Adiee is Reading!

It's no secret that I'm not impressed with the curriculum at RES. I do not agree with the guided reading approach - at. all. Adiee excelled in math, but has somewhat struggled with reading (not with the short stories that she would bring home from school, but with everyday books from home or the library) and it was extremely frustrating to her. Anyway, {in addition to our normal reading times} Mikenna and Adiee have been reading together for quiet time everyday since school got out and as soon as Kasey came home from work last Monday (6/11) she brought "The Berenstain's B Book" out wanting to read to him. As soon as she started, you could tell it was a book that she has heard many times and she was planning on reciting it from memory... Well until she realized that it was harder than she thought to remember 26 pages verbatim so Kasey had her sound out and actually READ the entire book. The fact that she could was very encouraging to her and she has been a lot more motivated to try other books as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg, she will be reading chapter books before we know it! ;-)

End of May

End of the 2011-2012 school year has come and gone, and with it came many events in the Brown household. The girls' field day was on May 30th. It was VERY windy and a bit chillier than what the forecast said but it didn't deter them from doing their best, and Kasey was able to take off from work early so he could cheer our girls on!

 Game Face! Ha ;)

 She won that round! Woohoo!

 Adiee and her partner took first in the three-legged race as well! So proud!

 Just bouncing between wins!

Working hard for her team during the relay race! Go Adiee!!

I packed up our picnic basket and we had lunch in Adiee's classroom before it was time to head to Mikenna's field day festivities.

 She is a QUICK little thing!!

Just bouncing around...

May 31st was Mikenna and Adiee's last day of school. I'm having a bit of a hard time accepting the fact that Adiee is done with kindergarten. It doesn't seem possible. She has changed and grown so much over the past year. And the fact that Mikenna is going into 3rd grade? Yikes!

Our girls on their last day of school.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but my mom bought Adiee a frog cage for her birthday. I wasn't too thrilled about another living thing that I was going to have to feed and clean, but of course Adiee opened it up and I HAD to order the stinkin' tadpole. He arrived in the mail the last week in April with a note saying his birthday was March 23, 2012. Well I thought he was a goner after the first day because he seemed to shrivel up and even went belly up a few times. I figured I waited too long to feed it even though I followed the directions perfectly. Oh, the guilt! But he proved to be a survivor.

He went from a tadpole to a full-fledged frog over a month's time. I have to admit it was pretty interesting to watch. Adiee named him "Tad", we fed him his "froggy flakes" everyday, and I cleaned that darn cage every single Saturday complete with dechlorination drops and bottled drinking water.

We noticed that he had grown skeleton-like legs the weekend of May 19th, they had filled out and he had sprouted arms by the weekend of May 26th and all of a sudden he was a complete froggy by May 29th. Well, Adiee had arranged to bring Tad into her class to show and tell him on the last day of school but sadly he died the afternoon before. I have no clue as to why, but it was heartbreaking. Adiee got her doctor kit out and wanted to "fix" him but when I explained that it wouldn't work, she took out the latex gloves and picked him up so we could bury him. All of the girls were absolutely devastated. It ripped my heart out to see Adiee's reaction when Kasey and I had to tell her Tad went to heaven. Kasey built a fire in the firepit and we invited the girls' best friends over for smores to help ease their minds. I made a quick memorial page to print out for Adiee to take to school since we couldn't bring Tad in. I went with her to make sure that she wasn't too sad after talking about it, but before she got to say anything I heard a couple of her classmates whispering - I was shocked to hear that they thought they heard that Adiee's DAD died, not TAD... Whoa!! Needless to say we had to put an end to that ASAP!

May 31st was also the girls' last soccer game. Both Mikenna and Adiee got soccer medals for their team efforts after their last game and were super excited!

Adiee starting the game!

She's guarding her goal. Thatta Girl! :)

So that was our May in a nutshell.

Holiday Happenings

December 8th - Mikenna and Adiee had their school Christmas Concerts. Noni came to see them sing and spent a few days here with us! The next day, we did those gingerbread houses that I had mentioned earlier with the 2 kiddos I watch every now and then. Don't mind the kitty scratches on Isla's cheek, she won't leave Lucy alone... :) They were in candy heaven as they unwrapped all their leftover halloween candy and decorated their houses! Yes girls, I did see the many pieces that you tried to "sneak".

Our little "elves" hard at work! :)

Tried to make the candy less tempting to eat with royal icing, glitter, and glue. It worked for the most part, except Isla took a big ol' bite of the frosting after I specifically said not to since it was made of raw egg whites and sugar... Ugh!

All finished! What a day!

