Words to go by

What a busy past few days. Sorry it has been so long! Now, I know that you, my loyal readers, are not expecting stories a few times a week. However, I did tell myself that I need to do this for my children. This is their life story - their cute sayings - their outings & trips - and their memoir of sorts. I need to keep remembering to find the time to update this so they remember how darn cute they were when they are older. Plus, it will give me something to remind ME that they were darn cute when they are teenagers and difficult!

The past few days have flown by. Between my school, puppy class, homework, playing, fun play dates, time just flies. Let's see.... last weekend Emma and I were at home as Tim was building a garage at the cabin. Fun times.... ! My mother came up to stay and help with the kids as I had a very fun wedding to attend! A dear friend and co-worker had a beautiful ceremony at a State Park and then had a very fun wedding reception in an outside shed that was beautifully decorated with white Christmas lights, candles in mason jars and beautiful wild flowers everywhere. Emma and I attended and danced with some friends and had a great time. It was fun to watch Emma on the dance floor getting down with the other little people out there. She didn't know many of them and at times, none of them, but she was still out there laughing, dancing and having a great time. All of my friends there commented on how weddings just aren't as much fun with children and are hoping to do a book club goes clubbing sometime soon - haha!

This past weekend was another swirl of activity! The kids ran in a "fun-run" at the State Capital with some friends. It is something like a 500 foot run and at the end all kids receive a medal and a t-shirt. Emma had some nervousness surrounding her race this year as last year she had an incident and ran into someone, fell down, and instantly started crying. This year she proudly proclaimed "Mama, If I fall down this time, I am going to get up and keep running!" Words to live by. It was suggested to me that I print that out, put it on a frame or something for Emma to have as she gets older. Not a bad idea! Evan had a great time as well. While he got a little antsy waiting to "Run Mama! Down Mama!"as the run was at 11:30 (I know, seriously? Right at nap time?) he had fun doing it. Emma and her friends did awesome! Emma sprinted to the finish line, no falling down this time! and excitedly jumped up and down with her friends when they received their medals "We got a medal! We didn't win but we still got a medal!" It was fun and I am glad we did it. I did not do any running this year (except along side the children) and was okay with that. Maybe another time when life slows down a bit.

After the run, some much needed girl time! Tim stayed home with the kids so I could go out to the Olive Garden. Ahh - how relaxing! It is so nice to have time away to breathe, relax, and think of other things than playing cars or putting clothes on Barbies. The nice thing is that the ladies in attendance thought the same thing! We have a wonderful support group, we laugh, cry, bounce ideas off each other and just have a great time together.

Emma had her first day of Sunday School this past weekend. She was so excited to go and had a fun time. I was a little nervous as last year I was always there with her as I was the teacher, but I should realize by now that Emma can hold her own! She excitedly ran to her table with her Baby Doll (as it was bring a stuffed animal or doll day) and started coloring her bible story picture. The nice thing is that they follow the same format, so I think there was comfort in that. Evan, however, didn't do so well. He doesn't really sit well in church and tries to do the running man in my arms when I am carrying him. He lasted about halfway through with various snacks, books, and other diversion tactics and then I gave in and checked him in to the children's play room. It is staffed by parent volunteers and filled with toys, a small slide/jungle gym, and lots of cars :-) He loved it and I may have to use and volunteer in that room again.

The apple orchard was Sunday early evening with some friends. More little people running around, laughing, and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Man, I love fall! On Sunday morning, we woke up to frost covering our yard. Emma was excited for what she thought was snow, but when I told her it was only frost she got a bit disappointed. She wanted to go outside, investigate it, and pick some raspberries. However, I told her the raspberries may be hurt because of the frost. Her response? "But Mama - you love raspberries in your yogurt! These darn seasons! They keep changing, changing, and changing! First summer, then fall, then winter, then spring. Argh!' So cute - so funny!

Other things....??? We went to a local bowling alley/chuckee cheese sort of place this week. The kids had a great time playing the games, eating the candy and best of all? Laser Tag! This is all Emma could talk about. She very seriously told me all about it before we got to the bowling alley. "Now Mama, we are on the red team. Breezy and Theresa are on the blue team. We try to get them with the Laser gun, but don't worry, it doesn't hurt. It is just pretend." We actually played 2 games of laser tag. Tim and Evan joined us for the second one and they both loved it. Evan insisted on wearing the large laser tag vest and diligently carried the laser gun around and tried to "get" people. He had fun looking for Daddy and Emma.

