38 & 39 Weeks

We are ready.

(Need a flashback?)

Raptor Release

Today we went to see a raptor release at Carpenter St. Croix Nature Center. We were able to see some raptors up close like this turkey vulture, a couple of bald eagles, a great horned owl and a couple of screech owls. We even voted for the name of one of their screech owls. Owen picked Coo-coo, Evan picked Cookie, I picked Ophelia, and Jim chose Spud.

We had a picnic lunch on a prairie trail and then watched the release of three different types of hawks. It was amazing to see these birds returned to nature.

Music Together Comes to our Moms Group

I organized a Meet & Greet today for the Mom's group at Lake Phalen. We have a new sponsor, KaBoom, who sent us a playdate kit. Inside it were fake tattoos, kazoos, balloons, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk! Despite Owen's owly look, it was a pretty big hit.

I also was lucky enough to get our Music Together teacher to come and do a demo class with the moms right in the park! They are trying to fill the class we normally take at the nursing home and offered it to the moms in our group for half price!

Everyone had a blast playing with the instruments and singing. I'm sure there will be lots of moms signing up for the class. I can't wait for them to meet the seniors!

A couple of our old favorites: Ram Sam Sam.

And The Ants Go Marching with egg shakers.

We met lots of great new moms, hung out with old friends, ate some delicious treats, enjoyed a beautiful fall day in the park, and shared in some good music. Does it get any better than that?

Bumpa Paints a New Mural

5 years ago, Jim's Grandma gave us a very generous amount of money to spend on something for the baby. We had already gotten our crib, rocker, and changing table, so we decided to splurge and have a local artist paint a mural in the room. We really wanted a nature theme, because, well, that's who we are. We have loved that mural and spent so many mornings learning colors, animal names, and playing "I Spy" with it.

When we found out we were having a little girl, we were pretty surprised. I looked for bedding that would somehow go with our very blue mural, but could not find anything. Finally, I asked my dad if he thought he could create a new "mural" for his 1st granddaughter. He agreed.

We had our neighbor, Jeff, paint the room for us before hand. He did it while Jim was at work. We were both sad about letting go of the mural and couldn't have painted over it ourselves. The room was so... so... pink. But then my dad came and started the sketches. I wanted cherry blossoms to match the bedding. He projected some images on the wall and used some of my Great Aunt Sarah's painting books.

My dad is a landscape artist (note the shirt) and has been drawing for work for years. Before that, he liked painting and drawing as a hobby. Now, he admitted when he was finished with this project, not so much.

But, the trees turned out beautiful and Mrs. Miyaggi will always know that her Bumpa made them for her.

He added a little bird and a small butterfly, too. Very subtle and pretty.

And, my mom recovered the red chair to match. Now we just need a rug and we're all set!

Science Museum

Months ago, Owen and Bumpa watched a show on the history channel about a missing submarine. Ever since, Bumpa has wanted to take Owen to the Titanic exhibit at the Science Museum. Saturday we finally made it.

The neatest thing about the exhibit is that each patron gets a boarding pass. At the end of the journey, you find out your fate. Everyone was a 3rd class passenger, except me. I was 1st class! 4 of us survived!

Owen's favorite part about the exhibit was the meeting Captain Smith "for the first time!" Museum staff dressed up as members of the Titanic crew and interacted with us "passengers" as we visited the exhibit. You can't take pictures in the Titanic exhibit, but we briefly visited a few other exhibits aftewards.

Recently, Owen's friend Alex lent us a toy microscope. Owen spent all last week looking at fleas and ants, so he was excited to see what was in this microscope.

Evan could not understand why he couldn't touch all the Titanic artifacts. Then we get out in the main exhibit area, and he still can't touch stuff. This is a great museum, but definitely geared towards older children.

Owen and Jim reading about the life and probable death of this Triceratops.

Both boys really liked listening to the description of a Diplodicus on these phones.

Evan finally found something to touch. He spent over 5 mintues checking out this exhibit about sound waves.

There was so much to see, it was hard to get the kids to leave. Even when we thought we were ready to go out the door, the kids found this stairway in a corner. Pretty cool.

Aadmondt's Apple Farm

The boys and I went to Aadmondt's Apple Barn in Stillwater today. It's only about a twenty minute drive from our place and they had a lot for the kids to do. We didn't pick apples, because I just bought some earlier this week, but we went on a wagon ride through the orchard and vineyard. I tried to get a photo of us, but Owen would not cooperate.

Evan loved the animals, as usual. The petting zoo/cage was his favorite. You got about 6 handfuls of food for a quarter, so the fun lasted quite awhile.

Owen said the trikes made him nervous. I think he was just missing other 4 year olds. Most of the moms that joined us had kids Evan's age and younger.

Owen did really like the young guy who drove the tractor. This tractor really got Owen thinking about his dream of living on a farm. Keep dreaming, kiddo!

We'll have to go back soon and pick apples.

Soccer

Owen started soccer last week. Like T-ball, Jim comes home early on Tuesday to take him. I usually stay back with Evan because he's napping, but today, Owen and Alex woke him up, so we all got to go.

The Blackhawk Soccer program is a little different than the Eastside T-ball program. Practice is held near Como Park and there are about 70 kids ages 4 to 6 participating. They all start together on the other end of the field, far away from the parents. I don't know what secrets are told down there, but every once in a while, they all start running helter skelter, and then return for some more huddling. Owen is #8, Yeager is #7.

