Fun Times with Molly and Alex

Alex's Pre-K Graduation!

2011-06-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Here's Alex marching down the isle for his pre-kindergarten graduation!

Alex's pre-K class sang several songs. They did great!

Alex is 2nd from the right in the top row.

Our big guy is done with preschool. He's excited to start Kindergarten in the fall!

Congratulations, Alex!

What graduation would be complete without an ice cream cone. :)

The Medieval Feast and the Olympics

2011-06-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Molly's school has an event for the 2nd graders at the end of the year called the Medieval Feast. The kids studied medieval times during the school year, and on this day they got to dress up like knights, princesses, peasants, Robin Hood, or whatever medieval character they chose. Molly wanted to be Princess Guinevere.

The photo above is from a skit Molly's class performed.

Here are a bunch of Molly's friends. It was so cute to see them all dressed up!

That afternoon, the kids all got to try out medieval games. Molly was determined to learn to juggle potatoes!

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The Olympics

That's what Molly's school calls their track & field day. Molly ran the 50 meter dash, the 50 meter hurdles, and the 4X100 meter relay.

Molly is in pink. She was very excited to do hurdles! I wish I would have gotten a photo of her mid jump!

It was 92 degrees and sunny out during the olympics. All the kids were really hot.

I'm so proud of my sweaty runner! Great job, Molly!

Funny Stories

2011-05-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Isn't this marvelous? Those are all googly eyes glued on the white paper along with some stick puppets, a piece of paper, and some numbers Alex punched from a box. Lovely. :)

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Today Molly asked to go to the library. I told Molly that our library is now closed on Wednesdays and explained that it is because a nearby library that was undergoing renovation has now reopened. She asked why our library has to be closed. I said, "It's to save money." Molly pouted and said, "To save money? More like to disappoint the children!!!"

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One of Alex's eye teeth came in kind of like a conjoined twin teeth. We call it his "double tooth". Alex loves his double tooth because we've said it is special, and he talks about how when he loses it someday he'll get twice the money from the Tooth Fairy.
A couple of days ago, Alex asked me why he has a double tooth. I told him what I always tell him, "because God made you that way." Alex said, "I know, but why do I have one but nobody else does?" I told him that everybody is unique and everybody has something that is a little different from everybody else. Alex seemed to like that explanation. Then he said, "I know what Kevin* has that is a little bit different." I asked, "What is that?" Alex said, "He's a little bit mean."
Ok, then.
*Kevin is not his real name. I changed it to protect the possibly innocent.

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Yesterday, we were all driving in our van. We stopped behind a car with a Montana license plate. Cory and I were discussing how we didn't think we had seen a plate like that before and didn't think it looked very nice. (Sorry Montana)
Molly overheard and asked what we were talking about. I explained to her what we said. Then Alex overheard THAT conversation and asked, "What did you say about Hannah Montana?"
Molly said, "Alex, they aren't talking about Hannah Montana, they are talking about that car in front of us that's called a Montana." Um, no. That wasn't it.
It would be a lot easier if Cory and I could just have our own conversations!

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I forgot to post about something really funny that happened on Easter.
Molly and her friend Jerusha were bored and came to complain to the adults about how bored they were.
My friend Sara had told me that when she was a kid, her mom always had her make a list of things she could do whenever she complained she was bored. She said she did it, and making the list always made her think of something fun to do.
It sounded like a great idea, so I told Molly to go make a list of all the things they could do.

Later, Alex (who had been playing Wii with Jerusha's brother Isaiah) came upstairs complaining that the girls were throwing dress up clothes at them.
I asked Molly to come upstairs, and I asked if what Alex had said was true. She said yes. I asked her why she thought that would be a good choice. She said, "It was on my list."
Really?

Later, I found two sheets of paper in the office. She and Ru really had made a list. They had also gone through the list, checking off the things they completed and scratching out the things they didn't want to do.

Here is Molly's List:

Littlest pet shop
TV
Polly Pockets
Magnet Girls (they are like magnetic paper dolls)
Stare out the window
Play Zhu Zhu pets
Play with stuffed animals
Play build a bears
Play the anything game
Watch the boys
Spy on the boys
Play Wii
Play DS
Play on the computer
Play dogs
Play house
Spy on the grown ups
Crafts
Make signs
Eat all our candy
Spy on Alex
Play dogs
Make collages
Color
Lie on the bed
Beg the grown ups to take us to the movies
Ask if we can watch TV
Spy on the boys
Barbies
Scribble
Dress up
Pelt the boys with the dress-up clothes
Dig through the trash
Play outside
Dig through the recycling

That's it! Crazy list. Dig through the trash? What?
I thought it was funny that "pelt the boys with dress-up clothes" really was on the list. Ha!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Molly and Alex were really into Mother's Day this year. It was really sweet! With Cory's help, they surprised me with breakfast in bed, cards, and gifts. After church we enjoyed a nice lunch at a great cafe. Then we went swimming together at the Y and to Cory's softball games. It was a really fun day.

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Molly's Messy Room

Molly has generally been fairly good at keeping her room picked up. She likes taking good care of her things, but she also thinks everything she every touches is something "very special", and she never wants to donate or toss anything. Also, at several recent play dates, the girls managed to dump out tons of things, and Molly was overwhelmed. I decided it was time that I just give her room a major overhaul. I cleaned it all while she was at school. Some friends suggested I take before and after photos, so here they are:

Before! (The two photos above)

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After!

Creativity

2011-05-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Alex is always making crafts, and using his imagination to make different things. One day, he made a scratch-art alligator and then hung it across the doorway with ribbon and yarn. He asked me to crawl under it and leave it up so Daddy could see it when he got home.

One day, Alex created this "peg leg" for himself with blue paper. He told me that his normal foot had fallen off, so he made himself a peg leg. Ha!
The thing to his right is a plastic blue cup that he used to make a "bug catcher". He was sure it would catch a lot of bugs and was sad that none had crawled inside the next day. :)

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Stories
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As the Royal Wedding approached, I kept hearing other women talk about how they remember watching Princess Diana's wedding with their moms and how they were excited to watch this Royal Wedding with their own daughters. I didn't really have any desire to watch the wedding, but I decided that I better talk to Molly about it in case she wanted to see it.
I asked her if she had heard about it. She said no. I told her how Prince William was getting married to a woman who was a commoner, and how she would become a real life princess when she got married. I told Molly that a lot of people will be excited to see all the fancy clothes the guests wear, too. I asked her if she wanted me to record the wedding so we could watch it together.
Molly gave me a really funny look.
Then she said, "It's JUST a wedding. Why on earth would I want to watch THAT?!?"

My girl is just not into princesses, and I'm ok with that. :)
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A few days ago, Alex came home from preschool excited to show me something. He looked so happy and proud, and asked me to come into another room so he could show me something. I did, and guess what amazing thing he showed me? He had learned how to make farting noises with his armpit. Really.
He is very excited about his new talent.
I'm so very proud. :)
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Flowers at Como Conservatory

2011-05-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Every spring before it looks like spring outside in MN, Como Conservatory fills its sunken garden room with beautiful flowers. I love taking photos of my kids with the flowers and feeling the sun in that beautiful room.

Alex doesn't love having photos taken, but he posed for a few for me.

Lucille, Jerusha, and Alex tried to smile for a photo, but the sun was too bright!

Aren't the flowers pretty?

Happy Easter!

2011-05-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter here in Minneapolis.

It was a beautiful, sunny day. The bright sun made it hard to get good photos, though. :)

I like getting photos of Molly and Alex hugging. Unfortunately, the hug almost always ends up with them falling over together. Fortunately, they both usually think falling down together is really fun. :)

Here they go....

Down on the ground. :)

Some of our friends came over to celebrate Easter with us. The kids had an egg hunt in our back yard.

Screen-Free Week

2011-04-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

This week (April 17-13) is screen-free week. It was encouraged by Molly's school. For this week, Molly and Alex are to completely avoid all TV, video games, movies, and other screen-time.

The kids have not tried to cheat at all, but they have certainly told us plenty how much they are not enjoying screen-free week. Both have said it is the worst week of their life. Really? Ha. :) I think they know how to be overdramatic.

Alex loves crafts. Mostly, he loves creating his own artwork using tape, scissors, glue, staples, paper, and pens. He uses a LOT of paper and tape. Since he can't play video games, he has been doing even more art work than usual this week. Here are some of his creations:

Balloon animal fish that Alex made, swimming in the ocean that Alex made.

This is a Grandfather Clock with hands that spin. There are numbers on the clock face, but I'm not sure they show up in the photo.

This is a conglomeration of stapled paper, Easter artwork, and a booklet of animals in Spanish and English.

This is Darth Vader. Alex told me that I can know it's Darth Vader because he has a red light saber AND a black mask on his face. He said that there are others with red light sabers like Darth Maul, Darth Citius, and Count Duku, but they do not have black masks like Darth Vader. Good to know, Alex.
(I'm sure I totally spelled those names wrong, but I don't want to look up their proper spellings.)

Oh, did I mention that Alex has become quite the Star Wars fan? He has. I think he loves it more than Mario now.

