Riley's Preschool Highlights

Riley was bouncing off the walls last night from all the excitement of her first day of preschool.  I couldn't help myself from asking her twenty questions about her day.  Here are some highlights:

• She didn't cry one time, but was a little scared.
• They have a fish.  He's little and doesn't have a name.  He swims in the tank.
• They have two crabs.  Red Car and Blue Car. ???
• She learned how to do the crab walk and then "hide in your shell."
• They did circle time.  Yesterday was Wednesday.
• She learned a new song.  "two little monkeys were sitting in a tree..." Something about an alligator couldn't get them.
• She played outside.  There wasn't a "jumpin thing" (trampoline).  She played princess(ese) and alligators with a little girl with blond hair and two boys.  The teacher thought of the game.  The boys were the alligators and trying to get the girls.  The girls rode off in "the wheel thing."
• She loves her teacher "Miss MAgen" (Miss Megan).  Miss Megan helped her go potty when it was hand washing time and sat by her at snack time.
• She had cheese crackers and juice.  She couldn't share her snack.
• The classroom rules are: be nice and share.
• She has "one, two" teachers.  She only knows Miss Megan's name.
• I asked what toys she played with and she said she didn't know. "You just get a toy, play with it, and put it back."
• She was ready to go back today!

Riley's First Day of Preschool

Today was Riley's first day of preschool.  I almost didn't sign her up because she just turned three last month and I thought that maybe she wasn't ready.  The closer that we came to preschool starting and knowing that two of Riley's daycare friends would be going I started feeling like she would be missing out.  So literally the night of preschool open house I called to see if there was an opening.  Luckily, there was and now Riley is my preschooler. Leading up to today Riley has been super excited to go to school and to take her backpack with her.  I was a little worried considering she cried and clung to Brett the majority of the time at the open house.  While all of the parents attended the meeting the kids (and Brett) played in the gym.  This morning there were only a few tears as Brett left and a couple minutes of her clinging to my shirt.  After a few minutes she was playing with the kitchen, checking out the fish, and playing with her little buddy Carter.  I talked to her after preschool and she said that she just played all morning and agreed that she'd like to go back next week!  A success!

 Outside the classroom

 Riley and Carter

 Next to her cubby

 Checking out the fish

 Playing with the kitchen

On my way out - looks like she's doing pretty good!

The House That Jack Built 2011

For Labor Day We made our second trip to The House That Jack Built at Lake Okoboji. We were lucky enough to have the entire Murphy family at the lake this year. Despite being a bit chilly (40 degree nights) we had a lot of fun and made some fun new memories. A few highlights:

• Riley caught a fish on her very own barbie "fishing pool" that she cast out herself. She was one proud little girl! She decided to throw it back into the water so it could go find it's mommy.
• Sending Uncle John to the store to get Harper a new paci. We left the house without extras and Harper spit the one we did have into the lake.
• Riley entertaining everyone by playing pirate soccer.
• Having Aunt Libby and Uncle David with us for one day.
• Rooting the Hawks onto victory at Tweeters.
• Roasting marshmallows over the fire on the beach.
• Making up songs with Grandma Kathy. [Riley has now started to make up her own songs all the time. The latest..."Everyone loves Ariel, Ariel, Ariel. Everyone loves Ariel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhhh"]
• Playing with the "big kids."
• Watching movies in the car.
• Sleeping with both kids in two twin beds pushed together to keep everybody warm! Girls slept great, Mom and Dad not so much.
• Riley eating her "vanilla" (powder sugar) donuts on the porch.

We can't wait for the 4th of July when we get to go back! Here are a few pictures.

Riley fishing in her pajamas off the dock.

The House That Jack Built

Riley's fish!!!

Mommy and Harper on the swing.

Riley wishing she could swim!

Playing in the sand.

Harper Grace: 3 Months Old

oHarper is growing sooo fast.  She is the sweetest, cuddliest, easiest baby ever! Here's what she's been up to this past month:

• She is wearing size 0-3 and 3 month clothes.  We have officially retired all of her newborn clothes.
• She is laughing, smiling, and making all kinds of noises.  She loves to talk back to us and sing with us.
• She loves her big sister.  She will find her anywher in the room and watch her.  She loves to laugh at the stuff she does...like knocking her block towers down.   
• She rolled from back to front this past weekend.  Just once, but I'm sure she could have done it more.

