1st Day of School!

BaCk tO sChOoL 2011-2012!

Today was the 1st day of school for all the Glynn girls!
Ellie is in 5th grade, Jayna is in 3rd grade and Ava is in 1st grade!

We were ready for school with 20 minutes to spare today...now that we've set the standard, can we keep it up?! The girls were very excited and very ready to be back with their friends!

When we lived in the old house, we ALWAYS took 1st day of school pictures by our Black Eyed Susan flowers. ALWAYS. It was such a tradition that last year, 1st beginning of school year in the new house, Jayna was quite upset! Black Eyed Susans are one of my favorite flowers, so when our dear friend Angela put a post on Facebook saying "Anyone want some free Black Eyed Susans?", we jumped at the chance. We thought the bunnies would eat them...but they did not!

So, can you see the Black Eyed Susans in the above picture! What a bummer to wake up to drizzle...but Andy had the best idea--we'd just take the pictures by the Black Eyed Susans through the window! :)

We arrived at school and first took Ellie upstairs to 5th grade and her LOCKER!
We then went back down to leave Jayna in 3rd grade and finally went down the hall and around the corner to take Ava to 1st grade. Andy noticed that the size of locker/cubby gets smaller as the kids get smaller! :)
While the girls were at school, Colin was struggling a bit. When I asked him if he missed the girls, he got a sad look on his face and nodded his head yes and then said "I miss Ava....Can Ellie and Jayna stay at the school and Ava come home to be with me?" So sweet. This afternoon, when Ava got home, Colin was just floating on air around the house and beamed when Ava said she'd play in the sand with him! 2 peas in a pod!

Tonight, as we talked about the fun parts of the day, the girls struggled to pick 1 fun part. They all said "I loved it all!" I think it will be a good year!

Now, onto the NEWS from the homefront on the 1st day of school....(read at your own risk!)
Most of you readers know that we've been potty training BIG TIME since January. We took about a month break in that time frame, but we've been hitting it hard with very little success.

Today, after a rough grocery shopping experience and a very uncomfortable Colin, he managed to finally poopie on the potty! His reward was a red car (pictured above) and Mike and Ike's from the candy kiosk in the mall!
He was so proud of his accomplishment that he proudly showed his car to the neighbor tonight and told her EXACTLY what he did on the potty. We're hoping that this is a step in the right direction...

Summer, Week 13

Week 13 was somewhat slow for us....we concentrated primarily on getting ready for school!
But, there was still time for playing outside and enjoying the slightly cooler weather! Bike rides, trampoline jumping, playing with the backyard neighbors...it was all good.

Above, you will see our pet, Elliot. Actually, it was only our pet for a few hours! Ellie was riding her bike with my parents and it walked in front of my mom's bike! Ellie and Jayna loved it...Ava and Colin HATED it and were scared of it. Ellie thought we'd keep it forever; but she did let it go in the pond by our house, with the help of Mrs. Chanda! She sure had fun though, searching online for turtle facts.

We also attended a birthday party as a family. It was a "breakfast for dinner" party and guests were invited to wear their pjs. The kids ate that idea up! :) It was fun--very small with lots of laughter and lots of good conversation and a really cute birthday girl too!

Here is Colin sitting in front of the cake....trying to patiently wait for a piece...

On Saturday, Andy took the kids out of the house for a few hours while I did a big clothing switching event and organized all 3 girls' uniform clothes. We picked up some last minute supplies and then got to meet the teachers and drop off those supplies today!

This is it...this is THE END of the summer. 91 days of summer vacation.
The girls tell me they LOVED summer, they had so much fun! We did a LOT of traveling, played very little video games (haha...those that know the scoop!), read lots of books and found some great movies to watch as a family. We biked, we played, we created plays and didn't follow much of a schedule at all. That was hard...and that was a good thing, most of the time!

Tonight, the girls are excited...but apprehensive of the new school year that is still unknown for a few more hours. Ava will be gone all day; such a hard change for me (and Colin!) and Ellie moves upstairs near the middle school at NHCS. Jayna will have 2 teachers...and piano starts up again soon. Add in ballet, swim team and choir...we will have our afternoons/evenings filled! It has been fun...but routine, we love you and can't wait to get used to you again!