After I took the photo of Darth Vader on the floor, I turned around and was surprised to see that creation above taped (with a LOT of tape!!!) on my dining room wall. Apparently it is an "Easter suprise for Molly." Hmm.

This isn't part of screen-free week. It is a watercolor picture of Darth Vader that Alex made in preschool.

I think I'm going to have to buy some more tape before this week is over. :)

Spring is here!

2011-04-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

We've suddenly gone from winter to spring, and it has been glorious! Molly and Alex have been so happy to play outside in warm weather! Yay for spring!

We decided we needed some play equipment in our back yard that was better suited for bigger kids, but we don't have room for one of those wooden swing sets. We saw the dome jungle gyms at Costco and knew it would be the perfect thing! Molly and Alex were so excited to help Cory build it last weekend. Here they are with it partially assembled.

Finished! They love it. Molly likes hanging upside down from the top.

Funny Quotes and other things

2011-04-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

One day after bedtime, Cory and I went to our basement to watch some TV. We walked in to the room and saw all the Zhu Zhu pets in a circle. Molly and Alex normally keep the Zhu Zhu pets in their bedrooms, so it was pretty funny to see all the pets together in the basement. It was like Cory and I walked in on their secret meeting or something. :)

Molly and Alex love these hand-pedaled scooters at Edinborough, and indoor play place.

One day Molly made one of these paper gyrocopters in school. Alex loved it and decided to make a whole family of them in different colors and sizes.

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At dinner one evening, we were talking about all the potholes in the streets by us. Alex said we should ask Jesus to fix the potholes. Then Alex said, "Oh, that won't work. I forgot Jesus is too busy fixing Japan."

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Cory upgraded his work phone to an iphone recently. Alex was really excited and asked, "Did it come with Angry Birds?"

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Alex told me he's going to save up his money to buy a solar panel for our house so he and Molly can leave their lights on all the time.

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Molly's hair cut

2011-04-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Molly's hair was long and beautiful. It's REALLY thick, though. It's hard to brush, tangles easily, and she never wants braids, ponytails, or clips in it. With swimming lessons and then a summer full of swimming coming up, I told her I thought it was time for a shorter hair style. She agreed. Here is Molly before the haircut.

Before

After!

After! She wouldn't smile for the camera, but she loves her hair. :) I think it just took all of her patience to sit still while I cut, and cut, and cut some more. When I wanted to take photos, it was just too much. :)

Castles and Dolls

2011-04-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Molly studied castles in school this year. The 2nd graders had an optional project: to make their own castle out of household materials. This is Molly's castle. She is very proud of it!

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The American Girl Doll Obsession

After Christmas, Molly realized that almost every friend she knows got an American Girl Doll for Christmas. Really. She had heard of them before Christmas, but she never really cared about them or asked for one. After she saw that all her friends wanted one, she went from not really interested to completely and totally obsessed!

I took her to the American Girl Doll store at the Mall of America one day so she could look around. She was in awe of every thing she saw. For those of you who haven't been there, it's insane. The store is 2 stories tall with a doll beauty salon and bistro inside. They sell historical dolls, the doll of the year, the look-alike dolls, the bitty babies, and 985,739,025 expensive accessories to go with the dolls.

Molly wanted all of it.

She brought home a catalog and poured over it each day. She really wanted a doll. We ended up telling her that we'd give her a doll for her birthday (in August), but we weren't going to go out and buy an expensive doll in January just because she wanted it. We also told her she should start saving up her money so she could buy the accessories she thought she needed.

A few weeks went by. Molly still poured over the catalog almost daily. She tried to figure out ways to earn more money to put toward the things she saw in the catalog. She started reading all of the American Girl books from the library. She even borrowed a doll from one of her friends a couple of times. She told us all the time that she couldn't wait to have he own doll. Molly had decided that for her first doll, she wanted Kanani, the 2011 girl of the year (only available in 2011).

One day, she started writing a list of the things she wanted from the catalog. When I found it, it was 6 pages long, front and back! Here is her list:

Then, in early March, she got invited to a friend's birthday party. It was a tea party, and the girls were asked to bring "a very special doll or stuffed animal" to the party. Molly read it and looked at me with her big brown eyes. Then she said, "Mom, you KNOW all the girls are going to bring American Girl dolls. Is there ANY way I could get Kanani before the party?"

I still didn't want to just go buy the doll for her, but I wanted her to have Kanani for the party. I helped Molly figure out how much money she needed to be able to buy the doll. Then I helped her figure out how to earn it. Molly sold a Wii game to a friend, a gift card she had from Christmas to her Daddy, and some other things, and eventually she wasn't far from her goal. She got close enough that we told her we'd cover what she was short and let her pay us back later. She was in heaven! She was SO EXCITED to go buy her doll.

Here she is in the store, picking out her doll.

Molly at home, ready to open the box. :) I didn't get a photo of Molly with Kanani after opening. Molly wasn't in the mood for posing and just wanted to play! She was so excited to have her doll. She did bring Kanani to that birthday party, and guess what? Molly said that every single girl at that party (8 of them, I think) had brought an American Girl Doll. I'm so glad Molly had one too. :)

Winter fun!

2011-04-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

We only got out ice skating once this winter! It seemed like most of January and February were just brutally cold. I'm definitely a wimp when it comes to cold weather, too. I'm glad we got a chance to skae once, though! We went on a beautiful, sunny day. It was actually too warm, and the ice was quickly turning to slush.

Alex is just figuring out how to balance and skate. Molly has it down, though. She's fast, and she has no fear!

Snowman! We got some great snowman snow and had to take advantage of it! Molly and Alex loved making the snowman with me. :)

Finished snowman! He's as tall as Molly!

Random fun photos

2011-04-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

In early December, we went up to Lake Superior with some friends. Our friend Pete took this family photo of us at the lake.

I just thought this was sweet. Molly fell asleep reading. She reads every night before bed. Usually, we have to remind her when she's supposed to have the lights off or she'll read until 10 or later! She loves reading. One day we went in to say goodnight and found her like this: cuddling her stuffed baby doll with the book still open. :)

Cory had a fun work party in January, so we had a nice excuse to get dressed up.

Alex. We have a couple of huge baskets of random dress up clothes. One day he ran upstairs dressed like this. I couldn't stop laughing!

Merry Christmas!

2011-04-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

We had a very Merry Christmas this year. We enjoyed celebrating with our kids, our extended families, our church family, and our friends. Here are some photos of Molly and Alex from Christmas. :)

December Snow Storm

2011-04-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

On December 12, we got a huge snow storm. I think it was officially 17" of snow, but it seemed like more. This was the storm that caused the roof of the Metrodome to collapse. I just couldn't handle the weight of all that heavy snow.

Shoveling!

After shoveling our front sidewalk, there was a huge hill of snow in our front lawn. Cory, Molly, and Alex had a plan! A front yard snow fort was soon to be hollowed out of this hill. :)

Check out all the snow!

That is Cory's lower half sticking out of the snow fort. I think he had fun digging it out. :)

Happy Birthday Alex!

2011-04-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up on the blog! Alex turned 5 on November 19. He asked to have a Super Mario Brothers birthday party. He was so excited!

Here are the mushroom cupcakes I made for his party. Aren't they cute?

The kids loved hitting the Yoshi egg pinata!

The birthday boy had a great time playing Mario-themed party games with his friends. The cupcakes were a hit!

We gave out packs of stick-on mustaches to all the party guests. They were so funny! Here is the whole crew, doing their best Mario impressions!

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Alex is 5! We love our boy! He's so much fun! Alex loves video games, especially anything with Mario in it. He's crazy good at them for his age. He's also a math whiz who loves numbers. He's not really interested in letters or learning to read, though. He loves making crafty things out of paper and tape. He's very creative. Alex loves justice, rules, and enforcing rules. He loves his sister and can't wait for Molly to get home from school each day. He is very extroverted. He hates being alone and always wants to be playing with friends. :) Alex is awesome!

Stories

2010-11-15T18:18:00.000-08:00

Alex wore his monkey costume for 3 of the 4 days of Halloween fun, but for Trick or Treating on Halloween day, he wore his Superman costume. He just got this costume as a party favor from his friend Ike at Ike's birthday party. How cool is that?!?

Do other kids ages 4.5-7 happily have photos taken of them? Do they like having photos taken? Or do they do this (make the above faces) when their mom tries to take photos of them?
Molly and Alex do not usually like to be photographed, and I'm realizing I don't take nearly as many photos as I used to.

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Stories:
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Tonight I made a delicous home-cooked dinner: Beef roast, baked sweet potatoes, Caesar salad with fresh home-made croutons, roasted carrots, and raw carrots (for those who did not care for roasted carrots or sweet potatoes).
Molly had helped herself to several leftover pancakes when she got home from school, so I chose not to put any kind of bread on the table. She's so picky, and I wanted her to eat something besides bread.
Molly was not impressed with the meal. She "tried" (licked) everything and declared that she did not like any of it.We told her she could not be excused until she ate 1 piece of something (anything) on her plate. Only 1!
She whined and pouted for quite a while.
When everybody was finished, she decided she better eat something. She asked if she could have 1 piece of plain lettuce (she didn't want any covered with dressing). I gave her a piece.
The faces and sounds she made as she ate that piece of Romaine lettuce were priceless. She acted as though we were forcing her to eat something out of Fear Factor. I started cracking up. She's so over-dramatic! Romaine lettuce. The horror.