• She loves to chew on her fists and her paci.
• She's eating 4 oz bottles of breast milk about every 3 hours.  She'll usually have 5-6 bottles every day.
• She is wearing a size 2 diaper.
• She rarely ever cries, and usually just whines.  The only time she is "fussy" is if she is tired, hungry, or wanting to be held.
• She is sleeping like a champ.  She lets us know that she is tired around 7-7:30 and she's asleep no later than 8pm.  She will usually sleep until 4:40-6am.  She is sleeping better than her sister right now.  Even better. We can lay her down awake, but sleepy, and she'll soothe herself to sleep (something her sister still struggles with!).
• Her hair continues to grow.  It has thinned out and lightened up some, but she's got a nice natural Mohawk going on now!
•  She loves to be sitting up and doesn't care to be laying down.  She likes to be in the sleepytime wrap or in her Chicco carrier.


•   She is becoming a pro at tummy time.

• She likes to sit in her exercauser with a little help from her blanket.

Here's a few more pictures:

Summer Photos

 Water Fun

 Water and Sand Table

 Zoo with cousins

 Children's Museum with Macy

Bug Catchin' and Inspectin'

Baby Chillin' (check out that hair!)

First Smiles

Giant Slide at the Iowa State Fair

First big girl ride on her own.

Harper's first Fair experience.

First carousel ride.

Snow White!

Better Late Than Never

Harper's newborn photos:

Riley Nicole: 3 Years Old

Today Riley turned 3 years old.  She's officially old enough for preschool and organized sports.  She is no longer free everywhere we go.  She is getting sooo big.  Being home with her this summer has been a blast and she truly is such a sweet, kind hearted little big girl.  Here is what she's up to:

• She is the best big sister to HER baby.  She is always comforting her and trying to make her smile.
• She is tall and lean.  I'm not sure what her stats are.  She had a physical a couple weeks ago, but refused to be measured and made it really difficult to get her weight.
• She is very independent and often sneaks off to the basement where she puts in her own DVDs to watch.
• She is not afraid of the dark or being in the basement by herself.
• She says her favorite color is yellow, but we notice that she prefers blue and purple.
• She is in love with the Disney princesses.  Belle is number one and Snow White comes in second.  She also loves the beast as much, if not more, than Belle.  She calls Sleeping Beauty "the beast" because she thinks she looks like the beast after he turns into the prince.
• She has a wild imagination and loves to pretend that there are monsters chasing her.
• She loves to catch fireflies after her bath.  Usually we end up catching moths, crickets, and even dead locusts.  She will always let them go before bed or the next day so they can go back to their mommy.
• She has very sensitive and fare skin and almost always breaks out after being in the sun with sunscreen. 
• She loves books.
• She loves to paint, color, and do anything involving artsy stuff. She will usually choose to draw snowmen.
• She is like her mommy and LOVES the fair.  She even loved riding the rides...by herself.
• She will always say that something hurts or she doesn't know how to do it if she doesn't want to do something.
• She still loves to taker her baths.  She always requests "just one pony" when I do her hair.  I attempted to do french braid piggy tails the other day.  She cried almost the whole way through and I had to quit.  They were so cute too!
• She loves to pose for pictures.
• She has a memory like a steal trap.  She seems to remember things for months that Daddy I have long forgotten.
• She loves her cousins and all of her friends.  She still loves to go to Hedy's every day.
• Piggy and Bunny are still must-haves.  But she now knows that they must stay in the car when we go into stores.
• She thinks that she is going to be buying a baby pig here soon.  She says that she wants to buy everything.
• She hides things...important things...like my glasses, bottles of breast milk, our wallets...and doesn't tell us.  If we can't find something we just ask her where she hid it.  Thankfully she can usually lead us to the hidden items...except poor Suzy the Fox who was hidden under a bunch of pillows for over a month.
• She still wants Mommy and Daddy to "lay down by me" at bedtime.  She loves to read books before bedtime.
• She has memorized most movies and books that she's seen.  So much so that she repeats either whole lines or the last word of each sentence of every book.  She has Snow White, Beauty and The Beast, and Little Mermaid on CD and she will mimic the narrator's tone and laughs.  It's pretty funny.
• She loves to sing and likes to make up her own songs.  They usually go like this: "la, la, la, la, here I am, here I am. la, la, la, la, la."
• She talks LOUD, and ALL.THE.TIME!
• She just started actually hugging us back.  Instead of just putting her arms around us she will actually squeeze.  So cute. 
• If you ask her is she's a stinker or call her "silly girl" or anything she will always protest and say "no, I'm Riley Murphy!"