*GIRL'S PLAYING WII*

Alexa is such a great big sister. She is helping Maren at playing Dora the Explorer on the Wii. I had to grab my camera and take a picture of how cute they looked.

*GIRLS' INTERVIEW*

*OFF TO OMAHA*

The girls with their balloon animals. Maren's is a cat and Alexa's is a penguin.
The girls got to pick one thing on vacation. Alexa of course got an ugly doll and Maren got a roll along backpack that came with a stuffed frog.
The girls lying in bed - relaxing before we went to the Royal's game.
Maren and her big waffle cone. Believe it or not - she almost ate the whole thing!
The girls being the girls.
Right before we went into the zoo.
Maren riding on the skyfari. She rode with me and Alexa rode with her dad.
Alexa and her dad! They were a few back on the skyfari, so I was able to get a picture of them after we turned around to go back.
The girls in the garden at the zoo.
Each of them had to take a turn riding the snail.
Alexa's turn on the snail.
Once or twice a year we like to take a trip to Omaha to see the zoo and go to a Royal's (minor league) baseball game. The girls really enjoy staying in a hotel room and seeing a different zoo. This year we ended up going on Saturday morning, walking around downtown all day and then going to the Royal's game that night. Then on Sunday we woke up and ate brunch and headed to the zoo. They had the 'Skyfari' this year, which was new. The girls really loved that. We also got front row seats at the Royal's game, so their was a lot of action.

*TREY'S 6TH BDAY PARTY*

Trey's New Frog
The frog's food - crickets. Yum!
All the kids getting ready to eat cake.
The kids digging in.
Happy birthday Trey! He turned 6 earlier this week. They went to the lake to celebrate all week and came home for his party this weekend.

We know how much he loves animals, so we were excited to get him a frog. He seemed to like it a lot.

The kids had a blast playing all evening. They ran all over the back yard looking for crickets for the frog to eat. They also captured a ton of lightening bugs.

*OUT WALKING*

The girls at Carroll Park.
My family walking the wall.
We had all morning and afternoon to fill up before Trey's bday party, so we decided to go for along stroll and lunch. We walked from our house all the way to Corinth Square (approximatly 4 miles total there and back.) We had fun visiting the Land of Paws and seeing all of the puppies. We also went to lunch at Johnny's and ate on the back patio, so we could watch Rollie. (She took a nap under Alexa's chair as we ate.) It was so nice out we had to take advantage of the weather.

*DINNER AT STROUD'S*

We had a nice 'Burhans' dinner at Stroud's. It was a good time to catch up and eat some fried chicken! This is the one place the girls can go and actually eat what they order. Not to mention the cinnamon rolls at the end can be used as bribery.

*GIRLS' INTERVIEW*

*MY DANCING DIVAS*

*A DAY FULL OF BOO BOO'S*

Maren not only once, but twice fell off of the table and hurt herself. Once she skinned her chin and the second time she bit the inside of her mouth. The inside of her mouth is banged up pretty bad, which is making it hard for her to eat and drink. I gave her some Tylenol and it seemed to help, but you can tell she is in a little pain.

When asked what she was doing, Alexa answered by saying she was dusting. That's all I could get out of them!

Alexa also stressed that her knee hurt too from the booboo she got today!

*THE ADAMS*

*THE PAINS OF HOUSE CLEANING*

Last night I finally got to clean my house and it was long overdue. I decided to go through and purge all of the kids clothes. Downstairs I organize them into plastic bins of shoes / Maren's Soon to be Clothes / and clothes for Baby Audry.

I first started out in Alexa's room. Alexa could care less about clothes and thinks going through them is boring. However, she did very well at putting up with me as I asked her to try on tons of different shirts and pants. If they were to small she would say "oh, well" and toss them into the "soon to be Maren's pile." Only once did she say something about giving a pair of pants away. She said "oh, man - I had great memories in these pants." I asked her what they where and she replied, "These are the pants I skied in." and then that was that.

