Hannah's New Do

Hannah had enough of getting knots and food combed out of her hair, so finally I gave in and let her get her hair cut short.  She still has bangs, so it's a little different than Leah's, and it may actually be a little bit shorter too.  She loves her new do...and it turned out much cuter than I expected!

Sleeping Scenes

 After the Brewers game Joseph spent several nights lining up his sausages with next to Grover (his usual bedtime friend) when getting ready to be tucked in.  I decided I had to have a picture, and one of those same nights when I checked on the girls, this is what I found.  Leah (batman) with her feet on the wall and both hers and her sisters blanket, and Hannah on the floor in a sleeping bag, arms in the air (similar to Joseph).  Pretty funny!

My My How Time Flies By

10 years ago today Jay and I said our I do's!

Mixed Crew

 On labor day we took the whole family to the Brewers vs Pirates game at Miller Park.  (Some would say it was the Pirates vs. Brewers game).  Joseph wanted to wear Brewers gear but eventually came around to sporting the old gold and black, Leah was dead set on being all blue Brewers, and Hannah, well she thought she was going to a football game. (which was good because we had run out of baseball attire).  It was our first time taking the girls out to the park and they really enjoyed it, and the cotton candy entertained them for at least 45 minutes which made the long afternoon easier.  Their favorite part was the sausage race.  I missed it because I was in the bathroom, which is where I was for probably half of the game considering how many times everyone had to go from gaterade and juice boxes.  Next time I need to figure out what level people are going to in order to find those cheesey covered waffle fries!

First Day of First Grade

 Joseph had his first day of first grade today, and picked out his favorite plants vs. zombies shirt to wear along with his new gym shoes.  He left and came home pretty excited, a much different Joseph than first day of kindergarten.  Today he was talking to all the boys on the playground before school and while he did want Jay and I to walk with to the door of the school as his class lined up, after a few waves he walked right in without looking back.  And with a little bit of bribery he even told us a bit about his first day.  It is not the same schedule as kindergarten, they did not get to feed the fish today, and he is only allowed to have one snack in the morning and he ran out of time at lunch which is why both his blackberries and his orange came back home with him.  I guess tomorrow I'll put the blackberries and muffins in the same bag!

Sleeping Leah

The girls aren't very speedy at falling asleep....they wake up in a good mood like Jay each morning but they take hours sometimes to fall asleep like me!  One day I found Leah asleep in the rocking chair in her room at the end of nap time, another time the girls were both in the same bed, sometimes someone is on the floor, and usually there's a lot of giggling and thumping noises before they actually give in to slumber.  At bedtime the other night Hannah uttered her usual "But mommy I have to tell you something" which was followed by "When I'm older can I stay up late, wear earrings and put on makeup?"  Apparently these are some of the thoughts that keep her from going to sleep.

End of Summer?

It's funny how just as you are getting ready to go back to school, summer weather finally hits in full force.  The past two weekends have been pretty warm, so a few weeks ago we squeezed in a trip to a beach along lake michigan not too far from our house, and other than the sand really smelling like fish is was really nice and the kids had a good time.  Hannah was bouncing all over the water and going under with ease, Leah was much more cautious but she's become much more confident in the water this summer too (she just isn't quite as fearless and she gets pretty cold - the lake was cold even for me!  Joseph and Hannah just don't care as much)  Last weekend we went camping in Minnesota and met up with the Grogg and Gould crews.  I haven't had a chance to go through the pictures yet, but it was a good time even with Hannah throwing up, Leah peeing her pants, and Joseph burning his finger.  There's always some kind of excitement with the Conway crew!  Our house is finally starting to cool off now that we're moving back down into the lower 80s again, and though it's hard to tell summer is winding down, Joseph starts first grade on Tuesday.  So I guess that means the summer ends this weekend!

