potty training!

potty training, here we go! sophie's taking the lead and wants to use the toilet! hooray! she's going to prove me wrong. on memorial day, i purchased two more boxes of papers diapers (mainly because i got $20 off for buying two but also because i didn't think she'd be potty trained in 3 months). i'm now hoping i can return the second box (for cash, not store credit but that probably won't happen since i don't have a receipt). for the past month, i have let sophie try out the toilet whenever she asked. sometimes a little poop came out, most times, nothing. however, she was excited. then she lost interest, and then it came back so we bought some underwear. how lucky for sophie that walmart sells frog underwear. we've been talking to her a lot about using the toilet and last week she saw her cousin (who is only 9 days older) wearing underwear. this helped spark some interest so we began experimenting with underwear. she's only had a couple accidents. pooping is so much easier than peeing. never has she told me she needed to pee but she'll tell me she has to poop and then goes. this girl spends so much time in the bathroom "trying" because she wants to go and she knows if she does smarties are waiting for her. i think this is one reason we haven't had many accidents...she's in the bathroom all. the. time. it's exhausting sometimes! oh, well, whatever works. she constantly tells me she's done with diapers but i'm not sure i'm ready to venture out of the house in underwear. i mentioned to her she'd have to wear a diaper to story time at the library tomorrow and she got so upset. maybe i should give it a try? i just hate for her to pee all over the library carpet.... she's so proud of herself and is her own best cheerleader saying, "yay, sophie" each time she goes in the toilet. molly is also very into sophie using the toilet and usually has to accompany sophie to the bathroom each time. she takes great pride in letting me know when sophie is ready to wipe and even "taught" sophie to wipe while i was in the shower yesterday. she always wants to know what underwear sophie will pick out to wear. tonight we took a walk and i made sophie sit on a towel, folded multiple times, just in case. she fell asleep and molly continually checked to make sure sophie was still dry. actually, now that i'm thinking about it, molly was probably the most instrumental part of sophie's potty training interest because i'd catch her whispering to sophie when she'd use the bathroom, "do you want to try" and then come running to me letting me know that sophie wanted to try. she invited sophie into the bathroom many times when she was going. aren't big sisters great? so here we go...day 3 tomorrow. molly was trained in a weeks time...i'm wondering if sophie will be just as quick. my guess is no, but we're moving in the right direction! 

ants and picnics

we have finished our unit on ant and picnics except for a few handwriting sheets that molly will continue to work on. the girls are having so much fun with the activities...it makes me excited for our next unit! here are our final activities: patterning to make a tablecloth. sophie caught on quick to this and knew exactly what color she needed next. this was not a challenge for molly but she still had fun. she turned it into a race (of course, sophie can't finish before her) so her tablecloth was a little off...

 then, the girls used their finger, or fingers/hand in sophie's case, to make ants crawling on their tablecloth. i think there was an ant on almost every square!

molly practiced writing A's and P's

 sophie colored on a dry erase board for a bit but quickly grew tired of it so we sequenced dinosaurs. she preferred this activity and did great! she's learning so much, so quickly!

 molly and i played a build an ant game. she won every time! sophie played once, but again, her patience level was just not there. finally she was the designated dice roller.

our last activity was a picnic at the park. i had high hopes that we'd be able to picnic in an area without a playground. i wanted the girls to just experience an open field, eating, and playing with a ball or running around. however, we pulled into the park (a new one for us) and there was the playground.

 making silly faces while eating was a fun thing. after we ate we played some duck duck goose around our picnic sheet.

 and then the playground. it was a neat playground with lots of different spinning things. molly loved them all while sophie was a bit scared. the cautious side in sophie is coming out, i think.

 much to their resistance, i made the girls stop playing on the playground and go over to the open grassy area to play with their balls. molly learned to drop kick, kinda and we played catch. i was a bit disappointed in their lack of creativity and enjoyment in the grassy area. they're so creative and imaginative in almost every situation but molly asked me what they were supposed to do. i'm blaming it on the playground....they wanted to go back and play on it. oh well, we will try again...in an area without a playground and maybe bring some kites along.

coming up next in our summer school: caterpillars and butterflies.