Halfway through Alexa's clothing purge, Maren walked in. She saw all the clothes flying everywhere and got really excited when I told her that she was next in line. We headed up to her room where I started in on the shorts and jeans. At first she had a blast which one she would pick out to try on, if it didn't fit, we would say "Baby Audry's pile." Everything went pretty well up to a certain point.

Then it dawned on her. She wasn't just trying on the clothes. She was giving them away if it went into the "Baby Audry pile." The tears started coming. She tried to convince me she needed all of the clothes and that Baby Audry was way to tiny to wear them anyway.

I moved on to the closet where all of her dresses and shirts where. For her it was so painful. She sat down in the middle of the giveaway pile and started holding onto each article of clothing I would toss out screaming "No, not that one. I love that one." She kept screaming "Stop doing this mommy! Stop it!" It broke my heart. (Note to Erin - you may want to wash the clothes once you get them - Maren sobbed heavily into several of the shirts.)

Now what am I supposed to do? Keep items that are all to small and spare Maren's feelings? Guess which ones are too small and do it while she wasn't around? I was stuck. Here I am - the one night I have to myself to clean - and I can't get anything done.

All of a sudden, Alexa unknowingly solved the problem. She ran up and asked if she could play in the sprinkler. I said yes of course and all of a sudden the tears dried up and Maren ran over and gave me the biggest hug. I put her swimsuit on and that was the end of all of our problems. While they played outside happily, I ran to put all of the clothes in their proper bins before anyone noticed.

Baby Audry - you owe me one when you get a little older.

*HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL*

Alexa, Maren, Trey and Michael
Our seats at the play
The cast of High School Musical
The girls having a little too much cotton candy.
We went to the play High School Musical at the Theatre in the Park. Angie, Greg, Trey and Michael met us there. We like it, b/c the gates open at 7:30 and the play starts at 8:30 when it starts to get dark. We sit out on the blankets and eat snacks until the play starts (and throughout the play as well.) The Theatre in the Park did a great job at casting all of the people. They really played the characters well.

*BOWLING TIME*

Of course we always tease Maren about the time we went bowling and she got stitches. It was nice that we don't have to worry about her not being able to hold her bowling ball. This week we planned to go to the pool on Friday night since it was open until 10:00pm, but b/c of the samll drizzle we had we did bowling instead at Mission Bowling. It's nice that you can set the bumpers on for the kids, so they have fun while bowling too. Afterwards we went to Chicago's on the plaza to eat.

*ALEXA'S 5TH TOOTH IS LOST!*

And the Tooth Fairy's dress was red!

It was funny b/c she brushed her teeth and said "mom - look at my tooth" and it was basically just sitting there with no gums around it. I told her just to grab it and pull and it would come out. She tired and didn't get it, but when she opened her mouth it was gone. We had to search for it and Alexa found it behind the toilet. The other tooth is coming in already.

After looking the tooth over, Alexa got a little nervous b/c it had a little dark spot on it from plaque. She said that it must have been under the gums, b/c she brushes her teeth. I said most likely and not to worry.

That morning on the way to Grandma Adams' house she wanted to talk about it again. She asked if maybe she could leave a note to the tooth fairy explaining it was under the gum, where her tooth brush didn't reach. I said if she wanted to write a note, then go right ahead and we would leave it next to her tooth.

I thought by the time I got off of work and dance class was over that she would have forgotten about the whole Note to the Fairy thing, but she didn't. As soon as we got home from walking Rollie, she ran to her room and wrote a long note. It explained about the little dark spot (and I mean little) and told the tooth fairy that she hoped she still got full price for the tooth.

The next morning, she woke up to find her water had turned red (which indicates the color of the Fairy's dress) and the Fairy had left the full price of her tooth. 3 whole dollars.

*MAREN AND ROLLIE*

I don't usually let myself or anyone else play tug of war with Rollie in hopes that it will influence her not to be an aggressive dog, but I figured that this was okay. Maren was having a blast and Rollie didn't seem to mind. She wasn't even growling. She just hung on for the ride. I figured any interaction with Rollie from Maren would be good, since Maren didn't instantly take to the new puppy.

