11.13.2010 - Our view from home - 33 degrees

11.09.2010 - Eastman Nature Center - 69 degrees

happy birthday S...

church...chicken tortilla soup for lunch with J and C and girls and pup...good conversation while kids played...neat book for a gift (thanks J&C!)...also a new plant from us...homemade angel food cake with strawberries and real whipped cream...nap...breadsticks and VeggieTales...and ice cream and more strawberries to top it all off...

love you sweetheart...happy birthday!

a blessed October...

family photo on "parade couch" at the Anoka Halloween parade - one of our favorite fall outings! J&C live right on the parade route, so we always park in their driveway, share their comfy seating, and have fun chatting the afternoon away during the 3 hour parade full of floats, marching bands, princesses, and other various celebrities all dressed up in costumes. (oh, and did I mention the candy? yeah, we usually have enough to hand out to trick-or-treaters just from the parade! Pretty sure the kids won't let us get away with that for too many more years...)

Excuse me, do you know where October went? I really don't know why it went so fast, and I really don't remember what we did. That should make this a short post, eh? See ya next month!!!

Just kidding. The month did go by really fast, though. I think part of that was because we had some beautiful fall weather and were able to get out and do a lot of things just soaking up the last bit of warmth before the white stuff flies here on the frozen tundra. We went on a great bike ride with the kids and S's parents and sister, got to spend a great weekend on the farm, and topped off the month with a fun afternoon at the Halloween parade and a great fellowship dinner with couples from church.

October wasn't all happiness and fun though, especially toward the end of the month. We were busy getting ready for dental surgery for Carsten the first week of November, S was incredibly busy at work (of which there is no end in sight yet...blurg), and we hit a raccoon (yeah, a raccoon!) with our van resulting in $1000 worth of damage, way too much time on the phone with insurance, and monkeying around with schedules and cars to get it fixed.

G notes:

• She learned how to tie her shoes!! We had been showing her how for the past couple of months, but not really pushing it. All of a sudden something clicked one day and in 5 minutes she was a pro!
• G also overcame a bathroom issue at school thanks to a little incentive. Every toilet at school except 1 is an automatic flush toilet. G would wait for that manual toilet everyday (along with a few other girls) and it was starting to take longer than the teacher wanted. We were politely informed of this, and decided to offer G an incentive. G had been wanting the giant fairy wings in the picture above ever since we spotted them at the store. I told her that every time she used the automatic flush toilet, she would get a "brave girl point," and if she got enough points, then she could have the wings for Halloween. The next day G got 2 brave girl points and has not had a problem since. She got her wings (which can take out small armies...or cousins...or neighbor friends and dogs), was extremely happy and proud of herself, and her teacher thanked us.
  
• Other kindergarten highlights: being very special person, making applesauce, playing with friends at recess, being line leader, playing a doctor in the "doctor's office" corner and looking at real x-rays, and pretty much every day that she gets to go to school is still exciting and special for her. Makes her momma and dadda so happy!
• At home I think we have finally gotten into a school routine and things have settled in here for days "with G" and days "without G." There is a lot of "school" play at home, and W is more than happy to join in and play the part of boy classmates of hers. They pretend to ride the bus, go on field trips, different things in the classroom, and of course eating lunch out of lunch boxes.

W notes:

• W finally settling into the school routine has been a relief this month. This poor boy felt like he was left in the dust, things changed all over the place, and didn't know how to act or what to feel for the month of September.
  
• He is continuing to grow out of naps...now when he does get a good nap it affects bedtime for him, and it is getting easier for him to make it to bedtime without meltdowns when he doesn't nap.
• W has started picking up S's old Calvin and Hobbes comic books and can spend 15-20 minutes quietly looking through them. Something his sister and his cousin K have done before him...can't believe he is old enough to start that!
• Still 3, still dealing with meltdowns and power struggles, but S and I have both commented that he has gotten much better this month. Hopefully it will continue to get better.
• Trying to get him interested in potty training. Read the books all the time with him, talk about it, he knows everything and how it works...but he first would say that he wasn't going to sit on the potty until he was 4. Apparently he figured that was too soon because he has now bumped it to 7. Oh help us all.

C notes:

• C had a hard month with his teeth. They were obviously hurting him and he spent a lot of time with his fingers or hands in his mouth. He also was waking up at night more, and his eating was affected too.
• Really picked up on imitating his brother and sister. Not only in actions, but in words too. He watches them constantly and always has to have, be doing, or sing/say what they are. Makes us realize what a huge influence his siblings are going to have on him...
• He has started putting 2-3 words together for phrases quite a bit this month and tries to have conversations with us. The phrases do have clear pauses between the words, which as so cute. This new jump in communication has been great. He also can ask for help clearly, will direct us to what he wants us to do, and will also come and tattle on his brother and sister - running up to us crying "bonk...ME!"
• Still is crazy for books...which is great since he developed this interested much later than G and W did. He just didn't have the patience for a long time. But now we spend a good amount of time during the day reading him (and the others) books. C also loves story-time and going to the library now too!

cutie patooties...

on the farm(2): combining corn...

Dad and L were in the middle of harvest when we were at the farm. The soybeans had all been harvested, but they were still working on combining corn. I have not been out to the farm during harvest in a long time, and so I was super excited to get the kids in the combine with Boppa (and get myself in there too!)

