Grandma Schmidt

Dan's mom came out to visit this past weekend. We really enjoyed having her here and doing some fun things together. The kids loved being with Grandma Schmidt.
On Friday, we went down to the Denver Zoo. It was probably the hottest day ever - temperatures reached 99 degrees! Even though I lathered on sunscreen a couple times I still got a little sunburned. We had a great time though! Can you tell what Charlie's favorite thing was?
Grandma picked the busiest time of the year to come to Cheyenne. Every year for 10 days near the end of July Cheyenne hosts the largest outdoor rodeo in the world: Cheyenne Frontier Days. Our little town of about 57,000 doubles in population and every hotel is at capacity. Traditionally, we go see the US Air Force Thunderbirds airshow which features six F-16 doing amazing acrobatics and formations. We also go to one of the parades which march on 4 different days. The third thing we always do is go to the carnival which is open everyday from 11 AM to midnight. This year, we took Grandma to the parade and carnival on Saturday, the day before the end of the rodeo. I wish we could've gone to the rodeo as well but we just ran out of time. Maybe next year!

The carnival was a blast! Of course, Charlie had to go on the train ride. He got to be conductor. Ellie was too young for most of the rides but was able to ride on the crousel. Charlie was sure he wanted to go on the ferris wheel. He first went on it at last year's carnival with Dan. This time, I got to go on it with him. Let me tell you, it can be scary even for a grown up! I managed to quell my nerves enough to grab an aerial view. Charlie was really brave to go up on this scary ride.
After the carnival, we walked around the chuck wagon area where we sampled food from chuck wagon cook-off. We also discovered the Indian Village which features Native American displays and crafts.

We were all sad when it was time for Grandma to go home. The sweetest thing was when Charlie said to her, "Grandma, I don't want to let you leave."

Shelf Reliance

Does anyone know anything about Shelf Reliance? It's a website that sells food storage and emergency preparedness products. If anyone has had experience with their products, I'd love to hear about it!

Apparently, they do weekly giveaways and this week they're doing a drawing for a 72-hour kit for two.

Being prepared in an emergency is definitely something I could always improve on!

Preschool Decision

I've made a decision... Well, sort of. After a lot of thought and prayer, I've realized that I'm not ready to send Charlie to preschool. It's ironic that I was so worried about him being able to make the adjustment to going to all-day kindergarten when I'm the one that will be having a hard time sending my baby off into the world. I remember a friend of mine who'd always say how sad she was when school started in the fall because her kids would be off to school again. At the time, I was amazed to hear her say that because I thought it made life easier when the kids were out of the house. Now that I have my own kids, I've realized how quickly they grow up and how precious is that time you have with them. It seems like nowadays society pushes kids to grow up even faster.

While I'm sure preschool can be a wonderful experience, it's not a requisite experience. However, I know every child is different and it's a personal decision for families whether to send their kids to preschool. I've decided to try to do preschool at home for a couple months. However, I've left myself the option of sending Charlie preschool if that doesn't work out. I'm looking forward to spending more time with him!

Preschool

Since Charlie seems to have a hard time with new situations (see Change and Progress), I'm starting to worry about him going off to kindergarten next year. In Cheyenne they have all-day kindergarten. That is a LONG day for a 5-year old! I thought maybe I'd sign him up for preschool this fall as a stepping-stone for kindergarten so he can get used to going to "school" and being in a learning environment outside of our home. I've heard great things about a preschool called Discovery Unlimited here in town. The director of the preschool has been doing it for over 20 years and I have friends who have sent their kids there. People have signed their kids up a year ahead of time just to get a spot.

During the summer, she has drop-in days and she said we were welcome to go to see how Charlie would like it. So we went to check it out yesterday. Charlie actually did fine. I stayed for a few minutes and then left when he was occupied. Charlie was a little sad when he noticed I was gone but the director was able to distract him with a different activity. I was pleased that when I asked him if he wanted to go back he said "yes".

Well, now I'm not sure what to do! Either Charlie has gotten better with dealing with a new situation or the preschool was set-up so well that kids just feel comfortable being there. On the one hand I don't want send him to preschool if I don't have to, however I also want him to have opportunities to learn and develop skills academically and socially.

What do you think? I'd be interested to hear other moms' experiences with sending kids to preschool. Was it a positive experience? What were the benefits and drawbacks?

Summer Fun

I'm a little behind on my posts. No excuses though. I really enjoy blogging but to be honest it's not at the top of my to do list right now. Taking care of myself, my family, and my home often leaves little time for anything else. And that is okay. I've accepted that there's a time and season in life for everything I want to do. That said, here are some fun things we've been doing...

Superday: In Cheyenne, the rec department puts on a wonderful event called "Superday" to highlight all the great activities that are available in this town. There are 5K/10K walk/runs, a bike race, a judo tournament, a volleyball tournament, etc. It's held at the largest park in Cheyenne where booths are set up for all sorts of things. There's an area where local artists and crafts people sell their wares. Another area has clubs and organizations sharing information. There's a children's carnival. And what's a great event without food? Superday is just a fun day for the community to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather at the park.

We love going to Superday. I wasn't ready this year but next year I plan on doing the 5k run. Charlie had a lot of fun going down the huge blowup slide and going in the bounce maze. The carnival was great too. The Lions Club gave free rides in their miniature train. Both Charlie and Ellie loved it. We finished off our superfun by walking through the booths for freebies and grabbing lunch.


















4th of July: We had a pretty laidback 4th of July. There was a kiddie parade downtown so I took the kids. I didn't expect much but I have to say the kiddie parade was a disappointment. I thought maybe there'd be at least few floats but all we saw was a group of parents walking with their kids in decorated wagons, bikes, strollers, etc. I guess I just had a different idea of what a parade should be!!

After the parade we headed to the park for a barbecue with a couple of friends. We expected the day to be warmer but it ended up feeling a little chilly! That's Cheyenne weather for ya, you just can't be too surprised by it. Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we were lucky we decided to do a barbecue for lunch instead of later in the day when a huge rainstorm occurred.