This little boy

The little boy who melts our hearts, day in and day out. 

The one who tests our patience and pushes the limits. 

He's sweet and kind and horrible and naughty, all wrapped up into one. 

I don't wear rose colored glasses...this little boy drives me batty sometimes! Really, I could cry at how naughty he can be (typical preschool behavior, don't get terribly alarmed as I'm being overly dramatic..... like running at lightening speed through Kohl's giggling as I dodge racks and storage carts trying to catch up to him!). But man alive he is sweet as sweet can be sometimes. And I know just how precious these years are, seeing as though we have one already in middle school. 

So lately, I am doing my best to s-l-o-w down. Like really slow down and "smell the roses". It's not easy, but now with the end of softball, I hope to find more time to just 'be'. Most recently, our bedtime routine is one that brings me back to his newborn days when I found myself gently running my finger across his cheeks and eyelids as they fell heavy and he would fall asleep. He's now requesting I do this to him....."wets do dat to my face" referring to wanting his face tickled. And I can watch his body relax as his eyelids fall heavy again, just like they did when I could cradle him in one arm. 

He's just so darn adorable, at the end of the day, it really makes all the naughty go away. Especially when he presents me with a "welly pwetty fower for you" (really pretty flower for you). 

Oh my sweet little boy, we love you so much!  

Glimpse into our day

We're moderately overbooked at the moment. And I'm doing all I can to keep it in check. Sometimes I barely can communicate all of the happenings to Ryan, and he's left looking at the calendar in real time texting me with a "what in the world does _____ mean?" ha!!

 

Today was one of those days:

Sidney had a well-child doctor appointment, at the same time Lincoln had swimming lessons. So I dropped off Regan at school, headed to swimming while Ryan headed to the doctor with Sidney before bringing her to school. So far so good, all was on track :)
 

From there, we picked up lunch and put it in the pre-packed cooler in the car for later (I'll get to that part in a moment). Lincoln and I dashed across the city to his Early Childhood Screen with the school district where he impressed both myself and the teacher with his smarts. I have to brag just a little, the teacher came over to me at the end and says "You guys must talk to him a lot, and read to him. He uses sentences that include the word "actually!"". I giggled inside :) He has 2 very verbal older sisters, sometimes he also uses words that he shouldn't!

About at that moment, Ryan sent a text...."where are you?" "Why does he need to do this?". Turns out, I had forgotten to share (or he had missed seeing) the paperwork that came in the mail, the multiple forms laying on the counter over the last 2 months, and the note sitting next to all of it reminding me to grab his birth certificate. *face palm*

 

Thankfully, with flying colors, he passed his screen and we were on to our next adventure: Lunch with Sidney at school to celebrate her birthday!! Oh, and might as well sign up to read to her class too! Sure was a full morning! Ryan gladly handed that duty over to me, exclaiming "those 3rd graders probably read better than I do"! ha. At least he knew where I was headed this time.
Excuse the mouthful of food and crazy faces, the picture is too funny to keep to myself.
 

By 1:30 we were home and it was nap time. Unfortunately, by 3pm, Regan was no where in sight (she had instructions to walk home since there wasn't cross country) so I plucked Lincoln out of his crib in search of her wanderings after school. Ryan got a few frantic texts from me, as he sat helpless in a meeting. I was the crazy mom, worried sick that my child had been picked up in a windowless van. Rest assured, she was just fine. Sitting safely outside the elementary school exclaiming she didn't feel like walking home so was waiting at the elementary school for me at pick up (they get out almost an hour later). more *face palms*; slight miscommunication.  

 

We managed to sit as a family of 4 around the dinner table (Ryan had to work late), but I call it a win. I made dinner, like a real dinner, instead of the eat on the go sort of a dinner like we had been eating ALL.WEEK.LONG. And we were mostly all around the same table. Score! Regan and Sidney convinced me to take them to the high school football game along with a slew of friends so we headed there to wrap up our chaotic day. Friday night lights anyone? In doing the math, I'm pretty sure this will be my spot for close to the next 20 years. And that's not much of a joke!

 

 

We had fun, we are figuring out a new schedule and getting into a rhythym. Soon we'll all know where we are headed and why we are going there. Hopefully we'll have a few less messages asking "what in the world does _____ mean?"!!

