Waterpark

The whole Ossman clan (minus Grandpa Ed, who was busy with harvest) met in Des Moines at an indoor waterpark/hotel.  We realized this was Nora's first time staying at a hotel.  She loved it!  After spending all Friday afternoon playing in the pool with her cousins and eating pizza she got the privilege to sleep with Mommy!  (Nora's goal every night is to sleep in "Mommy Daddy bed."  She likes to sleep sideways and thrashes around quite a bit, so she isn't the best bed mate.)  Alena and Daddy got to share the other bed.  Before going to sleep we told stories.  Nora told the story, "Once there was a little mommy and a ghost!"  Then she would laugh hysterically for a minute before retelling the story.  Against all odds everyone eventually fell asleep.  In the morning Alena and Daddy went out to walk around and Nora and I ate banana bread in bed while watching cartoons.

The babies had fun, too!  Nina practices her sitting.

The final birthday celebration

We needed to celebrate Alena's birthday one more time, now with Grandma and Grandpa Ossman.  Alena got a new princess sleeping bag, Barbie clothes, and a new leotard so she is prepared to start gymnastics class on Wednesday.  We set up the camper, Grandpa gave tractor rides, and we went to a pumpkin patch.  The girls are going to have to get some good rest in during the next few days.

Nora has her puppy, books, and Alena's sleeping bag ready to take out to the camper.

 Alena practicing some moves.

The girls loved going through the haunted house, seeing the animals, and playing with all of the toys

Nora was not interested in going home.

Birthday party

Alena had friends Brielle, Tillie, Maya, and Kaelyn over for a fairy themed party.  The girls played some fairy games, made necklaces with fairy shrinky dinks, and ate chocolate cupcakes with pixie dust on top.

The Thatchers gave Alena a Flutterbye, a fairy that actually flies!

Happy birthday, Alena!

Alena turned 5 today!  The Jensens all came over to celebrate in the first of several birthday parties.  We had pizza and ice cream cake.  Alena is preschool's "Jaguar of the Week," so Jackson the stuffed jaguar even attended.  Alena has loved Barbies for over a year, and was very excited to receive a Barbie fairy, that she named Fiona, from Mommy and Daddy.  She received several cute outfits and a new Lalaloopsy doll from Grandma and Grandpa.

Girl Summer Updates

 Nora took a nap in Alena's bed...after reading every book in the room.

The girls love watching videos on the Kindle together.  Their favorites: Elmo uses the potty and The Little Mermaid book.

Alena went to Bible School in Springville with Tillie.  She loved singing the songs and dancing to them.

Lily and Finn had a sleepover at our house.  We went out for ice cream, ran around the backyard screaming, and watched "Tangled."  It was a great time, although Alena had to sleep in our room after being too disruptive to her cousins.

 

Alena and Daddy went to princess night at the Kernels.  They got to meet 4 princesses, eat cupcakes, bounce in the bounce house, see fireworks, and watch a little of a baseball game.

Preschool

Alena's first day of preschool is today!  She is going to St. Matthew's this year and her teachers are Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Eberle.  She was very excited to go this morning and was out the door in record time.  When she got into the room she was a little intimidated, but she found a girl to play with and told us goodbye.  Daddy was surprised to see a man he went to elementary school with.  His son is in Alena's class!

Nora's summer

I put the easel outside and every time we went outside, Nora would say, "uh paint!"  Every time.  She would get very angry if not allowed to paint.  We had to move the easel inside so we could get to the car without her throwing a fit.

Nora is always singing, usually "Tomorrow" or "Twinkle Twinkle."  If she isn't singing she is talking.  A lot of what she says we are not able to understand; she could say something to us in a long string of words and no one has any idea what she is talking about.  She is easy to understand when she slows down and concentrates. 

Nora loves playing with baby princesses.  They are little characters from Alena's Candyland game.  Alena doesn't really like games, but they both love the princesses.  Nora will hand one to me and she takes one.  Then both princesses have to interact by saying "hi" to each other, over and over (there are many variations of the "hi" game.  Today at the playground she gave me a blade of grass and we had to say "hi.")  I think Nora could identify all of the princesses before her colors.  Though she is now good with her colors.  Her favorite color is yellow.

Other cute things Nora says: I ya you (I love you), See you (while playing hide and seek).  She points to people and identifies them; "Mommy, Daddy, Ya-ya, Nora, Ruby... She repeats everything that Alena says, and Alena thinks it is funny.

Both girls are jumpers.  A lot of their playing consists of bouncing up and down.  Nora sometimes likes to copy her sister's toe walking.  Her running is getting faster, but still includes quite a lot of bouncing.

Nora defines bird appetite.  She just does not care to eat very much and continues to be very petite.  Today at lunch she ate 3 beans.  Then she stood up and said, "Poopy is coming!"  I changed her diaper and asked if she wanted more food.  "All done."  The only way to get her to eat is to trick her.  Alena and Nora have challenges who can eat their broccoli first, or daddy has to very exaggeratedly proclaim that Nora isn't big enough to eat something.  Then when she takes a bite he has to act shocked.  It is funny but makes for a lengthy dining experience.  The exception is if she can forage for her food.  She loves picking strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries and shoving them in her mouth as fast as possible.  But if I pick those same berries and bring them inside, she usually turns up her nose.

Alena's summer

Alena has been interested in fairies for months.  She wants us to read fairy books to her before bed and she has a costume with wings.  We are always required to "be" fairies. Daddy and Alena spent an afternoon building a great fairy house a few weeks ago.  There was a big storm and the house was destroyed.  They rebuilt it bigger than ever.  Now they are waiting for fairies to come visit.

