Dancing Queens

The girls had their big "dance show" last night, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!!!  They have been working towards this day for the past five weeks so when it was finally time to show off their talents, they did not disappoint.  The "show" was only 15 minutes, but they both did great, and really seemed to enjoy what they were doing.  This dance class is not your typical dance class.  It is through the community ed. program which means it is cheaper, less "formal" (no pricey outfits and makeup, just wear whatever), and in my opinion, more fun because they isn't a lot of pressure.  Here are a couple of pictures from the big event (the girls both choose to wear pink skirts and white t-shirts as their "dance outfits") . . .

I also have 2 videos which I for some reason cannot get off my phone so unfortunately I won't be able to share them, but trust me, they did great!  The girls now have a week off and then they start back up with Jazz (not sure what Jazz is exactly, but I'm expecting to see some "jazz hands" for sure).

Jellyfish?

So we just wrapped up the whole speech thing with Lauren, and just a week later, we are onto a new adventure . . . reading.  Let's back it up to how this all went down . . .

Lauren came home on Tuesday and said to me, "Mom, I have a special letter for you in my back pack."  I was making lunch at the time so I just gave her the standard, "that's nice, why don't you go get it and put it on the counter."  So off she went, got her back pack, then pulled out the letter and said, "it's a special letter because I'm the only one who got one."  This is when I stopped making the meal and got a little worried.  In my experience (a little back ground story coming up), being the only one to get anything from a teacher or someone in an authoritative position is NEVER a good thing.  Why you ask?  Well here's my story . . . I was a freshman at college, just about a month into basketball practice and out of the blue, my assistant coach tells me that my head coach wants to talk to me in her office.  I, being a stupid freshman, thought that was pretty cool.  The coach obviously wanted to tell me how great I was doing, and what a super addition to the team I was, you get the idea.  So off I happily skipped across campus, and up to the coach's office.  What happened when I got there (I'm still a little confused by it all today) was that Coach Neiber told me I had been turned in by an "anonymous" person because I, "kept her awake with my drinking while she was trying to sleep."  Well, for one, the "anonymous" part could have been left out because other than my bitchy roommate, there was no one else to "keep awake" and two, I wasn't drinking when I was around her, I had done all my drinking prior to arriving in my dorm room (at least they could have had their facts straight).  Anyway, after throwing that news at me, my coach proceeds to tell me that, "you could put on a few pounds so having a six pack and a pizza isn't a bad thing, but you shouldn't drink because if you get caught again, I'll have to tell your parents (WHAT?  I thought using the sentence, "I'll have to tell your parents" no longer applied once you were at college) what you've been doing and you won't be able to travel with the team (we had a trip to California coming up - no way was I going to miss that!).  With that super confusing conversation, I left thinking two things . . . I really hope she doesn't call my parents, they would be SO mad at me, and two, am I still allowed to drink and eat pizza if I'm doing it for the sake of gaining weight?  Like I said, super confusing.  Anyway, back to Lauren . . . so I pick up the letter, get about half way down and see highlighted, "because your student scored slightly below average" and then I proceed to freak out.  Slightly below average what?  So I calm down, read the whole letter from top to bottom and realize that our little Lauren who just passed speech now has a "reading deficiency."  Can the kid get a break?  At first I was shocked, Lauren can write and read lots of things like, the word "Lauren", or the words, "mom", "dad", "Ryan", and "Ellie", then I ran out of words she can read or write.  Wow, maybe she does need a little extra help.  Then I thought, "what is wrong with me that I consistently miss things that happen to Lauren" . . . I was a late bloomer on the whole speech thing (I could understand her so too bad for everyone else who couldn't), when she got teeth as a baby, I never figured it out until the actual tooth popped through (no medicine for our tough little girl), when she kept running into things and couldn't keep her balance, I never once thought it was the double ear infection she had - see what I mean?  I kind of think I'm a terrible mom (at least to Lauren).  That's when I decided we all needed to make some changes.  I need to be more present and listen to what the kids are saying, and we all need to focus a little more time on school work and the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, and less on games, television, and electronics.  With that, I got right to work with Lauren (Ellie was down for her nap).  I went on the computer, found the "sight words" list for kindergartners, and printed them off.  Then Lauren and I started in on "learning how to read."  And not surprisingly, it was tough for Lauren and for me.  Lauren knows all the sounds the letters make, but she just doesn't get how to put them all together to make words, instead, she just guesses.  Like when I showed her the word "jump."  She took one look at the "j" and apparently threw out the first word that came to her mind that started with the "j" sound . . . jellyfish.  That wouldn't be my first word, but then again, I'm not Lauren.  After a very frustrating 30 minutes or so, we started making some progress.  She was putting sounds together, and coming up with the right words, then I stumped her.  I showed her the word, "in".  And I don't know why, but Lauren can't seem to keep the "i" and the "a" sounds straight.  So she looks at the word and says with a sly smile, "you're trying to trick me aren't you Mom?"  And then she proudly says, "am".  Well, no, that is not the answer.  The "i" is still an "i" and the "n" is an "n", not a "m" - clearly we have more work to do.  But the best thing about doing this with Lauren . . . she's just happy to be spending a little extra time with mom, and better yet, she gets to hang out with a new teacher at school when all of the other kids have to stay back in class - always looking for the positives that girl!

