Spring has sprung.....for now!

Wow, we are getting lucky with this weather lately!! Most of the snow has melted and it's been sunny and in the 50's all weekend so today Avery and I decided to pack a picnic and head to the local museum grounds for lunch. I packed a bag of leftover bread in hopes of seeing some ducks and as soon as we got there we found an entire flock of hungry feathered friends. Hopefully this awesome weather will continue so we can take Rylee on Wednesday when she has off of school.

Miss Avery feeding the ducks before lunch......

They got a little too close for comfort here, lol!!! Poor things, it's like they went the entire winter without food!

Chilling by the bridge enjoying a sandwich. The ducks were hanging around yelling for more food!

A self portrait before starting our walk...

Avery found this "waterfall" and just had to get her picture with it.

Homework and sneaky fun!

What does Avery do all day when Rylee is at school?? She plays with Rylee's DS of course!! She used to sneak it into a corner so I wouldn't see her but now she understands how to use it so I let her play with it once in a while.

And so we don't forget about Miss Rylee.....here's a picture of her working hard on her homework. Some days I wonder how I ever got an education without a computer....it's basically mandatory these days starting in kindergarten.

Dear Mr. Anonymous.....

To the anonymous person that keeps leaving links in my comment section........please stop!!! No I am not interested in making money, getting free stuff, linking my blog, etc. I can and will delete your comments.

Snowy days and a long overdue update!

Oh my, it's been a long time since I've been on here so this might be a long post! Let's see....over the last month we've had our share of snow, in fact, WAY too much! Average snow totals for our area are usually around 20 inches a year. Well, we got a double whammy in February that brought over three feet in less than a week, yes, I said three FEET, and that doesn't include the "little" storms we've also had. Now some might say that's it's my fault. I was the one that wished for a big storm but I had no idea that wish would bring so much snow, I just wanted my kids to see what a "real" storm as like because up until now four inches was considered "big" to them. Needless to say, I will NEVER wish for a big storm again! Besides the mess left by the storm Rylee now has a bunch of school days to make up due to closings. Anyway, here are a few of the many pictures we took from that week.

Chilling in the backyard, literally!

In her snow fort....no tunnels allowed in this house.

Miss Avery, poor thing, she couldn't even walk in the snow!

Who needs a sled when you have snow pants!

Let's see, on to updates....

Rylee got her second period report card and is still doing great in school. They now have ten spelling words a week instead of six and the words are much harder now but she's mastering them within a day or so. She has also started "Rocket math"...something totally new to me. She has two minutes to get as many math problems right as possible. Last week she got all 40 answers right so now she gets moved to the next level. Her reading is also getting better by the day and next week she gets to practice her skills by reading to the kindergarten class. Oh, and since she got her glasses she hasn't had one headache!! Wohoo for that!! Swimming is over for the season. She ended her season with two individual trophies, two individual medals AND her team went undefeated so the first season was a success!!

Miss Avery is doing wonderful as well. School is going great for her and she still loves going. We got her first progress report a few weeks ago and she doing so well that they are moving her up to the next class which consists of mostly older 4 year olds and young 5 year olds. She's a very smart little girl, just a little shy :-) We recently went on a field trip to the local grocery store and our next field trip is in a few weeks, we're going to the county nursing home to sing for the wheelchair bound patients.

Well, I think that's it for now....I'm sure I'll think of something soon. Oh yeah, both girls had their yearly well-child checks ups and of course they are both fine. Rylee weighed in at 55 lbs. and little Avery tips the scales at 33 lbs. now!

The Pagoda and Rylee's new specs.

The girls have been asking about the Pagoda ever since they spotted it on top of Mt. Penn one night so we decided to take them up to see it. What is the Pagoda you ask??? Well, I always thought it was a gift from another country but apparently it's not?!?!? Anyway, here's the correct information on it, some of it is very interesting! http://www.pagodaskyline.org/pagoda/

They actually still flash the lights every Christmas Eve to warn all of the children that Santa has been spotted and is on his way, a cool trick for parents who need to get their kids to bed! Every other night of the year it glows red thanks to the new LED lights that surround it. So anyway, here are the pictures from this morning. You'll also notice that Rylee has a new fashion accessory. Yes, she got glasses. They came in this morning and we just HAD to rush right over to pick them up. She absolutely loves them and wants to wear them all the time. I give her a week before the thrill wears off.

Daddy and the girls looking out over the "ever so safe" city of Reading.

The Pagoda.....the shops inside were closed, boo!

Check out the new specs!

She wanted a picture alone...

First swimming trophies

Rylee got her first swimming trophies this past weekend, wohoo!!!! We are so proud of her and she is so proud of herself. It makes all her hard work and our driving to and from the pool every night worth it!! Normally she competes in the 8 & under age group which doesn't give her much of a chance considering she's only six but this invitational was different. They had the kids compete with only kids the same age. She got first in freestyle and second in butterfly!!!

Standing in front of the results sheet....with her name listed on top!!!!

Chilling between races having some lunch.

And with with her first trophies...daddy is putting a trophy shelf in her room...I have a feeling we will need it!

Christmas part 2

The girls and their cousins getting ready to open presents!!!

They had no idea that Santa go ahold of some Zhu Zhu Pets for them!!

Every cool hamster needs a car....and a garage to keep it in!

