Thanksgiving 2015

Enjoyed a fun, lazy holiday and long weekend. The kids were excited for the little bit of snow that arrived turkey day. We even got our family photos in thanks to Aunt "Nina". As for dinner, Sydney's sole interest was the turkey leg.

I asked Syd to smile for the camera. She said, "No, mom. Take an action shot of me in the snow." This is her idea of action. Um...ok.

Nana and Papa took the kids to see the Charlie Brown Christmas children's play. 

Sydney is in love with Snoopy. We're wondering if Colin might have an interest in working on/in a play at some point. 

All I want for Christmas...

He's not one to wiggle out a loose tooth and usually waits for them fall out on their own (usually while sleeping). This time his front tooth affected his pizza dinner, so he nervously worked it out, and after it bled a bit he went back to eating his dinner. Syd's photo bomb. 

Fall

These two love raking up the leaves, jumping into the piles and burying themselves. We've had a beautiful, warm autumn!

Happy Halloween!

We've made the leap to 'scary' costumes with Colin. In fact, by the end of trick or treating this Halloween, Colin declared he wanted something scarier with a mask. Geesh!

Sydney was happy with the many costume choices thanks to cousin Lexi, and made a few outfit changes. She was also getting over a cold and petered out about a third of the way through the neighborhood announcing she had a enough candy.

We still pulled in a ton of sugar and came home to find our candy bowl plenty full.

First Day of 2nd Grade!

Okay, so I see now how recording first and last days of school make the years seem like they fly by!
Colin was very excited to start the year with Mr. Utecht, "everybody's favorite 2nd grade teacher!"

Threenager

Sydney’s classroom posts daily funny quotes from the kids and a daily question posted to the class. Here are a few. The “bacon” is a derivative of Colin’s middle name, Patrick, that she has a hard time pronouncing. She calls him Colin Bacon to his dismay. Apparently she shares the same middle name when asked for hers at school. 

State Fair

Another family summer day included the Great Minnesota Get Together at the State Fair. Colin loved everything about it and asked why we hadn’t brought him here before. Sydney, on the other hand, had a hard time dealing with “all the stinky people”. She was truly gagging at the food, animals and people smells that permeate a fair. Both kids did enjoy the bumper cars and bumper boats. I liked the giant slide. 

We ate our way through the streets as one does with the French Toast with berries, whip cream and Pop Rocks, World’s Best Fries, Bacon on Stick, Roast Turkey leg, the Corn Roast, and Sweet Martha’s Cookies to name a few.

There was a cute kids "working" farm where Sydney and Colin has to work different aspects of a farm. They planted seeds, milked a fake cow, picked apples, drove tractors, etc. 

Since the fair brings another bout of hot weather, they had misters at several spots on the grounds. The kids liked getting soaked.

Colin’s one goal was to make it on to one of the news stations audience shots. After checking out all of the TV stations’ tents, we did find one where the news crew stage was toward the street. Bill held up Sydney and Colin who were waving behind one of the news people at one of the smaller networks. Our cousin, Shya, just happened to be working out at lunch and turned on the TV at the treadmill. As she surfed the channels, she saw Syd’s head pop up on screen and then Colin’s. Colin was thrilled.

Valley Fair

In an effort to send Summer '15 off with a bang, we took some family time the week before Colin started back to school -second grade!

The boys had passes to Valley Fair for the 3rd year and we went as a foursome on one of the bring a friend days. All Sydney could talk about was seeing Snoopy and giving him a hug and kiss. We spent the morning on rides (mostly Syd friendly, the boys did do a coaster). The afternoon was spent at the water park - really the wave pool and Colin's favorite.

At the wave pool, Colin was off like a shot without a life jacket. This was new to me, but Bill said he's been doing that all summer. It totally freaked me out how he'd just drive through bodies and inner tubes to crash into the waves. By the end of the day, Sydney figured out how to hang on in the inner tube and flipped out a few times. She was impressed with her herself that she didn't get upset.

When Sydney finally met Snoopy, she didn't want anything to do with him! She finally waved at him, but that was it. So she hugged the Snoopy statue instead.

CPW Summer '15

CP and Nana Sheila spent the morning at the arboretum dodging raindrops and taking pictures of the LEGO artwork displayed within the landscape. Colin's favorite part? Lunch at Dave&Busters.

It was also chilly that day and the pants Colin wore to the arboretum were an inch too short. School starts in two weeks. We'll have to do a wardrobe fitting before then.

One evening, over dinner, Colin declared that when he's a dad and if he has a girl he wants to name her Ginger. Ginger was the name of the sweet rabbit at his nature camp last year who we learned passed away this year. Then he added, "and if I have a boy, I'll name him Scar or something like that." No idea where that one comes from.

Summer Lacrosse #9

Colin enjoyed a fun summer with EP U9 Black lacrosse team. Exhausted, but excited for each game, he made several new friends, burned off a lot of energy, and scored a goal in his final game. Thank goodness he was speedy because he was a good head shorter than many players. His team nicknamed him the 'Tiny Tornado'.

Coach Russ gave him the "biggest heart" award and even teared up. Coach found out Bill knew more about the sport than the rest of the parents, so he was recruited to be an assistant coach on Colin's team. A good experience for Bill and CP to do together this summer. Colin can't wait for fall box lacrosse.

Happy Father's Day 2015

Enjoyed a lovely brunch out and a beautiful day. The kids liked each other that morning and did well for pictures.

Sydney was the first one annoyed.

Let's make silly faces! 

Yeehaw, Ki-boy!

Sydney loves her cowboy hat and boots. Anything 'dress-up' she enjoys. She has a hard time saying cowboy and pronounces it ki-boy with boy sounding like Flavor Flav's bo-yee!

Another Sydney story: the other day she was having a temper tantrum (the usual). It took a while for her to calm down and the tears were still coming. She wiped her eyes and became upset that she was still crying. "I don't know why I'm crying!"she cried. Oh, it's only the beginning.

Class Zoo Trip

This is a little out of order, but wanted to get these pictures on the blog. Bill and Nana Sheila helped chaperone at class trip to the zoo. Along with seeing large cats, the adults enjoyed herding the kids like cats.

Last Day of 1st Grade!

Colin had a lot of anxiety and excitement wrapping up his first grade year. He liked his first grade teacher, Mrs. Iverson. He thought she was fun and very nice.

Colin is now enjoying full summer mode. 

Cousin fun

Sydney's 3rd Birthday

A family filled weekend for Sydney's birthday. Nana Sheila, Papa Guitar, 'Nina', Jake and Shya were a part of the festivities.  AJ, Kelly and kids were in town and were able to visit at brunch.  Papa Beard, Nana Mary, Aunt Jen, Justis and Zoe (aka Cloe because Sydney kept mixing up her name with the neighbor girl) flew in for a long weekend visit.

Sydney was so excited her birthday was finally here! She's waited and waited through Colin's, Mommy's, and Daddy's birthdays.  Now, she can turn her car seat forward, she's in underwear, and we changed her crib to a toddler/big girl bed. (Of course, she kept getting out wanting to see what we were up to.)

We sang two times and had her blow out candles twice. The first cake was a left over from Papa Guitar's retirement party -notice the circa 1980s cake image! Pink cupcakes were a little late in the making but in time for the afternoon affair.

Colin did a great job reading her the birthday cards as she torn into the gifts.