Our weekend

The weekend started for the kids and I on Thursday afternoon as we packed up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house for a few days. This, however was not just another casual visit, we had lots of "stuff" to get done while we were back in St. Peter and the fun started right when we got there. My car has been making a very loud sound lately so I decided to have it checked out in Mankato where I've always had the car worked on. In order to get the car dropped off, and have a ride back to St. Pete, I basically unloaded the kids, waited for Mom to get home from work to watch them, then headed over to Mankato to drop off my car and wait for Dad to pick me up - so much work just to get a car fixed! Anyway, when we got done, we had a little something to eat, played for a bit, then took the kids out for a walk, as it was one of those very few "nice days" we've have had lately. A couple of baths, bedtimes stories, and it was bedtime for everyone. Friday started early for everyone as Auntie showed up and had a vet appointment for her dog at 8:15am. Auntie offered to take Ryan with, and he of course said yes! With the vet appointment done, Ryan had just enough time to get back home, finish off his breakfast, and get ready to go to the dentist with me. Figuring Ryan should probably start going to the dentist soon, I brought him with just so he could see how painless and fun the while thing is. To my surprise and utter delight, Ryan not only watched me have my entire appointment (at the beginning he stood right next to me and held my hand telling me, "you'll be okay mom"), he actually had an entire check-up of his own. Initially he was just going to sit in the chair and go for a ride. But the longer he sat in the chair, the more he liked it, and before I knew it, he had on a pair of shades (to keep the light out of his eyes), was picking out what flavor of polish he wanted, and had both the hygienist and dentist check his teeth - I was so proud of him! If I had known this would have went so good, I would have brought my camera to take pictures, but never in my wildest dreams did I think Ryan would be okay with everything they did to him - he was such a good boy! After his entire exam (no cavities, and his teeth looked great), which ended with him picking out what flavor of fluoride he wanted painted on his teeth, he got the royal treatment. The hygienist who cleaned his teeth told all the other people in the office how good he did so everyone was clapping for him, then he got a bag full of goodies (floss - or cherry frost as he calls it, toothpaste - special "big boy" toothpaste, stickers, a new toothbrush, and a toy from the toy box) - how could a kid not love that! After all that excitement, we headed home to hangout and show-off his goodie bag. Later in the day, I went and got my hair cut and colored (the first time I've done this in way to long), and then raced back home to get ready to go out to eat with the family. That night we had drinks and dinner at a local bar/restaurant (we were there for almost 3 hours and the kids did great!), and then headed home to get some rest. It was a long two days, but we got a lot accomplished and now the car sounds great, our teeth are nice and clean, and my hair (if I have to say so myself) looks pretty good too! Luckily all this happened on Thursday and Friday so we still had the majority of Saturday and Sunday to get back home and get things taken care of around our house - there is always an never-ending list of chores to get done so I might as well get started. I'll leave you with this video of Ryan singing the Scooby-Doo song.

Seriously Lauren

Remember about a month ago when I wrote that Lauren was such a good baby at the gym school, and that she didn't even notice that I was gone, well, those days are gone. It seems she has formed some kind of crazy "I don't want you to ever leave me" bond with me recently and it has put a complete end to her gym days - not fun! So anyway, I stopped taking her for while, and then this past Monday I thought we should try it again, after all, Lauren was having a great day - she ate well, napped great, and just seemed overall really happy. So I pack up the kids and drive the 3 blocks to the gym - so far so good. We get out of the car and into the gym - still going good. Then, I open the door to the daycare area and this is when all hell breaks loose. Lauren does the death grip on me and starts screaming when I try to put her down. Ryan on the other hand can't get his coat and boots off fast enough so he can start playing. Anticipating this might happen, I had already planned on staying the daycare area a while with Lauren to get her comfortable before I left, so that is what I did. We walked around and played with all the toys, a couple of little girls came over and played with Lauren (they were about 5 and loved having a baby to play with) - things are going great, Lauren is happy and wondering around with her new friends, Ryan is off climbing on stuff, so I decide to make my break. I give the teacher a wink and nod to let her know I'm off and out the door I go completely undetected. I'm feeling pretty good about things as I head into the locker room to change, but still having a little concern, I decide to take a peak inside the classroom one more time before getting into my workout. I see that the teacher is now holding Lauren, but she doesn't appear to be crying - satisfied that she is happy, I head off to the treadmills. About 15 minutes into my workout, I hear the intercom come on and listen closely for my name to be called as I'm sure Lauren is having a meltdown, but to my surprise, no words are spoken and the intercom goes off. About 5 minutes later, I hear the intercom again, and again, wait for my name - no words again, the intercom shuts off. Then, about five minutes after that, I see the front desk guy walking my way - this can't be good. He says, "Are you Angie?" I reply with, "yes, is it my daughter?" He shakes his head and tells me that they tried paging me twice on the intercom already. I tell him that I heard the intercom, but no voice so he should check that out, and then head straight into the daycare area to find m crying little girl. When I get in there, I almost had to laugh as I see Lauren in a flat out sprint (in her world, this means moving her wobbly little legs as fast as they could go) with her hands straight above her head, chasing Ryan (who by the way doesn't even acknowledge Lauren because he is too busy playing with some fiends). So I walk closer to her and say her name, and the instant she hears my voice, she does a complete 180 and starts sprinting towards me with her hands above her head and a pathetic little whine - so sad, yet so funny because I know that there is nothing wrong with her, it is just her being difficult (which she is starting to do more often lately). The minute our hands touch, the whining stops, the tears dry up, and a small smirk comes across her face - what a little turd! She got what she wanted - Mommy - and was ready to get back down and go play again. Too bad for her, it doesn't work that way. So I take her, go get changed, and head back to get Ryan who is still way too busy playing to even notice I'm there. I feel bad for him because he loves playing with all his buddies, but until Lauren gets over her issue, our trips to gym school by limited - sorry bud.
These pictures just go to show how quickly her attitude can change - content, get the heck out of my face or else, and then back to happy all within a minute - what a little angel.

