Mary Kate Turns Four!

Mary Kate's fourth birthday was chock full of celebrating. We started the morning at out our favorite bakery, which is always the kids choice for birthday breakfast.

Then we headed to preschool. Mary Kate showed us some of her favorite toys...she loves building with the big "brick" blocks, art and the sensory table.

Ethan came up with the idea to read a book to MK's class on her birthday. She loves all of the books by Laura Numeroff and chose "If You Give a Pig a Party" because it's all about this cute little pig's birthday party.

While Ethan was reading, Mom and Nana put together the birthday treats...chocolate puddings with whipped cream, strawberries, and purple sprinkles. MK was very specific about what she wanted for her treat and it was a big hit with the kiddos and teachers.

After preschool, MK took a three hour power nap, which gave the grown ups time to get ready for the birthday BBQ party guests to arrive. The rainbow cake turned out pretty cute and the kids were delighted to learn it was topped with Skittles and marshmallows.

Mary Kate loved how the cake looked and enjoyed the Happy Birthday to You song before blowing out all four candles.

Mary Kate was very certain about what she wanted for her birthday...a two wheel scooter. We found one with bigger wheels and hand brakes. She was super excited and took it out for a spin right away, despite a little rain. We did manage to get some tennis shoes and a helmet on her before she went for a spin. The scooter is actually pretty big, but she got the hang of it right away and took off around the cul-de-sac.

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us and our beautiful, giggly, bouncy four year old big girl!

Mother's Day Fun at Target Field

We celebrated Mother's Day by attending our first game at the new Target Field. What an amazing ballpark! We went to the early service at church and then drove in to Minneapolis. Parking was easy and Mom and Nana were two of 5,000 lucky Moms who received cute Twins earrings at the gate in honor of Mother's Day.

This was our first view of the ball park...gorgeous.

On our way to find our seats, we stopped for some face painting. Mary Kate chose a cute teddy bear design.

Ethan went for "Mauer Power." He is a huge Joe Mauer fan!.

We had a fantastic time cheering our team on to victory over the Orioles. After the game, the kids got to go onto the field and run the bases...those pictures didn't turn out...lots of blurry looking kids running. We can't wait to go back for another game! Go Twins!!

Bil Gangl relay

In April, Ethan's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Brass, invited families to participate with her in a memorial relay walk/run for a beloved Mahtomedi teacher, Mr. Bil Gangl. We headed out to the track and had a great time walking to celebrate Mr. Gangl's life and amazing positive impact on so many students during his life.

Ethan was inspired by all the track and field athletes and started off running. He completed a full 1/4 mile lap on pace with a high school runner who was impressed by his stamina.

Then he decided to do a lap or two with Mrs. Brass.

Mary Kate was more into short sprints and the "On your mark, get set, go!" part.

Goodbye Qwest/MSN...hello again cable internet...we missed you!

We've officially given up on Qwest/MSN and switched back to Comcast. Even though it's more expensive, our internet access had become so unbearingly slow, I stopped trying to upload pictures to Blogger in February. Our new connection is blazing fast, so watch out! We've got lots of pictures to post.

We've also switched to Picasa for photo management and it has a "Blog This" feature. Somehow, these pictures are aligned along the left side of the blog...we'll see how that looks after I post this update.

On to some long overdue updates. Let's start with Easter! Easter morning was quite warm by Minnesota standards. Our entire month of April was significantly warmer than usual. The kids were up before 7 am on Easter morning and hunting eggs in the backyard by 7:15. No frost/snow and parkas this year! The egg hunt pics are below, but here is a nice shot of the kids on Saturday before church.

Mary Kate really got into finding her eggs and hamming it up for the camera everytime she found one.

The egg hunting must have worn the kids out a bit...so they decided to relax in the hammock for a while before breakfast.

After church, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Grandpa's and more egg hunting, of course!

Mary Kate's Christmas Program

Well, despite my best intentions, I didn't get too many Christmas updates posted during my month-long break from classes.

Here's a family picture we snapped in front of the tree that turned out OK. We tried to get one with the puppy, but he is just too wiggly! Ethan is looking pretty red-faced, as he spent ALOT of time outside after school shoveling snow...which is definitely one of his favorite things to do this winter. He shovels it into "mountains" which the kids then climb.