First day of school 2017

With the calendar moving into September, we've had the "unofficial" start of fall....the beginning of school. Labor day weekend came and went (insert tears!), and the kiddos all started a new journey in their school careers. We now have 3 pick ups and 3 drop offs each and every day (insert more tears!). We're working over-time here folks and wishing with all our might that we could hire an afternoon nanny to manage the chaos from 2:30-4:30pm! Wishful thinking. 

With the new year, brought Regan to a new school. She entered middle school and left the familiar faces of elementary school behind. Sixth grade has all sorts of adventures waiting for her and she was eager to get started. Few nerves and no tears (on her part...I may have shed a few as I dropped her off on that first day). 

Sidney continues in her elementary school, this year with a homeroom teacher above all the rest. We hit the jackpot again by scoring the same 3rd grade teacher that Regan had. We adore her and cannot wait to hear all about Sidney's 3rd grade stories. 

Lincoln, although is in the same school, moved up to the big kid preschool room. He was hesitant, but excited, for his new journey and surprisingly, let me leave without crying and outstretched arms! I was shocked. My baby is growing up and I'm so glad he feels secure in his school, because it sure makes me feel far less guilty leaving him! 

Here's to a new school year! 

Birthday Girl-Sidney turns 9!

Our sweet Sidney lucked out and turned nine on a weekend :) That meant we had more than one day to celebrate, and we took advantage of that little fact. I asked her what we should do for a birthday treat, and being the kind hearted girl that she is, her request was "will you please make a cake so that Lincoln can eat it too?". 

Tears welled up as I thought about how thoughtful that tiny statement was. She could have asked for anything, and her single request was to be sure her little brother could also enjoy it. I'm so glad our kiddos have their values in check :) 

And so, I obliged and made a "safe for Lincoln" cake, with white frosting and sprinkles (her choice)! They all devoured a piece as quick as possible as we sang Happy Birthday and Lincoln took the opportunity to beat her at blowing out candles (for the record, she was pretty hot about that fact!). 

Our full of spunk little girl is growing up so quickly and each day, she brings a huge smile to our face, laughter in our house and the day wouldn't be complete if she didn't make a statement that made us roll our eyes and shake our heads. "She's something else", is the most common statement out of my mouth. That girl is a hoot!! 

Nine things we love about her: 

* she's energetic. 

* she's creative, and as a result, is fun to be around. 

* she's a magnet with loads of friends because of her lovable personality

* she's sweet (need I say more?)

* she is funny! 

* her smile is contagious and big. 

* she loves her siblings (most of the time) and knows how to get them engaged

* she's willing to try new things from food to sports. New is exciting to her

* she's independent and responsible---making my life far easier! 

Where has the time gone? 

Happiest of birthdays Sidney!! Love you! 

Birthday eve

How can it be, this little spit fire, crabby little baby is about to turn NINE!? 

Sidney came out looking crabby (we use another word usually). But really, she did look cranky. Always had a scowl on her face. Her birth story is one to laugh at: in a nutshell, I went into labor at work of all places. In my office, just as a patient was leaving. My water broke and I promptly hoovered myself over my garbage can while holding up my dress. A lovely sight I'm sure (thankful for solid wood doors!). After getting a nice escort to the birth unit upstairs, Ryan racing to get to the hospital, was told the wrong room and entered only to see another mom named Liz waiting to give birth.
We like to keep things exciting :) 

I'm so thankful that crabby baby of ours finally started to get happier (it took a few years!). And that after 5 months she finally managed to sleep somewhere other than my arms. She made us work, that sweet Sidney of ours! And it blows my mind that tomorrow she turns 9....where did all of the time go?! 

Happy Birthday Eve Sidney! 

Last week of summer: Part 2 of 2. Labor Day weekend 2017

Our family looks forward to Labor Day weekend all year long. That's not even exaggerating. Each year as we drive home from the lake, there are sounds of sadness echoing throughout indicating it's going to be another 12 months before Labor Day returns. Honest. And then, every spring, the kids start to bounce around, eager for warm weather, and it's generally not long before we hear "I can't wait to go to the lake!". They love it that much. And we do too. 