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We woke up Saturday morning to SNOW! It was our first snowfall of the year, and we got a lot of it. Alex was the first one out of his bed, and he ran downstairs to grab his DS. Cory and I were awake, but still in bed. I heard Alex squealing downstairs. He ran upstairs and burst into our room. He pulled open the shades and said, "Look, it's snowing, It's snowing!" He was so excited. I was thankful for his joyful squeals and happy excitement. It made me happy about the snow, when normally I would not have felt that way. :)-----------------------------------

Alex's birthday is coming up, and he wants his party to have a Super Mario Bros theme. I bought some stick-on mustaches for the party, and Alex tried one out. Isn't it hilarious?

Alex wore the mustache one morning, and he was really excited to surprise the two girls in our carpool. Their father saw Alex and thought it was great. Alex looked at him and said, "I actually grew this myself." Hahahahaha!

Later, Alex wore the mustache to his friend's house. When he walked in the door, Molly told his friend Ru and her family that his mustache was fake. Alex said, "SHHHHHHHH! Don't tell them!" Ha!
I look forward to a lot more mustache fun this weekend at his party. :)

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Halloween Fun!

2010-11-15T17:31:00.000-08:00

Molly (Rock Star) and Alex (Monkey)
We took the kids to 4 days of Halloween fun this year. On Thursday, we trick-or-treated at a nearby grocery store that was having a fun event. On Friday night, we went to a carnival at the church where we attend MOPS. On Saturday, we went to a big family fun event at a nearby park. On Sunday night, the kids got to trick-or-treat on our block and then hand out candy to kids who came to our door. They loved it!

Here is Molly with her microphone. She looks like more of a rock star with the microphone. :)

Alex loves the carnival games.

Alex and Molly had fun competing in this game.

Fall Fun

2010-11-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Wow... I didn't blog for all of October and half of November.
What can I say? Life is busy. I want to keep up on the blog, but sometimes I just don't take the time. I'll try to catch up. :)

One day Molly told me she wanted to learn Spanish. She wanted to learn some of it that very night, so I found an online site with some free Spanish lessons. After she went to bed, I found this clip board. She did this all by herself!

Bunnies! Last year Molly learned to use stretchy gloves to make bunny puppets. She taught Alex and our carpool friends, too. Now all the kids make bunnies and have their bunnies do funny things as we drive to school.

Molly and Alex loved raking leaves this fall.

Playing in the leaves was pretty fun, too!

Pierced Ears!

2010-09-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Molly got her ears pierced tonight!

Molly had started asking to have it done about 18 months ago. She begged and begged, and we agreed to let her have it done for her 6th birthday. She had to finish a reward chart to get it done, which she did. We watched YouTube videos of other little girls having their ears pierced. We discussed the whole process. She was determined she wanted it. Then about a week before her birthday she changed her mind. We told her that was fine and she could wait as long as she wanted. She decided she would get them done when she turned 7.
Then when her 7th birthday got closer, she decided she would wait until she turned 8.
Until this week. This week she came home from school insisting that she really wanted it done THIS WEEK.
It had to be this week. She did not want to wait for Christmas or any other special occasion. She wanted it now!
We agreed.

However, we guessed this was not going to be an easy thing to accomplish. After all of our drama at the dentist office where Molly is terrified of everything that might possibly cause pain, I was a little worried about how she'd do at getting her ears pirced.

I was right. The poor girl REALLY wanted it to happen, but she was terrified of the actual piercing process and freaked out anytime they touched her ear. I will save you all of the details and videos showing Molly flinching, then demanding to get another chance. It did take visits to two different stores and a LOT of time and patience, but it finally happened. She got it done, and she is SO happy. :)

Molly BEFORE getting her ears pierced.

Molly after!

She picked peridot studs (the August birth stone). Her earlobes look a little purple, but that is from the marker that they used to mark the spot where the earring would go.
Yay Molly! We're very happy you didn't have to go home sad and disappointed tonight! :) Great job being brave!

Alex's toys

2010-09-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Cory and I found this (above). Alex had placed his favorite and most recent toys in a symmetrical display right in the center of our living room rug. When we asked him about it, he asked us not to move it. He wanted his special things to be just like that in that place (and normally no toys are ever kept in our living room). Ha!

Molly got glasses!

2010-09-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Here is Molly with her new glasses.
One Sunday evening, she was doing her homework and then got up and walked across the kitchen to see the clock on the oven. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me it was blurry so she had to get closer to see it. Then she said, "Ever since 1st grade, when I look at something far away it is blurry." Wow. Well, thanks for telling us. :)

We took her to Costco, and she was VERY excited to have a vision exam and pick out glasses. On the way to Costco, she said, "I really hope they have iCarly glasses." She was so happy to see that they did have a few iCarly frames, including the ones she picked. Hers are dark purple metal frames with a few flowers on each temple.

I'm glad she loves them so much!

Alex at Edinborough

2010-09-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

Alex LOVES these little hand pedal cars they have at the gym at Edinborough Park. He has so much fun zipping around the room. He plays hard and gets so sweaty. I love it!

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Alex is pretty witty. He makes us laugh a lot.
The other night, Molly was being rude to him. She was just in a really bad mood. After saying some unkind things, she stormed out of the room. Alex looked at Cory and I and said, "I guess we'll have to trade her in for a nicer girl." Haha!

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Today Alex said, "Mom, do you know that sound waves are something that we can hear, but we cannot see them or taste them?"
I said, "You're right, Alex. Where did you learn that?" He said, "Sid the Science Kid." Thank you PBS for having such great educational shows! My kids actually learn things when they watch TV. :)

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Alex has a change jar with a digital readout that tells how much money is inside the jar. He decided he really wanted to buy another Zhu Zhu pet (electronic hamster toy). Almost daily, he'd find a coin somewhere or earn some by helping out around the house, and he'd bring us his money jar and ask if it was enough for a Zhu Zhu pet. Finally on Tuesday he had enough, so I took him to Walmart (they have the lowest price and a good selection of the Kung Zhu battle hamsters for boys there). He was soooo excited to buy it. :)

Our kids just cannot get enough of these Zhu Zhu pets. I like that Molly and Alex play with them together.

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The other day, Alex brought a tupperware container with a vented lid and asked if he could use it for a cricket he and Molly had found. I said sure, but then I heard that there was something in the container. I asked if he already had the cricket in there, and he said, "No, it's just food." I asked him what he was feeding his cricket. He said, "frosted mini wheats."

It turned out to be a grasshopper and not a cricket, but Molly and Alex captured it and kept it for an afternoon. Then I guess the grasshopper was just too boring, so the lucky thing was released back into the back yard. :)

Twins Game!

2010-09-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

We won free Twins tickets (great seats!) from my dentist, so we got to go to the Labor Day game. It was fun! It was the first time for any of us to see a game at the new stadium.

Go Twins!

I should have taken the camera and got a photo of Cory, but I didn't. Oops!

Molly watched part of the game, but this cute little bookworm takes a book with her everywhere she goes. She read that entire chapter book during the game. Oh, and notice her stylish garbage bag. It started raining! Weather.com said it would be done raining before the game and not start again until evening. WRONG. Oh well. Thankfully people near us had brought extra garbage bags and were kind enough to give us a few. :)

First Day of School!

2010-09-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Alex was nervous about his first day of Pre-K, even though he had gone to the same preschool last year. He woke up that morning and said he did NOT want to go. At one point in the morning, he even removed his school clothes and put his pajamas back on! It was a little crazy, but I finally convinced him that he was going. He still didn't want to smile for photos, so that is why he looks so grouchy here. As soon as he saw his class, he ran in and was happy to be there. He has loved every day of it and wishes he could go more.

Alex

Molly, ready for her first day of 2nd grade!

Molly is a pro at the school thing now. She was excited for 2nd grade and is loving it!

State Fair!

2010-09-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

Molly and Alex both really love corn dogs, and at the State Fair the footlong ones do not cost much more than the normal ones. We got the kids the footlong ones, and they thought it was pretty great. :)

Alex ate more than Molly did! He finished at least 3/4 of that corn dog!

I tried to get photos of everybody going down the Giant Slide. I failed. Here Cory and Alex just made it to the bottom (they are on the red carpet, sitting on the burlap).

We had a great time at the fair, but I left my camera at home and didn't take many photos with my phone.

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On Monday, my dental office had a drawing on their facebook fan page. Anybody who uploaded a photo from State Fair got entered in the drawing for Twins tickets. I uploaded the photo of Alex with his giant corn dog, and I won! We got 4 tickets to the labor day Twins game! We haven't been to the new stadium yet, so we are really excited. Yay!

Happy Birthday Molly!

2010-09-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

Molly is seven! Happy Birthday Molly!

