Emma: The cute goalie

So... My favorite part about Em's soccer game tonight?? I am coloring with Evan on a blanket and I hear the family next to me say "Oh, look at how cute their goalie is!" I smile to myself, knowing that my daughter is the goalie at the moment, and casually look up to take a glimpse of my shining soccer star on the field. Then, I just shake my head at the sight... Emma - laying down in front of the net. She is pulling grass, looking for 4 leaf clovers, or doing some other thing other than waiting for the soccer ball.

So, I do the "Yup - that little goalie is my daughter." And smile and laugh with the family next to me and then say "Emma! Stand up and wait for the ball!"

I have been coined a "soccer Mom" by my husband, some friends, and our neighbors. And, unfortunately, I can see where they are coming from. However, to my defense, I just talk to her about the common sense things, such as not laying down on the field and no playing in the dirt. I am not getting nit picky about the technical parts of the game. . . yet.

And yes, I have been told that I am too competitive.

As said by Evan this morning on the way to church: "Mama? When can I marry Emma?"

Even bigger and better than the last...

There are a few things that Tim doesn't like: heights, fairs, crowds, and peanut butter. He is a good sport about all of these things (other than the heights!) as he knows that I like fairs, which always entail crowds, and he jokes that my family doesn't make anything without peanut butter in it.

I really enjoy fairs - I like the food, the people watching, and walking around mindlessly getting free stuff. As you can see, I drag him to the Washington County Fair every year because the kids really enjoy it - and I do too :-) Today, we went one step further and went to the Minnesota State Fair - Yea!

Evan has never been to the big Minnesota Get Together and Emma has only been there once, when she was like 3 months old and was in a sling the whole time. So, I figured we were about due to go. Throw in 2 free tickets along with 20 free ride tickets and I was able to talk my husband (or beg him) into coming along. I knew I would want help with the two kids and wasn't willing to go there on my own with the kiddo's yet.

We didn't tell the kids about it, just in case plans would change, but our plan was to get ready right when the kids woke up and try to beat some of the crowds and get there early. It worked. Evan was the first one up at around 6:30. He did his normal climb-into-bed-with-Mom-and-Dad gig and grabbed the remote and turned on cartoons. I got up around 6:45 and when Evan asked why, I did the nonchalant, "Oh, I am going to get ready for the fair" and went to go brush my teeth. Evan sat up quick, opened his eyes wide and said "Fair! What fair? Are we going to a fair Mama?" After telling him yes and answering his questions about which fair, etc, he was excited to go and get ready for the day as well. Emma quickly followed suit when she woke up and we had a quick breakfast and were on our way at roughly 7:30 am.

With traffic and parking being slightly annoying, but not horrible, we got there and were walking through the gates at 8:30. We came prepared with a stroller for the boy, as we weren't sure how his little feet would last with all the walking and crowds. Along with the stroller, I tried to be prepared for the unthinkable and put a piece of duct tape with the kids names and my cell phone number on their clothes, just in case (God forbid) we were separated. As Evan couldn't keep his hands off of the duct tape (he thought it was cool) I took an ink pen and wrote the same information on his leg - which, unfortunately, he thought was even cooler, and was distraught when it washed off in the shower.

The first stop???

The traveling reptile show....

Emma and Evan love creepy crawly things, so this was right up their alley. Fortunately, we got there very early, so they could get up close and personal with the snakes. AND - Monty (the owner of the traveling show, even let them touch the python.)

(gross... that is really all I have to say about this picture)

And because blogger is driving me crazy this morning, the pictures are a bit out of whack. Just be assured that there were not reptiles out and about at the fair when we were there!

We got to go inside some vehicles at the fair (which the kids also thought was a great time)

Smiling at the python. . .

And going to the kidway -- I am always surprised at how expensive the kidway is! Man - like $3 for a 30 second ride. I made the mistake of going on the tilt-a-whirl with the kids. (normally I love this ride, we got an extremely "tilty" one) Let's just say the ride went on a little long for my liking. I was pretty dizzy when I got off and decided that would the be end of my ride experience.

After that, it was food - pizza, pork chop on a stick, bucket of sweet martha's cookies, hot dog, pronto pup, Falafal on a stick, lemonade, taffy, beef stick, bull bites... it was yummy!!! There were a few spots we didn't hit up, but it was still fun.