Evan is starting to put together small sentences. Two or three words maybe? He is still constantly climbing and bouncing. When I pick him up from daycare, he grabs my hands and starts jumping on my legs. Then he bounces on my lap and gets up and drags me somewhere. It is exhausting! Such a difference between boys and girls. He had two exciting moments yesterday and today with the potty! Both times he did what he needed to do and there was much clapping and celebration around this. He was happy to get a treat and I hope it is slowly sinking in what he needs to do.

That's about it for now. I do have pictures from all the events (plus, Tim's birthday!) but those have to wait until another day.

Now - words to go by: "If I fall down, I am going to get up and keep running!"

My Daddy, the hero

Oh, the innocence of children. It is a wonderful, beautiful thing. Especially when my daughter looks up at her daddy with her big blue adoring eyes and thinks that he can do no wrong. But then Tim looks at me with his guilty eyes and it is all over...

So, we had a new pet introduced to our family over the weekend - a pheasant that Emma decided to name Lucy. How we got this pheasant and why is an interesting story. On the way up to the cabin this past weekend, Tim saw a pheasant that flew up and hit a car on the road. The car drove off and Tim decided to stop and look at the pheasant. The pheasant had a broken wing, so Tim decided to put the pheasant in the back of the truck and take it to the cabin. Now, one would say that was very nice and noble of Tim. Others could say he had ulterior motives because Tim was worried that Sage was not going to be a hunting dog and wanted to give him, let's say some practice.

So, the kids see the pheasant on Friday when Tim arrives at the cabin with Sage and pheasant in tow. I shoot him a dirty look and the kids are instantly excited at the bird. Sage LOVES the bird and constantly is barking and chasing after it. I feel bad for the bird, am slightly irritated at Tim, but love how Emma looks up at Tim and says "Wow Daddy - you saved Lucy because she had a broken wing!" with her adoring big, blue eyes. After getting a dog kennel to put Lucy in, Emma feeds her worms, and puts a bowl of water in the kennel for her, and she is settled. Tim and I have the discussion of how it is probably NOT a good idea for Emma to get to attached to the bird as her prognosis is not good. So, Emma and I have the discussion of how Lucy is sick and she may not make it. Alas, she didn't. Lucy unfortunately passed away on Sunday. Emma was sad, but I don't think it affected her too badly. We seem to have a few pets come and go in our house, so she is used it.

We had a great weekend up at the cabin. Tim went golfing on Saturday morning, so my Mom and I took the kids to Grantsburg, WI for Grantoberfest. Basically, a fall celebration with jumpy houses (which were the kids favorite) food, small petting zoo, hay rides, clowns, etc. Sure, there were a few kid meltdowns, but overall, everyone had a great time. They also had some local art students do some face painting. Here is Emma as a green cat and Evan with a car on his face.

The kids are great - really great. Emma is doing many preschool workbooks and enjoys spending time doing her homework. Sometimes I let her stay up a bit later than Evan at night so her and I can do a few worksheets to let her practice writing her letters. She is constantly singing songs from Mama Mia and while it is cute, gets somewhat old. She told me tonight as she was banging on the piano and singing Mama Mia that she wants to learn how to play piano. So, maybe we will look into that in a few months.

Evan is good as well - he is still trying to string together words and constantly repeats the last words that people say. I am trying to teach him colors, but to him everything is blue. He loves his choo choos and Cars of course.

As for me, the second night of class went well. There is a lot of homework to do and so far we are studying a lot of philosophy, which I cannot say I enjoy. I have never had a philosophical mind.

A rebirth

Good news for everyone that has been concerned about our departed Megans (the caterpillars). They did NOT die - they have formed cocoons! Or, so we think. Tim and I have differing opinions on this. I think they are resting in their cocoons and are soon to be presenting themselves as magnificent, colorful butterflies. Tim, however, thinks they have died are, well, molding. I am hoping that my glass-half-full mentality will prove victorious and in a few weeks we will have a butterfly.. or moth.

I have had a great birthday week so far; for the most part. The kids are at my parents for a few days, as daycare is closed, and they are having a fabulous time... but I miss them dearly. I know that them being gone is harder on me than them and that is great. Emma was so excited and could not stop talking about the farm. She and Evan instantly started playing when they arrived at the farm and barely noticed that we left. I usually call them twice a day to check and make sure they are doing well (and listening to Nana & Papa!) and Emma says to me "Mama, why do you keep calling all the time? We are fine!" Very reassuring, so that is great.

