Back to School 2010-2011


Today was the first day of school for the girls. Paige is in 7th grade and Megan is in 4th. Paige gets on the bus at 7:15 and Megan gets on at 8:25. So that means a long morning for me...get Paige up..make her breakfast and pack her lunch on most days then I take the dogs out while she gets on the bus. Then it's back inside to do it all over again with Megan.

Paige gets her locker today so she has lots of supplies to carry in. I told her she could bring in a little each day but she wanted to bring it all with her today. I talked her out of taking her clarinet...I'm pretty sure they don't play music on the first day of band class.

Megan's allergies were bugging her but she seemed to perk up when we went outside and she saw all of her friends gathering at the bus stop. Lucky for us we live on the corner that the bus stops at (that is especially nice when it is raining or there is snow on the ground).

She was originally going to wear her new jean leggings but I told her she would get too warm on recess so she changed to jean shorts. The pink shoes that Aunt Shann got her for her b.day look great with her plaid shirt.

Is it me or does Megan look too mature in this photo? I just can't believe she only has 2 more years of elementary school then she's off to middle school. I'm not ready for that :(

The Sea Dragon!
The first roller coaster from designer John C. Allen and the only one remaining of three built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company with this layout. Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium's Jungle Jack's Landing is a double out and back, figure eight wooden coaster. This family attraction has a 37-foot tall lift, 1,320-feet of wood track and a maximum speed of 25 miles-per-hour. It was built in 1956.
It's a classic!

Paige and Megan kept trying to get the very front seat but would have to settle for the 2nd row of the first car. I told them next time to just let everyone go and wait back so they could be 1st in line so they could jump in the first seat of the first car.

"The Scrambler" a.k.a. the masher because if there are 2 people riding together one gets mashed against the far side of the seat.

My ultimate favorite carnival ride is the "Tilt-a-Whirl". Back when we were kids my dad and uncle both worked for P.&G. and they would have their company picnic at Mickey Grove Park just South of Sacramento each year around the start of school. We would get our hands stamped and we would get to ride the carnival rides with our cousins all day. We spent lots of time on the ol Tilt-a-Whirl making good memories.
Now when the kids and I go to the zoo we are doing the same. There's never a line for the rides and if no one is in line the kids running the rides just let you stay on and ride again and again that is what we did yesterday.

The last ride of the night was the Sailing Parrots..note to self "do not put on sticky lip gloss before riding parrot ride unless you want your hair stuck to your lips!"

Last Saturday (7-31 Happy Anniversary Dad and Carolee) the girls were both at sleepovers so Mike and I decided to take the canoe out for some fishing at the ponds. The last Saturday of the month is late night fishing so it didn't really matter that we didn't get down there til 6.
We paddled out to the island that we used to call "Charlie Brown island" but now we are referring to it as "goose poop" island for obvious reasons. The fishing wasn't so great in that area not even a nibble so we paddled over to the East pond and had better luck.

That is the same fish in the picture above as well as below but I think the sky looks cool in the picture above.

Paige finished up her summer woodwind camp with Dr. Clark last week and then they had a concert for us on Friday. One of the other kids could not attend because of a family emergency, so Dr. Clark asked Paige to play that persons music in a trio. She practiced it twice with them when they were warming up and then nailed it perfectly during the concert. Needless to say we are very proud of her.
I wish this picture below turned out better. Dr. Clark is moving out of state for a new college level teaching position. We wish him all the best but we will miss him greatly. He has been such a positive role model and has taught Paige so much this past year. He is one of those people that just makes you smile, he exudes this genuine warm energy.

After the concert we took the girls to Molly Woos for dinner, yummy!

Megan's birthday night celebration...from opening gifts to kissing toads.....

Who knew she would get so excited over a ninety-nine cent box of Mike and Ikes ?

This is the cute b.day card that Paige made her. Paige picked her out a really cool gift too. She got her some blank books so Megan can copy the stories that she writes into them. Paige said that she would help with editing. I think this will be a great rainy day project to keep them busy.

Megan enthusiastically modeling her new apron that Mimi made for her.

This is the card I made for her. I was worried that she would count the pink flowers (on the felt ribbon) and realize that there were only 8 so I snipped one more and put it inside by the greeting. Inside it said "Butterfly kisses and birthday wishes".


Our little Megan is ready for the roller derby now. Her friends around the block have a long flat driveway and sometimes they put cones out and play music and have their own outdoor roller rink.

I actually bought these earrings for her before she got her ears pierced, so I didn't know she was going to pick out blue flowers. The ones I got her are a little different shade of blue and they are dangley-post.

This is kinda cool...I put a picture of Megan in it from her rock star party last year and her friends all signed the frame with highlighters. When you flip the switch little black lights shine on it and makes the words and drawings glow. You can wipe it off with a tissue and write on it again and again. It was a big hit!

Pictures from Megan's b.day dinner at Red Lobster (she wanted popcorn shrimp for dinner).
We had to wait until after Paige's tap class to go out so we had a late dinner.

Our waiter was nice enough to get a lobster out so Megan could pet it. He also gathered a group and sang her happy birthday too.

When we got home from dinner I took the dogs out and found this baby toad. I brought it home to show the girls and Megan pretended to kiss it.

Megan celebrated her 9th birthday last Wednesday, July 14th.

I let Megan open this one gift in the morning before we went to Paige's music lesson. That way she would have something new and fun to play with.

Since Paige had a 1 1/2 hour band class in the middle of the day and then a 45 min. tap class at the end of the day we did some celebrating around that and it worked out fine. Plus she had a party with more friends on Saturday....so we did a little partying this week.

After we dropped off Paige at the music store we picked up Cameron and Meghan and went out to lunch at Culver's. Then we went over and picked Paige, grabbed Paige some lunch and headed for the splash pad at the park.

Cameron, Megan the b.day princess and Meghan celebrating at Culver's.

The girls posing at the splash pad.

Here's a cute picture of everyone after they got soaked!

They played on the playground for a bit and then warmed up in the sun. I don't think Cameron realized that I was actually going to catch her cute little tongue sticking out, they were pretty far away...but the big lens sees all!

Someone had a groovy giant frosted cookie for her b.day on July 14th.

Happy 9th Birthday dear Megan,

We love you with all our hearts, Mom, Dad, Paige, Rowdy and Rebel