Climber

Evan is quite the little climber and is just as active as his big sister. Derek held the door to the fridge closed for Evan's safety. Thankfully, he only climbed the fridge that one time, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did it again.

School Prep

Meghan begins her new school next Wednesday!  Meghan is getting excited, especially after today.  Earlier today we went to her school for a meeting with the teacher.  

Meghan's Last Day of School

It was pretty informal, with the purpose of sharing about Meghan's speech, and I would have been happy with a quick phone call, but the director suggested meeting.  Though we don't have the concerns we had even six months ago, I wanted the teacher to know ahead of time a bit of her history and some of the easy ways we worked with her (and still do).  Really, we just want the teacher to be aware of Meghan's speech and to continue to encourage it in all parts of school.

So Meghan was able to meet Mrs. S, and could even say her hard to say name!  She and Evan played in the "Big Room" while we talked.  Meghan is also excited that it's a "church school," since the preschool is in a church and is a Christian school.  

I'm excited for a fresh start for Meghan and hope she likes (really I hope she loves) preschool this year!  Meghan started at the speech school in October, she did well (or okay)  for a long time.  Then in February she had a week off from school because of back to back snow storms.  From there it was downhill.  She stopped wanting to go to school and had more behavioral issues, too.  The new school will challenge her more academically, and we're excited for the new start.

Excitement?  Yawn?

Tonight I got to be a parent for the first time at a Back to School night.  It was weird.  I will share a bit of that tomorrow over at Live, Learn, Love, if you are interested.

Changes.  They can be good, and we hope they are.

A Cool Quilt

When we arrived home from vacation, this beautiful and fun quilt was waiting for us!  It was a gift to our family from my friend Meghan.  (She was the first Meghan I knew that was spelled with an H.)  Though we have not been very good (okay, horrible) at keeping in touch she made this cool snake quilt for our family.  I was a bit overwhelmed with her thoughtfulness.

I just love all the colors and the simple style of this.  Each snake head lifts, too.  Immediately our Meghan lifted the heads to make the snakes say, "Ssss."

I love the perfect, little contrasting green stitches, too!

(That is not a tongue by the purple snake's head...just a string on the floor.  Oops.)

We just love this quilt.  We have used it for playing and reading (and petting snakes) on the living room floor, but it needs to make its way to a bed, don't you think?

Catch Up

We have lots of other fun pictures to share from Vermont, but I have the feeling they won't make it to the blog.  We are home and pretty much recovered from our family vacation.  Our grass was really high upon our return...high enough that we had 19 (or more) wheelbarrow loads of grass clippings to remove.

We were certain Evan had an ear infection (or two) to go with his cold because on Saturday he started grabbing at his ears.  This behavior continued on Saturday and even Monday when we went to the doctor.  Apparently he just has a new habit of playing with his healthy ears.  Meghan also returned to the dentist on Monday for a filling.

So it's been a busy few days getting back into the swing of things, but life is good...despite fussing, clingy, and crying children!

Burlington Boat Cruise

Our last big activity for our Vermont trip was a boat ride.  We traveled the hour or so drive to Burlington (again), which is quite a nice drive.  We boarded the Ethan Allen III  just in time for the ten o'clock sight seeing cruise.  Derek and I had actually taken the same (or similar) boat cruise during our honeymoon for the sunset cruise.  This cruise wasn't quite so relaxing, if you can imagine.  

Meghan and me.

Adam and Angela (and all of our stuff).

Donna and Meghan enjoying the sun and wind.

Evan.  Dancing.  Without music.  With a pacifier.  (No, that's not normal, but you might

remember how we had to go to the urgent care center the day before.  We were just glad he wasn't miserable and fairly healthy.)  

It had been beautiful weather all week with temperatures in the 70's.  This was our last full day there, and let me tell you, that boat ride was chilly!  It was cool and windy before the boat was even moving, so we didn't spend all of our time outside the way we would have liked.  

Did you notice our shirts?  All of us had on a shirt that said Mets or Penn State.  How cheesey are we?  Oh, and Evan's pacifier has a Nittany Lion on it.

