Iowa State Fair

It's on the list of "Top ten things to do in Iowa" and I am pretty sure its like the number one thing....Iowa State Fair. We have been here almost three years and finally decided to go. I am always amazed at the ....errrr..."personalities" that you can see at the state fair. A big part of me thinks...how are all of these people even being able to afford to be here?!?! Sheesh, but hey it was a fun day so that was great!
 First thing- they were handing out five hour energy as soon as you walked in the gate. I swear we were bombarded by like 4 five hour energy workers.Its like they saw that we had little kids and assumed we needed like fifty of them. But hey, at 3 bucks a pop, we each took one since they were free. I personally think they taste like medicine and not worth the hype of energy they claim to exhibit. I had one goal in mind while I was there- Get a turkey leg. Don't really know why, but I have been craving one....for like years. Anywho, it was delicious. Adalie even helped me devour it. it was ginormous and we barely finished half together. But yummm. Seriously. We also tried a fried twinkie while we were there. Pretty good stuff. Although we had to split one and still felt a little sick to our stomachs from the sweetness. I am curious as to how one might eat it on their own.....and also the fried stick of butter they were serving. Not kidding you....a stick of butter, on a stick, dipped in sweet batter and fried. I saw it. We didn't get one but, Holy wow. And holy heart attack, I assume, batman. my only regret is i didn't get a picture. The kids had a great time riding some rides and seeing all the animals.



 i love this pic because the vet lady look SO excited to be there does she not??
 We even went through "A day on the farm"

which took like 40 mins to get through, but worth the free Popsicle at the end according to the kiddos. They got to ride a few rides. Adalie of course was her fearless little self

while Cason took some coaxing for almost all the rides.

 That's the ride conductor patting cason on the head telling him it will be ok every time he came around. Ya, the ride was THAT slow and easy yet he will still a little nervous about it.
Even the baby helicopter ride scared him a little and he was ready to exit after the first 5 seconds.

 Fist go around..... YAY!!!

Second go around...GET ME THE HECK OUT OF HERE!!
Oh, and there was a giant chocolate moose which smelled heavenly. I thought about taking a big bite out of its hindquarters and thinking no one would miss it, but instead just quietly walked away since people were starting to notice the drool from my mouth. 

So here are lots more pictures of our fun time!!

 Oh ya we saw this celebrity there...future VP Paul Ryan =)

 Baby ducks!! check out the freaky looking one on the upper left staring up at the watering thingy. He is seriously questioning it....

 Tractor work at the farm but dad had to do most of the kid hauling.

 Happy Baby Blue eyed Brody who was just a peach!!!

 Adalie said it felt gross

Cason tried to drink from it

 Brett and Brett Jr.

 Brett with his polish hotdog which was sadly no JDawg's...sigh

 She rode this ride twice. Like I said, fearless.

 Got my turkey leg and Adalie is saying "ooooooo delicioius" here. Which it was

 kids got to pick a toy. Cason wanted the spiderman bat, but after a little bit of thinking about who he might hit or where the heck we would keep that thing -- we exchanged it for just a little spiderman blow up doll

 All in all it was great. We had a blast and we can mark it off our list if fun things we did while we lived in Iowa.

No Food For you Little Girl!!

So let's recap our super awesome kindergarten experience in these last two days alone....
I already have two strikes against the whole experience and its only been a week and 3 days. Yesterday, I didn't even show up to a parent teacher night to get some much needed info about the school year. I don't totally chalk it up to just bad parenting because I never got an e mail and I also didn't have a computer to check their "eco friendly" assessable online only newsletter since mine was at the Dr YET again!! But still not a valid excuse I am sure. However, I am so thankful for a good friend who picked up the paperwork for me and also dropped it off by our home.... Thank YOU for being a good parent and also thinking of me.

Ok strike 2 experience -- Today will forever be known as the day my child was denied lunch food or also, the day my bad parenting skills showed so terribly that I forgot to feed my child lunch. Ok, maybe not that dramatic but still sort of true. Let me explain...