Last night was the start of a very long 4 to 5 years of grad school. It went great - really great. I am taking statistics and originally was dreading it. However, my professor seems awesome and is using this class as more of a quantitative decision making class versus a stats class. The first few words that came out of his mouth were wonderful. "I know you that most of you work full time and have families. So, your priorities are such. #1 - Family. #2 - Work. If you can fit me in for #3, that is great." Whew! Wonderful! Then, he proceeded to say this, which is equally as great. "I know you are not number crunchers. We have a wonderful thing called a calculator for that. My job is to teach you how to analyze numbers that are presented to you and to shoot holes in data that is given to you at work in an intellectual way." Perfect. I can easily buy into this class. Wish me luck, but so far my first class sounds awesome.

Other than that, I know nothing. I have a lot of homework and reading to do the next few days, but I am also going to squeeze in some final celebrating and shopping with a dear friend of mine to round out my birthday week. I think it is funny that many times when I go out shopping now, I buy for the kids. Kristen and I went out shopping last Saturday, on my actual birthday!, and what did I buy? A Halloween costume for Evan and stretchy leggings for Emma. Hopefully this Sunday I will treat myself also :-)

The birthday weekend

Lucky Evan. He was able to celebrate his birthday twice :-) Once last weekend with his Daddy's sisters and once this weekend along with my birthday! We had a nice joint birthday party. I did have everything Cars themed again, but we split ideas for a cake. I ordered a Cars decorated Cold Stone Creamery Cake. All I can say is YUM! It was great!

It is the official start of my birthday week (which yes, I ripped from my cousin Jess, but seriously?! Who doesn't want a whole birthday week!) First: party! which was a Mexican fiesta and much fun. Second: presents.. an iPod touch, which I can tell, I love! Third - adult fun - aka.. time without kiddo conversation (get your mind out of the gutter!) Tim and I had a date night and went to Wicked and the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was awesome and fun. For the upcoming week? My first night of class, the kids at my parents since daycare is closed (which is sad, but good too. I have homework to do!) and Tim and I will enjoy another date night. Then, hopefully some shopping for me for a birthday present for myself!

Today we all had a great day. I started it out with some exercise and great conversation with a great friend. Then, we were outside... a lot! Tim was cleaning one garage, the kids and I were cleaning another. Let me tell you - they were great helpers! Evan was driving his little Lightning McQueen car all around, watering flowers, and Emma was helping me sweep. It is nice when they can contribute a bit to what is going on. This afternoon was the Packer game, which ended well!, and helping Tim wrap trees. That is a favorite yearly ritual that is enjoyed by all.

Let's see - back to the party. Here are some pictures of the weekend:

First, the party:

Evan after eating his cake. He loved it. It had a Lightning car and a Mater car on top that he could play with. He was in heaven.. and very, very messy.

One of his presents?? A Thomas the Train set that is an add-on set to the one Tim and I got him. He loved it and was carrying it around until someone would open it. He received more track from the Kelloggs also.



So, I ask you... how many people does it take to put together a train set?

The final product which Tim finished yesterday during the kids nap time:

Now, the problem is that it is sitting in my living room and basically takes up the whole space.

And some lovely flowers I received from my new group at work! How nice and what a great surprise! I have never had flowers delivered to me before.

I had a fun conversation with Emma yesterday morning about my birthday. We were sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast and she says out of the blue:

"You know, Mom, it isn't fair that you don't have presents to open because it is your birthday today." So, I tell her that I got to open up my presents the night before so it was okay. However, if she thinks it isn't fair, she should tell Daddy. (yes, maybe thinking I could get another present!) she responds "Well Mom, I did, but he said that you got to open them yesterday so you were fine." So, I ask her what she would buy me if she could pick out a present for me. "Mom, I would buy you a Barbie. A mermaid barbie!" Of course! I am not surprised at all that she would pick that out for me!

Here are some pics from today in the yard:

Tim and the kids on the lawnmower in our backyard.

A fun picture of Emma:

And Evan closely guarding the tool he uses to trim the trees. It was lost for a few weeks and he definitely missed it. Now he proclaims "Found it! Found it! Daddy!" as Tim found it in a bucket today when we were cleaning.

And Emma and Evan helping out...

And Emma annoying her brother and giving him a hug. She tends to love him too much. She likes to put her arms around Evan, hug him, or give him a kiss and he always shrugs her off or pushes her away. Actually, she may just do it to annoy him.

And Sage was there too.

Here is another adventure from the past weekend: Megans.