So that's Lauren's story for the day, now here is Ryan's.  Ryan almost always starts our conversations with, "Mom, you'll never guess . . .", or "Guess what Mom?"  Either way, I never know what he is going to bring up because 99% of the time, it has nothing to do with whatever we were just doing, or talking about.  So today he says, "Mom, you'll never guess what Sean and I found."  I said, "what?"  He says, "some really cool chapstick on the ground."  (In my head I'm thinking, "please, please tell me he picked it up and threw it in the garbage").  And then he says, "we tried it out, it tasted really good" - and then I proceeded to puke a little in my mouth.  God knows who had that before him, or why it was on the ground, but apparently none of that bothered him as he probably liberally applied it to his lips.  The good side of his story? When I asked him what they did with the chapstick, he said Sean took it home.  Now if I know anything about Sean's mom, I know this . . . the lady is a germ freak!  I can only imagine the scrub down Sean got and the lecture about never using chapstick that you find on the ground (why is that even a conversation we ever have to have with our kids, what happened to common sense?).  After that story, he took a break to do some homework, and when he finishes, says, "Guess what Mom?"  I say, "what?"  He says, "did you know that we are half Canadian?"  With a smile, I said, "no", and wait for his response (which I knew would be a good one).  He said they were studying Social Studies in class today and he and his buddy, Zane, somehow figured out that the name, "Mayme" (my grandmother's name on my dad's side) was in fact Canadian.  He couldn't exactly pinpoint how they figured it out the name was Canadian, but he was sure he was right because both he and Zane agreed that it was.  Well then, if that doesn't prove anything, I don't know what does!  After his story wrapped, I immediately jumped on the phone to let my dad know that he was in fact part Canadian (funny thing was, he had no idea).  He should probably call tomorrow and thank Ryan for that little bit of knowledge.

I'll leave with two pictures of Ryan loving his new "long" hair.  Tonight he went for the "punk rocker/Miley Cyrus tongue hanging out" look.

Speech: one down, one to go

What do I mean, "speech, one down, one to go?"  Well, I had my follow-up meeting with Lauren's new speech therapist at kindergarten this week and I am happy (more than happy) to announce that Lauren is no longer in speech, or as they say in the business, "she has been dismissed!!!!!.  What does that mean?  It means that over the course of roughly three years, Lauren has went from being "30% intelligible" (at age 2 1/2) to "100% intelligible" (age 5 1/2) and therefore no longer needs to be in speech class.  

This was great news until we got to the van and Lauren started crying.  When I asked her why, she said, "I really like Kim Jarvis, now I'll never see her again" (a little side note: Kim Jarvis is/was Lauren's speech teacher and somehow, she never picked up on the fact that she should call her Ms. Jarvis, it was always Kim Jarvis, even in class - Kim thought it was hilarious, as did I).  Anyway, after a little reassuring that she will still see Kim Jarvis in the school, she was pretty thrilled with herself - the words, "genius", and "impressive" may, or may not have come out of her mouth to describe herself - clearly speech class did not teach her humility.  What did speech do for her?  As Travis says ever so nicely, "now that she can talk, she never, ever stops."  I'm sure he meant that in the nicest way possible.  So here are some phrases that have come out of our "genius" child in recent months . . . "Mom, you're not being the mom I know you can be, try harder of I'm going to start calling you Mother Gothel."  And my personal favorite, (story set-up, Lauren walks up to me out of the blue and says) "I'm sorry"  I ask why, she says, "because sometimes when I'm mad at you, I yell, "I hate my mom" into my pillow so you can't hear it" - maybe I liked her better when she couldn't talk, or at least when we couldn't understand her clearly!  So that's Lauren's story, she is our "one down."

And then there is Ellie, our "one to go."  Still waiting on paperwork to be completed by the school - apparently it is harder than I thought to "process" the four sheets of paper I signed and sent to them over 3 weeks ago, hoping to start in October, could be November at this rate.  Either way, she'll hopefully be starting speech, and will hopefully have the same good results Lauren did (Ellie is starting off at a higher % of intelligible words so she won't have as tough of a road as Lauren did).  Either way, we're just hoping Ellie comes out of speech a "genius" just like her big sister!  It's good to aim high isn't it?

