Willa Rose Petersen, two years old today:
And for old times sake, my little baby, two years ago today:
She truly is the sweetest little thing. My cup runneth over.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
TWO!!
Happy, happy, happy birthday to my beautiful baby (or maybe not so baby) girl!
Willa Rose Petersen, two years old today:
Willa Rose Petersen, two years old today:
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Another first is in the books!
The first day of Kindergarten! Wow. Not to be cliche...but it is hard to believe that we are already a school-going family. And for the next 16 or so years we will have kiddos officially in school. Like Cora said this evening, "Mom, I can't hardly believe that I'm actually a big kid now!"
It was a good day. Pictures in the morning - all indoors because there were some evil-looking, but ultimately harmless, storm clouds brewing outside. Willa insisted on posing right alongside her sisters (but no pics of here for now...today is her sisters' day to shine). The girls were so anxious and ready for school to start, they were chomping at the bit, just waiting for the clock to turn to 6:26 so we could get out the door. (Ian and I like to start our day early, so that we can leave right at 3:30).
I dropped them off at the school's before-care, and honestly, they couldn't wait for me to get out of there. They patiently allowed me to take their picture hanging up their backpacks, and again as I left them in the gym, but then wanted me out the door so that could do their own thing. Part of me is sad that they don't "need" me...but a bigger part is so very proud of them for being independent and grown up.
And they had a wonderful day. We met Mrs. Bierman last Thursday at open house, and the girls have been very carefully practicing her name ever since (Mrs. Beer Man...like, Daddy drinks a beer and he's a man). At the open house Evaline told her teacher that she (Evaline) had a very long name and it was hard to spell...but Evaline would teach her and with practice she'd get the hang of it. :-)
They ate lunch in the cafeteria: Cora chose pizza (even though we'd asked them not to this morning), and Evaline chose a sun-butter and jelly sandwich. They both picked the chocolate milk. So we had a conversation this evening about the lunch choices that they were making. (Chocolate milk is limited to twice a week, in case you were wondering. Never one to wait, Cora is having it again tomorrow, but Eva thinks it would be better to wait until Friday so can start and end her week with it.)
Ian and I both snuck away from work this afternoon (everyone had a half-day, and we were out before the elementary schools) to pick the girls up. We ran into Mrs. Bierman and she said that they did great - that they had fun, and were a nice mix of stick-together and independent, which was good to hear.
All in all - I'd say that it was a great start to the year!
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It was a good day. Pictures in the morning - all indoors because there were some evil-looking, but ultimately harmless, storm clouds brewing outside. Willa insisted on posing right alongside her sisters (but no pics of here for now...today is her sisters' day to shine). The girls were so anxious and ready for school to start, they were chomping at the bit, just waiting for the clock to turn to 6:26 so we could get out the door. (Ian and I like to start our day early, so that we can leave right at 3:30).
I dropped them off at the school's before-care, and honestly, they couldn't wait for me to get out of there. They patiently allowed me to take their picture hanging up their backpacks, and again as I left them in the gym, but then wanted me out the door so that could do their own thing. Part of me is sad that they don't "need" me...but a bigger part is so very proud of them for being independent and grown up.
And they had a wonderful day. We met Mrs. Bierman last Thursday at open house, and the girls have been very carefully practicing her name ever since (Mrs. Beer Man...like, Daddy drinks a beer and he's a man). At the open house Evaline told her teacher that she (Evaline) had a very long name and it was hard to spell...but Evaline would teach her and with practice she'd get the hang of it. :-)
They ate lunch in the cafeteria: Cora chose pizza (even though we'd asked them not to this morning), and Evaline chose a sun-butter and jelly sandwich. They both picked the chocolate milk. So we had a conversation this evening about the lunch choices that they were making. (Chocolate milk is limited to twice a week, in case you were wondering. Never one to wait, Cora is having it again tomorrow, but Eva thinks it would be better to wait until Friday so can start and end her week with it.)
Ian and I both snuck away from work this afternoon (everyone had a half-day, and we were out before the elementary schools) to pick the girls up. We ran into Mrs. Bierman and she said that they did great - that they had fun, and were a nice mix of stick-together and independent, which was good to hear.
All in all - I'd say that it was a great start to the year!
Please ignore the state of my living room in the following photos. I promise, it isn't really as bad it looks.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Back to School...kitchen edition
How do you get ready to start the school year? Around here, we buy lots of school supplies. We always buy lots for our own classrooms, but this year we *got*to*get*supplies*for*C&E, too! This was one of THE MOST EXCITING days of the whole summer (for them) -- getting supplies for Kindergarten!!!
Around here we also spend some time getting our school-year food situation in order. Finding time to cook healthy meals during the school week is always a challenge. We typically spend a good chunk of our Sundays prepping meals for the week: chopping vegetables, cooking or mixing up or measuring out anything that can be done ahead of time. We kicked that pre-prepping up a knotch this year and decided to fill our freezer, anything to help us save precious time during the school year.
