Dirty

Today the girls at least waited until the end of the day to play in the dirt, which meant as soon as we got home we went strait to the tub!! As Jenn is now afraid of the water, I opted to get in with her, and she did great! It amazes me that kids can get that dirty in under a minute of time. At least they had fun right?!?!?

Camping

This past weekend I had a little mommy getaway and went camping with my Mom, Mike and my super duper Suzi, a best friend since High School!! We went to Wilderness State Park, which is to the left of the Mackinac Bridge in the mitten. We had a great, I mean GREAT weekend, and I got to take lots of photos, it was amazing so see how beautiful our state and nature are. Lake Michigan was gorgeous, I hope I can go back every year!!!!

A.M. Swim

Mom, must you really take my picture again?

Peace, Pink, and Princesses

The scrape on her little nose

Someday she will be reading all on her own

Today started out a bit on the rough side! We were outside this morning, and Jenn was putting her hands in the big pool. I looked away to talk to Ryan, who was working on Mikes oil change, and I looked back at the pool and Jenn was gone! She had fallen over the side and into the pool, now luckily I only put in an inch of water yesterday, and she popped up very quickly, but as I was running to get her I know I was running in slow motion. My heart skipped a few beats and I know I stopped breathing for a minute or two, but when I finally got to the pool, she was thankfully totally fine. I am sure she was scared more then anything, but damn that has have been the worst feeling I have ever had in my whole motherhood. She has a slight scrape on her nose, but now I don't need to give her a bath tonight. After that drama for the day, the rest of my day was smooth sailing, the girls even did a little dance workout with me.

H2O

Grace has a big blue pool made of hard plastic and it has a slide, she loves it!!!! Jenn has a serious aversion to the pool! I have tried to get in it with her and she just wants nothing to do with it, so as a last ditch effort I tried something new today. I scavanged the house today to find something to imitate a pool for Jenn, just on a smaller scale, the blue tub for parties ended up being perfect!!! I filled it up with about an inch of water and let her figure it out on her own, it totally worked!! She played in the water with her hands first, then stuck her toes in and finally tried to sit in it. After a while I took her into Graces bigger pool and Jenn was finally LOVING the pool, she even went down the slide, at least a dozen times. It was a triumphant day for me and my skills in tricking my kids once again! Cheers ME!

Park Day

Daddy

Michelle and Jess

Jess fell through and got stuck

Grace being brave and going for it on those monkey bars!

Jenn and Daddy

Today my friend Michelle and I got our girls together and met at a park!! Michelle's daughter; Jessica is 5, 6 in August, and Grace just loves playing together. As for Jenn, she just liked running around the park!! The girls all had a blast, and we were early enough that we had the whole park to ourselves: 10am was a great time to arrive. We played and ran and went down slides and climbed across monkey bars, we had a blast, and then it got HOT! So we called it a day and went to cool down with some lunch. Its great that my daughter will have some good friends around her, hopefully someone she can grow up with, something I guess I wished for as a kid. As long as neither Michelle nor I move, we should be all set :)

Softball States 2010

The Boys.

Me and my girls!

View of the bridge from our hotel room.

Our Hotel hallway.

Port Huron also had a classic car show going on this weekend.

This year my co-ed softball team made a trip to Port Huron, MI. We didn't win, but we played with our hearts and left everything out on the field! I am proud of my teammates for pushing through and picking each other up when we needed it most. I know most of my photos are not so much of softball, but I found some really cool things to take pictures of. For me, this weekend was a great get-a-way from being "mom" and being able to be "Cheryl". These weekends are priceless for me, I love them and I try to take advantage of all the "me" time that I could. However, my weekend would not have happened without Ryan, and my mom, they have a great weekend with the girls!
Our softball team went 2-2, I think next year, we will be even more ready, and I can't wait!!!!!

Today I am 32

Grace took this!!

Me and my girls

Grace and her favorite animals -monkey & cow

Jenn and her -Bear bear

Jenn reading to cow

No, that is not a damn typo, I am 32 today. I had a pretty good birthday today too!! Ryan worked until 5pm and then brought home dinner, (not from his work place either) it was a nice quiet evening at home with my family! The girls and I had a great day taking lots of pictures of course and trying new ideas with the camera! The older I get the more and more my birthday just becomes another day, but with my girls, its makes it a special day, I am so grateful to be a mom, that is the best birthday present ever!!!!! Oh, and when I asked Grace "where is my birthday present?" she says to me "mom, you are to old to get birthday presents!" Wooooohoooooo, was that a reality check :) Gotta love the things kids say!!!!

Karma

Circa 1981-ish

Jenn got it!!!

So they say that what goes around, comes around! Well mine came around!!! In 1981-ish ,while my father was home with us, I took the baby powder and I made is "snow" all over the living room and my little brother! My dad was mad, the only memory I have of this happening is the picture from above.
Well today a kid named Karma has just kicked my a$$!!

4th of July Weekend

Sunset in my backyard

Jenn

Grace was hot!

Jenn wearing extra big shoes

She was in a mood!!!

I would say that another 4th of July has passed, and it was another GREAT weekend!!! Grace got to see fireworks on Saturday, she loves them!! Jenn still has yet to see her first fireworks, even though this was her second 4th of July celebration, she just cant stay awake that late at night :( Sunday we went down to Toledo with Mimzy to got shopping for Grace, I had to get her some clothes for school, we got thrift store shopping for that, and I needed to beat the rush come August! I was sooooo happy to have bought her 10 pair of Jeans and about 15 shirts for $55!! I love being a bargain shopper!!!! We had a lovely little BBQ Sunday evening, on the 4th, and Grace had a friend over and they ran through the sprinklers together, it was a HOT one!! I can't wait for next year's 4th already, Jenn will be able to watch the fireworks and I already know she will love it!

Recycle

We took all of our recyclables off today to our local recycling center. Super exciting I know!! Grace loves it because she just learned that recycling helps to save the planet, at least according to Dora the Explorer anyway! After that we played outside and went for a walk around the yard. Jenn is doing this thing where she ALWAYS wants you to smell her feet, she thinks is sooooo funny. I guess this is partly me fault as I started the whole thing, but wow, even in her swing now she wants to do it!!! Jenn is really starting to say a lot more words, as well as using her sign language more too, this is making me a happy Mommy!!!!! Life is good right now, wonderful days ahead!