$200 hamburger deliciousness

last weekend we purchased a charcoal grill and we love it! i'm not sure how much we'll use our gas grill this summer after tasting the deliciousness that comes off this grill!  matt and i were inspired after watching primal grilling and bbq university on pbs late one saturday night. we learned a lot of grilling tips and some neat recipe ideas. steven raichlen is teh host and he's fun to watch. crazy hair, down to earth guy who has every kind of grill imaginable. his whole yard has grills everywhere and they're all going at once. you should watch him if you're interested in new grilling techniques. unfortunately, lately he has only been on at 2:00 in the morning so we've not been able to watch. tonight, however, i found him on at 8. good stuff! and, usually, he doesn't make the annoying "mmmm" sound after tasting his food. tonight he did, but it was mild. enough about primal grilling and on to us, specifically matt.

matt loves fire...in the winter he could just sit and watch our fire place for hours. grilling is just as much fun for him, poking, monitoring flames and smoke, basking in the aroma of the cooking meat and or smoking hickory chips. here he is lifting the lid to flip what we called our $200 burgers. after all was said and done: grill, charcoal, hickory chips, chimney starter, and food, it was a $200 meal. but soooo worth it. yummo!

                                                                                



we seasoned the burgers with gates original rub. first mixing it in the hamburger and then rubbing it on top to make sure there was enough flavor. gates seasoning is good stuff. we did use the gas grill that night too and grilled some onions brushed in olive oil mixed with garlic powder. i never thought i would enjoy just eating onions. i like them mixed in things but alone, not so much. grilled onions, caramelized were so delicious and made the hamburger that much better!

                                                                            as matt was cooking he kept commenting that they were going to be good and juicy. that they were. it helped that we didn't buy good hamburger...85% lean so there was a fair amount of fat floating around in there. hamburger is so expensive.... i was glad matt went into the store with me so he could see just how much groceries cost and why our weekly bill is so high, so often.

we paired our juicy burger with bush's baked beans and steak fries. i gave it 9/10 stars, it was that good. i wanted a second burger even though i was stuffed....i resisted and had another for dinner the following evening. unfortuntaly, it didn't live up to it's expectaions reheated so next time i may just have to indulge in two!  i should add that after the burgers were finished we still had hot coals and cooked some bone-in chicken breasts, also seasoned with gates original rub, for lunch the next day. oh my goodness, they were good too! the chicken tasted like it had been in a smoker. so moist, and delicious. and, unlike the burger, did not loose any flavor when reheated.

summer school

molly LOVES school and was so bummed that there was a summer break for preschool. she couldn't understand why anyone would want a break. i love her enthusiasm for school and learning and assured her that we'd do fun school stuff this summer. i'm sure one day this will not be the case and i'll be posting that she hates that i'm a teacher, like one of my facebook friends posted earlier in the week, when i'm forcing her to read and keep her multiplication facts in the forefront of her mind over summer break.

so, i've come up with some fun summery units, in no particular order for letter practice. this week we're doing A and P for ants and picnic since they go well together. today we made the letter P out of playdough and then created a picnic with our fun picnic playdough set complete with little black ants crawling to and on our plate. the girls loved it!

molly's 1st P without any prompts on how to make one

making ants

lining up ants

very focused

concentrating on placing ants

the final product

after playdough we made A and P pages. molly loved searching through magazines and finding A and P words. it was hard to find A words! sophie enjoyed gluing her pictures on and scaring me when she'd grab the scissors and attempt to cut.

lots more to come on letters A and P!

lately...

it's been a little while so here's a quick update on what we've been doing.

cloud dough: mix 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil and enjoy. (i doubled the recipe) thanks pinterest for the idea!

 it's messy...well, at least when my girls play with it. but it does clean up nicely. so much better to play with outside on the deck.