Family pictures

We had family pictures this past weekend, had to share this "preview" picture the photographer sent of mom and dad and all the grandchildren.

How great is this photo???  Can't wait to see what the rest of the pictures look like.   Thank you Ashley for all of your hard work in coordinating outfits, lining up the photographer, and taking care of basically everything - you did a great job!

What's that shiny new minivan doing in our garage????

Playing a little catch up again . . . as I previously mentioned, we now have a Boy Scout and a Girl Scout in the house!  Trav and I are slowly starting to realize what the rest of our lives are going to look like . . . we will have no life outside of carting the kids around, the kids on the other hand will be crazy busy every day - not terrible, just an adjustment.  Perfect example . . . Trav wants to get together with some guys in the month of October for a "guy's weekend" (whether or not this "guy's weekend" is necessary is still up for dispute, but because Trav finally gave in and let me get a new van, I'm trying to be a more kind version of myself - more on that later).  Anyway, my response to him went something like this, "any weekend but the 5th, and the 26th, and whenever Colt's birthday party is, plus you can't leave on a Thursday because Ryan has boy scouts, so yeah, whenever should be fine."  I think he might be left with one really good weekend, and another option that we can make work - we'll see what he can figure out.  Back to Boy Scouts, Ryan loves it so far!  And I love that it provides Trav and Ryan some "guy time" to bond over "guy things" (what they are exactly, I'm not really sure of yet).  We just started popcorn sales (and I say "we" because it truly is a family affair at our house - I picked up popcorn and will be the "numbers" girl to make sure dollar amounts and sales match up, Trav is the "big helper" when Ryan sells which means he gets to walk around and make sure Ryan is doing his job, and the girls are the "little helpers" which means they walk/ride along with Trav and Ryan when they roam the neighborhood, and Ryan is the big shot - the "real" seller).  So far we are half way to our goal of $380 in sales (that is A LOT of popcorn, and definitely the worst thing about Boy Scouts so far, but we'll deal).

Onto the girls . . . Lauren and Ellie have had two sessions of dance so far and they love it too!  They can now do a few "ballet" moves (which look an awful lot like the "squat thruster" moves I do in my workout class, but whatever), and are anxious for their big show at the end of class when they can finally showoff all their talents (oh the excitement!).  Lauren also got her official start date for Girl Scouts which is the first week of October so she is super excited about that as well.  Ellie had her final speech assessment this week and we are so proud to say that she failed!!!  I never thought I would be happy that one of my kid's failed a test, but in this case, we are.  Her failing means she qualifies for speech and will be able to get the help she needs.  Apparently there was a little boy just before Ellie who passed by 6 points and his mom was just devastated because he does not qualify for class.  Luckily Ellie was on the opposite side, and failed by just 6 points (I may or may not have told her to "slur" some words in order to make this happen - just kidding).  Anyway, we now have to wait for the never ending paperwork to be processed, and then she will start (hopefully at the beginning of October) which means our little girl will then be in school 4 days a week (2 days at preschool, 2 days at speech, luckily speech is only an hour long so she should be able to manage).  Here is a quick picture of the girls from last night - apparently Lauren has turned into Spider Woman and can now climb doorways while her little sister looks on.

