THE Santa Claus

Last week I made an appointment for us to go see Santa at the Mall of America. I love that you can make an appointment to see him. No lines and minimal waiting. The whole experience there is wonderful. Santa has a little living room where he sits and chats with the kids before they take pictures. There is a white line where the next group sits behind and watches.

The hardest part of seeing Santa is always the waiting, but here it's not crowded and you don't need to juggle all of your belongings.

This is THE Santa. He tells the kids to eat their vegetables, sleep in their own beds, brush their teeth and listen to mom and dad with a high five after each order. He talks to them about what they want for Christmas. Evan wants dinosaurs. Owen and Santa decided that Owen would get a surprise. The boys adore him.

Then Santa told Owen and Evan to use their fingers to say hush and that he was going to lay down and nap with Mia. They tried to do the "hush" thing, but for some reason neither could hold up just one finger, but they still looked so darn cute. Mia woke up mid "nap" and looked a little disgruntled, but she didn't cry. We ended up getting a video of the whole visit, it was so precious.

After our visit with Santa, we ate at The Rainforest Café with Ya-ya & Bumpa. The boys get a kick out of the fake storms and hooting gorillas there. Before we left they got to go on a ride while Ya-ya and I made a return. When we came into Nickelodeon Universe, they were just getting on the swings. It looked like fun, but apparently Jim wasn't sure he was going to make it through the whole ride!

The Hazzle Dazzle

Tonight we headed over to Neil and Connie's for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. The family is getting so big, they have to rent out the party room to hold us all. Connie and Neil now have 6 grandkids under the age of 5! It takes all of us to keep them clean, fed, and entertained.

Here's the feast courtesy of Kowalski's! Yum. Owen was sandwiched between his cousins Ellie and Addie. Evan flanked the other end.

Do you like seafood?
Addie had even had potatoes up her nose!

After dinner, the kids had fun running around with Auntie Gina (who makes a great T-Rex!)

and having a pillow fight with Adam (who was way too nice compared to other family pillow fights.)

After dinner and a movie, we dressed up (although it was very mild) and walked downtown to The Holidazzle Parade. Or, as our niece Ellie calls it, The Hazzle Dazzle.

I brought everything for the boys: swim suits, PJs, hats, coats, warm socks, mittens, long underwear, extra snacks, change of underwear, towels, stroller... guess what I forgot. COATS! Luckily the weather was warm and Grandma Connie has a couple warm, short winter coats. By the end of the parade they didn't they had them off and were plenty warm.

Mia and Margaux got to come with to the Holidazzle Parade, too. Although they slept through most of it.

(I spy four identical noses.)
They woke up in time for Santa. Mia must have gotten a little scared or cold because she cried through the rest of the parade and all the way home. It was very uncharacteristic of her. While we pushed her, screaming, back to Neil and Connie's, Evan fell asleep on the back of the stroller. Guess it was an exhaustively fun day!

Thanksgiving Day in Osseo

We spent Thanksgiving Day visiting relatives in Osseo, WI.

We started at my mom's sister, Peggy's house. In addition to our family, Peggy and Dave hosted her five grandkids, my cousins, their grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents. Peggy is use to entertaining kids. There is a whole room of toys in the basement, but the dinosaurs were allowed to come upstairs because Peggy has a soft spot for kids. Graham loves playing with Owen and Evan even though he is 6 years older. Reminds me a lot of his mother and I.

After a huge meal of turkey and all the fixings, Jim, my Uncle Dave, and cousin Brock took all the kids out in the woods to see a beaver dam. The weather was very mild. Before they took off, though, we had to gear them up in blaze orange. Thanksgiving is gun season in WI.

The big kids ran ahead into the woods. They know the way and Owen trusted them. Evan, however, knows he shouldn't cross the street without a grown up's hand no matter what. These kids all have one thing in common: they LOVE nature!

They all traipsed into the tall grass to get a close look at the beaver dam.
(Just above Graham's head)

Group shot. Not bad for 6 kids!

Evan, being his usually silly self. His hands were freezing by the time they got back. Apparently I packed his old mittens and they were too small. He didn't seem to mind too much.

My mom's side of the family likes to do projects, so after the hike we decorated cookies. Peggy, a former school teacher, has about a dozen cut out cookies (made with love by Grandma) in 6 Cool Whip containers. Each kid decorated their own cookies and there were enough easy to use frosting containers for each to have one at a time.

After the cookies, they made ornaments with foam board and stickers. Evan actually ditched out on this project to head back and play with dinosaurs. He really loves dinosaurs right now. He watches Land Before Time at least once a week and often asks if he can be Sharp Tooth. Whenever Evan asks to "be" something, he runs into the other room, gets into character and makes an entrance, like he's coming on stage. I need to get this kid into theater!

Although we were having tons of fun, it was getting late and we still hadn't been to my dad's sister, Penny's house. Penny & Ron were hosting my cousins' families, one of Ron's cousins, and my Great Aunt Ruth. These guys haven't met Mia yet, so there was a lot of oggling over her.