Summer, Week 12

Aren't these cookies cute?

These are our new find--Manderfield's Iced Sugar cookies--they are DAIRY FREE! If you try one, you won't believe there is NO DAIRY in them! Ellie has been on cloud nine with the freedom to eat these; apparently kids have brought them in for birthday treats before and now she'll be able to participate in the same treat as the other kids.

We picked these cookies up on Saturday afternoon, after volunteering for Rock Cancer in Little Chute. This marks the 1 yr anniversary of volunteering with the kids wherever/whenever we can. We have worked the booth at Rock Cancer 2x, we've rung the bells for the Salvation Army, we've done a special project for one of the teachers at New Hope, we've handed out gatorade to marathon runners and this fall, Andy, the big girls, and Aunt Rebekah will be volunteering at the Convoy of Hope. The kids have experienced the happiness of volunteering--just today, Jayna said "When I grow up, I want to work a volunteer job because they are way more fun than paying jobs!" :)

Anyway...back to the reason for buying the cookies...

Earlier this summer, we had planned this great birthday "party" for Jayna--we'd let her bring a friend to Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells. Sounds fun right? I even went as far as trying to arrange childcare for Colin since we weren't going to bring him to a huge outdoor waterpark.
When we told Jayna our idea, she said "I don't really WANT to go to Noah's Ark!" She wanted to go to Bay Beach! We love Bay Beach, so it was not a bummer...another year we'll go to Noah's Ark!

So, Bay Beach it was and Jayna could bring one friend. She picked her "known forever friend" Anna Rose. AR is a special friend to our family--it was enjoyable for all of us to spend time with her. To quote Andy "It was so neat seeing how she interacted with all of us--you can tell she is as comfortable with us as she is her own family!"

We left after church and arrived in Green Bay to a VERY packed Bay Beach!
We rode a few rides and then had a picnic lunch...

which included a very small birthday party...with pink turtle cookies as the "cake"!

Right after the picnic, we walked toward the new ride, the Zippin Pippin. I had decided I would try it...but then as we saw the line and realized what time it was, just Andy was going to go on the ride. I was secretly glad...it looked scary to me! That relief was short lived though as suddenly, Andy came out of the ride and said "What was I thinking? YOU are going on this ride...go! The girls are holding your place in line!" I had no choice....and to quote Anna Rose "I have to face my fears!".
Click on this photo below for a larger image....I've tagged AR, Ellie and myself...and see if you can look closely at Ellie's puffed out cheeks. She HATED the ride, she said she will NEVER do it again.
AR? She loved it...would be happy to just ride the Zippin Pippin over and over and over and over!

The Zippin Pippin was a fun memory...and unfortunately, we only got to ride it 1x.

After the roller coaster adventure, we rode the more traditional rides and Colin was in heaven--he LOVED all the little kiddie rides.

And, we had to have a snack....

Our day was cut a little short when it started sprinkling and we saw that Green Bay was under a severe thunderstorm warning. It was a fun afternoon though, and Jayna had a blast, which was ultimately what we all wanted anyway!

While we were at Bay Beach, we got a message that Grammie and Grampy were going to come the very next day to visit! We enjoyed spending time with them--we spent a day at Omro swimming and we were able to celebrate Grammie's birthday a few days early...

I also was able to go see the movie "The Help" with some friends from church, we attended a small group BBQ and 2 girls had playdates with friends they had not seen all summer. It was a busy week, again!

Summer, Week 11

Jayna Noelle Glynn
August 13, 2002
7 lbs 4 oz

The BIG EVENT of Week 11 this summer was Jayna turning 9!!!!

As most of you know...she does not like cake. This year, her "cake" was 2 long john donuts iced as a "cake" surrounded by little (fake) donut holes, which were really cake pops that Ellie could eat! Of course, there was a theme to this year's birthday...it was PINK...but then turned into a donut theme when we surprised Jayna with a donut balloon!