 And now onto me and my glorious new VAN!!!  Yes, you read that right, I, Angela Marie Quast, have a new minivan, and I couldn't be happier (unless maybe I had 2, but that would just be silly).  How did it finally happen (for those of you out there that don't know this, I have been driving a 2003 white, slightly rusted, heavily dented, and frequently repaired Dodge Grand Caravan for the past 6 years)?  Well, I finally got Trav to see the light (and this was no easy task let me tell you).  I don't know why, but Travis was almost obsessed with the Dodge.  He thought nothing of putting money into a van that had seen it's better days because as he said, "it purred like a kitty."  Where he comes up with these things is beyond me, but that's my life so I just go with it.  Every time I got into the Dodge, I felt more than a little embarrassed, and always a little anxious that something big might go wrong (I just crossed my fingers that it would happen when Travis was in the van by himself - which never happened, and not when I was driving with all the kids).  So over the period of a couple of weeks, I started my mission to get a new van.  Every time Trav made the "purrs like a kitty" reference, I told him he could drive the van then (he never jumped at the opportunity which was weird considering how much he "supposedly" loved it), and anytime I had to make a comment about a new van and all of the benefits, I took it.  After a couple of weeks of this, my strategy started to pay off, I saw Trav slowly leaving the dark side and coming over with me to the good side.  His walls went down, and his eyes opened up to the fact that maybe, just maybe I was right about this need for a new van.  I would catch him browsing the Internet for vehicles, reading reviews, and even putting out a few emails to local car dealers.  This is when I pounced (the window is small with Trav so you have to move quickly). So I also started making calls, even visited a few dealers to see some possible vans in person, and then, took the final step . . . set up a couple of appointments to test drive a few vans!!!  Wow, this is getting real real fast!  And that's when it happened . . . on the day I was to test drive two vans, Trav told me to take the title of the Dodge with.  I think I was shocked for a moment because I didn't really understand what had just happened.  Did he just tell me to take the title so I could buy a new van, did I hear that right???  After I snapped out of my shock, I confirmed what he had just said, grabbed the title, and hit the road.  My first stop was in Buffalo to test drive a 2013 Town and Country.  When I got in, I was in shock (again).  The van was like a dream . . . power sliding doors, leather seats, a navigation system, a DVD, a touch screen, you name it, the van had it.  But, I didn't need all the bells and whistles, I just needed a better van than what I currently had. So I didn't get too excited because all those "bells and whistles" cost a LOT of money that I was interested in paying anymore than I thought necessary.  Let's cut to the chase now . . . while I was waiting for the final numbers on the new van and a trade-in value on the Dodge (so I could take them back and show them to Trav), I got a call on my cell from the next dealer I was going to go to to test drive a different van.  Turns out, that van sold in the morning.  So there I was, sitting and waiting, and not sure what to do.  I had done my research, found the two vans we wanted to try out (that were within our price range), and now one was sold already. So I got on the phone, told Trav the story, and waited.  He said, "buy the van if you like it, don't take less than $2,500 for the Dodge).  With that, I went into negotiating mode, and a couple hours later, I drove away with a shiny new van that is rust free, dent free, and most importantly very safe for our family (it was a top rated minivan for safety in 2013).  When I got home, Trav wanted to take it for a spin right away, and when we pulled back into the garage, it is fair to say that he was very pleased with our new purchase!  Score one for Momma!!!

My babies are gone . . .

Ellie started preschool which means, it's official . . . I have no more kids at home (at least for about 4 hours each week) - YAY!!!!!  And although I am happy about this, it is also kind of weird not having at least one kid with me every waking moment.  The best part about it, Ellie LOVES preschool.  She has only been there two days so far, but when it is her turn for school, she just can't wait to get out the door and get there.  I think it helps that she is very familiar with the school, teachers, and even some of her classmates (including her best bud, and cousin, Colt).  Ellie's transition to preschool has also brought on a transition for me.  After dropping and picking her up the last two days, I am starting to realize that I am now one of those, "older moms." What do I mean by that?  Well, the "older mom" is the lady who has just the one kid, no baby on her hip, and is dressed in her workout clothes because she has nothing better to do with her time now that all of her kids are in school - yes, I am one of the women I used to despise a couple of years back!  Back when I had to drag Ryan, Lauren, Marley (neighbor kid I watched), Robbie (another kid I watched), Ellie, and Colt (that other kid I also watched) to and from school for the past four years.  And I didn't despise them because of who they were, I just hated them for not being in my shoes (especially in the winter and when I had two babies at once - yes, that sucked!).  And now, I am that mom (and I'm really kind of happy about it!!!).  I won't rub it in of course, and I'll be sure to help those "young moms" out when I have a chance, but I will also enjoy every minute of it because I remember what those days used to be like.  Enough about me though, let's get back to Ellie.  She loves preschool, she loves our alone time when the big kids are at school, and she just loves life.  And really, what's not to love about being a super cute three year old little girl anyway!  Here is the little lady in her first "official" first day of school picture (and one with her older siblings because they all look so old and grown up together).

Other big news happening in the Quast household . . . the girls started ballet on Tuesday, and after one sessions, they both, "love it!"  Ryan starts his fall Running 'n' Reading program on Monday, and after some back and forth (from Trav and I), Ryan is now an official Boy Scout and Lauren is an official Girl Scout - so get ready to buy lots of popcorn in September and cookies in a different month (I can't remember off the top of my head).  How did we let this happen?  More activities means lots more time on the go - time for Trav and I to see what we are made of and try to keep up with these kids of ours - should be fun!

1st day of school!!!

