Disney on Ice

Last Friday night we pulled off our second Disney surprise of the year.  We bought tickets to see Disney on Ice, and the kids had no idea where they were going until we handed them their tickets at the turnstile.  Here is Amelia, still in shock:

Girls' pic (sorry, no pics of the boys):

We saw all our Disney friends, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald:

 Tow Mater,

 Lightning McQueen,

 and all their friends...all the high points from the Little Mermaid,

Tinkerbell and all her fairy friends...

and then there was an intermission.  The entire second half was Toy Story 3, and it was awesome!

The kids could barely keep their eyes open when we stopped at the condo to validate our parking.  They may have been asleep by the time we drove out of the parking deck.

little pumpkin project

I had seen on pinterest that you could allegedly cut the top off a pie pumpkin, add dirt, and the seeds would grow.  I invested $1.50 in the pumpkin, and after three days in the kitchen, the rim of the pumpkin got moldy.  I was going to chuck it over the fence for the deer to enjoy.  But Nathan is smart you see...he put it in the garden.  Day 10:

That was a couple weeks ago.  The pumpkin itself has now disintegrated, but we have half a dozen healthy pumpkin sprouts growing in its place.  Seth checks on it religiously.  It's been a nice little experiment!

swinging away

The previous owners of our house had a wooden swing in the backyard.  I had crossed my fingers that they would leave it, but they didn't.  They did leave the nylon attachments, though, and after a little research, we decided to get a disk-style swing which will hopefully be kinder to our landscaping.  It is a HUGE hit.  The kids go out every afternoon.  They take turns, and then after a while come and beg for a parent to come up so they can swing higher.

 Even mommy and daddy have been known to take a swing or two across the backyard!

another bike boo-boo

If you click on the picture below of Seth with the bee, you can see his Charlie Chaplin-esque scab above his lip.  The night before he had been riding his bike in the driving, babbling about riding "moderato" and "presto" (he has music on Fridays), when he turned too sharply and went over the handbars.  From my angle, it looked like he landed on his nose.  The end result was some small scuffs on both knees, small scrapes on both hands, and two deep bleeding cuts under his nose, and a bloody nose.  As I have done almost every time he has taken a bad fall, I freaked out.  In the span of five minutes I told Nathan I thought Seth needed surgical glue, had a broken nose, and had a concussion.  (I still stand by the glue comment, although the cuts healed nicely from the inside out, and a week later only a faint pink scar remains.)  We were not home to ride bikes this Friday night.  Hopefully the cycle is broken.

Stingerfest

Last Saturday we went to Stingerfest at Seth's school, the school's version of a fall festival.  We didn't win any of the raffle baskets, but the kids played a few games, played in a few bounce houses, and we shared some shaved ice on a sunny afternoon.  Seth and the mascot:

 Seth "winning" the Olympic race against Nathan:

I was impressed with his accuracy:

inner peace

One night the kids were running around the house like hooligans.  I cracked open some brand-new watercolors and told them to sit down and paint.  They may had been rambunctious on the outside, but they were peaceful on the inside.  Look what they made:

L:  Amelia, R:  Seth

camp week

Amelia's teachers went big for camp week.  On Monday morning, I saw this on the classroom door:

The classroom had a tent in it all week, and the walls were decorated with hunting camouflage.  One day we found a "campfire" in the room (real logs and tissue paper flames).  The kids made trail mix one day for snack, and on Thursday they went on a hike.  By the end of the week, Amelia had brought home a camp t-shirt, binoculars, a magnifying glass, a map, and a bag full of leaves she had found on her nature hike!

it's such a little thing...

...but I'm glad it's fixed.  

There was a gap under the storm door, and Nathan's dad made a comment along the lines of, "One day you're going to open the door and a snake is going to be sitting there."  Yuck.  Needless to say, we haven't been keeping the front door open.  But a quick trip to Lowes for a $10 purchase and a little work done by Nathan has given us a sealed storm door:

I still don't keep the door open during the day, but we keep it open a lot on the weekends.  Sorry, snakes, you're not welcome here.

ice cream social

Friday night we went to an ice cream social at a neighbor's house.  Three couples made homemade ice cream, and the rest of us brought toppings.  I didn't take any pictures because it started after dinner and got progressively darker as we stood around socializing.  There are three things to note about this event:

• Nathan has a lot in common with the men on our block.  Most of them work in finance or IT, and most of them are either runners or triathletes.  (I had met most of the women already, either at Bible study or impromptu play dates in the afternoons.)
• Seth has a new aura of bravado these days:  rather than playing with the other kids, he spent most of his time trying to conquer a bike ramp.  Yes, a bike ramp.  Who is this kid?  (And of course that means our evening ended with Seth wiping out and needing some minor first aid on his elbow...by morning light, it was apparent his ego was bruised more than anything else.)
• There are a lot of freakin' kids around here.  Last night at Bible study they said the final head count at that party was 33 kids.  We are in the minority with two kids.  The family that hosted has six!  

trailblazer

I think I mentioned that Seth has joined the Cub Scouts (anybody want some popcorn?), and Saturday we had the opportunity to attend an adventure day at scout camp.  We were there about four hours, and Seth got to try his hand at shooting a BB gun and fishing, and we went on a boat ride, ate lunch, and did a few crafts.  