Thursday Adalie had forgotten to bring her lunchbox home from school. Not too big of a deal, since they happened to be having an Adalie favorite of chicken fries on Friday. So I just reminded her to bring her lunchbox home from school and eat what the lunch lady would be serving. Also not huge deal since we are on the "food assistance" lunches for her, you know since we are underfunded in MED school. Don't judge =). Well it seems Adalie's lunchbox had still gotten taken to the lunch room and Adalie had forgotten she was supposed to eat the school lunch today. Upon realizing her mistake and yelling "HEY! There is nothing in my lunch box" she raised her hand and teacher helper came to assistance. here is how, I assume, from the bits and pieces from Adalie about how the conversation went

 Adalie; "Hey teacher helper, there is no food in my lunch box" Teacher helper "Well you're just going to have to figure out what to do about it!'' End Scene. Here is how my mind heard the conversation going Adalie: very Oliver t\Twist like with dirt all over her face, holes in her shirt and a sunk in stomach "Teacher I am starving! I have no food and my mom doesn't even love me enough to send food with me to school. She is so mean, that she sent me with an empty lunchbox just to mock me" Teacher Helper: "Well, that's too bad little girl. I don't care that you don't have any food. You're going to have to figure it out on your own. There are some trash cans over there...maybe there is some old food in it for you to eat (and then proceeds to shove a handful on cupcakes and ding dongs in her mouth deliberately to show she is special and Adalie is NOT)" and end scene in Lydia's mind.

We asked Adalie what she did for lunch. She said her friend Anna gave her some of her lunch of carrots and pretzels and she wasn't even hungry. She seemed totally unfazed by the experience, which I am grateful for.
 I am a bit of an over reactor at times, and I will admit I might have overreacted with this...I cried. I am crying still recounting her day when she went hungry. Its another notch to add to the "I sent her to kindergarten to early" tree. But, she didn't even know the difference and didn't even care. I don't even think she hates me for it. BUT now my fears have been heightened to the poor little girl who started too early and is neglected by her mother and everyone else in the world.... They won't even give her food.

But like I said. She was totally fine. And she has enough "fluff" to keep her from actually starving.

First Day Jitters

So Last night I had a freak out thinking of Adalie starting school today.We met her teacher. She seems very nice. A stranger who will be watching my child more than I do during the weekdays, but very nice.

 I Cried...a ridiculous amount really....Someone was going to kidnap her. She was going to get made fun of because she is a little chubby. She is left handed and can't see the letters she writes. She will think school is so cool and completely lose interest in me. She will get off at the wrong bus stop. Brett laughed at me. These were just a few of my worries and concerns before she even started her first day. I think I finally got to sleep around 2:30 ish with the help of a zzquil....which kind of just made me cranky on top of the sad when I woke up. We got dressed and headed out to the end of our sidewalk where the bus stop is.....seriously 3 houses down which is great. I started to feel a little calm seeing all the others kids that are getting on the bus with her but then when the bus came, everyone started saying it wasn't the same bus driver as last year, who the kid loved and was excellent. It was a new lady that no one had ever seen. PANIC attack again. I had just watched this 48 hr mystery about this bus driver who stopped off to do crack before picking up a busload of kids and got into a wreck where 3 kids died and a ton got super hurt. Awesome I couldn't check her eyes for signs of crack usage because she was wearing sunglasses. Well, I followed the bus to school. Wasn't too long of a trip since we live about 3 streets over from the school. Got to school and watched her get off and go up to the front doors of the school were she met her teacher and got in line to go inside. She seemed perfectly fine and unphased. Although I should let you know the conversation we had the night before...

I took her out for some girl time last night. We went on a walk to talk about school and got some ice cream. When we got home and started getting ready for bed, she says to me "since its my last night here with you..." "Wait what did you say? Last night with me?" "Well ya, because I am starting kindergarten. So, my last night? I thought you would want to cuddle" "Adalie you know you get to come home at night right?" "Oooohhhh. ok" You know what folks? She thought she was going to be living at kindergarten and she was perfectly fine with it!! Not a tear would have been shed!! She was ready to spread her wings and fly out of here! Talk about feelin 3 inches tall....

Her are some photos the of the big event...

 All her little girlfriends -- 3 of them ended up in the same class!! uh oh

 here is the group...all but one is in our branch

 its all fun and games...

 and THIS is where I will wait for the bus...

And THIS is MY backpack

 
 getting on the bus with the stranger driving and no seat belts...no worries right?!?!

 Yes Adalie I did follow you to school  -- HELLO!!

 Ok mom...

 And she made it home!!

Got to spend the day with these handsome boys who were strangely calm without Adalie home

So anywho, first day went ok...for her. I worried all day and tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't think about it. It helps that today and tomorrow are half days...4 hours long. Friday is when the full schedule kicks in. 8 Hours!!! I had another mini panic attack when I saw all the kids filing off the bus getting home but no Adalie. But, she was just taking her time and was the last off the bus. Phew...she made it home. She loved school and wants to go back (dang it!) Day 1 down -- 240ish to go. Hopefully someday soon I will get used to it and will be able to breath normal throughout the day.