As customary, on the morning of a birthday, we serenaded the birthday girl with Happy Birthday To You and We Love You This Much...

Above, Jayna is getting a first look at the surprise left for her on the dining room table.
Since Jayna's birthday was on a Saturday and since her cake was a donut, we ended up doing the cake part of the birthday at 8am!
After we enjoyed our cake for breakfast, Jayna opened her gifts--
Some funny stories from this time:
1) Jayna wanted a Laura Ingalls doll from Conner Prairie SO bad but had already spent all her money on our trip. Ava purchased the doll for herself and then we were sneaky and got one of the dolls for Ava to give Jayna for her birthday (upper left photo below).

2) Colin knew Jayna was opening his gift to her...only he thought the gift was for him! When she opened it up, he said "But it's not a Wiggles toy!"

3) Ellie gave Jayna some friendship bracelet stuff...
and 4) Jayna got "fancy clothes" off her birthday wish list...

This next photo sequence was HILARIOUS.
One of the items on the birthday wish list was "stuffed animal with big eyes". Now, as the mother, I know we have WAY too many stuffed animals; there was no way I was buying her one.
But Grandma had an idea...

and in the cute turtle bag, there were 3 sizes of the big eyed monkey--it was like a clown car--she just kept pulling out monkey after monkey after monkey!

After gift opening, the girls and Colin enjoyed some dancing to their new favorite CD, the Hallelujah Hop (50's music with a christian spin)....
To see how they entertained us, click HERE and HERE.

In the middle of the day, Jayna, Ava and I went shoe shopping and American Girl Store shopping (wanting?!) and then we went out to Jayna's restaurant of choice for dinner....Stevi B's! We ended the night with movie night watching "The Little Princess....it was a fun day!

BUT.....the weekend was not over!
Jayna had requested swimming in Omro for her birthday and on the 13th, it was cool and rainy! The next day, though, was beautiful!
For most of our time in the Omro pool, there were just a few other swimmers! We all enjoyed the slides and the refreshing water.

We didn't capture many pictures, but all 6 of us had fun! Click HERE to see Colin go down the little slide. After every slide ride (big or small), Colin would yell "I do THAT again!"

As for the rest of week 11...the only other things we did were school uniform shopping, school shoe shopping, family church directory pictures and Christmas pictures of all 4 kids. Yes, CHRISTMAS pictures! The church directory pictures turned out great but we didn't get individual photos of the kids. It just happened that I found matching Christmas dresses on mega clearance at the American Girl store that coordinated with what I had scopped up at for Colin after Christmas last year! We ran with the idea and had the kids photos taken in Christmas outfits in August! The photos turned out great...you'll have to wait to see for yourselves!

Stay tuned for week 12...Jayna's birthday was not over yet, depsite a full weekend of birthday fun!

Summer, Week 10

Week 10 was the busiest week of our entire summer!
It started off with the Appleton Alliance Church's summer music production of "Rock Solid".
The musical was WONDERFUL.
This year, both Ellie and Jayna participated and Ellie was "aside speaker #4"!
The songs were very catchy, and anyone who sat near us saw that even Colin was VERY into the musical this year! :)
To see a snippet of "Rock Solid", click HERE.
To see "God Will Never Stop Loving You...", click HERE.

The 2 top row photos below are of the girls doing actions to the song "The Amazing Thing Is..." to see a snippet, click HERE...this was Colin's FAVORITE song and Jayna could not keep the huge grin off her face--she knew exactly what he was doing in the audiance! On the bottom row, Ellie is taking her bow with the other kids who had speaking roles, and bottom lower right, Ellie is doing one of her parts. She did awesome, we were so proud of her! To see one of her segments, click HERE.

Grandma gets the "crazy Grandma of the year" award...she made a last minute decision to make it work to come see the play..she showed up, took us out for dinner, saw the play and zoomed back to Freeport, IL all in 1 night! Thank you, Grandma (and Rebekah!) for coming!
And...we ALWAYS have "Granny" Marlene come to the plays...the girls love having her attend their functions as well!