Molly wanted to have a Tinkerbell-themed party at our house for her birthday. She invited all the girls from her class plus a few others, so we ended up with 12 girls as guests. They all were great, and had so much fun together!

I read a Tinkerbell story to the girls, they went on a treasure hunt, hit a pinata, made bead bracelets, played "Tinkerbell Says", enjoyed cake and ice cream, and watched Molly open presents. Molly loved it all!

Cake!

Here they are making sparkly bead bracelets.

Thanks for making Molly's birthday special!

Pinata

2010-09-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

Molly loves pinatas. She gets so excited whenever she's at a party where they have one, and she always requests to have one for her party. This year, she helped me make a purple rosebud pinata for her party.
She was very excited to help. She had made a paper mache globe in kindergarten, so she felt like she knew exactly what to do.
I found a recipe for paste online that just required cooking flour and water together. The paste worked really well, but it was thick and lumpy. Molly thought it was really disgusting. I think they had just used glue or wallpaper paste at her school, and she was convinced I was doing it all wrong and that lumpy paste couldn't possibly work. :)

At the party, Molly blindfolded her guests and helped them spin around. Thankfully, the pinata was pretty strong. All the girls got to have a chance at hitting the pinata before it finally cracked completely open, spilling the candy.

Later, the girls were all busy in the dining room making sparkly bead bracelets. We all heard a pounding sound. Alex was in the kitchen, beating the remains of the pinata. Ha!

This is what was left after Alex finished. :)

Camping

2010-09-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the post below with the minnow racing photos. After the reunion, we camped in our tent. It was the first time we had tent camped with the kids in several years. They were really excited!

Alex with his smore.

Molly

Our camping spot was on a huge grassy area. Molly and Alex had fun playing bocce ball while Cory and I packed up the tent before leaving.

This is a mayfly. It turns out Molly is terrified of these. The weekend we camped, there were hundreds of mayflies covering the walls of the campground bathroom. They don't bite or sting, but they do fly onto people and stick on clothing. Poor Molly screamed hysterically every time she needed to use the bathroom. We had to make sure the tent was 100% mayfly-free before she would go to sleep (and there were a lot of them, so it was a challenge to get them all out!)

Minnow Racing and more

2010-09-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Cory's family had a big family reunion at a lake near his hometown. We went for the weekend.
One of Cory's uncles made a minnow racing track, and it was a huge hit with the kids. Alex loved it!

Alex and Cory minnow racing

We camped in our tent at the lake after the reunion. Alex and Cory were getting set to make smores.

Alex and Molly like roasting their own marshmallows.

Soccer and more

2010-08-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Alex drew this one day. I love how Luke Skywalker looks like a stick character but Darth Vader looks pretty good.

Soccer! Alex is in green in the front.

Go Alex!

Family Camp!

2010-08-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

Our family went to family camp again at Trout Lake. We had the most amazing week. It was so fun.
I tried posting all of our photos in one post, but Blogger was giving me issues. Finally, I gave up and decided to post via Picasa, which is great but only lets me post 4 photos at a time. Therefore, we have several Family Camp posts.

Molly and Alex

Molly making a friendship bracelet.

Molly really likes kittens. There were 3 living in the tack room at the horse stable, and Molly loved holding them.

Family Camp

2010-08-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Alex with his shy/proud face as he walks up the isle for the kid's program.

Tired Alex at chapel.

Carpetball! The kids LOVE carpetball.

Family Camp!

2010-08-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

More sailing

Cory and Alex, ready to launch the rocket that Molly and I made.

Family photo at the rocket launch

After all the rockets are launched, they give the kids time to retrieve them. Molly ran to get ours, and she ran right into a huge mud puddle. She thought it was pretty funny that her toes were that dirty. See the book in her hand? Dr. Dolittle. This kid always has books with her. :)

Family Camp

2010-08-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sara and Emily on the pontoon ride.

Emily climbing!

Cory climbing

We tried sailing for the first time this year. We loved it, and will definitely do it again as soon as we are back at Trout Lake Camp!

Family Camp!

2010-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

Cory flying at the Flying Squirrel

Canoeing!

Kids on the pontoon ride. They love this. We get to ride across three lakes to Crosslake, and then we walk to a great ice cream shop. Molly and Alex always get bubblegum ice cream. They pick out the bubblegum and save it for the end.

Cory and Chris on the pontoon.

Family Camp

2010-08-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

Emily and Cory going down the zip line!

Molly and Alex with their awesome babysitter Kyle. Yay for Kyle! He was incredibly helpful. I wish he didn't live 3.5 hours away. We'd have him come babysit for us often!

Emily ready for Flying Squirrel

Cory, about to take off at the flying squirrel

Family Camp!

2010-08-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Alex LOVED the kittens at the stable

Cory and Alex at the petting zoo.

Alex at the carnival. If you look closely, you can see the foam dart he just threw about to fly through the hoop!

Molly getting a ride on a horse

Family

2010-08-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

My (Emily) parents had a BBQ on July 3, and several relatives and friends were able to make it. It was great!
Here are Sally (my sister), me, and our cousins Tina and Megan.

Siblings! Sally, Emily, and Nick

Molly and Alex with their cousin Tyler. My parents were attempting to get a photo of their three grandchildren together. Guess which one was NOT cooperating? Yes, the oldest. This is the best photo I got.

Alex loves riding this pedal tractor around Grandpa's farm.

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On the way to South Dakota for this trip, we hadn't even gotten a block away when Alex asked how much longer it would be until we got there.

About halfway to SD, Alex asked where we were. We told him we were in the middle of nowhere. Then a while later he asked to talk to Grandpa on my cell phone. Alex told Grandpa, "We are in the middle of a place called nowhere."

Happy Father's Day!

2010-08-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

We went bowling for Father's Day. We had a bowling pass from May-August, and it made a good Mother's Day activity so we went back for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Cory! You are the best husband and father, and we are so thankful for you!

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Strawberry Picking

I don't have any photos from this, but it's a funny story.
In late June I took Alex strawberry picking at a berry farm. We went with my friend Rachel and her children, Ru and Isaiah.
Alex picked about three strawberries, saw that his hands were messy, and told me that he needed to have a bath. Ha!
The plants had recently been watered, so they were a little wet, and a tiny bit of dirt and straw stuck to some of the berries and leaves. They were generally really clean, but there were some moldy strawberries and slugs around. Alex won't even eat pizza without having it cut up so he can eat it with a fork and avoid the possibility of getting his hands messy. Picking the strawberries just wasn't going to happen.

So... I am picking away, and Alex starts eating strawberries out of my bucket. Ru and Isaiah were picking their own and eating some too, but they weren't eating any that Rachel picked.
Alex and Ru were talking to each other about the strawberries they were finding, and Alex kept holding up the biggest and best (from my bucket that I had picked!) to show her. Silly kid.
When we decided we had picked enough, we had to weigh our berries to pay. Rachel ended up with nearly twice as many berries as I did, since she had help and I just had an eater. :)

Molly is at summer camp!

2010-06-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

Molly (left) and her friend Eliana (right) are at Trout Lake Camp through Saturday morning. Christa and I brought our daughters to camp yesterday, and they were incredibly excited. I'm sure they are having a great time.

Molly was so silly and excited when I dropped her off. I asked her to smile, and this goofy photo is the best I got. :)
The camp is 3.5 hours away, so it made for a long day of driving to take her up and drive back. Thankfully our friend Jason watched Alex for the day. Thanks, Jason! Alex had a lot of fun with your kids!

When Alex and I got to our house, he looked all concerned and asked why we were at our house. I said, "We were going home, Alex. Where did you think we were going?" He said, "But what about Molly? Don't we go get her?"
The poor guy didn't understand that she was staying at camp until Saturday. When I told him, he actually started crying! He was soooo sad, and said, "I want Molly here with me!"
He loves his sister. :)

Alex's preschool wheel-a-thon and more

2010-06-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Alex's preschool wheel-a-thon was actually back in May, but I just uploaded photos from my phone today and found these.

Here's the crazy scene. They are all supposed to be riding in circles following the chalk lines... but it didn't always happen that way.

Here's Alex (in front in the red coat)! The kids raised money to help build a water well for a school in Guatemala through this wheel-a-thon and a silent auction earlier in the year.

On Wednesday, Jamba Juice had $1 superfruit smoothies, so I took the kids all there for smoothies. Yum! When we got back in the van, I asked them all to lean toward the middle so I could take their photo. I think it's funny how far they are all leaning!

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Fruit Tooth

Tonight at dinner Alex ate a lot of grapes and strawberries. Cory said, "Wow, Alex, you at a lot of fruit!"
Alex: I know! I have a sweet tooth AND a fruit tooth, because I like sweets and I like fruit!

Fun at the Sculpture Garden

2010-06-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the kids to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. They had a great time exploring all of the sculptures.

Alex

Molly and Alex's friends Isaac and Leah are staying with us for a little over a week. Their parents are on a mission trip to Haiti to help rebuild a clinic that was destroyed in the earthquake. We've been having a fun week!

Cherry on a Spoon. I love that one!

Molly

Summer is here!

2010-06-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

Molly's last day of school was Thursday, so summer vacation started Friday! I can't believe it's here so quickly.
The last week was kind of crazy.