Even little sisters got to join in on the fun!  Seth got a patch for his efforts, and we decided we need a board for his room to display all the things that don't go on his uniform.

so glad they like each other

...well, most of the time.  This is from a Friday night, after we went to Charlotte to pick up Seth's Cub Scout uniform and met Nathan for a fancy dinner in uptown.

our new niche...

...is very similar to our old niche, in more ways than one...

If you take a mouse to school...

...you're going to have a blast at school that week.  Amelia's third week of school followed the book to the letter.  In addition to these two projects, she also made a book sequencing the events of the story, and the class made a volcano for a science experiment, just like the book!

For show and tell on Friday, they were supposed to bring something that they could put in the mouse house the class built.  Amelia brought a zhu-zhu baby and the bath tub from Aunt Marie's childhood My Little Pony house.  When I came to pick her up, she looked like this:

happy fall y'all!

Sunday morning Nathan brought out the fall bins and we did a little bit of decorating.  Here is the fireplace:

And the table in the entryway:

And the mums Nathan planted in the window boxes off the kitchen:

The mornings were pretty cool earlier in the week, and the weather has been just beautiful.  The kids love playing outside waiting for Nathan to come home.  Hello, fall!

back to skate!

Saturday we ventured back to Clemmons for the first time.  I was a little nervous about it, since none of us has made any new friends yet, and we would be seeing some of the besties.  We started off our day with a playdate at Nickolas's house, and then we went to McDonalds to see Megan and Ella-Brooke. We spent the afternoon at Krista's birthday party at Skateland.  The kids had an absolute blast.  Seth was perfectly happy whipping around the rink, and Amelia was so happy to see all her friends again.  

 Both kids had to go up a size in skates, and Amelia started dancing on wheels this time.  Here they are doing the cha-cha slide together:

We headed home after the party happy, not heartsick...I think it was exactly what we needed!

fall flowers

Last week we got the nicest surprise...the "shrub" in the front yard started blooming daisies!  I love it!  Every few days, Amelia braves the bees and picks fresh flowers for us to display in the kitchen.

We also have a rogue morning glory growing on the fence by the garden.  They are taking over now that the garden has passed its peak.

life of a dresser

Amelia has always had this dresser:

It was my mom's when she was a baby*.  I had talked about painting it before Amelia was born, and Nathan correctly predicted that the Sara of late-2007 would not paint it.  All I did was update the knobs.  Fresh off painting her room, I decided to paint the dresser (with my mom's permission).  I did some pinterest research, and one Monday morning I headed to Lowes to get my supplies.  I gathered my courage and applied a coat of primer.  And then another.  And then another.  On Tuesday, I added three coats of paint.  On Wednesday I took another deep breath and traced 48 circles on each of the sides (to match her bed skirt and curtains).  I painted one side of it, and then got a little sidetracked with the consignment sale.  On Saturday, I painted the other side, and on Sunday I sealed it with polyacrylic.  By Monday, Amelia's clothes were out of bins and back in drawers.  It's not perfect, but she LOVES it:

It's not a very big dresser, but if I only bought clothes she'd actually wear, everything should fit for a while, ha! It will last her until she has a cousin on the B side that can use it (and then they can paint it how they want it!).

*The dresser was chocolate brown when it was my mom's.  My aunt used it for her kids, and painted it white with blue stripes.  Before I was born, my parents stripped all the paint off and stained it.  This was its first paint job in over 34 years.  So this dresser started in northern Minnesota, has been to Georgia, and Colorado, back to southern Minnesota, and from there, New York, Florida, Minnesota, Cary, Clemmons, and now here.

theme weeks

Amelia's school has a themes each week.  I'm going to try to document them each week, because this school is pretty impressive.  At the parent meeting, the director said there would probably be less arts and crafts this year because they are trying to align their program with the new state-wide core curriculum in the elementary schools.  Well, if this is less projects, I would like to see what it used to be like!  She makes something substantial every day.  The second week of school was "H is for home week."  By the end of the week, Amelia knew our new address, and my cell phone number.  The teachers even made them these cute cell phones out of styrofoam with the phone number on it, and taught her how to dial it.

