Fun at the Circus!

While we were in SD, the Carson and Barnes 3-Ring traveling circus came to Milbank. We went to see it with Grandma and Grandpa Loeschke. The performers were AMAZING!


These women did an aerial act from a ladder suspended from the big top ceiling. There were no nets, and it didn't look like the bottom girl had any kind of safety strap on her at all! She was just held there by the other girl, who was hanging by her feet upside down. It was crazy!

Amazing hoola-hooping talent!

Strong men!

Elephants!

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At intermission, we walked around outside the big tent where they had concessions, a petting zoo, and animal rides.
Alex saw the camel ride area and started cracking up at the camel. I was carrying him, and he asked me, "What's that?" I said, "It's a camel." Alex was still laughing, and he said, "It's big and funny. I want to ride it!!!" He told Daddy the same thing. Apparently that camel was the funniest animal Alex had ever seen. :)

More fun on the farm!

Alex and Molly couldn't get enough of the mullberries at Grandpa and Grandma's farm. YUM! They wanted to go out picking every day.

The only problem with mullberries... that dark purple juice stains! Alex shows off his juicy fingers and face.

Molly and Danessa didn't want to say goodbye. This hug lasted several minutes!

Some of us women went out on Wednesday for a nice lunch. Molly was very excited to get to go to a "Ladies-Only Lunch". No boys allowed! From L-R: Megan, Great Grandma Ruth, Aunt Michele, Molly, Emily, Grandma Loeschke

Fun on the Farm!

Last week we were in SD, and some of our cousins were able to make it to Great Grandma Ruth's farm to see each other and have some fun. It was so nice to see everyone!


Danessa, Molly, and Alex checked out the goldfish pond.

Casey, Megan, and Emily

Alex, Danessa, and Molly sat on some antique metal seats. The tree behind them has a face on it, and when they noticed that, they all started talking about it. I heard one of them tell the others that if it had a face, it must be a talking tree. Then they all started saying "Hi!" to the tree to see if it would talk back to them. LOL!

Megan gave Molly and Alex a ride on the merry-go-round that we used to ride on when we were kids. It still works! :)

Water fun

Today after swimming lessons we met some friends at the Hyland Park Reserve play area. They have HUGE climbing structure and playground. On hot days like this, the three arches that spray water are the biggest hit, though. :)


On the right you can see Molly (in the swimming suit), Alex (in red), and their friend Mado (in pink) waiting to go through this arch.

The water feels great!

Here are Alex and Molly running through an arch. You can see the giant slide in the background. This place is amazing!

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Alex has been having trouble falling asleep at night lately. I wonder if we need to start limiting his afternoon nap to an hour so he'll be tired at bedtime. I'm sad that he's only 2.5 and already his afternoon nap is on its way out. :(

Just now, at 9:45pm, Alex (who has been in bed since around 7:50) came walking down the steps wearing only a diaper. He said, "Hi Mommy!" and just started chatting like there was nothing wrong. He had picked out new clothes (lately he tries to act like he has already slept and it is morning) and threw them down the steps.
I asked him why he was up and what ne needed. He said he needed more milk. At this point I was closer to him and could see that his diaper was on a little crooked/funny. I asked him if he had taken his diaper off. He said, "I took old diaper off. It was wet. This new diaper. I put it on myself!" Wow, impressive. I asked, "You took the other diaper off?"
A:Yes. I used wipes.
E: You used wipes? And then you put a new diaper on?
A: Yes, I used wipes. I put new diaper on myself. I need clothes on. You help put clothes on.
Wow.
I told Alex to go upstairs and that I would bring him more milk. At this point Cory came up from the basement and tried to adjust Alex's diaper before putting his pajamas back on him. Alex wouldn't let Cory touch the diaper, though. He kept saying, "No, I did it myself!" I have to admit that he did a pretty great job for doing it himself. Does this mean I can now just have Alex change his own diapers? Ha!
Hopefully he's sleeping now...

