Micah's sleep-over

I forgot my camera! Arrgh! I realized this when I was in the car on the way to pick up Micah from a sleepover at his great-grandma's house. So I have no pictures to post, just stories to tell. Micah got to have a very special sleepover at great-grandma's (Mugs) house last night. Just for the fun of it! Mugs wanted to have him stay over and she had all sorts of fun activities for them to do. She bought Micah his very own tennis racket and new tennis balls and they got to play tennis last night and again this morning. Micah told me on the phone last night, "You know mom, I'm a pretty good tennis player." I watched him play this morning and he did a great job hitting the ball. And he had fun. They also watched a kids' football game last night and got to play at the park. As they were headed back inside they saw a snapping turtle, which Micah was very excited about. I was also told that "the water sparkled like jewels" referring to the creek that runs by the park at Mugs. This morning Micah got to have donuts, sausage, and a juice box for breakfast. They played hide-the-button (just what it sounds like, a game that AJ used to play with Mugs when he was a kid). They played tennis some more and when Ellie and I got there we played at the park for a while. Micah also got his choice of lunch and chose to pick up McDonald's and eat it back at Mugs' house. Then we headed home and he took a long nap! It was fun for AJ and I to see how much fun he had and to see that he was ready to go with no hesitation. Just a wave and a "see you later". He's growing up so fast!

Preschool

So we have done a few things since going to the state fair. Obviously I have not been very good at updating this blog. We are busy preparing for baby #3 scheduled to arrive two weeks from tomorrow. At times I am wondering about the wisdom of having 3 children, but as AJ reminds me, it's too late to turn back now. We are slowly getting things ready...it seems that with baby #1 everything is ready and waiting months in advance, and with #3 we aren't quite as worried about having things all set to go. I have washed baby clothes and bottles and have the car seat ready (not in the car yet!). Believe it or not, we are still trying to figure out a name for this baby. We have a short list for both boys and girls names, but have not settled on anything just yet. We really want to have our minds made up before the time comes, otherwise I'm the type to settle for something just to have it done with. We've got two weeks, right? We are not quite out of time, just down to the wire!
Anyway, as you can tell from the title of this post, this is supposed to be about Micah's first day of preschool. He started his second year at Crossroads Preschool today and was ready to go. He has a new teacher, Mrs. Suderman, and the same assistant teacher as last year, Miss Ortmann. One of his best friends, Amara, is in his class this year and he is VERY excited about that. Hopefully they will find a good mix of playing together and also making new friends. He has school Tues and Thurs mornings, which should work out well since I have MOPS on Thurs mornings 3 times each month. We are looking forward to the year ahead and all of the fun things he will learn! Here are some pics from the morning.

The MN State Fair

It's the end of summer and that means it is time for the State Fair. That is big news around our house and we really love heading out to the fair for a day and enjoying the sights, sounds, and mostly, the tastes! It worked out this year for us to go on opening day. The weather was great, although a little on the hot side, and the crowds weren't too bad. We were quite surprised to pull up to the park and ride at about 8:45am and see a very long line of people waiting for the free bus to the fair. We waited about 20 minutes until we were able to get on a bus (at least they had several running back and forth) and made it to the fairgrounds by about 9:30am. We started off at the Little Farm Hands exhibit where Micah was able to be a farmer for a short while. He milked the cows, fed the chickens, planted & harvested carrots, rode the tractor, and sold his goods at the market. With his proceeds he was able to buy a snack-size box of Golden Grahams. It is a fun exhibit to see the farming process from start to finish.
I can't tell you our exact route from there, but we explored several of the buildings and exhibits, saw a baby pig being born at the Miracle of Birth Center, rode the giant slide twice, found the bees, watched the end of the parade, saw fish, turtles, & snakes, watched robots, and ate several times. It was Thrifty Thursday so there were some deals going on and we had a state fair coupon book. Both helped us keep our costs down for the day. Plus Micah has been saving ALL YEAR for the state fair and he covered the costs for the giant slide rides. Seriously, every time he found a penny or was given any money, he would put it into his "state fair fund". It was a good lesson in saving and we hope to expand it to other areas.
All in all, it was a great day. We were at the fair for 5 1/2 hrs, which is longer than we thought any of us would last. But the kids were great and had lots of fun. It will have to last us until next year!

