Cousins

This was a weekend of cousins. Friday night my cousin's daughter spent the night with us. They are expecting a new baby, but he didn't come yet. Brenna was already in bed with Owen when they called to say, "false alarm," so Owen had his first overnight! Brenna was originally going to sleep on the top bunk, but then they decided they wanted to sleep together in Owen's bed. Brenna fell asleep within five minutes. Owen was up for hours and finally sneaked up to the top bunk!

Saturday morning Owen went with Grandma Connie to see Peter Pan at the Children's Theater. They had front row center seats! I guess Owen sat perfectly still and didn't say a peep the whole show, but has been sword fighting ever since, even though the majority of the duel scenes were pillow fights or shadow puppets in the play.

Evan stayed home and played with Brenna. They had a delicious picnic in the tent.

Saturday night, Jim and I went to see James at The Fine Line with Jim's sister, cousin, cousin's husband, a bunch of his crazy British friends, and an extremely tall former Irish boxer. The show was great on it's own. Adding the enthusiasm (to put it mildly) of the Britts, we had a blast! The boys spent the night with their Grandparents and we stayed out until bar time!
Today we all headed down to St. Peter, MN to Jim's brother's house. They have a wonderful house with acres of woods. We spent the afternoon looking for frogs, grasshoppers, and cicadas...
hiking...















and fire watching.
We cooked our dinner on the campfire and then roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The kids ate on a picnic blanket, which was also used for pretend napping.
Jim, Tom, & I were outside cleaning up and we peaked in Ellie's window to find them all reading. First Ellie read a story to Owen, then to both of them, and then they all read books *near each other.
After stories, they tore up Ellie's room pretty bad. Then they ensued a fierce game of chase which included bed jumping. It was getting pretty late, so we had to lay down the law and settle them down with, what else?... more books.

We had such a wonderful weekend with our family. We love them all so much. Thank you to Tom and Jen for hosting a joyous afternoon. And many wishes to Tracy that that baby will come soon and her discomfort will end.



*My mommy friends and I often comment on how kids play near each other instead of with each other.

A Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese

Owen and Evan's friend Delaney turned 3 today!
(Save your ears from my torturous voice & put the computer on mute)
Dela is usually the lone girl in a Mommy's Group full of little boys and every single one of those little boys LOVES her. She's adorable. She and her mom invited us to celebrate her big day at Chuck E Cheese.
Owen and Evan had a blast on the rides. Here's Owen riding the Kiddie Coaster with Sofia who is about Evan's age. Isn't she a cutie?
And here's Kylie (Connor's sister) taking Evan for the ride of his life in a Monster Truck. See how he's grabbing for the "Oh Shit!" handle? The funniest thing is that Kylie is the most dainty little thing you've ever seen.
That called for a quick cupcake break. Owen shoved the whole thing in his mouth and Evan just licked off the frosting.
Things got a little crazy towards the end. Moms lost track of toddlers. Some were crawling up the ski-ball ramps and mine decided to crawl into this cage. I was watching Owen play basketball, when Evan started walking down the aisle. I looked over and saw him talking to this little gnome. "Well, that's normal for him," I thought to myself. Then I looked closer and thought that he had climbed up on a ramp. When I got walked over there, I realized that he had crawled under a four inch gap the allows you to kick the soccer ball into the goal and was now stuck in this cage chatting with the gnome-like goalie. Guess they had some strategizing to do. Luckily he's old enough that we were able to talk him back out quickly. I am now that mom, who doesn't watch her kid and he gets stuck in strange places.

Quiet Observer

Owen's class started outside today. When I left, I turned back and saw him across the yard in his rain jacket, just watching the other kids. I asked his teacher if he always does that. She said he does and that it's totally developmentally appropriate. As I've mentioned before, he has always been on the tentative side and is a bit of a quiet observer.