The Lemonade Stand

Joseph had a big idea on our drive back from Ohio after the 4th of July.....and he wanted to keep it a secret and get started right away.  Since we were a bit tired the night we returned, we had him draw his idea on paper and list out the materials he needed, which ended up being a very cool design for a lemonade stand involving something like 52 NAILS, 22 BOARDS and PAINT.  Jay and Joseph made a trip to the store (Jay may have gone back several times), did some sawing and painting and hammering, and while I drew out the bubble letters for the sign it was Jay's idea to make the "E" a picture of a lemon and add the "+ Bake Sale". Joseph colored in the letters and he along with Morgan, Leah, Grace and Hannah (all the girls he has spent the summer with) made the lemonade with Jay while I got the cookies ready for our first time setting up the stand outside our house on Friday.  The customers were quite generous and the kids enjoyed getting their hair sprayed and faces painted after the picture.  It turned out to be quite the project and a pretty fun time!

End of Summer Activities

Joseph was promoted to Orange Belt in Karate this weekend, and he finished up gymnastics last week as well.  Hannah and Leah performed at their last dance class (which they loved) and are looking forward to hopefully doing gymnastics in the fall. And everyone is still in swim lessons and has had a ton of fun in the water this summer!

Kind of Summer

It doesn't look like summer, but it is.  I think it was 60 degrees out on saturday, with the sun, and much cooler without.  I wouldn't normally complain BUT we had planned to go to the beach.  Instead, we went to our usual spot, the Milwaukee Zoo!  And Sunday was just as chilly, so we took a walk over to the park at Joseph's school.  5 more weeks until the start of first grade and Joseph still has no front teeth!  Hannah wishes that she was joining him at school this year, but not yet....though she sure does look ready with her backpack and bike riding skills.  She's also quite the monkey, swings from bar to bar with the greatest of ease (and she also likes bananas).  Hard to believe she is only 3 1/2!  Leah also likes to swing and climb around, in a dress of course.  I will never understand it.  :)  She also likes riding around on the bike.  We're hoping to get Joseph to try with no training wheels soon but he hasn't really been interested, though he did practice riding around our street by himself this weekend.  He's also been learning how to use keys and practicing his subtraction.  Both very important skills!  Hannah chipped her front tooth this summer, you'd think from the monkey bars but no, she slipped climbing up a ladder on the playground.  Oh well, only a few years until the tooth falls out!  All the kids have scrapes and bruises all over their legs and arms.  Leah in particular seems to fall quite often while walking or running, and Hannah walks into things quite a bit and constantly stubs her toe.  We are well stocked with bandaids, we don't quite use them as much as toilet paper but we do keep them in multiple rooms and they are used on a daily basis!  The warmer weather seems to be returning, and I'm sure we'll get another week of upper 90s and I will regret ever complaining about my favorite kind of fall weather as I desperately try to fall asleep to the hum of the a/c unit while all three kids snooze in their sleeping bags on our bedroom floor and Jay snores without any trouble next to me.  In fact, when we go camping in a few weeks I'm sure that it will be uncharacteristically hot.  And then I will regret having complained about the hum of the a/c unit!

Lady Leah

As in, Lady Gaga.  I think we're going to have to get her some singing lessons, because the girl loves to sing.  We drove to Ohio over the 4th of July and Leah sang "Baby you my, roll my windows down, cruise" over and over for the last stretch of the drive (which was much preferred to the "how many more minutes" questions coming from Hannah, who expressed how tired she was of sitting in her seat).  More recently Leah's been chanting "I'm gonna pop some tags. Got twenty dollars in my pocket.  Mom is that how it goes?  Did I do it right?  I like kids bop, can you play some more kids bop?".  It's pretty cute.  Hannah and Joseph like music too, but Leah seems to be the one who walks around singing every day, even if there's no music playing.  A few times in the car it's bothered Joseph so much that he's begged her to stop.  (Her singing isn't that bad, it is a bit off key but hey, so is mine)  Would you believe that even as I type this, I can hear Leah singing from her bedroom about princesses.  Loud enough that I can hear it with the door closed and 40 ft away.  It actually sounds like a duet, involving mermaids.  Girls!

