What a week

So I'm going through my phone tonight picking up some of the pictures that just didn't make it to the blog this week for one reason or another.

Ash and Maddy did a lot of swimming this week and here are a couple from the pool.

The underwater selfie is my favorite!

The weather has been warming up this week so I've been walking more. They came to pick me up on Saturday and Maddy was dressed in a jean jacket. I can't believe how grown up she looks!

This is my favorite picture though. Maddy, Carl, and Soren resting  before bed with a cartoon.

Hope next week is just as much fun.

Maddy and Chompski

So Scott and Carolyn and the kids are back home safely. During this last week while they have been gone, Maddy has been taking care of their cat and their house. She has done a great job. She went in the morning and evening and had three tasks: make sure Chomski had food, clean litter, and love.

Maddy did great. She would bounce out of bed in the morning so that she wouldn't miss feeding Chomski in the morning. And, she faithfully walked over at night in the dark even though she worried that the growls of moving cars were dinosaurs in Freeport.

So here are some pictures of Maddy and Chompski... sort of friends.

Maddy vs. the volcano

Maddy loves all things volcano right now. She reads books on volcanos. She has us read books on volcanos. She talks about volcanos. She LOVES volcanos.

So this week we got a build your own volcano kit and now we try it out.

KRAKATOA!!

Swimming

The last couple of days, the weather has gotten cold again. There's no snow to play in and it's just not as exciting to be outside. So instead, Maddy and Ash have been heading to the pool at the Y. Few things really make Maddy happier than swimming. Maddy is getting quite good. Not only can she swim distance, but she can dive like a submarine. So, today, Ash took his camera to the pool to get some pictures.

Now Maddy has been saying all evening that "the goggles are coming". In Maddy-speak that means it is almost time go to the pool again. I think I already know what her and Ash are going to do tomorrow.

The days are just packed.

Tonight has been a whirlwind of things. Maddy worked some more on riding her bike this evening. We will have a video of that hopefully tomorrow. She did amazing tonight! It started to all click for her and she went down the whole block by herself! She still can't turn corners and it makes her nervous to go down a big hill, but that will come. And, we have two days left till Carl gets home.

I do have pictures for tonight though. Here is a picture of Maddy doing some homework.

After working on her workbook, we had a mini science project. We built a volcano from a kit that we got at the store. It was fun and Ash video taped it and we will be putting it up tomorrow after the volcano dries and we make it explode. While we were waiting for the volcano to dry though, Maddy and I played a video game together. Ash taped it because he thought we were ridiculous. He doesn't know. We were having a great time!

A Day in the Life...

Mondays are always the busiest day around the house. It's the day I have off, so we end up trying to cram a lot of things into a relatively short amount of time. So here are just a few pictures from the day.

We went to Luecke's Antique Mall today, which is just the kind of place that Maddy loves. It's a huge building that is just filled with stuff! It's a consignment store and there is so much to look at. Maddy kept saying that we were "exploring" and we needed to go "deeper" into the building. This was a cup that she thought was pretty.

Maddy also started to learn to ride a two wheeled bike today. She loves her Balance Bike and she can fly on it, but it's just getting to small and it might be time to move on. So, we "borrowed" Carl's bike. Carl is out of town till Thursday. He'll be fine with that. We practiced quite a bit today. Even though she has great balance on the balance bike, she is really nervous on this one. She'll get it though. We have 3 days left.

Despite doing almost everything that Maddy wanted to do today, there were some things that we just couldn't fit in, so this was a very timely book from Aunt Sheila. Maddy enjoyed it so much!

She was laughing so hard at it that her day suddenly wasn't so bad after all.

Mornings

Maddy has never been a crazy early riser for which I am very grateful. Usually she is up between 7-8 in the morning. It's always funny when she comes to wake us up in the morning though.

At least she's pretty!

Maddy and Carl

The weather is finally warming up so that means the kids are making their way back outside and to each others house. Carl came over this afternoon and asked Maddy if she wanted to ride. I came home from work to both bikes laying in the front yard and to happy kids playing in the house. It was lovely.

So, I missed the bike riding bit, but here's some pictures from this evening when the kids started playing some video games. They were playing a two player game and were negotiating hard while playing.