On our parsley plants in the herb garden, we have these unusual looking caterpillars. The kids love the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" so they are constantly looking at the caterpillars, picking them up, moving them, talking to them, whatever. We have tons of them on there - probably about 10 in total. So, we decided to put two of them in a jar and take care of them to see if we could see them turn into a butterfly or moth... whatever they are. The kids were so excited at their new pets and Emma was constantly carrying them around. Evan is always saying "Megum!! Megum!!" and wanting to carry them around also. All was good for 2 days. Then, yesterday it turned deadly.... We brought both Megans outside to feed them and forgot about them. They were exposed in their jar for about 20 hours and they subsequently died due to exposure (or so I think). Emma was very sad, but what can you do? Our fault for not being good caterpillar owners.





A close up of the two Megans. Look closely one above her hand and one below.

And finally, three pictures from tonight. My sister and I shared babysitting this weekend so Tim and I could go out for my birthday and she could enjoy a night out with her hubby. All the kids were at our house playing outside and were having a ball. It was so much fun to watch and listen. They were climbing up and down the slides, running into each other, doing slide trains with each other and having a great time. It is moments like this that I love. No, my kids don't have the life I did when I was young. My Mom stayed home as did my aunts and we played together with the cousins all the time. I was not in daycare, but my kids are. However, when I see them play and laugh and have a great relationship with their cousins, I realize that they are still okay. They are fine and developing normally and have a great life. They don't have the idyllic farm life that I had, but they still have it very good. Not quite Norman Rockwell, but pretty damn close in my mind. So, when I think that we should move closer to my job as it would make things easier at times, it is nights like this when I know I never could.

A Toddler

Happy Birthday Evan! Ahh - I now have a terrible two year old! But, unfortunately, I saw it coming. We were at the cabin for a long weekend and had a wonderful time. We had a birthday party for Evan up there - Lightning McQueen of course - and he had a great time. He helped me pick out the decorations and was very excited for people to come over and open presents. We even let him open up a few early so he had some to play with while the adults snacked on some appetizers and visited.

Here are some pics:

The Lightning McQueen Cake that I tried to make. He did awesome with the cake/singing/candle bit. He had the candles blown out by the time the first Happy Birthday words were sung. It took maybe 5 seconds.


He did seem a bit concerned that the car Doc was on the cake. He kept trying to take him off. Then, he decided it was kind of cool and tried to drive it on the chocolate shavings road.
Licking off the frosting on the plate he decided should sit on the cake.

The balloons! He loved the balloons! He did have a large Lightning McQueen balloon, but in the 5 minutes he and Emma had it in the house, it had a hole and was slowly losing helium.

A Thomas the Train glow-in-the-dark train set that Tim and I got him for his birthday! He loved that! He was constantly carrying around the big box until Tim or I would put it together. He also received some Cars Shake-n-Go cars (Doc & Ramone), a remote control Caterpillar truck thing, a fishing pole, Toy Story toys and movie.

Today I stayed home with him and we had an Evan/Mommy day. We played trains, cars, had 2 year pictures taken and met Tim for lunch. He wasn't all the excited to have his picture taken and was more interested in playing or watching the movie that was playing in the waiting room. However, we did get a few nice pics. Now he is napping and I have a bit of time to clean up, update blog, and maybe squeeze in some homework. Here are a few more pics of the weekend.

Evan and Mama
Fishing with Papa. Evan still loves fishing and gets so excited when there is a fish on his line. His breathing changes and he goes "Ooh.. Ooh.. Ooh!" until he reels it in. He is not afraid to touch the fish now or throws them back. No matter what the size of the fish they are "BIG! BIG! ISH! ISH!" (just like a fisherman, exaggerating the size of the fish!)

And, my little man now and then.... Happy Birthday Evan!

The diary of a Two Year Old

Ahhh... what a great night's sleep. I Love morning! I love laying in my crib and sucking on my Nuk. My Mom keeps saying that a two year old doesn't need a Nuk, but I am not sure what that means. I LOVE it and as far as I am concerned, it isn't going anywhere. Hey, what a minute... where are my cars?? I better stand up and start yelling for Mom so she can find my cars.

"MAMA!" "MAMA!" "Cars!"

Hmmm... where is my Mama? Why isn't she coming the second I call for her? I better yell louder.

"MAMA!" Cars!"

Perfect... here she comes. Shoot.. she is laying me back down. NO! It is not night-night time again. I just woke up! Seriously - find my cars. I better start whining a bit.... that always works to get my way.

