Kailey Smartypants

Today went awesome at the Development Day at school! Kailey had a blast!

We got there and were greeted by one of my old teachers in elementary school (Kailey will be going to the school that I did). We then went over for the teacher/child observation part, and Kailey was lucky enough to have Mandy (my cousin) be her teacher/observer! I think that made Kailey feel much more at ease, but either way, she did awesome! I filled out a paper and then watched them string beads (a fine motor skill, which Kailey did great at!). Mandy then came and talked to me and let Kailey play by herself and with a few other little girls at her table. Mandy showed me a picture that she and Kailey colored and said that Kailey colors better than most 5-6 year olds she sees :o) She said she is at a 5 year old level for speech and all other areas, and that preschool should be no problem. She said that preschool and 4K are more for socializing and fun things like that. So that made me feel good. So then, a funny, Mandy asked me what Kailey calls her Dad. I said "Daddy usually, or if he doesn't listen, then sometimes Dad" and Mandy said that when she asked Kailey where Emmalee was, Kailey said "At home with Luke". And when Mandy asked her again later, she said "She's at home with Luke". It cracked me up! Later when I asked Kailey where she told Mandy Emmalee was, she said "At home with Daddy". I asked her if she told Mandy that Emmalee was with Luke. She said "Yes Mommy". So when I asked her why she called him Luke, she said "Mandy wouldn't call him Daddy because he's not her Daddy, she would call him Luke". LOL. And so very true! So I find out that Kailey is just a little more mature than I though!

Mandy gave Kailey a heavy sheet of paper with 18 spaces on it. For each of the 18 spaces there was a booth, and at each booth Kailey got a sticker. She enjoyed finding the numbers of the booths and putting her sticker on. "By Herself!" she said. They had a lot of booths with resources for parents, a snack booth, library booth, and I think Kailey's favorite, the fire department booth. She whispered, "Mommy, there's FIREMAN BOB!!!" Oooh la la! I think she has a crush on him! So Fireman Bob dressed Kailey in his jacket and hat, and they took a picture of her and gave it to me. I scanned it for you all to see. It was so cute! Then he took her out to the fire truck and put her up in it and let her ring the siren. Awww! It was really fun. She got to meet a police officer too, and liked her. My favorite part was the end, when she showed Ms. Hammet her filled sticker card, she got a goody bag. In it was a Pooh book with interactive shape things, a bag of chocolate animal cookies, and, drumroll please............. An ADORABLE little shirt that says "Future Thorp Cardinal". Darn right she is!

And, funny thing was, today Andrea told me "Just wait until the first day of school when you bawl" and I told her that I wouldn't cry until the first day of Kindergarten. Ha! I walked into the school today, and walked past the commons area and lost it. I had to go in the bathroom with Kailey and sit there and compose myself. Kailey asked why I was crying. It was emotional. Just cool I guess to know that Kailey is going to have an awesome school and that she is growing up so fast. *tears*

So, Emmalee did stay home with Daddy. Thank goodness, because when we got home, she was a WILD CHILD. It was terrible!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. Not good. Possibly Saturday too. Oh well, we have lots of activities to do to keep us busy....

Sick, Sick & Sick

Mommy's sick, Kailey's sick, and Emmalee's sick. Luke was sick on Friday, and on Saturday he felt better. Hasn't been sick since. Emmalee started Sunday night, Kailey on Monday afternoon, and me, yesterday. And I have a raging ear infection. This will be interesting to see how Kailey feels tomorrow when she has to go for her preschool screening at 3:30. Darnit. She is really looking forward to it though. I hope she likes it when we get there!

On a positive note, we went outside to enjoy the warm weather today, and the girls, Luke and I got to meet our backyard neighbor and her 2 little girls. Kailey and Emmalee both enjoyed playing with them, and Kailey was so cute and invited Abby (the older girl) over to play. The girls are 2 1/2 and 7 mo., so they are all different ages, but played really well together. It was fun! I'm glad the girls have some little friends in the neighborhood to play with!

