Drew

Hard to believe I have a fourth grader in the house. I remember when we moved here he was going into first grade, and that's the grade Lars is now entering! Time sure flies and Drew has become a son that any mom would be proud of!

Maddi and Julie

Maddi wanted me to post some pics of her and Julie, her new doll she got for her birthday. She has had fun changing her clothes and having her sleep in her bed with her, even though Julie does have an actual bed of her own. One day, after Julie had been "sleeping" in her bed for 3-4 days, Maddi said, "Wow! She must be tired. She's been sleeping for days!!" Ahhhh, the mind of a 5 year old...

Storm Cloud

This is a picture of a cloud coming in from a storm we had on 8/9/2009. This was taken from my front porch. It was pretty hazy/muggy out and the cloud was moving really fast. Kinda crazy!

Kindergarten Kinks

So my big kindergarten girl gets off the bus today and is in tears; hysterics really, because she had a bad day at school. No one would play with her at recess today and she was just devastated. I tried talking to her about it and teach her that maybe she needed to introduce herself to someone and then ask if she could play with them.

No. That didn't work.

Then I tried to tell her that maybe the other kids were just playing something she didn't want to so it just SEEMED like they didn't want to play with her.

No. It wasn't that either.

Poor girl, she is convinced that they just didn't want to play with her.

I am sure things will be better tomorrow; those long days of kindergarten have a way of sneaking up on you, causing complete exhaustion and temporary meltdowns. Nothing that a cookie can't fix, right??

Vacation Colorado Style

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to our Colorado adventure we took in August. We got to enjoy a week long adventure exploring the southern *middle part* of the state and got to enjoy it with great friends as well. We got to go to the Sand Dunes National Monument, Lake City/Creede (mining towns), and ended up in Crested Butte for our mountain bike adventures. It was nice to get home, but it was so fun falling in love with yet another area of one of my favorite states!!

Time For School!

Well, the time has come...all of my kids are now officially in school. A little sad, a little excited, but WOW! I can't believe it! 4 years ago I was sending my oldest to kindergarten, so to be sending my baby is just crazy! All of my kids were excited to be starting back and Maddi was certainly proud to be able to go to the same school as her brothers.

The bus stops in front of our house so it's always a little nuts in the morning, especially since the majority of the group is of the boy variety. Skateboards and scooters everywhere, sword fights, and laps around the outside of the house...nothing better than sweaty boys to start the school day off right!

I now have no excuse to not get all my *stuff* done, but I suppose I still won't. I will, however, miss them like crazy when they are gone!

Okoboji 2009

I am posting a little out of order here as our annual Okoboji trip was before Maddi's birthday, but motivation hadn't struck me yet and the birthday posts are usually pretty easy with only a few pics to sort through.

Usually when we go to Okoboji, Jamie and I are doing some sort of race but this year we couldn't go on *race* weekend. Actually, I did run 2x while I was there so that should count for something...right?? Unfortunately, Taco House probably did more damage to my caloric intake than what I ran off, but it still sounds like I was productive.

We have had kind of a weird summer this year in that it seemed like it never wanted to get real hot. You know, that kind of it's-so-sticky-your-hair-melts-to-your-head-as-you-are-trying-to-blow-it-dry, sticky? We had that kind of weather for about one week in June and then, it was almost kind of fall like. Beautiful, but still not hot, hot, summer. My point is, that the whole weekend in Okoboji, I never got in the water once! Nope. Not once. Too darn cold for me! The kids and the dads were far more brave than I (or the rest of the *big*girls for that matter). We still had a great time and enjoyed boat rides, a trip to Arnold's Park, lunch at The Ritz (Garbage Pizza....mmmmmm), Dakota getting sprayed by a skunk (made for a GREAT car ride home), and lots of memories made with our kids. We topped it off with our annual detour to Grandma Connie's house for lunch, and then we were back on the road. All in all, a perfect weekend!

Happy Birthday Maddi

Holy cow! My baby is FIVE! So many mixed emotions come with that but I am so excited for her to start kindergarten and start experiencing some of the fun things her brothers get to. She is beside herself that she gets to go to Van Allen Elementary and ride the bus with her brothers, and the other day she gasped with delight when her big brother Drew confirmed that she could choose from white, chocolate, or strawberry milk EVERYDAY at lunch! Hey-it's the little things that are the big things, right??!!

For her birthday we were pretty low key and are considering a party after school starts so she can invite some of her new classmates. She seemed ok with that and certainly enjoyed the presents from her family. She has most recently been wanting "Julie" from the American Girl Doll collection. She has just recently shown interest in dolls but I was glad she wanted something other than a disney character barbie doll so we decided to give in. She LOVED it and even used her birthday money to buy it a bed from Target's collection of *knockoff* dolls that look almost the same. Top it off with some doll outfits, a Fancy Nancy puzzle, new clothes, and a make-your-own-lip-gloss-kit, and this was one happy birthday girl!

4th of July pics

Just a few pics of the kids before they headed out to a rainy parade! The candy was soaked but yet they still found it tasty enough to eat for 4 days :) Not really sure why Maddi is holding a balloon in every picture, but oh well-at least it's red and festive!!

Father's Day

Father's Day Breakfast in Bed Menu:

Omelet (FOUR eggs, scallions, red peppers, and hot sauce)

Hash browns cooked in lots of butter

Muffins

Bowl of Fruity Pebbles (courtesy of Lars)

Coffee

Dad of course LOVED it, and the awesome cards the kids made with all my scrapbooking supplies. Well done kiddos!!

No Lazy Days of Summer Here!

School has been out almost a month and I can't even begin to understand where the time has gone! Well, ok, that's not true--it has been filled with travel, camps, days at the pool, and baseball for all three of them. WOW! Whoever coined the phrase *Lazy Days of Summer* DEFINITELY did not have three young kids in their house!

Anyway, when I came home from work yesterday I was greeted with two big announcements from my kids. The first was from Lars. He announced that he had passed the deep water test at the pool and showed me the signature "yellow band" that they wear (see pic). He was grinning from ear to ear! In my mind he's still too little to swim in the deep end! He was so proud and he even jumped off the high dive. Way to go Lars!!

The other announcement was from Drew. Yesterday was his last day of Iowa basketball camp and at the end they always have an awards ceremony. Well, he had already won an award for Hawkeye Camp Hustler of the Day earlier in the week, and his team didn't get off to a very good start in their tournament so he assumed he would not be getting any awards on the final day. Much to his surprise, his team rallied back on the final day and ended up winning the whole tournament so he ended up getting a trophy! Drew had a blast and can't wait to go back next year!

While I don't see any lazy days ahead, we sure are having fun amongst all the chaos! Before I know it I'll be stocking up with school supplies...but not before we set out on at least a few more adventures!

Denver

Snacks and new books for airplane =$30

Airplane tickets for 4 =$1000

Hanging out with family and friends in Denver = PRICELESS!

My kids and I had the best time in Denver these past few days and even though dad didn't get to come and we didn't do any *mountain* things, we definitely enjoyed our trip! It was nonstop from the moment we touched down...

swimming pools

parks and playgrounds

watching movies with friends and family

staying up waaay past bedtime

having Uncle Alan go through his baseball cards (he literally has hundreds of thousands of cards! and over 300 signed baseballs!)

trip to the zoo--the hail storm was no extra charge :)

dinner at Casa Bonita

a ride on the light rail--which my children found comfortable enough to sleep on!

and losing a first tooth. FYI--the Tooth Fairy pays more in Colorado

Whew!

When do we get to go back???