Pool Fun

I love that we have so many fun parks around with free kiddie pools. :)
We've been visiting the pools regularly. I remembered my camera on Tuesday, so here are some photos from our morning.


Inflatable pool toys were a bit hit. Here are Molly and Alex in some rings.

Molly (in the green ring), with friends Mado, Cal, and Hannah.

Alex (in front) and Molly (in back), with friends Lily, Mado, Hannah, Cal, and Issac.

Lately we've had some ants in our house. Not a whole army of ants after food or anything, but often 1 big outdoor ant each day gets in and wanders around. At first Molly and Alex loved watching the ant, but now they are big on killing any that they see. This morning, Molly saw on and started talking about how she needed to put down some ant traps. Later, I walked into the entryway to see random pieces of crumpled paper towel thrown around everywhere.
I asked Molly what they were. She said, "Those are the ant traps that will catch the ant." Uh, no, those are pieces of paper towel that won't catch anything. :)

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Yesterday Molly was watching a show on PBS. There are no commercials for toys or anything on PBS, but in between shows they often advertise other PBS shows. Cyber Chase is a show Molly likes.
Anyway, as I was getting some food ready, Molly came up to me and said (I assume quoting directly from a commercial), "Mom, can I add Cyber Chase to my summer fun?"
Me: Add it to your summer fun? What does that mean?
Molly: Cyber Chase is a fun show and I want to add it to my summer fun. I would like to watch it every day. That would be really fun. Ok?

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Yesterday I took Molly and Alex to the Mall of America in search of a new swimming suit for Molly. We have been swimming nearly every day so I wanted her to have a backup suit. Then maybe I'd be able to wash them now and then.

We ended up in Marshalls, which had a great selection of suits. As I was flipping through them, I noticed Alex playing with a display of flip flops and socks behind me. He found a Hannah Montana canvas bag and started stuffing it full of socks and flip flops. I let him do it because it was keeping him busy so Molly and I could look at the swimming suits. After we had picked one out, Alex proudly held out the Hannah Montana bag, which was PACKED full. He said, "Look at my bag, Mommy!"

Then he grabbed the price tag and pulled it off, saying, "Don't need this anymore." He tossed it to the floor.
I picked it up and told Alex that the bag DOES need it's tag and that we never take tags off until after we buy something. Then I tried to take the bag from him. He was NOT having it. He said, "No, MY BAG. It's MINE."
Of course, I was not going to let him have a Hannah Montana bag or a random assortement of flip flops and socks, so he laid on the floor kicking and crying as I put things back on the rack. He was not happy that I was undoing all of his shopping. Bummer.

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Alex has been having a difficult time with bedtime lately. Unfortunately, I think he's probably nearing the point where he doesn't need an afternoon nap anymore, or at least his afternoon nap is making him not tired at bedtime. Last night he wasn't asleep until 11:30!!! Tonight it was better, but it was still after 10pm by the time he was asleep.
Alex doesn't just stay in his bed until he falls asleep... he constantly needs something, which makes for a long night. The funny part, though, is that each night after several hours of trying to get him to fall asleep, he suddenly declares that it is morning and he "already did" sleep. He demands to change into his new clothes for the day and to go downstairs and eat breakfast. What a silly nut!

Soccer!

Molly just finished her first soccer class. She LOVED it! The coach was wonderful, too. Each time the kids (about 25 of them) learned different skills and played games while learning to control the ball. Then they played little games during the 2nd half of class. I think we'll definitely sign her up again next summer. :)


Here is Molly listening very closely to the coach's instructions.

Molly's preschool friend Erika happened to be in the class too, and they were put together on the same team each week for the games.

warming up....

They had a lot of practice kicking the ball between cones (goals). Molly's friend Josiah was in her class, too. He's in the red shirt behind her in this photo. :)

A letter to Dad

Cory is in NJ this week for work. Right after Molly woke up this morning, she told me she was "writing Daddy a letter". She put it in this envelope and sealed the back with tape.


