Open Wide and Open House

Ellie went in today for part 1 of her fillings and did fabulously!

Breathing in the "happy air"

"Mom - look at my princess crown!"

(it's just a silver filling)

At the time, that is.  The rest of the afternoon was a lot of whining, moping, and crying, but I'm so grateful none of that happened at the dentist.  Phew.

Luckily, she calmed down in time for her 1st grade open house!  Such a difference between kindergarten and first grade.  The biggest difference?! Ellie has a male teacher this year!  I know she was a little surprised to hear it (I wasn't at all since as soon as I knew there was a male option, I just sensed she would get him.  It's karma for all of those times she insisted that we go to the female cashiers when shopping), but she seems genuinely excited about the year and has a few friends from last year in her class, so I'm sure she'll be ok.  I'm prepared that she'll be a little apprehensive at first, but hopefully her confidence builds quickly.  Clark, however, has enough confidence to share.

He just climbed right up into this chair

and started playing

Also different, she didn't want her picture taken with her teacher (probably because he was a he and because no one else was taking pictures of any sort), so instead, here's a picture of her by her very first locker (#13, serendipitously enough).

It's gonna be a great year! :)

Cramming It All In

Well, folks, we've made it!  It's the last week of summer, so of course, it's time to cram in as much fun as possible!

We've done play dates including this one that involved drawing on basement walls.

They have "dry erase" panels everywhere down there.

Talk about confusing!

We've made a trip to the Hands on Museum with some friends (and Dad!).

Grace and Clark could totally be fraternal twins

Little Vanna White

Lunch at Which Wich afterwards 

Soooo many personalities going on here.

We've had a fun morning at the mall checking out the new American Girl pop up store and just playing in the play area.

This is Lea.  The one Ellie wants to

save up her money for.

"Ugh!  Too heavy!"

It also included a trip to Toys R Us to spend the $3 Geoffrey's Birthday Club sent her.  I told her she had to spend her $3 wisely and she had to look around at all of the prices and think about what she could and couldn't get with $3.  She did pretty well.

51 items!

We've taken trips to the library

This kid can pick out all of the 0-10 numbers

when Cookie Monster asks him to

Obviously had to borrow this one

and played in the much needed rain.

It's been a long, but fun summer and it's not quite over yet.  We've still got one more week to cram even more in, but tomorrow is the first step towards first grade - the open house!!!

Togetherness

On Monday night, Ellie and Clark insisted on having a sleepover.  You may remember they tried to convince us to let them have one before and it failed miserably.  Fully expecting the same results, we let them try it again.

On beanbags, no less

Ellie came to our room at 1:30 am to ask if she could go sleep in her own bed (of course we said yes).  At this point, Clark was asleep on the floor.  At some point between then and 7am, he had crawled into his bed.

They both woke up peppy and raring to go.

They even asked if they could do it again.  So they did.  Two more times this week.  Both of those times, we didn't hear a thing from them until morning.  Interestingly enough, these little slumber parties have helped them bond as they are working together to prove us wrong each time.  Little Sassmasters.

Greenfield Village

Today we joined some friends for a day at Greenfield Village.  We were last there at the end of April when the working farm looked like this:

This was today!

It was a really hot day, so we checked out some animals and then headed over to the playground area.

Little Man in a Big Blue Truck

Little Lady

Biiiiig slide

Swing thing

Teeter Totter

After the playground, we had to have a whirl on the carousel.  It was Ellie's first time going on an "up and down one" and there was no safety strap.

Totally fake smile

It was the first time Clark sat alone on a horse.

"Are you sure I'm big enough for this?!"

Both kids had an absolute blast....

Seriously though, they did

Moving right along!

The weather started to cool a little, but the clouds were rolling in,

These sheep knew something was about

to go down, so they were huddled

together under the tree

so we decided to take a ride on the train before it started to rain. 

For my mom :)

It was such a fun time and now that we have a membership for this and the Henry Ford museum, we'll definitely be visiting often and I can't wait to see it in the Fall colors!

Whirlwind Week

Another week has already flown by!  It's hard to believe that Ellie only has 2 more weeks of break before school starts, but at the same time, we're ALL more than ready!  Until then though, I'm working to keep our weeks pretty busy.  

On Monday, I had my annual check up, so I set up play dates for both kiddos (Ellie at Daria's and Clark at Madison's) to make it all easier.

These. Two.

Since I'm still experiencing rib pain from my bronchitis, my doctor suggested we get an x-ray.  Lo and behold I did actually break it from coughing, so that's fun.

The kids both got to go to the dentist this week.  It was Clark's first time having a full big boy exam by himself and he did amazingly.

He even sat still for x-rays!

So proud!

Unfortunately, Ellie has 4 cavities (all in fairly unexpected places). :(  Considering we still brush her teeth (as opposed to her doing it on her own), use fluoride, AND floss, the dentist is chalking it up to genetics (my teeth were pretty cavity prone as a kid) and poor dental development due to that whole nutrient deprivation in the womb thing.  Faaaaabulous.  Since they are on both sides of her mouth, she needs to come back twice for fillings (they don't want to numb both sides of her mouth at once).  Yay.

Ellie wrapped up her first session of private swim lessons on Thursday.  She still has a long way to go to being comfortable and competent in the water, but we've definitely seen progress, so we've signed her up to continue lessons with Miss Crystal once school starts.

Play time on her last day!

We celebrated with a trip to the playground.

Tire swing for 3!

On Friday, I had a brilliant thought when the kids wanted to play outside.

Finally, on Saturday we took in the annual Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise and had a wonderful time until it started raining. :)