Soccer and Dance

Ray had his first day of soccer/gymnastics. It was really fun! The class is at Soccer World, which is just down the road from our house (so really convenient for me). The owner is his teacher/coach and really did a great job with the kids as far as speaking at their level and doing all the activities with them. Ray did a great job and participated in all the events!!

Maria has dance class on Tuesday's at Dahl Dance Center. This will be her second week. The class is an Intro to Dance, so they are doing some ballet, lyrical and ballroom. Last week she was so excited to show us her moves :)

Swimming and Spelling

Ray had his first swim day at preschool today. He loved it! I'm so glad that I have him doing preschool now that I'm home with him. It gives us both a break and he's doing such fun stuff.

Maria had her second spelling test today. She was practicing this week and it payed off as she got a perfect score! Way to go, sweetie!!

Still kicking

Yes, we are still here, just haven't made blogging a priority :)

Quick recap...
- My sister, Carrie, got married in CO on August 23rd, so we had a family vacation to CO. Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride and groom. (are really adorable flower girls!)
- Got home from the wedding and our computer died. We had to order a new hard drive. So I was offline for several weeks.
- Maria's first day of 1st grade. We love our school and her teacher seems great. The only bad thing is her long bus ride to and from school. She doesn't seem to mind it yet as she's making new friends.
- Raymond started preschool at the YMCA. He goes to 'school' 3 days a week. He really likes it (a total 180 from his preschool classes last year at comm ed). He is also excited because once a month, they get to go swimming (their first swim day is tomorrow). He was the VIP last week and got to bring snacks and a toy to share
- Greta is crawling, crawling, crawling. She pulls herself up along all the furniture. I think she'll be our earliest walker (good or bad). We had to babyproof once we got home from CO because she became so mobile so fast.
- Dave was in the boundary waters last week. They had great weather and a good time, but we are glad to have him home!
Those are the highlights our of past month and I'll try to be a more constant blogger :)

Walking to the movies

Today we decided to walk to the movie theater close to our house for their free noon movie. We got there a little late because I didn't judge how long it would take us. Maria rode her bike and I pulled Greta and Ray in the wagon.
When we arrived, the movie (Horton Hears a Who) was sold out. They only open 2 theaters for the showing. Since I had called earlier to confirm the movie and the lady told me they wouldn't sell out because the 10:00 showing didn't and that one is always busier, they offered to let us watch another movie.
So we got to see Kung Fu Panda instead. Which was great since we hadn't seen that one yet, but had seen Horton. And the theater we were in was not very busy, so plenty of room.

Pool

Yesterday (Sunday), we decided to try one of the public pools in town. They have reduced admission on Sundays ($1 instead of $4), so thought it was a good time to give it a try. Dave and Greta went shopping and I took Maria and Raymond. We got changed and went to go to the kiddie pool. The kiddie pool went up to 2 1/2 feet deep while the big pool started at 3 feet. So we wanted the kiddie pool since Ray wouldn't be able to touch in the other and no flotation devices are allowed. Well, turns out the kiddie pool is free all the time! The lifeguards refunded our money and we were able to go to the kiddie pool..

.. for about 10 minutes, then it started sprinkling and Maria got cold :) But, it was worth trying it out and now we know that one is free and we can go again on a hotter day.

Nature Camp

The kids just finished a week at Quarry Hill Nature Camp. They went each day from 12:30 to 3:00. It was a nice for them to have some structured learning. And a nice break for me to run errands with Greta. I thought I'd get more done, but ended up hanging out each day instead of coming home since I didn't know if it was worth driving across town to come home and then leaving again to go get them when I had to get groceries and stuff anyway. It gave me an opportunity to spend several hours in Lowe's checking out window coverings (blinds, verticals and curtains - as I'm trying to update some in the house since all the windows have white mini blinds - boring), paint swatches (for a few rooms we want to get painted since they are still white, which doesn't look good with the white woodwork), lights (to replace the fixtures that are in the bathrooms), and ladders (since we need a bigger one). Spent a lot of time just browsing and looking at my options, but didn't buy anything. I feel that I need to make an informed decision and know all my options before getting some of these types of things.

The Fourth

Went home for the fourth of July. Went out on the in-laws boat to view the air show and fireworks over the Mississippi. Unfortunately, I was seasick and missed most of it :(
Raymond fell asleep right as the fireworks were starting. Maria fell asleep before the finale. Greta slept through them, and I was feeling ill and laying down in the cabin of the boat. Well, at least Dave enjoyed them..
Spent the 4th at the annual church picnic with chicken dinner for lunch. We ran into a lot of family (cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins) and old school friends. Nice to catch up with everyone.