For show and tell that week, they had a hat week.  Amelia's class is the owls, so of course she had to wear her owl hat.

our big helper

We sold a bunch of stuff before our move, because we knew it wouldn't work in the new house.  We've spent the last few weekends buying things to help complete our home.  Seth has been more than willing to help with assembly, but a lot of things are too big for him to help with.  Except ikea.  He helped put together a chair and two benches, and he put this footstool together all by himself.  

More pictures of the house coming soon, I promise!

a day later...

Man, I meant business when I said I was going to snap out of it!  As soon as I published my last post, I saw that Michael J Fox was in the top ten topics trending on a search engine.  Curious, I clicked on it, and found this.  Ellen joins my short list of celebs I like for their support of Team Fox (which previously only included Rachel Ray and Ryan Reynolds).

So...I dropped Amelia off at preschool, and ran from her school, to the park, and back (3 miles).  Then I came home and scoured our shower.  And I think as a true indication that the funk was gone, I made our bed.  Then my oldest, dearest friend called and we talked for well over an hour, which is always good for the soul.  I sat out of the deck with Colette and read through the stack of scouting info Nathan gave me on Tuesday that I had set aside.  When I picked up Amelia, I felt like me again.

Now because of how I spent my morning, Amelia and I had to run a couple errands again, to buy bird seed and make a return at Walmart this time.  We picked up Seth and the kids played great, until I finally had to mandate dinner.  I tried another new red potato recipe to go with dinner, and Nathan requested an ice cream run.  Besides for the Panthers losing, it was a great day!

ho-hum

I've had a week of the ho-hums, but I think I'm snapping out of it.  I was not sad to move, but I think the ugliness of the sale of our house made me GLAD to get out of there at the time.  We were absolute rock stars at getting moved and settled, and then we had adventure week, and then school started and there's always been some sort of not-to-small project on my plate.  I never realized how completely settled I was before.  I went to the same Target, Walmart, etc for twelve years.  After a month, I can almost find everything on the first try at the grocery store.  I had a hissy fit at the Y a couple weeks ago, because I was so unhappy with the level of customer service I received there.  Who knew all Y's aren't created the same?  I'm trying to meet people...I've gone to school meetings and a couple social functions, and last week I started a Bible study with our neighbors.  Our neighbors are really nice, and I'm the only Lutheran in the bunch, but I think I'll enjoy it.  I was chatting with another lady who moved here a month before us.  She confided in me, "I hate it here."  I was shocked, because she and her kids look so happy when we see them outside.  We got to talking more, and she had moved after living in the same place for twelve years, her daughters are in school, but her little boy isn't settling in well.  He's not in preschool so he spends his days bored at home with her (thank goodness I registered Amelia in April so I'm not in the same boat!)  I don't hate it here, and being a complete family unit overrides any of my complaints, but I think that conversation birthed some woe-is-me thoughts in my brain.  I was in a funk on Thursday, and the copy machine at Seth's school almost had me in tears (can't anything be easy?).  Then I got in his classroom, to find him in tears.  And then I pick Amelia up and she's in tears.  Okay, it's a beautiful day, let's go to the greenway.  We had done it the day before, and I jogged two miles while the kids rode.  This time, though, somebody got really comfortable on his two wheels, took off back to the park, "couldn't hear me" when I yelled for him, and I was stuck in the horrible position of not being able to leave Amelia, and not knowing where he was.   So we had a little talk about mommy's expectations on the greenway, but that didn't exactly help my bad mood.  The consignment sale was fun, and the ladies I talked to were nice, but it was just another morning of pleasantries.

We stuck close to home this weekend, and on Monday my plan was to take the massive amounts of cardboard from all our recent purchases to the recycling center.  Had they not already been loaded in the van, I would have changed my plans.  We had torrential downpours off and on all day Monday, and they happened to be "on" while I was at the recycling center.  I ran a couple other errands and called it quits for the day.  On Tuesday I decided it was time to quell my anger at the Y and go take a class.  I took pilates.  It wasn't as challenging as what I'm used to, but I was sore yesterday, so I guess it worked!  I also tried something new...usually I pick up Amelia, we're home a little over an hour, and then we have to get Seth.  Amelia and I ran a few small errands during that time, which was much more productive than we have been.  Yesterday we explored the downtown shops during that time.  Productive?  No.  Better than going home for an hour?  Yes.  I did my volunteer hours at Seth's school yesterday, so the next two mornings are a blank slate.  I have plans, but they aren't set in stone.  And they don't involve paint.  :)  I hope I'm back on track.  I don't like who I was this past week.

baby Lea?

At Amelia's preschool, every Monday the teachers switch out the artwork above the kids' hooks in the hallway.  Imagine my surprise last Monday when I saw this:

I looked over at Amelia, she looked at me, and said, "Don't tell them."  On the ride home, we had a talk about lying to teachers.  On Tuesday morning, one of the teachers asked me if we were adopting, because Amelia had told them on two separate occasions that she had a baby sister named Lea, but our family picture didn't include a baby and they couldn't find anything about a baby in her bio.  I just told her that it was a new imaginary baby sister who was staying imaginary.  Amelia!

