Yippee for Aunts and Uncles

Today was one of those rare, but somewhat welcome, days where I found myself alone for hours.  Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie volunteered to take Calleigh and Aubree to SeaWorld for the day (to practice being grandparents).  I was happy to oblige them, mainly because I knew how much the girls would enjoy it.  They picked them up and our van around 10:45 and off they went.  I wish I could say that I spent the time taking a bath, reading, going shopping, taking a nap, etc.  Yes, wouldn't that have been nice.  Instead, I spent just about the entire time working (with a little time out to watch/hear the Verizon/iPhone announcement).  The auditors are coming early next week so yesterday started my busiest time of the year for work.  In fact, I'll need to do some more after I finish writing here so I really do need to keep it brief.  Anyway, the girls indeed had a wonderful time and the report was that they were as good as gold.  Why is it that they're so much better when they aren't with their parents??  I guess that's a good thing really.  Calleigh went on the roller coaster six times.  We asked her if she put her hands up but she said "No, because they say you can't."  Aunt Lori had read that you weren't supposed to do that so Calleigh was very good with following the rules.  Apparently Daddy had failed to notice that rule in the past.  Aubree took a short snooze at the park and then Calleigh fell asleep in the car.  They reported that Aubree talked/sang the whole way back.  It was nice to know that she was perfectly fine with them for that whole time when you think back to just five months ago when we were in Nova Scotia and she didn't leave my sight.

Aubree loves her some Uncle Charlie!

Going back a few days...They started a new Sabbath School class at church for 3-year olds and this was the first week.  At first Calleigh seemed a little reluctant to leave Aubree but once she knew Braelyn was going to be in the new class, all was well.  There were about ten other kids and it was indeed nice having just bigger kids in the class and not having to worry about running over babies and small toddlers.  The teacher measured each kid so that at the end of the class (which will be in the summer when they "graduate" to the 4-year old class), she can measure again and see how much they've grown.  Calleigh was the tallest girl of the bunch by a few hairs.  All in all, we're very happy with the new class but the only small downside is that they're still doing the Cradle Roll program which means it's the same lesson for the whole month.  I'm so ready to have a new one each week!

Saturday evening I dropped Duncan and the girls off at Ron and Elaine's because I saw the sign about Thriftko closing down and they were having a big 70% off sale.  What devestating news.  They should never have moved to that new location.  I'm sure that's what did them in.  I at least was excited to take advantage of the sale though.  Unfortunately when I got there it closed at six so I had to wait until Sunday morning to go back.  At Ron and Elaine's, we got to see Duncan's brother, Russ, and his girlfriend, Saray, who are moving down here from PA.  They're staying with Duncan's parents until they get their own place.

Sunday we went to the "green" playground as Calleigh calls it.  Not because it's green as in it's helping the environment or something like that but because the slides are green.  They were having a birthday party there so there were tons of kids.  Calleigh found a couple of girls to hook on to and she had a blast as usual.  After a bit, was a big announcement that it was time for cake and all the kids took off leaving us there alone.  Poor Calleigh.  I almost had to physically restrain her from joining the party.  The two of them just looked on longingly from the sidelines.  She might as well have eaten the cake because she never ended up falling asleep for her nap.  Frustrating.

"Come on, Aubree.  Let's crash this party!"

Because she didn't nap, the cycle goes that she falls asleep early that night (which she did) and then I knew she would be tough getting down for a nap that day as a result.  I knew I had to get her good.  So off to the mall playground we went where she played for a good hour with two girls.  Her big thing was running around pretending a bear was chasing them.  She got that from a new book we got at a yard sale called "We're Going on a Bear Hunt."  It's a really cute book and I should know because we've been reading it multiple times a day, every day.  It's true that kids like to read the same books over and over and over and over again.    I seriously need to go to yard sales every week just to get some new books because I get so tired of all the old ones.  Thankfully the mall playground trick worked and she napped.

I've got Aubree on a pretty good potty, going # 2, schedule.  I've been too lazy to actually potty train her but I've at least got her in a routine so that for the most part, she's going # 2 once a day and that's on the potty after lunch.  She's all to happy to do it too.  Our other change is that we've ditched the sleep sack.  That happened shortly after Christmas.  She didn't seem very happy with it anymore so it's been packed away for the next one.

Calleigh is back to asking her tough/interesting questions.  The two of late are 1) "Will I be a kid or an adult in heaven?" and 2) "Who created God?"  Yeah, good luck trying to explain that last one when it's something we can't even fathom as adults.  Then, she had a really cute prayer yesterday when we got a small thunderstorm (a somewhat rare occurrence this time of year):  "Dear Jesus, please make the thunder go away.  And when are you coming to take us to heaven?  I would like pink wings for me, yellow wings for Mommy, purple wings for Aubree, and blue wings for Daddy. Thank you.  Amen.

On that note, good night.

Last night we ate at Ron and Elaine's and Grandma tried to teach Calleigh to play Chess.  Calleigh's queen got taken but then Calleigh put it back on the board and declared that the queen was back because she had "just taken a break to go potty."

Just being silly.