First day of Preschool!

It went off without a hitch! We DID take pictures on the Nikon to ensure quality photos for the day my desktop Dino is Re-assembled for uploading/Shutterfly-print-ordering purposes, but in the inevitable chaos of new-house-where-is-my-stuff?-kids-slept-in-on-the-first-day-of-school business, I don't have a pic for you. Not sure how I forgot to snap an iPhone pic, but I did!

The fellas nearly RAN down the hall toward their lockers and showed us (bc Hubs and C came too) how to hang their coats and backpacks in their lockers and barely said goodbye before joining the ranks to say the Pledge of Allegiance (are you kidding me?! The Pledge!!!) with the 4th and 5th graders. Unbelievable!

I got my first taste of being a mom of school aged kids today, too, after picking them up and asking what they did. I suppose I should know better! All I got out of them was that they had cupcakes for snack. Such men.

Their teacher just handed me a stack of papers to fill out and sign (should have seen that coming) and said, "they did great." My first grade teacher sister assures me that it means they did great. Whew!

Looking forward to Thursday morning, when I drop them off again and take C to the Mecca:Meijer! (For my non-Michigan friends, it's like Super Target or Super Wal-Mart on steroids. They sell everything, including hunting equipment. I know because I was with someone who shall remain nameless and bought my brother camouflage hunting bibs for Christmas there. It's HUGE.)

In case you are wondering what I did with my "free" time this morning, Aunt M and I unpacked like crazy ladies for two hours, getting the boys' bedroom and laundry/mud room/entrance in working order. Thanks, M! I'll post pics soon, I promise!

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Remember that song?  It reminds me of high school because that was the theme song for our end of the year...thing.  Talent show?  Is that what it was?  I wonder if they still do "Celebration"?  My sister graduated to that tune this week, but before I tell you about that, the boys have been very busy...and it's not Christmas yet!!

This weekend, we took the boys to see Santa at the Mall of America.  It didn't turn out exactly how we expected, but what does?  We got to eat free Cinnabon rolls and hear an elf read a story and stick stickers all over a coloring page, which was probably better than actually sitting on Santa's lap!

Yum!  N gobbles up the Cinnabon.

With our friends coloring and listening to the story.

M's blond head running by Santa...as close as we got!

Listening to the elf story on Daddy's lap is more like it!

Woah!  Roller coasters!  Can we go, Daddy?  Please?

M and Aunt L waiting while Daddy bought the ride tokens.

"Big Rigs," their favorite ride!  Daddy and M in red, Aunt L and N in blue.

Even though we generally avoid the MOA in December, it was a fun outing because we started early in the day and didn't actually shop.  It was so fun to hang out with our friends and cruise the mall - the boys gawk and gawk, taking it all in!  They even behaved well at the restaurant for lunch despite it not being fast food! 

Daddy and Aunt L took the boys to Macy's holdiay display in Downtown Minneapolis when I went to watch my sister graduate nursing school on Tuesday night.  While they enjoyed the display, they again elected to NOT see Santa, despite hearing that he's the best Santa in all the world.  Maybe next year.

Daddy said they were "mesmerized" by the singing trees!

N was so enamored with his fun day with Daddy and Aunt L on Tuesday, he refused to nap, then passed out in Daddy's arms right after dinner.  So sweet. 

Then I'm told he gave them trouble at bedtime!  Haha, they were well taken care of and I got to see my baby sister accomplish her dream of finishing nursing school!  Congratulations!  Love you and see you again next week, when you'll be employed!  I'm believing she'll make you and offer you can't refuse - way to rock that interview! 

Me and my baby sis M at her "pinning ceremony" Tuesday night, right before she danced down the aisle!

Come on and Celebrate!

Parent-Free Vaca

It seems appropriate that the boys' vacation should be called Parent Free if ours was Adults Only, right?  We left them in the competent hands of my parents and sister-in-law, as well as my parents and sister.  They traded back and forth!