*MAREN'S FIRST DANCE CLASS*

Maren had been asking to take dance for a year now, but since she was in gymnastics we never put her in it. I asked her one day what she would rather do. Gymnastics or dance? She always said dance. July and August are trial months at the studio. She can go to dance class and Jan (the owner of Wynn Twins) would judge her to see if she can stay in that dance class. If not then she would have to go on another night until she found the right class. At first she just sat by me and watched all the little girls. Then she wanted me to go out on the dance floor with her. Once she was used to it I was able to sit back down and then eventually I went out and sat with my friends. After class Jan came up with me and said how impressed she was with Maren. She didn't think Maren would do it and was surprised. She said Maren could take that class, which works out great since Alexa is in the other studio dancing at the same time.

*GIRLS' INTERVIEW*

I asked the girls some questions on their favorites. I always asked Maren first and then Alexa. However, right after Alexa would finish her answer Maren would say me too! My favorite is (substitute with whatever Alexa said) too. It's so cute how Alexa's little sister wants to be like her.

*ROLLIE CRAWLING*

.
This one was a hard one to teach her. She is still getting it. Some crawls are better than others. At least she knows she has to keep low during the crawl in order to get the treat. She is for sure food motivated. My goal is to get her to crawl to me from the opposite end of the room

*IT'S FINALLY DONE*

Our House Before
Our House After
It took memorial day until the fourth of July to finally get it all done, but it's finally done. From pulling out the bushes, planting new ones, hanging the window boxes, planting flowers, putting soil and mulch down to finally power washing the driveway. It was worth it though. It helped with the downstairs from leaking and it made our house look totally different.

*ANYTHING GOES SUNDAES AND FACIALS*

This Tuesday adventure at Grandma's the girls had a blast getting facials and putting anything and everything they could think of on their Sundaes. Alexa had been talking about the facials all week, so I know she had a blast.

Alexa also got to play the game "Clue" twice. Aunt Rachel won once and Grandma Marilyn won the other time.

I also found out that Alexa "earned" a new cd from Aunt Rachel. Alexa loves the Kid Bop cd, so since she sat through the entire Michael Jackson memorial she was able to get it. She explained to me how she was able to read and play one of her video games, so that she was good enough to earn her cd. What Aunt Rachel and Grandma Marilyn probably didn't know is that I try and have Alexa read at least 30 minutes a day, so they could have just said "In order to play Wii or outside when you get home today, you need to read your book." I should have clued them in earlier and saved them some cash.

I was told Maren just wanted plain ice cream until she saw all the cool stuff Alexa was putting on hers. Each time Alexa put something on her sundae, Maren wanted it too. Once it was all done, Alexa ate her sundae, but Maren's sundae sat their the rest of the day. It's so funny what kind of influence Alexa has on her little sister. Everytime we go to TCBY (which is often!), Maren always wants her ice cream plain and Alexa would put everything on it she can. I wasn't to surprised to find out after Maren had the joy of decorating her ice cream - that she never touched it.

Oh, is that a grape on Alexa's ice cream? She really did put everything on it she could find.

*GRANDMA HAUK'S BDAY TODAY*

*FOURTH OF JULY 2009*

The Teetor Family Photo
Jay, Trevor, and Fletcher
Some of the cousins running through smoke boms.
Cade, Tyler, Alexa and Maren taking a bath after a long day.

This year we went to Jay's Aunt and Uncle's house in Lockwood, MO. We just down for the day and came back that evening. The entire Teetor family was there, so the girls had a ton of cousins to play with. Rollie also went and had a ton of dogs to play with. They live on a lot of land, so she was able to run all over. Jay went and played golf for a few hours and the girls and I swam in the pool. In the evening the adults played horseshoes and we shot fireworks. The rain held off until the perfect time, 10:00pm. Tyler, Cade, Maren and Alexa all jumped in the tub to wash off and changes into their pj's. Alexa spent the night there with her cousin Tyler, while Maren, Jay and I drove home.