Swimming!

We have loved the last couple of weeks and the warm weather that we have had. The kids and I have spent lots and lots of time at the Crystal Pool and both the kids are getting to be quite the water lovers. Micah recently finished two weeks of swimming lessons. It was his first year and he was in Level 1. I was a little worried that 10 days of lessons would get to be too much for him and that he would get bored, but he LOVED every minute of it. His teacher was fabulous and she kept the kids having so much fun. They did have a lesson and a half of bad weather, so they learned about water safety in the locker rooms. Micah did pass to Level 2 and he is convinced that he can swim in the kiddie pool (for about 3 seconds). He has become much more brave in the water and spends a lot of time with his head underneath the water. Unfortunately, he has a brave little sister who likes to do everything big brother does. At the beginning of the summer she would sit contentedly next to me at the edge of the pool and play. Now she is off and running and will keep walking until water is coming in her mouth.
Here is a video clip of Micah going off the diving board.

MICAH'S FIRST TWINS GAME

Micah was really excited to go to his first Minnesota Twins game...needless to say Dad was pretty excited too. Here is a picture of Micah outside the dome.


The first thing he asked for was a hot dog and popcorn. So we each got a hot dog and Micah got a bag of popcorn that he almost finished all by himself. Here is Micah enjoying his first ball park hot dog.


And here he is watching the game and eating some popcorn and more popcorn and more popcorn and more, well you get the idea.



Here we are on our way back to the car. He was tired and wanted me to give him a ride on my shoulders the entire walk back to the car (3/4 of a mile while it was 87 degrees and humid) but he was happy!
When a pitcher goes 6 innings in baseball they call it a quality start. I was shocked that we made it to the 6th inning but Micah made his first quality start and we left at the top of the 7th.

Free, free, free!

So we love free stuff at our house. AJ, the kids, and I ran some errands this morning and realized on the way home that we had not spent a penny on our outing (except, of course, gas money which adds up fast nowadays!). Our first stop was at the Twins Pro Shop to purchase tickets for AJ and Micah to go the Twins game on Sunday. We had coupons for 2 free tickets from a previous meal-deal at Applebee's, so our out-of-pocket cost for the tickets was a whopping $0.
Next we went to Northwestern Bookstore where the kids are a part of the Summer Reading Program. They each were able to pick out several prizes from the prize bucket for the books that we have read so far this summer. They were very excited about their new trinkets. We looked around at NW Bookstore for a while, but again our total cost was $0.
Our final stop was at the Verizon store. AJ had some phone questions and a coupon for a free car charger for his phone. Again, no cost to us! Now some would say that it was a little silly, but we really got a kick out of our FREE outing. Anyway, I'm not sure if or when that will happen again, but it was fun.
And one more free thing to throw in there for good measure...we won 4 free tickets to Charlotte's Web at the Old Log Theater for tomorrow morning. AJ and I will take Micah and his friend Amara to see the show while Ellie stays home with great-grandma (a FREE baby-sitter).
OK, enough already.

Signs of summer...

Here are some signs of summer...

Corn on the cob...or corn on the cobcakes, as the case may be. I saw this idea in a Family Fun mag and thought it was so cute, so I gave it a shot. It's cupcakes with white frosting and jelly beans. You can actually melt and shape a yellow starburst to look like a pat of butter on top, but I didn't have any starbursts. Micah liked this way better than the real corn on the cob!

A summer garden update-we have red, edible raspberries! Micah got one yesterday and we picked 3 more today. The bushes have lots of berries on them, so if nothing else eats them first we should get a handful a day or so. Yea!
Micah, Ellie and the neighbor girls waiting for AJ to put on the big fireworks show. We bought just a few "legal in MN" fireworks and lit them off before bedtime tonight. Good thing the kids know nothing of what real fireworks are like or this just wouldn't cut it. However, they loved what we had and thought the sparkles and popping were great.

