Busy Day

Today was a pretty crazy day.  Jon and I had a follow up appointment this morning at The Miriam Learning Center regarding Justus' evaluation.  So, this morning I got the kids up, got them ready for school, and waited for the bus with the boys.  After the bus picked the boys up I dropped Charley off at a friends house, and then headed to our appointment.  Our appointment went really well.  Justus has been diagnosed with Autism.  The appointment was a bit overwhelming, but in a good way.  Before the appointment Jon and I both felt overwhelmed because we had no idea what we should do, what direction we should be heading or anything.  After the appointment we now have a plan in place, which is a good feeling.  We are setting up a meeting with Justus' school to get him the attention and help he needs there.  We are also enrolling him in a two week day camp through the MLC, which is designed to help kids like Justus with social skills.  The camp has a fun theme of "Mystical Magic".  He is pretty excited about it.  We are excited for Justus as well.  I am looking forward to watching him learn new things and new skills that will help him succeed in school and life.

Sunday Lunch

Jon gives me the day off of cooking on Sundays.  We almost always just grab lunch and bring it back to the house, but today we decided to go out to a restaurant after church.  We picked a restaurant we had never been to called Mimi's Cafe.  At the end of the meal Jon asked about their muffins because he enjoyed the carrot bread they brought out at the beginning of the meal which they also have a muffin version of.  When he told our waitress he was interested in getting some muffins she asked if this was our first visit, which it was.  She left for a minute and then brought back this box of complementary muffins.  I was so impressed!  Maybe we should go out to eat more often!

Money, Money, Money

This morning I had a friend's bridal shower to attend.  While I was gone Jon took the kids out in the yard to pick up "gumballs"...those little spikey balls that fall off trees.  Anyways, Jon set the reward for each gumball they picked up at $.05...thinking that was a good deal.  Little did he know it would end up costing us a small fortune.  I wish I could have gotten some pictures of them cleaning up the yard, but I wasn't here...boo. This afternoon we told the kids if they wanted to we could go to the store and they could spend the money they earned cleaning the yard.  Matthias and Justus both bought Legos, and Charley bought this cute little flapper girl dress.  

Playing with Baby Addie

This evening I watched our friends adorable little 4 month old girl.  Her name is Addie.  Charley and Matthias were so excited!  They played with and entertained her most of the time she was at our house.  They both love babies.  Matthias kept saying how cute Addie was and Charley is just a little momma.  She wanted to hold, feed, and change Addie's diapers.  I really didn't have to do much except supervise.

Muddy Puddles

One of Charley's favorite shows is Peppa Pig.  Peppa's favorite thing to do is jump in muddy puddles, so of course that is now one of Charley's favorite things.  Today she asked if she could go outside and jump in muddy puddles.  This is typically something I say no to since I don't want to deal with the clean-up, but today I said yes.  Because...why not?  Cleaning her up really wasn't that difficult, and she had so much fun while outside.

My Little Helper

Charley loves helping me in the kitchen.  I love that she loves helping me.  Almost every night she pulls a chair over to the stove to help me add "gredients" to dinner.  I feel like it is a kind of special time.  I hope this is something she always remembers doing with me.

Mommy - Daughter Time

So technically I spend a lot of Mommy/Daughter time with Charley, but most of the time it is just everyday activities and errands.  Last night she asked if I would take her to the zoo.  I was a little hesitant, but I told her yes.  I woke up this morning kind of hoping she would forget about our zoo trip.  She did not.  In the end though, I am so happy she didn't.  I loved going with her.  She was so excited the whole time!  A lot of the animals weren't out since it was pretty cool that day, but we did get to see the seals and the elephants...two of Charley's favorites.  They are doing a little bit of construction at our zoo.  They are building a new habitat for the bears and adding polar bears, which I am pretty excited about.  So one of our favorite things to do is see the penguins, which is closed right now until next year.  I believe they are expanding the penguin house to include the polar bears, but I could be wrong.  Anyways....all-in-all it was a great day hanging out with my girl.