Ha! It worked. Here are my cars - nice! AND, she is bringing me back to her bed so I can watch some TV! I got it good - yes-siree- I do.

We lay down for a bit so I can watch Mickey Mouse Club House (that Mickey is so funny!) and then we head downstairs. I always wake up hungry, but Mommy does not understand that. Can you believe it? I have to hunt down my own food. It is a good thing that I can climb up the shelves in the snack closet to find my goodies. Let's see... crackers? Nope! Goldfish?? Nope! Where did she hide the suckers?? I better climb higher so I can find them.

Crap - here she comes to get me down! I better kick my feet back and forth as fast as I can to see if that will stop her. Nope. Darn. Oh well... at least she is getting me some cereal.

Now, I get to play while I snack on cereal, harrass the dog (ha! he is locked up and I love tormenting her), and while Mommy gets my breakfast. Emma is awake and her and I love fighting over toys and wrestling with each other. I cannot wait until I am bigger than her and I can really fight back!

They keep saying something about it being my birthday, so that is cool. The last time they talked about that I got fun boxes wrapped up in paper. Plus (get this!) they had toys inside!! I see my new Cars that shake, go, and make lots of noise. I better go play with those while Mommy makes me food. Hmmm.. my cereal is all gone, so I better climb back up again to find more things to eat. Will write more later.... Evan

My scheduled night to post

With the addition of school coming on, plus new responsibilities with job, I have decided that I need a nightly routine. So, Tuesday nights (and hopefully Thursday nights) will be my blogging nights along with various other things to get done. Homework will be Monday when kids go to bed, an hour on Wednesday (after Tim and the kids help me clean), during nap time on Friday and Sunday nap time and evening also. Saturday is open for now, but I am sure will quickly be filled with errands, cleaning, homework and misc. crap I have to do :-) Everthing is subject to change and I am sure, will change :-) I am sure I will be fine.. however with new job duties comes nervousness and with one statistics class comes nervousness. I have recently been told that I may have a potential Europe trip coming up for work in October and can be assured that more travel will come also. So, wish me luck!

I just got back from my St. Thomas orientation for the MBA evening program. Yes, I am excited for class to start, but that just brought on the whole uneasiness of my new schedule. Anyway, the cool thing about the orientation was that I ran into a person from Durand that works at St. Thomas! We talked for awhile, swapped business cards and plan to meet up again soon.

The kids are doing okay through all of this change. Emma has been a tad on the whiny side, but I am still wondering if daycare is the culprit of that as I feel she is somewhat bored there. I am in a bit of a quandary about daycare as of late as I would really like to get Emma in more of a preschool atmosphere but really think Evan is good in a more nurturing environment. All of the preschools in Stillwater are 3 days per week, so that won't work either. Our current daycare provider really loves the kids and does a great job, but I am wondering how the next week year will go as Emma's best friend Breezy will be in kindergarten. Emma is the oldest child there, then Evan, that a 1 year old girl and a 3 month old boy. We were told that Emma will start a preschool like program once school starts there, so I am hoping so! I am sure I will have more to post on this one later.

We were at the cabin this past weekend and were delighted to have some friends up! My friend Heidi, her husband Scot, and her children came up for the day. We didn't tell Emma until the day they were arriving as to avoid the "Mom! When will they be here?" questions. But, she was SO VERY excited when she heard her friend Ava was coming to play. And.. play they did! Right when the family arrived, the girls rushed to Emma's room to play Barbies, then rushed to the basement to play Weebles, then rushed to get suits on and go outside. It was great! They both played well together and pushed each other to do more things in the water, which was good for Emma! She was jumping in deeper water than normal and getting her face wet!

Heidi and Scot have another daughter Reese who is a few months younger than Evan. Evan adores Reese! He was sharing his food with her, sharing (sometimes too forcefully) his toys with her and even leaned over to her and gave her a little kiss on the cheek when the evening was done. It was so sweet! He wasn't shy at all, just leaned in and planted one on her! All the adults saw it and of course Tim was all "That's my boy!" and I just laughed and thought he was a bit too young for his first kiss!

We are getting ready here to celebrate a few birthdays! My sweet little boy turns 2 in a week and I took the day off from work to spend it with him. My birthday is coming up soon also - yea! Maybe Tim will let me sleep in a bit :-) Here's hoping! We are having a Car's themed birthday party for Evan, as we loves his cars... any cars really. I went to a garage sale this past week and they had a whole bucket of matchbox cars for sale, 5 for $1. So, we picked out 5 and Evan was in heaven! So much so, that when we went to Culvers later that day, he didn't know where he was going to put his cars. He had one in each hand and was trying to juggle 3 on his arms pressed to his chest. However, they kept falling out. So, Evan tried to have 2 in each hand and have one pressed to his side. But, alas, they kept falling also. The solution?? He decided that 2 in each hand was manageable and stuck the other in his mouth and wanted to carry his last precious car that way. Hilarious! He doesn't want to give them to anyone to help out, but he sure is a problem solver trying to figure it out!

