ok finally, the scoop on storyland!

it was a huge success! the girls loved it, and so did nick and i.

the first ride we went on was the polar coaster. it got mixed reviews from the girls. maggie wanted to get off, but of course you can't get off a roller coaster in the middle, but she didn't cry or anything. and it was a really short ride, so she semi-enjoyed it. i encouraged her to think of it as "fun." now she says she liked it, but she didn't want to do it again. nina immediately liked it, but also didn't want to do it again.

next we went on the carousel, which nina loves and usually is maggie's favorite thing, but she was spooked from the polar coaster still so she sat it out. later, when we rode again, she chose to ride on a bench. maggie is usually our little daredevil, but i guess as she gets older she had a greater capacity to sense danger, and the rides aren't so fun any more. i can't help but be excited about increased cautiousness!

next we took a pumpkin coach ride up to cinderella's castle. that was more maggie's speed. when we got there, cinderella herself was waiting for us!

that was the coolest part as far as nina is concerned. cinderella said hi, asked nina her name, and led her to the throne where they sat together for a few pictures. better than disneyland!!
then we rode on some more rides. nina loved everything, so she rode on some things that maggie sat out. we also stuck to the rides that stayed on the ground. we did try the turtle twirl (like the tilt-a-whirl), but maggie gave it a thumbs down so they stopped the ride (all of the ride operators gave a little spiel before the ride started that if anyone wanted to get off to either flash a thumbs down or raise your hand, and they would stop the ride. very kid-centered).

we ended the day in the corner of storyland devoted to things like the old woman in the shoe and humpty-dumpty. they had a huge ball pit there that the girls LOVED, plus a few more rides (like the teacups! maggie didn't do them but nina and i did, and she loved them.)


by about 3:00 it was starting to drizzle, and we were exhausted (we'd gotten there just before it opened at 9:00. it wasn't crowded either, we never had to wait on a line). so we hopped in the car and drove down to erik and isabelle's, for a weekend with my parents, my dad's parents, and aunt april, uncle thomas, and cousin peter. is it any wonder that we were EXHAUSTED when we got back to maine on sunday? i think i'm still recovering!

(well, i am still recovering from my big scrape. i had to go to the doctor's office yesterday because i was afraid it was getting infected. it wasn't, but the doctor sped the healing along with a lovely debriding and re-bandaging. i told nick, this is officially worse than either of my c-sections. seriously!)

some june!

today is june 25. it's 55 degrees outside and raining. the heat is on.

that is all.

Here's my first post from the iPod!!

Today, while sitting on the couch and pouting, Maggie said: "I don't like the word 'no'."

Nina responded, "I don't like 'we'll see' or 'maybe' or 'I'll think about it'"

Uh-oh, they're on to us!!

water park!!

the green dot in this photo is nina's life jacket. she was swimming in the wave pool. she loved the wave pool! and it was really, really cool. all the fun of being at the beach, none of the sand or stinging jellyfish.


this is how maggie spent half of her time. she was pretty hot and cold on the whole water park thing. she loved the hot tub, and liked the wave pool and kiddy area. but then she's decide she wanted to go back to the hotel room, so she's sit on the lounge chairs and pout.


but they did have fun! and so did nick and i. we had to take turns going down the big slides, but in spite of that, and my injury, we got in quite a few runs. their tube slides were a blast!

nina is a first grader!!

i can't believe it! her teacher next year will be mrs. spaulding, and i've heard great things about her so i'm very excited.

nina's last day of school was fun. short, but fun. they had a "pastries for parents" morning at 8:30, and we took nina with us at 9! we got her report card too, which of course was wonderful!

then, we hit the road for the water park. stay tuned...

it's cold and rainy again...

...but we were watching the weather forecast on the news (this was sunday night), because we're ever hopeful.

nina was watching too, and asked us, "are these people soothsayers?"

haha! they kind of are, i said.

she learned the word from the magic treehouse books. she's really into those.

the kids get sick of us too it turns out...

yesterday maggie said to nick:

"if nina goes to school, and you go to basketball, and mama goes out with mrs. moss, then i can get rid of all you guys."

then she added:

"and uncle erik can be my papa. well, no, he's too loud. he'll hurt my ears."

erik, you should know that nina has instituted code words for "you're talking too loud" ("erik") and "you're talking too quietly ("nina"). so if she looks at you and says "erik," you'll know what that means.

ah, the funny things they say.

photos from the birthday!

good night, sleep tight!

we say that a lot, and maggie says "sleep tightly." as in, "tonight i'm going to sleep tightly in my bed all night!"

at first i said to myself, awww how cute. but then i thought about it, and i realized she's using "tightly," an adverb, instead of "tight," the adjective (stay with me dad and erik!). because "sleep" is a verb, it is technically grammatically correct to use an adverb and not an adjective. i teach high school kids who don't know this yet! of course, she's not aware that "sleep tight" is some bizarre reference to the ancient practice of using ropes strung thought a wooden frame as a mattress support (to replace the modern box spring i presume), and tightening the ropes at night to prevent sagging.

such a smart little girl!

a busy day today

what a day we had today! it started this morning with me taking maggie to story hour. she isn't too big a fan of story hour usually, but today she was excited to go. we were meeting our friends the conlins there, and she was happy about that. she's also more into crafts now, and was excited for the craft. she spent a good amount of time on wednesday and thursday sewing me a costume, actually. super mama. there is a green hat with a pink... up, kind of a pink strip of fabric sewn to the top. and there was a "bra," which was a pink piece of fabric cut half way through and taped to my shirt (it almost looked like a midriff-baring v-neck, except it was just taped to me, like a bib), and then of course there was a cape. she discussed making shoes for the outfit today, but then decided against it. we were too busy anyway, as you'll see in a minute. she instructed me to not wear the costume until halloween. i think she finds it a bit embarrassing?

well after story hour, nina got out of school at 11 because of high school graduation. we went to the conlins' house for lunch and some play, and then all 10 of us went to the aquarium. the girls had a great time playing together.

the girls, though, have been waking up between 5 and 5:30 this week, so maggie crashed as soon as we got home. nina was starting to fall apart between 3 and 4, so i had her lie down at about 4:30 and she fell asleep. maggie missed her and tried to wake her up. "nina, wake up and play with me," she whispered. one time i walked into the family room (she was asleep on oma's bed) and found maggie kissing nina on the eyebrow. i said "aww, how sweet!" and maggie said, "how come she's not waking up?" haha! she was trying to wake her up with the kiss of true love.

finally, we went next door for some burgers and coloring, then a bath, and now the girls are watching curious george II (the movie) with nick and oma while i blog. they'll be up until at least 10 tonight after those naps!