Mary Kate's preschool Christmas program was super cute. I do have some more pictures of her with grandparents and classmates before and after the program on my camera, but those haven't been uploaded yet (zoinks!).

The 3 and 4 year old classes did a great job singing and really got into the actions for their songs. Mary Kate's favorite songs were "Children Go Where I Send Thee," "Silent Night," "Feliz Navidad," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Decorating the Christmas tree

I finished up my Anatomy and Physiology class on Monday night and will have the next 4 weeks off from classes. Hooray! Now on to some overdue and hefty blog updates!

To get things started off on a festive note, here are some pictures of the Christmas tree decorating. We decorate our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanskgiving. This year, the kids really enjoyed hearing all the stories behind each ornament. Since there were so many stories and memories to share, the decorating took pretty much all afternoon.

This year, the kids made Perler bead ornaments (the plastic beads you arrange on a tray and then iron). The candy cane is one of their creations. They thought the ironing part was very exciting because it melted the beads and "glued" them together.

Mary Kate got hot and ditched her sweater before Mom could get a picture of her in it.

Tucker was eager to help. He must think there are pheasants under the tree, because he kept running under it and then jumping out from under the lower branches. No birds though. When the ornaments came out, mama put him in his crate. He was well behaved in his crate and I'm happy to report that after many reminders of "No!" he hasn't eaten any ornaments or knocked the tree over (yet!).

We finished trimming the tree at about 6 pm and the house was so covered in decorations and boxes, we had a hard time finding the kitchen. Since it was a school night and we needed a fast supper, we went out for a Happy Meal. Ethan was really surprised that Mom was going to allow a visit to McDonald's since she read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma over the summer and convinced the family to swear off fast food based on the horrifying ingredients contained therein! But we didn't eat the chicken nuggets (way too many petroleum products). We had hamburgers and french fries minus the salt. Poor kids...their mama is a little hard core when it comes to nutrition!

And finally, sibling love in front of the Christmas tree...it doesn't get any better than this!

Meet Tucker!

Many of you know that our beloved dog, Beau, died peacefully, but unexpectedly, at home on Labor Day. As a result, the past few months have been filled with lots of sadness for our family.

After Beau passed away, Ethan started kindergarten and Mary Kate started preschool. School activities, especially Ethan's full day kindergarten schedule, provided plenty to keep the kids busy...which was a good thing. At the end of September, Ethan fell while playing outside at our local apple orchard and broke his left collar bone. The following week, H1N1 hit our house. Only Ethan and Mom got it, which we were very thankful for. All in all, though, it was a pretty rough stretch.

Then we received some exciting news. An English Springer Spaniel field champion breeder whom we respect and trust had a litter of pups become available. Although the timing was sooner than Mom felt ready for, the opportunity for a puppy from Mr. Bannie is not something that happens frequently. So, Dad went out and previewed the litter. He liked the overall temperament, energy and alertness of the litter. We decided to purchase a puppy and told the kids. We all went to pick one out. Ethan and Mary Kate fell in love with the same puppy and pronounced him the "most snuggly."

We named the little guy Tucker.

And here he is, under the Christmas tree.

I can't say that potty training a puppy is my favorite thing in the world...but Tucker is extremely intelligent, and after several busy weeks filled with countless trips outside and utterings of the the phrase "do your business!" I am happy to say we are the proud owners of a beautiful, rambunctious, loveable, and house-trained puppy. Hooray!

Coyote Sighting

Last week, I walked into the family room and noticed this coyote out on the trail behind our house.

I think it was hunting voles, as it sat perfectly still right near their dirt piles for over half an hour.

First Hockey Practice

In November, Ethan started his first year of hockey. Last year, he learned to skate and loved playing hockey with friends and Dad. This year, he signed up for Mini Mites. His team practices once every week throughout the winter, and he is having a great time learning how to play the game with many new friends from kindergarten.

Here he is suited up for his first practice and waiting to get his jersey and go out on the ice. Mom was a little nervous, as his collar bone fracture (from a fall at the apple orchard in September) was only 5 1/2 weeks before the first practice, but our pediatrician assured me (several times!) that his bone was healed very well and he was perfectly fine to play.