We finally can go outside

The past couple of days have been warm (18 -24 degrees above zero) so the kids and I have taken full advantage and have ventured outside as much as possible. Our outside adventures usually start with a sled ride for the kiddies around the neighborhood - I feel like a big ox pulling a cart - nice. After our sled ride, we play "king of the mountain" and amazingly Ryan wins every time - go figure. Lauren just hangs out in her sled and watches all the fun as she has not really figured out how to move with all of her snow gear on. She'll usually give at least one or two tries before she gives up and just stays in one place, oh well, she is still happy. With "king of the mountain" done, we move into a snowball fight where there are strict rules concerning the placement of the snowballs. For instance, I cannot throw a snowball at Ryan that would hit pretty much any place but his legs - he said he doesn't like it otherwise. And when Ryan is ready to throw a snowball at me, I have to immediately stop moving and let him get as close as possible, and then just stand there as his snowball comes flying at me - lucky for me, his arm isn't too good right now so I usually just get grazed by a snowball every so often. To top off our fun, we all head inside for the best part of the day - warm hot chocolate! The minute the kids get their cups in their hands, it is complete silence as they slam back their warm cocoa. The silence is great, but only lasts for about 30 seconds as they do not remove their lips from their cups until every last drop is gone - it is pretty fun to see. So that pretty much sums up our last couple of days. Not much else has happened, although I did play my second basketball league game last night and we came away with another victory - yeah for us! I'll leave with some pictures from outside, and yes, Lauren does have on Ryan's old snow pants that he just grew out of about a month ago. Sure they are a little big, but why would I go out and buy new pretty pink ones when she can just wear these. I always make sure to have on her white, fluffy coat just so people know she is a girl - poor kid, what kind of mother would do that to her daughter? Oh wait, my mother did the same thing to me so it can't be that bad!

You say it's your birthday

You say it's your birthday, it's my birthday too! I celebrated the big 3-0 last night with a bunch of old high school friends, some new friends, and family - talk about fun! With the kids at Grandma and Grandpa Quast's house, and Travis at my brother's bachelor party, it was time for the female fun to start. The festivities kicked off around 4pm on Saturday and continued into the wee hours of Sunday morning (at least I heard they did, I tapped out around midnight - talk about a party pooper). You know it is bad when your own mom stays up later than you do. The night was filled with good conversation, games, and drinks mixed in along the way. All in all it was a great night. I may be 30 now, but I still feel like 25 so if anyone asks, that is the number I'm going with! Here are some pictures from the night. To all the girls who were there, I told you the pictures would make great blogging material so don't act surprised to see yourself. I hope everyone has recovered, it's 4:15pm now, and this is the first time I've actually gotten out of bed today - recovering from alcohol induced fun takes much longer the older you get.