After about 20 minutes of this, they head down the field, organized by colored shirts. Owen and Owen Y. are on the Green Machine. While the rest of the Green Machine was in a huddle up, listening to the coaches, these guys were spacing out up field. Their coaches didn't even know they weren't with them. Figures our spacey kids got the spacey coaches!

Jim had a little talk with Owen on the way to practice about running after the ball. Apparently last week, he didn't chase the ball during the "game" part because they weren't playing with his ball. Jim had to explain that everyone chases the same ball; it's the game ball.

He did alright this time, but he spent a lot of time doing cartwheels. Maybe we should try gymnastics next.
The whole green team, even the coach, just watched this kid make a goal. I think the Green Machine are a bunch of pacifists.


Check out the Green Machine's coach, giving Owen Y. a talking to after the goal was made. Cracks me up!

I'm not sure if these two really get what they're doing out there, but they sure seem to love soccer!

Back to School

Today was Owen's first day back at Dodge. He's in the same classroom, same time, but only 1 of the same teachers and 2 of the same students. The classroom only has 2 teachers this year and 11 students so far. There is no naturalist in his room now either. I'm not really thrilled about any of these changes, but I'm willing to see how it goes for awhile. Not that a full class of 15 makes that much of a difference, but next year he'll be with 23 most likely, and I want him to be as prepared as possible. Here is a link to last year's first day. Quite a different feeling.

Most people know, Owen is a pretty tall kid. Walking into the classroom today really put perspective on that. Most of the kids are 3 years old this year. Reese, his classmate from last year is 4, but it's hard to play with Reese right now because, as you can see, he broke his collar bone and is in a sling. So, when I picked Owen up, I asked him who he played with. He informed me that he played with some kids from a different class. I'm really wondering if I need to rethink his placement.

My friend Dawn stayed with Evan today while I took Owen and had my 38 week appointment. When we got home, Owen and Alex let loose. We opened the Playdate Kit I got for my Mom's Group's Meet & Greet next week. Owen and Alex turned the jumpropes into dog sled whips, yelling, "Mush! Mush!" Then they did their best to jump rope. They were having so much fun, we didn't want to break up their fun, but Owen had soccer.

Minneopa State Park

Our first trip in our new mini van and we really put it to the test. We picked up our niece, Ellie, and headed to Minneopa State Park in Mankato. The ride in wasn't too bad, but on the way out, the gate was locked and we had to drive around a bunch of boulders and through some prairie to get out. The van has been initiated.

While there, we checked out the famous falls. See the water rushing under the bridge and cascading down? Yeah. We didn't either. Guess it's been pretty dry in Minnesota this year.

Owen wanted to investigate where the water went, so we hiked down to the river bottom and walked along the muddy edge which should have been well underwater.

Don't worry about the river, though, because these three very determined explorers were on the job. Unfortunately two had to drop out due to muddy shoes. Their names begin with 'E'.

Evan pretended he was a bear all afternoon. Lately, he has been so into character, you have to call him by character name or he'll correct you. If you say, "Evan. Do you want a snack?" He will reply, "You mean Bear?" (or cat, or Peter, or wolf, etc.) "Bear" crawled up the stairs on all fours and snorted at passersby. Then he found this little den just right for hibernating. When we got home, we found out he really wasn't feeling well. He has a fever of 103! No wonder he wanted to hibernate.

After the disappointing falls, we decided to take another trail to the river. This trail had a nice mix of shade and prairie sun and the sumac was already a vibrant red.

The forest was littered with these huge boulders just begging to be climbed.

And oak trees perfect for little monkeys to swing from.

Our little tree hugger.

At the end of the hike, all the "bears" cuddled under the sumac for a hot summer day's nap.

LOVE YOU ELLIE BEAR!
Thanks for coming with us.

Weekend of Labor

This was a weekend long planned. The list began months ago and started with the painting of a mural.*

Of course we had to work on the consignment stuff. Two weeks until I sell all the boys' clothes (up to 3T) at Munchkin Markets.
Then we added the buying of a vehicle.
And, as usual, we decided to pack in some organization. It started with cleaning out the front closet, but quickly turned into creating a new closet space in the basement. (I really wish I had a "before" picture of this.) Then we hung some clothes rods in my laundry room.


Somehow that inspired us to organize all of my kitchen cabinets and drawers, a task that has been overwhelming me for years and which I definitely needed help from my ultra-organized mother.
And that led to clearing out the shelf at the bottom of the stairs for seldom used glassware. And then we had to put up a curtain to "hide the mess."

The boys even helped out. While we were buying the new van, they helped Ya-ya empty the wet sand out of the sandbox** and spread it out to dry.

But, even though it was a weekend of "Labor" we still found time for the "Big Swim Race." Owen practiced for two days prior. Evan insisted on wearing his "clarinet" on his head, which is also sometimes called an oboe. This video was taken after no less than 15 minutes of "racing," thus Evan's need for a break.

And, in between it all, we found time to shop the incredible Labor Day Weekend Sales.
PHEW! Just reading it all makes me exhausted. Hmm. Can you say "nesting?"

THANKS MOM & DAD
for spending your long weekend helping us.

*This part took the whole weekend and will continue again in a couple weeks. I will put up before and after pictures when it's all finished.

**A couple weeks ago, I was gone in the evening and the sandbox got left open. Around 6 a.m. there was a terrible thunderstorm and I knew. The next day there was a lake in our sandbox.