Back in November, Babbette (the owner/teacher at their dance studio) asked me to make her grand-daughter a bow to match her dress for their Thanksgiving program at preschool. They loved it and so she asked me if I would want to put a basket of bows I've made out on her counter and sell them at her studio!

This is what we threw together and I've already made a couple hundred dollars, selling them super cheap. Thank you Babbette, you are so kind!

December 15 - I went "shopping" downtown with my new friend Sarah, and although it was unsuccessful, all of the 2 shops we visited were closing, it was a lot of fun! We weren't really ready to call it a night, so she came inside to chat for a little while. When we got home, Adiee had thrown up and was asleep, Kasey said that she was VERY worried about not being able to go to school for her class Christmas Party which was also PJ day to reward them of their efforts as a school (K-5th Grade) for bringing in over 1,700 cans of food during their annual food drive. She seemed just fine, so we let her go. I went to Adiee's class party, and Kasey went to Mikenna's! It was awesome that he was able to sneak away from work for a little bit to go so that they both had a parent there - HOW are we going to make it work when Isla's in school?!?! I guess we will just have to wait and see :)

Just a random FYI, this miserable place we call home isn't nearly as awful now that we have met a few family friends! So my days are not as lonely anymore, and are now filled with coffee dates and playdates, family dinners, etc... It's so much more enjoyable here now-a-days!

I made "lumps of coal" for a snack while we watched holiday movies with a few of the girls' friends.

Yummo!

December 18 - We went to Casper to celebrate my grandpa's 70th birthday! My Uncle Victor was able to come down from Salt Lake City and it was so nice to see him! It's been way too long - I just wish the rest of his family could've made it. Miss you guys!! The party was cut short for us though, Kasey had to get back home to be on-call so Mike could go take care of his wife who had an accident a few days before. We also finished up all of our Christmas shopping, YAY!

Days before Christmas, Santa sent each one of our girls an email to let them know if they were nice... or naughty! I should have video taped them watching the videos because Adiee was talking to him through the screen, Isla let him know that she was wearing her bathing suit, and Mikenna was on pins and needles to see if she was going to make the nice list (she had just got busted for throwing her frosted flakes across the table at Adiee - HA!!) Their sighs of relief were just priceless! Thank you portable north pole, those videos were so cute!

Summer & Fall Update, Part 1

The last post I shared was in June... I'm ashamed I haven't shown my blog the love it deserves in quite some time. I have not forgotten, nor given up, but there are plenty of unfinished posts in the edit mode with incomplete thoughts and things we have done, but I think it would be best to just start fresh. Let's see, in the time that has passed:

I have completely purged my household of no longer wanted/needed items. All those random things that were just taking up space I don't have, creating clutter, and eating away at my sanity are a thing of the past (although, I really feel like I could go through and do it again!).

Mikenna's birthday at Elitches was a blast! We did almost all of the rides, and the favorites would be the extreme rides that you pay extra to go on (Adiee and I went on the 'Catapult'; and Mikenna and Kasey went on the huge swing!), the 'Tilt-a-Whirl' (the girls and I only, Kasey doesn't do spinny rides very well), the bumper cars, and of course the swinging ship. We left early in the morning and headed home when they were closing. The girls were asleep before we had even pulled out of the parking lot and Kasey and I must be getting "old" because we were SO tired after 30 minutes of driving. We pulled over "just to shut our eyes for a minute" and ended up sleeping for a few hours!! Oops! The worst part was the fact that when we woke up, we were still exhausted and still had 3 hours of driving. Ugh!! It was a long night, to say the least.

A few highlights... 

Living on the wild side!! What a rush! :)

On the 4th of July weekend, we spent a few days out at the lake house with my family - visiting, kayaking, watching fireworks, etc... Kasey, the girls, and I participated in the annual parade; we smothered the kayak in flags and banners plus the most important decoration - our gorgeous girls dressed in their USA hoodies and toted them around the "neighborhood" along with tons of other people. We won 1st prize and $50 which we split up between the three of them. Everyone got a picture except me (since I was in it too), so I'm still waiting for someone to send me one. Anyone? Ha! :-)

Mid July, we went to Worland to show our support and do the cancer walk-a-thon in honor of Kasey's stepmom, Linda. I met Nate's (then) fiance, a childhood friend of Kasey's, had a barbeque with some slip'n'slide and waterfight action, and a night time bicycle ride in Kasey's hometown just the two of us.

Linda with the grandkids, minus 2 that couldn't make it.