The first day, I called right away to check on them.  Aunt L told me that N cuddled with her in the morning, asking "Daddy ok?"  Yes, she told him, Daddy's ok.  "Mommy ok?"  Yes, Mommy's ok, too. "Ok."  He was satisfied with that.

A dream come true for N!  He got to open and close the door 100 times - AND sing "wheels on the bus!"

I guess they didn't miss us too much after that.  M waved to the photo my mother-in-law keeps on an endtable in the living room "Hi Mommy!  Hi Daddy!"  He also told them that "Daddy at work at the airport," and "Mommy in the other room."  I was in the other room for 5 days, but he didn't seem to mind!

M ate the WHOLE thing!  Free popsicle day at Junction Valley Railroad

The fellas went on more excursions than we did!  They played at a neighborhood playground, rode the quarter sized trains at Junction Valley Railroad, ate at Zehnder's and took a carriage ride in Frankenmuth, swam at Sanford Beach, AND visited the Saginaw Children's Museum!  Whew, I get exhausted just thinking about it!  The boys are sleeping like rocks this week, so I guess they're recovering from the vacation as well. :)

tractors and busses and grandpa, oh my!

a little unsure of that tunnel coming up...

all smiles on the carriage ride with a horse named Ernie

we love chicken, yes we do, we love chicken, how about you?

I'm having difficulty recovering the pics of the boys at Sanford Lake with my folks and my sister, but Aunt M told me this: that they played at the splash park then had lunch.  A fence separated the picnic area from the beach. M said, "going to the beach!" and slipped between the posts, running toward the water.  My sister said her great big skinny little behind couldn't fit through the rails, but she pushed her way through because she wouldn't make it to the end of the fence to go through the gate before he hit the water!  She told him they had to finish lunch first and dragged him back.  My brilliant son told her upon returning to the picnic, "Going to the beach!" and did it again!  This time, lunch was finished and they schlepped the beach chairs and whatnot to the sand.

"Why did you bring those?" my mom asked her, indicating the chairs.

Aunt M told her she always brings them, that HER sons play in the sand and splash in the water while she reads a trashy novel  magazine.

Needless to say, Aunt M didn't get any reading done.  In fact, she never unfolded a chair.

Heh, heh.

We'll see if they're up for it again next summer because we've already made reservations for two in Kona because the boys had so much fun they're already asking for vacation again!

Update: Here are the Sanford Lake pics - it was near 100 degrees that day, extremely hot for MI!  What a great way to stay cool!

M likes to give his trucks a bath

N on two feet, though I'm told he liked crawling like a dog in the water.  Go figure.

Cornfest Parade and Trolls

We are visiting Michigan just in time for viewing the Auburn Cornfest Parade and Downtown Midland Trolls with the grandparents and great-grandparents!  What fun we had today!

Ready and wating!  M points out the fire engines as they make their way toward us.

N jumped into my lap the second the first engine blasted its horn!  A dum-dum made it all better quickly.

M was GLUED to Aunt M's lap for most of the parade, a bit leery of the fire engines as well.

Cousin E and Grandma collected enough candy to fill the entire Happy Meal box!

Floppy hats and free popsicles help beat the heat

For dinner we met our other great-grandma in downtown Midland to share some pizza and check out the new troll sculptures on display. 

E gets to make his own pizza: pepperoni and "a couple of black olives"

"I love pizza - crust, that is!"

I'm so hungry I'm gonna eat this plate! It sure beats that salad.

M got a little push from Cousin E

My dad and his long lost twin - he's wearing brown in case you couldn't tell!

Cutie Patootie N loves his Papa!

"Smile!" E tells his little cousins. 

Great Grandma K, Grandma K, and the cutest troll we found!

Gimme a kiss!  N tried kissing almost every troll!

