Day 1: Nana's Birthday Week

Nana arrived safe and sound yesterday, which I suppose is truly Day 1, but we didn't take any pictures of our adventure to the Children's Drop and Shop where mommy found 3 costumes (a bee, a butterfly, and makings for a 2nd butterfly) for 7 dollars! Yippee!

Today our adventure was the Topsfield Fair. Enjoy the pics!

Nana and the girls outside the horse pulling event... Gracie LOVED the horses!

The girls were entranced by the horses... "just 1 more"

Just need to start 'er up!

She's a natural!

Both girls LOVED the rides

Tomorrow... preschool and library time!

Engineer in Training

A pile of wood and a little imagination... I love seeing the creativity of kids! Hannah wanted to make slide too, but "mean mommy" squashed that idea (and told the story of how that worked out for poppi when he was a little boy... a rough board leaned up against a fence. Well, you get the idea!)

Word Explosion

Well, it has happened... no, more accurately... it is happening. Just like my husband, my mother-in-law (and countless other people) said it would, but when one daughter sings her ABCs before she turns 2 and the other, well, she primarily yells, MAMA, even after she turns 2, you wonder.

Yes, Grace's vocabulary is exploding. Every day it seems, she says something like "Up, please," I do what she says (without thinking) and then I stop and ask, "did you just say please?" She proceeds to smile her big Gracie smile, because "wow, mommy understands me!" It is simply amazing.

Today she wanted to put on underwear (yes, the one who didn't talk is potty training herself... go figure) and she said "El-me." This is Grace talk for Elmo, i.e. the Elmo underwear. Before today, she had never even attempted to say Elmo. It is really cute.

So Gracie may be ALL 2, but she is going to be 2 with a vocabulary. Maybe this will cut down on the screaming tantrums. A mom can dream, can't she?

Some of Gracie's words as of September 2011:

• El-me (Elmo)
• Happy (part of singing Happy Birthday... This consists of saying Happy over and over again, and then ending with "blowing out the candles")
• Mom-mee
• book
• cheese (teez)
• up
• down
• please
• uh oh
• baby (ba bee)... a change from baba
• amen
• Knock Knock (to which we answer "who's there", she responds "uh oh," we say "uh oh, who?" she answers "dada dada dada")
• ow-ee (seems to be getting these a lot these days, including rolling half-way down our entry-way steps)
• pop (popsicle or lollypop)
• snack (old favorite)
• hop
• ball
  

First Day of School

And so it begins... Hannah had her first day of preschool today. Daryl said she didn't even look backwards when he dropped her off at her class. Hannah informed me that they didn't have "circle time" because it was really a square, so they had "square time." Our little scholar... I think she is just "wired" for school.

The last picture is for Grandma Olson. Hannah is putting her tissue into her bag. Daddy remembers Grandma giving him a whole bunch of tissues on his first day of school. They all fell out at school and he was embarrassed. He said he remembers her giving him tissues on the first day of high school, college and seminary! The tradition continues!

Wordless Wednesday

Gracie's story

Grace has started "telling" us stories. It is really cute and quite humorous. For the longest time, her story (repeated often) was about the 4th of July parade. She would cover her ears for the loud firetrucks. She would make a throwing motion for the people who threw candy. Then she would point to Hannah and Mommy who picked it up. Finally she would pretend to eat it for all of us eating the candy.

Here is her latest story.

In case you need further translation, the grunting is the dog going to the bathroom. The "crying" face is us being sad because no one cleaned up the mess. This one isn't her best performance, but it is hard to catch her with the camera.

A Week in the Life of the Olsons

A little bit of everything has been going on these days. So, this post is going to be a bit of a random walk through the week in pictures.

Last weekend... Our good friends, the Boggs, were in town. It was great to spend time with them and to catch up on life from the past year. We still miss them, but are so thankful for what God is doing in their lives and in the church to which he has called them.

Gracie and Derek... she wasn't too sure about this "stranger" at first,
but by the end of the weekend they were good buddies!

Baby Eve wasn't so much a baby anymore! She is SO CUTE!

Jessica and the kiddos... Grace (2 years), Hannah (4 years), Levi (3 1/2 years)

Another picture of the cutie

Derek, Jessica, Daryl and I got to go out for dinner thanks to some brave souls friends who agreed to chase after 5 busy ones. Thanks guys! It was such a gift for us to be able to do that. We owe you BIG!

On Wednesday... my baby girl turned 6 months old. She is such a delightful baby. She is getting steadier and steadier with sitting up, but still needs the pillow net around her (especially if there are siblings near).

Sweet girl... Elizabeth Anne

Silly girl!

This weekend... All week we have been hearing about HURRICANE IRENE!!! Well, for us on the northshore, it was a brief rain and a windy day. I know other areas have been hit hard. For us in this section of Gloucester, it was the storm that wasn't. There were some pretty cool waves!

Saturday... Hannah and I went to get our hair cut. Hannah did so well for Loretta (she sat still for her, something I am having trouble getting her to do when I cut her hair.) It is really cute and makes her look so grown up! School starts this week!

Still working on growing out those bangs... I think I need to get some headbands for her!

Today... was the great bean harvest. Gracie and I picked beans for our supper tonight. There is something really rewarding about that. They were good, but I think they would have been better if I would have picked them a couple days earlier. It is a learning experience.

Believe it or not, this is actually a pre-smile... she was really excited about the beans

And that concludes the random week in pictures. Thanks for stopping by!