On Tuesday, Molly had a dentist appointment. It was the 2nd attempt to fill a cavity, and after 1.5 hours of calmly struggling and attempting to get the now two cavities filled, we again left without any fillings. :( It was a really hard day. Molly is incredibly oversensitive to things in her mouth. Even the air tool that blows air and the numbing gel were extremely painful according to her. :( She really wanted her teeth fixed so they stop hurting, but, even with laughing gas, she couldn't make herself cooperate.
Our next option is to try oral sedation, but she has to be willing to drink a small cup of medicine. Molly has never been a good medicine-taker, and she is insisting that she will not be able to drink the sedative. If we can't get the oral sedation to work, we'll have to take her to the hospital and have her teeth filled under general anesthesia. This is not fun. :( Unfortunately, Molly gets cavities extremely easily, too. Her dentist said her enamel on her molars is defective and weak. Poor girl.

On Wednesday just before 5pm, Alex started crying that his knee hurt and he needed a new bandaid. Alex had scraped his knees after falling on the sidewalk at a friend's house the previous week, so he had had bandaids covering his knees for a week. When he was crying on Wednesday, I looked and saw that one of his bandaids was soaked with blood. I carried him to the bathroom and took off all his bandaids to find several infected areas. :( The spot that was bleeding looked terrible, and it didn't seem normal. After tending to his knees, I did a little internet research because something made me suspect MRSA - the antibiotic resistant staph infection.
After seeing some photos that looked like Alex's knees, I took him to the Target clinic. They swabbed the really bad spot to be cultured and tested, and they put him on antibiotics that would work for MRSA just in case. Cory and I stocked up on bandages, antibacterial soap, and other things to make sure we did all we could to prevent the spread of MRSA. We didn't find out until Sunday afternoon that the cultures did come back positive for MRSA, and thankfully the antibiotics are working. Alex's knees are nearly fully healed! Hopefully nobody else gets this crazy stuff!

Then on Friday, Cory woke up early in the morning with a terrible case of food poisoning. We suspected the Thai food he ate at work on Thursday, and today we found out another coworker (who also ate Pad Thai) came down with identical symptoms Thursday night. Cory barely moved all of Friday. :( It did not look pleasant.

Then on Sunday we hosted a fun update BBQ for friends of ours who have been living overseas in Asia. It was great!
Before our last guests left Sunday evening, our friends Denny and Nicole stopped by to drop off their older two children. Denny and Nicole are going to Haiti with a group from our church to help with construction projects there, and we volunteered to watch Isaac (6) and Leah (4) for the 9 days they will be gone. Yes, we'll have 4 kids for a little over a week!

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Here's a photo of Alex... just because I thought he looked cute in his puppy towel after enjoying the kiddie pool. :)

This photo is of Alex and his good buddy Jerusha. They were enjoying popsicles after their end-of-year preschool program.

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Yesterday, Alex and Cory were talking, and I overheard Alex say, "When I'm a dad, do you know what car I'm going to have?"
Cory: What kind?
Alex: A hot dog car! With mustard on it. (We saw the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile in a parking lot over a year ago, but Alex still remembers it and thinks it is awesome.)

Then Alex went on to tell Cory that when he's a dad, he's going to have a Wii. Instead of buying his own Wii, he said he would take ours. When Cory protested that idea, Alex said, "Well, I'll leave you the games. I'll just take the Wii." Nice.

Half Marathon!

2010-06-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) with my friend Sena in Fargo. It was fun!
These photos were taken once we finished. Woohoo!!!

Here we are running. I'm wearing the blue shirt and pink visor.
Thanks, Sena! It was great to train and run with you!
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While we were in Fargo for the weekend, we had dinner with a high school friend and his wife, stayed at a hotel with a waterpark (Molly and Alex keep asking to go back!), and had lunch with my parents at their campsite. It was a fun weekend!

Fun Stories

2010-06-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

One day I walked past a play tent in our house and noticed there was a box inside. The box was heavy, so I took it out to see what was in it.

I opened the box, and I found quite a random assortment of things inside.

The box contained a gift bag, a mask, a toy, blue clogs, some paper, a card Alex made, Molly's pajamas, two cardboard tubes, one of Cory's shirts, and a HUGE stack of kleenex. What??? My kid (Alex) is strange. I do not remember all of these items being near each other, so it's not like he was told to clean the room and just put it all in the box. I have no idea what inspired it.

One day I walked upstairs to find this (below) on the outside of Alex's bedroom door. Yes, 3 drawings connected by sparkly pipe cleaners with 3 plastic spoons taped below. When I asked Alex what it was, he said, "You use it to knock on my door." I've left it up on his door because I think it's cute. :)

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Last night I took Molly and Alex to the Mall of America to the free Lego build event. They got to make cute little lego grills with cheeseburgers on top. On the way to the mall (only about a 15-minute drive), Molly finished reading Stuart Little. She said, "Mom, I finished Stuart Little!"
E: Great Job, Molly!
M: Are we close to the mall?
E: Yes.
M: I don't have another book with me. What will I do for the ride home?
E: You can look at the Lego thing you build.
M: That will get boring. I need another book. Mom, can we please stop at the book store and buy me another book so I have something to read on the way home?
E: Sure, sweetie.

I can't say no to books! However, Molly will soon need floor-to-ceiling book shelves in her room, I'm afraid. Yes, we do use the library (often!), but she likes to own certain books. Plus, Molly likes to have choices. She is usually in the middle of 2 or 3 chapter books at the same time, and she usually brings them all with her wherever she goes so she can choose which one she wants right then. I just bought her the entire Ramona series, but she needs more books so she can have more choices. Keeping her supplied with books this summer is going to be a challenge I think. It's a good problem to have, though! I hope Alex likes reading as much as Molly does.

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Last week, Cory was reading a bedtime story that mentioned children in a family. Alex announced that he was going to have 10 children. Cory asked why, and Alex said, "so I can have a LONG car!"
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A few days later, I was driving with Molly and Alex in back. We were taking Molly to a birthday party that was only for girls, and Alex was very upset to be left out. I started talking about how siblings should try to be happy for one another when good things happen to one of them. That led to a discussion about what the word "siblings" meant. Then Alex said, "When I am a grownup, I will have six children."
I said, "Wow, Alex. Six?"
A: Yes, six.
Molly: But Alex, then you will have to take care of them ALL, and that will be so much more work!
A: No. They will all stay together so I can see all of them at one time. Then when they are bigger, they will want to go to Mall of America with me and ride my favorite ride.

------------------------------------------
Tonight we ate corn on the cob for the first time this summer. Molly and Alex are big fans. We were all eating together and talking. Then all of a sudden, when Alex and Molly were 3/4 done eating the corn off of their cobs, Alex looked at Molly, smiled, and said, "I'm winning."
Cory said, "Alex it's not a competition... " but was cut off my Molly saying, "No, I'm winning!"
There was no stopping it... apparently the race was on. They are both so competitive!
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Alex was recently given a whoopie cushion as a party favor. He thinks they are the best toy EVER! The fun just never ends.
The cutest part is that he keeps forgetting their name, so he calls it his "squishy pillow that toots". Ha!!

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One morning on the way to school, Katy Perry's song "Hot'n'cold" was playing on the radio. Molly listened for a bit and then said, "This singer copied the song from the Chipmunks!!!" She was outraged! (The song is on the Squeakquel soundtrack, which Molly plays daily.)
I had to explain that it was really the other way around.
---------------------------------------

On day, Molly and Alex were playing with toy dragons. Their dragons are fighting each other. I overheard Alex say (as his dragon), "Well I'm going to go to God, and he has a plan for us and Jesus will come down and fight you with his light saber!"
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Mother's Day Bowling

2010-06-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

We went bowling for Mother's Day. It was really fun, and the place was empty!

We haven't taken Molly and Alex bowling many times, but we got a great deal on a summer pass to a bowling alley here so we'll be bowling a lot this summer! Molly and Alex love it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Family photo

Alex bowling

2010-06-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Alex was really fun to watch while we were bowling. He watched his ball very carefully, and he cheered when he did well. In the movie below, he had moved the ramp and lined it up all by himself before bowling.

Alex's tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy

2010-05-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

On April 19, Alex had surgery to have his tonsils and adenoids removed.
His tonsils and adenoids were enormous. They were causing him to snore, and they were affecting his speech and sleep.

This photo shows Alex waiting for his surgery at Children's Hospital. The hospital has special pajamas for the kids to wear rather than hospital gowns. I think we did a good job preparing Alex for the surgery, and he was a really brave little guy that day.

Here is Alex eating his first popsicle after surgery. He did really well that day. He finished off 8 popsicles before he fell asleep that night.

Another popsicle photo.

Now, a month later, Alex is doing really well. His throat has healed, and he's back to eating all kinds of foods. We're thankful that he had no complications or problems after the surgery. Already his speech is clearer, and he sleeps silently now.