I am happy to report that even with the arguing and occasional threats and Maddy accusing Carl of ruining her life, the two still have plans to get together tomorrow afternoon for more playing.

Gotta love family!

Sick Day

Maddy has been doing so good. Everyone has been sick around her and so far she has avoided everything... until last night.

So today, Maddy had a rest day at home. Ash set up a projector in the living room and she spent most of the day just resting. When I got home tonight, I joined her.

Her tummy was hurting less this evening and she kept a bowl of rice down, so she is improving. Hopefully tomorrow she is back to her old bouncy self.

On the upside, blue blankie is finally clean so she will at least wake up to her favorite blanket.

Maddy does yoga

So tonight we stopped by the yoga studio after mom's class. Maddy loves it there! So here is Maddy getting her yoga on.

This is Mountain Pose...

A half head stand...

Mom and Maddy doing Wall Splits...

Plow pose... (because Maddy is amazing and flexible!)

And Maddy's own personal Volcano Pose... (She says that your arms are the smoke and your head is the crater)

Sadly, there was no savasana (Rest Pose) at the end of this practice. It actually ended with a lot of running, but that is how Maddy does yoga.

A determined 6 year-old

I came home from work today to see a big pile of snow in the middle of our front yard, a snow shovel, and most of the grass uncovered. Apparently, Maddy had decided she was going to make a snow pile, so she had taken the shovel off the porch and started shoveling. She cleared most of the yard down to the grass and pushed it into a big pile. When I got home from work, she showed it off.

I said, "Wow! Did you do that all by yourself?" Partly because I was amazed she stayed focused on one task for that long and partly because, that's a lot of work!!

Her response: Yeah! I'm a big girl. I'm six.

So apparently, Maddy is a big girl and tomorrow, she plans to move the pile from the middle of our yard to the side of the road so she can add it to the other pile next to the road and make one big pile. More power to you, Maddy.

Clean Girl

It's been kind of a crazy day, so this picture comes courtesy of Ash. This is Maddy after her bath on Sunday. She's cute when she's clean!

Today on Cooking with Maddy - scrambled eggs

Okay, so this video is a little long, but Maddy has learned a new skill. She can cook an egg like nobody's business! She uses a little more salt and pepper than I think she should, but she likes it and she eats it. I can't believe how much she is growing up!

Also, I just had to share this picture because it is so ridiculously cute!

This is Carl and Sven listening to Carolyn read a story for school and they are sitting in the best place in the house... the heater vent. Apparently this is also where Carolyn and Maddy do school. I think I remember Scott and I doing that growing up, although we weren't always very good at sharing.

Happy Valentine's Day

I don't know what started her on this, but for some reason, Maddy has been looking forward to Valentine's Day all year. She has been talking about what she was going to do and who she was going to send Valentines to. Then last night she wanted to take some of her money to the Dollar Store so she could get Valentines for everyone.

She ended up picking out just a few things so that she could make gift baskets for people. Then, she addressed her Valentines and went to bed. Today, we spent most of the afternoon delivering Valentines to people. It was fun. We got to see some old friends and hang out with some that we see more often. I think next year we will plan a Valentine's Day party though. It will be much less running around. I'm glad she had fun today though.

At least there was still time this evening for a Valentine's photo shoot. Here's the pictures I got with my camera.

It started off like a pretty typical photo shoot with Maddy.

We did manage to get a couple nice ones though. She's pretty when she smiles.

Here Maddy is reviewing the photos that Ash got on his camera.

Then off to her ball for some bouncing before bed.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

And then there was cake

So today we made the cake for Ash's birthday since I had to work yesterday and there just wasn't enough time to make it. Maddy helped out... well, she helped put the ingredients in the mixer and then decided she was hungry and wandered off to make herself an egg.

I was really impressed. I didn't say anything. I just let her do her thing to see what she would do and she made a beautiful scrambled egg all by herself with only a little help getting it out of the hot pan. She was pretty proud of herself too. So proud, in fact, that she made another one and ate that too.

We finally got the cake done this evening. It was a specialty cake. It was supposed to look something like this.

This is what the cake actually looked like. I am trying not to feel too disappointed.

Maddy enjoyed it though and so did Ash, which I guess is really all that matters.

School

Getting in the last little bit of school before bed tonight.

And that knitting is all her's!! Nan is so proud!!