 sidewalk chalk paint: mix 1/2 c. cornstarch with 1/2 c. water add food coloring. paint on driveway. so much fun!!! again, messy so we wear paint clothes! (also a pinterest thing!)

 mother's day: molly's preschool class put on a little program and tea for all the moms. she made this cute little gift and had so much fun visiting with me during the tea.

 love my girl!



last day of preschool: molly's preschool celebrated their last day at the park. here's a pictures with her teacher, mrs. franklin. she was wonderful!



playing in the rain: we haven't had much rain so the girls enjoyed getting out their umbrellas and getting wet!

graduation: my little brother, alex, graduated from high school last saturday. he's off to emporia state in august to study secondary education with an emphasis in history. molly's not too sure about this college thing and uncle alex being gone. 

kansas city zoo: today we took the girls to the zoo. we watched an animal show and at the end the girls were able to give the macaw a dollar to put in his mailbox to help save his friends. 

while at the zoo we also rode the sky tram. that was fun! we had a great view of the giraffes and zebras and their cute little babies. it's been a fun month!

race day!

yesterday was race day! i saw a flyer for the global orphan project 5k several months ago hanging up at the church where molly's preschool was located. it said it was a family run and that strollers were allowed. i was all for that since i normally have the girls in tow when i run. so, i signed up. i don't do these runs to win (i'm not good enough, anyway) but more for the satisfaction of completion and the t-shirt. matt's thoughts, "so basically you want a $25 t-shirt." yeah, pretty much! but hey, i also like knowing that i participated. i've been running for awhile now...ever since it warmed up. which i guess was like february! i'm really amazed at how far i've come. i started out running approx. 2.5 miles and it took me in the neighborhood of 30 minutes. i can now do it in 24.5 min with the stroller, running hard. my goal for the 5k was 30 minutes (i ran one in october of 2010 and did it in 30). i was super excited when i reached the 2 mile mark and looked at my watch reading 18:47. i knew i could beat my goal. still pacing myself, i realized i was closer to the finish than i thought (i thought i had to go around another part of the park before finishing) so i sped up and sprinted for the last 45 sec or so to cross the finish line in 28:04. i was 115/317 and 8/31 in my age group. needless to say, i was pretty pleased. now, as i'm typing this, it sounds like i'm boasting on myself. not really the point of this, but more that hard work and dedication pay off. i've been running 2.5 miles at least 3 days a week for months and it showed!

the other point of this post is to brag about molly and sophie. they participated in a kids fun run that was about 1/4 of a mile or a little longer. molly ran the whole thing, hard. she didn't stop, once! sophie started out strong (for about 30 seconds) then had to walk...she was sweaty! then she'd run again! we cut across the grass to catch up with molly so i could get pictures. sophie ran a bit more, then i carried her to almost the finish line..so i could get pictures. she was against this and wanted to run herself. the best part of the whole run, the girls received a medal! they were so excited and wore them quite a bit yesterday. molly can't wait to do it again. she's convinced she won! no official time for her...next time matt will have to time her.

 waiting for the race to start

 on your mark, get set, GO!!!

crossing the finish line

 resimulated crossing the finish line since she finished before sophie!

 proud finishers with their medals!

fitness is a big part of our family and i'm glad the girls are learning that at a young age. sophie repeatedly tells me she's going to the choo-choo's (the path where i run has a train track that runs along side so seeing trains is a big deal to sophie) to run with her baby and then takes off through the house.

yum, yum

here's what we've been eating this week and will eat...

monday: pigs in a blanket (made with johnsonville turkey and cheddar sausage), sweek potato fries
tuesday: leftover pizza from sunday
wednesday: enchiladas
thursday: honey grilled porkchops, baked sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus (pictured above...not to shabby!) http://mommyimhungry.blogspot.com/2011/05/honey-grilled-pork-chops.html
friday: chicken salad, roasted green beans, strawberries
saturday: parmesan chicken, pasta and red sauce, veggie
sunday: creamy shrimp and veggie enchiladas, refried beans, mexican rice