Question...

Does anyone else out there enjoy tractors THIS much?

What a Week!

This has been a very big week for Calvin.  It's one of those weeks I feel like I can see him growing up before my very eyes!  So exciting!

He suddenly got it in his head that he wanted to ride a bike with no training wheels.  We have tried to get him to do this for a couple years, but he just wasn't ready.  This time he decided about 5 days before his cousin Will came that he had to learn to do it before Will got here.  On that last day he pulled the bike out of the garage and said, "Well, I guess today is my last chance to do this."  About 15 minutes later he came running into the house screaming, "MOM!  I did it!"  He sure did.

Now, a week later, it's like he's been riding for years.  He's so proud of himself.

This same week Calvin also learned to swim with no water wings.  I am a very laid back parent about things like this.  I knew he could probably swim if I really worked with him, but I felt better having him in the pool knowing he was safe, so I never pushed it.  One day this week though I just suggested that he try taking his wings off.  He stayed in the shallow end for about an hour, and the next thing I know he's all over the place.  By the next day he was throwing diving sticks and getting them off the bottom of the pool.  Crazy!  He's still plugging his nose sometimes, but we're working on that.

While I don't have a video to back this one up......he claims he also baited his own hook this week.  Something I'm quite happy about.  Now he doesn't have to bring me his pole to rebait every time a fish takes his worm.  This is a big step in a little boy's life.

I love my Calvin.  He's the oldest, and sometimes I feel like he gets neglected because his brother and sister are more needy right now and he is so easy.  I love it when he and I get to spend quality time together talking or playing or whatever.  God has given him such a big heart and such a great sense of humor.  He makes me laugh like crazy.  I feel so blessed to be his mom and to get to witness all these exciting milestones in his life!

Family Family Family!

Let me just start by saying that part of the reason I haven't blogged for so long is because we've had family here for a couple weeks.  Fun! 

The biggest reason is because my adorable 2 year old is difficult lately.  I'll save the details for a post of it's own, but she doesn't go to bed and therefore I have no time to myself to blog.  I know it won't last forever.  I'm just sayin.....

Two weekends ago we had Marc's family here for a family reunion!  We were celebrating his Grandma who is turning 91 in August!  I will let the pictures tell the story.

There were cousins having fun...

Nathan likes to visit with the aunts and uncles who will listen to his stories and answer his many questions.

Here is Marc's Grandma who we call GG (Great-Grandma).  She is a very active, fun 91!



There was pop drinking.....

Which my kids think is a very special treat!



There was game playing,

marshmellow roasting,

and cake eating!



Nathan had 5 of these before I noticed!



We went swimming and EVERYONE got in the pool!  There was lots of playing...

and even some entertainment.





Thank you so much to everyone for coming to us!  We loved having you at our home and sharing the weekend with you.  Thanks for all the laughs!

We're Gonna Win Twins.....

In case I haven't mentioned it before....we are very big Minnesota Twins fans around here.  Big.  So big that I recently turned our main bathroom into a Twins bathroom.  We love it!  When Marc's parents were here for a couple days they took the kids out to lunch and to the park so I could paint.  Hoping to get the look of the players uniforms, I chose a light silver-grey.  My sister-in-law, Sara, has a friend who made our shower curtain.  I LOVE it!



Still looking for a baseball uniform for the froggy potty. (:



I sewed baseball ribbon on some towels!



A closer look at the shower curtain.

 I still plan to paint the knobs on the vanity like little baseballs, but it is so nice to have a freshly painted bathroom.  Now if they can just continue to win and get themselves in 1st place!  Go Twins!

Paging Doctor Calvin

The other day it rained all day so we had to make our own fun.  The kids talked me into playing doctor.  Calvin was our fine physician.  I was the mom.  Turns out my husband and daughter were in a pretty serious car accident.  Here is my daughter...she was lucky to have only hurt her arm.

 Sadly my husband was a little more banged up.  He was still a bit groggy so the doctor wheeled him out to me in his wheelchair and told me he had a broken leg and would need to stay off of it. 

I quickly inquired as to why he was holding a gun.  Turns out that's just his walking stick.  Pheeeeew.

The Past Few Days...

As always we have had a busy few days!

Since we had lots of strawberries to use up I made this...

I am not ashamed to say it was DELICIOUS! 

Jillian kept eating her cool whip off the top and saying, "More frosting please!"

We had some free labor around here.  They gave our car a good scrubbing.

Can I just say that this is a fabulous way to keep your kids busy when they are outside on a hot day.  It kept them very entertained, and I hardly had to settle any fights since they each had their own sponge.  It was awesome!

The boys both had baseball of course.  During one of  Nathan's games the garbage truck came when he was on 1st base.  Nathan couldn't keep his eyes off of it, but he wasn't the only one.  The other team's coach had to yell to all of his outfielders because they were turned around watching the truck and not even remotely watching the batter.  You have to love 5 year olds.

And finally, Jilly made a special surprise for dinner tonight.  We had hamburgers on the grill and green beans.  Then she and I made these parfaits with strawberries, cool whip, and blueberries.  She was very proud to have made them and ate every bite!  ( So did her brothers)

This weekend we have a family reunion with Marc's family and then a couple of weeks with members of my family coming and going!  Should be lots of fun and lots of pictures!

Only 2 Year Olds....

Can get away with dressing like this.

Strawberries Anyone?