Alex said his favorite parts of being in the hospital were eating all the bomb pops he wanted and being able to push the buttons on the hospital bed to make the head of his bed go up and down.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!
We stayed in Minneapolis this year for Easter. We took the kids to a local egg hunt, had a great brunch and Easter celebration with our church family, and enjoyed a sunny Easter afternoon with good friends.

April Fools Day!

2010-04-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

I tried an April Fools Day prank on Molly, Alex, and their friend Jerusha. Check out the video. :)

Alex at Como Conservatory

2010-04-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Every spring I love to go with friends to the Como Conservatory to see all the spring flowers. It just feels so warm and summery there. The kids love it too. Here are some photos of Alex with the flowers.

Alex and buddy Isaac

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Sneaky Alex

Alex can be kind of sneaky, and sometimes he steals things (from our house, not stores) like chocolate, snacks, balloons, bandaids, and whatever else he really wants. We're working on correcting this behavior.

Last week, Alex was acting REALLY tired all week. He was asking to be carried a lot, which isn't normal. He also begged to go to sleep without a bedtime snack or stories two nights in a row. He has never in his life asked to go to bed.
I thought he was just really overtired from vacation and probably having another growth spurt. Then Cory discovered an empty package of Children's Benadryl in Alex's favorite hiding place in our house. Yes. Alex had been drugging himself. The medicine in benadryl is the same stuff they put in Tylenol PM to make people drowsy. We had purchased the benadryl in Florida because Molly got a rash and has sunscreen allergies. Molly had been given 6 of the 18 tablets in the pack, so during the week Alex had eaten 12 of them. I'm thankful they were only Benadryl and not something that could have really harmed him!

Florida Vacation!

2010-04-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

We took a family vacation to the Florida keys in March. We had a wonderful week away. We were able to stay at a huge beach house with several of our friends and spend time enjoying the sun. We are really thankful we got to go.

The photo above was taken on the airplane when we were about to leave for Florida. Molly and Alex had been on airplanes as babies, but they of course could not remember that. They were SO excited for this trip.

Here is a photo of all of the kids (excluding baby Nora). Our friend Sara sewed all the sundresses for the girls and all of the hats for the boys. Isn't she amazing?

Here is our family at the beach.

Molly and Alex had a great time!
Other highlights included a tour of a sea turtle hospital where we got to see around 50 turtles in various stages of rehabilitation, a date for Cory and I with our friends Laura and Isaac to Key West on St. Patricks Day, time in the hot tub and heated pool at the beach house, and lots of great time with friends.

No front teeth!

2010-03-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

The other top front tooth fell out! Molly was SO excited! She took her merry time pulling this one out, too. She had a fun time showing everybody at church how her tooth was sideways and barely hanging on. Then it fell out!

Molly showing off her tooth and her tooth necklace.

Valentines

2010-03-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

Molly had a fun time making her own Valentines. Her teacher requested home made ones if possible and no candy. Two thumbs up for that!

We made Alex's Valentines for his class, too. He had to make them for ALL the kids in his class (even the ones that go there on different mornings), so it took a while...

Alex

Funny Stories

2010-03-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Infomercial Girl

Molly has been known to quote commercials and things she sees on TV.

This morning, Molly and Alex were watching TV. Cory walked into the room and saw that they were watching an infomercial for Turbo Snake, a drain cleaning tool.
Cory watched it for a few seconds and said, "That looks kind of cool."
Molly said, "Do you want one?"
C: Maybe
M: You have to be 18 years or older to buy one, so you could buy one if you wanted too. If you order right now, you can get two long ones and two short ones for the same price!

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"Stupid Little"

It's always fun to hear things you say repeated back. Alex is good at doing this to me. :)

Yesterday I was playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii with Alex. At one point, he went too fast, which made me fall off the screen and die. I had been big with fire balls, but since I died I had to come back little. I said, "Alex, slow down. You made me die and now I'm going to be stupid little again."
A minute later there was a question block with mushrooms (to make you bigger), and when I got one, Alex said, "There. Now you aren't stupid little anymore. "

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Sweet Tooth

I gave the carpool girls some gummy worms on the way home the other day. They were all talking about candy and how they liked it. One of them said they had a sweet tooth.
Molly said, "My grandpa has a sweet tooth. He likes candy a lot. His sweet tooth is silver or gold because he ate so much candy."

Actually, it's silver because of a baseball injury (is that right, Dad?) when he was a kid, but I think it's funny Molly thinks that one must be his sweet tooth. :)

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Door Alarm

Molly noticed that our fridge is equipped with a door alarm. When activated, the fridge will beep if the door is left open for more than 3 minutes. Molly didn't know that was what it was for, though.

Molly read "door alarm" and pushed the button to activate it. Then she told Cory, "Look, Dad, I turned the door alarm on. Then if we have robbers they won't be able to steal our food. If they break into our house and try to steal our food, we will hear them." Ha!

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Ice Cream

We found out this week that Alex definitely needs to have his enormous tonsils and adenoids removed. The doctor told Alex he'd get to eat a lot of popsicles and ice cream after the surgery.
Yesterday, Alex and I met some friends at Ikea. Some of his friends were going to get ice cream after lunch, and he asked if he could have some too. I told him he could if he ate his lunch. Well, Alex did not eat his lunch, so as we were leaving the cafe I told him he wouldn't get ice cream. He said, "But Mom, the doctor told me I am supposed to eat lots and lots of ice cream." Nice try, buddy. :)

Snow Fort!

2010-02-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

We have a snow fort in our front yard!

Molly and Alex were working to make it a little larger on the inside.

Molly crawling out of the snow fort.

Cory got in to help them clear out extra snow. I think he was having a pretty good time. :)

Snowball Time!

2010-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

I bought these red snowball makers/throwers on clearance at Target last March. Molly and Alex never got a great opportunity to use them until now because the snow has been too fluffy or too icy, etc. Today it is sunny and 30 degrees (balmy, right?), and they FINALLY got to make snowballs. :)

They LOVED how quickly they could make snowballs and throw them at each other. Here Alex comes to get Molly with one.

Perfect snowball!

I love the look on his face. Hee hee hee.

Another Missing Tooth!

2010-02-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Molly lost her third tooth (first one on top) a couple of weeks ago! She suddenly looks so much older, and she likes having the hole in her mouth where her tooth one was.

Yesterday, I told her I needed to get a few more photos of her with her current smile before the other top middle tooth falls out. It is really loose. As a side note: I never realized how many adults are kind of freaked out by loose teeth. A LOT of people have trouble watching Molly wiggle her tooth, and, if it starts to bleed, then even more people are grossed out. Interesting.

Alex's Art

2010-02-18T12:52:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Alex's drawings. The people he draws are about the most adorable stick figures I've ever seen. :)

One day he wanted to write the names of some of his friends.

Alex found this pony sticker and decided he wanted to make a picture for Molly. He said he wanted it to say "Birthday Party Fun", and he asked me to write those words down for him on paper so he could copy them. I love how at this age they don't really understand that we only read from left to right. I love the guy with the hair/beard. :)

Original art by Alex, who digs in our craft drawer and glues random things on paper.

Alex's obsession

2010-02-18T12:38:00.001-08:00

Alex is completely obsessed with Super Mario Brothers. He plays it both on our wii and on his DS, and it seems to consume 90% of all of his thoughts.

Alex talks about Super Mario Brothers all of the time when he's not playing it. He gets so excited when he beats Bowser and gets to a new world. One night, I got home when Alex was getting ready for bed. He ran downstairs to tell me all about how he and Daddy beat some part of the game. He was going on and on, and I decided it was time to capture it on video. Alex can talk and talk and talk about Super Mario Brothers. It's pretty funny. :)

January fun

2010-02-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

Silly Faces

Happy kids in some of their new pajamas they got for Christmas

Alex loves legos.

Alex built a lego house with a little help from Mommy

Christmas in SD (catching up)

2010-02-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

My side of the family. Merry Christmas!

Alex with Uncle Nick

Tyler with me

Grandpa took the kids out sledding and to play in the snow. He's pulling Alex on a sled in this photo. About 2 feet of snow fell over two days, and the kids LOVED playing in it!

More Christmas (catching up)

2010-02-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Molly was happy to get to feed her baby cousin Tyler a bottle.

Here are all of the great grandchildren with Great Grandma Ruth.

Uncle Lee was sweet enough to play Littlest Pet Shop with Molly. She loved it. :)

Alex was excited to try out his new Hot Wheels Track with the cool color-change cars.

The Gingerbread House

2010-02-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

I'm going to catch up on the blog. I didn't realize I still hadn't posted all of the Christmas photos!

When we first got to my parents' house, Molly and Alex decorated a Gingerbread House using a kit we had purchased on the way to SD. They loved it!

I helped Alex put lines of frosting down the gingerbread.

Molly and Alex loved decorating the house with candy.

Almost done!

This is what happens when Mommy asks them to smile nicely with their finished gingerbread house. Silly kids!

Valentines and Love Languages

2010-02-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Molly and Alex have very similar personalities, and sometimes it's scary how much Alex seems like a boy version of Molly at whatever age he is at the time.

One of their big differences is that Molly's top love language is gifts, while Alex's is physical touch. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should read Dr. Gary Chapman's book "The 5 Love Languages."