Still trapped inside

I think this is day 47 (I've lost track it has been sooo long) of being trapped inside because of the cold weather. Okay, maybe it hasn't been 47 days, but it sure seems like it. I honestly can't think of the last time I was able to take the kids outside for a ride around the block in their sleds - too cold for far too long! To pass the time indoors, we have found lots of interesting things to do . . . plan elaborate escapes from the aliens that have landed in our house, go on countless police missions with Ryan's new police helmet, and play endless games of ring-around-the-rosy (a new favorite for Lauren) - the fun just never ends. While on a mission on our rocket ship (Ryan's bed) today, a foul smell started to fill the room. There was no question who was responsible for the smell as Lauren was in the squat position with a strained look on her face - not a good combination. One whiff and Ryan was kicking Lauren out of the rocket - bad smells are not allowed on his ship. I got off the rocket myself and took Lauren in the other room to clean her up. When I was finished, I set her down in the hall and went to wash my hands. As I'm coming out of the bathroom, there is Lauren pounding on the door to Ryan's room. Slowly the door opens and Ryan sticks his head out, he gives Lauren a couple of sniffs, and says, "you smell good now, come in." I'm pretty sure Ryan is the only kid with such high standards of hygiene, god help the stinky kid who runs into him next. After we were all allowed back in the rocket, we wrapped up our mission and headed out to the kitchen to make some dinner. The only problem with that is that we literally have no food in our house. It has been so cold lately that I don't even feel like going to the grocery store so we've been forced to dig deep into the cupboards, frig, and freezer to put together meals. Tonight was pizza and rice pudding - maybe not the best combination, or the best as far as nutrition is concerned, but I have to work with what I have. Tomorrow is the big day though, grocery day! I have promised myself it happens tomorrow - no excuses, how exciting. Ryan and Lauren also have a big day tomorrow - they are going to Grandma and Grandpa Quast's house for the weekend. This is the one thing that has kept Ryan from going crazy this week so I'm glad the big day is finally here as I'm not sure how much longer he could take it.

Please, please make the cold weather go away, I can't take it much longer!

I don't want to grow up

Ryan did some major thinking today and decided he did not want to grow up. So what led to this decision . . . a little piece of skin on his finger that was coming off. So here is how the conversation started.

Ryan was in the bath tonight for obviously way too long because when he got out, his hands and feet were all wrinkly (nothing new here), but upon closer examination of his hands, he found a ity-bitty little piece of skin that was peeling off. Now, most people would pull the little flap of skin off and be done with it, but not Ryan. No, instead he starts whimpering and telling me he thinks his finger is broken. I'm busy get his jammies at this point so I have no idea what he is talking about. When I turn around, he shows me the little piece of skin and is by this time in a full out cry. I tell him he needs to stop crying so I can explain to him what is happening with his finger. After a while, the tears stop and I start in with my explanation, which I think is a simple one . . . "everyone has skin that comes off sometimes so new skin can grow." It takes Ryan about two seconds to start crying and saying, "I don't want new skin, just my old stuff." So I continue with my explanation and tell him that all people lose their skin as they get older, and before I can finish, he says, "I don't want to get older." Alright, this conversation is going no where so I just wrap it up and tell him that when he wakes up in the morning, his finger will be all better - he is good with this, no more tears, no more talking. So much easier, why didn't I just go with that in the first place? After that little debacle, we head into the bathroom to brush teeth. Now usually Ryan is pretty good about brushing teeth, but tonight, he just was not in the mood, and I was not in the mood to fight with him. Instead I just tell him that if he doesn't brush his teeth, they will fall out - a little harsh, but it gets the point across. His response . . . cry, why wouldn't you? I guess I should have seen this coming after the previous crying bout that just took place, but I didn't so I had yet another situation to deal with. I ask why he is crying and he says, "I don't want my teeth to fall out." I tell him that as he gets older, his teeth will fall out and a fun little lady named the "Tooth Fairy" will come and take his old teeth away and leave him surprises - sounds fun doesn't it? Apparently not to my kid as his crying just intensifies and grabs for his toothpaste (well, at least he wants to brush his teeth now). So his teeth get brushed and we finally make our way to his bedroom to read some books and say a little prayer. As I'm getting ready to walk out his door, he says, "Mom, I don't want to grow up" - my response, "I don't want you to either bud, you can stay little forever." After thinking about everything I told him, I guess I can't blame him. In the eyes of a three year old, all he probably thought was skin falling off, teeth falling out, no thank you.

If we could only stay young forever . . .

This picture was taken last Christmas well before Ryan started to "grow up"

Basketball league

I'm going to be playing real basketball again for the first time in about 3 years! I'm just hoping to make it up and down the court, I'll work on all the other stuff later. No time to write as I'm headed over to the gym for a little pregame shoot around session by myself - I would hate to have my first shot be an air ball! Here are a couple of quick pictures.