So on Friday at the consignment sale, I let Amelia get a Baby Alive doll who pretends to eat and talks, and Amelia has named her Lea.

consignment, wow

I knew there was a consignment sale in the church that houses Amelia's preschool.  When I asked the preschool director about it in July, she said she'd get me in touch with the right people when school started.  Two days before we moved, I happened upon the sale's FB page, and found out that registration had been the month of July, but the week before there had been a couple spaces left.  I sent an email explaining our situation and was allowed to join the sale.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  It was crazy.  During preschool Friday I worked a pre-sale shift and was assigned to the girls' shoe room.  That's right:  girls. shoe. room.  This is one of three walls of shoes, all sorted by size.  The room also had three racks of maternity clothes and two tables in the middle of the room for decor items.

There was another room of boys shoes, two rooms full of "big-ticket" items, a teen room that spilled outdoors, and the church courtyard was used for bikes and other outdoor toys.  The dining area was lined with checkout booths, but the multipurpose room was the most impressive.  Here is the toy/book section:

 And the clothes:

Because I volunteered, I could go to the first pre-sale at 4pm.  When I went to pick Seth up at 2:30, there were already people camped out waiting to go in.  We got there right at 4, and it was craziness.  I was able to find everything we needed, and a few things we didn't!  That night there was a second pre-sale for consigners (non-volunteers), and the sale opened to the public Saturday morning.  The sale uses a barcode tagging system, has security cameras, police officers, and boy scout volunteers manning the doors. The church parking lot was full every time we drove past Saturday.  I had to go pick up my unsold times at 5pm.  They didn't let us in the building until 5:22, and here is what the line for pick-up looked like when I got there.

Insane!  I sorted my stuff Sunday night and it looks like I made about $300.  Not bad for the new kid in town!  I just got an email from the sale that said they sold over $94,000.  Wow!

after school activities

Each kid was allowed to pick out one activity they wanted to do this fall.  Amelia chose tumbling, and Seth chose tennis.  They were supposed to start two weeks ago, but the Y made a big goof (which caused the momma bear in me to come out because Amelia was really looking forward to it and it broke her heart that she didn't have class) and then Seth's lesson was cancelled due to rain.  It makes those afternoons kind of crazy, but they had a lot of fun in their first week.  I don't think Amelia stopped smiling the whole time:

Seth got a little frustrated that he wasn't perfect right away, but I used the same schpeal I used when he was learning how to ride his bike ("You are doing exactly what someone is learning is supposed to do.  No one expects you to be perfect.  Just try your best.")

And to make that Tuesday a little more crazy, Seth talked Nathan into going to the cub scout informational meeting.  Sounds like we'll be giving that a whirl too.  Fun fall!

new park

A brand-spanking-new park opened just a few miles from us.  One hot Sunday afternoon I took the kids to go check it out.  The kids had never seen a merry-go-round before.  Ever.  It was fun to watch them test it out, running and jumping on, trying to walk across it while it was spinning; you know, all that fun stuff I did as a kid.  I let them get thoroughly nauseated, and then we had a drink break.

 We were waiting patiently for 2:30, when the splash pad opened again:

End of summer fun, for sure!

pretty in pink

It came as no surprise to those who know her well, but Amelia instantly hated her new room.  Seth's room was already blue, and had it been a bad color, he would have understood that it would be painted as soon as possible.  Try explaining that to a 4-year-old, when her parents' and brother's rooms were already nice.  Heck, Amelia's room is the only room we're changing due to ugliness.  Add that to the fact that her room has one closet, not two, like the other rooms, and she was one mad little hen.  She told my friends, "My room is orange and yellow and it's been painted infinity times so my mom can't paint it anymore."  Well, she got the orange/yellow part right:

I bought the paint on Labor Day, taped off her room Friday morning, applied a first coat of paint during preschool and a second before we picked up Seth, and removed the tape when Nathan got home.  Here is a sneak peak:

I will post more when it has been accessorized!

the kitchen

One day I finally dug through all the stacks of stuff in the kitchen and got the counters cleaned, and I decided to take pictures of it.  We have less cabinet space, but it hasn't been a problem so far.  The glass doors in the first picture open out to the deck:

The door in this picture leads to the laundry closet and the hallway that leads to the garage:

The kids eat breakfast and lunch at this table, and Seth sits down here in the afternoons to do his homework:

There is also a little desk area in the kitchen.  The cabinets are organized, but I have yet to maintain a clean counter there.  Which is fine, because there is no room for a chair under it right now.  We started to find Colette sleeping on our shoes under there, so we moved her bed in there instead!