Ethan says "Hi!" to a friend before the coaches rounded everyone up.


Ethan did a great job listening to his coaches. For the first practice, after the coaches explained a drill, they asked the kids to raise their hands to show they were ready to go. Here's Ethan showing his "ready" hand.


Skating...

I'll post some more hockey updates next week, after I upload the last batch of photos from the camera to the PC.

Three and A Half!

Last month, Mary Kate turned 3 and 1/2! She and Ethan had lots of fun in the kitchen helping bake and decorate her cake.

Ethan was eager to help blow out the candles, which was met with a fairly stern "No. I can do it myself!"

Earlier in the day, we made a trip to the library to get her very own library card and check out some new books. After that, Mary Kate spent about an hour outside pushing her baby around the driveway in her new doll stroller.

Halloween Fun

First off, my apologies for another two month hiatus from blogging. The Anatomy and Physiology class I am taking this semester is consuming a good portion of my free time in the evenings.

We had a fun Halloween week. On Wednesday, we carved jack-o-lanterns. We got these pumpkins at the end of September when we visited the apple orchard and pumpkin patch, so I was a little nervous about their condition. We carved the lids and looked inside. MK's was fine, but Ethan's 51 pound monster size pumpkin was a little mushy inside. Luckily, Dad scooped out all the goop out of that one.

MK and I drew the face on hers together. Notice that she's wearing Ethan's giant yellow rain parka. She insisted on wearing it to "keep the yucky stuff off."

Ethan drew and carved his (with a safety cutter) completely on his own. He decided to use a paint smock. What a couple of neat freaks. When did that happen? The two people who actually needed protective coverings were Mom and Dad, who did all the scooping.

The finished products. MK called hers a "smiley face pumpkin."

And Ethan called his a "staring pumpkin with lots of teeth."

On Friday, we attended the wedding of our neighbor's daughter Kate. We rate this wedding as the second most-fun we've ever attended...our own being the most fun, of course.

During the ceremony, MK kept asking "when do we get to the dancing part?" Ethan kept asking, "When do we eat?" At the reception, Ethan impressed our table with his "balance the spoon on my nose" trick.

Mary Kate then showed off her spoon balancing skills.

Then the nice man sitting next to her at our table showed her the bubbles. Lots of fun!

The dancing pictures are completely dark and blurry, as the kids didn't stop moving when they were out on the dance floor. We should have taken the good camera for some action shots.

On Halloween morning, we hosted a costume party. The kids each got to make a caramel apple, which was a big hit. Remember those flattened caramel sheet things that you stretch out and wrap around the apple? I loved those when I was a kid. I found some and we used those, which was fast, easy and fun for the kids.


Then we went out to the garage for the pinata. This year, we all helped with the paper mache. Then Mary Kate helped me paint the pumpkin orange and Ethan painted on the face, which he decided to make "spooky."

Here's MK taking a whack at the pinata.

Here's a picture of most of the kids and moms. One of the dad photographers told us to make monster faces. Ethan was apparently sick of getting his picture taken by this point and decided to stare at the ground in rebellion. A lot of the costumes are covered up by coats, but some of them included legendary soccer player Mia Hamm, a couple of ninjas, a couple of Darth Vaders, a Transformer, Luke Skywalker, Spider Man,Super Girl and three kids who took their costumes off before the picture.

In case you're wondering why poor Mary Kate and Amelia are incredibly outnumbered by boys, we did invite 5 other girls, but 2 had dance practice and 3 decided to stay away for precautionary health/germ reasons. MK came down with an ear infection and was running a fever on Thursday, so I called all the moms to let them know in case they wanted to avoid sick germs.

One of Ethan's best buddies, Ben, hung out for a while after the party. I'm not sure what MK's going for with this face. Ethan had recovered from all the picture taking by this point and his smile came back.

Then we went out trick or treating. MK lasted about an hour, then she Dad, and Tucker went home to hand out candy. Ethan was still full of energy after about 2 hours, when we completed our route. Our neighbor Kathy snapped a quick family picture before we left.

Luke and Super Girl show off some of their moves.