Probably because of her love of gifts, Molly tends to be a bit of a hoarder. She feels like everything anyone has ever given her is "very special" to her. Last year for Valentine's Day, she decorated a shoe box. She brought her shoe box full of valentines home from school. That first week, she looked through her valentines probably at least five times, reading each one carefully and returning them to her box. Every time I cleaned her room, I tried to get her to toss the box full of valentines, but she couldn't stand to part with them. She looked at them from time to time, too... she didn't just forget about them. I think it was October before I finally tossed her box while she was in school.

Of the 5 Love Languages, gifts definitely comes last for me. I also like organization and dislike clutter, so I struggle a bit with Molly's hoarding tendencies.

This year, Molly decorated a small paper bag for Valentine's day, and her bag full of Valentines is sitting on top of her dresser. I wonder how long it will have to stay there.

Alex decorated a small paper bag in his preschool class too. He brought his bag home after his party on Monday, looked at all of the valentines, and picked out the few pieces of candy that were attached to some of the cards. Then yesterday (without any suggestion or prompting from me), Alex dumped out his valentines and looked through them. He picked out the two pencils he had gotten and picked his favorite 3 valentines. He brought the pencils and the 3 chosen ones to me and said, "I want to keep these. I do not want the rest." He had no problem picking up the ones he didn't want and putting them in our recycling bin.

I was impressed! Yay for a non-hoarder!

More Christmas Fun!

2009-12-22T15:24:00.000-08:00

Decorating the tree!

Setting up the Little People Nativity set.

Madeleine and Alex (with Leah in the background). The kids were all playing while they waited for the church program to start.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Programs!

2009-12-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

Alex had a really fun Christmas program at his preschool. If I showed you a photo, all you'd see is just a sea of preschoolers, though. I don't have any photo-editing software that would allow me to easily circle him so you could find him in the crowd.

Our church had a really great children's Christmas program on Sunday. The kids did such a great job! It was a pretty long program, with a skit, a shadow puppet show, narration, and songs. Here is just a short clip of one of the songs:

Alex's 4th Birthday Party (2)

2009-12-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

The kids played a few games. Here they are playing "Robot, Robot, Droid!"

Here is the robot after they played, "Pin the antennae on the robot".

The kids loved hitting the pinata. Eloise hit it hard and made the legs fly off!

After a pizza lunch, we all enjoyed cake and ice cream. Alex loved his party!

Alex's Party (1)

2009-12-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

Alex wanted a Robot-Themed birthday party, so that is what he got.
It was really fun!

He REALLY wanted a Robot pinata... and that isn't something you can just go buy, so we made one.

Here's the cake I made him. He loved it!

Molly and Alex had fun coloring the robot poster for the "pin the antennae on the robot" game.

Yay for the Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Alex!

2009-12-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th Birthday Alex!
Alex is such a fun boy! He loves to be active and play. He loves to be silly and make people laugh. He likes to draw and create fun art projects. He also loves to cuddle and gives great hugs! We love you, Alex!

Alex spent his 4th Birthday at Mall of America. Kids get free unlimited rides at Nikeloden Universe on their birthdays. Mommy was sick (boo!), but Daddy was able to take a day off of work to play with Alex. Alex said he wanted a HUGE slice of pizza at the mall food court for lunch, so that's what he got. I guess he ate the whole thing, too.

Then Alex got to go on ride after ride after ride. Fun! He loves the bumper cars!

Grandma and Grandpa L came to play with Alex on his birthday too! They built cars with him at the Lego store and raced them down the ramps with Alex.

Here's a photo of the screen displaying the photo take of Grandpa and Alex on a big roller coaster. This roller coaster is Alex's favorite ride! Alex had a blast on his birthday!

North Shore Fun!

2009-12-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

In mid-November, our small group from church enjoyed a weekend on the north shore of Lake Superior together. Our friend's parents own a fantastic place there that is large enough for several families to stay. We had a great time.
Here we are sitting on the rocks right outside of where we stayed.. right on the shore of the lake.

We drove a few miles to a shoreline with tiny rocks. Cory tried to teach Molly and Alex how to skip rocks. The kids loved it.

Molly, Madeleine, and Eloise played together on a huge rock.

Molly showed me a pebble she liked.

Turkey Hats with Alex and Ru

2009-11-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

Alex and his friend Ru really love doing craft projects together. Whenever Ru is over, they both ask if I can get out a craft for them to do. Did you know that coloring does not count? No, they are almost four and want much more involved projects.

I'm thankful for familyfun.com I can usually find a good idea or two on that web site. Today's project: Turkey Hats

Aren't they adorable?!?

Legos

2009-11-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

Cory took Molly and Alex to the Lego build event at the Lego store at Mall of America. Each of the kids got to build a lego turkey to take home (free!). They had a great time, and their little turkeys are adorable.

Lego Turkey

Molly and Alex playing with their lego cars.

The lego fight

2009-11-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

Molly and Alex are getting really into building things with legos (the real legos - the tiny ones - not duplos). We only have one very small set, though, and not many fun pieces.

Today we were at the Mall of America and got some sets of wheels and some other fun pieces from the bulk bins at the Lego Store. When we got home, we made cars with the kids. Molly got some lego flowers and decided to make a flower delivery van. Alex made some other cars.

After a while, Cory and I left them playing so we could get some things done around the house. At first they played really nicely. Then we heard fighting.

Alex yelled, "Molly won't share the flowers". Molly said, "I am selling them from my van. They are one thousand ninety-nine dollars each and he only has nine ninety-nine so he can't afford them."

We told Molly to share the flowers.

Apparently she didn't share, and they both ended up kicking each other in the legs and then having time outs. Lovely.

Stories

2009-11-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

A while ago Cory was trying to convince Molly to build something other than a house with the legos so Alex could have the door piece.
Molly said, "But I have to build a house or my lego girl will have to live out in the cold."

---------------------------------------------

This evening, Alex was having a great time playing a friend's DS.
During dinner, Alex stopped eating, looked at me, and said, "I'm sorry I couldn't hold it so I peed in my underwear while I was playing the DS."
WHAT?!? I was shocked to hear him say that since he hasn't had an accident in around a year.
Me: Alex, you peed in your pants?
Alex: Yes because I was playing DS and I couldn't hold it so I peed.
Me: Alex, where were you sitting when this happened? (I was wondering if he left a puddle on our couch cushion.)
Alex: (smiles) In the chair where you are sitting now. (giggles)
Me: (thinking AAHHHHH!!!!)
Alex: You are sitting in my pee. (more giggles)

Nice. Thankfully it must have been very little and his fleece pants must have soaked it all up. Still -- Ick!

----------------------------------
Sometimes Alex and his friends have really funny conversations.

Today after preschool, Alex was telling his friend Mado how he got to go build a Lego turkey at the Mall of America last night. He told her he got a poster there, and it is HUGE. (This conversation happened in the car on the way to our house.)

Alex: I'll show you my poster when we get to my house. It is really big.
Mado: How big is it? Wait. I want it to be a surprise. Don't tell me how big it is.

We drove past our church building.

Mado: Is it as big as a church?
Alex: No but it is as big as a GIANT or an ELEPHANT!!!
Mado: Don't tell me. I want it to be a secret.
Alex: It...
Mado: Don't tell me anything about your poster. I want it to be a surprise. You can show me at your house.

Then they started talking about the car wash they saw out the window. :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Alex the monkey and Molly, as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She was Dorothy from the book (who has silver shoes) rather than Dorothy from the movie (who wears ruby slippers).

We went to quite a few different Halloween events last week. The last event was the carnival at the church where we attend MOPS. They had a lot of games the kids could play for prizes. Here Molly and Alex are attempting to bite powdered donuts off of a string without using their hands. It took them quite a while, and it was pretty funny to watch.

Happy Halloween!

Alex's hobbies

2009-11-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

This is how Alex spends many afternoons. He creates things with paper, tape, and sometimes staples. He cuts all kinds of things out with scissors. He's really pretty creative, but I never know what I'm going to find him making.

He made these.

One day he did this.

He's also quite obsessed with talking about how every animal poops. It's hard to see on the small photo, but he discovered that he could use his toy hammer to pound the edge of a dime under the white air plug on the back of his bouncy horse. Once the dime was in place, he'd bounce on the horse, and the bouncing would make it "poop" the dime. Then he'd laugh hysterically. :)

First Day of School

2009-11-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

Alex's first day of preschool.
No, he wasn't upset about going to school. He was mad at me. He bumped his head ever-so-slightly and demanded a bandaid. I told him he couldn't have one because there was no cut and there was no blood. Tantruming ensued. He cried, kicked, and screamed for a long time. Finally I decided that he needed to have a calmer, happier start to his first day of preschool, so I gave in. I gave him a bandaid, and then all was well.

Alex, with bandaid. Much better. :)

Molly on her first day of 1st grade. She was very excited.

Oh, I almost forgot one other funny part of Alex's tantrum that morning. When I first told him he couldn't have a bandaid because there was no blood, he told me "Yes there is. It is just coming out VERY slooooooowly, so you can't see it."
What a little wise guy. It was after he said that and I still wouldn't let him have one that the tantrum started. :)

Molly's Birthday!

