Tuesday, May 10, 2011

So, it looks like I won't be posting a countdown photo for a couple of days until I catch back up. After skyping with Scott today, it appears he will return a couple of days later than anticipated (although there is always hope for an early return, at least in my head!)

I was the parent helper in Mckenzie's class so Abby went to a friend's house this morning. I had a lot of fun being in the classroom with Mckenzie. I was able to see a difference from when she started in how she plays with other kids. She is starting to engage a lot more and I am so excited for her! I had a year end conference with her teacher and Mckenzie is right on track where she should be. 

We had dinner and choir at church tonight. Abby just loves getting to sing and Mckenzie loves to run around with the other little ones.  I am hoping Mckenzie settles down soon. She took a nap (verrrry much needed) this afternoon and is still talking up a storm in her room, but as long as she doesn't come out, I'm not going in!

Monday, May 9, 2011

I love how Dakota left her mark in this photo too! If you look at the orange block, you will see some teeth marks. We lose probably a toy a week to that dog and her chewing habits!

Another Monday has come and gone. Only one more Monday until our family is complete. I have been so emotional lately about Scott returning soon. I can't believe it is finally (almost) here! I have imagined how excited the girls are going to be and what their little faces are going to look like when they see their Daddy for what feels like forever and soon we will get to experience that! I think it is getting to Abby too. She woke up crying for Scott this morning and crawled into bed next to me, hugging her Daddy doll as tight as she could. I can't wait until she doesn't need to find comfort from her doll. After dropping Abby at school, Mckenzie and I took the car in for an oil change. I was thankful that Mckenzie was well behaved while we waited. We stopped by Target to get some bubble bath and left with a cart full! I got Abby's year end progress report from her pre-k teacher today. She said Abby is doing great and most definitely ready for kindergarten. She even counted to 119 when her teacher was assessing her skills! Yay Abby! I asked about any concerns she has in regards to Abby and the only thing she mentioned was her lack of focus at times. We are going to have to work on that this summer. Mckenzie cracks me up sometimes. She is really into Diego and has taken one of Dakota's leashes and claimed it as her rescue rope. She goes around the house, saving anything from her dolls to the dog from unknown dangers. I bought her a set of princess keys at Target today and she thought they were real keys. She got so mad at me when I told her they wouldn't start the car or open the door to the house! Oh, and I think Mckenzie has the photography bug. She was setting up her play camera and snapping pictures of her and I. It was so cute!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day! What a wonderful day with my girls. We went to church, but not before I got a backrub from Abby (it was less than 10 seconds and I had to ask for it, but she readily agreed and was so happy she could do something sweet for me!) and then one from Mckenzie (she loves to copy her sister!). I just love those little girls! They were great in church and Mckenzie only asked for her paci once and I didn't give it to her. Yay for me since church is the one place I am willing to give it to her even though she doesn't use it during the day! After church, I decided to go out to lunch and it was such a nice time. The girls didn't fight and they were so sweet to each other and to me. Both girls got up mid meal and gave me a hug and a kiss, totally unprompted! I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day present than that! We went to the purple park after lunch and Abby was surprised no one else was there. Then she said "nobody comes to the park on Mother's Day except us because you want to make us happy!" Ummm, something like that. I want to tire them out and keep them from fighting. The park is a great place to do that! We got to skype with Scott this afternoon. I am getting so anxious to see him. I can't imagine how he is feeling about getting home. We were talking about him coming home today and he said there are so many things you don't realize you would miss until you don't see them every day. Like grass and children. I can't imagine not seeing a child run around for over four months! We are expecting to get some official travel plans soon. I can't wait to find out for sure! I tried to get a picture of the girls and myself today, but no such luck. I did add the photos of the zoo visit to yesterday's entry though.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

We took a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo today. Abby was excited that she was able to read the word zoo. I'm pretty excited about that too! It was a beautiful day to spend outside and the zoo wasn't overcrowded. The giraffes, zebras, and otters were big hits with the girls. They got their faces painted. Abby as a butterfly and Mckenzie as a pink tiger. Both were adorable! Mckenzie made the cutest little growling noises to go along with her tiger face and chased her flying butterfly sister around the zoo! The girls got to comb the hair on some goats and sheep. They got a big kick out of doing that. We also fed the ducks. Abby just dumped her whole handful of food to the ducks while Mckenzie dropped each pellet individually. Abby kept trying to get Mckenzie to dump them all, but she wouldn't be swayed. We didn't make it through the entire zoo because the girls were getting tired (and cranky!). So, I ended up carrying Abby because her legs were too tired to walk and pushing the stroller with Mckenzie. Not an easy task! Luckily, a nice lady saw me struggling and offered to push the stroller for me. What a relief! Mckenzie fell asleep almost as soon as we left the parking lot. It was a little late in the day for a nap, but there wasn't much I could do about that! We had movie night tonight with some popcorn. The girls just love movie night!

