Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. (www.mycharmingkids.net)


It was NOT me that woke up this morning singing a song in my head from Yo Gabba Gabba first thing. My daughter loves that show and we have several that are recorded on our DVR, she watched the same episode a few times this past weekend. That would have been really odd for me to be singing Yo Gabba Gabba, not me. Especially first thing. And so I'm sure it wasn't me that actually sang it outloud with the motions when getting ready. That would have been really weird.

It also wasn't me that was hosting a kid birthday party for my daughter this weekend and did not tell my son "please be nice to your sister and try not to kill her today in front of all of your friends...." That would have been a really weird thing to say to him. Of course he would behave perfectly anywhere right? right.

And it wasn't me that actually contemplated getting a slice of Baker's Square French Silk pie, because I've been wanting a piece for over a month. That would be really odd. And it wasn't me that then settled on having popcorn for dinner. That wouldn't be very healthy now would it.

And last but never least, it was not me that allowed my son to wear his Superman Halloween costume to the grocery store when we went grocery shopping this past weekend. That would have been really odd of me to let him go out to the store like that. It also would not have been me to encourage him by saying "Superman, can you fly over to that shelf and grab me a package of yogurt please?" "Thanks for zooming so fast Superman!" Nope, not me.

Happy Monday!

Where has the time gone??

It's been five years. Five years? Yes, five years ago TODAY!

You were so wished for, hoped for. We were so excited about your upcoming arrival.

Five years ago today, you made your entrance. You were our first child, the first grandchild. So much excitement. Pretty much your ENTIRE family was at the hospital to meet you that first day and to join your mom and dad in welcoming you into this world.




So now, you are five. You are so mature, so beautiful, so thoughtful, so brave, so smart, so many other things. I am just so tickled that you are MY girl!


I just love watching you grow, learn and experience life. You are so full of life!


Some days I just can't believe it was only five years ago, while at the same time, I can't imagine a life without you in it, as it seems like you've always been with me.


I am so thankful every day for you (and your wonderful brother too) and that I was chosen to be your mama.

Happy Birthday Big Five Year Old!


Your mama loves you noodles and noodles, bunches and bunches (inside joke sorry...)
:)

Pretty Flowers

I worked at Bachman's for years and years and years. And it was always a joke with my husband when we started dating, he'd say "you don't want me to give you any flowers, you work at a flower store - you see flowers all the time, you don't want any more....."

Of course I'd respond with "D'uh! Who doesn't want flowers??? Maybe that's one of the reasons I do work at a flower store....because I like flowers so much???"

He is so funny.

I do get flowers throughout the year, but he always comes through for Valentines Day. He always remembers my favorites.


Aren't they pretty????

Love it!

Jake

Jake is getting bigger every day. He is listening to commands that we've worked with him on (amazing!)


He's calming down, ever so slightly (ok, only a teeny, weeny little bit calmer maybe)

And he's lost his puppy coat (yes, that means a lot of shedding) and growing in his adult coat.


And no matter how many times he steals Cailin's stuffed lion or Andrew's stuffed snoopy - both kids would NEVER trade him for anything!

Lutsen!

After Duluth, we met up with our neighbors and good friends, the Frasers who were kind enough to host us at their family cabin in Lutsen. The drive up was beautiful! I always forget how incredibly beautiful Lake Superior is. The drive up the coast is just wonderful.

We went to the resort to swim in the pool and we had the whole pool to ourselves. They have a slide that dumps into the pool and Cailin and her buddy Caleb went up and down that thing about 50 times. Andrew then got up the courage to try as well as long as mommy caught him (which I did...). So he had fun too.

Andrew was trying so hard to make his 'monkey cheeks' (what they learned at swim lessons to keep the water out of the mouth/nose).


We went out for a great dinner at the resort as well at Papa Charlies. The resort seemed actually kind of quiet and the snow wasn't fantastic, but it has been a very odd winter and we have more snow at home then they do up in Lutsen if you can believe that - or at least they did BEFORE yesterday's snowstorm.

We headed up to Grand Marais to check it out - we went and threw rocks into the lake, shopped at the most well-stocked Ben Franklin store I've ever seen (they had anything and everything you could possibly want and/or need there) and some other cute shops. Plus the town itself is really quaint. And the weather was fairly warm as well, which helped!




The kids played and played.



Andrew's favorite is playing foosball alone or with others, he didn't seem to care.


We went sledding outside on the HUGE hill leading to the creek and also on the side of the house in the courtyard area. There were a few minor mishaps where some kids accidentally hit trees during the sledding expeditions, but no permanent injuries were had - thankfully!



After the kids went to bed, the adults got to hang out, play games, watch movies, chat and have a blast too! The kids and adults all had a wonderful time. None of us were ready to leave to return home.

