A trip to the Shelby County Fair...

Tonight the we all went to the Shelby County Fair - the weather was on the cool side, Jess was happy it wasn't going to be warm. And although I hate being at a fair when it's 90 degrees out I was actually cold! But we all got pineapple whip as soon as we got their, I think Eva was the only one who managed to eat all of hers (no milk - so she must have really enjoyed it!). We ran into Shane, Jess, Ella & Elijah... walked around w/ them. Grace wanted to ride a ride but I'm thinking they didn't look too safe plus then Eva would have wanted to as well. So instead we walked over to the farm buildings to check out all of the animals.

The girls had a great time seeing the animals, they got to see a goat being milked! I have to say that was new for me too! Eva liked the cows but they were a little scary, they are REALLY big close up! Since being at the fair, Eva now when asked "what does [insert ANY animal] say?" She will respond w/ "Naa...haaa..." which works well for most farm animals, but it's really funny when you ask her what a cat says;-)

Waking up from a nap to strawberry dip!

Swimming... their FAVORITE activity!

Gosh I'm glad the girls have the pool b/c boy do they have fun out here! Grace used to be afraid of the water (after a BAD swim lesson). But now she is a little fish! She puts her face in the water (of course generally w/ goggles on). She's even started swimming some w/out her life jacket on. And as I'm sure you can guess - Eva has to at least try and do EVERYTHING Grace does b/c she thinks she's just like Grace:-) Some of it goes over well, and others... hmm... not so well. But Eva was actually the first person to jump in the pool. Grace wasn't going to let Eva out do her - so now she's jumping in too!

Pics w/ the Benson girls...

Tonight I had pics w/ the Benson girls, it's always hard when I have to take pics of the girls friends... especially for Eva. Eva thinks I should be taking pics of her the entire time. I mean look at that face below, she sooooo wants to be the center of attention. And Gracie isn't too far behind her in that area, luckily Grace is growing up so she understands better why I'm not just taking pics of her:-)

Father's Day @ the lake...

Eva's 1st time tubing!

A house warming gift...

After a great day at the lake enjoying Father's Day, Judy & Nick called to see if they could bring by something... they surprised all of us w/ a nice shade tree for the girls! What a great house warming gift, and they'd planned to deliver it on Father's Day so that years from now we could look back and easily remember our first Father's Day at the new house. Soooooo SWEET! And I'm sure the best part about it for Matt, was they even helped plant it! The girls had fun watching and trying to help too!

The bracelet Gracie made me...

Grace made me this bracelet & made me PROMISE that I would wear it to work, I think she thought I wouldn't or would forget...

So I told her I'd take a picture wearing it and send it to her:-)

Mommy I will hold your hand...

Okay so about a month ago I learned I had a problem w/ my thyroid. Most people probably wouldn't be too happy but I was actually over joyed to know there was a cause to the way I was feeling (sooooo tired that when Eva would throw a fit at the grocery refusing to get in her car seat, I was at the point I'd tell her get in or I'll have to leave you here -- so yes that tired!).

But now I have swelling in my right ankle, I know maybe I hurt myself, but even though I'm clumsy I can't remember a time when I might have hurt myself. So I reluctantly called the doctors office -- they wanted to draw my blood to check for Hashimoto's disease... okay, except the draw my blood part. I hate that!

So this morning the girls and I got up and went first thing -- got there when they opened. B/c Grace had just gotten her kindergarten shots she was all about taking care of me. We get there and Grace & Eva go back w/ me, Grace is squeezing my hand so hard I can barely feel my fingers - I guess a good way to take my mind off a blood draw! Then Grace says, "Oh Mommy this is going to HURT - there is a lot of blood! Do you want to see it?" They took 3 tubes so that's the blood she saw, but the nurse was super nice and let Grace but the band aid on:-)

Maybe we have a doctor in the making!

Poppy kie...

It's the middle of June and the weather here is off and on, and tonight it was off... but we decided we weren't going to let that set us back. So girls in the bath early and we were going to sit out by the fire pit. Right after bath Eva wanted to call Nanni & Poppy to see if they wanted "fire pit" too! So we called Nanni, and she wanted to come!

The girls were so excited to see Nanni, Poppy & Uncle Rob. Eva immediately noticed that Poppy had a band aid on his finger (apparently he cut it on the saran wrap box) but of course Eva thought that "Mollie did it". And b/c we all think "Molly did" it is so funny Poppy agreed:-) Eva spends the next 15 minutes or so talking to Poppy about his boo-boo, and Molly needing to be in time out, showing him ever last scratch she has that -- Molly did:-)

After Nanni & Poppy left Eva is telling me, "Poppy boo-boo, thumb, Mollie did it...." totally understood what she was telling me then she adds "Poppy kie" to her usual mantra. Took me a minute to understand what she was saying (she was very serious about it too) but once I realized what she was saying I was rolling laughing -- Poppy CRY!

Too funny! Where does she get this stuff?

Kindergarten shots....

Oh my gosh, my baby is growing up! Makes me want to cry... Gracie needed to have her Kindergarten shots in order to go to school. Several weeks back her best buddy Jyllian got her shots and had to get four shots. Jyllian told Grace how bad it was, and Grace was just terrified. I told Grace I'd call the doctors office and see how many she had to get... the news was bad - four.