The B-I-B-L-E

The most requested bedtime song is The B-i-b-l-e. Usually we sing one time through just the regular version, then the 2nd time through we sing the song as quiet as possible and yell Bible! at the end as loud as possible. Here are the kiddos singing for us:

Ready for the pool...

Here's Ellie, all ready for a swim. She loves to get all her accessories together and show them off. Earlier today she insisted on bringing her purse with her to the corner grocery store. She slings it up onto her shoulder and away she goes. Several people at the store commented on her pretty purse and she gave them big smiles. She is developing quite the personality (with a bit of the terrible two's coming on!).

PTL Moments

So we have had a few remarkable "Praise the Lord" moments in the past couple of days. First, after much searching, I found my cell phone....in a jacket pocket that had just gone through the wash. AJ was very optimistic about it and sure enough, after letting it dry out overnight it still works! Praise the Lord that we didn't have to get a new one.
Secondly, Ellie took a tumble out of her crib yesterday at nap time. She was standing at the side of her crib crying and flipped right over the side. Praise the Lord she walked away with just a small bruise on her head. We moved the crib mattress down to the bottom, so it shouldn't happen again.
And finally, Micah also fell out of his bed last night. We took his safety railing off last week and he has done great, but last night at about 10:30 we heard a crash. He had rolled off, yet hardly woke up and didn't even remember it this morning. He has a captain's bed, so it is a little higher than the standard kid's bed. Praise the Lord for a soft landing and a sound sleeper! God is good!

3rd Annual Cousins Week

The 3rd annual cousins week has officially come and gone. The kids and I spent last week in Bismarck, ND with grandma, grandpa, aunts and cousins. On Father's Day, my sister from WI and her two kids swung through Mpls and we all rode together to Bismarck. We had a great week with fabulous weather and only one trip to the ER. Not bad for having 8 kids ages 16mths to 9yrs together (including 3 4-yr-old boys!). We went to a few different parks, played in the pool and sprinklers, made pine cone bird feeders, painted t-shirts, ate lots of snacks (thanks grandma!), made lots of messes, stayed up late watching movies and eating popcorn, made new friends, spent time on the farm, bottle-fed the calf, rode the 4-wheeler, sat in the tractor, and had lots and lots of fun. The kids really had a great week and enjoyed the change of routine. We were all pretty beat by the time we got home and it's been good to settle back into our home, beds, and routines. And of course it's been great to be back with dad again. The kids spent the first few hours we were at home wrestling with him and chasing him around the house. It was fun to watch. Here are some pics of the week.

What our kids do for fun...

Over the long holiday weekend the kids have been having fun playing outside with friends and in their new sandbox. But here are a couple of pictures of what happens when they have to much time on their hands or it is raining outside.

Here is a picture of a Boy and his dog



and here is a picture of a Cute little girl who just turned 19 months old




and here is the aftermath when they come together.









Each morning the kids have room time. Some times we let them go in the same room and play because they have so much fun together. This morning they were having their room time and it was very quiet. All of the sudden Amy says "Oh no, I can smell it out here!" When she opened the door to Ellie's room it was all hazy from the baby powder that had been dumped out. This is one of those moments where you want to teach your kids a lesson about how we don't make messes... but it is rather hard to do effectively when you cannot stop laughing.

Lazarus

This week during our family devotional time we read the story about Lazarus and then we acted it out. The kids loved it and I think really understood the story by making it interactive. Here are pics of AJ and Micah playing the role of Lazarus.

Micah's prayer

Here is Micah's new mealtime prayer. He learned it at preschool this year and says it almost every time we eat. It's pretty precious. We try to make him change up his prayer every now and then so he doesn't get into just a pattern of saying the same thing over and over as his prayer.

Garden?