So when my dad passed away this spring, one of the first questions we had to field was "will we still get to go to the lake?". Pulled on our heartstrings like you wouldn't believe. My mom (and brother) assured the kids that "yes, indeed", we would be going back to the lake. 

I'm not going to lie. It was hard on the 3 of us (my mom, brother and myself). I would imagine they did the same as I, and had a few moments of deep sadness with an ugly cry, thinking about being at the lake without dad. To give a brief history, my parents brought us to a variety of resorts across northern MN while we were growing up. Often along with the same crew that we now spend Labor Day weekend. Hence, doing something that we knew he would so dearly love, was difficult to do without Papa beside us. But, we all pulled up our bootstraps, and if for no other reason than the kids, we put on a smile and packed up for the cabin. 

We ventured back to Lake Osakis to create new memories and reminisce at our old ones. We had a dreary night upon arrival, and my uncle Gary later admitted he wondered what his brother (my dad) was thinking as we all headed to the cabin just in time for a downpour.....imagine he would have said something along the lines of "good luck guys!" So we hung around inside for most of the night and the kids enjoyed the indoor pool. 

Thankfully, the remainder of our weekend had spectacular weather. I can't remember a Labor Day weekend with a string of gorgeous-sunny-beautiful days like we experienced this year. Because my parents did such an amazing job of showing us how much fun lake life is while we were children, my goal is to do the same for our kids. It seems that being at the lake should be something along the lines of: fish, swim, tube, boat ride, repeat. Toss in a nightly campfire, complete with s'mores, and you've got yourself the epitome of a perfect Labor Day weekend. So we did just that. 

My brother opted to rent a pontoon for the weekend and boy did we enjoy being out on the lake together. It was a first for me (I've never been on a pontoon!), and a first for the kids as he let them drive!! It didn't come without a little fiasco of it's own when we couldn't get it started Saturday. Once again, we looked up to the sky and wondered what dad would be thinking/telling us. Later in the day, when Ryan/Shane tried to take out the kids in Gary's boat for an afternoon of tubing, they experienced their own boat debacle. This was worse because they were not tied up to the dock and instead were quickly being pulled out with the wind. Ryan later admitted that someday we'll look back at this year and say "remember the shit show with the boats that first year we didn't have Leo with us?". We sure missed him in so many ways-not only emotionally, but also his expertise, his sense of humor (he was known to dance like crazy inside a cabin), and his overall presence. 

We tried our best to have a good time, and I know the kids were beyond thrilled to be at the lake over Labor Day. I, for one, am happy to have that "first" behind us. I'm glad we went, we did truly have fun, and I know we will all look forward to our next trip to the lake. 

 

...until next year. 

MN State Fair 2017

As per tradition, we headed to the Great MN Get together once again this year. I like to think that we experience more than food, but it seems to be that we continue to simply eat our way through the fair year after year. Sure we see animals, and shows, take in some tunes and look at exhibits, but the food is really what draws us there. 

Lincoln just loved the fair this year. We started off with a Sky Glide ride and loved every minute of it. This was new to me (and him) and we enjoyed seeing the fair from above. Plus I'm really glad we got to do something new! We also took in the dog-dive show this year. 

The kids went on a few rides (thankfully not nearly as many as year's past....let's face it, I'm over it when it comes to the fair). As far as I'm concerned (taking safety into consideration here too) Valleyfair is for rides, the State fair is not! But I obliged and we spent some time at the kidway. 

Ryan and all the kiddos went down the giant slide, something I tend to try most years as well but opted to take pictures this year instead :) I loved seeing all of their smiling faces coming down, almost better than being on the ride itself is watching their reactions. 

Lincoln is prone to accidents lately and he wiped out pretty hard, skinning up his elbows. Luckily his timing was perfect, he managed to trip over his own feet right next to the First Aid building so we quickly bandaged him up and were on our way. 

....to find more food. Seriously, we eat a lot but I managed to come home feeling hungry! Cheese curds, peanut logs, toasted almonds, french fries, turkey sandwich, Scotch eggs, big pickles, hot dogs and pronto pups....that just names a few of the items sampled by our crew :) YUM!!