I'll write some tomorrow after we get home from preschool screening. I'm hoping that Luke gets off work early so I don't have to take Emmalee with us. Not that I don't want to, but I'd like to concentrate on Kailey since it's "her" day, and I'll need to listen closely to what the teachers have to say. We'll see!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend, our family took a MUCH NEEDED "vacation". Probably more for Mommy and Daddy, but we wanted the girls to come with too. And I'm glad we did now, because we had a blast!
Saturday started out with a balloon release for little Ethan Powell's "Going Home to Heaven" celebration. His family asked that anyone who wanted to participate could dress in blue and release balloons with a note. So we did. I wanted to do this since I've followed Ethan's story from almost the beginning. We said a prayer together and Kailey and Emmalee let their balloons go. I hope they made it far. I watched and thankfully didn't see them get stuck anywhere.

After that, we got loaded up in the van and headed to our destination, Waupaca. It was a 2 hour drive, and the girls did pretty well! We got to our hotel and were lucky enough to check in early to our room. We got ready and took the girls down to the hotels' waterpark. They loved it! Luke and I loved it too. We took turns watching the girls while the other one of us went down the 175' waterslides. That was super fun! We swam for a few hours and then went to eat at Burger King. The girls had a blast playing in the play area there. There were 2 other children there, and everyone played nice together :o)

We went and got some groceries and headed back to our room. We sat there and played with the girls and watched some TV and then headed down to the game room. We played pool and a few "just go ahead and TRY to win these prizes" games (we didn't win) and relaxed in there. After that, we ventured back, yet again, to the waterpark.

THIS TIME, we just happened to see a lady with her little girl (around Emmy's age) go down the waterslide TOGETHER! Luke and I exchanged a look, and I told him to take Emmalee down with him, (I knew she'd be more apt to try it!) so he did. She LOVED it! Then, I asked Kailey.... suprisingly... she went, and loved it too! So we kept taking the girls down these fast slides (half indoor-half outdoor, covered) and it was tremendously awesome. I have not felt so much like a little kid in a long time! We even raced with the girls, each of us on a different slide. I got 2 pictures, one of each girl with Daddy, however, Emmalee made such a big splash that I didn't get her face. Darnit. Aside from all that fun, the girls loved the little kiddy part of the park, and met some little friends. Kailey still is quite afraid of the water in the deep part, and clings to us, but Emmalee, she LOVED to jump off the side and go underwater. It was a hoot! After we swam, I knew the girls had to be tired because Daddy and I were, so we ordered some food, and were all in bed by 9:30. What party poopers, huh?!

We woke up in the morning and ate breakfast and got everything ready. Then headed to the waterpark for a few more hours. My feet are killing me from being in the water so long, but it was so worth it! After that, we went bowling. Or at least ATTEMPTED to go bowling. Emmalee had about had it by that time, and was ready for a nap. She was really, really, really naughty. After half a game, I just told Luke to let Kailey bowl for Emmalee and I rocked her. Or tried. We finished as fast as possible for Emmalee's sake, and headed to eat. Needless to say, Emmalee didn't make it the 3 miles to go to eat. She was out within a mile of the bowling alley. Kailey really enjoyed the bowling though, but of course, due to my camera and dim lighting, the pictures are all dark. Figures.

So, we're home now, and all pooped. I picked a few pictures out of the 80 or more that I took. I'm so glad we had this weekend together as a family. Of course, now Luke wants to go again this weekend. Too bad we aren't rich!
This week we have storytime on Tuesday, and then on Thursday, Kailey has her preschool/developmental screening at the school. I'm pretty excited to do that with her!
Hopefully our weather cooperates since last week was awful. I'll have more to write about soon!

Signs of Spring!

Ladybugs and bathing suits? What more do you need!?



The girls got new bathing suits for the summer and for our vacation to Omaha, Illinois and Indiana in May. They both just love them, and they fit really well!

