ANOTHER MIMI-ISM

For the most part Mimi and Ben got along swimmingly on our trip. Now and then they would have to be separated to decompress. Ben is a whole year older and has just as much energy as Mimi and is all boy. There were a couple of times when he would try to grab something out of Mimi's hands while she was playing with it and she would just look at him and say "You're messing with the wrong girl!!! Knock it off!!!!" I kind of glad that Mimi does not have a problem standing up for herself and her friends however on the other hand it has proved to be a problem too.

Once at school this past year there was one girl by the name of Hannah, who was caught piling up on Zoe. Mimi saw this and went to pull Hannah off of Zoe. All the recess teacher saw was Mimi pulling Hannah and put Mimi into time out. I happened to be there as a volunteer that day and was able to help Mimi out and it was a topic of discussion for the class that day.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO SAY

Yesterday afternoon was gymnastic time. Elsie was there with her mom Rhonda. I noticed Elsie's shiney shoes and said "Wow Elsie, you sure have got some pretty shiney shoes. I love things that sparkle and shine." Elsie then takes a look at my earrings and says "You're a Bling Bling girl too!!!" You got that right babe.

Mimi has come up with some new sayings of her own. She loves playing tic tac toe on my iphone. Whenever I miss a chance of winning and she wins, she will say "Betcha didn't see that com'in did'ja?".

REFLECTION LAKE

This was taken on our way home Sunday afternoon. Ben just could not get enough of Mimi so he asked that we join them for a picnic lunch and so we did. For good or bad, Mimi has always had that kind of effect with the boys.

MORE CAMPING PICTURES

Last year Mimi and Ben were the only kids on our campout. This year there were several more girls. Ben's school had a raffle and his dad put up this camping trip as one of the prizes. Jessica's (Ben's classmate/friend) family won the prize and they brought another family with them.

The bottom two pictures were taken at The Grove of the Patriots. There the kids had a chance to skip stones down by the river, listen to the park ranger tell them all about the plants and trees, take a group photo. Pictureed left to right is Mimi, Ben, Aubry (pink jacket) Aubry's mom Amy, Jessica (black jacket) and her little sister Molly behind her next to the tree.

Then every night after dinner they roasted marshmallows and made smores. Can't have a campout without the marshmallows and smores now can you???

If the kids were not down by the creek playing, they would disappear into "Auntie Lori's" (lady in red vest) camper. She absolutely loved it especially the fact that Mimi and Ben would call her Auntie Lori as she is really feeling the effects of empty nest now. Even though she works as an accountant you would think that she was a kindergarten teacher as she has that kind of personality. We all just fell in love with her. She would read to the kids and have them make their maps for their "treasure hunts". Next thing I knew they were going around the campsite looking for their "treasures" such as pine cones and things.

PREPARING FOR OUR CAMPOUT

As I have said many times before, Costco is the watering hole for many of the moms in our town. While there we met up with Zoe and her family. They were there doing the same thing we were doing, getting our supplies ready for camping. Even though I had purchased two rocker camping chairs at the Big 5, I had to go out to get the Seahawks camping chairs also. Zoe then came home with us for a couple of hours while Shelley continued with her errands.



I found out from Mimi that the girls had decided to keep away from Blake for a while as Mimi says he has not played nice with them for a while. I thought that I would just keep out of this and see where it leads.



In the evening Mimi was supposed to go to karate class but instead I had her stay home as she had a complete total meltdown. In this case I think that I was partly to blame. As we had been quite busy with getting ready for school, gymnastic, piano, karate classes and so forth. She was starting to run out of steam. Now and then I would make her lie down for a nap. This was one of those days after Zoe had left.



Mimi for quite some time has been very excited about our upcoming trip and seeing her friend Ben again. Instead of napping she just decided to goof around in her room. Finally she fell asleep, then I realized that she only had 20 minutes till Keri was to come and pick her up for karate. What I should have done was just let her sleep but instead I woke her up and boy did I pay for it. I had totally forgot that if Mimi wakes up on her own, she is a happy camper however if you wake her up, she is like a grizzly bear.

I left her home and went over to Angie's for my facial and man oh man did that ever feel sooooo good.

MILO AND OTIS.......

Or as in our case they're known as Butch and Ollie. This afternoon I took them all over to the school ground so that Mimi could practice riding her bicycle. While there we met another family with a daughter by the name of Victoria. She took a real liking to our Ollie as she is not able to have a cat of her own. Her family is allergic to cats and dogs. Our Ollie was just great. He let her haul him everywhere all around the playground and on the slide. People just thought it was a hoot watching a cat follow the dog on the grounds too. Then it was time to go to gymnastics.

DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

For the most part up until now, Mimi has been kind of a mama's girl. Therefore whenever I could, I would take her to go have lunch with dad in downtown Seattle and even Los Angeles when we lived there. When she entered kindergarten last year it was much more difficult to do that so instead I would make it a point that they would spend Saturday morning going out for breakfast just by themselves. Then Mimi would ask me why I was doing this. I explained to her that both her dad and I love her so very much and the fact that I now am a stay at home mom, I could spend much more time with her than dad. Dad is now working up in Everett and sometimes comes home quite late depending on the work load that needs to be done. During the summer months it is not so bad as I let her stay up waaaay past her normal bedtime. However when school starts that will all change as she will be going to school full day this year. I think now that she is 6 years old, she is able to comprehend a whole lot more than she did before about our family situation.

This past Saturday she kept asking me over and over, "Mom, when are you going to South Center???" "Why" I asked her. In a very matter of fact kind of way she tells me "Because I want to spend some time with dad all by myself!!!" Then I was told by dad tonight that she had called his office this morning and wanted to know if he had talked to his boss about letting him work the weekends only so that he could spend Monday through Friday with her. "Dad" she says "Did you ask your boss that you only want to work on Saturday and Sunday. Not Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? Tell him that I'm all by myself on those days and I don't have a dad. OK?" For quite some time now she has been asking why dad has to work. I tell her that we like to eat and have a roof over our heads. "Well then why does he have to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thusday, Friday? Why can't he just work Saturday and Sunday? Hmmmm?"