The girls and I went to Casper for school shopping towards the end of July because I learned from last years bare shelves and prepared for Adiee's kindergarten year (and Mikenna's in 2nd grade now)! I made such an effort to make sure that I got just as many exciting pictures of her shopping as I did Mikenna but gave up when I realized that she was just not as enthusiastic and I was basically telling her to "pretend" like she didn't hate it just for a dumb picture... Ugh, after I had a mini meltdown myself, I just decided that it was best to just let it be. I also think she probably would have had a lot more fun if it was one on one like it was for Mikenna, but it just wasn't possible this time since Kasey had to stay behind due to his being on-call. Oh well though, what can one do?

Bet ya can't tell which one was a fake... Ha!

After we fulfilled our school supply lists, we checked out the hot air balloons before going back home to be with daddy. The girls were pretty impressed with them and had front row seats!

A shared blanket can put a stop to the chilly morning air.

The last weekend in July, we went camping with my mom at Louis Lake in South Pass. We went on 4-wheeler rides, played in the sand and dirt, got some more use out of the kayak. Kasey took each of the girls out brookie fishing, quality one on one time with their dad. They cleaned them and fried them up right after catching them, the girls thoroughly enjoyed it!! Oh, and ate some Colorado canteloupe that could have very easily been one of the melons contaminated with listeria... No worries though, we're all fine. Thank goodness! ;-). It happens that I got about 4 shots with my camera before the dreaded "BEEP" **Battery Empty**... And they weren't even that great, but it was still a fun trip nonetheless.

So now we are in the first weekend in August. Kasey and I had been talking about getting a new car so we shopped around for financing and browsed a few online inventories. We found "the one" at Halladay Motors in Cheyenne. A white, fully-loaded, GMC Yukon XL Denali. We left the lot to keep shopping even though we both had found what we wanted. We were on our way to another lot closer to Denver when the salesman called us with an offer we couldn't refuse. I was a little sad trading in my Tahoe, but I'm so excited that this is parked in MY driveway! :)

LOVE it!!!

They do things differently in this town that I'm used to so it's still wierd to me that they go meet their teacher and put away supplies before school even officially begins...

 The girls with all their "loot."

Adiee and Ms. Worman, Kindergarten.

Mikenna and Mrs. Bares, 2nd Grade

Back 2 School Carnival

School for Mikenna started on August 22nd, and Adiee it started on August 24th. Yet another "wierd" thing they do here. The idea behind it is that they want to get to know the kindergarteners in smaller groups at first and get them acclamated before they bring all of them together... Hmmm, ok? Plus I think they did evaluations on them individually to see where they are academically. But I dressed them all up for their "First Day of School 2011" picture anyways. Adiee and Isla just got to sport the look 2 times in a row since nobody saw them the first time... ;-)

Aren't they just lovely?!?

Mikenna lost all 4 front teeth this month plus another one on bottom! Look at that gap! She was hilarious when they were first coming out, she said it was hard to say words that begin with "s", or should I say "eths-es"! Haha :) Hopefully she will give the toothfairy time to recover now, but we are glad that all 4 of those teeth can stop moving her entire front half of her mouth... Seriously, it was gross. Ha!

First day of 2nd Grade!

Adiee did not like waiting until Wednesday to start her school, she was so ready when her day rolled around! She was so excited that I couldn't get her to look at me for a single snapshot that morning, so I have a bunch of pictures with the back of her head...

First day of Kindergarten!

Isla with her lunchbox

It's just the baby and me now... I was sad to leave Adiee, but at least I still have one to keep me company.

Lunchtime!

When Isla and I got there, Adiee was in line for a hot lunch even though I had packed her a delicious lunch from home in a super cool frog lunchbag... So she had 2 lunches that day, haha! Oh, Adiee.

Labor Day weekend, we went camping again at Louis Lake with my mom again. What a fun and relaxing way to spend a long weekend, especially after all the chaos that the beginning of a school year can bring on!

Our Amazing Family

Random pictures... My life is full of beautiful people. :)

Look at her go!! Impressive!!!

Kasey put Mikenna on the boat, and to be honest, I thought he was crazy. I didn't think that she was ready to take it out on her own, but I couldn't have been more wrong. She was a natural, she had total control over it and was able to take directions like a pro! This was a creek behind our campsite and it was a perfect place to let her try because it didn't lead anywhere, there were beaver dams on both ends.

Now back to real life again... With school in full swing, now their activities are starting up. Kasey is taking them to swim lessons again, I take Isla to story time at the library, and I enrolled each of my girlies in dance and an extra tumbling class for Isla.