Christmas part 1

Christmas was a whirl wind of activity like usual but we had a great day!! It started off early and lasted until 9:30pm!!! The girls got everything on their lists and so much more. Now we just have birthdays to get through!

Avery with Kai-Lan, her most wanted present...

My, I mean Rylee's, new addiction....if anyone knows how to beat the final castle LET ME KNOW!!!

Great Nanny and Great poppop with the great grand kids.

Gran and poppop (my parents) with the kids...

Snow days....

This winter has been very snowy so far and the girls LOVE it!!!

Dawns wedding.....

Sorry it took me so long to post pictures of the wedding but FINALLY here they are!!!

For those that don't follow me on a regular basis here's the story.....

Dale's sister got married Thanksgiving weekend and both of the girls (and daddy) were in the wedding. We were a little worried about Avery getting through the day. She can still be very shy at times and I had visions of her refusing to walk down the aisle when it was time but she did absolutely wonderful! Both of the girls cruised down the aisle and stood there looking like a couple of angels. Yes, for just a few minutes my girls looked and behaved like angels, lol!! After the wedding we all headed over to the reception and the girls danced from the time they got there until they crashed five hours later.

All ready to go!!!

Dancing the night away.......

Mommy and the girls

Daddy and Rylee

Stay tuned for more posts....I have so much to catch up on and I am going to TRY to get it all done this week. Here's a little sneak peak for those who can't wait....we have two birthdays this week, the first swimming trophies were won last weekend and Christmas was a blast again!!

So like I said, stay tuned.....hopefully I'll get those stories posted in the next few days!!

Swim Team

Wow, it's been SO long since I've been on here!! Let's see, between Christmas shopping, running the girls to and from school and swim team I barely have time to breath these days! I'm looking forward to things calming down a bit after the holidays then........okay.....never mind, I just realized that we have two birthdays to get through in January, lol!! Sooooo, maybe I'll get some sleep in February??



Anyway, Rylee has been doing great on the swim team. Practice is every Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights and most Saturdays are spent at one pool or another for a meet. She also got her first quarter report card and is doing great in school!! She's right on track in most things and is even above average in a few....what more could I ask for. We absolutely love her teacher as well, I had my parent teacher conference a few weeks ago and I could have talked to her all afternoon.



Miss Avery is doing great in school as well. She's really starting to open up more and has her little group of buddies that she hangs out with now. She has a best friend at school and they are so cute together. Deborah is also very shy so they pretty much just stare at each other for the first few minutes, lol!



Dale's sister got married last weekend and both of the girls were in the wedding! They looked absolutely adorable and did a great job walking down the aisle! They also tore up the dance floor at the reception when they got there too, lol! Honestly, I think the only time they left the dance floor was when they got hungry!



Well, that's the quick update for now. We hope everyone has a happy, safe and healthy holiday!! For now I'll leave you with a video of Miss Rylee swimming butterfly at last weeks meet....

Trick or treat 2009

Gotta make this update short so here goes!!!

Long story short, we had lots of fun, got WAY too much candy and got soaked during the candy walk. We went out early hoping to beat the rain.......no such luck, it started when we were about as far away as we could get. So we continued on, umbrellas in hand, and ran from house to house.

Dr. Rylee and head cheerleader Avery.....

Assuming the position

Trick or treat gang 2009. This is right before we started our candy walk, and right before the rain came. Yes, we kept going under umbrellas, nothing stops us from chocolate!!!

At my moms house with Bailey and Ethan...

Apples, apples and more apples!!

So last week when I made apple dumplings my Greek neighbor, Albert, happened to stop over and I sent him home with an apple dumpling. He had never had one and showed up at our door an hour later with stars in his eyes asking me how I make them and what kind of apples I use. Fast forward to yesterday..... about 1:00pm the doorbell goes off and it's Albert with a case, yes a case, of 100 Granny Smith apples! He owns a local diner and asked his vendor to get him a case. I was shocked! He didn't want money for them and his only request is that I teach the girls how to make apple dumplings one day. Soooo, guess what I'm doing today? I pulled out my largest crock pot and filled it with apples for sauce and I have a double batch of apple crisp cooking away in the oven. He's never had apple crisp either so I'll be sending a batch over to him later. So now I only have 50 apples in my fridge, lol. Hmmm, I wonder what I'll make tomorrow!

It's hockey time!!!

Wohoo, it's almost hockey season!! Now, I really could care less about NHL hockey but for some reason we got hooked on minor league hockey a few years ago and now it's become one of our favorite winter activities. The girls absolutely love going and have so much fun while we are there. We have the same seats for every game so we know everyone that sits around us and the girls have a blast cheering with everyone. Our team is of course our local team, the Reading Royals. They are training a few miles from our house and Sunday they had a meet and greet session after practice so we decided to surprise the girls by going. Before we went in to meet the players daddy had another surprise for Rylee, her very own jersey!! She was so excited and had every player sign it during the meet and greet. There are a few returning players but it's mostly a new team so hopefully that's a good sign that this season will be better than last year. Pre-season games start next weekend so look for lots of pictures soon! LETS GO ROYALS!!!

Rylee and daddy showing off their new jerseys while waiting for the players to come off the ice.

With Scott Langdon, one of last years returning players

With Rob LaLonde, another returning player.