Finally, the first day of school is (or in this case, was) here (it happened on Tuesday, today is Thursday)!  Ryan is an official 3rd grader and our little Lauren is an official kindergartner - what the heck!  Last year Lauren was "technically" in school (preschool), but this kindergarten thing is much different . . . she is now in the "big" school, she rides the bus, and I don't get to walk her to and from class and stick around and chat whenever I feel like it - this is the real deal!  And I know I already did it once with Ryan, but again, this is just different.  I don't know if it's because Ryan always just seemed really mature for his age, so letting him go was easier, or if it's because Lauren is my little girl.  But something is different, not harder, just different.  God knows what's going to happen in two years when our final kid goes to kindergarten - I'll probably have a breakdown (and shortly after rejoice at my new found freedom).  Anyway, we are two days in now and so  far, everything is going school wise is going great, home wise, we have some work to do (and I'm not surprised by this).  Ryan has always needed about a week to adjust to the whole routine of school, homework, and the new schedule (this year seems no different, he comes home from school, needs about a half hour to unwind, then gets back to normal).  I am finding over the past few days that Lauren always seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to this "new" normal.  She is a little crabby in the morning, more than a little crabby shortly after coming home, and only slightly crabby by bedtime (that is a whole lot of crabby)!  I assume she does great in school (she always did in preschool, in fact, she was basically a start student), but when she gets home, "our" version of Lauren always returns for a little drama.  Yesterday we went to the park after school (at Lauren's request), and just 2 minutes into swinging, she starts freaking out.  I'm talking a major freak out . . . screaming at the top of her lungs, tears falling everywhere, and lots of drama.  What started it all you ask . . . pushing Ellie in the swing next to the one Lauren was in (talk about a crime of the century).  Apparently Lauren thought they would crash into each other (even though they have been in those same two swings countless other times and that has never happened - that clearly didn't matter).  Anyway, that one thing was enough to set Lauren off, and off she went!  I gave her three warnings to change her behavior or we were going to leave - it took about 3 seconds to see nothing was going to change.  So I had Ellie get her bike helmet on and we started for home.  Lauren, in the meantime, was still having a major fit - she didn't want us to walk ahead of her, but she wouldn't get on her bike, then she wanted her bike helmet on and when I tried to help her, she pushed it off her head - at this point, I just gave up and walked away (the whole time she is screaming at the top of her lungs, "Mom, don't leave me" - I'm sure if anyone was around they would have thought I was an awful person, lucky for me, there wasn't anyone there).  It took about 5 minutes of Ellie and I walking about 5 steps forward and then back before Lauren finally got her bike helmet on and joined us.  Even then, she wouldn't ride her bike so she pushed it the whole way home (and continued to cry until I told her if she made one more noise she would get a spanking - yes, I had to pull out all the tricks on this one).  By the time we made it home, Lauren was a wet, sweaty mess (it was hot and she was still crying).  She immediately went into her room (her choice, not mine), and then remerged 15 minutes later like nothing had happened - what the hell was that?  After a very peaceful lunch, both girls laid down for two hour naps - funny considering Lauren said (no screamed), "I'm not tired Mom!!"  Please God, make the next two days better than yesterday (it could hardly get worse), and let Lauren adjust to this new schedule sooner rather than later!  Here are some pictures from the first day of school (Ellie starts preschool next Tuesday but she wanted to get in on the picture fun too).

Holy buckets I look like crap in this photo!  I am only putting it in here because I take one with the kids on the first day of school every year (maybe that tradition needs to change?)