Good news to post also!! I just got my car back! That's right, it only took 9 weeks after the accident to straighten out the insurance and get it done. I have to admit, it took a LOT of phone calls on my end, some not-so-kind words on my end and the filing of a claim with the State of Minnesota Commerce Department against that insurance company to get it done. I have no good things to say about the insurance company of the car that hit me, they lied to me, were rude to me, and were a huge pain in the ass to deal with! But, finally - they paid and I now have my car. It is like I have a new car again! I forgot how to drive it I feel like- but the kids and I were very happy to see it. (also, side note on the way to get the car, Evan started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - so cute!)

That's all for now. I hope everyone has great plans for Labor Day Weekend!

A little frog goes a long way

Well, we had a bit of excitement in our house tonight. I got home from work, changed out of my work clothes, then let the dog out like normal. Evan came out with me and grabbed a bucket on the way out as our raspberries are coming in like crazy! We were picking some raspberries, feeding them to Sage who LOVES them, and eating some ourselves. All of a sudden, I noticed a small little tree frog on our raspberry bush. One would have thought that the sky opened up and rained candy- the kids were SO excited! So, we got the poor little tree frog in a bucket and brought it up by the house. Emma declared that it's name was Suzie and instantly started putting dirt, plants, dead bugs in the bucket for little Suzie. Evan, one to always copy his big sister, started to do the same thing. However, he wasn't nearly as careful as the girl and I was scared many times that he was going to smother poor Suzie. Yes, she did try to escape a few times, but whenever Suzie would slowly make the trek up the sides of the bucket, Evan would go all dragon on her and let out a big "ROAR" to scare her back down. (Well, that was the intent. It didn't work, but I got a good laugh out of it.) Emma, eventually, got the nerve to pick her up and then, would not put her down. "Mama! I picked her up! I cannot believe this is the first time I picked one up!" Finally, it was all done when Emma wanted to see if Suzie could swim. Alas, she could not. We saved her before she drowned and then we sent her back home. Emma exclaimed "Ah Mom, she will be happy now with her family again." I am not so sure that Suzie found her family again, but I am sure the poor frog was happy to be away from the crazy kids.


Yesterday, it was a soccer match between the Heuer Hurricanes and the Kellogg Cougars (yeah, they did change their name. Last year, if you remember, it was the Kellogg Sparkles; which, I think had a better ring to it than the Kellogg Cougars, but whatever.) The game always starts out with the proper stretching and then some laps around the trees. Then, the game started... and ended about 5 minutes later. My Emma is a bit more aggressive than the neighbor girls and they did not care for the competition. She did try to steal the ball from them and they were not happy about that. They went home soon after that. I must say though, Emma does okay for a 4 year old. She has to be reminded not to use her hands at times, but she does kick and follow the ball okay. Evan was in on the action also and had fun playing "soyker". He had his own ball and would kick it up and down the yard. He loved it!

Here are some pics:










Emma running along the field. Yes, those are potted trees that are serving as goals. We are really not that advanced yet in our game.





Evan saying cheese! I get out the camera now and he automatically says cheese.

The kids are happy because they scored a goal:

Emma is tired from all the exercise.


The kids together and I have to mention that Emma is wearing her new favorite outfit: her workout clothes. I have some that match closely (no, mine do not say Love Cheer on them) and when I workout, she has to put her workout clothes on as well so we match. The kids now like to run with me, even Evan exclaims "Run! Run!" when we are in the yard.

And Evan in his favorite jammies - his ball jammies. His old ball jammies were getting too snug, so I bought him a new pair. This was taken last night and he was totally distraught because I did not get him his bedtime snack right away when he wanted it. Funny story.... last night the kids had chocolate gold fish crackers and milk for snack. Emma gobbled hers up quickly and started whining because she did not have any left.

She asks Evan: "Evan, can I have some of your goldfish crackers, PLEASE?"

Evan, smiles slyly, squints his eyes and looks over at her, "Nope!"

Emma: "Come on Evan! You have a lot left and I am hungry!"