OK, let the games begin. I'm taking bets on whether or not I will actually get any produce from the garden I just planted today. I have more of a brown thumb than a green one, but I really like the idea of having a garden. It's kind of a running joke that I'm really just planting it for the rabbits. The transplanted rhubarb from last year came back (yea!) and the transplanted raspberries from two years ago are doing alright. It's the rest of the veggies that are quite iffy. I planted zucchini squash, pumpkins, carrots, peas, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley and some sunflowers just for fun. I also planted onions around the edge of the garden. I read online (so it must be true) that rabbits don't like the smell of onions and so they won't cross over them to get to the other veggies. Any and all prayer is much appreciated!

Daddy's shoes

One of Ellie's favorite games is to try on EVERYONE'S shoes. Yesterday I cleaned up shoes about 4 times. Here are some pics of her in daddy's shoes. And a pic of AJ and Micah that I thought was cute!

Trip to Como Zoo

Praise the Lord for beautiful mornings at the zoo! Micah's preschool had a field trip to Como Zoo this week and AJ, Ellie, and I met the bus there and tagged along. It was such a nice, sunny morning and it was a fun time. Micah loved it all, from the bus ride (through the tunnel!) to all the animals and then the flowers and gardens. In hindsight we should have packed a picnic lunch and stayed longer, but we enjoyed the short time that we were there. Ellie rode along great in the stroller and didn't really get to see too many animals...we were moving too fast and there were too many kids in front of her! She didn't seem to mind. Micah told us that his favorite part was watching the monkeys. They are always quite entertaining. For AJ and I , the funniest part of the day was how Micah wouldn't leave one of his little friend's mom. She was an official chaperon for the trip, and he would not let go of her hand. She had her own son on one side and Micah on the other all morning. AJ kept asking him if he wanted to hang out with us, but he would just shake his head and stick with her. It was so funny! We were just glad that he was enjoying the time at the zoo. The kids were exhausted and took great naps when we got home. We plan to go back in July with our group from church.

Ellie at 18mths

Elliana has turned 18mths old and she is going on about 4! She is into everything and tries to do everything that big brother does. Her favorite new trick right now is climbing up into chairs. We often find her at the kitchen table drinking out of someone's glass or at the computer trying to type. Also, she loves the phone. The play phones don't quite cut it anymore and she is always after my cell phone or the cordless phone. We are going to end up paying for a phone call to China one of these days.
She recently got over a week long episode of being sick with some sort of nasty bug. It was a week of many baths and many loads of laundry. Fortunately she has recovered quite well.
Here are her stats from her 18mth doctor appt: Height 32.5in (75%) and weight 24lb 11oz (60%). She had only gained 4oz since her 1yr visit, but no one seemed concerned about it.
She's a bit of a picky eater, although she is a great snacker! She eats a lot of fruits, but no veggies. Her favorite foods are jelly sandwiches, pizza, hot dogs, yogurt, applesauce, Cheerios, goldfish, and granola bars. We keep trying new things and sometimes are surprised...the other day she downed 2 small pieces of peanut butter toast!
She is generally pretty happy, and still likes to snuggle with mom a lot. She loves to be outside and swinging is her favorite activity. She loves being in the stroller and going for walks and pushing her little scooter around. She could read all day and is continually bringing out books for us to read over and over again. She also likes to color and draw. She loves to take her shoes and socks off and then 10 minutes later ask us to put them back on.
She is a joy and we are loving every minute with her. We are starting to learn that girls definitely have a higher pitch to their scream when she starts to throw a mini-temper tantrum! She is also much more sensitive than her brother was and much more determined. Hopefully she will adjust well to the role of big sister in a few months. We love you, Ells!

Micah & Amara

One of Micah's best friend's is Amara. The two of them love to play together and are always up to something. Next year they will be in the same preschool classroom. We are already praying for whoever their teacher will be! They were in AWANA Cubbies together this past year and if Amara didn't make it to one of the meetings, then Micah said that there was no one else to play with (only 50+ other little kids there)! Here are a couple of pics of the two of them.

Leaky eyes

"My eyes are leaking." Said by Micah as he stood next to me while I cut onions.