Sealife/MOA

On Wednesday of this week, I decided it was time to start counting down the final days of summer, and do something new and fun.  What would that be you ask?  Sealife Aquarium at the Mall of America of course! We've always had a zoo pass in the past so I never really saw a reason to go spend money on an indoor aquarium when the zoo has one that is included in our yearly pass, but because all the kids will be in school this year, we passed on the pass, and therefore, this was the perfect opportunity to check out Sealife (even though it is a little pricey and the MOA drives me crazy - oh the things I do for my kids).  So on a hot and sticky Wednesday, we packed up the minivan and headed to the MOA to meet up with Auntie and Kate and have ourselves some fun!  The original plan was to just walk through the aquarium on our own (I had already bought discounted tickets online the day before), but once we got there, the guy giving us our tickets told me we could do the "behind the scenes" tour for just another $5/person.  After minimal thinking, we decided, "why not", and got ourselves tickets for the 11am tour.  And as it turned out, the behind the scenes tour was probably the best part about the aquarium (I also learned our son is some kind of "animal freak" who has way too much knowledge about octopus, sharks, and all things that live under the sea after he answered question after question that the tour guide asked).  When the tour wrapped up, we headed to the Rain Forest Cafe for lunch (a new experience for all of us we thought, Mom claims she brought us there when we were younger but neither Ash or I remember this).  The place was cool, the food was good, the fake thunderstorms were not.  Ellie almost cried the first time she heard it, Kate freaked out and started shaking, and Ryan and Lauren were so-so on the whole thing.  Lucky for us, the "storms" only happen once every 30 minutes or so.  Unlucky for us, Kate had just fallen asleep when the last "storm" hit - let's just say she didn't stay sleeping.  After lunch, we headed back to walk through the aquarium, but before we could even get started, Ryan (and eventually Lauren and Ellie too), talked me into going on some dumb fake submarine ride.  I didn't like the looks of it, I knew Ellie would be scared, but I agreed to go when the lady miraculously knocked the price down from $4/person to $2.50/person.  So there we were $10 later, packed into a dark submarine with three other kids in the ride with us too.  The ride started - it was like being on a roller coaster (Lauren hates roller coasters) - Ellie got scared, one of the kids in the back shit his pants, and that was only in the first 20 seconds.  By the time the ride was done, Ellie was in my lap, the submarine reeked of dirty farts, Ryan and Lauren were laughing and screaming, and I was ready to throw up my lunch.  A success for the kids, an epic failure for this mom!  After the dirty submarine, we finally made our way into the aquarium, and it was COOL!  I think having done the behind the scenes thing first and having seen all the tanks from above made it even better (well, that and Ryan's endless facts about all the animals we were encountering).  The kids loved it, Auntie and Kate seemed to enjoy it, and my best friend Ellie stayed in my arms the entire time and ducked her head every time a fish would swim over us (apparently she didn't think the 7" height of the tunnel was enough to protect her precious little head), but came out smiling non-the-less. This was a success all around!

When the aquarium was done, we had three last stops - one for the girls, one for Ryan, and one for me.  In order, The American Girl store (all I heard the entire time was, "I want this one", "no Ellie, you can't have that one" followed by Ellie crying for the entire 20 minutes we were there - I'll get back to this later), The Lego store, and H&M.  Up first, the American Girl store . . . we stopped here for two reasons, 1) I thought the girls would enjoy checking out all the dolls and their gear, 2) Lauren had finally saved $30 to purchase her own American Girl doll (little did she know that she would be purchasing that doll at Target and it would be a "fake" American Girl because let's face it, there is no way I'm spending over $100 on any doll) so this would give her a chance to see which ones she liked and didn't like.  Besides the constant arguing between the girls, the highlight had to be when we were in the section where you can design an American Girl doll to look just like you.  This section is full of different ethnic dolls, with different hair colors and styles, you name it, it's there.  Well, the girls immediately started trying to find their "perfect match."  Lauren picked out one that at least had some of her characteristics . . . same hair color, same eye color, same skin color.  Ellie, on the other hand, picked out an African American with jet black, tightly curled hair, and said to me, "does she look like me?"  My response, "yes", then I turned and almost peeped my pants laughing to myself.  Clearly Ellie doesn't get in front of a mirror enough, or maybe she truly doesn't see differences in people - either way, it made for a good laugh.

After a few drops of pee in my panties, it was time to get out of that store and onto the next . . . the Lego store.  I'm pretty sure Ryan could have stayed here all day checking out all the different sets, but after 20 minutes, we wrapped it up and I promised him that next time we stop at the Lego store, he could pick out something (too bad for him, I have no plans on returning to the MOA anytime soon).

With that, we were off to our final stop of the day . . . H&M.  The store is new to me (clearly I am NOT a shopper, good thing for me, Ash is).  I wanted to find just a couple of things for the kids before school and because this place is so reasonably priced, I figured it was the best place to try.  And in true Ryan fashion (I am seriously considering the fact that he should be Ash's kid and not mine), he picked out a leather jacket and just, "had to have it."  It was super cute, scratch that, super cool, but it only went up to a size 8 (which just fit him) so I wasn't sold on it (plus it was close to $40 and what kid really needs a $40 leather jacket - it's very impractical if you ask me).  But, by the end of the trip, the jacket was in my bag along with a few other items for Ryan and the girls.  The best part about this stop . . .watching Ryan check himself out in every mirror her walked by.  He would be walking (with his new hat and jacket on) with us one minute, then would be gone the next.  Inevitably I would always find him posing in a front of a mirror - yet another sign he might truly be Ashley's child (and most definitely Jim Loken's grandson, we all know how much Dad likes a good look at himself in the mirror).  Check out the cool kid below, and take special notice of his new kicks (he picked out these shoes a while back with Grandpa Jim's help and this was the first and only time he will wear them before school starts) - kid's got style (and lucky for him, it's not my style).

The downside to this picture . . . it is the only picture we will have with him in that leather jacket, I had to take it back yesterday - couldn't justify spending $40 on a jacket that probably won't make it through the fall - he doesn't know yet so that should be a really fun conversation.

