And the teacher is...

Last night we went to "Wonderful Wednesday" at Grace's school.  It is a chance for the kids to find out who their teacher is and who is in their class. On the way over Grace said to me and Bruno, "my tummy feels a little funny."  I told her she was probably just a little nervous and excited to see people.  She agreed.  I didn't add that I was a little nervous for her too. 

We found out who her teacher is and she seems happy.  And she is extremely happy that almost all of her friends are in her class.  Whew! 

We met up with friends and talked about who is in which class.  We signed up for various activities throughout the school year. 

It was good to see people and to know that Grace will be in what will hopefully be a great class.  It's so hard to believe that she is going to be starting 1st grade already!  I'll be posting pictures next week!

Don't Mess with My Target

A few weeks ago I pulled into the parking lot of my Target. The one I have been going to for over 10 years.  The one that is less than a mile from my house. The one I go to every week.  I noticed part of the parking lot was blocked off and filled with industrial size storage units.  "Hmm...I wonder what's going on?"  A few days later I then noticed some things in the store had been moved around. And then the sign went up "Groceries coming on Oct. 4." 

I like the idea of being able to get my groceries at Target.  But instead of expanding the actual store, they are moving everything around and using 1/4 of the exisiting store for groceries.  So now there will be less of everything - less of the kid's clothes, less of the shoes, less of the toys, less of everything that I normally go to Target for - and who know's where it will be in the store anyway.  No more just running into Target, to the exact aisle where I know to get whatever it is I need - now I have to learn the new layout where everything is crammed together.  Can you imagine the struggles I will now face in trying to find where the napkin rings are?

I am truly annoyed at this.  I know, I need to get a life.  There are people with real problems and I should not waste my time writing a blog post about Target.  But, yet, I find myself wanting to complain - so there it is - don't mess with my Target!

Michigan Vacation

Every year, for the past several, in January, the discussions begin.  Where should we go for our August vacation?  We know we will be going to Michigan to visit my family but where should we stay?  We have spent many August vacations at my parents house and it is always wonderful.  But there have been several years that my parents have generously offered to find a place for all of us to stay for the week.  We have been up to the Traverse City/Glen Arbor area a few times and have truly enjoyed it up there.  But this year, we decided to stick a little closer to home.  We chose Saugatuck.  It is an adorable little town filled with cute little stores, a pluthera of ice cream shops, wonderful restaurants with great water views and delicious ice creams shops (oh, I guess I already mentioned that). 

We found a great place with a pool right on the Kalamazoo River, walking distance to Saugatuck and just 5 minutes from the gorgeous Lake Michigan beaches.  (Yes, my east coast friends and relatives, there are proper beaches on a lake!) 

We spent time with Nora and Len and Ryan, Erin, Owen and Nolan joined us for several days too. We overindulged on many things - food, drinks, ice cream (every day - is that wrong?).  We had wonderful meals at home and in town.  We sat by the water and watched gorgeous sunsets.  The kids were outside all day long, every day.  They had an absolutely wonderful time.  Both girls slept great and everyone stayed healthy (two major accomplishments based on our previous vacations)!

Grace and Owen and Abby played very well together.  And Nolan will be tagging along with them soon enough.  It had been way too long since we had seen Ryan, Erin, Owen and Nolan and the boys had changed so much.  I'm so glad that the kids get along so well.  It reminds me so much of how Ryan, Kerri and I used to play. 

We can't say enough thank you's to my mom and dad for giving us the gift of allowing us all to be together - in a gorgeous part of Michigan - relaxing and just enjoying each other's company.  We are already looking forward to next year's vacation which we know will be at their new lake house!

Here are a lot of pics which are just a snapshot of how great the week was.

 The first of many "light" dinners.

Adorable Owen - 4 years old

Super cute Nolan - we were able to celebrate his one year birthday!

 Uncle RyRy showing Grace some new apps on his iPhone.

 What a beautiful sunset we saw!

 Jamma and her girls!

 Jamma and Poppy with their girls!

If we climb all of these stairs will it burn enough calories to eat ice cream every day for 6 days?

The girls are creative - they turned a Caterpillar tractor (which was Nolan's b-day present) into a playhouse with separate rooms for each of them.

Enjoying the view from Ryan and Erin's gorgeous new home!

Bye Bye Paci

First of all we had a fantastic vacation in Michigan last week which will get its own post once I have my life organized.  Ok, well, let's be honest, I don't know when I'll have my life organized so I'll post once I have my pictures uploaded.

On a different note, we reached a new milestone with Abigail.  Grace never took a paci (and I tried) but Abigail took right to it and would only take the ones that she started with in the hospital.  (The company that got the hospital contract for these pacifiers is loving life right now.)  Once we realized that she liked them, we ordered them in bulk!

But we knew the time had come (and probably should have come awhile ago) for her to give up the paci.  She gave up her beloved "xu xa" (prounced shoo-sha which is a Portuguese word for "pacifier").  I cut the tip of it off Saturday night and then waited to see what would happen.  She put it in her mouth as soon as she got in her crib and tried sucking it but it didn't work.  She handed it to me and said "uh oh!"  I looked at it and said "oh no, it's broken". She tried sucking it a few more times and was getting frustrated so I asked her if she wanted me to take it.  She said "ok".  She went to bed pretty well but then I figured she would cry out in the middle of the night.  Nope, slept like a champ!

Then on Sunday when she went down for her nap she started looking for it again. I reminded her that it was broken and she got this sad look on her face and looked at me and said "Mama fix it?"  I said I couldn't and she seemed ok with that.  She didn't have a great nap but went down great last night for bed and didn't have any problems in the middle of the night. 

So now we say "bye bye" to the xu xa that got us through some fussy times and helped soothe Abby when she was tired or sad. We were glad to have you then and are glad to say goodbye now!