We always have fun when we travel to Michigan to visit our families, but it's extra special when we're in town for some of our favorite old "local" events like the Cornfest Parade (I once marched in it!) and the yearly art displays on Main Street.

Way Back Wednesday

Hee, hee,hee!  I haven't seen this pic in years, but found it on my sister's laptop this week!  Three years ago, my two sisters visited me in MN.  Here we are playing lawn bowling at Brit's Pub!  Oh, boy, was that ever fun! (That's me, Patti, and Megan from L-R)

Bookworms

Cousin S, Aunt M, our little M, Grandma and Grandpa K with N, and cousin E on the floor at the Grace A Dow Memorial Library in Midland this weekend.  What a FANTASTIC kid's section they have!  Midland Mommy friends, you should know that you are blessed with a state-of-the-art children's library.  I haven't seen anything like it around here!  I remember studying there from time to time in college, but I never spent much time perusing the kids' section - wow.  The boy cousins had a lot of fun reading, playing puppets, trains, toys, and roaming the aisles.  I even taught my nephew how to use the "card catalog" (it's the little sign taped to the screen of the computer!) to find his Scaredy Squirrel books.  Project Bookworm appears to be working. 

Mid-Michigan Children's Museum

After a grueling okay, mostly boring 12 hour drive, we made it back to home-sweet-home last night with enough time to whip up a frozen pizza and bathe two little wrestling baby alligators before bed.  Now that I've had a good night's sleep and got some laundry going, I thought I'd pop in and show you a few pics from our super-fun morning at Mid Michigan Children's Museum with the aunties, uncies, and cousins.

Green means Go!

Vroom!  Vroom!  Mommy and N on the go-cart

N and the cousins posin' for a pic

N, M and Aunt L lost in the maze

Moooove Over!  Daddy and M

Drying off after the waterworks

L listens for her sister-to-be

Busy Boys

Too little, too late, sis!

My sister got some funny ones of us trying on outdated spectacles at the "optometrist's" and I got one of my brother in law weighing himself on the real scale at the "doctor's!" but I'm too nice (*snicker, snicker*) to post it.  And I know my sister would KILL me if I posted the measurement of her belly pic!  The kiddos had a great time, but we had to skedaddle out of there early b/c my little fellas can't maintain the crazy pace set by their big cousins.  They stayed and played even longer! 

This is seriously a very cool place to take the kiddos and I'm sure we'll be back!  Love you, sisters! Thanks for the good time!

Children's Garden

Thanks for sending my USB cord, Mom!  Now I can tell my clamoring audience all about our trip to Dow Garden's Children's Garden last week with Uncle D, Aunt M, and cousins S and E, and Aunt L, too!

You might remember me telling you that we have a special place in our hearts for Dow Gardens.  Hubs proposed to me there - roses, one knee, the whole works!- and we had wedding photos taken there, too. 

(Sorry...I use every excuse I can to post skinny pics!)

I also use every excuse I can to get back there when we visit MI, so when my fab sis invited me and the boys to go to the Children's Garden with her family, I jumped at the chance!  In the summer, they have a section dedicated just for kids to visit a real garden - complete with vegetables they can pick and eat (but no more than you can fit in your hand).  Families can sponsor a garden patch where they can grow and pick all their own veggies...that's where the adorable scarecrows are located!

The big boys teach the little boys how to wash a GIANT pig.  

They'll need to know that someday...uh, huh.

E shows me and M a flower

M swiped this cherry tomato while walking by and ate it right off the vine!

Cousin S's favorite place in the garden is a beautiful arch covered in grapevines...M tried a sour grape!

N wasn't too crazy about the sour grapes, either.

Uncle D and N find the goofiest scarecrow!

S shows us how to make the biggest bubble ever!

S as Johnny Appleseed - being the tallest has advantages, you know!

Aunt L and M with a scary Vikings scarecrow

All that gardening makes us really hungry, Mom.  How about our first ever Happy Meal?