Father's Day

We started celebrating Father's Day on Saturday night since I knew Sunday would be busy.  So I made Scott some steaks (ok so actually he grilled them) but I had bought them at the grocery store.  I also made some mashed potatoes and fried squash.  We also cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes, everything but the potatoes (and steak) came from our garden.  The girls really like the cucumbers, with a little salt.  For dessert we had some donuts.

The next morning we had more donuts for breakfast and some fruit.  Then we all got ready for church, here is daddy with his girls before church.

 

After church we met my parents over at Carolina Cafe and we all had lunch and went to Home Depot, sounds like a guy thing right? 

We took the girls home afterwards for a nap and then meet the whole family at Nakato's Japanese steakhouse for dinner.  All of the kids did really well, Emma did not like the fire but they all ate some of the food and watched the show.  Olivia and Emma even wanted to try catching the zucchini in their mouths (neither were successful).  Speaking of catching food, apparently my dad and I were the only ones to catch it in our mouths.  Though I do remember playing that game growing up with my dad so maybe we had unfair advantages.  Here are a few cute pictures from our evening:

Dad with his girls

All the cousins together

For Father's Day Scott got a few gifts, I gave him a nice electric toothbrush (which was a big hit) and a pack of history books on CDs so he could listen on the way to work.  The girls made him a hand print tree and I also had them do this little questionnaire.  I did them at separate times (well mostly) so that their answers wouldn't be the same.  Here are the results:

What is Daddy's Name?
Emma: Daddy
Olivia: Scott
Savannah: He's Daddy

His favorite food is
Emma: Cereal
Olivia: Syrup
Savannah: Daddy's cereal

My Daddy is really good at
Emma: Eating Cereal
Olivia: Running
Savannah: The Y

What I love about my Daddy is
Emma: He's Here
Olivia: Married to Mommy
Savannah: Hugs from my Daddy

My favorite thing to do with Daddy is
Emma: Play with my Daddy
Olivia: Make me fly
Savannah: Swimming with Daddy

I think Daddy is funny when he
Emma: Sing silly songs
Olivia: Reads books
Savannah: Reading books

I like it when we
Emma: Do the airplanes
Olivia: Play with castles
Savannah: Eat

Dance Recital

The girls had their first dance recital last night.  I had no idea how stressful these things could be.  They had it downtown, which I think just added to the stress.  Lucky for us Scott's mom was in town and could help me get the girls in and dressed while Scott parked the van. 

For the dress rehearsal we were really pushed on time and the traffic was bad so I was worried we would be late.  When we got there I couldn't find any of their other classmates so I was very concerned.  It turns out everyone else was late too and they were running behind schedule with the rehearsal anyway so we were ok. 

For the recital I made sure we had plenty of time to get them there and ready.  It was very busy getting their hair done and make-up on, then putting on tights, socks, and costumes.  They were super cute though!

Emma, Olivia, Savannah

At the recital Savannah and Olivia cried and cried when I left them backstage, I felt so bad because it was kind of chaotic and they didn't know the people back there.  The introduction was fantastic, all of the older kids did a great job at putting on the show.  They were the 5th number so we didn't have to wait long.  We were glad to see that no one was crying and everyone came on stage.  Emma and Savannah started dancing right away, but Olivia just stood there.  She wasn't the only one, there were 2 others that didn't do any/much dancing either. 

At one point Emma was twirling and got a little further back on stage and lost her number.  You could tell she was looking for it and was lost.  She finally just started twirling again and then eventually made it back up to her number.  It was so cute, I will have to post some video too.

Emma, Savannah, Olivia

Emma

Olivia

Savannah

Accident #2

So if you read my last posting, on Wednesday a lady hit my car in the back.  We were at a light and the light turned green, but I was turning left so I couldn't go yet and she thought I was going and she hit me.  It wasn't too bad, but the bumper will have to be replaced.  That was accident #1

So today, yes you read that right, Thursday the day after I got hit someone hit the van.  Scott and I had taken the day off work to get some things done around the house.  We convinced my mom and Scott's mom to take the girls to the park in Waxhaw and then to put the girls down for a nap at my mom's house.  The day was off to a good start, Scott and I were working on the back patio, extending it a bit when my mom called to say someone hit her.