Penny had more than a dozen crocks on the counter full of all her delicious cooking. There were several pies and a delicious chocolate creme dessert brought by Ruth. I devoured a plate of meatballs. Everyone in the county goes to Strum to get their meatball mix. Apparently they sold out early this year.

Things got kind of late. After the boys serenaded us all on Ron and Penny's piano, (which will hopefully be ours in the near future) we changed them all into their jammies, loaded up the van, and headed home with are tummies as full as our hearts.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Lookout Ridge

Check out the new place where I'm going to wear the boys out this winter. Well, it's not exactly new, but we've only been here twice before.

Lookout Ridge is in Central Park in Woodbury. We've been here twice this week already. The first time was to watch a kids concert in the indoor amphitheater. They also have a library and a YMCA in the same building. But downstairs, tucked away, is this little treasure.

Although the place generally is full of kids running around screaming their heads off, it also has a calming side. There is a wonderful mural painted on the back wall and between shouts of toddler terror, you can hear the soothing sounds of nature which they pump in on well placed speakers. The climbing structures also have a nature theme. It's very Up Northy.

There's even a fishing boat. No Minnesota park can be complete without a fishing boat. Evan and Maddie had a blast pretending to fall out of the boat and struggle to get back in.

Maddie, my friend Amanda's daughter, tagged along with us today because she became a big sister yesterday and the hospitals are not letting children under 10 visit patients, in fear of spreading germs and the H1N1 virus. I'm sure these kids were exposed to their share of germs today in all of the tubes and tunnels. Luckily, most of them have already had their vaccine. Ya-ya will be happy to read that Evan & I got ours yesterday and Owen gets his on Tuesday.

Little 2's

With the commitment of help from Jim's parents, I signed the boys up for a four week swim camp at FOSS. If you haven't read one of my previous posts about FOSS, then let me just repeat: I love this swim school! The teachers are not only well trained, but they are high energy and completely engaging. They leave no room or time for kids to be scared and our boys have made tremendous improvements in their swimming in the past 9 months.

Tonight we all went to swimming because I wanted to meet the teachers and it's normally a big eating time for Mia. She slept for awhile, but then woke up to make faces with Grandma Connie. This is Mia's new skill. When you talk to her face to face, she will mimic your tone and the shape of your mouth. I love it when she sticks her little tongue in and out like she's trying to talk to me and when she makes a deep, "Ohhhh," cooing sound like she's doing with Connie in this picture.

Here is Owen with his Little 2 Crew. He was a little nervous about his teacher at first, but he got in after a couple of minutes of hiding behind my legs. The little boy on the left didn't get in until half way through, but once they were all in, they had a blast! Aren't they cute? They were all such good students and did everything the teacher asked.

Owen on the dock waving to his fans on the sidelines.
A couple of the fans on the sideline. Mia, just taking it all in and Grandma, kissing her head which is as soft as velvet.

Evan is in Little 1 with our friend Owen Yeager and another equally adorable boy named, Evan! These three did such a great job tonight that the teacher told us they were all ready for the next level. She will be teaching the class as a Little 2 class instead!

Evan on the dock after he swam with his face in the water. How can somebody look so adorable in a pair of goggles? It's gotta be those cheek dimples.

Owen's First Gopher Game

Jim and his brother, Tom, both had extra tickets to the Gopher game tonight. Owen got to go to his first game! Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Gina were there, too. They had great seats in the 6th row! Owen got a Gopher cup and a poster of the team as a souvenir. I guess he had a pretty good time, but lost interest in the game after half time. When he came home, he was most excited to tell me about the dog races during the half time show.

The Gophers beat the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks 84 to 42.
GO GOPHERS!

Margaux's Baptism

Our niece, Margaux, was baptized today. We were all out of the house by 9:00 a.m. and made it to the church early! All the kids behaved really well during the service. The pastor called all the kids up to the front when it was time to dip holy water on Margaux. The children were invited to take some holy water and make a cross on their own foreheads. I thought it was a really neat way to get the kids involved in the service. My kids looked at the pastor like she was from another planet. They did not partake in that, nor did they accept the wafer during communion. Well, to be fair, it does taste like cardboard.

After the service, we had a really nice reception at Tom and Jen's. Jen made the most delicious tomato bisque soup I've ever tasted. The kids watched The Grinch and played.

Before we headed back to the cities, we stopped in to visit with Jim's Grandma Verna. She had not met Mia yet. Mia showed off her cooing and smiling skills and the boys gave her lots of hugs. We left some photos there so she could remember us until our next visit.

Something to Smile About

I finally got a good shot of Mia's smile. Add an adorable "coo" to this and you can see why I can't get anything done these days.

Here brothers are pretty smitten with her, too, and very helpful.

It is definitely something to smile about.

Our Masked Hero

"Why the maskito, bandito?"

*"I go incognito."

As I was making a blog post, this masked bandit snuck up on me. Funny. Two days ago at his requested Superhero Party, he would not where a mask or cape. Now, he wants to wear them all. Ah, to be 3!

