart broken and cried for hours straight yesterday. We hope that Auntie will come back soon and spend some more time with us.

This is for my SISTAHS

So yall know that Iwent to the Bobunny warehouse sale on Friday. A few of you asked what I got. First of all, I spent 31.00 before I saw the green tote which was 10.00. My favorite find other than the tote, were these red and black containers that have magnetic backs. They were 50 cents a piece and I plan on mounting them on a big silver board. I also got a class kit that is a address book for 7.00 that included the chipboard book. All the paper shown was 5.00. All the stickers shown were 2.30. The flowers were 50 cents along with the clips,brads and charms. The rubon and ribbons were in a kit that had paper in it for a couple of bucks.

My little Entrepreneur

Emily has been begging me for years to have a lemonade stand. When I was at work last Tuesday, it seems that the whole neighborhood had competing food stands. This broght back the begging and this time I gave in and said " Sure, why not!" I had to go to Walmart and get cups and supplies. When I drove back into the neighborhood there was already a popcicle stand and the kids werent even home from school yet. I knew that Emily would be mad to have to compete. When she came home from school she wasnt mad but determined to make more money than the popcicle stand. I had popped some popcorn and made the lemonade. She had two employees, her friends Abbie and Kylie. They set up right in front of the neighborhood and got some business quickly. This neighborhood is perfect for lemonade stands because of all the kids. The kids would go inside and get their money and race back to the stand. Some cars even stopped to get drinks. In the end, we had no more popcorn left and the lemonade was pretty much gone too. The girls made 12.44. Not bad for an hours work!

This one is for Debby!

Casey and I got to go on his first field trip with his pre-school this week. We went to the Alpine school district's Transportation office, in layman's terms that is the school bus lot. We toured the facility with our host, Busdriver Bob! He was quite a hoot. He wore his hawaiian shirt and sand songs to the kids when we were driving. They got to see the garage where the buses are worked on, the bus wash (just like a car wash) and they got to take a little ride. Casey thought it was AWESOME! His favorite part was the bus wash. It was loud when the water hit all those windows. The whole time I was there, I was thinking of one person and couldnt think of anything else....Debby! My friend Debby back in Alabama drives the school bus and we miss her so much and the rest of my sistahs. The stories that friend of mine would share would make you laugh and be disgusted all at the same time. It takes a special kind of person to drive our kids around and she is certainly one special lady. I only wish that it was Debby giving us the tour of the Mobile county transportation office.

The baby bird has flown from the nest

So I knew it was just a matter of months before Casey would start preschool but we were pleasantly surprised when the months turned into days. We received a call from the preschool right before spring break and it seemed that they had an opening for Casey. He would finish out the year (1.5 months) with the three year old class. We didnt even hesitate and agreed to start the week after school break.
His first day was Monday. The nice thing is that the preschool is in our neighborhood and within walking distance. To be quite honest it is only about 5 houses down from us. LOL! The lady that runs it is named Wendy just like me. She is super nice and Casey really liked it there. He has about 10 kids in his class. Chris had to pick him up since I was working and I got the whole run down when I got home. He learned about the letter "Q" and made a queen puppet. He told me, "Mom you the queen and dad is the King."
I said "Well then what are you?"
Casey: "I a King too."
I said: "Then what is sissy?"
Casey: "She the Prince."
Emily "I dont want to be a stinkin boy Prince!"

I guess we need to work on explaining gender somemore. He did have a great day and wanted to go back (thats a good thing). The only photo I managed to get was this one that Chris snapped of us walking to Teacher Wendy's school. Not the most flattering photo of me but it will have to go into the scrapbook : (

Easter Best

Here are my two cuties in their Easter outfits. Chris put up a stink about the green shirt I purchased him. He said he stood out like a beacon in church. I thought it looked nice and springy. So much for trying to dress him. He would rather be in a t-shirt and black jeans. Forever living in the 1980's.

We are all Egg Hunted out!

First and foremost, Happy Easter Everyone!
Yesterday we got to go to two different egg hunts. It started in the morning at our house. The neighborhood has a hunt and it was fun to meet some of our neighbors. We had to fill our own eggs and mark some of them as "prize" eggs. The prize eggs were hidden at a house other than your own. Then the kids with your prize eggs would come to your house to collect their prize. And we would go to the houses that were marked on Emily and Casey's eggs. It was great until it started to rain. The kids were very happy with their prizes. They consisted of books, candy, body splash, toys and lots of Chocolate! The egg hunt in the neighborhood ended at around 9:45 and at 10:15 we left for our next hunt.
This hunt was held at THanksgiving Point which is an awesome place that has an IMAX theater, a musuem, gardens and a farm. We went with the Silvers. Doug works with Chris and he and Jolene have two kids. One who is Emily's age (Lily) and one Casey's age (Violet). The two youngest kids got to hunt for eggs first. They were already to go. We waited until the announcer said go and off Casey and Violet ran. That was until Casey wiped out on the grass and began to cry. I had to pick him up and try to grab eggs with Violet at the same time. He didnt have much fun. By the time the older girls were ready to hunt, Casey was ready to hunt again too. Emily and Lily were on the lookout for the golden egg. We had watched the workers spread the eggs out on the field and the girls thought they knew where it was. They had their plan of attack and when they yelled "go!" they were off like lightening. When it was over they didnt get the golden egg but it was within reach of them and a little girl grabbed it before they could get to it.
After the egg hunt we enjoyed sack races, horse rides, face painting and train rides. Right before we decided to go, we tried to spin the prize wheel from the local radio station. You had to pick a number and then spin the wheel, if it landed on your number you won a prize. Well, Emily went and didnt win. Lily went and didnt win. Violet went and didnt win. Jolene went twice and didnt win. Casey stepped up and picked number 11 and spun that wheel with such confidence and WON! That little stinker! He picked out a DVD as his prize since everything else was a little old for him.
We had a wonderful day with the Silvers. We even got to try out the deli at Thanksgiving point. It was AWESOME! The food was so fresh and the prices were very reasonable. After filling our bellies, it was home to warm up because it was so stinkin COLD!

Where did my little girl go?

Yesterday before we went to church, Emily wanted a photo of her new hair doo we tried out. I didnt realize until I looked at these photos, how much she has changed in such a few short months. She is turning into a little lady. She is paying attention to what she wears and how her hair looks. She wants to wear lip gloss and has asked to wear makeup but that is a big fat "NO" on our behalf. She is growing up before my eyes. She and I have really reconnected since Chris has been home. We get to go out and run errands, just the two of us. I like talking to her and finding out how her life is treating her. I really feel bad that the last 4 years have been rough on us as a family and she and I havent really connected much. I think that we are making up for lost time now though. She and I went to church together yesterday while Chris and Casey stayed at home. It was so nice to share a Sunday morning with my girl. I know I need to treasure these moments because before long she wont want her dear old mom going anywhere with her. LOL!