Friday, May 6, 2011

We had a Mother's Day Tea for Abby's class today and it was really cute! Abby proudly showed me to our table where she had placed her gifts for me. The artwork Abby made for me was adorable and so sweet. She wrote that I always help her to plant trees. Not sure where that one came from as I have never planted a tree in my life, but it is still sweet. She also painted a mug that I think could sell at Target (not that I am at all biased;)) The kids held up a Happy Mother's Day sign and sang a couple of songs to us, one of which was "You are my sunshine". That made me tear up since I have been singing that to the girls since they were babies. Abby looked so proud of herself all morning long and I just love seeing that! After lunch, we went to the purple park with a friend and played for awhile. Abby got a blister on her hand and decided it was time to go home. Mckenzie fell asleep on the way home and didn't want to wake up so I let her sleep (not the best idea since it is almost 10pm and she is still awake!) Abby and I watched a movie and then we went to the neighborhood park. I'm not sure if the girls were more excited to take the dog along or ride scooters.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Abby had her kindergarten assessment/registration for school today. Our little girl is growing up so fast! She LOVED the school!!! The principal even took us on a little tour to see the kindergarten classrooms. Abby said so many funny things today. First she asked me if tomorrow she was going to be in kindergarten now or was she still in preschool. She said "I ask a lot of questions because that is the only way I will ever learn" And there were a couple of more funny things that slipped my mind. (I must be getting old!) We had to turn in her immunization records and it turns out she is missing a dose of DTaP. I'm a little annoyed at that because the last time we were at the doc, she said everything was all good and we only needed to get influenza. Grrr. Mckenzie played at a friend's house this morning and had lots of fun. The girls played outside this afternoon until we skyped with Daddy. I can't wait until we no longer have to skype! We had gymnastics this evening. The girls are preparing for an event called Victory Day that allows them to show off what skills they have learned in gymnastics. It isn't a competition, just a chance to demonstrate their skills.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Abby had school on this rainy day and Mckenzie and I had to go grocery shopping. Mckenzie was very well behaved in the store (two granola bars and a bag of fruit snacks may have played a small part in that) and it made for a much more enjoyable shopping experience. We hung out at home, working on colors and shapes and puzzles. The girl sure does love putting puzzles together. We mailed one last package to Daddy, so hopefully it makes it in time:-) We had a little time to waste before picking Abby up from school, so I headed to the Dunkin' Donut for a coffee. Mckenzie fell asleep in the car about two seconds after she asked for a movie. Guess she was tired. Abby told me she had a great day in school and has decided she wants to make Jungle Juice for her final chef class. Both chef classes combine for the day and have a big feast where each child gets to bring in his/her favorite dish. It is a lot of fun and this year is so special because it is her last year of pre-K :( I can't believe she will be starting kindergarten in the fall. It makes me so sad and happy every time I think about it. I love that she is growing up and learning so much (just tonight she got her address completely right- usually she says NJ then the town, but tonight she said our town then New Jersey. She was so happy she finally got it right!!) but I wish I could hold onto her for just a little longer. If this is how I feel when she is prepping for kindergarten, how I am going to be when she heads off to college? Anyhoo, since it was so wet out and raining off and on, I let the girls watch a movie before meeting our friends at Chick fil A. The girls had fun playing together and it was nice to have dinner with another adult!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

I dropped Abby off at a friend's to play this morning so I could go to Mckenzie's Mother's Day Tea at her preschool. It was a very fun event. Mckenzie greeted me with a hug and a kiss and then we listened to her teacher read a couple of stories about moms. Then, we went into the other classroom where we had our "tea". Mckenzie was so proud to show me where we were sitting as she had set our dishes out for us. I love seeing how proud her herself she was. She melts my heart :) I had a lovely morning all thanks to my Mckenzie Grace. We had dinner and choir at church tonight. I brought peanut butter sandwiches for the girls, but wouldn't ya know tonight they served plain pasta which my kids love! At least now I have Abby's lunch made for tomorrow. Mckenzie was trying to race Abby to the car but since she was wearing rainboots, she was a little unsteady on her feet and ended up scraping up her knee. Lots of tears, but she never once asked for her paci!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Abby had school today and Mckenzie got to play with a friend this morning. Mckenzie had kind of a rough day in regards to her pacifier. She asked me what felt like a million times if she could have it and her fits lasted up to 20 minutes (thankfully only twice were they very long)! I hope tomorrow is easier for her.  We had to run to the convenience store to pick up some milk this evening. I was going to do it earlier in the day, but time slipped away from me and then it was time to get Abby from school and skype with Scott. He was late to our skype date and considering Osama Bin Laden's recent death, I was a bit worried, but it turns out that he was just playing poker. I have to say I am relieved that we have finally gotten OBL, I just worry about what the retaliation will be...

Sunday, May 1, 2011

This is a photo from last April, but I thought it was a perfect photo to use for our countdown :)

Abby's choir sang in church again today and she had so much fun doing it. She even had time to smile and wave to Mckenzie while she was up there! This afternoon, I took the girls to a winery that was having a spring fling. They have a playground and they were offering free pony rides for the kids. The girls had a blast! Abby rode the pony twice and loved every minute of it. Abby rode the pony and a horse. She loved both, but told me the horse was her favorite to ride. It was a nice afternoon spent with friends. Mckenzie fell asleep on the car ride home, but I didn't have the heart to wake her. She really wore herself out playing. As the girls were getting ready for bed, Abby asked Mckenzie to sing the ABC song for her (I told Abby she has to brush her teeth as long as it takes to sing it four times) because she can't sing and brush her teeth at the same time. (I have tried to explain that she can think the song in her head, but she tells me she can't do both yet.) Mckenzie was happy to oblige.