last day and other things

It's finally the last Teacher Work Day for me.  Yippppeeee!!!!  It couldn't come quickly enough!

We've not been up to much at our house and man is it NICE!  We've mostly just been playing.  Yesterday we made these dinosaur shoes out of old Kleenex boxes.  I saw the idea in an old Family Fun magazine and the kids needed no encouraging to do it.

(Don't ask what he's wearing.  This was like the third outfit change of the day so I just pulled dirty clothes out of the laundry room.)


We've also spent some time playing the in water and enjoying the sunshine and shade in the backyard.  Yes, and also sitting in time out.

We've paid a visit (or two) to Yoforia.  We are addicted, no?  Sooooo good!

And ridden on a zebra or two:

We've gone on a couple of bike rides and watched/played a quick softball game.

Now we're getting ready to head to the beach for a while.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.  I feel like one of those kids from the Disney commercials.  You know the ones where the parents wake the kids up in the middle of the night and tell them to get in the car because they're going to Disney?  My dad is actually taking two days off (which is the miracle of miracles) and coming with us.

I've told Jules that we have to go on a six mile walk every day before we can even consider going to the arcade at the pier.  Hopefully that tactic will work and keep me exercising.  At least I'll have some help with the kids this year and won't need to run out looking for a double stroller for sale.


Questions of the Day:

-What are your plans this summer?
-Are schools out where you live?
-What toppings do you like bes ton your froyo?

pyramid, schmyramid

By now you've probably heard about the new dietary guidelines suggested by the USDA, but have you seen the new logo?  It's the updated food pyramid, y'all, and I think it's awesome!

I don't know if it's just that I'm a nerdy pie chart kinda girl or what, but I really think this visual helps a lot more than the old layers-of-a-pyramid version.  I mean, really?  Who eats a layer of grains, a layer of veggies, or a teeny tiny triangle of fats and oils? 

In my opinion, this one is a lot easier to understand and picture in your mind how much of each category of food you should be eating, especially when you don't have a picture of the USDA's logo recommendation right in front of you.  And it's on a plate!  A plate!  And the milk is in a cup-like shape!

Notice that the plate at first glance appears to be divided into quarters when really the vegetables and grains portions are larger than the fruits and protein portions.  The fat section has disappeared entirely which makes total sense to me since we usually get our fats automatically from the other food groups that we eat.  You can read more about it here but basically the additional suggestions are as follows.



Balancing Calories

• Enjoy your food, but eat less.
• Avoid oversized portions.

Foods to Increase

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
• Make at least half your grains whole grains.
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.

Foods to Reduce

• Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

I might just print out a color copy of this and hang it near my desk at work.  Two thumbs up from me. 

My babies

ready for a tumbling pass?

Julianna's gymnastics exhibition was last Saturday night.  It was much different from her dance recital last year.  It wasn't as formal, loud, or as long.  Julianna did great!

I think she has enjoyed gymnastics a lot more than she did dance last year as well.  Here are some pictures from the event.  I apologize for the crappy picture quality.  It is *really* hard to take pictures of flipping gymnasts. 

They had the older gymnasts do special routines and choreographed performances, but for the preschoolers they basically just moved them in groups along three different circuits.  It was really funny to watch Jules do the seat drop on the trampoline and I was laughing so hard at one point that I couldn't even take a picture.  It didn't help that I had my mom beside of me continually telling me that she has about as much coordination as I did as a child.

When we've discussed whether she wants to take dance again, gymnastics again, or try something new for next year she always considers the fact that the dance place gave her a HUGE trophy on the day of the recital.  My girl likes her trophy.  Anyway, she is still on the fence about what she wants to do next year and since she got a medal Saturday night I'm really not sure what she thinks now.

 Whatever she chooses to do though, I know she'll be great at it.

preschool graduation

On Tuesday, Julianna graduated from preschool.  I could not be more proud of her.  Before everything started we got some pictures in the church parlor with the other kids.

Then I headed to the sanctuary to wait for the ceremony to begin.   The kids came in and sang three songs together and then they sang one song with solos.  My daughter sang the loudest I'm sure, and her strong southern accent rang out throughout the church.  I'll just go ahead and state for the record that I cried pretty hard when they sang this song. 

The director of the preschool said a few words and the pastor of the church spoke for just a minute.  They handed out the diplomas and got to hug their teacher.  It was a nice ceremony and Jules looked absolutely adorable with her hat falling off the back of her head the whole time. 

There was a reception afterward in the fellowship hall and we ate chips and cake and watched a slide show of pictures from the school year. 

Question of the day:

How did my baby get to be this big?!

Working on a nature notebook

a camping we will go

We went camping one night over Memorial Day weekend.  It was our first trip camping with Josh and as a matter of fact, it was our first trip camping with Julianna other than in the backyard.  Needless to say, both Jonathan and I were a little nervous going into the trip but also excited.

It really turned out to be a lot of fun.  We went with one of Jonathan's sisters and her family and I think everyone enjoyed it.  I will definitely do it again sometime (although it will probably be at least a year or so). :)

When we got to the camp site we first unloaded and set up the tents.  It was no less than 90 degrees out and it took some effort to keep the kids out of trouble while we set everything up. So we resorted to cheese balls.

After we got everything set up we put the kids to work gathering sticks for the fire.  Once the fire was ready we cooked hot dogs and decorated our faces with ketchup.

When our bellies were full we decided to do a little fishing in the pond.  Jonathan and Julianna had gathered up some earthworms in our yard before we left home. They brought them in a container so they would have something to use as bait and Jules was able to catch five fish which she really enjoyed.

Of course, no camping trip is complete without s'mores so as the sun went down we enjoyed the cooler temperature and roasted marshmallows. Mmmmmm... I'm not ashamed to admit that was my most favorite part of the trip.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures after dark turned out.

We told a few ghost stories and headed to bed.  I had no idea how we were going to tackle putting Josh to bed in a tent with three other people inside it.  It wasn't too bad actually.  He staggered around in the tent like a drunk person for a while.  He was climbing on everyone and talking while we were all trying to be quiet.  He would trip on something and fall down and we would stifle our laughter.

We could hear my sister-in-law and the others in their tent and we could hear lots and lots of different animal noises.  We even heard a funky sounding peacock.  Eventually everyone drifted off to sleep. 

The next morning we took a short little walk and passed over the log-bridge to go out to the island in the middle of the pond.  Then we packed it all up and headed back home.

I'm so glad we went.  I now appreciate my shower a lot more and my kids got great sleep the next night.  Also, I'm glad to know we could do it again easily if we wanted to.  Mostly I'm just glad we had such a good time with family.

Questions of the day:

- How was your Memorial Day weekend?
- Have you ever taken young children camping?
- What's your favorite thing to put in the middle of a s'more?  I want to try a peanut butter cup.