Duluth Waterpark Getaway

We were heading up north to spend some time with our friends, the Frasers at their family cabin in Lutsen. We decided to head up one day earlier and spend one night in Duluth at the Edgewater Water Park Hotel. We also had to hit our usual 'haunts' which include Grandma's Restaurant and the Lake Superior Train Museum (which ROCKS!)

We checked into this place and got into our room, then the kids wanted to hit the pool IMMEDIATELY! So we got changed and headed down.


This is what we found!




They have two enclosed water slides (which you can see in the photo) and Cailin could not get enough of the larger slide. You could ride with a partner on an large two-person tube down the slide and Cailin thought it was fantastic. She was in heaven in that pool and was purple and a prune by the time we convinced her to get out.


The way to the top of the slide was to climb up three flights of stairs (carrying your inter tube) and then riding down. Cailin would get out of the pool and run right back to the stairs. It was great exercise for me and Mike to go with her all those times!

Andrew was a bit more cautious (shocker!). He was much happier watching from the side. He sat with me or Mike (whoever was not riding with Cailin) and just watch. He did like to sit next to the red eye cave guy - his eyes were red lights that flashed on and off and he was mesmerized by that for some reason. He asked me to take his picture next to the 'red eye guy', so I obliged.


They also had a lazy river and kids play area which we all used.



The larger pool was closed - as they had some sort of 'incident' as they reported at the front desk so it was completely empty when we arrived and there were four people inside with huge boots on scrubbing the sides. They filled it back up, but we were on our way out before it was open, which was too bad, since it looked pretty fun too!


After swimming for two days here, we got packed up and ready to continue North to meet up with our friends in Lutsen.

Unsure

I was busy packing things up since we were heading out of town to go to Duluth and Lutsen (future posts...) So I was startled when I turned around and saw this:

Unsure - That's really the only thing I can say about this posting is that I'm unsure as to what Masher (Andrew) was thinking here. He had on his cape and bike helmet. Then for awhile, he even had his knee pads on as well.

Goof ball!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. (www.mycharmingkids.net)


It was not me who was putting the size 9 sneakers on my son this week and thought 'man, these seem a little snug, we might want to go look at some new shoes'. And then of course it wasn't me who was SHOCKED to see when we got to the shoe store (4 days later) that indeed his feet were a touch above a 10 1/2! That could not have been me, I would have certainly noticed that those suckers were THAT small if I had paid closer attention. (poor guy never complained an ounce..) And we did not walk out of the store with size 11 shoes that fit wonderfully.

sigh.

And it wasn't me who actually felt a tinge of sadness this morning when I woke up to no puppy in our house (since he's on Holiday with grandma and grandpa this week), I guess that would mean that I like the puppy? Not me, no way?! Ok, maybe just a little....

And it most certainly wasn't me that tried to bribe my child with everything under the sun possible for her to loosen her steel-tight grip on the chair at swim lessons last week so she'd get into the pool. (more on this in another post to come) That would not have been one of my better parenting moments, so I would never have done that. And it most certainly would NOT have been embarrassing to have that blood-curdling scream ripping through the entire pool area during this 'discussion/negotiation' I was having with my dear sweet, strong-willed almost 5-year old. And it was not at all embarrassing to have every single parent's eyes looking at me with the 'what did you do to your kid' look. (come on, all of you parents out there have gotten the 'look' at some point....or at least you KNOW that look..)

sigh...again.

And it wasn't me who snuggled up in bed with my girl last night way past bedtime to enjoy a little special 'cuddle time' with her just because she asked. Gotta love that girl! :)

Happy Not Me! Monday to you all!!

On "Holiday"

Our dog, Jake is now officially "On Holiday". We are heading out of town this week for a few days. We have someone watching our house and now someone watching our furever pet Jakey. Grandma and Grandpa have kindly offered to watch our boy Jake for the week.

Incidentally, he is in fact sitting on our couch while enjoying his treat...why sit on the floor when you can sit on the cozy couch right?

He's gotten a little bit better in all departments (biting, walking on a leash, piddling in the house, not trying to attack the cats - etc), so it is with amazement that we were all a little sad to drop Jake off at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the week.

Grandma and Grandpa are sort of the animal whisperers in the family I must say, so maybe we'll return to a perfectly mannered puppy!! Well, either way, he will be well-cared for there, that's for sure and he'll have two other goldens to play with too. Hopefully he'll get wiped out if nothing else.

So enjoy your "Holiday" Jake! I think it's going well, well at least I haven't gotten any phone calls demanding we come back and get him.......yet.

:)

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeessssssse!

This is what Andrew says everytime the camera comes out. He's kind of a ham bone. I remember his older sister also going through this phase. But it seems like lately...

THIS is the type of photo we get. I can't really photoshop that to improve it now can I.....


So now I'm left to try and sneak photos when the boy is busy with something and most of them are profile shots.

But that's ok, he's still cute!