Above, Jayna is getting her shirt signed--a big thing with this camp is having all the "campers" sign your shirt after the musical. And we can't omit Colin's humor... :)

We got home late from the musical, schlepped the kids into bed...and at 6:57am the next morning, we were pulling out of our driveway for a whirlwind trip to Minnesota!

This September, my Grandpa turns 90!
My parents had a birthday party for him and most relatives were able to attend. It was really fun seeing the relatives that we haven't seen in 15 (gasp!) years and connecting with their children.
Here is the photo shoot with Grandpa and his great grandchildren that were in attendance:

The Gorden relatives:
Dad, Grandpa
Megan Grandpa Katie, Megan Tucker Katie

We also got a lot of Penny-loving time. I especially love this photo of Ava soothing Penny!

It was a beautiful day--my parents had the best set up for a gathering like this: campfire, picnic tables, good food, areas for kids to play...and then the swimming pool, of course!

Andy was the center of 2 attentions on Saturday (we all know how he likes to be the center of attention!)...1st one was where he was playing catch the football on the pool deck. He leaned too far forward and did a BEAUTIFUL foward roll right into the pool, wearing his clothing! (No camera capturing this--just a memory of laughter at the image!)

A couple of hours later, Oscar was sitting on a blow up dog raft and tumbled into the pool...and there was Uncle Andy, right there to rescue little Oscar!
And while we're talking about Andy...he and Megan had a little "war" going with who could capture the best photos of the day. Here are a few random photos I found on our memory card...
While we were in MN, we also celebrated Jayna's birthday with the family. This is something she has never gotten to do! She loved it!
For her "cake", we had my parents get her a pink sprinkled long john donut--she was in sweets heaven! She loved it...and then asked if there was ANYWHERE in WI that makes donuts??!?!
We also had a batch of Oreo Brownies with the icing saying "9/64"...Happy Birthday Month to Jayna AND Grammie!The rellies we never see on birthdays...
And after all of the birthday celebrating, there was plenty of time to sit and relax because...
Ellie loved the pool...
Jayna loved the pool...Ava loved the pool....
And Colin? He loved riding Grammie's pink bike AND swimming in the pool!
As for Andy....when he wasn't playing water games with the kids or launching them into the water, he did manage to catch up on a Netflix movie...
Before we started our trip home to WI, Colin was insistent on getting to ride on Grampy's John Deere ("Look! Grampy has a John Deere too!) and the Gator. Ellie couldn't miss the Gator ride--towel and all! And, there were many times that Grampy put the Wiggles DVD on and Colin just waited with his hands out for Grampy to hold him and watch the Wiggles WITH him!

When we arrived home, we had a huge appointment to keep:

WHOOHOO! Jayna got her braces off! FINALLY! It was a day filled with gum chewing and sticky candy eating...and corn on the cob for dinner!

To see the difference that her face made in just 1 year, check out these before and after photos! The left photo was taken June 2010 and the right one was taken August 2011!

The same day the braces came off, my dear friend, Sarah and her girls came to visit from Chicago! The kids instantly bonded (with the help of Colin who drew everyone close immediately!) and they had just 24 hours of fun with Emily and Maicy, but the kids made the most of their time together and can't wait to get together again. It was nonstop fun, with outside play and MUCH costume play in our basement! (Thank you, Megan, for letting me keep all of our dance costumes from so long ago!)

How do I know Sarah? When we get asked that question, we always say "Well, it's complicated!"
I "met" Sarah online in a group of moms who were all expecting babies in November of 2000. We have known each other for over 11 years! We have a unique friendship that can go months without talking and then just pick up where we last left off. Sarah is a gem and we truly enjoyed having her and the girls visit!

Here are some of the photos of the kids:
The girls had an idea that they would make lemonade and give it away free.
Interesting huh?
Most people in the neighborhood that were approached said "No thanks." (Really? Saying NO to free lemonade from 4 cute blonde girls?!) In all, the ended up making $1.00 and they split it 4 ways...HAHA.