Spiders

I was sitting on the potty when I saw a huge spider crawling across the floor. I yelled for Adalie to bring me a shoe and to hurry  hurry! It got to far away for me to reach it so I said "Adalie hurry kill it!"She of course screamed no...then Cason came running up behind her, grabbed the shoe and not missing a beat, starts to smash the heck out of that spider. Considering more than half of us are afraid of spiders in this house, this trait will come in quite handy. Also, it is funny because Cason has a recent obsession with Spiderman and runs around all day jumping off of things yelling "SPI-Er-Man!!!

Its Gunna Happen

So, after months of "there is no way" "I just can't do it" and "She is still my baby!!", we have decided to send our little Adalie to Kindergarten. Shocked right?!? I am still dealing with it myself. School starts in 1 1/2 weeks and I JUST got done filling out her registration form and clicked the "submit" button. It's so final!! Sheesh! I am excited, nervous, antsy, worried, happy, sad,...every ridiculous emotion you can think of. BUT I know she will have fun and is so extremely excited to do this. I always have the option to take her out if its not going to well and also maybe have her do it again next year. We'll see!! I myself will probably be that parent that cries the first day, follows the school bus often...you know the helicopter parents?? haha well maybe not that bad. Here is to a first new school yr for the both of us Adalie!!

Where did the time go from this....

To This??


Today we drove by her school and on the way there she kept asking questions like...Is there going to be some wooden grapes on it, you know like olive garden? Or lots of corn? And plants?? You know, because it is Kinder GARDEN.... I seriously think she thought she was going to be planting things all year long. haha

lots and lots and lots to Read

Sorry I haven't been blogging too much. Remember when I used to be good at it?? My computer was at the Dr and I hate using Brett's school comp. BUT I am sure everyone is dying to know what is going on here so I will try my best to fill you in!! Let's see what I can remember....oh and get ready for a picture overhaul!!
July is a fun month around here in the Sorensen house. It's full of birthdays! We start the festivities off with mine on the 16th. I have been on a no sugar kick but got the day off for my birthday and went a little crazy. Started the day with chocolate chip pancakes in bed =), a bag a Cheetos puffs and a candy bar for lunch, not even sure I ate a real dinner but i do remember a Delicious chocolate cake and 2 chocolate cupcakes for dessert. It was wonderful and worth the stomach inconvenience the next morning. Brett got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, chocolate, and a porch swing. THE perfect gift really. It's a little hot so I only get to use it in the morning and later in the night because it is hot as Hades here. I look forward to the cooler Autumn days where I will be out there more often.
 
Next there is Brett's B day on the 20th. Brett got a few good presents earlier like in June (ya we cheated) and got himself some new golf clubs. He has decided to become a golfer. (We will just toss this in there with his racquet ball obsession last year when we got him a 100$ racquet and see how far this goes.... hehe) On his actual birthday, we got him a water bottle, some of his favorite chocolates, and some nice black socks since he wears his suits all the time now. We went out most of that day also to go see Ice Age 4 (yes we did,  in 3D even and we didn't bring the kids- we are THAT cool) and also out to eat that night to one of our favorites - Outback Steakhouse. Yum!!
Adalie's birthday sums up the month on the 25th.
 
 Brett took her out on a date to go see Brave the night before since he had to work most of the day on her birthday day.

 Me and the boys had our own little movie night when they were gone with Cason's personal favorite Monsters Inc. We had a small cake the night of her birthday and let her open a gift from us. That saturday we were going to have a birthday party with friends, but since the weather was a little iffy, we had to push it to the next week. She did however still get to have cake and blow out another set of candles since I had already made her perry the platypus cake the night before it got canceled.
And she also got to open her gift from us and also her grandparents. Brett and I made her this doll house that my parents had gotten bits and pieces of from a friend. It was terrible to put together and floor and wallpaper. But she absolutely loved it! Grandma and Grandpa Colorado get her lots of fun furniture to set up in her new house and Grandpa and grandmomma Jenkins got her tinkerbell who came with a little stove as well. Another perfect fit. Adalie now has the perfect place for all her little mini princess'.

 

Then the lucky little girl got a 3RD party the Wednesday after with all of her little friends.
The theme was phineas and ferb...one our favorite cartoons around the house. It was an outside water party, and Brett and I were so busy trying to keep19 kids entertained with water games, that we really didn't get many pictured of it.

She DID have a blast and wants to have the exact same party next year....uh don't count on it honey- I am surprised I still had hair left after that one.
And here are more random pictures of are very low key summer spent mostly inside with the AC or outside in the sprinkler....Oh and I am sure there are about a billion mistakes in this post that my husband will so graciously point out to me but I am in a hurry playing catch up and am in no mood to proof read.
AND give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far!! GO YOU!!

check out that tongue action. that's when you know she is really concentrating.

 
 
 
 
And yes my kids are that cute thank you =)