An outdated update - Kindergarten

Bella's in kindergarten! She takes the bus a few days a week, takes her lunch, and is adjusting just fine. She really enjoys it, although she did say she misses her morning snack. Waiting from breakfast until lunch to eat is a little different, especially when she doesn't eat that much for breakfast. Here she is (on right) on her first day with 2 of her kindergarten friends in the neighborhood.

Bella had to say goodbye to her daycare, The Children's Center. A place she's been since she was 3 months old. That was pretty sad for me. They took really good care of her there. Lucy misses Bella and I can tell that all the 'new school' attention for Bella is getting to her. I think it will be good for them to have some time apart though. Lucy was so wanting to go to school with her big sister...

Before school started we spent our 10-yr wedding anniversary up north. We had a nice dinner out and we took the kids to Bay Beach one day too. That place is so fun. Bella is just a hair too short for the big-kid rides. I didn't push it since she hated the big blue slide. Of course Lucy loved it!

At home we've been planning our concrete work and lawn seeding. We decided on a colored concrete patio in the back with a circular design. Here is part of it - it is actually all done now but I am behind in my picture taking.

Other than that, I finally hung the last ceiling fan in the house, and hung the shades in the bedrooms. I still have to hang some drapes in our eating area. Carlo's been digging up rocks in the yard for future landscape projects. We also had cousin Isabel's birthday party last month. The kids had a blast. Ugh.. I'm really behind on this thing since that was over a month ago! Of course Lucy has to charge the picture taker (me)... typical!

The Summer

So I guess I haven't updated in a while. Things have been hectic and not having internet access for a whole month didn't help any! We survived the move (barely) and have got most things unpacked. We are enjoying the new neighborhood and the TONS of kids here. There is a little girl across the street that will be in Bella's class this year and 3 others that are her age. There are a bunch of 3 yr olds for Lucy to play with too. The biggest thing we miss is our yard. Going from this:

to this:

is hard, especially when it rains since the yard turns into a big muddy mess. The dogs miss the yard too.

It has been a great summer for swimming up north so we were disappointed that we couldn't go up more. My parents took the girls for a week shortly after we moved, so they got a nice vacation and Carlo & I could get some major unpacking done. That was really nice!

Lucy swimming

4th of July. Yes, Lucy burned her hand on the sparkler after being warned not to touch it. Last week I also had to call Poison Control for her (again...). After spending some time in the bathroom she told me she was eating hand soap. She was fine. stinker..

Catching some big fish.

Hanging out with Uncle Craig.

Bella's kindergarten picture. She starts September 1st and is SO excited. She has her Tinkerbell backpack and supplies ready to go. I will be a basket case when the day comes.

Birthdays

The girls had their birthdays last month. It is hard to believe that they are 3 and 5 already! We had a birthday party for Bella at a local park for her and some of her friends. What a difference a year makes! At her birthday last year, she did not want to be the center of attention at all. She wouldn't participate and covered her ears when we sang happy birthday to her. This year she had so much fun at her party. I made sure to keep it pretty low key (not too many guests, and no 'scary' places like the bouncy or gymnastics places). She loved the pinata, and on her second try she decided to just pull all the strings to get it over with. Last year she wouldn't even pull one string! I made a little scavenger hunt for the kids to find the pinata, but other than that we just let them play on the playground. It was a beautiful day!

Before her party, Bella colored a butterfly for each of her guests, and she handed them out to each one before they left. Bella also had a few boys come, so we had to get spiderman gift bags for them, since she was so concerned that they wouldn't like the Tinkerbell ones. She is very thoughtful in that respect.

We had a family party on Lucy's birthday. It was a HOT day, we actually had the air on. Lucy is definitely the wild child (at least compared to Bella). She does not sit still, and her favorite things to do are riding bikes and playing with her dolls. Coloring and TV watching are maybe 5-10 minute activities for her - at the most. She does sit down and read books (by herself) quite often but she doesn't like sitting when Carlo or I read her books though. If she ends up with ADD I won't be too surprised! She's a little scatterbrained like her mommy!

Lucy is always looking to laugh, a trait she had since she was a baby. She's pretty positive and doesn't worry about a thing unless she can't find her bankie.

