Friday Foto

Christmas Eve Friday Foto! (Obie is on meltdown.)

On Eggnog

Maggie: Well, it's not... awful...

Beatrice: I like it!! Dad, I like Eggnog!!

Friday Foto

Maggie has strep throat. But don't worry, she's been on anti-biotics for 24 hours now, so you won't catch it. Hopefully those other two in the picture won't catch it either. (The nurse came back in as I was snapping this photo and I felt like I'd been caught doing something naughty. Why is that??)

Friday Foto

The Holiday Express Train came through Lake City tonight, so the Library had the local model train enthusiasts put on a display. The kids watched the Polar Express, made a train craft, and best of all stayed safe and sound at the library for two hours while Rob and I went to Bronks for nachos and quesadillas.

I love our library.

Obie loves trains.

Friday Foto

Friday Foto

Almost Two

Friday Foto

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Diesel (Shouted at a passing train. Someone's been watching Thomas the Tank Engine.)

Friday Foto

Deep Questions with Beatrice

Beatrice pretty much talks non-stop. The only time she stops talking is when she's reeling in pain because she has just walked, run, jumped, slipped, slid or otherwise collided with something bigger and heavier than herself. All day long she's talking to herself or bruising herself.

Last night while I was making brownies she shouted from the other room, "Brownies!!? Why would the Browns talk to the Knees??!" Then of course she laughed uproariously for about five minutes.

Some things are just funnier when you're a four-and-a-half year-old hopped up on adrenaline.

Friday Foto

Another classic Beatrice face...

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Spice, 'Weet, Sauce. (He knows hot sauce and identifies it by "spice", but was a little thrown off by the red strawberry syrup we put on his pancakes. It took a while to convince him it's a sweet. He also calls catsup 'sauce'. )

When Beatrice was little she'd sometimes leave her juice cup sitting around for too long and then take a swig of bubbly juice. She called this "picey" and I think it's funny that she left of the 's' at the beginning while Obie leaves off the 'y' at the end.

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Crayon (Obie likes to dwaw with a trayon or makah.)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Coin. (Said while pinching his thumb and first two fingers together on both hands, as if holding coins. The big black pirate at the renaissance faire gave him two plastic gold doubloons and now he has to have one in his pocket at all times!)

Friday Foto

I haven't managed to get a Friday Foto up here in three weeks, so here are three fotos from our trip to the zoo today:

Como Zoo

St. Paul, MN

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Dere 'e is!! Deeeeee!! (exclaimed as the cat, Dee Dee, came bolting down the stairs.)

Obie's Word of the Day

I'm way behind. Obie repeats everything he hears lately, so it's hard to come up with just one word of the day, but while playing with Beatrice and his train set he came up with this one and it's great!

Obie's word of the day: Oh, man! (complete with smack to the head!!)

Friday Foto

Friday Foto

Yesterday was way too hot to stick around here in our old house, so we headed out to find some air-conditioned fun.

House of Bounce

Rochester, MN

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Red. (I pulled a row of icee-pop popsicles out of the freezer and asked him which one he wanted, just like I ask the girls. He pointed to the red one and said, "red." He is a brilliant 22 month old!)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Not me!! (Who forgot to flush the potty?? Not ME!!!)

Friday Foto

Here's my band of happy ragamuffins.

Warm summer days certainly seem to make them filthy. I can't even identify half that dirt. Or the location of Obie's other shoe.

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Bless You. (Today is a high pollen count day, everyone is telling mama bless you.)

Obie's begun stringing words together in sentences lately. Of note, "C'mon, kitty." He also says Beatrice, Maggie, and Mommy instead of their shortened versions. He adds lots of y's to the end of words. My favorite is "gummy" when he wants a piece of candy.

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Michael. (He also shouts, "Hi, John!" at Michael's brother.)

Friday Foto

Okay, okay, I know it's already Saturday, but I was planning to post this yesterday.

It's too good to pass up!

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Bang!! (said while brandishing an orange cap gun.)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Trash. (He doesn't want Bee to throw away the empty floss container. "No trash!")