With that, I think I will call it a night. I guess that would make this post, "Summer & Fall Update, Part 1" Haha! :-)

A Month at a Glance

I've been a bit MIA but for a good reason! I needed to take a break from all that Disney talk to let family who aren't as familiar with blogger to read up without having too much trouble (as those 3 posts took up the entire page). This is what the Brown Family has been up to since I last wrote...

• Our family went to Oregon a couple weeks ago to see Tennyson's high school graduation (from one end of the country to the next in a matter of weeks which is okay by me - I love traveling!). We had to miss my cousin Paige's graduation, which was a bummer. So proud of them both!

• End-of-the-school-year activities like field days, talent shows, etc... Mikenna's last day was June 7th! Mikenna and Adiee ROCKED the talent show by the way! What seemed like a 2.5 hours of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry's "Firework" on repeat (half the time you couldn't even hear the kids singing along!) Our kiddos walked on stage and they sang, The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World" at the top of their lungs! Good thing they had the music playing in the background, otherwise they would've sang in circles for who knows how long! I laughed til I cried and got every moment on tape for Kasey to enjoy that afternoon. :)

Last day of 1st Grade... *sniff *sniff :(

• We broke in the ocean (a.k.a. lake, ha!) kayak! It was SO much fun, now I can't wait til mine gets here!! Good thing Kasey shares so well! ;-)

The girls had a blast playing at the beach/playground while we messed around on the kayak! 

My good lookin' hubby on his newest toy. I realized I had the camera in my pocket when I went out, so feet is all ya get! LOVE his goofy face - he makes me laugh! :)

• I've been blog surfing! I discovered the joys of blog hopping a few months ago, there are SO many creative, helpful, inspiring blogs out there!
• I've joined Pinterest, an addicting place to hoard those creative, helpful, inspiring posts that you run into! If you are wanting to join, let me know and I will send you an invite so that you don't have to wait for them to send you one. :)
• Yesterday we celebrated 7 years of marriage! As always we used facebook to flaunt our happiness to the world - sorry if we made you vomit... Haha! But seriously, couldn't be happier!!

I wanted to put this really cute Disney World one of the two of us, but I'm still waiting for my disc... It should be here within the next couple days (at least it better be)!

• We are taking the munchkins to Denver this Saturday to celebrate Miss Mikenna's birthday at Elitch's amusement park, which is today by the way! :-) She is SO excited, that crazy kid cannot wait to do the heart stopping sky coaster swing ride... She's just like her daddy! (ok, I kinda like it too... haha!)

• AND lastly, I have been on a mission to simplify and declutter our life!! I can't STOP!! So far in the last week, I have gone through every drawer, bin, box, cupboard, closet, and corner in our master bedroom, master bathroom, laundry room, living room, kitchen, as well as Mikenna and Isla's room. Adiee's is a whole 'nother ballpark - stuffed animals have taken over! No joke!

These 2 pictures are kind of embarrassing, but obviously they aren't kept on the floor. All of these cuddly little jerks are the reason for most of my temporary episodes of insanity and are kept on the top bunk in Adiee's bedroom, but we are getting rid of the bed and ALL of these besides a select few. These pictures are right before we started the sorting process, "after" pictures are unavailable at the moment because we are about to undergo round 2 of sifting through the keep pile to put more into the toss/sell/donate piles. They are doing great at understanding why we should give to those in need, make room for new stuff, and paring down to keep mommy's mental health intact. Ha! And I still have to go through the playroom and girls' bathroom.

I am a list maker and organizer at heart and crave order and cleanliness; with space being a serious issue in this temporary abode and I have been LOSING my mind lately with how much stuff we have accumulated over the past few years! And with Isla getting older, we have an obscene amount of baby toys, clothes, furniture, etc... to get rid of (among many many other things)! Wierd... we have big kids now (sort of, haha!) Going through all of our belongings with a fine tooth comb and getting ready for our upcoming garage sale to shed all this unwanted stuff has left me feeling liberated! My goal is to live more simply - less material and visual clutter and more functional, orderly, and beautiful surroundings in my life :)

Student of the Month

I got a letter in the mail saying that Mikenna had been awarded 'Student of the Month' and that they were going to make an announcement during their lunch time. The girls and I packed our lunches and went to Mikenna's school to eat with her. During this announcement, I learned that it really is something to be proud of... Not every student will be "Student of the Month" - only the kids that are kind, hard-workers, get their homework done, punctual, well-behaved, etc... Their teachers are the ones who pick them, Thank you for recognizing our wonderful Mikenna, Miss Reed!! :)
Definitely another one of our "Proud Parent Moments"!! Way to go Mikenna!! Keep up the great work! We are so lucky to be your mom and dad!!