Gosh, it was the quintessential Iowa spring weekend. The girls and I checked out the Janesville city-wide garage sales on Saturday morning. This was by far the nices weather we've had for garage sales since we moved here. The one year that we had a sale, we brought the portable space heater out to the garage, it was so cold. The girls were troopers. We walked pretty much our half of the town. Chris had given each of them a dollar for spending money. The look on Elliott's face with that dollar bill in her hand was just priceless. You would have thought it was a million dollars - and I guess when you're three, maybe a dollar is the equivalent of a million!!!

Olivia went to a birthday party on Saturday night for her friend Morgan. They went to Bear Connection, and each got to make a stuffed animal. She was so very pleased with her kitty Tiger.

On Sunday we went to the big city - with three girls in tow. Olivia, Savannah and Elliott didn't have a lot of fun in our visits to Home Depot, Menards, and Lowe's. Not exactly a child's paradise. Although Elliott did like the race car cart at Lowe's. We've been trying to decide on siding colors and accessories. You would think that I would have this all decided since I've been wanting to side the house for five years, but it's a difficult decision, and I'm so bad at trying to visualize how it will all come together on our house. Chris just says that it can't be white.

When we got home, the girls cajoled Chris into getting out the slip and slide. They had a great time. Elliiott is still a little bit young to understand the run and slide concept. She runs full barrel up to the slip and slide, just like the big girls do, but then she stops and sits down and kind of scootches herself on her bottom to the end. It's pretty cute.

Happy Birthday to Diane and Donna - my two favorite twins!!!

It has been a good weekend. Friday night Olivia had her friend Gillian spend the night. They were a joy to have - they played well together, even letting Elliott join in for a while, and they went to sleep at a reasonable time. I wish all sleep overs were that easy on the old folks!!

Speaking of old folks - Chris and I have been having a case of the olds lately. I gues the oldies station has switched to playing 80's music as the "oldies". What gives with that? Take my breath away is not an oldy!! Vacation by the Go-Go's - not an oldy!!! Apparently - Chris and I - OLDIES!!!! Dang!!!!!

On Saturday we went to the Family Fun Fair in Waverly. The girls had a great time playing the games - they were both very good at the toilet paper toss!! A balloon artist made hats for them, and they got to have their faces painted. Olivia got a paw print. I asked her if it was a panther paw - but duh, mom - it's a wild cat paw!! I should have known. I don't remember my elementary school having any sort of mascot, but with a school that goes from K-12, it's a pretty big deal.

We also got Elliott's spring and summer clothes out. I love going through the buckets of Olivia hand-me downs. Call me nostalgic. "I remember when your sister wore that!!" "Oh, I just love that dress!!"

Today we went out for lunch at Pepper's - Elliott and I shared the tenderloin in honor of Perry!!! She thought it was really good "chicken". Then we hit the urgent care clinic in Cedar Falls. One of Elliott's best friends at daycare had strep at the end of last week, with a rash. I never knew that one of the symptoms of strep was a rash. BUT - guess what Elliott developed on Saturday? She does has strep and will be home tomorrow from school, but doesn't seem too much worse for the wear. Not much of an appetite and a little bit grumpy - but otherwise doing well.

Olivia participated in Jump Rope for Heart today at school. She jumped in honor of her Papa Roger and Baby Drew Steffen.

Hello again! We're back online. It's been a long few weeks of internet problems at home. A lot of interesting vocabulary words and one new modem later and we're back!!

We've had an eventful few weeks. The most noteworthy has been Roger's trip to the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital on Monday after Easter for chest pains. They determined that he was not having a heart attack, but kept him overnight to be able to perform a nuclear stress test on Tuesday. Tuesday morning he began to have a heart attack and they put in a stent. He was exactly where he needed to be on that Tuesday morning. He spent a few days in the hospital, and doing remarkably well now. I think the hardest parts for him now are waiting for the bypass surgery and not knowing when it will be scheduled (4 months is their latest estimation), and having to tone down his exercise program to appease the cardiac rehab staff. It's just another reminder for all of us to take care of our health and be mindful of the symptoms and changes.

Elliott got her haircut last weekend. Breezie gave her a shoulder length bob to match her sister - just what she wanted!! She reported to me the other day in the car after I exclaimed that my coffee was delicious - that when she was a mommy, she wasn't going to drink coffee. And she wasn't going to drink wine. She was going to drink milk. That's good, I told her, milk is good for you. What about soda, I asked (as she's always wanting soda)? Yeah, I'll drink soda when I'm a mommy - if you say it's okay... :)

Olivia gets to have a sleep over with her friend Gillian tonight. They were supposed to go on a Girl Scouts sleep over, but they didn't have enough people register. So we decided to have our own little sleep over here. We'll see how much sleep we all get!!!