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: All Gone. (Pretty self-explainatory, anything that he's eaten all of, used up, was empty to begin with, or has disappeared from sight is all gone. Usually said with both hands palm up at his shoulders.)

Sand Castle vs. Obie

Last week we went to Hok-Si-La beach to build sand castles as part of the reading program. For some reason it didn't enter my mind to bring towels or swim suits or water or any useful thing that you would normally bring to the beach, except for small shovels and rakes - to make the castles with. We did put on sunscreen, though, and I brought the camera.

Maggie was disappointed that the sand wouldn't pop out of the castle-shaped bucket in a perfect castle shape, so she soon abandoned castle making to gather seaweed. She constructed a T-Rex nest, heart shaped, you know, because a mama T-Rex surely has a tender side.

Beatrice went for the scooping-sand-into-a-mound style of sand castle and then collected trash, ahem, treasures to decorate it with.

And here's Obie standing next to the one semi-successful attempt to dump the sand out of the bucket in a shape. Beatrice stood next to her castle for pictures, so he wanted to stand next to this one.

And Maggie sat in her nest, so Obie wanted to sit in this castle, too. I said, "no, no, no". But he wanted to sit down anyway.

Can you guess what he's thinking?

Friday Foto

We had our last three days of the Summer Reading Program this week and I just happened to snap pictures of all three kids at all three events! WOW!

Building sand castles at Hok-Si-La Beach.

Playing in the gazebo at Patton Park.

Coloring pictures while waiting to cash in their Splash Bucks.

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Me!!!! (At breakfast time he ran into the kitchen yelling, "EAT!!!!" and when I asked, "Who wants cereal?" Beatrice and Obie both said, "ME!!!")

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Yuck, Ewww, Gross, Flush (Yep, still potty training. He hasn't had an accident all day, and we left the house for four hours!)

Friday Foto

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Pig. (Pronounced pee-ugh. The book read at library time today was Pigs to the Rescue.)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Bye-bye, Poopie. (That's right, Potty Training is going GREAT!)

A Busy Week

Here is a little glimpse of all the things we had to do this week. Actually, I don't have any pictures from Maggie's Art Camp, so it's not "all the things" we had to do this week, but several of them. On Wednesday the girls and I got to take a spin on the local paddle boat, The Pearl of the Lake, as part of the summer reading program. The girls were very excited to go on a boat ride, especially since we drive by the boat everytime we go to lake city and they always sigh from the back seat, "I wish I could ride on that boat!" One life goal down!

Riding on a boat, even for just half an hour, made me seasick. I spent the evening with a headache! But the girls enjoyed the first few minutes of it before they got bored and hungry.

This weekend was the Lake City Water Ski Days festival. We took the kids into town on Saturday and looked the event over, got a big lemonade and a funnel cake, and let the kids ride a few rides and spend a dollar to bounce in the inflatable house.

Riding around on the carousel for three minutes also made me seasick. I also got a mean sunburn on my neck. I'm quite a sorry case.

And today was the wrap-up for Vacation Bible School. Here are Maggie and Bee with all of their food themed crafts that they made this past week. They each stood up with their class and sang three songs and said their memory verses. Then they got to proudly display their things to all of the congregation. Beatrice is still trying to gnaw her way through her stale froot loop necklace!

Next week we still have some things to do for the reading program, but it will be much slower. And with zero humidity and temps in the upper 70's, I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing week!

I'm also planning not to get seasick.

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Notebook. (Thanks, Blues Clues!!)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: There you go. (Pronounces Deh jee goh and usually said as he's handing someone something they may want - like a toy - or may not want - like that chewed up piece of meat he just spit out.)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day: Watch. (As in watch as I climb to the top of the couch and roll off, or watch as I fling myself down in the bathtub and create a tsunami!!)

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie's word of the day is: Please. (Pronounced peeesh.)