He, with the same sly expression on his face: "Nope. Mine"

She, exasperated, looks at me "MOM! Evan is NOT sharing!" So, I explain that she does not always share her things with him and that he doesn't have to share his snack with her. Emma tries one more time. "Please, Evan?!"

He, once again with the cat that got the canary expression, smiles and says, "Nope!"

Priceless... it really was. I wish I could capture the inflection in his voice because it was so funny to watch. In the end, I did give Emma a few more crackers and she did share them with her brother.

The many hats we wear

So, I went to my Women's Leadership Conference last week and it was awesome! Not so awesome for Tim since he was playing single Dad for the most part with the drop off & pick up with daycare, supper, dishes, bath, bedtime duties all being done by him. I have to admit that it was hard to be away from them for the week, as I got home late some nights, but it was worth it! Part of the session was talking about the many hats that women wear and I was just thinking about that tonight as I am trying to be story-teller and keep up the blog for the kid's sake, student while studying Marketing so I can test out of that general, housekeeper as I sit around and look at my cluttered house, wife as I wish I could spend more quality time with Tim, Mother as Emma just fell asleep and Evan sometimes cries for his Nuk, Co-worker, daugher, friend, etc, etc, etc... I think we all average 10 - 14 hats that we wear at times. Sounds exhausting doesn't it?! The good thing is that I gained a lot of perspective from the conference and found it a very valuable use of my time. I learned to have no regrets, let go of my guilt, and enjoy all that comes at me. Hell, I am going to take over the world! Haha!

So, after a week of not being around a lot, I was really looking forward to spending the weekend at the cabin. We had beautiful weather and swam a lot, spent time with family, ate yummy food, and just relaxed. Emma continued to make large strides swimming in the water, Evan really enjoyed his "ishing" and Tim and I relaxed. We did go deep swimming again so both kids could swim under the pontoon tunnel and Emma and I swam from the red ball buoy to the family cabin. I even did that without a life jacket as I hope to overcome my fear of swimming in a lake without a flotation device :-) I have to do it for my kids' sake, right?

Emma had her kindergarten screening today and did awesome. She told me all about it as Tim and her had a special Dad & Daughter morning. First, they went to McDonald's for pancakes and she proudly told me that she ate her pancake without sryup because she doesn't like it. Then, the testing. She did awesome and passed with flying colors, but honestly, I wasn't overly worried about that. She had a little trouble hopping on one leg, but other than that, no learning concerns. She did have an eye test and was found to have 20/30 vision. The nurses said not to worry about that, as she is young and her eyes are still developing. However, I may do a follow up visit with our eye doctor and have her checked out also. She was so proud of herself and promptly came home to do homework and get ready for school. I have been trying to do homework some nights also, so I think she feels it is cool when her and I do our homework together. This was her synopsis of the day:

"First, Daddy and I went to McDonald's because we had a special morning without Evan. Then I went to school testing and I had to be really quiet and couldn't talk while looking at cards. I got to build blocks too. Then, we went to another building and I got to listen for birds that got louder and softer. Then, I went to another building and I played. It was fun." Tim told me that Emma made a pretty big deal about it with Evan also that HE still had to go to Theresa's and SHE was getting school tested. She is 40# and 41 inches and normal, so that is good!

Evan is good too - or awesome as I was saying tonight and "offome" in Evan speak. He would get right up in my face, tilt his head and say "OFFOME!" He has been turning more into a little boy as of late. Growling and roaring a lot, using a deep "scary" voice when talking and just being a little terror. He was pretending his dresser in his bedroom was a rock climbing wall tonight and decided to climb up it. We are getting ready for Evan's 2nd birthday party, which I am sure will be a Lightning McQueen party theme. He loves the little cars and always has to be carrying 1 in each hand at all times. Of course, Emma has taken more interest in Cars lately too, so he and Emma are constantly fighting over the cars.

Here are a few pics tonight of the action:

Outside with the sweetcorn. We had BLT's and sweetcorn for supper. A nice summer meal!

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And a common picture in our household now, the kids being attacked by the dog. Sage is pretty good at taking advantage of the kids when they fall over or play. He likes to jump on them and "attack".

Emma was helping out as well and telling me all about her day.

The Dog - much loved by the family, but cause of much frustration. I cannot wait for the puppy stage to be over.

And a picture from about 2 weeks ago. Evan was helping me in the kitchen. He has really enjoyed being a kitchen helper lately and always asks for a chair so he can stand up by me.