I volunteered in Owen's classroom this afternoon. I came in after their outside time. They had taken a hike up to the farm today to get their classroom pet. They came back with a chicken yet to be named. The little girl in the front wants to name it Cookie, but apparently she wants everything to be named Cookie. The teacher suggested Donna after the farmer that gave it to them, Don.
(See the quiet observer taking a peek?)

While they fixed up Donna Cookie Chickens cage, the kids were suppose to sit on the rug and read. Of course Owen was all over this task. He could read books for hours if you let him and sometimes we do. His friend Silas, however, didn't really seem into it, so I tried to engage him in a book to keep him occupied. Suddenly, I had about 8 kids surrounding me listening to the book. I was absolutely giddy at the joy and intrigue these kids had about books and stories. They are like sponges just waiting to absorb whatever comes through their path next.
After Donna Cookie got in her cage, books were picked up, hands were washed and it was time for snack. At Dodge, they eat snack family style. One teacher at each table with 6 kids, some homemade cloth napkins, a pitcher of water, cups, and snack. Today it was graham crackers and honeydew. One girl asked if they could have honey again. Most teachers would say, "No, this is what we're having." They have enough to take care of, but not here. The teacher went looking for Dodge homemade honey and sure enough there were several big jars in the cupboard.
After snack, I started my activity, which was an idea I got from a friend in my Stay at Home Moms group. It's a hand print tree with fingerprint fall colored leaves. The program is set up that during playtime, kids are free to explore whatever areas of the room they want. Most of the kids were really excited to come to the table and have their hands painted. Owen had done a sample with me a couple nights before and decided to play in the fort the whole time, but the quiet observer often watched from his pirate ship through his paper towel spyglass.
The kids liked it so much, that there was a waiting line. Some of the kids made trees with leaves, others used a paintbrush, and some just made a massive finger painted mess all over the paper. It was really fun to be back in the teacher role again doing the fun stuff without all the other responsibilities and headaches.
Clean up was fast today and there was some time to kill at the end of class, so everyone gathered on the rug for some yoga. Tuesday they read, My Father is a Pretzel and when Owen came home he kept showing us his new rad moves. I think yoga reminded him of the inside cover of the book Zen Ties where the Giant Panda and his nephew do Tai Chi.

Anyway, Owen stood in the back of the class and when Kara asked if anyone had a move, he raised his hand. I don't know how he picked that up already. Nobody else raised their hand. They just shouted out what they wanted like typical 3 and 4 year olds, so he tried to just show the move he wanted. He stood hobbling on one leg with his opposite arm in the air for as long as he could. Finally, the teacher called out his name and asked if he wanted to show a move. He picked what is apparently called The Stork. It was a really nice way to end the class.

Cutting Trail

Jim is making a trail down our "prairie" backyard hill to the walnut tree where we hope to make a hiatus from the city life including a tire swing. The boys love hiking down there. It's especially neat for them this time of year because the prairie plants are about 7 ft. tall! It's pretty fun for adults, too.

Owen really likes to help out with the hard work. He fills his wheelbarrow with mulch, just like Daddy, and steers it down the long and winding path to the bottom and dumps it. He feels really proud about all the help he's giving us.

Upon the second round of filling the wheelbarrows, the boys got detoured by other very important work. Evan had to mow the lawn, although he is saying, "I want choo-choo train." (I think one may have whistled in the distance.) And Owen had some serious boating to do in the mulch pile.

"What!?! I'm on my break!"

Roadtrip to Osseo

We took a day trip down to Sconi this weekend to visit my Grandparents. On the way, Owen did the "toot, toot" sign to a semi truck and it honked! I only told him once in passing how to do this, so I was totally shocked. I thought I did something wrong until I turned around and saw Owen grinning like a fool!


When we got there, Great Grandma had pie and cookies for our sweet tooths. Evan played one of his favorite games: Who dat? This is one of those games that it doesn't matter what your say, the answer is "No."