We didn't go into any of the exhibits or hit up a lot of the free stuff to my dismay. That I couldn't really talk Tim into ... and wasn't sure about if the kids would want to do that or not. We did get some of the free hats, went into the Perry the Platypus bus, and that was pretty much it. Home Depot did have a nice spot for the kids to build their little projects, which was fun for both. Emma made a bug catcher and Evan made a boat.

All-in-all, we were at the fair for about 5 hours and that was enough. The kids were getting very tired, Tim was getting crabby at all the people (me too) so we thought it best to leave. We parked right by the Miracle of Life building and did see a baby goat come into this world. . . which led to a few questions I wasn't necessarily ready to answer yet. :-)

Go, Go Dynamo's!

Emma started soccer last week. She was so incredibly excited to start as she thought it would be a good sport for her to play. First, we went and bought her all the gear: cleats, shin guards, and new soccer ball - one that we were hoping wouldn't meet the same fate as our old one i.e. being chewed on and chased by Sage. Then, that night, we took her to "practice with the ponies" where the Stillwater varsity and JV teams helped the kids and showed them some drills. Emma was very excited to go at first - and then hung back a bit when she was told to form a team. She got into it towards the end and only needed one morale booster from me to keep going. (she tends to hang back sometimes, sit out, or cling to coaches/teachers at times. It breaks my heart!)

The next night was her first practice and while I was unable to attend due to a work function, I was told it was the same. She got into it a little bit, then hung back, and wasn't being overly aggressive (what? my child NOT aggressive? She apparently doesn't take after me) . She did seem fairly excited at practice, Tim said, but wasn't engaging as much as some of the other kids.

Tonight was her first scrimmage. While we were rushing around a bit when I got home from work to get out the door on time (yup, need to work on that one) we just made it and got her on the field - albeit with no pictures. Next time - I promise! I had to guide her up to her team, guide her up to the coach, and talk her in to doing some drills. Then, when it was game time - she was chosen as the goalie. I was probably as surprised as anyone. She did okay. She stopped the first two balls and then the opposing team scored. However, in her defense, none of the kids seemed overly excited to be there, with the exception of maybe 2 kids that were all over. Plus, I know absolutely nothing of the game and hadn't really prepared her for soccer, other than our fun playing and kicking around the house. It was an hour long game and while no scores were kept, I do think the Dynamo's won!

It was tough to watch. I can be a bit competitive with sports at times, so it was hard to not coach her or be a horrible sideline Mom while watching. Tim had to gently tell me to stay where I was and not move up close to the field so I could help Emma out. So, the biggest way I can help I figure is to learn the game and to start playing little games at home and to really teach her what the sport is and how to play. It was only her second time out playing and knowing Emma and her being incredibly analytical and thoughtful about things, I can imagine she was confused as she didn't know EXACTLY what was going on. So - better things to come, perhaps??

And - pictures definitely soon.

The impromptu smores event

As Emma and I celebrated at the princess party, Evan and Tim were at home doing guy stuff. They were driving around in their John Deere toys (Tim on the mower, Evan in his beloved gator) and hauling stuff. They picked up weeds in the garden, picked up sticks, and started a fire to burn stuff. Of course, a fire to little kids always means smores and this evening did not disappoint. When Emma and I got home, the marshmallow bag was half empty and Evan was a happy little dude.   It was a beautiful night for a campfire, so Emma and I put on warmer clothes, grabbed a blanket and headed outside.



The little fairy enjoys smores.




Evan told me that per Papa, the S on his shirt stands for Little Squirt.




Yup, Sage was there too.





Testing out a new setting on my camera.  Pretty cool, I think.



The Surprise Princess

Emma was invited to a Princess Party this past week to celebrate with two of her friends (among others) that are moving away in a few weeks.  The invitation said to come dressed in your best princess dress and to expect some fun princess related things AND a special surprise visitor.  Emma was very excited about this party as she loves dressing up and socializing. So - this promised two of her favorite things.   She decided that she wanted to dress up as Tinker Bell and I did a little crown of braids in her hair and we were off.

We arrived at the party just in time to see the arrival of the surprise visitor: Ariel, who come straight from the castle at Disney World!   Ariel first did some face painting for the girls and came prepared with many different princess drawings and special glitter for their faces.




Emma wanted to be a fairy, just like Tinker Belle.