Not sure why Calvin looks crabby...he actually did have fun. (:

The kids and I headed to the strawberry farm today!  It was the first time I have taken them to pick and we had so much fun!  We stopped by the resort first and picked up Alyssa so I would have a little adult help.  I wasn't sure how much the kids would pick and my mom wanted some too.  We got a tractor ride out into the field and the kids all loved that!  I forgot my camera in the car, so no pictures of our ride.  Turns out Calvin was a fabulous picker and Jillian didn't do bad either.  Nathan had NOTHING in his bucket.  However, they should have weighed him before and after.  That kid ate his weight in strawberries!  Soon after we got there I looked over to see his bucket tossed on the ground and him sitting in the middle of the row just eating like crazy.  When we got back to the resort and the rest of us had lunch Nathan said, "Um...I don't want anything...I'm not really hungry."



This little cutie ate a few too...check out that face!



We Love Baseball!

And it's a good thing!  We are at the field for ball 4 days a week this summer.  Calvin has baseball  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Nathan has Tball Monday and Wednesday.  It gets to be a lot sometimes, but I truly do love watching them play.  This week Marc's mom and dad came down to watch a couple games.  They came to Nathan's game on Wednesday.

His games are very entertaining.  He hits the ball every time, but we need to work on his base running and his fielding skills!  If the ball doesn't come RIGHT to his glove he just assumes it's somebody else's responsibility.  One time last week the ball came somewhat close to him and he actually kicked it.  Interesting.  He has a great time out there though.  He LOVES it when we cheer for him.  He gets so excited.  When you ask Nathan what his favorite part of playing tball is he says, "Sitting in the dugout!"  That's my boy.

Today was Calvin's game.

It's amazing what two years will do for you.  There is no comparison between 5 year old tball and 7 year old baseball.  Things are much more serious now.  They still only let them run one base for each hit unless it's a really long hit.  Calvin actually got a double today which he thought was pretty awesome! He loves to play catcher.  He's played it pretty much every game and I finally remembered my camera today!

I realize this video is sideways and very short, but for some reason it makes me laugh every time I watch it!

You might ask yourself, "What does the little sister do while spending all this time at the ball field?"

She looks good and eats snacks.  What else would you expect?

4th of July Finale...

This past weekend was so long and packed with activity it has taken me until now to recover!  Sunday morning we started the day with church.  One of my favorite parts was during worship...we were singing a song and I looked down to see Jilly right by my side with both hands straight up in the air worshiping Jesus with all of her heart.  Love it.

When church ended we headed into town to find our spot for the big parade.  It's become a tradition that we get there early and eat our lunch while we wait for the parade to start.

There is always plenty of people watching to keep us entertained.  My favorite thing we saw this year.....a couple pulled up in their truck and began to unload what we thought were their chairs.  Turns out it was their entire outdoor table and chairs set....complete with umbrella.  They set it up right on the sidewalk to enjoy the parade in their own shade.  Cracked me up!

This next picture is Calvin with his lunch bag on his head.  I told him I was looking forward to showing it to his girlfriend some day.

Everyone enjoyed the parade.  Well....almost everyone.  Nathan really doesn't enjoy parades.  He REALLY doesn't like the noise.  This year I brought ear plugs which helped a little, but he still gets very nervous and cries when the fire trucks or anything else really loud comes by.  The poor guy.  It was an improvement though...last year he was in the car for the whole parade.  This year we were able to throw him a tootsie roll every once in awhile and keep him distracted.  When we were talking about going to the parade the day before Nathan said, "I don't want to go...I just want to stay home and mow."  He's not kidding.  God bless him.

When the parade ended we headed home for about an hour, and then we were right back out again to see the movie Cars 2.  The boys (and me too) had been dying to see it.  It was okay, but not nearly as cute as the first one.  It was, however, Jilly's first time at a movie.  She enjoyed a little popcorn and lemonade, and then went to sleep on my lap for the whole movie.  So I got to watch a movie and snuggle a baby.  My favorite.

Monday we went to the resort to swim for awhile in the afternoon.  That night the boys and I headed to the lake front in Bemidji.  It's been a tradition for a couple of years that Calvin and I go to the carnival and then to fireworks.  This year Nathan decided he wanted to go with us.  I wasn't sure how this would go since he REALLY dislikes loud noises.  I explained everything we would do and he still wanted to go, so we took him along!  We had a great time at the carnival.  Calvin LOVES to play games....so we did that and got a few cheesy prizes.  Then they went on a couple rides.  All Nathan wanted to do was ride the race cars.  He got his wish!

Then they went on the roller coaster...



I love the look on this little girl's face!


And finally the whales.

Good times.

After snagging some food (corn dog for me, hot dog for Nathan, pizza for Calvin and mini doghnuts for all) we headed to our blanket to wait for the fireworks.  After we had been sitting there for just a couple minutes someone close by lit some firecrakers.  Nathan did not like this AT ALL.  He was holding his hands over his ears, crying, begging me to take him home.  Calvin and I did everything we could think of to distract him.  At one point I was talking to my mom on the phone and he said with his lip sticking out, "Tell Nana to come pick me up...tell her I'm at the lake and I need her to pick me up."  It was very sad.  Well....it turned out there was a big thunder storm coming anyway.  We probably weren't going to make it to the fireworks.  A blessing for Nathan...let me tell you.  We decided to gather our things and go watch from the car for awhile.  After sitting in the car for a half hour with two boys I decided we weren't waiting for the fireworks!  We got home as it started pouring and everyone went to bed.  We'll try for those fireworks again next year!  Maybe inside the car to avoid the noise!