A visit to the Arboretum

A quick slideshow of the days fun with our friends the Kaiser's. We met at a location between us -- the Athens Arboretum. I will do some more photo editing and then post a few photos more. If you hover over the photos it should show the captions!

Gymnastics Class

Some photos and a slide show from today's gymnastics class. Megan is the youngest, since she is in a 3 -5 year old class. But she does well and pays attention as well as the other 3-year olds. Also, this Saturday class is quite small (one girl moved classes) so we now only have three students, so the kids get lots of time.

It is a large and long hall, and we sit at the very end, so I had to use a lot of zoom to get pictures. Next time, we may take a tripod, as I had a lot of trouble with blurring or the picture being underexposed. But hopefully, we captured some memories of Megan's class to share with you!

Class always starts with Tumble Track. Really -- who doesn't love a big long trampoline?



Some stretching and floor exercise -- amazing how they really pay attention in class




Then, off to the balance beam today. Megan is NOT a balance beamer, so she takes a little extra help but improved already quite a bit over last weeks beam work.

"Happy Birthday Mama!" -- a FLOUR cake and a FLOWER cake

Today was my birthday, and we had a fun but restful day. Everyone has been feeling a little under the weather (could it be the flu already?!) so we also worked in a good nap as part of the birthday!

Megan helped make a birthday cake. She is really into cake right now - at least the idea of the birthday cake. She really wanted to make me a Dora the Explorer cake (she was actually a bit upset at my choice of a chocolate layer cake) but had fun cooking it anyway. She got to eat lots of icing and even showed Daddy her chocolate mustache that she got from licking the beaters. We made a FOUR layer cake with lots of icing, and then decorated it with yummy cream cheese / butter cream frosting. I can handle cake mixes, but I always have to have homemade frosting (we used all of the cocoa powder making the chocolate frosting and had to make a trip to the store).

When we finally cut the cake after dinner, and Megan had her piece the sugar high lasted well beyond a normal bedtime. She was bouncing off the walls -- I think that is a sign of a GOOD CAKE.

Megan helped frost and decorate the cake

The FLOWER cake (thanks Nana and Papa)

I made Megan a special piece, which had her name written on the plate in frosting covered in sprinkles. She wanted the cake to say "Happy Birthday Megan" and kept asking me to change it to that from "Happy Birthday Mama" So we settled for adding her name to her plate, and that made her happy.

In the end, she celebrated well, and sang several (many many more than normal) verses of "Happy Birthday Dear Mama" even as she was going to sleep. I'll see if I can link a video tomorrow.

After all that chocolate, there is nothing like a good cup of milk


I had lots of nice emails, cards and calls. My dad said he didn't realize the time, but I think he secretly wanted to be the first to call. Of course, at 6AM I wasn't quite coherent yet, but since Megan didn't wake up, I went back to sleep anyway.

Now my sugar high is wearing off, so off to bed we go. One year (or one day) older...!

Preschool Zoo Day

On Wednesay, Megan invited two of her friends to have a zoo day! Three preschoolers (2 - 3 years old) makes for an event filled adventure, and left Megan exhausted when she got home (I even had to wake her up from her nap!)

Megan and her Mama

They loved watching the gorilla.

After MANY MANY attempts at getting a picture of the three of them (facing forwards at the same time) this was the best I could do.

fun time

Megans friends (the gorilla and meerkat!)

Oops, sorry -- Megan's friends -- Gwyneth and Brenna (and Jana too!)

Play doh fun

Just some fun pictures I took of Megan playing with her Daddy while I fixed dinner.
Daddy was keeping her entertained (translate as out from under MY feet) but I think he likes having a 2 year old so he has a good excuse to PLAY with the play dough -- especially since he keeps telling me that she needs a fun factory and I doubt she has a clue what that is! (click here for the explanation if you don't either)

Note: if you read earlier posts, you'll notice here that goggles are also good for playing with play doh. She really likes these swim goggles! But she doesn't like her ponytail and bow nearly as much, which is how she gets the trolli doll look!

We found finally found it!

We have been looking for about a year for a good kids computer set. We found places that used to carry it, reviews for great products that were no longer available, and looked at lots and lots of stores too. It seemed like whoever made these products left a sudden gap in the market (or we were just really bad at finding them). But over the weekend, we made a trip to Fry's (where we had looked several times) and finally found a set! These are great with big keys, and a USB powered mouse that even lights up. Megan likes it!

