Dancing Debut...

Mia and Allison took the stage in their first dance recital ever! There were definitely some pre-show reservations. The girls had to get up early from their nap and weren't too chipper. Alli even said she didn't want to go to dance class, that she just wanted to take a nap with her pillow. Despite their moods, both girls surrendered their blankies and stayed with their class and awaited the big moment.

We were all so excited to see their class come out on the stage. Mia and Alli looked a little more like deer in headlights than prima ballerina's, but I'm sure even Baryshnikov had to start somewhere! Alli is on the far left and Mia is towards the middle.

After their performance the girls were all smiles! They both commented that they had fun and loved their dresses, but that it was very scary on stage.

Oh so thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving! We all gathered at Grandpa Ken's for a yummy turkey dinner. Mia and Alli contributed their edible turkey sculptures and shared their charming 'I didn't nap' temperaments with the rest of us!

Despite being very overtired, the girls had a blast playing choo choos with Grandpa Ken's electric train and getting caught up with Uncle Chris and Auntie Katie.

Another highlight was the first sledding run of the year!

When their teacher, Ms. Char, asked each of them what they were thankful for, Mia and Alli both named their most prized possession- blankie. I like to think Mommy and Daddy weren't to far down on their thankful lists... I feel most thankful for our family, our friends, and for how far the girls have come since their tiny beginning!

School days!

We got to pick up the girls' first school pictures ever yesterday. We were so pleased and not a little bit surprised to see that they were smiling in them! We tend to have a hard time getting them to smile at all or not in a silly way for pictures, but I guess the professionals know what they're doing! I think it probably also helped that they LOVE school and I imagine Ms. Char and Ms. Agnes were making silly faces behind the scenes!

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Another first, Shawn and I found ourselves sitting in tiny chairs across from Char and Agnes for our first parent teacher conference ever last week. I was incredibly nervous. Especially when Ms Char slid the report cards across the table and I saw mostly U's with a few S's. I calmed down significantly when I learned shortly thereafter that the U's mean usually, not unsatisfactory, and are the highest marks they could get. Their U's came in the following categories: respects rights of others, interacts positively with others, enjoys new experiences, use of grace and courtesy, responds appropriately to adult direction, initiates own work, and is willing to challenge self. I guess Shawn and I can tolerate the spats and temporary lapses of manners and listening skills that occur at home as long as we know that the repeated lessons at home seem to manifest themselves at school. One of the S's (sometimes) came in the category of exercises verbal self control. No surprise there...

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In the conference, the girls' teachers laughed while painting a picture for us of how the girls interact with each other, other kids, and their work. Char wrote this about the girls: "Alli is a sweet girl. She has made a lot of friends. For the first month she would ask kids, "what's your name?" "Mia is a little sweetie. The other kids like her. Mia likes to sit on my lap during lessons. Then she'll turn around and look at me and smile real big." To celebrate the good report, we took our little students out for pizza!

Happy Halloween!!!

It was a Halloween weekend full of festivities! To start things off, there was a party put on by the girl's pre-school. Mia and Alli seemed a little overwhelmed by the music and dancing, but could really get behind the foolproof games that guaranteed a prize/treat with every attempt. They were pretty excited to see their teacher too, Ms, I mean, Princess Char! Later in the day, after the sugar high wore off and a nap, the Jacobs came over for dinner. Mia and Alli were happy to hang out with their buddy Mason, showing off toys and snuggling in together to catch a Thomas the Train Halloween special.

Then came the big night!!! Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Affeldt, the girls were all set to dress up as a giraffe (Alli) and an elephant (Mia) for their first official door-to-door trick or treating!

They were so excited and a little bit shy at first as to how to go about it. Of course with a little practice and some candy encouragement, the girls were old pros by the time Shawn had brought them back home!

Now we'll just have to keep their loot out of reach so the girls don't overdo it. I think we convinced them that a piece a day will make the Halloween fun last a long time... Good thing some of the hand outs at the pre-school party were new tooth brushes!!!

Convening at the cabin!

Teacher's Convention freed up some time to trek over to Central Wisconsin for some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa! It was a weekend full of activity and adventure! Grandma and I took the girls to Stevens Point to the Children's Museum and a yummy lunch. Then Shawn joined in Saturday for a trip up to Mosinee to see the Coleman kitties and horses. Alli thought the kitties had sharp feet and were sad... Rudy was pretty interested in them too!

The main attraction was the kiddie sized four wheeler! It only got really scary when Mia accidentally shifted it in to high gear and nearly took Aunt Vic out at the knees, but we didn't catch that on camera...

It was a relaxing, out of the ordinary weekend that the girls and Shawn and I REALLY needed! Thanks for the great hospitality, Grandma and Grandpa! We can't wait to see you again soon!!!

To the corn maze!!!

Grandpa Ken and Monica offered to take the girls on an adventure to the Corn Maze and Mia and Alli were happy to accept the invitation! Though once there, the attendant recommended that the girls NOT go in the corn maze, there was still lots of fun to be had, like riding a cow train for example!

Then there was the ever popular bouncy house!

On top of that, there were swings, sand boxes, and face painting. Alli got a strawberry and Mia got an ear of corn with a heart?!

Thanks, Grandpa and Monica, for once again showing the girlies a great time!!!

A whole other pile of reasons...