Evan's motto on life: You don't like who you are? Just pretend to be something else.

*Quotes coutesy of Skippy Jon Jones

A Walk at Dodge

Sunday was another gorgeous day, so we decided to take a walk in the woods. Ya-ya & Bumpa had never seen Owen's preschool, so we headed over to West St. Paul, had lunch, and hit the trails over at Dodge Nature Center.

There are so many fun things to do in the woods. You can race your grandma up a hill, you can pick bug nodes off goldenrod stalks, you can pretend you're a bear and stalk your family from behind a spruce tree... whatever suits your fancy.

One of the things I love about the playground at the preschool is that it's not a typical playground. They use trees, bushes, vines, and rocks to create play areas that stimulate imaginative play. Owen used this tunnel as a hiding spot, but Evan used it as a lion's den. This is the general difference between Owen and Evan/Literal and Figurative/Non-fiction and Fiction/Reality and Drama/Yin and Yang... anybody ever read Fred and Ted books?

They do have some play structures at Dodge, but they're not the typical plastic molds in primary colors. There's a climbing web, a fort with a loft, a wooden canoe, and this log cabin, which the kids often pretend is a McDonald's drive thru... a very granola McDonald's drive thru.

We showed Ya-ya and Bumpa all the fun parts of the property. We went to the farm and saw Big Red the rooster and Chloe the cow.

We went over to the pond and looked for turtles and geese.

We went over to the hives to check out the bees. We did see bees there, but we also saw a very tame deer munching on fallen apples. In fact, we saw about 7 deer in all while hiking throughout the property.

And we did a lot of running around. Evan wanted to roll or run down every hill.

*TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME*
Owen wanted to run off trail. We call this The Buffalo Prairie. When Owen and I were on the wagon ride this fall we heard two nature center employees talking near this prairie about a buffalo skull. Owen was sure that they found the skull in this prairie. He wanted to run through it looking for bison fossils.

Calling All Superheroes: Evan Turns 3!

The first time I asked Evan what kind of birthday party he wanted, it was Curious George. The day I went to order the invitations he changed it to Superheroes. A week later he was into dinosaurs. That's Evan.

So, superheroes it stayed. Everyone was suppose to wear a cape. We thought it would be easy with Halloween only a week ago. Owen decided to wear a "jet pack" and helmet because he was a Rescue Hero. I walked into my bedroom this morning to find this:

That's a serious superhero jam session. Before we even got down stairs, Evan had shed his cape and declared that he was a "sharp tooth." (That would be his name for a tyrannosaurus.)

It's really hard to find generic superhero party favors, so we just had an assortment. The cake had Superman bursting out of it and the candle was Batman in front of Gotham City. Evan doesn't really know who either of them are.

There were 25 people at the party and 12 were kids. This photo was taken multiple times, primarily because Henry kept leaning right into the shot each time my Dad snapped the picture. It was the beginning of the day's theme: "All you can do is laugh..."

Ellie wasn't impressed with my idea of showing me her yucky, frosting coated teeth, but I know she enjoyed the cake because she asked to take some home.

My family likes to do projects. I usually plan some kind of activity for the kids' birthday parties. Today we were suppose to make superhero masks and later play Pin the Mask on the Superhero. That game never happened and most of the masks didn't get made. Nor did we take a group photo of everyone wearing their masks and capes. Why? Well, first, you can see what Owen thinks about projects and photos. He is not alone in this sentiment. Second, there were 12 kids ages 6 and under at the party and three of them were infants. The living room was renamed the nursing room. And finally, it was 60 degrees! I don't know if Evan will ever have a birthday this warm again. He spent most of his party alone in his sandbox.

So, the kids moved the crafts outside and we skipped the game altogether.

While the kids played outside, there was a lot of oohing and cooing going on inside.

Eventually we decided we should open gifts. It was pretty much mass chaos. Evan didn't even want to open gifts. Owen was glad to help him. Ellie was just dying for him to open her gift which she had wrapped and decorated herself. The whole room bustled with action.

But, apparently, it was enough chaos for the big kids. After presents were opened, the kids went upstairs to play while the grown ups enjoyed the quiet and finally got a chance to talk. Five minutes before this picture I was upstairs checking on them and they were climbing around, but the room was tidy. The next person to come down told me not to go up there. Since I was feeding Mia, I couldn't. My cousin Kristin snuck up the stairs quickly, my aunt was behind her. I sent Jim. They found this. Every item in and on the dresser, all the dress up clothes, and all of the clothes on the bottom part of the closet were piled up in the "garbage." It was a good thing I didn't go up there. I told my aunt I would have lost it. She said, "Try not to lose it because it's really hard to get it back." Very good advice. Owen and I had a talk about this and I sincerely hope it will not happen again.

I think most of the adults (and probably the kids, too) felt like Mia after the party, but it was such a beautiful day and so much fun, none of us minded.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Evan!
It was a beautiful and exciting day.
WE LOVE YOU!!!