Ariel then read her story to the girls and brought along the music for her story, just the same that is in the movie. Ariel actually had a beautiful voice in person as she did in the movie. 



Then, her favorite part - more princess dress up! The fairy godmother let Ariel bring along a big trunk filled with princess supplies - wings, magic wands, and crowns!




Practicing her wave and smiles.  She blew a kiss to me as she walked by!



Then, Princess Jasmine was nice enough to lend Ariel her magic carpet so the girls could walk down a red carpet and wave to all the adoring Moms with cameras!

The ladies getting ready to walk the red magic carpet.

Finally, it was craft time where the girls got to decorate their own crown.  Ariel then left to head back to the castle and the girls ran and played outside.

A group shot of all the princesses with Ariel.

Emma had a fantastic time and had fun meeting Ariel and playing with the little girls.  What a great idea for a little girl party and a great way to send off some friends as they explore a new country for a few years. 

The Children's Museum

Yea for fun, fabulous Fridays! 

Today we went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul! I had been wanting to do this all summer. The only time I have been there was when Emma was like a year old - so we were long overdue. Plus, Curious George was there and had a special exhibit, so it was a good time to go before school started.

Packed with 6 kids (as the Kellogg family came along as well) and water bottles, and snacks, and a double stroller, and happy fun attitudes, we drove to St. Paul.

First - second floor (cannot remember the name) where they have the mini grocery store, post office, doctors office, restaurant, and a bunch of pint-size exhibits for the kiddos to touch, explore, and play with. The kids ran from one to another and had a ball.  Then, they made pictures out of fish stamps, which was another hit.  Then... the biggest excitement of all - the water room!  A room filled with tons of water exhibits to play with, splash with, and explore.  This, by far was Evan's favorite room.  He played in this one section with the ping pong balls, water tubs, and piping for a long time. Then, had a fit when we left to eat lunch.  I cannot say if Emma had a favorite room or not. She seemed to enjoy running from one to another with her cousins.

 The next rooms were enjoyed as well. The Curious George exhibit was fun and had a building section with foam blocks and an elevator of sorts that the kids would use to lift the blocks up and watch them fall down. There was a golfing section, grocery store, light station, and slide.  The Science Museum has an art garden that had a painting pond, sand box, musical station, and many, many plants that overlooked St. Paul.  There was one room, which I will call the ant room, that had big tunnels for the kiddos to crawl in.

Overall - a huge success!  Huge. Everyone had a great time (even the babies) and then you throw in McDonalds for lunch and a trip to CandyLand for a snack and this could be one of the best days ever!



Dr. Evan. Paging Dr. Evan.




Three pretty cute monkeys.




Happy with not a care in the world.




A pretty cute little turtle.




The turtle was a big hit.



And - with faces all done up. We had a tiger, camo boy, Kaylee, and hearts.



Candy Land!  Yummy big suckers and great popcorn!



Introducing the Heuer & Kellogg Musical Hour! (a blue screen background to make a music video.)

Procrastination at it's finest form

What is it with summer? Is it the 90+ heat and the wonderfully long days that make me forget about school? Is it that my daughter is out of school and we are keeping both kids up way past normal bedtime to play outside and help in the garden?  Maybe it is the late runs or the trips to St. Paul to run stairs that is doing me in.  Whatever it is that is taking my focus off of school, needs to go away and let me focus again on my studies.....   (sigh)....

So, my whole goal for this summer was to take a break from going to class and to study up and take a waiver exam so I can pass out of one of my classes.  I had really good intentions the beginning of the summer.  I found a past edition book on Amazon, downloaded the current edition power point slides, took a few chapter quizzes on line, and tried. I really did.  Then... summer happened.  The late night laughter, the drippy ice cream cones on the front steps, the impromptu runs through our sprinklers, and the baths in the laundry room to clean little feet of dirt.  The feeling of "I am going to blog tonight and relax"  -or- "I have to watch Dallas" (which - I totally LOVE that show and am sad the season just ended!)  and then I fall asleep content in the fact that I had a nice relaxing evening and did not jam my head with managerial accounting terms and math problems.

Now - fast forward to August 8....  I realize I only have 4 weeks until school starts and I have done nothing.  The guilt sets in that I have wasted another summer (yup, did this last year too!) by not studying and I decide to force myself to do it.  So, I sign up for the waiver test for like August 31 to have a hard, strict deadline.

