so happy

Tomorrow is the first day of school for traditional schools. Can I say that I am so happy to not be one of the teachers saying hello to their students tomorrow? I am so thankful. So lucky! I am also so happy that we chose year-round and that we began Sydney's second week of track out today. Or she would be starting tomorrow! Which there would be nothing wrong with. We wouldn't have known anything any different really. But I'm just really pleased and grateful with how the way things have turned out for our family:)
At least for this year! Can't ever get too comfortable around here!

beated

So Sydney was trying to have a contest with Mollie over who could finish their water the fastest. Sydney did. She said, "Mollie I beated you". Mollie said very seriously, "Sydney, it's beat. Not beated. Beated isn't a word."
HAHAHA!
Mollie is actually the one who randomly started adding -ed to the past tense of a lot of words in the last few months. I guess she finally figured it out.
It was so hilarious. Sydney just looked at her like "what the heck, who are you?"

counting

Sydney has been getting really good at counting lately and just identifying numbers. She can count past 100 and identify most 2 digit numbers now. The other night she was reading a sting of numbers like 35, 93, etc. And for 25 she said twoty-five. It cracked her up b/c she knew immediately it wasn't right and was supposed to be twenty, haha! And then the yesterday she said onety-nine for nineteen, but I think she was just trying to be funny that time. Very cute!
She's just been doing awesome in school. Sounding out words to write is so amazing! She's getting really great at it and it makes me tear up. Not only to see her do it, but to see teacher comments on the papers she brings home. She tries to sound out words to read and knows several sight words. When she tracks back in I'm going to be volunteering on Wednesdays during their writer's workshop time and I can't wait. It also backs up to her lunch time so I'm hoping to stay for lunch on some of those days. Mollie will be in preschool then and since there shouldn't be any holidays on Wednesdays I should be free. I'm also going to be volunteering for their character education program. Parents come in once a month and read a selected story and lead a discussion about it. That starts in Sept. too I think.

I'm enjoying having Sydney home so far! But it has only been 3 days, haha. We went to the pool this morning for a while and that made her very happy. Next Tuesday afternoon it's back to the beach!

on the road again...

Back at the beach!
I know I said we were going to the lake. We changed our minds:) Nancy, Travis, and Chase were down here so we decided to just come on down this weekend. We'll be back Wed. the 25th through that weekend. Then home for a few days and the first home football game! Then heading to the lake for Labor Day weekend.
You'd think I'd get used to all the packing, but each time I usually forget something. Last time we went to the lake, it was my underwear:) Had to go to Fred's. This beach trip it was the girls' underwear! Phil picked some up at Walmart. At least they can wear the same size:)
Mollie is a little beach bum. I think Sydney prefers the lake. As does her Daddy I think. Mollie and I spent a good 3 hours on the beach today. Sydney for some reason didn't want to get her bathing suit wet because it was her very, very favorite, but she refused to change into one she did want to get wet. So after Chase had a meltdown he, Nancy, and Sydney headed back to the house. I think that was about an hour after we got down there. And I had a hard time getting Mollie back to the house, but it was lunch/shower/nap time.

I'm 95% sure I have another ear infection. It started hurting last night in bed. This morning it hurt a lot, but I've been popping Advil and it's under control. Some goo did leak out so not sure if there's a hole in my ear drum or not, but I guess if it still feels this way tomorrow (don't know why it wouldn't) I'll go to urgent care when I get home. We have a busy day Monday, not sure I'll have time to get to the dr. then. And then I'll be marching myself into the ENT office and asking for another tube in my ear. This is just freakin' ridiculous. I could use a little more warning than "oh crap my ear hurts so bad" after 5 minutes. It goes from 0-10 quickly.

Anyway, we're just staying until tomorrow, Sydney is officially tracked out though! The girls have dentist appt.'s Monday morning. I have to tutor twice this week to get Erik ready for school to start (hopefully)!

New t-shirt idea

"I survived Laurel Park fundraising night at Chick-Fil-A"
We just had one. It was insane. Now, I heard that there was a problem in the kitchen. And really, it didn't take all that long to get our food. But I was a little stressed out by all the people. And the stinky kid area. Phil was about to flee. I had to reign him in long enough to gather our children.
HAHA!
I'll do it again, it's for a good cause and fun to see friends. And Sydney's teacher:)
But just some advice:
Call before you go to Chickfila for dinner and make sure there is not a school night going on, haha.

It's summer!

It's summer alright! High of 100 today!

I don't really recall the girls getting sick in the summer time, but this past week Mollie had a fever for day or two and then yesterday morning I took Sydney to urgent care with an ear infection. Have you noticed how many random illnesses we've had in the last year? A lot. I blame it on our flexible spending acct. that we never did before this year. The $ is nearly gone already. Really, we'll be lucky to have $10 left after yesterday.
Sydney didn't have a fever though, her ear was just hurting so after doping her up on Advil and Amox. she was a-okay.
Mollie had a birthday party yesterday afternoon/evening, along with her friend Lindsay, so Phil took Sydney to play putt-putt with her friend Matthew and his daddy. Then they went to MacGregor Ale House for dinner. Sounds like a great first date to me;)! Thankfully she was feeling up to going!

Sydney has one more week of school and then tracks out on Friday. We're going to the lake for the weekend! She has 3 weeks off and then goes back Sept. 8th. Mollie officially starts preschool on Sept. 9th so it's good timing.
Mollie is going to a little JumpBunch camp this week at the community center. It's only an hour and a half, but it's M-Th. She really enjoyed it today though. She's so ready for preschool to start! She loves organized activities:)

Sydney has seemed to be so grown up since school began. She is writing so well and loves to draw all the sudden. They're working a lot on drawing pictures and labeling with beginning sounds and any other sounds you can hear and she's doing really well with it.

Mollie is getting even taller and is rapidly losing her sweet baby Mollie look. Her face and legs have really thinned out. I hate to say it, but I think the belly is too! Oh no!