Toad Games

This week is a busy week. Maggie has Art Camp in the mornings, both girls have VBS in the afternoons, and all three kids have numerous events for the Library's Summer Reading Program (most exciting of those: a ride on the local paddle boat tomorrow!!). While that means a lot of running around and gallons of gas zooming out of the minivan, it also means that for two hours in the morning Beatrice gets to be the biggest girl in the house. (And for two and a half hours in the afternoon, I get to put Obie down for a nap and be childless!! Childless!!!) Beatrice is a girl who really likes her space. She loves her brother and sister, but you can tell that she really enjoys, relishes even, the time she gets to play just by herself with her imagination. She hosts Pet Shop Tea Parties, rescues Zelda from the dungeon, joins the circus, or just gathers up every stuffed cat in the house (all nine million of them) and lines them up and has them all carry on intricate, squeeky-voiced conversations. Her imagination is boundless and those cat conversations are usually hilarious!

So yesterday she was spending her morning quality alone time outside and I didn't bother to check on her. She's safe here, she knows the rules and boundaries, and I don't worry too much. When she finally came in for a snack I asked her what she'd been doing. "Playing toad games," she said. My girls can find a toad within 2.5 seconds of going out into the yard. So I asked her, "Oh, did you find a new toad," because the one from the previous day was left out in the sun and even though we'd had a lengthy conversation that morning about how to take care of toads, where not to leave them, when to let them go, how they are our friends and good for our garden, and how it makes mommy really, really angry when they let a toad die from negligence, I didn't really trust that Beatrice had remembered all of that conversation. She said, "No, with the dead one." I said, "Ew. Go wash your hands." And I didn't think much more about it, except possibly that I needed to go find the dead toad and drop it in the mulch pile.

An hour later when we went to get Maggie from class, I popped out the door to find this waiting for me on the sidewalk:

Toad Games, indeed.

*Sigh*

Obie's Word of the Day

Obie has hit the stage in toddler development where he learns a new word almost everyday - sometimes several new words in one day. In the past week I've noticed him saying bubble, spicy, cold, choo choo, book and many others I can't think of right now. I thought I'd try to document the new words he's learning so that one day I can tell him all about how smart he was.

Without further ad0, Obie's word of the day is: Apple

Friday Foto

It's time for the summer reading program at our library. The theme is "Splash Into Reading" and one of the projects was to make a paper bag fish. You can see that Maggie made a shark and Beatrice made a princess fish. And Obie really likes saying, "Cheese!!!"

Friday Foto

Eating popsicles and playing Nines with Grandma Supan.

Slightly Modest

It's hot here. Very hot. Waaay to hot to live in a hundred year old house without Air Conditioning. So to get through these next two days of heat wave I bought a little plastic pool for the kids to splash around in. As soon as breakfast was over this morning the girls were in their suits and out the door.

Obie wanted to go too and brought me his swim trunks, but he must be feeling a little bit self conscious around his mama because when I stripped off his diaper he shouted, "No Nake!!" and grabbed the closest thing to him to cover up with.

Who would have guessed that a little pink Polly Pocket princess dress would fit right over a toddler winky??

Friday Foto

Monday Movies!

Here's a little movie I took at Maggie's soccer game this past Saturday. I used our regular camera, but it came out alright. Maggie is number 1. She did a lot of falling down during the game. Mostly she stopped the ball by sliding into it. This week at home we're going to work on running and stopping before she falls down. The kid has hustle, though, that's for sure!

Hailey is number 6, and Avery is number 4. The other kids on her team are Mackenzie, number 2 and Maggie's friend as well as the coach's daughter, Sam is number 5, and Caleb is number 3. The team we played this week was pretty equal in skills to our team. Last week Maggie made a break away goal! (The team they were playing wasn't very good.) The week before that the team they played was very good - with a couple of very big boys who seemed to have been born playing soccer. So this last game was fun because neither team was being beaten to a pulp. Maggie has two more games and I'll bring the video camera next week to try and get a better movie.

Enjoy!

Friday Foto

MN Children's Museum

We took a trip up to the Twin Cities last Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day and Rob's Birthday. In between what Rob wanted to do and what I wanted to do, we squeezed in something for the kids: The Minnesota Children's Museum.

Look! A Mouse!!

Excavating!!

Maggie Turtle

Beatrice Turtle

We bought a season pass and I'm certain we'll be going back often!