And - what am I doing?  Blogging and watching Friends. Yup... I can see where this is going.

A fair is a wonderful smorgasbord

Ah! The Washington County Fair! The kids love it, I like it, Tim puts up with it :-)  The kids get so excited when we drive past to see the trucks rolling in and the rides and stands going up.  We always go once a year and try to do it on a weeknight, as we find it to be less busy and more tolerable.

Thursday evening was the big Heuer night at the fair!  After work, we had a quick snack and heading over to the fair.  After spending way too much money on ride tickets, the kids quickly did the "I want to do that one"  "where is the roller coaster?"  "How about the ferris wheel?"  and we started to make our way through the endless rides, games, and food vendors.  For Evan it is still all about the little cars, tractors, and motorcycles that go in circles and allow him to honk the horn. For Emma now, it is the tilt-a-whirl (my favorite!!) the little roller coasters, and the beginning spinning rides.  With the ticket package we bought, they each got to go on roughly 8 rides and that seemed to only take 5 minutes!  Then... the food.

As mentioned a few sentences back, we had a small snack before we headed there, so the food was a bit more tame this year.  It started with a shared twist malt for the kids, a yummy Cuban chicken taco for me, a glass of fresh lemonade, cheese curds, kettle corn, and mini donuts. Yup, that was tame for us.

I always think the fair is fun and the kids absolutely love it. I was hoping that we would run into one of Emma's little school friends, but we didn't. Emma didn't seem too disappointed as she was constantly on a ride, eating some food, or excitedly running ahead.

The day at the farm

As it had been awhile since our last visit to the farm, the kids and I made our way there today to check out the exciting happenings on the farm.  First and foremost - to check out the progress on Mom & Dad's new house.  They are building a new one on the farm after living in the many-times-over remodeled farmhouse since they were married.  To put it in perspective, the living room in the old farmhouse was the original log cabin that the Brunner ancestors built when they moved here from Austria.. so, only about 110 years ago or so...  So - much deserved to retire the old one and build a new one.  I have heard so much about this house, that it was time we drove down to see the progress - AND - to celebrate my niece's birthday as Kristen and the brood were coming down as well.  A very fun trip!

We were only at the farm maybe 10 minutes when Evan decided he wanted to walk to see the house.  We all piled on the wonderful gator and took off down the road, only 1/8 mile maybe, to see the house.  With any construction project comes the expected nails in the dirt, building supplies all over, and the best thing of all - piles of dirt.  I remember when I was a kid and Mom and Dad were putting on the last edition to the old farmhouse (a master bedroom, second bath, and nice basement) and the construction dudes dug huge piles of dirt for the basement.  We played with those dirt piles a lot - primarily dirt fights with our cousins and races to the top to see who was the king of the mountain.  So, who could blame us when we saw the new dirt piles when we wanted to climb to the top.  Kristen and I started the madness (with me beating her to the top and winning the gold medal) and the littles followed suit.



Here they are climbing, sliding, and rolling.  Evan was found doing sand angels as well.  It was a fun time.




Even Charley got in on the fun. While someone had to help him climb to the top, he slid all the way down on his own.




Kate wasn't really all about the dirt.  She wanted to be held.



The three ladies at the top.



Evan had no interest in walking through the house. All he wanted was to throw and play in the dirt.



 As you can imagine, after the rolling and sliding in the dirt the kids were dirty!  The next move? Heading down to Bear Creek to rinse off!  We piled in the gator and made the trip to the creek (pronounced crick, in case you were wondering :-)  )



All piled in the gator.



 The water was ice cold, but it felt good on our hot, sandy feet. We made this trip to Bear Creek twice today!  Once in the afternoon when Papa could join us as well.  The girls enjoyed walking up and down and Evan enjoyed throwing rocks.



Chilling in the back of the gator.



 The rest of the day was spent having a rest time, eating at the yummy Drive-In in Durand, birthday cake & ice cream, and playing outside.  For Evan though, no trip to the farm is complete without helping Papa feed the calves.

Standing at the milk replacer station while Papa feeds the silage.



Stirring the milk replacer to Papa's exact instructions.... or to whatever Evan thinks is best for the baby cows.





Emma and Kaylee came to the barn for a bit as well.




Moo