A busy day to help overcome a sad day

Today we have had a busy day. We set out to fill it with lots of activity since we had a bit of a sad day yesterday. In our mailbox last night when we got home were the babies' birth certificates. So we now have the birth records for Preston Homan and Anne Homan.

Since we were a little sad, we set out to have a full activity filled family day with Megan. We got up, and made breakfast. Megan wanted eggs, and helped make those. She accidentally crushed one in her hand, and so we had our first wardrobe change by 9AM.

We then loaded the car with fishing gear, snacks, bicycle gear, and some grocery bags. Our goal was to go to Sams and do all the grocery shopping, and then also go somewhere to fish and maybe ride our bicycles.

We decided to head out for the lake first, and set out driving for White Rock Lake, a nice little lake in Dallas. We had only been there one other time, and that was several years ago, when we walked some and took pictures there. Of course I somehow typed this into the computer for directions incorrectly, and we drove way out of the way and ended up many miles off course at a different lake.

We decided to turn back and head out again for White Rock Lake (where we should have gone in the first place -- my fault) and then halfway there my very good girl let us know that she needed to go "poo poo". So now, we were frantically trying to find somewhere decent to stop and we made it to a Shell Station. We loaded ourselves back up (because remember that all of this travel is occurring with two bicycles strapped to the back of the car!) and made it to White Rock Lake.

The weather was absolutely amazing. After yesterdays rain from Ike, which made it gloomy and rainy all day, today was sunny, breezy and beautiful, with the high only around 83°F.

We decided to ride around a bit and scout out a good fishing area. We set off on the bike trail.

I will say now that we did NOT FISH AT ALL TODAY. In fact, setting out on the bike trail was about all we did. It turns out that it is a fairly LONG bike trail. And by the time that you really figure this out (insufficient planning perhaps?) you are ALL the way on the other side of the lake, and just might as well finish the 10-mile trail!

After about 8 miles, we found a playground and took a break while Megan (who had been sitting the whole time in her bike seat) ran and played. She played on the swings and slide, and then loaded back up on the bicycle for the last few miles.

We made it to Sams (barely) and got all of our shopping done just as they were closing. A quick trip home, unloading the car, cooking dinner and bathtime filled the evening, and Megan fell right to sleep. Apparently she had indeed had a busy day.

We finished the dishes, and then cooked the 20 lb. of ground beef that we bought (we cook and freeze it) before retiring to the computer room for a little R&R and blogging!

So I guess we succeeded at having our busy day. It was so busy we forgot the camera, and have no pictures. It would have been nice to snap a few, especially of the many many sailboats that were out. But at least we kept busy, and now we are ready for bed too!

Gymnastics class

Today, Megan started her new class of gymnastics. She was taking gymnastics at her daycare (a small mini class) but they weren't able to offer it this fall, so we have been looking for another place to enroll her. We found a regular gymnstics program, and enrolled Megan in a preschool class. She is actually a little young for the class (beginners 3-5) but they let her since she had been taking lessons already.

She did so amazingly great I could hardly believe it. She got in line and went through circuit stations. She jumped down a trampoline, hung on bars, climbed across a set of bars, walked up a wall, and practiced her gallop. And I shouldn't forget that she practiced her "big finish" as they call it with a complete "ta-daa!" She did well the first 30 minutes, and then got a little distracted the last half of the class (she is TWO and all) but the teacher said skill wise, she did great. So next week we'll see more. It is so adorable. We didn't get pictures today because we weren't sure what to expect, but we'll get some next week!

Kindermusik

This week, Megan started a new class of Kindermusik. We visited one morning with a neighbor, and Megan really liked it -- The Kindermusik "Our Time" class. It turns out that they have an evening class, so we enrolled for the semester! Megan's teacher, Ms. Sheila is very nice and amazing with the room of crazy toddlers and kiddos (18 mo - 3 yr)

As part of her materials, she got a musical instrument called a "Stir Xylophone" which is really cool! It combines cooking and music! She plays it and then pretend sips from the spoon. It is hard to see in my video (which also has some white balance issues!) but the piece in the middle is a wooden spoon. I have also included links above to the Kindermusik site, her class site, and the stir-xylophone as part of their musical instruments!

Biking is so exhausting

After just a few miles, Megan was exhausted! Bicycling can really tire you out.

She fell fast asleep as Chris drug her around the neighborhood, and we transferred her directly to bed after the ride.

PS -- Megan is such a big girl! Megan is officially really potty trained now! She has virtually no accidents (except she still has a diaper on at night), and even gets up from bed to go potty! I bring this up since her "big girl" Mickey Mouse panties are showing in the photo!