Alena passed Level 1 of swim lessons.  The main thing they had to do was put their heads under water.  She worked really hard and got a lot better over 2 weeks of lessons!  We celebrated by letting her pick out a new beach towel.  She picked a My Little Pony one.

Both girls went to their first movie in a theater.  They went to Despicable Me, the free kids movie at Collins Road Theater.  They each got a balloon puppy and shared some popcorn. Both girls had fun.

Every night before bed, Alena has to say, "You are the mommy I wanted to be my mommy.  You are the mommy I love.  I love you, night night."  I don't know where she came up with it, but it is pretty cute.

Last week I asked her to help me dust.  She dusted places I didn't even think of.  The whole time she was saying how much she loved cleaning.  I needed to have a record of that.

Alena caught her first fireflies this summer.  She put them in her bug house and the next morning they had turned into pennies!

Alena is so helpful with her sister.  She calls Nora, "Sweetie" and helps us however she can.  She is working on teaching Nora how to use the potty and was the most excited person in the house when Nora did it. 

She is getting more into crafts.  Her drawings are usually patterns but sometimes she draws pictures.  Always there is a big "Alena" across the paper.  Lately Alena has going through a lot of scotch tape.  She makes fairy pillows by folding up kleenex and wrapping them in tape.  There is usually a roll of tape in her secret hiding spot (behind the recliner) and in her bedroom. 

Adventureland

On Monday, I had a little idea that we should go to Adventureland this weekend.  The Thatchers were just crazy enough to agree to go with us.  Alena's favorite rides were the Ladybugs and Infant Ocean and she loved the circus.  She wasn't too interested in the bigger rides, but she did go on The Underground twice. Nora was the little daredevil and wanted to ride on anything Alena went on.  Nora and I went on the train just the two of us. "Nora ride train with Mommy," she said.  I was excited to see my old buddy Ben Ulin, the same magician I used to love when I was a kid.  Amanda and I even sneaked away and went on the Galleon, Falling Star, and Space Shot.  Daddy got to hit up the Dragon.  The kids were pretty exhausted after hours of excitement.  Nora acquired a plastic bowler hat from the carnival and was doing this silly routine where she would drop it and pretend to chase it while kicking it.  It was very similar to what she saw at the circus.  You know Nora is tired when she starts getting really funny.  They both fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Cousin Hannah's wedding

My cousin Hannah got married last month and we all went to the wedding.  All of the family was there, even Baby Alice and Baby Nina.  After the wedding, Lily organized the cousins into a wedding party.  They walked down the aisle and threw flower petals.  We even picked up another cousin, Cousin Libby.  She fit right into the pack and Nora had a contemporary to hang out with.

Fourth of July

We have lived it up for the Fourth of July week.  Monday we went to Brucemore with the Jensen family for the balloon glow.  Alena got to put on a velcro suit and stick to a wall!  Yesterday we went to the Kaufman's pool party.  Alena was really into swimming around with water wings.  Nora enjoyed floating around on a raft.  Before the party we picked and ate raspberries with Grandpa Ed.  At the party the girls ate large amounts of puppy chow.  As Alena says, swimming makes you hungry.  We then went to Hills for fireworks with grandma and grandpa.  There was quite the delay in the show starting due to a softball game, and they didn't start until 10.  This year Alena stayed awake for the beginning of the show...but fell asleep in the middle of it.  Nora was wide awake and loved her first fireworks show!  She appropriately ooh-ed and aah-ed at each firework. After it had been going on for awhile, she was more interested in seeing the reactions in her family.  Both kids fell asleep within minutes of hitting the interstate.  

Poor Alena was put to work painting the porch floor the next morning

While Nora was allowed to sleep in until 9:30

Playing dolls to wind down from all of the excitement

Jensen Sisters

The dynamic duo

We have finally reached a time where the girls get along more than they fight.  It is a much more peaceful way of life.  Alena loves to encourage Nora to go upstairs with her to play Barbies.  Frequently something strange happens while they are up there.  Some of their recent hijinks: "cleaning" the bathroom floor with half a a bottle of body wash, making a fort in our closet and trying on large amounts of sweaters including an underwear "doctor's mask", applying makeup and nail polish, and Alena changing Nora's poopy diaper (she did a great job--the only mistake was the diaper was on backwards.)  Nora is always singing or talking in an endless string of uninterpretable words.  Sometimes she will say, "Please Yaya."  Alena will say, "I don't even know what you are asking!"  Or she will say, "Tank tu, Yaya."  Alena will reply, "I didn't even give you anything."  Nora usually laughs at that point.  Nora learned how to say her name a couple weeks ago and now is no longer "mine."  If you say, "you're funny!" she will reply, "No funny, Nowa!"

Relaxing and catching up with Curious George.

We had our snack at the pond at Brucemore before sailing a boat we made that morning (inspired by Curious George.)

Only their mother can tell them apart!

Baby Alice

Nora felt really big hanging out with Baby Alice.  Don't hit, Baby Alice!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Melissa!  The day started with cinnamon swirl pancakes and hugs from Alena and Nora.  They love their Mommy so much, they had quite a pile of gifts prepared for her to open.  We went south to visit Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ed for the day.  There was a quite a bit of playing with Barbies - Grandma Dee is very skilled at "Barbie Play".

The twins.  Melissa always wanted twins (not)

Happy Mother's Day to Grandma Dee, too.