Reading Buddy

A wonderful opportunity came to our local library:  It's a chance for kids to have 20 minutes reading with a therapy dog named Zazz.  Zazz's owners are good friends of mine who I work with on the Relay for Life committee. Clarissa is reading like a pro first grader these days and I felt that it would be a great way for her to read and have a good listener, other than mommy and daddy. Clarissa picked out a few books and was even able to bring a book from school to read to Zazz. After getting to the librar Clarissa plopped down and started reading with her new friend. She enjoyed not only reading to Zazz but showing her the pictures. I peeked in to get a few pictures and then left so that Clarissa could stay concentrated on what she was reading.  She is on the schedule to read with Zazz on Wednesdays from now until December!

Dad's Weekend

This weekend Molly went with a group of women to the 2011 Hearts At Home North Central Conference in Rochester, Minnesota leaving me with the kids for the entire weekend (insert maniacal laugh here).  This is the first time Molly has been away from us on her own since we have been together.  Both of us were very excited for this weekend to come as she was able to experience something new.  I have no idea of what she has been up to but I can give you an idea of what the girls and I have done so far.

Molly left at noon on Friday and I took over the day care.  This weekend we are also watching my parents' dog, Remi, and Molly's parents' dog, Myangel, while they are all out of town (at least Remi goes home on Sunday morning).  The highlight of the day, at least for Kim, was a birthday party at a friend's house.  While she was at the party Clarissa and I went to Pamida to look at some things, including toys that she may want for Christmas.  After Pamida Clarissa and I went to the local ice cream shop to enjoy some snacks and then we came home and played a game of Mario Baseball on Wii.  We picked Kim up from the party and the girls headed for bed.

Saturday morning one of Molly's friends, who actually lives in Minnesota but was visiting family for the weekend, stopped over to see the girls and Lady since she had never met Lady before.  After she left the girls and I sat down and watched the Iowa Hawkeyes defeat the Michigan Wolverines 24-16 in a nail biter.  The evening brought us a cheese pizza from Casey's and then donkey basketball at the middle school's gym.  There were 4 teams of "local celebrities" playing basketball on donkeys.  There were 3 games played.  Each game featured 2 8:00 periods with the clock never stopping, unless you committed a foul against a donkey (also known as hitting it with the ball).  The penalty for doing such was to take the donkey you hit to center court and getting on one knee to apologize.  In addition to that the player had to give the donkey a kiss; the first offender kissed the nose, the second kissed the rear, and the third had to kiss the rear for a count of 3 (pic below).  Kim and Clarissa were complaining about being tired so we left after the 2nd game and didn't get to see the championship, but they did get a chance to ride on a donkey between the first 2 games.  I will tell you the 2 games we saw might have had a total of 20 points scored between them, so it's a very low scoring but humorous game.  People were having a hard time staying on the donkeys and getting them to go the direction they needed.  One of our neighbors was in the 2nd game and he had some pretty nasty spills off his donkey; good thing he was wearing a helmet:

The girls have their tickets and are ready to go!

The team that won the 1st game ready to start.

Some of the fast and furious action of game 1.

The girls on the back of their noble steed.

This is what happens when you hit a donkey with the ball.  That's one of Perry's key players on the 2001 girls state basketball championship team kissing some donkey rear.

The girls wanted snacks and a bath when we got home and then it was off to bed (they were pretty worn out).  Tonight I hope to get some cleaning done around the house (no it's not messy just because I'm "in charge") and then be ready for Molly to come home tomorrow, whenever that may be.

-Quentin

Happy Halloween 2011

This Halloween the weather was beautiful and it stayed light out later as well. The girls picked their costumes fairly early in the year. And they didn't change their minds once so In September I started putting their costumes together. Clarissa was a Spa Girl complete with the fancy nails, slippers, bathrobe, and her face had a splash of color. Kimberly was a tooth fairy. I had a fun time making her dress, wand, and watching the costume come together. Yes you ARE looking at the group picture right Lady dressed up as well. She was a little piggy and we won her costume at the Bark for Life event that took place earlier this year! We went to the hospital and a few family friends houses...  you would never guess that though from how much stuff they came home with!

 

Spa Girl

 

Tooth Fairy

 

The girl's stock pile... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I was going through pictures and it came to my attention I had yet to do a post on our pumpkin carving! Clarissa was more than happy to sit back and allow me to do the "dirty work" she told me the kind of face she wanted her pumpkin to have and she was relaxing in the living room watching tv since she was also home from school with a temp. Kimberly jumped right in there and was more than willing to scoop out the insides of her pumpkin.

After getting clear instructions from each girl on what they wanted I got busy carving their jack-o-lantern's....

Even though she wasn't feeling 100% Clare was able to find the energy to smile with her pumpkin. She congratulated me on how I did what she wanted me to do. I was happy she liked it!