2009-11-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Molly turned 6 on August 31. Happy Birthday, Molly!
Molly is an amazing girl. She is outgoing, caring, bright, loving, persistent, joyful, dramatic, beautiful, and a lot of fun to be around. She's a great kid, and we're thankful to have her for a daughter.

Molly wanted to have a Barbie Princess party with all girls (except for Alex). She requested a Barbie Princess cake.

Here is the cake I made for her. It's all cake and frosting from the waist down.

The kids painted crafts, played games, and hit the princess crown pinata. Here they are playing "Barbie Says" (like Simon says). Oh, and she told her friends they could dress up like princess if they felt like it.

They had pizza for lunch and then cake and ice cream.

Presents! Molly had such a fun time at her party. Thanks to all who attended!

Family Camp 7: Climbing and Rocket launch

2009-11-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Cory and I went climbing one morning for our adventure activity.

Emily on the climbing wall.

Cory doing some bouldering.

Family photo right before launching our rockets.

Family Camp 6: Horses and a Juggler

2009-11-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Alex really liked riding on a horse.

Alex and Molly got to ride on horses together!

Molly on a horse

One of the evening events was a show by Tuey Wilson. He is an amazing juggler. Here he is standing on a free-standing ladder wearing a flaming beanie and juggling flaming torches. It was impressive!

Family Camp 5: Flying Squirrel

2009-11-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

The Flying Squirrel is an adventure activity where 10 people hooked together run down a road away from a harnessed person (the squirrel). This causes the squirrel to fly up into the air. It is REALLY fun.

Cory the squirrel

Video of Emily doing the Flying Squirrel

Family Camp 4: Swimming and Rockets

2009-11-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

Alex and Molly got kickboards as prizes in their class. They loved them!
The water was so cold. Alex only lasted about 4 minutes in the water before he started shivering and begging to go back to the cabin. Molly would have spent all day swimming, though.

Each family makes rockets for the rocket launch event out of 2L pop bottles. Molly had been really involved in cutting tape and decorating our rocket, but it was taking too long so she decided to make a bracelet instead.

Alex wanted to make his own rocket with Daddy.

Family Camp 3: Zip Line

2009-11-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

From L to R: Cory, Emily, Sara, and Chris
Watch us go down the zip line!

Mini Golf and Tetherball

2009-11-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

Molly and Alex loved playing mineature golf and tetherball at family camp.

Family Camp 1: Leap of Faith and Carpetball

2009-11-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

We went to family camp in August for the 3rd time. It is such a fun week!

This year, Cory did the Leap of Faith.
In the Leap of Faith, a harnessed person climbs a 40-ft telephone pole, gets into a standing position on top of the pole, and then jumps, trying to catch a trapeze that is around 6-8 feet from the pole. Scary!

Cory climbing

Cory trying to get himself onto the top of the pole

Leap! Yes, he caught the trapeze. You can see it hanging in the upper right of this photo.

Here is Alex playing carpet ball. Carpet ball is a HUGE hit with the kids. Alex couldn't wait to finish his meals so he could go play carpet ball in the rec hall.

Daughtry!

2009-11-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

In early August, Cory and I went to a Daughtry concert. Daughtry is one of my favorite bands, and the concert was amazing. It was at a very small venue, so we were close! I'm so glad we were able to get tickets! Yay! :)

It's been a L O N G time...

2009-11-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't blogged for almost 3 months!
Why? Well, it's not that I haven't wanted to do it. Life has just been busy and other things have been more urgent. I do want to keep blogging, though, so I'm just going to do it. I'm going to try to catch up. Hang on! There are going to be a LOT of posts coming soon! Hopefully I haven't lost all of my readers. Are you still out there?

Building and Splashing

2009-08-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

Cory sent me to FL for my birthday to spend a long weekend with my good friend Joanne, who lives there.
He did a lot of fun things with the kids while I was gone.
They met some friends at Home Depot for the kid's bulding clinic. The kids got to make message boards.

Aren't Alex and Molly adorable? I love the little aprons and safety glasses. They had a great time.

Leah, Isaac, Molly, and Alex with their finished projects.

Then they went to a fun park with fountains for kids to play in. Molly jumps in!

Alex, Molly, and Isaac enjoyed the water.

South Dakota Fun #5

2009-08-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

What else do we do there? Wii, Ladderball, Carcassonne, and Settlers! We love competitive games!

My mom and I playing some Wii.

Alex, Cory, and Chuck playing Ladderball.

Alex and Cory

Sally, Alex, and I

South Dakota Fun #4

2009-08-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here Grandpa and Alex were walking to go get the tractor for tractor rides. Alex loves being in the tractor.

Alex and Grandpa

Alex and Molly love the animals, too. They love going to the chicken barn and collecting eggs. They like watching the sheep and other animals too. Here are Gretchen and Heidi, the guard donkeys. The donkeys protect the sheep from coyotes and other predators.

Sheep

South Dakota Fun #3

2009-08-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

Molly learned to make "dancing ladies" or "flower princesses" or whatever you want to call them from the flowers and buds of Grandma's hollyhocks. She LOVED this and wanted to go get more flowers and buds several times a day. I don't think there were any flowers left by the time we went home.

Molly loves picking mulberries. They are similar to blackberries, but usually sweeter.

Here Molly shows off some of the mulberries she picked.

She also got to ride in the tractor with Grandpa.

South Dakota Fun #2

2009-08-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Molly and Alex were both really excited to hold their new cousin Tyler.

Alex really wanted to feed him a bottle.... well, at least for 5 minutes. Then he was happy to pass Tyler to someone else.

Molly couldn't get enough. She was quite the little babysitter. She wanted to hold him and feed him bottles anytime she could.

When we got home, we asked Molly what she liked best of everything she had done in SD. Holding Tyler tied for first place. :)

Tyler

2009-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

My adorable nephew Tyler was baptized at my parents' church while we were in SD.

Here are Cory and I with my brother-in-law Chuck, my sister Sally, and Tyler.

We were sponsors along with Tim and Rhonda

Here are Grandpa and Grandma L with Molly, Tyler, and Alex

Here I am with Tyler. I'm glad I got to spend a lot of time with him. He lives in Montana, and he'll be much bigger the next time I get to see him!

South Dakota Fun #1

2009-08-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

We went to SD to see family. We had a fun time! In Watertown they got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Lee, go on some go-kart rides, eat some pizza, make and eat snow cones, and more. They loved it.

Molly liked playing with Taz, the dog at Cory's parents' place. Here she is with Taz and Uncle Lee.

Alex preferred the stuffed dog (wolf?).

Grandpa E. fixed up this go-kart, and Molly and Alex had a great time getting rides in it around their back lot. Here they are in the kart with Grandpa E.

Cory gave them some rides in it too. Here they are with Daddy in the kart. His parents live on the edge of the city, and they have this great back lot of grass. It's a perfect place for rides!

VBS

2009-08-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

The preschoolers had VBS in the middle of July. The theme was Veggie Tales. It was really fun.

Alex's class at craft time. Molly was a craft helper (she attended the VBS Day Camp the previous week for the older kids). The boys and girls competed to raise the most offering money to be given to the World Vision Agriculture program. The boys raised more money than the girls, so Sara was made into an ice cream sundae. The boys all got to pour chocolate syrup, sprinkles, or whipped cream on her hair as a reward. Then the girls got to "clean her off" with water baloons. Sara is a very good sport! Alex was the first boy to put stuff on Sara. He picked the chocolate syrup and had no reservations about squirting it all over her hair!

It rained one day, so the games had to be done in the community room rather than the outside. Ella and Caleb are racing to catch a fish!

The boys and girls competed to raise the most offering money to be given to the World Vision Agriculture program. The boys raised more money than the girls, so Sara was made into an ice cream sundae. The boys all got to pour chocolate syrup, sprinkles, or whipped cream on her hair as a reward. Then the girls got to "clean her off" with water baloons. Sara is a very good sport!

Alex was the first boy to put stuff on Sara. He picked the chocolate syrup and had no reservations about squirting it all over her hair!

Here is everybody watching Sara getting messy! Thanks, Sara!

Sunsets and Rock Climbing

2009-08-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

These were actually taken Easter weekend, I think. I finally uploaded all the photos from my phone and found these and the ones of Molly below. I thought the sunset was pretty, though. Usually there isn't much to see on the drive from Minneapolis to South Dakota.

Molly went rock climbing at REI this spring. Here she is getting ready to climb. She was VERY excited.

She did well!

Baby Toads

2009-08-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were geocaching near Lake Nokomis, when Molly and Alex found tiny baby toads. They picked them up and named them and wanted to keep them "forever and ever".

Guess what their names were? Mr. Hoppy-Hop and Mr. Hoppy-Hop. Yes, both the same.

These photos are from my phone, so they aren't very good. We said they could keep the toads until we got back closer to where our van was parked. Then we had them release them back by the shore. I'm not sure if the poor baby toads actually survived all of the love and cuddles they got or not. Alex actually gave his a kiss. Ick.