Dad was unloading corn from the combine into the wagons when we got to the field (this is L's field, less than 2 miles east of my parent's farm)



W was up first - he was ecstatic about combining with Boppa!



heading out on W's round



next up was G!



Here is the combine out in the field on G's round.

(on a quick aside, long time ago our friend T asked us what environment makes our souls happy. Hers was mountains, if I remember right, S decided on being by a lake, and this right here is mine - cornfields. Yep, without a doubt, cornfields.)

I went along on C's round and got to drive the combine! (yes, I do admit, I am a farmgirl through and through, but I stink at driving machinery.)



And yes, this is a common site during harvest - luckily, this was a small fix and didn't require any major downtime or parts!

Thanks, Dad, for instilling the love of the farm and the land in me, and helping me show that to our kids, too.

on the farm(1): playing with rocks...

Dad needed help with a project while we were there last weekend. The problem?

The water running off the roof of the new shed was creating a cavernous canyon and washing away all the dirt. Especially after their gulley washer last month where they got 6 inches in one storm!

Dad's solution? Enlist man power of son and son-in-law and use lots of rocks.

step 1: fill in with dirt, lay down landscape fabric, and instruct your crew to try to look productive when your crazy daughter with the camera comes out...or at least like they are coming up with a brilliant plan.



step 2: take tractor out to rock pile in pasture, fill loader with hand-picked (home-grown!!) rocks and have son and son-in-law place each one in the trench for the outside border.



step 3: take 3 yr old grandson to Pronk's to get trailer full of rocks, have him talk your ear off the whole way, see him get super excited about the cement trucks, and then make him and his 1 1/2 year old brother throw the rocks in place.



step 4: realize the small stuff crew isn't going to cut it so enlist visiting Uncle K to help shovel rocks.



step 5: toil at this project all day while crazy daughter with the camera plays with the kids inside the shed.



step 6: fill in and grade extra dirt by the house so wife won't have to catch water running down the basement walls during the next gulley washer.





step 7: stand back and admire a good days work finished.



step 8: enjoy pizza with the whole family!!!

want to go back...

ready...


set...


go...



go...


Go...


GO...


go back?

After our great weekend, of COURSE they are ready to go back to the farm!

a very special person indeed...

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14a

In G's kindergarten classroom, they celebrate how God made each one of them special and unique with a "Very Special Person" week. They are asked to bring 10 pictures and a few favorite items to help tell the kindergarten class about themselves, what they like to do and basically their life story up to now. They also get to have a parent come and read the class their favorite book, and parents are also invited to come and eat lunch with their child sometime during the week as well.

Last week G got to be the Very Special Person!

On Monday she brought her pictures and some favorite things:

. H
G in princess dress and crown, with legos (including special masterpiece she built for the occasion), and baby doll Anna wrapped in G's cozy blanket.


Her teacher wrote down some of the stories G told to display during the week and then send home.

On Wednesday S had the day off, so our whole family went in at the end of the day to read a book to G's class:

We arrived a little early and got to see G finish up a project.


The Very Special Person bulletin board where G's pictures were displayed all week.


***Now the boys were super excited to go to G's school, but during the story were extremely wiggly so we don't have a picture of me reading Winter Days in the Big Woods to G's class. G likes this book a lot and we read it quite often - can't wait to start reading her the real chapter books!***



Since we came at the end of the day Grace was able to leave right from the classroom with us, which she thought was fun.

On Friday, it happened to be the monthly pizza lunch day, which I help with as a room mom, so I was able to see G play at recess and eat pizza with her for lunch! Good end to her very special person week.


Here are the photos that G brought in to help tell her classmates about herself and her own words about them:

note - Let's just say the generous half hour I had allotted myself to pick 10 pictures was NOT long enough...After over an hour quickly looking through 5 years of pictures, I had it narrowed down to 58 . We have so many more pictures which show how she has grown (all of the pictures we have taken by c.e.b) and things we have done that are special and important (birthdays, trips, Christmas), but these were the ones S and I thought G could easily talk about and showed a few things she likes to do too.

"This is me when I was a cute little baby. And I had to stay in the hospital for a few days because I was so small. I was born on August 29."


"This is me on my first birthday. I had a ducky cake. I did not have any clothes on because I was going to get messy."


"This is me holding my brother W. I am almost 2 in this picture and W is brand new. Isn't he cute?"


"This is me when I was 2 1/2. I was a flower girl for my Uncle M and Aunt A's wedding. I got to wear a fancy dress made by my Nana and I loved to twirl in it."


"This is me when I was 3. I love to play outside and I love to write on the sidewalk with chalk. This is me next to a 'chalk G'"


"This is me holding my new brother C. Isn't he cute! W held him too but I was older so I could hold him more. I was 3 1/2."


"This is me playing dress up with my friend A and my cousins G and K. Don't we look so fancy?"


"This is me when I turned 4. I got a new big girl bike for my birthday present! I like riding my bike with training wheels, but someday I will be able to ride it without training wheels. I always wear a helmet when I ride bike to be safe."


"This is me at the MN state fair. One year I was 3 chickens tall, one year I was 3 1/2 chickens tall, and this year I was 4 chickens tall!"

"This is a picture of my whole family. I am 5 years old. Then is my dad and his name is S. Then comes W and he is 3 years old. My next brother's name is C and he is 1 1/2 years old. Last is my momma and her name is C."