Pine needle fun with Grandpa Day and Monica!

A pile of reasons to love the Fall...

Bounce on!

Down the apples!

"Way up high on the apple tree. Too many apples smiling at me. I shook that tree as hard as I could. Down the apples... Ooo, they good!"

-Mia and Alli's version of their favorite preschool song

Mia and Alli have really taken to preschool. There were a few rough mornings in which Mia would attach herself to my leg crying, making it necessary for her teacher to peel her off of me so I could stand a chance at making it to work on time. It is an awful feeling, pulling away from the school on those mornings. However, I quickly learned that I'd better have a pretty enticing snack waiting for them in the car in order to get them out of the school at the end of the day. Their cousin Henry told me about the 'high five goodbye' that had helped him to feel happy when his daddy dropped him off at school. We tried it and, like Henry predicted, it has been working most days! The girls love their teachers, Ms Char and Ms Agnes, who have been so kind and reassure me often that the girls are doing great. I asked the girls who they like to play with at school and they both answered, Dominic, a cute little blond boy in their class!?

One of my biggest concerns continues to be their reliability with potty training. Mia is still poop-phobic and has had a couple of accidents at school. Each time I pick them up I cross my fingers that there won't be a bag of soiled clothing hanging in their cubbies. Knocking on wood, we've been on a pretty good streak lately and I hope it will continue!!!

Grandpa's bus day!!!

New Flyer opened its doors once again to family and friends for cookies, press on tattoos, balloons, and a tour of the bus factory. Grandpa gave us a personally guided tour of the facility which ended with a ride on what Grandpa called an 'articulated coach'. That's fancy insider talk for one of those double long buses with an accordion in the middle. Mia and Alli were pretty excited about it all!

Once we finished the tour we explained to Mia and Alli that Grandpa was working and wouldn't be able to leave with us. When we went out to Grandpa's house for breakfast the next morning and Alli seemed a little surprised to see him and verified, "Grandpa, are you all done working?!"

"Watch me bless!"

It took a couple of car trips listening to excessive sneezing and giggling coming from the back seat before Shawn and I figured out that these goofy girls can sneeze (for real) on command! They say to each other, "watch me bless" (which is Mia and Alli for "sneeze"), then they make a weird slack jawed expression that almost always leads to a sneeze! I guess you have to invent some extreme ways to have fun when you're strapped in to a 5-point harness?! This demo takes place at the breakfast table...

School!!!

'Tis the season to go back to school! This year was a lot more exciting though as we got to watch the girls experience school for the very first time. We had been reading a library book about preschool to try to build excitement and between that, Grandma's presence, and new school shoes, the girls were indeed very excited!

The girl/backpack proportion cracks me up!

Mia and Alli have prime cubby location. They are next to each other on the end by the door. Like Mr. Rogers, they have to change out of their outdoor shoes and into their school shoes each time they come in. When Grandma went to pick them up after the first day, the girls were bursting with pride that they were able to complete the process all by themselves!

The first three days were just two hour orientation sessions. After the first day drop off I had to be at back-to-school teacher workshop meetings, but Grandma reported good things. The girls seem to have bought in to the procedures of the classroom and were following Ms. Char and Ms. Agnes' instructions. I had been fearing that they would have poop or potty accidents and be asked not to come back, but they did great. I was also assured that accidents are expected and are not grounds for dismissal!

I can't thank Mom/Grandma enough for coming and caring for the girls so that they could be at their orientation!! The girls were so happy to see Grandma come down the stairs each morning and were smiling and excited to tell me all about what they did at school and with Grandma when I got home from work. I think we all had kind of a down day today now that Grandma had to go back home!

Big news from down under...

Since the beginning of August we have been in potty training boot camp. We're trying to get the girls to be totally reliable and accident free so they can start pre-school. Of course the girls had some accidents at first. Mia even took her pants off and peed on the sidewalk once while we were still trying to cement the concept. Most recently though, the potty part of it has been going really well. In fact we made it from all the way from St Cloud to the St Paul Children's Museum again today with totally dry underpants! It's the poop part that has been holding up progress. The girls have refused to poop on the potty and Mia, who has never been particularly fond of the 'movement', would prefer to never poop at all. One of our friends' little boy is a champ and put on a little demonstration for the girls at our house last week. Then I tried to bribe them with m&m's to no avail. They both had poop accidents yesterday at TJ Maxx! (So embarrassing...) Then today, out of no where, Allison took herself to the bathroom and finally did it!!! She was so proud of herself she called Mia and I in to see. In her words, "Look! It's a big caterpillar poop!" Let the celebration begin!!!!!!

We welcome any advice or stories of encouragement as we continue potty training!

Clinging to summer...

It seems all the wishing in the world can't postpone the end of summer. To make the most of our last week, we decided to meet some good friends at the Children's Museum in St Paul.

The morning flew by quickly, with lots of fun and no potty accidents!!! After a happy meal, the girls crashed in the car before we even made it out of the parking ramp. I had to drive a few laps around St. Cloud once we got back before they finally woke up. Later, Shawn and I took the girls to a community event where they got to meet real firefighters and climb into the driver's seat of a fire truck.

The girls were pretty disappointed to see that their carefully-applied face paint washed clean off in the bath! Now just a couple of more days of adventure before school starts...