2011 Inaugural Cottage Canoe Trip

Funny Faces

The Wind Huffed, and Puffed, And Blew That Tree Down

It has been a hectic 36 hours since the tornado decided to swing through Minneapolis. It first dropped down not far from Gramma Anne's, causing major winds that knocked down tree's like toothpicks. Luckily no one in that area got hurt, though a big tree crashed into the roof of Gramma's house. Her neighborhood luckily is intact, but our hearts go out to those in North Minneapolis who lost roofs and much more. Soren has been pretty shaken up over it all. Seeing a tree on a roof and more strewn across streets and yards leaves a strong visual impact for a little one. Sevi on the other hand has just been happy picking up sticks and throwing them into piles. Gramma is perhaps the most shaken up, but we have been happy to help and bring the needed smiles and stress release laughter that only little grandson's can bring.

Sevi's First Haircut

The time had come to get the hair out of Sevi's eyes and bring him in for his first haircut. Soren also went in, since he hadn't had a haircut since the last super short butcher job done last October. We went to a neighborhood shop that I was really pleased with and will certainly return to. Now the two boys can see clearly without brushing hair out of their eyes. Don't they look handsome!

The Things They Say #3

The Scene: Sevi digging through the dirty laundry basket, finding his mama's bra, then marching around the house with it.
Soren yelling out to all: "Sevi has mommies boobies"

Dare I Say...... Spring is Here

Soren and his block buddies Nick, Max & Amanda playing with the stomp rocket.


Max's little sister Amanda has had a major crush on Sevi since he was born and as you can see, it still holds strong.

For the Love of Nature Based Learning

Soren adding sticks to the forts they are making on the school grounds.

I will let yesterday's e-mail from Soren's teacher speak for itself to why we love Dodge Nature Preschool.

Today we were able to spend the whole day outside! We did some exploring in the fields. We were finding various items, some of which we placed in a bag to recycle back at the school! We found some tires on the ground close to the farm that were great to try to walk on. We were interested in checking out our community garden. We are looking forward to planting in the garden this year. Our class will be focusing on potatoes and wheat at the community garden! Some children have already begun the planting process with lettuce, herbs, and sunflowers in our classroom!

We decided that since we were having apples for snack that we should enjoy our snack under the apple trees near the garden. Our snack was apples and crackers. After snack we continued back to the school and found a large puddle to explore with some sticks on our way.

We look forward to continuing to explore the spring setting around us!

Hippity Hoppity Easter Events

This was our first year to dye eggs for Easter and Soren really enjoyed the whole process, from the coloring to the eating.


Sevi's first egg hunt, he even found the eggs buried in the sand.


Soren counting out his eggs.


Cracking open the eggs and gathering his loot.


Proof to why dentists hate gummy chews and how they stick to teeth.


A rare family portrait......

Tower of Flowers

This is the second year that we went to the Macy's flower show with the Grandma's. This years theme was Tower of Flowers and it was a beautiful show. It was a nice taste of what Spring may be like, though with tonight's snow forecast, it already feels like a distant memory. With Randy now working downtown, he was even able to meet us for lunch. Add the light rail train ride and it all made for a wonderful day of adventure.


The professional photo in front of the flower show logo.


Soren assisting Sevi to look at the camera and smile pretty.

STOMP

Soren and I had a special date night last week to take in Stomp at the Ordway. He has enjoyed watching Stomp YouTube videos and was so thrilled to take in the show live. It really is the perfect musical performance to take in with kids. It is 90 minutes of banging trash cans, broom sticks, kitchen sinks, inner tubes and making music out of paper and plastic bags and even zippo lighters! As you can see from the second photo, the performance left an impression on Soren, who then enlisted Sevi as his Stomp sidekick!

Arty Pants

There has been a big interest in art projects lately in our household. Every day there is some new creation going on from salad spinner "spin art" with his friends, collages and free drawing, and even to visit museums. It has been fun to see Soren's drawing progression, with him creating more recognizable figures and heads and the stories that go with them.


Even Sevi loves to get in on the art action



Heln, Soren and Kai working on Spin Art


Soren and Graham doing an art project


Soren's magazine collage


A drawing Soren made of him and papa biking on the tag-a-long. They had just returned from their first "Spring" ride.


Soren's first family portrait. Yup - there are 5 with two Soren heads. Nothing like the art ego......


Checking out the art at the Walker Art Center with Helen

What our future may hold......

Teenagers that:



Raid the fridge for a midnight snack.



Engage with technology instead of his parents.

Mr. Turtle and The Dragon

With winter just not wanting to loosen it's grip quite yet, we have had to get a bit creative on our continued snow play. We made snow animal sculptures and colored them with our favorite snow painting method: food coloring in spray bottles.

Entering....... Toddlerhood

Sevi has entered a new stage; full blown frustrated toddlerhood. He either wants his independence or is at my heels wanting to be up in my arms. I can't leave the room without returning to find him climbing up on some object or getting into some drawer, cupboard or Soren creation. I feel like my days are full of intervention. I am just waiting for his first word beyond "Mama" to be the big NO.

My Groupon Book Deal

Click here to view this photo book larger

Winter Activities

While we are in the midst of a winter blizzard and just coming off a week of temps in the high 40's, we have had fun taking full advantage of all that this winter season has had to offer. Soren has fallen in love with ice skating this season, while Sevi enjoys all the rides via ice or sled.

Homemade Cruisin'

We may still be in the heart of winter here in MN, but that hasn't stopped us from creating our own warm weather dreams of cruising along, convertible style, in our own homemade car.