Apple Picking

We finally went apple picking this week at Jerry's orchard.  We tasted an apple from every tree that had a label, probably at least 10 different kinds.  Our favorite was an heirloom variety called Liberty, which were small, red, crisp, and slightly tart.  We also liked the Empires and Jonathans.  I'd hoped to keep all the different varieties separate so we could do another apple taste test this year, but that didn't happen.  The girls had such a good time picking and eating apples this year, although Amelia had to be careful how she took bites because of her two loose front teeth!

Jerry's is such a nice, small, family-friendly orchard that's run as a backyard hobby orchard by one of the families in our church.  There's a little more leeway about things like climbing trees, which Amelia thought was just fantastic!  It reminded me of all the times we got to climb Grandpa's apple tree.

The donkeys were tethered outside of their pen, so Megan went right up to them so she could pet them.  She said they were very soft.  The girls also thought it was funny that the rooster was running around wild.  We also got to see the goats and sheep eating apples, although Amelia was curious why the sheep hadn't been sheared in the summer.

Amelia at Ballet

Amelia has started ballet again, and she is mostly having a good time.   We are going to a different dance studio and carpooling with two other girls.  I've driven them twice so far, and I can't believe all the laughter and silliness that three five-year-olds and one three-year old can generate.  On a side note, it is really nice to be able to carpool.

Yesterday Amelia came home saying that ballet wasn't quite as fun as normal because it was a little hard.  Apparently the teacher was trying to teach them to do a pas de chat, which Amelia could only kind of do.  That's a pretty tricky step for a five-year-old!  But I'm glad that the teacher is challenging them a little and teaching them something about technique.  Amelia and I had a little conversation about how you have to practice if you want to be good at something; I don't think she's used to having to work at things.  And then she went to bed early.

Here is her version of an arabesque:

Her class is right after a five and six-year-old tap class; Amelia really enjoys watching them and says she wants to learn tap next year.  We'll have to see, but I think it sounds like fun!

Megan's First Day of Preschool

Megan had a great first day of preschool today!  She was so excited to go this morning, she was ready to leave the house around 7:30, and put her backpack on when we took Amelia into her school.  She couldn't wait to get to school.

We brought fresh baked scones to her teachers today, and Megan was so excited to deliver them that she didn't even give me a hug and a kiss at the door of preschool, she just ran in and said hello to her teachers.  I was so glad that she was comfortable in her classroom, but I could have used a hug!

Preschool was only an hour today, and when I picked her up and asked her what her favorite part of the day was, she said "looking at the fish."  The only other things she could tell me about school were that she sat on the letter M on the carpet ("and some kids sat on the wrong letter") and that she played with the instruments.  She was most excited about going home and getting to eat a scone for a snack.  Her teacher said she was a chatterbox, which was a huge change from how her big sister acted in three year old preschool.

When I asked Megan what kinds of things she liked to do best, she said "I don't want to talk to you because I'm busy playing" so I had to fill most of this in myself.  The only thing she would tell me is that her favorite food is treats.  Awesome.   And I'm so looking forward to the teenage years with this child.... :)

She seems almost back to normal after having pneumonia this weekend.  She slept well last night, but woke up coughing, so I had her do the albuterol nebulizer again before preschool, which helped.  I was so glad she didn't have to miss the first day of preschool!

Amelia's First Day of Kindergarten

Amelia was a little nervous about starting kindergarten yesterday, but she ended up having a good first half-day.  We had a little argument in the morning about what clothes she was going to wear, because we had picked out an appropriate sundress the night before, but then it was 49 degrees outside when we woke up, and so I told her she had to dress more warmly.  Instead of adding a sweater, she wanted to change clothes completely, so she ended up in a skirt and shirt instead of a dress (total surprise!).

