Cha cha cha Changes!

Today is Mia and Laney's first day of school at their new school here in Great Falls! I can''t believe my little Laney is in Kindergarten! She has really sprouted this summer and was not quite looking forward to riding the bus this morning, but after meeting the 25 or so kids at the bus stop, and holding on tightly to Mia's hand, she got on and waved goodbye with a smile. Thank goodness for nice neighbors and big sisters.

Mia has also grown a lot this summer, mostly in her bike riding capabilities. In our old house, the girls weren't able to ride whenever they wanted and had limited abilites on their bikes. Mia has in the last 2 weeks at our new house gained tons of confidence, removed her training wheels, and traded her bike up to a bigger more appropriate size. Laney was also thrilled as she got to inherit the pink Princess bike.

Carina, too, has been riding, but since her feet don't touch the pedals yet on the old tricycle, she has been cruising around in a Cozy Coupe. Thanks to Pampers for my 7 years of buying diapers and collecting points, it arrived a few days before we moved in.

Our move was big and hairy, moving things to and from storage and an apartment and then here, but we're all in now. There are still a few boxes unpacked in each room, and the living room has a severe lack of furniture, and has become our place to store empty broken down boxes until I can Freecycle them to someone else, but it's beginning to feel like home.

We have deer, rabbits, squirrels, moles, and many colorful birds in our yard, not to mention the unpleasant hornets and bees. We also have had a weird jelly-like substance fall from the trees after rainstorms. If you look it up, it's either a fungus or jelly that has fallen from space. (I'm thinking the former, but the latter is an interesting theory.)

As I write this, Carina is just now wandering through the house calling out for Laney. She will get used to being with just me, but for now, she is having major sister-withdrawal. So off to play we go....Happy Fall!

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SUMMER PHOTOS

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Since I am pretty sure I am not going to go back and write blog entries about the activities we did this summer, here are some photos of our family keeping busy. 



Ahh the Beach

Back from Myrtle Beach just a few days ago, I can't help but feel a wee bit more cramped in this little apartment. Maybe it's the addition of bags of shells we brought home, or the sandy shoes, or the lack of ocean in our window views. Maybe it's the sound of traffic and sirens instead of waves and fireworks. Either way, back to reality and the city.

In a few weeks we will move again. This time to a house we hope is our forever home, but I guess you never know. For now we are going to hope it will be, and I spend evenings picking out wall colors and fabrics and try to imagine rooms where our girls can grow up. It makes me wish I could slow it all down.

Yet, there are moments when I wish they would hurry up and grow up - act mature, do the right thing without me asking 145 times, and for goodness sake stop drawing on the walls and furniture (yes, Mom, I know they are a chip off the old block.) See, although the hinges are a bit shot from the kids opening the lid with toys on the top, I still have my old toybox. And, inside that old toybox is a wonderful picture I drew when I was four. Probably feeling cramped and balking at the changes yet another sibling brought with him, I drew angry red men all over the house, including on the underside of that toybox lid. So, when I painted it white for my girls to use, I excluded that one part, and it is a reminder always that one day I was a kid with a red crayon and some angst. :)

I'm rambling. Off to read before bed. Wish I were still at the beach...

Oh PS - I guess I need to rename this blog now that we no longer live in a little house in Takoma Park. Ideas?

Update Update Update

Well, it looks like this year's scrapbook is going to be shamefully empty. At the end of each of the past few years, I have taken my blog posts and favorite photos and carefully edited them into a Shutterfly photo book to have a physical record of our family fun and activities. Since I haven't posted in about, well, forever, it looks like 2011's book will be woefully small.

Tomorrow is Mia's last day of first grade. Laney had her last day of preschool last Wednesday, and is sick with a fever today. We also bought a new house today! Monday the new owners move into our current house, so Sunday we will be moving into a temporary apartment until we close in August on our new one in Great Falls, Va. The girls are excited about the prospect of a pool for the summer, and I'm not looking forward to the 3 staircases I have to figure out how to climb with a toddler and whatever else I need to bring up to the new digs. But, we're grateful to have found a place that fits our needs and would rent to us short-term. (More about the new house later as I don't want to jinx anything and have had eerily terrible luck with houses this spring.)

So for now, I'm off to bed after packing a few boxes, and I'll take my camera with me tomorrow to get some fun shots of Mia's friends and school.

(Grr, please forgive the sideways Mia picture. All the recent photos of her were taken vertically, and our camera has a setting that automatically flips them for viewing on the lcd screen. This results in sideways pics on the blog if the original photo was taken vertically. Anyone know how to undo this after the fact? )

Where Have We Been?

Well, mostly getting our house ready for the market and getting out of dodge when someone comes to look. If you want to see, click here:

http://megfinn.com/PropertyDetails.aspx?MlsCompanyID=2&MlsNumber=MC7550052
We have also moved about a third of our furniture out, which means there is only one chair and one desk in the office, so late night blog updates are on hold for awhile.

We're also on the prowl for a perfect house to move into. Where? Well we don't really know - somewhere in the area for sure, but exactly which state, county, and school district we haven't nailed down yet. We'll update when we know where we are landing. :)

January Recap

January was a cold snowy month for us. Mia was sick the first week of January with a tummy bug, and we had a handful of snowdays as well. Patrick and I went to Universal Orlando for my birthday weekend and enjoyed the roller coasters and the new Harry Potter part of the park, while the kids enjoyed a visit from Marme and GDaddy.




Patrick's company had a winter party at the National Building Museum, so we got to get dressed up in our fancy attire and enjoy a night out, too!




The kids have also been playing a lot of Wii, especially our new Wii Family Sings Disney Karoke - even Carina likes to sing the princess songs!

Getting Ready

Since Patrick has to travel for work a lot this month, we got right to decorating for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. Tree? Up. Outside lights and ornaments? Up. Glowing inflatable Santa? Yup, he's up too. Advent calendar filled with treats? Check. Stockings hung? Check. Little People Nativity out? Check. Christmas books out and Fall books put away? Check. Pumpkin Spice and Macintosh candles replaced with Mistletoe and Home Sweet Home candles? Check!
There is still more to do on the tree and boxes to be taken down to the basement, but overall a lot was accomplished in a very short time. I'm still not sure how we got to December already, but since the decorations are up, it must really be.

The Scooter Dilemma

Most of you all know that we live on a very busy street, a highway really, and that it is the main reason I want to move. An 11 year old was struck by a car a few years ago right outside our home so we put up a fence in the back yard to keep the kids from running out into the street. We have a bus stop right next to our driveway, and the fire department is at one end of our block and the police at the other end, so we hear sirens ALL THE TIME. Oh, and we live pretty close to the top of a hill. Our driveway slants down towards the street full of traffic, and the sidewalk slopes down the street towards the library and community center/police station. The people in the traffic are usually nice and will let us into and out of our driveway quickly, but during rush hour or school drop-off / pick-up hours, our street is full of cars. During the night, cars speed down the street (called either Philadelphia Ave or MD410 if you wish) at crazy speeds.

For all these reasons and the fact that our oldest has very little innate caution, I have told the older girls that as long as we live where we do, they cannot have scooters. I know, I know, there are sidewalks. And crossing guards. And other friends who live on our street and in our neighborhood ride their scooters along our street. I know all this and yet I cannot, cannot, in my right mind let MY children have one lest they be the one that slips, or chases a butterfly, or forgets to stop to look up the driveways for cars who can't see them, or... you get the picture.

Anyway, two days ago Carina got creative with her RideOn/PushWalker toy and what do you know, she has a scooter! The older girls are fuming.