Summer Splashin

Last Day of School (a little late!)

 The last day of school for the kids was June 14, and everyone has been pretty excited for summer!  Leah and Hannah wrapped up the year at Grandma's House Daycare in the 3yr old room, and Joseph finished Senior Kindergarten at Washington.  Though he was happy for his last day, we've been taking regular walks back to the playground at night to check things out and maybe run into friends.  For a flashback to Joseph on his first day at Washington, check this out!  He's definitely grown and is looking more and more like a big kid these days!

A Few of our Favorites on Fathers Day

We did a few of dad and the kids favorite things on Father's Day this past Sunday.  Started out the morning fishing at Greenfield Park (Jay was the only one to catch a fish this time), played at the park, had fun in the sprinkler and kiddie pool in our yard, had lunch and pizza dinner outside, walked to Washington school with Rosco and had some more park play, played xbox, watched a movie, and hung some screens and put our window a/c units in (ok, that last part wasn't one of our favorite things but Jay decided to get that done during naptime).  Thanks for all your hard work and fun stuff that you do with us Dad!

Hannah's First Catch

 A few weekends ago we drove up to Kettle Moraine Valley and spent a few hours at Mauthe Lake, fishing and playing in the park.  Hannah caught her first fish that morning, and it was the only catch of the day!  Joseph thought if he stood right next to her that he would get one too, since that's where the fish were biting, but that strategy didn't work out.

Swinging Around

 All the kids are learning how to swing on their own without being pushed....Hannah seems to have a natural ability for it and loved every minute of pumping her own legs on the swing.  With the weather getting nicer everyone also spent time riding bikes, Joseph trying for the first time with no training wheels and Leah quickly getting used to his bike from last year with training wheels.  Hannah doesn't like to be last it seems, as she quickly gets frustrated on the bike or scooter when Joseph and Leah wiz by her, so there was some crying that went along with each of these fun activities.  And Hannah did not like when Joseph put on his roller skates today and there wasn't a pair for her!  Jay says he remembers being frustrated by the "you can do that when you're older" while watching Timmy get to do things, but I don't remember being jealous of Gina very often (probably because I was the older one!).  Though I do recall it being "unfair" that she got a boombox and phone in her bedroom at a younger age than I did.  I got over it though, so 20 years from now so will Hannah!

Little Ladies

Leah and Hannah posed nicely one morning before school for a quick photo.  One of my new favorites!

What's New?

 Well it has been a while since the last update!  Let's see.....Joseph has had a nice big space in his mouth where his front teeth used to be which is pretty cute.  He had some folks come to school from the zoo to show his class all kinds of bugs (which he loved) and a magician most recently, and has enjoyed a few days in shorts with lots of outdoor activities (oh how we can't wait for summer!)  Hannah and Leah planted a flower with me in the yard and were not excited at first about the worms that we dug up.  With some convincing they both held them though.  Later that day, Hannah decided to give herself a haircut and chopped her ponytail an inch or two and added some bangs. (she also cut a square in her shirt).  Several people commented at what a nice job she did, but we went and got a haircut to even a few things out.  Leah likes to do her own hair with clips but hasn't tried to cut any of it yet!  Also, we've discovered Leah doesn't like to take the time to walk upstairs to the bathroom while playing outside so we've had a few peed pants since our bathroom remodeling began.  Jay and I look forward to having a master bathroom with a shower that doesn't leak or look like a cave, and a sink that does not have to be shared.  Our first floor bathroom is a work in progress as well, the removal of the color pink is what most excites me about that endeavor (I'm sure a pink toilet and sink at one time was quite in).  The house in general is a complete mess with dust and toys everywhere, but I think I've adjusted to the state of disaster and it doesn't really bother anyone else anyway.  Viva la mess! :)

Scenes from Spring Break!

Had a blast at legoland discovery center in IL!

The kids loved making cotton candy at home.

Joseph graduated from Little Ninja to Basic in Karate!

We had fun coloring eggs, decorating little chicks and making sausage in MN!