Very true . . . .

"What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
– Ann Landers

10 years

10 years - that's how long it seems it has been since my last post, oh, and that is how long we've been married!!!  Holy buckets, that is a long time!  So what did we do to celebrate our big milestone . . . we went out for a "free" dinner on Trav's company (he won a gift card about 7 months ago and we just finally found the time, and a babysitter, to free up some time to use it).  We were gone for a total of 3 hours, and it was 3 of the most relaxing hours we've had in a long time - no kids, no sharing my food, and a LONG time to just sit and enjoy a meal - how exciting!  In addition to our night out, we also had to buy another unexpected "anniversary" gift - a washer and dryer.  Again, talk about exciting!  I guess it is about time though considering our old set was 18 years old, and started leaking water like crazy.  It took some convincing on my part to get Trav to agree to both a washer and dryer (technically the dryer still "works", it's just not real efficient), so after a bit of discussion, we settled on one that we are hoping gets us through the next 18 years - I'll keep you updated on that.  In addition to our anniversary, we've been staying busy, busy.  Between the kids' soccer, play dates, and swimming, I feel like we are on the run all the time.  But, things will be slowing down a bit after this week.  Soccer will end which means we'll have four extra "free" days with no commitments - it will be nice, but also challenging to find activities to keep them busy.  I'm anticipating lots of play dates, more trips to St. Peter to enjoy Grandma and Grandpa's pool, and maybe a few visit to catch up with old friends.  Hard to believe there are only 6 more weekends left before summer is over - where does the time go?  Here's hoping we can make the most of the remaining days of summer, then it's back to school - so not ready for that yet!

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

We've spent a couple of days having fun at Grandma and Grandpa's pool and apparently I have failed to post any of the pictures I took, so here they are . . . the first is a picture of the proud grandparents with all 6 of their grandchildren (#7 will be here soon enough - Sept), and once she arrives, we have all decided that it would be very special for Grandma and Grandpa to have all the grandkids to themselves for an entire weekend - won't that be fun!  Just kidding, no one deserves that kind of punishment - could you imagine, 3 under the age of 1, 2 under the age of 2, and a 4 and 7 year old - not my idea of a relaxing weekend.  

Not sure if Mom and Dad could have ever imagined having so many grandchildren, and so fast.  After Ryan and Lauren, it has been a rapid fire of new additions . . . Ellie, Colt six months later, Charlotte and Avery 17 months after that, and soon to be baby Kleist just 6 short months after the twins - holy buckets can those Loken kids reproduce!

And here are a couple of pictures from this past weekend.  The kids and I spent a day at the pool with some friends on Friday, then ended up spending the night because no one wanted to leave.  Ellie had a "special" look the weekend . . .

The majority of the time she couldn't even see out of the goggles because they were so fogged up, but she sthill insisted on wearing them - whatever makes her happy I guess!  And yes, she is naked.  The girls is a free spirit so again, whatever makes her happy (plus, she had just went pee on the potty so we weren't in any danger of having an unwanted accident in the pool).  And here is what Ellie was sitting and watching . . .

The big kids loved nothing more than having Grandpa Jim give them a "smackdown" in the water.  The "smackdown" was basically Grandpa trying to whip, spin, and toss them off the inflatable chair - not sure what sounds fun about that, but they loved it!  Ellie, on the other hand, was appalled and more than once yelled, "stop Grandpa!"  Give her a year or two and she'll be right in their with her brother and sister.  Overall, lots of fun in the sun!  Planning on spending some time there over the 4th again, what a great way to be able to spend a hot, hot day.