I love this bottom right photo...it was Emily's idea to lay on the ground and take an aerial shot--the joy on all the kids' faces speaks volumes to the fun we had the day(s) they were here.

After Sarah left, I went to work on freezing the 2 lugs of peaches we had purchased in MN. Yikes. That was a lot of peaches--Ellie thinks it was around 150. They were all laying on my dining room table...it smelled heavenly!

In the end, we froze 18 quarts of sweet peaches for our enjoyment this winter and one of the best times this summer was standing at the island with Ellie side by side peeling and slicing the peaches together. I think we have a new tradition. Perhaps we should try 3 lugs of peaches next year?!??!

That's it for our crazy week 10. We also were able to put eye appointments, 3 dentist appointments and a well child check in that week as well. No photos from those boring events though!

Summer, Week 9

WHEW! Another fast week!
As soon as Megan and Tony left, we started getting ready to head north to the Evenson Family Reunion on Lake Wapogasset in Amery, WI.

While Mom packed, it became awfully quiet upstairs...

and this is what laughed itself down the stairs! All 3 girls had such a fun time with the new rubber bands and Ava's ponytail...

Anyway, back to the reunion. We really enjoy getting together with Andy's Aunts and Uncles and cousins...it is always a good time. The weather was a bit steamy this year, but that made the boat rides and swims in the lake all the more pleasant!

We did have some strange spots appear though...on both Ava and Colin.

The above picture shows what Ava looked like most of the 1st day, after we discovered the hundreds of red bumps/dots on her skin...and gave her a large dose of Benadryl to try to stop the itching! Anywhere there was bare skin, she was dotted. What her suit covered was clear! What could it be? Sunscreen? Lake water? Heat rash? Of course, a quick post of picture to facebook brought up many ideas! The most popular idea was "chigger bites" from lake water. Affects some, not others. That would explain Colin and Ava's bumps but not Ellie and Jayna's!

There were also "a few" animals at the lake...a couple of VERY well behaved dogs. (Can anyone believe we have pictures of Jayna looking HAPPY holding dogs?!?!?!?) And Mary and Shoo have chickens! All very cool for the kids to observe. Well, mostly cool....Ava and Colin were not thrilled with the dogs AT ALL.

We had lots of time to re-connect...below you will see:
Andy and cousin Paula by the campfire (Thanks to Aunt Paula for texting me that photo while I was at the motel with the sleeping polka dotted babes!)
Photo below on the top right is 'the spa' at the reunion--apparently it is a tradition for a few kids to offer foot rubs!

Uncle Andy shared some OLD stories about his family and the beginnings of the Boe Cabin (lower left photo above). And what is a campfire without S'Mores?! Ellie was beyond thrilled to have a "real" one, complete with a safe chocolate bar!

All of the children got along wonderfully. It touched all of our hearts to witness kids that see each other 1x a year just pick up where they left off and have a blast together. These photos below just make me laugh...they are of Colin and "his babysitters". These 2 precious girls are Andy's cousins' girls. At one moment, they were playing with Colin outside and we asked them if they could "babysit" him by the sand...they happily took their role VERY seriously.

The babysitting role continued with Colin referring to the girls as "my babysitters" whenever he saw them. Andy snapped the top two photos as they were playing in the bunk room. We did pay the babysitters a dollar and made the comment to one of their dad's that we'll take the girls every Friday night--we'd meet them 1/2way (They live in MN and in NW WI!). One of the girls heard me and said "We'll see you every Friday right?!?!?!" :)

These girls are just precious...and even after we got home, as Colin was looking at the family picture that was taken, he said "Look! My babysitters!"

There was also a lot of re-connecting:
Aunt Joan and Uncle Andy got Ellie an "Ellie's" tee-shirt from a local ice cream store named Ellie's! (The goal is to one day be able to eat that ice cream!)

The "little" girls got to spend time with Aunt Paula from Arizona doing a little craft.
(Aunt Paula is a faithful blog follower and loves keeping up with our family, especially since she is so far away from the rest of us!)