Now, to take off the narrator hat, but away the Marketing books, make my breakfast/lunch for tomorrow and head to bed! 5:15 comes around too damn early :-)

A medium shower

The past two days were a meteor shower... leonids? ... peonids? something like that. So, we decided to invite the Kellogg's over for a barbecue and a late night watching the meteor shower. And yes, a late night for our kids is like 9pm. However, I was excited about it. My Mom and I stayed up late one night to watch a meteor shower and it was so neat! Some of the stars would be so bright they would light up the entire sky and their path (tail??) would show for a few seconds after they were gone. So cool!. I had hopes of seeing a few, even with it being early. So, after a supper of bbq chicken, creamed potatoes and green beans, and watermelon, we headed outside for smores and some stars. The kids were so excited for the smores and the "medium shower" as Emma put it and were running around having a happy ole' time. I bought the BIG marshmallows, so that added to some of the excitement also. After a few smores each, running around, screaming a bit, the sky got somewhat dark so we could see a star. Emma had to make a wish on it and Kyra exclaimed "Wow, I have never seen the first star before!" Then... we waited and stared at the sky. We waited some more and listened to the kids getting increasing goofy as they got tired. Then we all went in to the house to change into pants and shoes (to avoid the bugs) and went back out. Nothing... not one shooting star did we see. I was pretty disappointed, but really, we were outside until maybe 9:30. Evan didn't really get into the whole star thing like everyone else. He really liked the moon and the smores. "Roast!" he would exclaim as he tried to put "Marsh" on the poles to roast a marshmallow. Here are some pics:

Here he is concentrating intensely on putting the "Marsh" on the stick.

Actually roasting the marshmallow. And yes, those are snow boots he is wearing. He loves wearing boots. Even in the hot days of summer you can normally see him wearing rain boots or snow boots.


Emma getting in on the smores action.

A family pic:

Otherwise all is good here. We are around this weekend and enjoying seeing friends, having barbecues and just being home. Here is Evan trying to help out and get his shirt on all by himself. He was getting pretty frustrated by this point and wasn't very happy with me that I went to get the camera first instead of helping him out. He would prefer to be clothesless if we let him. It is not uncommon for people to come over and he is either without a shirt or shorts. (always a diaper though, we just cannot trust that kid without a diaper)

And then, on Friday, it was our clean-up day. I decluttered the mess from the week and Emma had to put her clothes away and clean her room. I love the way she cleans lately. I had her pick up our living room the other day and she stacked all the pillows by each other on the couch, laid 3 blankets on top of each other and then used them to cover a shelf and then stacked all the little people buildings along one wall. I would love to be inside her head when she is decided how to put things away. Here are some pics of her room and the good job she did. She is so proud of herself when she is done and I like it that she has started to help out a bit.

All of her Barbies in the party corner:

And here is the top of her dresser (my favorite part). I love how she stacked her polly pocket box on top of her jewelry box and three figurines on top of that. Then, (on the left) she has all of her bracelets lined up on the top. Anyway, not that exciting, but cute I thought.

Some kid-isms:

Emma:
We were reading one of her favorite muppet stories before bedtime one day and it was the "I go to Preschool" book where Kermit goes to preschool. There is a section of the story where Kermit and Miss Piggy sit on a mat for quiet time and listen to stories. Emma looks at me and says, "Wow Mom, that would be really hard being quiet for so long. I don't think I could do it because I like to talk too much." And yes, whenever I am reading stories, she is constantly interrupting me to ask questions.

Evan:

We are still trying to wean him from his pacifiers or Nuk-ers as we call them. Many times, we keep his Nuk's in a little box on top of his dresser and we take them away when he wakes up and give them to him before bed or nap. Well, he LOVES that little box and can be found many times trying to climb up to that little box to steal a Nuk. Well, we had Nuk's in our kitchen one day and before nap, I was helping him climb up the stairs with the two Nuk's in my hand. He stops on one stair, looks at me and demands "Mama, NUK!" I laugh and say, "No, Evan, not until you are in your bed." He looks at me again and instantly his eyes fill up with tears and he loudly proclaims "NUK!" So, being the horrible, I-can't-stand-the-tears-so-here-is-your-Nuk- Mother that I am (especially because we were heading up to his bed anyway) I hand him a Nuk. He instantly pops it into his mouth and proclaims again and holds out his little hand "Nuk - two." Yup, he wanted to me to give him the other Nuk so he could have two. And yes, I gave into him again. . . but come-on! Have you seen how cute he is?

Otherwise, I think that is it for now. Have a great Sunday!