Firetrucks

Grace has been enjoying dressing in her fireman pants and hat.  So I figured that she would be very excited to see some real firemen and their very big truck.

Last week Harrisonburg had a deal that if you ordered a pizza from the local Cici's you would get a free one topping pizza and it would be delivered by firemen in their firetrucks.  And while at your house the firemen would check your smoke detectors, replace batteries, leave new smoke detectors, or what ever is needed to keep people safer in case of fire.

They came to our house and replaced a battery.  Grace loved the truck but did not want to get very close.

The next week the firemen came back to give us a new carbon monoxide detector since we have a gas stove.  So they installed it while Grace went to inspect the truck.  She was much more willing to look at the truck this time than she was the first time.

 Today I ran a 5K race at the local college.  They had many activities for the children (more on the race on a future blog post).  But one of the activities was a firetruck that the kids could climb up in.  The firemen gave Grace a hat and a "junior firefighter" badge sticker.  She would not sit in the seat but she had fun looking inside.

I am glad that we are having all of these experiences with firefighters but no danger involved.

Guess Who Is....

...wearing big girl panties.  Not those thick padded training pants.  This was a big step for both Grace and me.  But she has been doing very well with them so far and I am very proud of her.  

As you can see she is pretty proud of herself too.

...sitting up very well all by himself!  That would be Glen.  He has been practicing this and has perfected it in the last two days.  He is so much happier since he can crawl, he can sit and play, and he is starting to try to pull up.  Once again, I am so proud of him...and he looks pretty proud too!

Two very big steps taken this week.  Can't wait to see what they have in store for me next.

The Playroom

When we saw this house for the first time, I fell in love with it in general.  However, what sent me over the edge was this room.  It is a sunk in room that is right off of the kitchen and also beside the laundry room.  So I can do laundry, cook, wash dishes, or anything of that type of stuff and also watch the kids in their room.

I call it the kids wonderland.  It has almost everything that they could want to keep entertained with.  Here is a short tour of one room of our house.

This is the kitchen area.  Yes that is a drill on the table.  No it is not usually there.  I just forgot to take it off of the table after I finished hanging the book shelves.  I guess I should call it the housekeeping area since it has the strollers, car seats, and other home items.

Random toy area.  Farm items, trucks, dinosaurs, puzzles, blocks, and baskets of many other toys that were lucky enough to find a spot on the shelves.

Grace's writing table, the sofa for adults to sit on and watch the kids or read books to them, and Grace's reading castle.  There is a book area in the castle that holds about 10-12 books that she looks at on her own.

The reading wall.  Two ten foot plastic rain gutters hung in the center of a very long wall.  The lower shelf is books that Grace can reach and take off and put back on by herself.  The upper shelf is for the books that I would like to keep nicer and requires an adult to take the book down, read it to the child then return it.  Lots of pillows and soft things to enjoy as we read the books.

The costume area.  We have dress up hats, two fireman costumes, and a cowboy costume hanging there.  Grace on a regular basis takes the hat and pants from the fireman costume and wears them around.  Yes, even during this heat wave.

Enjoying her castle.

Peek-a-boo

The newest addition to the playroom is an item that was given to us by her uncle Mike.  It is a wooden block that has five real screws in it.  The screws are both flat and Phillips head.  Attached to the edge of the box is a real flat screw driver and a real Phillips screw driver.  It did not take her long to get the understanding and coordination to be able to screw and unscrew them over and over and over.

My goal is to make this room a place where the kids can play, have fun, explore, discover, and enjoy learning.  I think that this is a good start.

Outdoor Play

It has been HOT around here.  In the recent past our temperature has made a very nice home at around 90 degrees.  So we have been staying inside where it is cool when we can.  But I can just not keep this little outdoors girl inside all the time.  When we do venture outside we have many activities to do.

We have a wonderful water table that she started to play with last year but has enjoyed so much more this year.

Which is located beside Glen's favorite outdoor activity which is his swing.  Both of these are found under the shade of our deck so that we can escape the heat just a little bit.

Running and rolling around in the grass is a favorite (especially if you can find a nice shady spot).

When Glen was born a friend from GE bought both Glen and Grace presents.  Grace got a Minnie Mouse "tea" set.  I say it in quotation marks because...

actually it is a bubble blowing set.  The bowl holds the bubbles, but the cup and the spoon have holes that are like bubble blowers.  Grace took it upon herself to set the table for both of us.  Then she made sure that she poured each of us "tea."  And we had a nice tea party with many bubbles.

Glen was entertained with the shiny bubbles.

He loved to watch them fly by.

These are all of the pictures I have of outdoor activities, but in addition to this we have a kiddie pool, an outdoor playhouse, and a swing set, in addition to many trees and lots of grass that can be always turned into a fun play item.

I look forward to late summer or early fall when we can be out even more!

This Summer

This summer has been flying by and also has had many milestones attached with it.

Grace has been potty training and she is doing very well.  We are not without accidents, in fact we average about one a day.  But with only being two weeks into it I do not think that is too bad.  But she is not to the point to tell me she needs to go, I have to remind her or just take her...but we are getting better at that.

 Glen is teething.  Bottom tooth.  And it is SHARP!

 Grace is saying and recognizing many letters and counting to 10 pretty well on her own.

 Glen is finally doing an official crawl (hand, knee) as of  today.  He is also beginning to pull himself up on things (such as the stair that goes from the kitchen to the playroom).

 Grace is very independent and wants to dress herself, swing herself, well do everything by herself...Which is good...most of the time.

 Glen is loves bouncing, swinging, and being on the move in general.  However, do not let that fool you...he is a great cuddle bug!

 Grace loves to dance.  Last night she found a tiny manger scene of mine and was dancing with baby Jesus around the playroom.  That just made me smile!

The summer is hot, but life is good.  I am so glad that we are more settled in the house to make the heat more tolerable.  Soon on this blog I hope to show you the house, but also show you what we do outside for fun.

Hope you all are having a great summer too.

Family Pictures

Months ago, the school that my brother-in-law works at had a silent auction to raise money.  One of the items that was for sale was a professional portrait session.  Amy was kind enough to bid on it and win it for us.  It was greatly desired by me because we had no real family pictures with Glen or of Glen alone (at least no professional pictures where the person knows what they are doing).

So we met up with a wonderful photographer named Jeff James who took all of the wonderful pictures that follow.  We decided to have the pictures taken at a local park near a pond.  Rain showers threatened but it turned out to be a wonderful time.

Glen was just way too interested in his overalls to help along this picture business

We tried to get a picture of the two kids together and this was the first attempt.  

Once again Glen did not cooperate the best.

Grace however, was a ham.  She loved the camera.

She twirled and danced and had a grand time.  There are more pictures of Grace than of anything else during that session.

This is my favorite of her.

We got the best pictures of Glen as he was laying in the grass relaxing.

He got a little bit of help with the smiles from some tickling from his daddy. 

Look at those eyes!

Yet another attempt of the two kids together.

Matt and I.  Kind of a nice shot.

Oh, wait....there is a kid at our feet.

Our last attempt of a pic of the two kids.  I like it except that Glen is not in focus.

All in all, I love our pictures.  Thank you Amy for winning them.  Thank you Jeff for taking them.