First Day of 1st Grade

Today was Reagan's 1st day of 1st grade. She was very, very excited to go back to school. To make the day a little more fun and special, and because life's too short not to have fun and decorate, I surprised her this morning by decorating the dining area in our kitchen.

I found these cute backpacks at Dollar Tree, along with the cursive letters border.

I actually found a table cloth in the basement, painted pieces of cardboard with chalkboard paint to use as placemats and basically went nuts at Dollar Tree, finding all sorts of stuff to use to decorate.

The "Back-to-School" gift we gave her teacher. I put #2 pencils around the outside of an empty formula can (I knew I was saving these for a reason), and filled it with Bath & Body Works Soap, hand sanitizer, Advil, Tylenol, lip balm, Kleenex & Tic Tacs.

Last night I made homemade cinnamon rolls (using my friend Sarah's recipe that is better than cinnabon) and baked and frosted them this morning.

Carter was helping me taste-test the frosting this morning. He approved.



We took our customary pictures out front, although Carter was not too happy about getting his picture taken.

I drove her to school, where she let me take 1 more picture of her in front of the school and then she ran off on the new playground to play with her friends.

Reagan rode the bus home from school. Here's Carter waiting for the bus to come around the corner.

After bubbling over with smiles and joy about the day, we set off to Barnes & Noble to get a few new books to read at night.

Then it was on to Friendly's.

We all scream for ice cream!

Home to debrief Daddy about the day.

Reagan's favorites:

1. Recess

2. Library

3. Numbers

4. Lunch

Then dinner, which was Alphabet Meatball Soup & Garlic Bread.

Crayons for dessert.

4-Alarm Fun

Last Thursday morning we went on a fire station tour. Carter was in absolute heaven. He has loved firetrucks since he first noticed them.

He loves to walk around-and-around them and touch all their parts.

Tires, for some reason, especially fascinate him. He went from truck-to-truck-to-truck touching the tires, almost like he was comparing them.

The kids were able to get inside the trucks and sit in the seats.

They even turned on the flashing lights for the kids; Carter is pointing out the lights to Reagan.

Carter and his friend checking out the inside of the ladder truck.

Reagan was not that interested in the firetrucks, but she was a good sport.

At the very end of our tour, the firefighters got a call. We rushed outside to let them get dressed and get out of their way.

Carter waved good-bye to the trucks as they were leaving with their lights and sirens on. When they left the driveway, he tried to run after them.

Blueberry Picking in Maine

While we were up in Maine last week, we went blueberry picking in Aurora at a commercial farm owned by a distant relative of Jeff's. Jeff's grandmother Margaret's cousins children own the farm today and allow us to go picking every year.

Reagan has gone picking with us before, but this was Carter's first trip. Reagan and Carter are the 7th generation of Jeff's family to go picking at this farm.

At first Carter did not want anything to do with the blueberries. I tried to feed him one and he refused to try it. Which is strange because he has frozen blueberries from this farm every morning.

Grandpa was able to get him to try one and he has in heaven.

Carter sat himself right down in the patch and started eating them off the bushes.



Sitting in the patch of blueberries.




Then he figured out that Grandpa had a rake full of blueberries and started eating them right out of it.

He tried to take some out of his sister's bucket, but she's a smart girl and moved away from him.

He finally figured out the easiest way was to pick them out of the flats and followed Jeff's Uncle David up to the car when he took the flat away.

We ended up with A LOT of blueberries. Reagan and I picked 9 quarts, Nana picked 12, Jone raked a little more than 12 flats and Uncle David raked 5 flats.

Back at camp we picked over and froze berries for days.

Don't touch his berries!

Yummy!!

Homemade American Girl Doll Accessories

Reagan has been talking about wanting a bed for her AG doll. She found the catalogue before I could recycle it and went through circling everything she wanted her her doll, Lily for Christmas. The bed she wants is $110!

I convinced her that it might be fun if we tried to make a bed for Lily. Reagan was hesitant because she really, really, wants the AG doll bed, but her love of creating and inventing won out. Plus, she likes the closet we made for Lily a couple of months ago. Reagan also thought that Lily needed a shower, so we set out to make one too.

We had a few moments of rainy weather this week and last Friday it poured all day. While Carter napped, Reagan and I went to work.

For about $8 out-of-pocket, we made Lily her own unique canopy bed and shower:

Canopy Bed:

We used the box that Lily came in as the base of the bed. We went to Michaels and bought wooden dowels, which I cut in half and Reagan painted white.

Reagan's favorite color is now yellow, so we used yellow fabric I had to cover a foam pad that we used as a mattress and some extra to make Lily a pillow. Reagan stuffed the pillow using some batting I had in my craft closet.

I also had some craft wire, yellow tulle and ribbon, which we used to make the canopy.

Shower:

For the shower, we used a box I got at Costco, covered it with the vinyl peel-and-stick tiles we bought at Lowes, and cut a wooden dowel to size for the shower bar. At Dollar Tree we found a hose spray attachment, which we used for the shower head, and a shower curtain, we cut down to size for the box.

Reagan even made Lily a body puff using a bit from a big one and a rubber band.

I had a lot of fun making these projects with Reagan.