The house stuff is settled. We're putting a new roof on our current house (we had defective shingles... don't even ask), and then we'll be moving out the 25th and 26th. If you want to help move a box or two we won't object!

We Sold it!!

After 36 showings, 4 open houses and 96 long days our house is sold! I was really thinking this day may never come! Although we sold for a bit less than we hoped, we still will close before June 30th allowing us to get the home owners' tax credit. It looks like we will be moving that last weekend in June so mark your calendars as "help Kristin & Carlo move day". I told Bella today that we won't have any more showings and she got so excited. She said, "now we don't have to be outside." Huh? "Yeah, when you and Daddy clean, we always have to be outside." Funny that this is what she thinks of... we didn't lock them out of the house that often :)

Since it is now official, and we really just have one month left, I am getting sentimental. This was our first house, the house our kids we born at, the fence Carlo & I spent a few summers putting up, the basement my dad worked so hard on, the trees we planted....on the other hand I am so relieved and excited that we can move to our new house!

Now we have the task of really packing up and figuring out the move. Of course I haven't been planning anything related to moving since we were all so concentrated on getting the house sold first. One step at a time...

Now to catch up:

My Mother's day. I loved my card with the dog on it that looked just like Shadow. We went to church and then bought some annuals for me to plant.

Lucy got to be Star of the Week at school. Of course she loved the extra attention.

Today the girls got to go to a birthday party at Godsell Farms in Muskego. This was by far the most fun birthday party the girls have gone to. They got to feed and hold a bunch of animals, pick eggs out of the coop, got their faces painted and had a hay ride. They had a blast. Here's Bella holding a chick.

And Lucy got to pick up a full grown chicken (w/some help)!

The positives

Spring weather!
A trip to the zoo with friends.
Getting to be "Star of the Week" at school.
Easter egg hunts with friends.

Celebrating Easter.

Amidst all the uncertainty and chaos we have so much to be thankful for. Hope you all had a great Easter!

strike up the violins

Its been awhile Blog, but I haven't had the desire to update lately. I have no time to do anything now - or I should say anything fun. Working more and selling the house has put me in almost a continuous cranky mood. I'm short with the kids and Carlo, and I'm overwhelmed keeping up with the housework. I have too much to do at my job as well. I just got a call for another showing for tomorrow, and tears actually came to my eyes. This will be our 8th this month. Another night of cleaning the house and spending 2 hrs of my day tomorrow driving back home, getting the dogs out of the house and waiting for the people to get out so I can get back to my day. And they won't even end up buying it!! Now the snow is gone, so last weekend was spent tidying up the yard. More fun. And we're considering painting some of our rooms to make it look more "staged". Boy, I can't wait to do that!

I wish I could be like the other bloggers out there where everything is so positive, but I just can't do it. Not today. Ask me again when our house is sold.

Same old

Well, its been 3 weeks since we put our house on the market and I can say that it is becoming a big downer. We've had a few showings, 3 this past week, and it is a huge production to get the house ready for them. The big downer part is that after all that work you get the feedback that the people didn't like the house for this reason or that. I know it hasn't been that long, but I guess I'm impatient and want it over with. Carlo & I both decided that having to move & rent for a few months would be better than prolonging this process!

Bella's new haircut:

To add to my fun, I'm working 4 days a week for few weeks. A coworker of mine that I work closely with was diagnosed with leukemia, so I am trying to help out where I can. I volunteered to work more, since I honestly don't mind more hours in this situation. It puts all of my problems and complaining on a much smaller scale. Lucy decided she didn't want to go to daycare this morning and was bawling. Usually she's happy to go. Perfect timing when I was already feeling guilty about working more!

Speaking of the girls... Lucy has moved into the 'big kid' room at daycare so now she's in the same class as Bella. She seems to really like it there although she had some good friends in the 2 yr old room. I think Bella likes having Lucy with her too. Also, for the past few weeks Lucy has gladly gone to her Sunday school class without any crying! She realized how fun it is I guess. She still loves playing with her babies, and she & Bella will give them time-outs together and play school with them. Lucy calls them all "honey", and pats their backs to put them to sleep.

Yes, Lucy is getting really tall! She's gaining on Bella.