I always think that I'm going to have more time in the morning to post than I actually ever do. If I were smart, I would get up earlier - but I DO SO love to sleep!!

We had a great long weekend. The girls and I went to see Shrek 3. It was quite a good movie - and the real milestone was that we didn't have to get up to go potty at all during the movie!!! Woo-hoo!!!

We went to the big city to get prices on siding materials. I am anxious to get the siding started as I know that it's going to be a summer-long project.

Brian, Lisa, Kayla and Dillon came over to grill out on Monday. The kids (including Brian and Chris) enjoyed a water balloon fight. They had a great time loping water balloons over the fence and up into Savannah's tree house. The girls put up a good fight though!

Elliott came home from Grandma and Papa's last night, disappointed to find that her dad was not home. I explained that he was on his bike ride. She looked at me with her sad little face and said, but I wanted to say goodnight to him, he's my best friend... Talk about the sweetest thing ever. Of course I had to call him on his cell phone so she could say goodnight.

Funny how it wasn't quite so sweet when I went into her bedroom at 9:15 to tell her that she needed to be quiet and go to sleep. I had tucked her in at 8:00 and she was still jabbering away. She said that she was waiting to get a daddy snuggle. I told her that an extra mommy snuggle would have to suffice. It's no wonder she's such a bear to get up in the morning!!!

Well, time to get the posse on the road!! Happy last hump day to my Dad, who will be retiring at the end of the month. Make sure you get the most out of it - wink, wink, nudge, nudge ;)

Friday was a great day! We joined Elliott at pre-school for her end of the year program. We painted stepping stones and got to play on the playground. As you can see, Papa Roger was the Pied Piper in the sandbox. All of the kids wanted him to bury their feet. I think Caleb was his new best friend by the time we left.

We also got to see Breezie graduate from Capri. We are so proud of her and all of her hard work!! She graduated top in her class!!!!!!! We also enjoyed a nice dinner at Daniel Arthur in Cedar Rapids. It was great to be able to spend time with some of Breezie's family. I always enjoy her mom's company, and at dinner we got to sit near her grandma and Uncle Erik. Talk about some neat people!!!

Ben and Breeze have been busy working on their house getting it ready to sell. Their bathroom remodel is beautiful - even if it got rid of the retro ceramic fishes that had been cemented into the shower :)

Happy Mother's Day to all of my mother readers out there. You are a strong and beautiful bunch of women! I had a very nice mother's day. Chris and the girls presented me with lovely cards, and a beautiful necklace. Olivia and Chris went shopping together. Chris had told me beforehand that the gift I was going to get wasn't what he had in mind, but that Olivia insisted that I would like it better than what he had in mind. After opening it, and hearing what he had in mind - I gave her a high five. Not that silky pajama pants wouldn't have been lovely - but I really love my necklace - they did good :) Olivia made me a very neat book at school, and Elliott painted a wooden hand cut-out for me.

We also got to spend time with Perry and Floris this weekend. Perry came down to spend some time with his mother in honor of mother's day. Elliott was most amused by the knowledge that Great Grandma Floris is Papa Perry's mother. She made sure to work that into the conversation often. "The other day we went to see your mother..." It was pretty cute! The girls both really enjoy spending time with their papa and great grandma, and the weather couldn't have been nicer.

Olivia has been having a good time practicing her batting skills. We probably spent over an hour working with her both yesterday and today. She even pitched a few for me this afternoon. Only beaned me on the nose once, so not too bad!

The girls had a great time "fishing" out of the back of Chris's truck. They don't need fancy playground equipment... The bed of a truck and a few bungee cords and they're set!!

You can see which girl was more cooperative when it came time to put the nightgown on tonight- Sugey sure does look good in yellow, and 4T must be equivalent to extra-large in dog sizes!!!

It was a lovely, although somewhat rainy weekend. Wine and Tulips was great fun as usual. One of these years Ben and Breezie, and Jackie and Jamie are going to be able to join us and it will be even more fun. I love to watch the people, and drinking the wine is not bad either.

On Sunday we went to the garden center to pick out plants for our garden and flowers for the patio. We picked out tomatoes (big and little), green peppers, and onions for the garden. The girls wanted to try growing strawberries, so we picked out a few strawberry plants. I think Chris may be regretting that decision after doing a bit of research about growing strawberries. Sounds like a lot of work. I hope they're good strawberries!!! Olivia helped Chris re-pot the flowers into the patio pots. He said that she was a natural at it. It's good to know we have at least one girl in the house with a green thumb. It certainly isn't me!!!

Elliott has been making us chuckle with her vocabulary lately. It's just funny to hear a three year old use words like unspeakable, seriously, and obviously in conversation. She's a riot - the teachers at her preschool comment about how fun it is to listen to her tell stories. We really like the ones she tells about when she and Olivia were babies.

Olivia is a reader. No surprise there - she is finishing up third grade reading while in second grade. But not only is she good at it - she loves to do it. I had to tell her three times to put down her book this morning to eat breakfast. I love that enjoys it so much - she certainly comes from a family of readers.

Our family has grown! Temporarily, that is. Jackie and Jamie's dogs - Speckles and Griffin have come to spend some time with us while the J's travel to her cousin's wedding in one of the Carolinas. Speckles is showing her age - I reminded Chris that I have known Speckles longer than I have known him - but she is a sweetheart!! Little Gigi (he's a chi) does quite well, but you can tell that he's always worried about being squished when he's here. Relax Gi - we'll take good care of you. We may lose you in the yard, but we'll take good care of you.

We discovered on Wednesday night when I went to mow that the mower was not working. It will start, but it won't keep running. All the rain that we've had and a non-working mower is a bad combination!! Like I said, there's a good chance that we may lose Griffin in the yard. The grass was up to his chest this morning. And it sounds like we're in for rain and thunderstorms today. Does anyone have a bailor?

My little girl is growing up! With the end of the preschool year, they've asked the kids to bring in baby pictures so they can talk about how much they've grown up. In searching for a baby picture, I found a whole envelope of Elliott's baby pictures that I had never cut up and distributed. And they were the cutest baby pictures in the world - really, the cutest. Naked baby in the flowers - chubby little legs up in the air, grabbing her feet, naked baby in the bathtub, naked baby with the angel wings. Dang - I'm a bad mom!!!! I know that I've distributed some pictures better than others, but I hope that this is the only set that I've missed altogether. So - if any of you receive baby pictures in the mail - it's not that we've had another Waller baby - it's just that three years later, I've finally got around to sending out those adorable Elliott photos!!!

Speaking of growing up - Elliott has decided that she's going to go potty all by herself when she wakes up at night. The first night, she only woke me up when she needed help getting her jammies back up. That was my fault - shouldn't have gone with the blanket sleeper - it's too difficult to maneuver in and out of. Last night she was successful!!! Big girl!!!

Olivia had show and tell this week. They haven't had show and tell since kindergarten. It was quite the challenge to come up with something that was special enough to take. She finally decided to take the house she built with Grandma Katie the last time she came to visit. It's made out of about a million foam pieces that they had to punch out and put together. It took a lot of patience and creativity, and it was a great choice for show and tell!

Happy Friday :)