Then Great Grandma ogled us with her Norwegian versions of "This Little Piggy." This trick use to put Owen in stitches, especially when she would say Gubbelesten den Store! Here's my best guess as to the words because no matter how many times I've had her do this, I was an English teacher and need to read something to really get it. If anyone knows if this is right or not, PLEASE indulge me.

FINGERS:
Tommeltott,
Slikkepott,
Langemann,
Gullebrand,
og Lille Petter Spillemann

TOES:
Titil,
Tåtil,
Tilarus,
Megelfru,
og Gubbelesten den Store

When playing the toe game, hiding in the closet and undressing the Barbies lost it's fun, we headed across the street to the saddest park in the world. It consists of two bars for cherry drops, a treacherous looking climbing thingy, two swings with wobbly seats, and this wagon. We decided to head out West. Owen enjoyed crawling under this contraption and pretending that he was in the basement seeking protection from a tornado.... Yep.
Of course, that lost it's glamor, too, and soon it was time to wrestle Daddy. That never loses it's fun.
My cousin recently bought a home in Osseo so we decided to check it out. The house is absolutely perfect, but not as perfect as the view from the backyard. Incidentally, this tire swing is their neighbor's, but it was so picturesque. I took several more equally beautiful pictures as we roamed around the yard picking milkweed pods and such.

Brock must have felt inspired because he made this tree swing. It's a lot like the one we use to swing on "down at the farm." That's a phrase that my mom, her 30 some cousins and all the lot that came after them, say when we refer to my Grandmother's family farm. Owen was not real keen on the swing.

Brenna was a bit leery of it, too. I have to think that maybe it's a bit scarier than it looks.
It was after 6 p.m. when we left and neither boy had had a nap. They slept the whole way home, that kind of deep, sweaty sleep that happens after a really fun day.

Bees, Butterflies & Buddies

Owen had an amazing day at preschool today. When I dropped him off, all the kids were sitting around the campfire. The teachers were dividing the kids into groups to go on a hike. Owen sat down next to Eddie and one teacher said that all of her kids were there except one of the girls. Silas piped up and said, "Well, Owen's here," as if now they could leave. Eddie and Silas weren't in the same hiking group as Owen, but Owen made friends with a girl today on their hike. Of course, he doesn't know her name.

They were hiking out to the beehives. Owen said that on the way, they saw a turtle sunning itself on a rock in the pond and a baby toad. When they got to the bee houses, there was another teacher dressed in a bee keeper suit. The kids went into a screen porch. Owen said that the beekeeper teacher sprayed some stuff to make the bees sleepy because the bees were really angry. Then she used a beekeeper tool to show them the combs. He also learned that there is only one queen bee and that here job is to lay all the eggs. Needless to say, we were pretty impressed.

When they went back to the room, they had honey on graham crackers with apples. Man, I love it when teachers tie the knots on learning and facilitate the connections to real life! Of course, Owen said, "Thanks, but no thanks" (just kidding) to the apples. After snack and a story about bears and muskrats, he painted us two pictures!
(They were too wet to bring home.)
Evan had to come with to pick up Owen today because Jim is on "hell week" again. Evan and I played all over the prairie landscaping out front, followed a grasshopper across the lawn, and then watched the most beautiful monarch butterfly drink pollen from some flowers by the compost for about 10 minutes. He was so good. He asked if he could touch and when I said that he couldn't he said, "look" and "watch."
When they finally opened the doors for us to come in and pick up the kids. Evan sat right down in the empty cubby between Eddie and Silas.
(I missed the shot because I have my old camera with major delay)
They were all so excited to tell us about their day.

Fire Hydrant Fun

Today the fire hydrant was being drained at the end of our block. That is simply too much fun to ignore. We promptly pulled on our goulashes and scurried out to the new stream flowing past our house.

Both Owen and Evan wanted to touch the water gushing from the hydrant, but it surely would have whisked them away.

So we settled for stomping and splashing in the road. Luckily, the road was closed only a block down, so there was very little traffic and the cars were all moving slow. Within five minutes, both boys were soaking wet and giggling up a storm.