When we finally got everything done we had set out to accomplish, Ash took a look at her phone and said it was 3:45pm - what???   How we managed to have all four kids at the mall for almost six hours with just a few minor issues is beyond me, but we are happy it went so well and in the end, I think we all had a blast!

I just realized how long this post is.  Apparently this is what happens when we have to cancel our weekend plans due to a sick kid - mama has too much time on her hands and just keeps writing, and writing, and writing . . . 

Dultuh

Last Sunday was Ellie's 3-year-old trip to Duluth with Grandpa and Grandma Loken.  In addition to spending time with the grandparents, Ellie also got to have her best bud, and cousin, Colton along for the ride (he is just shy of 3 years old, but was given the go ahead anyway - lucky guy).  And per the usual, Grandpa and Grandma got things started off early (I received a text from Aaron at 6:30am that said, "Mom and Dad are ready, they'll be here around 7:15am - they were originally scheduled to be here at 8-8:30am).  Anyway, with an earlier than usual start to my day (Trav had the big kids at the lake so it was just Ellie and I at home which made an ideal situation for sleeping in - clearly that did not happen), I was up and at 'em early, and to my surprise, little Miss Ellie was too.  Either she heard me moving around, or the excitement of the trip got to her, either way, she was ready to go.  With Ellie fed, dressed, and packed, she was ready by 7:00am.  Mom and Dad arrived right on time (7:15am), and after moving some car seats and getting suitcases packed, they were off.  And with Ellie gone, Trav and the big kids still at the lake, I was left to fend for myself - yay!!!!  So what would I do with almost an entire day to myself . . . why clean of course!  Once I got back into the house, I had an energy drink (my fuel for the day), grabbed my cleaning supplies, and went to work.  By 10am the house was spotless and I was still full of energy so I headed out to the gym for a quick workout.  After that, I hit up the mall (a very quick and easy trip without three kids tagging along), bought the kids some new school clothes, and then headed to a friend's house to take a walk.  After the walk and a little relaxing, it was back home to finally rest before Trav and the kids returned home.  And just because things always work out like this, I received the call from Trav that they were headed home just as I was getting ready for a nice, long, relaxing bath - oh well, my rest time was shorter than I would have liked, but I still managed to squeeze in a bunch of stuff in a short amount of time.  When Ellie returned on Monday, Mom and Dad said the kids were great (apparently Ellie only cried once which is weird because all she does at home is cry), Duluth was beautiful, and overall it was a great trip!  I'll leave with some pictures Mom took of the fun . . . .

I hope Mom and Dad enjoyed the ease of this years 3-year-old trip because the next time they head north with 3-year-old grand kids, it will be Avery, Charlotte, and Kate - sounds like a blast!