Today it was a cruddy day again. Cold with periodic rain. Thankfully, the girls had story hour at the library today, so we at least got to get out of the house for that. Today's story hour was based on ladybugs. Miss April read the kids 3 ladybug books, and then they got to make these adorable ladybug hats. Both girls loved that project! They were so proud to wear those hats around :o)

Last night, Kailey apologized to me about 2 hours later for something that she did while I was making dinner. She came up to me and said "Sorry for yelling Mommy" and I didn't understand why she was apologizing since she hadn't yelled at anyone. I asked her when she yelled and she said "When you were making supper" I told her I forgave her and that it was o.k.. Then she said "Mommy, why did I yell?" and I didn't know why, so I said "I don't know". She apologized again. It must've made her feel bad to apologize a few hours later! It was cute either way.



Both girls in the past week have been excellent helpers. Suprisingly, both of their bedrooms and the living and dining room have been "clean" almost every day since Sunday. Amazing! That's certainly a record for us. I try to keep on them to clean as they go and put toys away when they're finished with them. That hasn't worked too much so far, but when I ask them to clean up, they both pitch in to help, with little or no effort on my part. Wonderful!

Emmalee was saying a few new words today; Chicken and Goose. I can't wait until she just explodes with vocabulary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a day soon when I can understand her and have a 2 year old conversation with her.

Drawings...

I took some pictures of Kailey's drawings yesterday morning and afternoon. The first one, in her PJ's, is of one of her make-believe friends. Ronshon is how she pronounced it. Their names change by the minute :o) The second one is of Dusty, our cat. I just love them. I think she does a pretty good job. They all have really long legs and big ears usually. So cute!



Yesterday was a beautiful day outside. We spent a majority of the day outdoors. We took a stroller ride in the morning all around town, stopping at the post office, and at the store to get some cucumbers and a corn dog for the girls. They loved it! We came home and did alot of work outside, or at least as much as could be done with all the sloppy half grass/half snow yard. I feel so bad that I won't let the girls go on the yard just yet. I know what a mess will be made if they are running on a muddy lawn, especially after the way our yard looked after Grandma and Grandpa's auction in October. I'm hoping the yard will look just as nice as it used to after a few weeks or so. I'm maybe hoping too much.

Today it rained. I had a migrane so we didn't do much but read and play in the house. Kailey has been such a big helper cleaning up lately, it's unreal! It makes up for her whining.

One last really cute thing- While I was on the phone with my Mom last night, Kailey and Emmalee were arguing over something. Shocking, I know! So I hear Kailey say "Emma!" which in my best description sounded like EMMM MUHHHH, really drawn out. And all of a sudden out of little Emmalee's mouth comes "EMMM MUHHHH", just like Kailey, but much more drawn out. They sat and laughed at each other for a few minutes over it, and Mom and I cracked up too. They're still at that one today!

Hopefully I'll have more pictures and videos soon!

Cute Video

Here is a video of the girls. It was going to be a video of Kailey reading in her own little way, but little miss "I have to be in the camera too" Emmalee had to add in her funny acts! The only thing I can get out of Kailey's reading is her saying something about having a treat after we go to the circus. Cute, cute! She has been doing an awful lot of reading lately. I plan to get more after I switch to a larger memory card. Enjoy!

Heaven is rejoicing, those left behind grieve...

I have been reading this blog for the past 12 months, and have really come to feel that I "know" this little miracle - Ethan Powell is a little 16 month old boy who was diagnosed at the age of 2 months with a rare form of leukemia. He was given a 15% chance to live. He has fought this battle hard and won for the past 14 months. Today, at exactly 16 months of age, he lost his fight. His parents are Ben and Becky. If you have time to pray, or to check his webpage, please do. Pray for his family to be strong and thank God that little Ethan is in heaven and is free of pain and suffering. Ethan's website is www.ethanpowell.com