We enjoyed the ride, despite the chill.  It was Meghan and Evan's first boat ride!

The Fly Boat

Thanks to Brandon, Derek's brother, I got to experience Meghan's first plane ride, and the family's sea plane ride through photographs.  (Evan and I went to an urgent care center instead.  He had croup and needed medication.  He's better now.)  

I knew the plane was small since it could only seat three (plus the pilot) at a time, but I was still surprised at just how small it was.

Meghan was lifted in for boarding.

Headsets were used for communication.

Apparently, Meghan really enjoyed the microphone and was singing to everyone.  

The yellow house with the brown roof (center) is our rental house.  Before I left with Evan, we did see them overhead!

Even though the family couldn't all fly at once, it seems like it was a fun activity for everyone.

Ben and Jerry's Tour

The same day we toured the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, we went to Ben and Jerry's for their ice cream factory tour.  Derek and I had toured Ben and Jerry's on our honeymoon in 2003.  Since then, I don't think anything had changed, though the lines may have been longer.

Our wait for the tour was about 1 1/2 hours.  In the meantime on this hot day, we visited their playground.  We also took advantage of some trees and benches near by.

Grandma and Grandpa waited inside, out of the sun and heat.














The tour itself was not impressive to me.  We saw a video and then watched some actual production while watching another video.  I don't think it changed in the past seven years.  The highlight, of course, was the sample of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

The kids enjoyed playing (well, some of the time) and definitely liked the ice cream, too!

The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory

Our first touristy thing that we did was the Vermont Teddy Bear Company tour.  The teddy bears they make have movable arms and legs and special eyes that say "Made in Vermont."  It was really a simple process, but the tour itself was enjoyable for all ages.

Before we went inside we posed.  
















Here are Meghan, Evan, and cousin Arden.

Meghan chose a red bear.  She named her Bob.  Yes, BOB.  Not Bobby.   We did get an outfit for Bob, too.  It's a cute girly outfit.  But Bob is not a cross-dresser.  Bob is a girl.  (My complaint about Bob is that the eyes and nose are hard to find, let alone see.  Meghan didn't choose him her because she was on clearance, but because of her fun color.  Yep!  Just $10 for that bear!)

















Evan chose a dark chocolate bear.  This bear is nice and soft.  For now he's just a teddy bear without a name.


Funny thing about the teddy bears that you can make and stuff there (same as Build-A-Bear, I suspect)-only a few of the bears that are stuffable are actually made in Vermont.  Yep.  Both of the bears the kids chose were foreign made!  It was obvious to us that they didn't have movable arms and legs, but still a bit disappointing that the ones we liked were not true Vermont bears.  At least we knew ahead of time.  We could have a bear that was already made, but they were much (three times) more expensive!

It was a good tour and fun, especially for Meghan, to make a bear.

Beautiful Sunset

Derek arrived home late Thursday evening.  By 10 AM on Friday we were packed and in the car for the first part of our vacation.  Currently, we are in Vermont.  This was tonight's sunset on Lake Champlain...from the house we're renting.  We have four generations of Derek's family here.  (Derek's grandparents, mom, aunt, brother/sister-in-law, and his nephew, in addition to us.  Later this week more of his family will join us!)

We arrived Saturday, recovered from the trip Sunday, and Monday we went on two factory tours-Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.  The teddy bear factory was good...B&J's didn't impress me (nor did it when we were on our honeymoon).  However, it was a fun day, and I will share more later.

Biking Big Girl

Meghan has gotten to be good enough at braking on her big bike to be able to go for walks now!  After several months of using the bike only in our driveway, she is thrilled to have freedom.

As a family, we walked around our development, though we avoided the main road which we usually use for walks.  Meghan loved every minute of it.  With all the noise of her training wheels, she could not hear us if we called to her, and she was way ahead of us.

At the end of the walk, we went toward the cul de sac near our house.  Unfortunately, it is a bit of a downhill slope.  Meghan got scared because she was going too fast.  She was way ahead of us, but Derek went running to her to rescue her.  As seen below, she got to the cul de sac long before him, but she was just fine.