Jim took my good camera today, so the pictures are a little fuzzy & the video has no sound.

Blue Monster

This is what I picked up from preschool today. Apparently, it's a blue monster.

This is how it all started. Even his lips were blue, so he must have washed up and started over at some point. Owen is not really into the artsy craftsy stuff, much to my dismay, but who wouldn't smear cray-pas all over their face if it was socially exceptible?

Owen also played with his new friend, Silas, again today. They went fishing for frogs and goldfish at the wet station and made a painting together. Crafty Activity Number 2! And he made a painting with a new friend named Eddie.

When I walked in to get him, he and Eddie were sitting side by side in their cubbies looking only slightly lost. Eddie was so cute and they were smiling a mile a minute at each other. You know I wanted to take a picture when they were nose to nose with those big foolish grins, but I didn't know what Eddie's dad would think about that. Eddie's big sister came running in yelling, "Eddie!" He yelled, "Evie!" and the moment was over. I saw a wave of sadness come over Owen's face and I wondered if it was that his friend was leaving or that his brother wasn't there to greet him, too.

Owen is LOVING preschool. He didn't sleep well again last night. I'm going to have to start slipping him turkey on school nights to hopefully aid in his insomnia.

What's the most fun thing at the Zoo?

We went to Como today with our friends the Barclays. It was Free Carousel Day. Do you think that was the most fun thing at the zoo? Judging from the looks on their faces, I would say no, although Owen and Evan both said it was fun - with completely stoic faces.

What was the most fun thing at the zoo today?

Was it staring at the new BIG lilly pads outside the entrance? That was about 15 minutes of fun at the beginning and end of our stay.

Oooh, Oooh, I know! Watching the cranes working on the Polar Bears' new home?
Neat, but not the most fun.

How about these puddles? These puddles are cool to touch and stomp in. I think this one is a winner for Kylie.
The Primate House was neat, but not as cool as climbing on the statue outside.

After we left the zoo, we practiced rolling down the hillside for about 20 minutes. It was pretty fun, but our friends weren't with us. Hmmm. It seems that everything that was fun today at the zoo had nothing to do with the animals.

I think the most fun thing at the zoo today was being with our friends.

Can Ellie come over, PLEEEEEASE????

Cousin Ellie was spending a few hours at Grandma Connie's this weekend and we were lucky enough to get to share her for lunch. She and Grandma made chocolate cupcakes for dessert. After we all had one, she asked me, "Erinn, how many are you going to have?" Luckily Grandma was WAY ahead of her and only brought one for each of us.

After lunch we had just enough time to play dress up. This is Dr. Ellinore, reporting for duty.








"Don't worry, Uncle Jim, it's just a little shot. It won't hurt a bit."

Dr. Letts & Dr. Letts work on Dr. Letts.

Owen says, "Let's see what in here."










And Evan decides, "I better giddy on out of here before they decide to use that on me!"

What do boys do when...

What do boys do when you are busy with household projects?

For Valentine's Day this past winter, Jim gave me a print out of tile shops from the internet and told me I could have the back splash of my dreams. We finally got around to buying some tile in August and this week our neighbor installed it for us. We LOVE it!

But what do boys do when you get busy around the house with projects? Answer: they get busy themselves. This is Dr. Poquito Tito and Dr. Don Diego.
Jim also started a winding trail down our backyard "prairie" this week. Evan was right there helping.


Then I decided to clean all the windows. They made forts in every room I cleaned and ended up in this treetop bed.
















Jim's parents came back from their cabin this week with a little surprise: Oreo, or as Evan calls her, "Oweo." The boys had a blast playing with her at our house and then again over at Connie and Neil's when they slept over with Grandma the other night. Guess who all slept in the bed? Owen, Evan, Grandma and Oreo!
*Don't worry. Neil was in New York City with Jim's brother and sister.