LOTS of Grandma time....and of course, there was Iowa Hawkeye talk! Above lower right photo is Andy and his cousin's husband, Jake--he and Andy were making plans of attending the IA/MN game this coming fall...and "the babysitters" said they'd take care of Colin at the Mall of America during the game! (Cute!)

There was also a lot of swimming and tubing. As you can see, even Colin went on a tube ride! Uncle Shoo is so good with taking the kids (and adults!) out for ride after ride after ride on the boat. He took Colin's ride out R-E-A-L-L-Y slow!

and a huge thank you to Grandma for taking care of Colin in the lake water for his frequent swimming requests!

We were at the reunion Friday-Sunday morning and then took off late Sunday morning for the Wiggles concert in Wisconsin Dells. The children had NO idea we were attending the concert. We THOUGHT surprising them as we arrived in the Dells was a good idea...but looking back, we should have told them as we left Amery. Here we had already traveled for 4 hours and when we arrived at the Dells, they thought we should be home already!

After the initial shock and disbelief, the kids were very excited to see another Wiggles show!

Above, you will see Colin in his "Wiggles Birthday Bash" tee shirt and then making his "Wiggle move" (bottom right photo). This show was the Wiggles' 20th birthday celebration! As usual, it was an awesome show!

As you can see though, one Wiggle was missing...

Jeff had heart surgery in June and Brad replaced him (purple Wiggle). Brad was wonderful...and a comment was made that "Someday you will be Numero Uno"....Hmmm...Wiggles part 2?!

Rico was a part of this show again (upper left) as was Katerina (the kids LOVE Katerina, one of the Wiggly dancers--upper right photo)

And Henry, Dorothy, Captain and Wags too!

Last year, Murray had a family emergency and missed the Chicago show we attended. We really enjoyed seeing him this year. You can tell he is all about the fans, he took time to listen to them, to say "hi", to spend time shaking their hands. We love Murray...."Play Your Guitar With Murray...."
And here's a funny story: Before the show started, Andy walked Colin up to the stage to see all of Murray's guitars lined up on the set. Guess what Colin started doing as soon as we got home? Lining all of his guitars up just like Murray's!

How about that action shot of the Captain that Andy captured?!

Another really fun part of the show was the gathering of the roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur. In reality, the roses are collected and taken to nursing homes...but in all of the Wiggles' stories, Dorothy the Dinosaur LOVES roses!

We had forgotten about the roses...and how the Wiggles come into the audience to collect them.
BUT...the people behind us had A LOT of roses and one of the gals gave each of the girls a rose to give to the Wiggle that came in our area. Below, you will see Sam Wiggle coming to get the roses and saying "hi" as he takes the roses from each girl. They thought it was fabulous!

And a family favorite Wiggle song at their concerts--Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! They just put a great spin on the song! It was a really fun end to a busy weekend.

We did capture a couple of videos:
Wake Up Brad/Toot Toot Chugga (Brad was a Broadway singer and they tied that into his wake up!): Click HERE.
A bit of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Click HERE.

Once we finally arrived home, we were ready to switch gears for Music Camp which started early the next morning. However, as we unpacked, we discovered that Ellie was burning up with a fever! No wonder she had eaten nearly nothing all day and was a tad grumpy on the drive home! Not a good condition to be in though, when you have a part in the musical for music camp that is just 1 week long!

We tried to attend music camp but I received a call Monday afternoon before practice was over...Ellie was sick. Sure enough, she was now polka dotted in a rash and was running a fever. I rushed her to the dr to get a strep test--she had all the symptoms, but a negative test! She was down and out for a good 36 hours and then bounced back beautifully for the rest of music camp!

During that same time, Colin also came down with a fever, severe headache, and threw up 2x one night all over me, the couch, the floor...ugh. He too, was fine after 36 hours!

And as I end the week 8 round up, I leave you with 2 Colin photos...one of "the sand"--he is still constantly asking to play in the sand. And he doesn't just play in the sand...he becomes one with the sand. He's had a lot of baths this summer! And then the photo with the Chicago Bears helmet--Andy was elated to find a Bears helmet at the reunion and HAD to have a photo shoot with Colin wearing it!