Princess Olivia

Olivia has been so much fun lately! She loves to put on these dress-up clothes that grandma gave her and parade around like a princess. She loves reading books and is always bringing them to us to read to her. She will sit for a long time listening to stories. She has also discovered the joy of watching Blue's Clues. If you mention Blue or Blue's Clues, she'll get a big smile on her face and run to the tv waiting for it to come on. We go for walks outside almost every day and she loves pointing out the birds and dogs that go by and saying their names. But most of all she loves it when dad and Jake come home from school and she'll run up to them and give them the biggest hugs!

First day of school

Since we didn't have the internet when Jake started school, I didn't get to post his first day of school picture. He loves being in first grade. He's in the same class as his best buddy, he has gym everyday and his backpack is really similar to dad's backpack. School couldn't be better for him! He is reading and writing very well (thanks to all day kindergarten and lots of practice at home) and we're really proud of him!

Wisconsin Dells

We decided that our family needed a little vacation to unwind and have fun so we went to the Dells. We stayed at the Kalahari resort where they claim to have the largest indoor water park and we weren't disappointed. There were fun things to do for every age group and we all had a blast! Jake is the perfect height to go on just about everything and many of them by himself. There were a few kiddie areas for Olivia to play and have fun where the water wasn't very deep. We spent two days in the water park and one night in a royal two room family suite (that they upgraded for us with no extra charge) and since the Dells are a three hour drive from us, we were pretty tired when we got home. We all had fun and we'd definitely go again!

no internet service

So we haven't had internet service on our main computer since we've moved. We've only had it on Jay's laptop and my pictures are on our main computer. This is why I haven't blog for the last month but I'm tired of feeling like a slacker so here I am doing the best that I can. We've actually done some fun stuff and I'll start out with our trip to Warren Dunes state park in Michigan. We went near the end of August and we all had a great time. Olivia did much better then I thought she would. She loved sitting on the beach where the tide comes in, playing in the sand. Jake just loved swimming, especially under water. We all climbed the big sand dune (Jake actually ran up it) and enjoyed the view.

Fun filled days of summer

School starts next week so I thought I would make a tribute to our fun filled days of summer. We have been able to do many fun and educational activities while Jason has been busy with school and the kids have enjoyed doing things instead of just sitting at home. Even though summer is coming to an end, Jake is REALLY excited to start first grade.

Lake View Nature Center

Today I took the kids to Lake View Nature Center. It's actually not that far from us and we usually ride our bikes there. Every Wednesday in the summer they have a program called "Wild Wednesday" where they have about 15 minutes of stories/ puppet plays about animals and then they have someone come in with a live animal the kids can see and sometimes pet. Today was a great one! This girl brought in a Wallaby (that Jake is petting) and a Kinkajou (that I'm holding). Most of you know that I'm not an animal person (although they are interesting to learn about) and I certainly don't go around touching animals but today for some reason I really wanted to hold this little guy. He was really soft and I really enjoyed holding him. We can't wait for next week when they are scheduled to have a tarantula!

Children's Museum

We went to the children's museum today and had a great time! This is one of the places that Jake went on a field trip to when he was in kindergarten. Jake didn't want to leave after 4 hours but what do you do when the baby needs a nap? Olivia didn't really want to leave either but I can only put up with grouchy for so long before I turn into a grouch myself.