Never a Dull Moment

This past week has been a blur.  The to-do list got many things checked off, but not all.  The pickles got made, the carrots got dug, the school room got prepared, the schedule got made, but that blasted deck furniture is still not green!  That one gets moved onto this week's list.  (This is where I wish I could insert a cute cartoon girl sighing and blowing the hair up away from her face)
Gwyn had her first violin lesson this week.  She was super excited before-hand.  Now she is only excited when she is talking to someone else (not me) about it or showing someone else (not me) what she learned.  And miraculously she wants to take piano again.  ;)   I say we give it a little more of a shot than one lesson, hmmmm?
Celee helped me can carrots on Friday.  It's so weird that you can have this huge pile of carrots and by the time you cut and prepare them, you get 3 pints out of it.  Oh, well.  When I need carrots this winter for soups and such, I can take pride that they came out of our garden.  Celee really liked the weird shapes some of the carrots grow into.  A lot of them look like little headless orange people, but she really liked this one that was like some kind of carrot-monster. 
Saturday the girls and I got to man the Girl Scout information booth at the Farmer's Market.  The girls got a little bored, but overall they had fun.  They also got to smash strawberries to get at the strawberry DNA which they put into a vile around their necks at a booth near ours.  We also finger-knitted and tried to do friendship bracelets while we were there, with little success.  Mostly the girls hid under the table where they were shielded from the sun and I tried to keep the stuff on the table from blowing away. 

We had planned to go to Chicago as soon as we got back from the market so off we went.  We decided to try the Museum of Science and Industry before heading to the American Girl Doll Store.  The museum was really neat and fun!  We will definately go again.  The girls favorite things there were the train room and the water play area.  The model train was amazingly huge and detailed.  We even found a "hidden" cow on a bus bench and the Hulk roaming the streets.  That and the models were surrounded by real trains and parts of historical trains that they got to climb in and see.  The water play area was small compared to other children's museum ones, but it was still neat b/c the kids can control the rise of water to make the balls drop or the water shoot or fill up something so that was cool.  They also had a storm room with a tornado that spanned up to the ceiling that was impressive.

Gwyn and Celee have been saving up their money for a long time to buy another American Girl Doll.  Their first ones were gifts from Monty, but I told them if they wanted another one they'd have to buy it.  So they finally had enough money for Gwyn to get Julie and Celee to get Addy.  Lyla also had some money to buy her Bitty Baby a lunch kit.  I'm so very proud of them that they saved their money for so long with a specific purpose in mind.  My reasoning was that if they really wanted the dolls they wouldn't forget about it and they didn't.  Now they have a doll that is very nice and has a historical background (so that makes me happy!) that they paid for with their own money.  Pretty cool!

Monday was the first day of school!  We had co-op for the first time and the girls had a really good time.  They made some new friends and are for the most part still liking the idea of homeschool.  Gwyn is even amiable about Spanish now, so that must be a good sign.  It's also nice that they have some classes together, but some apart so they get a little space but they also get to see each other and me for some things.  And I get to spend an hour each Monday with the toddlers which will have to suffice for my baby fix each week. :)  I also love to see general good manners and kindness modeled and encouraged by the other moms.  At one point a few children were not playing with Lyla because they were telling her they didn't know her.  So another mom went over and found out the problem and had them all meet her and talk about kindness.  Then they all ran off holding hands and playing.  It's nice that the kid-adult ratio is small enough that small things like that don't go under the radar and are dealt with in a real life application sort of way.  I was a little bummed when Gwyn and Celee were instructed to make sure they drew dinosaurs on a picture of Noah's Ark, but we had talked about it beforehand and the girls just looked at me and then drew other animals instead.  Oh, well.  It's only one week and the rest of the topics we shouldn't have any problems with.  So all in all day one of our school day went pretty good.

As soon as we got home from the co-op (which the girls think is funny to call The Coop)  we had Girl Scouts waiting for us to go to the fair.  Monday was Scout Day at the Illinois State Fair.  The girls get in for free and they can buy reduced price ride bracelets on that day so this is usually the only day we go.  Lyla got to sport her Daisy uniform again and they were all super siked to ride rides!  Everyone was doing pretty good riding things.  The older girls got to ride some of the big rides this year.  Gwyn was actually too tall to go on some things that she went on last year.  And Lyla is now exactly 43in. tall so she can ride many things she couldn't before.  Like the big swings.  Which then made her sick.  :(  Another fair where she got sick!!  She didn't actually puke and felt better after a bit so we went to get some food and we got to hear a really neat-o R&B band.  The girls danced for a while in the back to some soulful oldies.  Then it was off to more rides!   - Now, before I continue let me say that we took it easy with the food (Lyla only ate some corn chips)  and we took a break for a while before hitting the rides again once everyone felt normal and recharged again.  - I think the mistake we made was riding the same rides more than once in a row.  With the ride bracelets and short lines (it was a scattered rainy cloudy sort of day) the girls could get off a ride and run immediately back in line and if they did have to wait it was only for maybe one round before getting back on.  So apparently that is not good for Celee or Lyla.  Lyla was actually ok - she mostly just wanted to ride the little roller-coaster dragon anyway which is pretty tame.  Celee on the other hand rode the Spider 3 times in a row and then turned green.  So she had to sit for quite awhile on my lap while she returned to normal color.  Gwyn and Riley and Ashanti on the other hand were good to go and we just moved around where they could ride whatever while we sat and watched.  After one last ride (Celee was ok by then to handle bumper cars) we got snow cones and headed to the car.  My thinking was that snow cones are mostly ice and would be ok for sensitive stomachs. 

When we got to the car Lyla felt sick again but didn't actually throw up, I gave her a piece of a dramamine and we headed home.  About 5 min. after we hit the interstate home up came the blue snow cone.  I am so glad that she didn't puke on anyone else, but the back seat and floor of the van got it pretty good.  So we had the fun of pulling over on the side of the interstate to clean child and van in order to finish the hour and a half drive home.  Couple all of this with the fact that I was thoroughly convinced (along with the girls) that I had indeed brought my purse and left it in the car and it had been stolen.  I did have my wallet in my backpack, but was pretty bummed that my purse was gone.  We reported it to the state troopers at the gate even though I told them no money or cards were in it.  Then I called Jason who informed me that my purse was in the kitchen at home.  So I had the pleasure of called the nice trooper who had given me his phone number and telling him what a scatterbrained crazy lady I was.  At least I got to leave a voicemail and didn't have to speak to him actually.  That decreased my embarassement slightly.  Oh and on top of that I didn't hit the end button good enough and the message may have included Gwyn's laughing and my sorrowful exclamation that I just wanted to go to bed.  What a night.  I'm sure that it will make for good memories. (Here should be the cartoon girl sighing again.)
So let's see what this week brings.  I actually do not remember how long it has been since I have experienced the feeling of being bored.  Never a dull moment in the Montgomery house, or I guess anywhere that we happen to be.