South Dakota

The whole family ventured out to South Dakota this weekend for some fun in the sun (and luckily, the weather cooperated!).  My former college teammate/roommate was nice enough to invite us all out to their gorgeous house right on beautiful Lake Campeska in Watertown, SD - what's not to love about that!  So on Friday, I was up and at it early.  First I stopped to pick up Aaron's portable DVD player (a must for any trip over 3 hours with 3 kids), next I headed out to get in a workout, then it was off to get a massage and adjustment, and my final stop was at the bank to open some new accounts - wow, what a morning, and this was all before 10am!  After that was all done, I was back home getting things packed while Trav kept the kids busy.  By 1:30pm (about 30 minutes later than I had planned), we were all loaded and ready to go. The trip out was surprisingly peaceful (Ellie slept, Lauren and Ryan watched movies), and Trav and I caught up on all things important in our life.  By 5pm, we rolled into Watertown, and because Travis can't drive by a Buffalo Wild Wings without salivating at the mouth, we stopped in for some dinner.  When we wrapped up dinner, we drove the 10 miles out to Kris and Scott's house and let the fun begin!  The girls were in the house playing with Barbies within minutes, Ryan was just impressed with the jet ski out front, and couldn't wait for his turn to drive it.  We spent the night catching up on things, but called it quits early in preparation for the big day ahead.  Saturday morning started out with Monkey Bread and crazy kids - a great combination considering we would be outside the whole day wearing off all of that pent up energy.  By 10am, the kids were in their suits and out by the lake.  By 10:02am, Ryan was taking his first driving lesson on the jet ski - he loved it!  About an hour into the fun, another former teammate came out to visit with her husband and their four kids, and by then, we gave ourselves the green light to start having some adult beverages (and now the real fun begins).  We basically spent the remainder of the day jet skiing, tubing, skiing, and just riding around on the pontoon until rain showers rolled in around 4:30pm.  By then the kids were tired anyway so we showered them all up, put on some warm clothes and let them play inside while the adults did some more drinking and talking.  Ryan was the surprise of the day, our normally scared of almost anything kid, drove the jet ski, went tubing (they had four different types of tubes to choose from), and even tried his hand at skiing (he used a "training" ski tube and said, "that was too boring, I want to try the real thing" - more on that later).  By 7:00pm, the rains had stopped so we headed back outside for a campfire and smores, but about 20 minutes into it, the killer mosquitoes came out so we all went in (bugs always ruin the fun).  After the long day, we had no problems putting kids to bed early and talking for a while before we also turned in for an early night.  And now onto Sunday . . . the day Ryan got to try "real" skiing.  Scott ran over to a neighbor's house to borrow the next step up of "training skis" so back into the water we all went around 10am (and just so you know, it was warm, but not that warm, and there was a pretty good breeze coming off the lake so if it was for any other reason, I would not have gone in the water, but for Ryan, I did).  We decided the best plan would be for Scott to drive the jet ski, me to hold the line (which was attached to the skis on Ryan's feet so therefore could not just to hooked to the jet ski like a normal ski rope would), and Trav to be in the water to help Ryan get started.  It sounded like a no fail plan, but it was anything but that!  Everything started off great, Ryan was in the water, his skis were in place, and he gave us the go ahead to start the engine, that is when everything went terribly wrong.  Ryan actually started to get out of the water, but because of the pull from him, I couldn't pull the rope I was hanging onto tight enough without getting pulled off the jet ski.  So I frantically grabbed Scott with one arm while trying to pull Ryan with the other (anyone who has seen my arms knows that this was never going to work), when it was clear to me that wasn't going to work, I dropped the rope about the same time Ryan did (this was the only good thing about this attempt, Ryan did not get pulled under water because I let go of the rope).  Then, out of no where, a huge rogue wave (as big as can be on a little lake in Watertown, SD), hits the jet ski right on the side and before I know it, Scott is saying, "oh crap."  I'm thinking he is being an ass and trying to pretend we are tipping over, but then all of a sudden he goes crashing into the water (he is a big guy, at least 300 lbs) and when that happens, I lose all of my balance and also fall into the water (I've been told my fall was anything but graceful).  When we both come up, we laugh (well Scott did, I was still in shock), but then realize the jet ski is still running (apparently situations like this are the reason you are supposed to wear the little bracelet on your wrist that pulls the key out when you fall off - what a weird concept).  With the jet ski headed straight towards a docked boat down the shore, Kris (who is still on shore) takes off running after it (I'm not sure what she would have done if she had caught the jet ski, but kudos to her for at least doing something) while Scott is swimming after it (I, on the other hand, swam straight back into shore - clearly I am useless in times of need).  At some point, the jet ski started turning in circles (which we found out afterwards is what they are designed to do), and Scott was able to grab the key out of the ignition.  WOW, what a first attempt that was!  After a few replays and laughs over the incident, Ryan was ready to try again.  This time we switched up our plan a bit.  Scott was still driving, but Trav and I swapped spots because Travis "supposedly" has bigger muscles than me and could hold the rope better then me - whatever.  With the changes made, Ryan gave the go ahead for attempt number 2, but this one ended worse than the first.  This time, Ryan didn't get out of the water, and Trav did hold on better then me, but because Ryan didn't get up, Trav's holding on actually caused Ryan to get dragged under the water (the rope that Trav was holding was attached to the skis Ryan was wearing - who ever invented that didn't think about the fact that people aren't used to letting ropes go when they are watching their kids trying to ski).  Anyway, it took Scott yelling at Trav to, "drop the rope" before Trav realized what he was doing.  By the time Ryan popped out of the water, he was coughing, crying, and yelling, "you almost killed me!"  Maybe a bit dramatic, but probably scary for a kid who just wants to ski.  And with that attempt, Ryan's ski days have come to an end.  He told us he was never going to try skiing again because he could, "die" and he didn't want that.  I tried to tell him that this was just the first of many things we would probably screw up in his life, but then Trav corrected me and said, "this is not the first, and certainly won't be the last."  I'm not sure either of our statements helped Ryan, but we felt better as parents after we justified ourselves so at least someone was doing better!  With all the ski commotion behind us, we decided to pack up and head back to the great state of Minnesota.  It was a great weekend.  Kris, Scott, and their kids are the best hosts ever, and we hope they'll have us back again!  I'll leave with some pictures from the weekend, and also two from last weekend of Ellie and EJ tubing (thanks for sending those Troy).

Notice the rainbow?  Kids thought it was pretty neat.