Then Molly brought this envelope downstairs to me. She said, "Here, Mom. Can you please put a stamp on this. I want to mail it to Daddy today. I wrote: To Dad New Jersey, so it will get to him there. Can we send it now?"

Awe. How sweet is THAT?

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Last night Alex was eating a cinnamon crunch bagel. The outside is kind of sticky, and Alex hates having sticky fingers. He got a wash cloth out of the drawer, wet it down, and washed his hands with it. Then he wrapped the wash cloth around the back half of the bagel so he could hold on to the wash cloth and keep his hands clean as he ate! I sooooo wish I could have gotten a photo of it. He's hilarious. :)

Fun Stories

Isn't this drawing cute? Molly made it for Cory this afternoon. It's Cory wearing his sun glasses. :) I love it!

I'm going to try to remember some of the funny things the kids have said lately....

Last week, Cory was taking Alex out of the van, and our neighbor across the street was pruning his hedges near the street. Alex watched him and repeatedly asked Cory (in a voice loud enough for the neighbor to hear), "What old man doing? What old man doing? WHAT OLD MAN DOING?"


Molly loves watching ants, and, probably because of the movie "A Bug's Life", has declared that they are the world's most amazing creatures. Molly and Alex love to watch ants, but they freak out if a fly or spider gets near them.


Today Molly would not stay up in her room for quiet time like she is supposed to in the afternoon. Cory and I were taking a break and playing Dr. Mario (a video game) together. Since Molly was supposed to be in quiet time, we told her she couldn't play and had to just watch if she was going to be downstairs. She kept interrupting us and walking in front of the TV. Cory said, "Molly, if you are going to be down here, you need to let us play."
Molly said, "Hmm. Perhaps a movie would help." (hinting that she wanted us to put a movie on for her to watch)

I bought Molly some new pajamas last week. If she likes them, I buy some boy pajamas for her so Alex can wear them later. She found some cool glow-in-the-dark dinosaur and space shuttle pj's, so I got her both pair. I washed them, and that night I gave her the dinosaur ones to wear to bed. Alex grabbed them and declared that they were his and ran them up to his room. Then he took the shirt, HUNG IT ON A HANGER, and hung it up in his closet. The he said, "It's my favorite!" Molly wore the space shuttle ones that night. The next morning, it took Cory 10 minutes to convince Alex he could not wear Molly's dinosaur pajama shirt that day. After all, it was "his favorite."

Alex is still very picky about the clothes he wears. He insists all of his shirts be striped or have a baseball on the front, or he won't wear it. (Thankfully, 80% of his shirts meet this criteria.) The other day, his closet was getting a little low on shirts. I hadn't hung up the newly washed ones yet. Alex slowly looked at the remaining shirts one by one... but these were plaid or plain or Hawiian.... and none had stripes or baseballs on them. He looked at me and said, "Need more shirts!" Silly boy. He refused to wear any of them, and I had to go get him a striped shirt from the clean laundry basket.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great weekend! On the 4th we celebrated with some friends at Lake Nokomis in the morning and went to a BBQ in the evening. Molly and Alex LOVED playing in the lake. They are really into swimming, and they had a really fun time jumping around and splashing. Here are some photos:

More 4th of July!

Here are some cute photos of Molly and Alex together. :)

The rest of June...

Wow, I haven't updated in nearly a month! Sorry about that. We had a very busy June. Here are a few photos of the highlights....

Garage Sale! We had our very first garage sale. It was a LOT of work, but it was a success!

Happy Father's Day!
Thank you Cory for being such an amazing Daddy!

We had plenty of silly, fun times with Molly and Alex. They keep us laughing. The photo above shows Alex the night he decided it was funny to tape his own mouth shut. LOL! :)

We've also had a great time playing outside in the wonderful warm weather! Here are Molly and Alex having a blast at the Splash Pad in St. Louis Park. It's a great play area full of fountains and arches with water spraying everywhere. :)