Kimberly wanted her's to have 1 eye and a sad face with a tooth... so what is the rectangle? She also wanted a K on the side of his face she explained it was kinda like face paint. I drew it out and then carved it but the middle it was triangles to show the K outline and they broke of leaving a big rectangle.

And there you have it our 2011 jack-o-lanterns!

5K & Halloween Party

Saturday October 22nd was the Race for the Cure, a 5k walk and run for breast cancer awareness. The last time we did the walk Kimberly was 1 and Clare was 3. I debated bringing the stroller but thinking of 3.1 miles for both girls to walk just didn't sound like much fun, and I'm thankful I brought the stroller. We enjoyed meeting new people and of course it felt great walking to support an amazing cause. Quentin's Aunt survived breast cancer, we walk in honor of her, so many others, and those who lost their battle. They are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Ready to GO!

With Halloween coming closer and closer there are several events taking place to help kids show off their costumes. This year Quentin's parents thought it would be fun to throw a kid friendly party for the grand kids. There was a maze that led us to the back door of the garage where a big gorilla was waiting for us. The kids just giggled knowing it was Grandpa Chuck but it was funny to see their reactions to the garage that was dark had a lit path to 4 pillows on a blanket and a rocking chair. From behind the shadows a kinda sorta scary looking witch came out and told the kids they looked good enough to eat. Kimberly then added "we smell good too." I got a chuckle from that and we all sat around the witch while she read about the kids getting ready and telling the story of how they got to this kinda scary looking witch. At the end of the story the witch took off her hood and the kids laughed at their Grandma Laura who was not scary to them at all. Each kid showed off their costumes.  The kids hit homemade pinata's, ate fruit loops off a string, and had to pin a face on the jack-o-lantern. It was getting chilly in the garage and stomachs were beginning to growl but luck would have it homemade mummy pizza was in the oven almost ready to come out. Along with eye debled eggs, grapes, and chips. We didn't stay hungry for long. The cousins played for a little while but then we had to get home so that they could go to the pumpkin patch since they hadn't been yet. We figured it was best we not go for a second time after Quentin got his worst serious sinus infection to date. We came home with LOTS of candy, full stomachs, and awesome memories.

The 4 grandkids on the Painter side
A girls with chicken pox, transformer, dragon, and tooth fairy

Each kid had their own personal pinata to break FILLED with candy.

 

The girls had a great time

Kimberly's Favorite part was:

Story, Seeing ma and pap dressed up and, pinata

Clarissa's favorite part was:

When ma said come in my children you look good enough to eat, And how the

story she told was about Clarissa, Kimberly, and their cousins.

Cinnamon Bear

One of the fun traditions going back as far as when my brother went to Gingerbread House Pre School is that a little bear named Cinnamon Bear comes to each of the students' houses for the weekend. Kimberly just completed her weekend with Cinnamon Bear and boy did we have a fun weekend. We write a quick story and Kimberly colors a picture in a book and then goes to school on Monday and shares her stories and coloring page with her classmates. Cinnamon Bear, as I said before, has been a tradition for many years and I remember back when I had my Cinnamon Bear in September of 1990. Here are some fun pictures form Cinnamon Bear's busy weekend at the Painter house.

Our waiter, Nate, was so kind to ask Kimberly if Cinnamon Bear wanted milk to drink too. Kimberly could only giggle at the question.

 

Cinnamon Bear and Kimberly waiting for me to cut out the pieces to Kimberly's Halloween costume.
 

Picking tomatoes from grandma and grandpa's garden. Kimberly thought to do this all by herself.

Kimberly went on a golf cart ride with Cinnamon Bear.

Making snickerdoodles

This was just to cute to not post!

Clarissa took this picture of Kimberly rolling the snickerdoodles in the Cinnamon. Cinnamon loved this part of making the cookies.

Kimberly and I looking at pictures from when I was little and had Cinnamon Bear. We also realized this will be the last time Cinnamon Bear visits our house. But then maybe Clarissa or Kimberly's kids will attend Gingerbread House Pre School and bring home Cinnamon Bear!

Deals 2011

The time has come for our annual Deal's Orchard trip and apple sauce making weekend. It was exciting for us to have my brother and his family visiting from Illinois. The girls stayed quite busy from when we arrived at the Orchard to when we got home from making applesauce.

Enjoying the hay ride

The girls had some apple cider before they ate pop corn.

Off to get our pumpkins from the field.

Kimberly found her pumpkin

Clarissa found her pumpkin. She was very particular in the pumpkin she was looking for.

More pictures were taken at the Orchard and while making apple sauce but I was busy working and the pictures were taken mainly on my parents' camera; we have a few on our camera but not many. We had a great time and can't wait to eat the apple sauce we made.