At first I thought she was kidding me since someone had hit me yesterday, but nope her voice did not sound like she was kidding.  They were on the way home from the park and were in her neighborhood, practically in front of her house (coming from the other street) when a girl hit her from behind.  The girl had been distracted by a bug.  She hit the back driver's side corner so it damaged the back side and the left side of the van.  It was her passenger side of the front that was damaged so that seemed a little odd. 

All of the girls, plus Bethany my niece and my mom and mother-in-law were in the car when it happened.  The girls did not get upset even though my mom and MIL said that it was a pretty hard hit.  Bethany thought the tire had blown out, since that had happened recently to Stephanie, she still kept saying that even after we explained to her that someone hit it. 

So Scott and I left all of our 'projects' undone and headed down to Waxhaw, I got there in time to talk to the cop and the girl, I did feel bad for her but was disappointed that it had ruined my day off.  It took us about 3 hours to work through all the insurance stuff...mental note: don't call your own insurance, call the other person's insurance first if they are at fault.  Finally we got a rental and Scott took the van to the shop and picked up our rental van.  We then had to get the girls home, so I took 2 carseats out of my mom's car and had to use the front carseat from the van and put them all in my car (yes the one with the dent in the back).  We finally got home around 9 and worked on a few things, though we were too tired to do much.

So now we get to move the carseats into the new van and order new ones.  Please everyone be careful out there!

Savannah's Appointment

Savannah has a small lump behind her ear that comes and goes.  I say small, but actually for her size it is pretty large.  The doctor had referred us to a surgeon, but then it went away so we have had to wait for it to return to take her in.  It did return last week so we called and scheduled the appointment, the earliest they had was a week away, so we were hoping it would still be there when we had the appointment. 

Finally today came and Scott worked from home so he could take her in and I was to just meet them there.  On my way there a lady hit my car, it was a little more than a fender bender but still drive able, we exchanged information and then I continued to the appointment.  I was obviously very late, but still made it in time for the doctor to come in and examine her.

His verdict was that it looked like a lymphangioma which is a soft mass of tissue.  He wanted to schedule an ultrasound to confirm his theory.  Scott took Savannah over to the hospital for the ultrasound and she was so great, he said she just laid there and let them put the gel on and rub the spot.  She even got a prize (a July 4th beanie baby -- pretty good prize).

It is sad that it takes a surgeon appointment for her to get some one-on-one time with us.  She really seemed to enjoy her outing and was a great trooper.  We are now waiting on the results from the ultrasound.

Two Down, One to Go

Yes we now have 2 kids successfully potty trained.  Savannah has been doing great, her and Olivia are champs at going to the bathroom.  Last week I asked the nanny to put Savannah and Emma in underwear and see if they could keep them dry.  I told her my intention was to just focus on one, so whoever was able to keep them dry the longest would be the next one to potty train.  She said they both did pretty well in the morning, but eventually Emma peed on the floor and never did pee in the toilet.  Savannah did well and peed in the toilet all day, then all day the next day and so forth. 

It has now been over a week and she is doing great.  She has to potty a lot more than Olivia, but she also drinks the most.  Her and Olivia tell us when they need to go and usually can potty, wipe, flush, and wash hands all by themselves.  Sometimes they ask for help but they are pretty independent.  I am glad we waited until they were old enough to really just 'get it' and be independent.  The transition has been much smoother than I would have imagined. 

Neither have issues with going on the big potty, so if we are out at the store I just take them to the restroom and put them on the potty and they go.  I'm so proud of both of them, they are really doing great.  We still have issues with the stinky portion of potty training, a lot of times they wait until night time when they have a diaper to go stinky.  We will have to work on that a little more, but for now I'm very happy with the progress they have made.  Having only one in diapers is so nice, we haven't had to buy diapers in 2 weeks now.