I didn't want to trick Grace and get her to the doctors office and spring the shots on her, so I told her we would have to go and get them, but I'd tell her when she was getting them so she'd know a head of time. She seemed okay with that; I really wanted to make sure she doesn't end up hating the doctors office like I still do! When I was little either mom thought it was best not to tell me, or she didn't know - but I always associated the doctors office with the possibility of a shot so I never wanted to go. I only go now b/c as a grown-up I figure I can say NO and be heard:-) At our last doctors visit for Eva I talked to Celia (PA) to see if they could write Grace a script for Emuel cream, I'd figured this was a long shot - but I know they use it on children in the ER, clinical trials, etc... she said yes!

So Grace's shots were scheduled for Friday June 12th @ 4:00 p.m. - just thinking about her going was making me sick. But Matt had the bright idea (really bright doesn't do it justice -- AMAZING idea!) when he picked Grace up from Bible School on Thursday evening...

Matt: "Gracie, I've got a great idea... how about we surprise Mommy and get you ready for kindergarten?"

Grace: "Yeah!"

Matt: "You know what that means?"

Grace: "Yep, I have to get four shots."

Matt: "Afterwards we can come home and get Mommy & Eva and we'll all go for ICE CREAM!!!"

So Thursday evening Grace comes in saying, "I'll have a surprise for you tomorrow Mommy!" I tried to get her to tell me, but she wouldn't spill the beans:-) I arrived home from work on Friday and Matt said, "Gracie I need to go get some gas, want to come w/ me?" And they took off - about an hour later Grace came limping through the door saying, "Mommy I have a surprise for you - I'm ready to go to KINDERGARTEN!!!!"

Matt said she was amazing, she cried just a little bit but did a great job (I'm CERTAIN better than I would have done!) she had to get three shots, four vaccinations but they were able to combine one of the shots with another one.

Grace was vaccinated for the following:

• Diphtheria, Tetanus (Lock-jaw) & Pertussis (Whooping Cough) -- aka: DTaP


• Polio (IPV)


• Measles, Mumps & Rubella (MMR)


• Chickenpox

Conner Prairie w/ Daddy...

Today the girls went with Matt to Conner Prairie - their last day before Brenda comes home. Matt said they had so much fun (I love when he's home w/ them and they do a "memorable" activity). While at CP they took a hot air balloon 387 feet in the air - on the 1859 Balloon Voyage.

It was too cute when I got home they were both talking about it - Eva kept saying BALLOON and pointing up! Boy days w/ dad are fun!!!

The pic below was taken by Daddy while 387 feet in the air:-)

Rob - lookie!

Oh no... why can I not learn? I mean seriously, was Grace's lipstick incident still not fresh in my mind? I should have know - Grace was two when it happened, be on the look out Eva's just turned two, a disaster is just around the corner... but no, can't learn from my mistakes can I?

I'm over at Nanni's typing up minutes from my recent Start-up meeting. I'd been meaning to get them done now for days, and since no one sleeps at my house it wasn't going to happen there. I'm busy typing away thinking Eva is being super good -- typing my notes at warp speed when I hear Rob say, "oh my gosh - have you seen this???" I was like, "seen what?" And I turn around...

Eva apparently was busy just not busy being good. Mom has this, oh who knows what it is, but it swings and draws in a large dish of very very fine sand... Sand that in the past has been a total magnet for both girls. Eva has nearly emptied the dish full of sand! It's everywhere... all over the table, all over and in between the wood floor, all over the carpet and the leather chair. Apparently, it was something she was rather proud of b/c w/ Rob passed the office she said, "Rob, lookie!" Like, gosh this has been hard work - destroying Nanni's office while Mommy is busy working. Geese I spent nearly as long cleaning up the mess as I did typing the minutes. You'd think I'd learn:-)

Arts & Crafts...

Aren't sprinkles just a train wreck waiting to happen??

Okay so as you can see the girls have my talent for cooking:-) We tried making ice cream cone cupcakes. They turned out so-so, not the best looking cupcakes... but once they are iced they look a lot like an ice cream cone. So the girls wanted to decorate them, so I iced them and passed them off to the girls to decorate (on their new picnic table courtesy of Nanni & Poppy!). They were having a ball... that is until Grace had a cone and Eva didn't. So I let Eva have the cake (I'd poured the left cake mix into a round cake pan) Eva was happily sprinkling away when I hear Grace say "NO Eva!"

Eva had poured her entire bottle of sprinkles on the cake and was patting them in - a very skilled technique:-) When she realized the icing was sticking to her hands she started licking it off, of course it didn't take Grace long to realize that was a lot more fun than what she was doing... needless to say I had a huge MESS when they were done. But I guess one of those events that once you're on the train and it's not stopping you might as well enjoy the ride:-)

Here is the recipe for you inspired bakers - courtesy of Mia!

you just do a regular cake mix...
then pour them into the cake cones about 2/3 full
then bake in preheated oven @ 325 for 30 minutes!
put 12 of them in a 9x13 pan standing up side-by-side so that they don't fall.
they don't rise all that much...and after you ice them, they really do look like ice cream cones ;) we used sprinkles but the mini chocolate chips would be cute too :)