A day in the life of the Steffen Sisters!: Summer is Here!....and now it is gone.

My last post talked about my last day of Kindergarten, so go figure I am getting this one out right after I started my first day of 1st grade. Talk about summer going by mighty fast. It was full of awesomeness. Here it all goes in no particular order:

One of the biggest events was Danielle's wedding. Yep, I should get this one sis! I was a flower girl for the big day. First we got to party the night before at the winery and Danielle gave me presents. (seems backwards right?). My new favorite shirt that says flower girl was one of my favorites. But she spoiled me! We had a late night, but the next day started bright and early as I had to get my hair done with the big girls (bonus - the bridesmaids were some more of my favorite people) and lots of pics taken. Needless to say, I was a bit exhausted by the time the wedding started. But a little sugar helped me power through. Then once the party started we really cut loose. We had so much fun with all of our cousins and the Noeckers, lots of dancing. I'm so lucky I got to be part of Danielle's special day. She was so beautiful and I felt like a little princess too!! Hey, I felt like a princess too. My godmother Siera and Rhonda made me a pretty dress with Heidi's extra tulle so I matched them all. It got a bit itchy and put a damper on my sleeping through the loud party though so I made an eventual outfit change.

Steffen grandkids (-1)

The wedding was awesome. But we also got in a visit with Eric and Katelyn and their new baby Hendrix. He was so cute and tiny! Although I have heard he is growing a lot, he will probably surpass Lena soon enough. We also got a night at the lake house with Matt's family. Which also meant we got to go on the boat! It was so fun. I loved the tube with Gabby, but really loved when uncle Matt went fast and the water splashed up on us.

Trips - lots of them. We went to Silver Dollar City it rained on us a LOT, but we still enjoyed some fun with Ava and family!

We made a trip to Lincoln while dad went on to Hartington for his school reunion (25 years). There we got to spend time with Elmo, go swimming with Grandpa McLain, and have dinner and fun with friends.

We got some dam food at the Dam Fish Shack

We just got back from a camping trip to South Dakota. Yep, you heard me. Well, not in tents or anything. You see, aunt Rhonda has a super nice camper that she "dusted off" and got all set up for us. And it had bunk beds! But we were both worried we would fall off the top, so we slept in the bottom bunk together. Speaking of....Amelia has slept with me for the past month - every night. I love it! Dad says he isn't going to let it continue if I keep waking up in the middle of the night and coming downstairs. But those bears keep coming in my dreams! Anyway....camping was awesome. We got to see our cousins which made it way more fun. I made it clear to mom and dad that was the case. We even took our bikes, Nana, Gabby, & Matt helped me practice without training wheels. I guess 1st grade is the cut off for training wheels. I'm getting pretty good...but still not so comfortable with the idea of going on the street. Goodness gracious, she does cry enough if she falls on the grass. I had fun going to the beach, playing in the sand, and swimming.
We also got to go on the boat again one day. The tube was a bit scary for me this time. The weather was awesome so everything was fun.

We went to Omaha our last night for a fun night at hotel (I love pools), dinner with Lena's godmother Siera and parents, and then we went to the zoo. Wow, is that place awesome. Mom said if we ever move to Omaha she would totally get us a pass to go all the time. They have a cool new splash park and kid play area on top of all the animals.

Now, don't go getting any big ideas. No imminent plans on moving, although dad after the crazy amounts of rain we have had this summer (~20 inches in July!) and the stress that comes with that with our backyard river, it has been discussed. But we are (well were) all about finding places to go this summer.

You see....mom quit her job to be with us. So this summer has been lots of fun and different. I don't know how long it will stay like this, she often threatens us that she is going to go back to work soon (mainly when Heidi is screaming so hard she pukes because she doesn't want to take naps or Lena is having a cranky day/week. Then other days we have so much fun together that we hope that it will never change! Some of the things we have done are go to the new Johnson County museum, Union station and the KC street cars (where we stopped for lunch and saw HOSMER - we also saw Brett. Equally exciting in my book!), the OP arboretum, Kaleidoscope, Deanna Rose, Ernie Miller, mini golf, play dates, and LOTS of swimming.

We took swim lessons every day for 4 weeks. So we have improved tons. I started in wave 1 and graduated all the way through wave 3. My big accomplishment is going off the high dive and I dive off the low diving board! Well I can float on my back, swim, enough to go on the big slides and jump off the diving board and swim to the side. Dad says it looks like I may drown, but I always make it!

Other summer activities included our dance recital! Another one in the books at the Music Hall. I tapped it out and Heidi was a pretty ballerina again. We got ready with little Ava and had a grand old time. Felt pretty cool that we got to wear some lipstick and have our hair done. Except mom still has a burn on her arm from curling my hair. Obviously, she needs practice. Amelia says that was her last recital, I'm still trying to talk dad into letting me do one more year. Yeah, I'm more into the team sports. I had fun playing coach pitch girls softball. I was the youngest on the team, most of them a year or 2 older than me - so I had a bit of catching up to do, but I held my own. And our uniforms were mighty cool, let's face it...that is a key part. I took off fall ball, but fully plan on playing again in the Spring. I got to do a basketball camp one week and look forward to starting up playing with some of my old teammates again.

I have continued with gymnastics and got pretty good at it if I do say so myself. I love practicing with Amelia in the trampoline especially. I am getting ready to do my first dabble into sports - soccer with some old friends from school. Stay tuned!

Here are some videos of us in action for those of you we haven't performed for ...
>>>>>

Happy 4th!

We had fun with a plethora of visitors. Grandma Elmo multiple times (she is looking to move here!), nana, papa and cousins, and big Ava and family came for the annual 4th of July party! Seriously, lots of fun. Just running out of steam to write about them all.

Yeah, parents were inside, we figured out a fun game!

My friend Olivia from last year is in my
class!!

You see...Friday was my first day of school. I had to wake up early and I am exhausted, next week will be rough. I think 1st grade will be great. Looking forward to learning even more. I love learning new things!

Yesterday was Lena's 1st birthday, so we will save that post for later. Otherwise I will never get this out. Here is a pic from 11 month shoot, individual shots on our pages. We have been making bets on if she will be crawling by 1. That did not happen. She does however LOVE to turn circles, and is kind of butt scooting. I guess you can't crawl if you don't like being on your stomach. She is still tiny, but mom says she has got more than her moneys worth out of outfits that way! She says dada, nana, baba, uhh...but the only thing that seems to be purposeful is Nala. Yep, she says Nala, but not mama. That is kind of funny. She loves babies, playing with balls and us. Yes, we have a real sisterly bond. I love holding her. I am told too much so, and we are why she is not motivated to do much. I tell dad that he is mean, why does he always put something so far away from her? Geez, Louise...I can get it to her!

Until next time (hopefully, not as long)....come back to this post later this week as I still need to upload more videos. Amelia OUT