I forgot to get a picture of her backpack, but it is, in fact, a Tinkerbell backpack that we picked up at Walmart for under $10.  Hopefully it will last the whole year!  I had wanted to get her a better quality non-character backpack, but she was so excited about the Tinkerbell one that I caved.  And I'm glad I did, because she was so thankful that I let her pick "a not boring backpack" and she was very happy to wear her backpack and take it to school yesterday.  I thought it would be nice to capture her favorite things along with this goofy photo:

When I picked her up, she told me all about her day.  Her teacher read two stories, The Kissing Hand and Miss Bindergarten gets ready for Kindergarten, which Amelia told me was the perfect story to read because now she is in kindergarten.  It's almost like the teacher planned that.  :)  They got to work on two coloring projects, both pages with raccoons.  Amelia was proud to show me that she had written her name on the top, each letter in a different rainbow color.  They had snack time before recess, and she ate half her snack mix and drank most of her water bottle.  Recess wasn't her favorite part of the day because she said 1st grade and kindergarten had recess together, and there were a lot of kids on the playground (if she was right, that would be almost 200 kids out at the same time, and the playground is not that big).  She said she hung out on the monkey bars because there were too many kids everywhere else.  She did see her neighbor friends Addison and Natalie at recess, and she said they all played together for a little while, so that was nice.  They practiced going through the lunch line, and that was all she could remember about her day.  She said she didn't cry, although one little girl did, and when she got lonely, she held onto the necklace we had made together the day before out of beads and shrinky dinks (so fun!).  She talked a lot about a girl named Emma who had the same water bottle as she did (Hello Kitty).

I told her we could do anything she wanted after kindergarten to celebrate her first day, and she chose to go to the mall to eat at "Old McDonalds" and play in the play area.  The girls enjoyed their happy meals, while I got Arby's:

And then they had a fantastic time playing at the play area.  They got a little goofy and crazy and tried to climb on top of each other in silly ways:

Amelia was a little worried about school today because it is a long day, and she was planning to try to hot lunch (although she was going to choose the yogurt instead of the pizza, so it's not exactly hot).  Megan is a little bored without Amelia today, although she did enjoy getting to play with the My Little Pony castle all by herself.  We can't wait to pick Amelia up in a few more hours and hear all about her first full day!

Portraits

I took the girls to get their pictures taken on Friday.  The girls behaved themselves, at least initially, but I soon had to resort to bribery to get them to smile.  That, and the photographer kept telling them to say "booger" which made them laugh.  We went to Cold Stone Creamery while we were waiting for the pictures to be printed.  Amelia wanted blue ice cream (cotton candy) with sprinkles, and Megan wanted the birthday cake remix (cake batter ice cream with brownies, sprinkles and chocolate chips).  They really enjoyed their ice cream - I hope the stains wash out of their blue dresses!  Here are the photos that I ordered, so Mom and Jane, let me know which ones you want copies of.

If you want to see all the photos, you can check out this link:
 https://greenwaystation-middleton-wi.portraits.com/-marciejohnson/gallery

The Underpants Girls

Why?  I have no idea.

Happy Birthday to Megan!

We've celebrated Megan's birthday twice already, with both sides of the family, so I didn't plan anything huge for her actual birthday today.  Instead, I let her choose the kinds of things she wanted to do.  She woke up kind of grumpy this morning, but eventually got out of bed herself in a happier mood.  I told her she could pick whatever she wanted for breakfast, and she immediately said "CAKE!" but I convinced her to settle for donuts with frosting and sprinkles.  We picked up some chocolate donuts with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles while we did our grocery shopping; I'm not sure they were any healthier than cake would have been....

When we got home, the weather turned nasty with thunderstorms and torrential rain, so Megan decided we should watch a movie.  We watched Alice in Wonderland again while we enjoyed our donuts.  Then the girls opened their presents from Uncle David's family, and immediately set up the indoor croquet set all over the floor in the dining room and hallway.  They were very good at hitting the ball gently and keeping it on the ground, but they had a hard time getting the ball through the wickets!  After rest time, we went to see Monsters University, which everyone enjoyed.  We had a very healthy dinner of sugar snap peas, apples, string cheese and popcorn.  Yum!  Megan had requested chocolate chip pancakes for her birthday dinner, but we're going to have that for dinner tomorrow instead.

Then we came home and had cake.  Megan wanted a cat cake with cats like Molly and Sophie on it, but I didn't want to make an entire cake for the four of us, so I made Amy's ice cream cake with a cat face on it instead.  Megan wasn't entirely satisfied with that, but she agreed that the ice cream was really good.  She was happy to get a piece with an M&M and some whiskers.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Megan!  I called her a big girl today because she's three now, but she told me that she's still not big.