If you noticed that I hadn't posted much, it was because last week was incredibly busy.  Derek was in Texas for work.  Meghan was sick.  (Two doctor appointments and a chest x-ray sick.)  The first doctor appointment we learned she was getting over an ear infection AND had strep throat.  The second appointment was needed because her fever was back and she had developed an awful cough.  Apparently she just had a cold though.

So it was a very busy week, especially without Derek.  Meghan missed three days of school, but made it to her LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL in her speech and language classroom!  I am really excited at all of her progress.  She begins preschool on September 1 at her new school.  I sure hope she likes it.  (It's been a long time since she's been excited about school, and often dislikes it.)

Cool Dude and Silent Girl

Evan has determined that wearing sunglasses can be fun.  Not only that, but he loves music!  He was actually just sitting listening to the CD player.  He, like his big sister, is a mover and a groover, and doesn't sit often.

Our dear daughter is sick.  When I took her to the doctor today, we found out that she is recovering from an ear infection.  In addition, she may have strep throat, though they didn't torture her with the throat culture since she would already be on antibiotics.

AND Meghan has lost her voice.  At times she has a whisper voice, and for a short time today she had a loud whisper voice.  

Apparently it's really hard to talk.  When she needed to use the bathroom, she came to me in the kitchen and tapped my leg.  Then she pointed to the bathroom.  

I can't wait for her to find her voice again!  Derek is out of town for the next few days, and we learned that telephone conversations at a whisper level are near impossible without an interpreter.  

The good news is that Meghan says she feels fine.  (Her temperature is still somewhat high.)  Her feeling fine may have something to do with the incredible amount of television she is watching.  She loves TV, and today I had to offer it to her so that she would stop dancing and doing somersaults.  Maybe she can go to school on Wednesday and Thursday-her final two days of school in the speech and language classroom.  Before that can happen her temperature needs to be normal and she needs to stop vomiting.  

But she says she feels fine.

Haircut!!!

Yesterday Meghan and I had a special time going to get haircuts.    Since we wanted several inches taken off, Derek suggested it be done professionally instead of by me like her previous cuts.  While we were gone Derek cut his own hair and Evan's!  The only dramatic (to us) change is Meghan's hair though.

BEFORE-Meghan is all hair!  

Meghan did really well sitting still.  The mirror helped!

She was also allowed to wet her face hair as much as she wanted.

I was absolutely amazed that she allowed the stylist to blow-dry her hair!  She never lets me do that!

TA-DA!!

Meghan has had a lot of hair since her birth.  See it here.  She never lost it, though it has gotten lighter in color.  Her last haircut was almost a year ago.  It was past due!  We love her new cut and so does she!

Since we have always loved having a little girl with lots of hair, you may be wondering why we chose to cut about five inches from her hair.  It was really just a practical choice.  It was getting in the way when using the bathroom!!!  

Guess What!?

We had quite the day today. It began with a trip to Meghan's school to pick her up after a call from her teacher. Later, Derek and I decided that her backpack had too many remaining Corn Flakes left from her busride illness to keep it (even after washing it).

We also blanched four or five dozen ears of corn from our Amish friend.

AND Meghan had a bit of a change today! Tomorrow we'll show the final result.

Home Run

Though I was only able to see Derek play ball (and no home runs that night) once this summer, the children have been really enjoying the tee-ball set we got for them earlier this summer.  Evan actually seems to hit the ball quite well now that he doesn't start as a righty and end as a lefty.  (I know it may not make sense...that is because it is not supposed to happen!)

His swing is actually more level than this.

Sprinkler

Dentist Visit

Meghan had another check-up with a local children's dentist.  It was her fourth visit since they suggest children begin very young.

The good news is that there was no tarter to scrape, unlike last time.  Making bubbles (pictured here) was her favorite part!

The bad news is that we need to return for the treatment of two cavities!  They are just surface cavities, but they are still cavities.  The dentist was not really phased, but I was.

Meghan was a great patient and walked away with a good feeling...and two finger puppets, two bracelets, stickers, and a pencil!  WOW!