We have never really been able to do the whole "freezer-meal" thing. We tend to treat the meals as though they are golden - only to be used on truly worthy occasions. Which means they never get used and we find them in the bottom of the deep freeze two years later.
Instead, over the past week or two we have frozen:
22 breakfast burritos
15 breakfast sandwiches
4 dozen Pumpkin-quinoa-chocolate chip muffins
This is the first year that we'll actually be feeding C&E breakfast before they head out for the day, so we decided that if we didn't just want to do cereal everyday, we'd need to have something ready to go.
9 bags of ground beef/ground turkey with chopped onions and green bell pepper
6 bags of shredded chicken
8 bags of pulled pork
6 bags of pureed cauliflower (we use this instead of milk/cream in sauce recipes)
4 bags of pumpkin-cheese sauce
*we freeze these in the quantity that we'd use for a meal, which is usually less than a pound, for example, two pounds of ground beef would get us about three bags.
We haven't really loaded the freezer like this before, so I'm wondering how long this will get us? When will we need to take the time and re-stock? Think we can make it to Thanksgiving? That's what I'm hoping for.
Around here we also spend some time getting our school-year food situation in order. Finding time to cook healthy meals during the school week is always a challenge. We typically spend a good chunk of our Sundays prepping meals for the week: chopping vegetables, cooking or mixing up or measuring out anything that can be done ahead of time. We kicked that pre-prepping up a knotch this year and decided to fill our freezer, anything to help us save precious time during the school year.
We have never really been able to do the whole "freezer-meal" thing. We tend to treat the meals as though they are golden - only to be used on truly worthy occasions. Which means they never get used and we find them in the bottom of the deep freeze two years later.
Instead, over the past week or two we have frozen:
22 breakfast burritos
15 breakfast sandwiches
4 dozen Pumpkin-quinoa-chocolate chip muffins
This is the first year that we'll actually be feeding C&E breakfast before they head out for the day, so we decided that if we didn't just want to do cereal everyday, we'd need to have something ready to go.
9 bags of ground beef/ground turkey with chopped onions and green bell pepper
6 bags of shredded chicken
8 bags of pulled pork
6 bags of pureed cauliflower (we use this instead of milk/cream in sauce recipes)
4 bags of pumpkin-cheese sauce
*we freeze these in the quantity that we'd use for a meal, which is usually less than a pound, for example, two pounds of ground beef would get us about three bags.
We haven't really loaded the freezer like this before, so I'm wondering how long this will get us? When will we need to take the time and re-stock? Think we can make it to Thanksgiving? That's what I'm hoping for.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Where did this summer go??
We are pretty much back at it. Not quite the normal, back-to-school-year routine, because we don't technically start official days back until the following week, but last week was spent at an (inspiring) conference, and I'm spending most of this week in meetings and training (more to come on this)...so, basically this is it.
I think that this has quite officially been the shortest summer ever. We didn't get out of school until June 13 because of snow days and a late Thanksgiving (our district is on trimesters - at least until next year - and first trimester always ends at Thanksgiving, so our start date is always 13 weeks before Thanksgiving). With vacation, June was a blur - it seems it was over before it even started. July was incredibly busy. This was the "Summer of the Twins" - on Monday and Friday afternoons they had swimming lessons, Tuesday evenings were dance, and Friday mornings were gymnastics. The days with no classes usually ended up with play dates.
In between all of those regularly scheduled activities, our summer went a little something like this:
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I think that this has quite officially been the shortest summer ever. We didn't get out of school until June 13 because of snow days and a late Thanksgiving (our district is on trimesters - at least until next year - and first trimester always ends at Thanksgiving, so our start date is always 13 weeks before Thanksgiving). With vacation, June was a blur - it seems it was over before it even started. July was incredibly busy. This was the "Summer of the Twins" - on Monday and Friday afternoons they had swimming lessons, Tuesday evenings were dance, and Friday mornings were gymnastics. The days with no classes usually ended up with play dates.
In between all of those regularly scheduled activities, our summer went a little something like this:
Out at Grandma Helen's farm, Cora got to hold a kitty.
Willa loves her big-girl hat!
The highlight of Evaline's recent trip to the farm: getting to go up in a real, actual attic!
Not a fan of the prickly grass, this girl preferred to stick to the patio.
Sprinkler time and a homemade "water slide"!
A little bit of twin love!
We switched around Willa's car seat last week - she's loving it! A twenty minute car ride full of "Mommy? Mommy? Hi! Daddy? Daddy? Hi! Mommy? Mommy? Hi! Daddy? Daddy? Hi!"
Willa's first sweet corn - fresh from the corner stand.
A little sister is really just a living doll, made for dress-up.
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Dance class: showing off the leaps.
Check out this action shot!
Holy HUGE cucumber.
Donuts!!
Outdoor, interactive children's theater, complete with props (a sea of left socks).
The girls with Leo the Lion (can you spot my dad in this picture??!!)
Lovin' the blue room in the children's museum
Makin' music!
Swim lessons!
Who needs paper?
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