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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Growing Up

Well, last weekend was Mackenzie's 6th birthday so we decided it is time (maybe past time) she gets out of the office/nursery next to our room. The room that was an office before we moved in to this house was a perfect nursery as it has a pocket door to our room. That put the kids less than 15 feet from my side of the bed (naturally my side not his). It worked great for Chase and he moved to his own room when Mackenzie was done in the cradle in our room. Well, Mackenzie has been in the nursery since about 3 months old. Her next door is not so much the issue as it is that she comes into our bed about 2 am EVERY night! A king size bed is only so big!

I have had plans - purchased a wallpaper mural and paint several months ago! One thing or another kept me from just doing it! Well, yesterday was the day! My BFF Jill got a babysitter for her 4 year old (who is adorable but would NOT have been much help). She came over and we got a large chunk of it done while the kids were at school. I got the mural up and she came and helped paint. We got half of the room painted. The half we got done is the part with the door, closet, window and mural to paint around. Thus, the remaining half is just open wall that should go quickly. I am also planning to paint the ceiling as ALL of the painting in this house was done in flat wall paint - UGH!

I picked up Mackenzie from school and got her home telling her I had a surprise for her. Of course, she came blazing in the house wanting to know where is the surprise. You see, she had NO idea we were doing the back bedroom for her! She loves horse and I had worked hard to fins a horse mural and match paint to it. Needless to say, she was VERY excited when she opened the door and saw this . . .


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Busy Times

It has been a very busy couple of weeks at the Rogge house. As we near the end of the school year, I look at the kids and wonder how it is that they are almost finished with first grade and kindergarten respectively. WOW!! They grow up so fast!




Chase had the opportunity to be involved in the Missoula Children's Theater Production of The Pied Piper at the PAC in Chelan. He auditioned and wanted to be cast as I rat and indeed he was cast as a rat! He had practices after school every day and dress rehearsal on Saturday morning and then two performances on Saturday. He did a good job but was a very tired boy by the end of that week.

Next came a visit from Mamma and Papa for Mackenzie's birthday. They arrived with boat in tow on Thursday the 20th. Mackenzie's choice for her birthday "party" this year was to go fishing it Papa and one of her friends (Hannah) in Papa's boat. Don't know who was more excited - Papa or Mackenzie. The kids hadn't seen Mamma and Papa in 2 1/2 months which is longer than usual. They were so excited that we counted down days for over three weeks and counted hours for the last two of those days. Once we knew they had made it to Entiat (about 20 mintues away) Chase stood on the deck with binoculars in hand watching across the lake to see them come down into the Chelan valley. Alas, they arrived and the kids met them in the driveway!



Mackenzie turned 6 last week - how did that happen? I made ladybug cupcakes for her class and we took them in at the end of the day on Friday. She and Hannah went fishing with Papa and I on Friday afternoon - they caught 6 keeper size Blue Gill. Hannah had never been fishing and was tickled to catch them. We then had "rice & gravy" (stroganoff and rice) for dinner and then watched The Princess and The Frog before I took Hannah home - it was a fun day for Kenzie (and all of us).

Saturday brought with it dress rehearsal and recital for Mackenzie's ballet class. They did a dance to "Fireflies" by Owl City and it was very cute. It was a fun night of dance and music performances by several kids from the valley. All very well planned and executed by Mackenzie's 15 year old dance instructor (she is amazing). While Kenzie was at dress rehearsal the guys took Chase fishing and they caught 8 blue gill! He was excited to have Daddy & Papa time in the boat.

The guys took Monday and Tuesday to go fishing on the "big" lake. Well, fishing it what they did as "catching" evaded them. They spent several hours each day trolling around and trying different things. They reported seeing lots of fish on the fish finder but could catch nothing. I guess the guys are meant to catch only blue gill and only when they have the kids with them.

Alas, it was time for Mamma and Papa to head home so a teary family (the kids and I) stood on the porch this morning waving as they drove away headed back to their home!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blog Post Makes it to Paper

I have been participating in a Layout A Day (LOAD) for the month of May. It has been fun and I can happily say the I have done well in getting my layouts done every day so far (12 down and 19 to go). Today our challenge was J is for journaling. As soon as I read the challenge I knew that my post from August "Long Time Dream Fullfilled" had to finally make it onto paper for Chase's scrapbook. I had to share the final product here as most of my friends don't see my LOAD layouts on Flickr. I cried lots of tears as I read this story again and scrapbooked it. I have been doing my layouts on the dining room table but this one I did in the solitude of my scrap room alone where I could enjoy the memories and tears again. I am happy with how the layout turned out.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother's Day

As mothers, we are the family nurse, personal shopper, taxi driver, tutor, seamstress, maid, chef, counselor, etc, etc, etc . . . what a nice honor to have a day dedicated to us. However, the powers that be in Chelan decided many moons ago that the kids fishing derby would be best held on none other than Mother's Day. It is a fun event mind you and the kids love it but really does a Mom want to spend the day at the edge of the pond at the golf course helping her kids become master fishermen? I realize the most Dads will take the kids but in this family, Dave is allergic to fish of all kinds and cannot even help remove them from hooks so this Mom spent yesterday helping her kids get 5 trout from the lake (and got a good sunburn too).


Alas, this Mother's Day was also the first Mother's Day without Dave's Mom so it carried with it some extra emotions. I did this scrapbook page as a tribute to her yesterday as she was heavy on our hearts in this house.

My sister, Dad and I went together this year and got my Mom a new set of pots and pans. The ones she had were the set they got as a wedding gift almost 44 years ago. She was tickled to death with them and is so happy to have pots that are flat (as opposed to warped) on the bottom. She called me the first time she used them to tell me how fast she could boil water in them! As my sister out it in a text message to me, "I think this was a slam dunk" for Mom this year!


My kids flooded me with little gifts from school including a trivet from Kenzie with her handprint on it, a marigold that Chase planted and a few little books they wrote for me. It was a lot of fun. Daddy also helped them to get Mommy a "Mom" bracelet and a pin with their birthstone "kid" charms on it. It was a lovely day and I am so lucky to be a Mom!!