A trip back to Cedar Rapids

We were so very happy to head to Cedar Rapids this weekend. We were celebrating our friend Beth's 40th birthday!!

We are so spoiled to only drive as far as the cabin now, to visit with Brian's side of the family, we hadn't been back to Cedar Rapids for two years. The evening started out like many of our days lately....late! :) I'm usually the family organizer, but lately my head isn't in the game. I can only focus on what I have to accomplish to get through the next day. For all of you hoping for birthday cards...forgive me, that's way outside my forward thinking abilities right now! I'm hoping once we settle into a routine after my surgery, things will be fine. But, as a result of the family organizer being a little off kilter, we were running late. We finally arrived at the hotel about 8:30, well after the festivities had begun. It was so great to see all the old C.R. friends!

The birthday girl

Beth, Jeff, Jack

I always feel very happy when I''m with this group. I think they are the kind of friends, no matter the distance or time since you last chatted or saw each other, you will always have great memories to bring you together. It's a comfortable, I am me, you are you and we love you no matter what kind of feeling. That's hard to find...

Saturday morning came quickly, and it was our time to leave. We opted out of the birthday picnic on Saturday, to spend some time together. Our anniversary is on Sunday, but Brian is leaving Sunday morning for a business trip. We stopped at MethWick to see the boys, Grandma and Papa and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa before leaving for home.

The boys were having a great time feeding the fish in the pond at MethWick, where Dean and LaVone live.


"Feed Me!" Look at that open mouth!! This fish was a super piggy, I'm surprised he didn't have a snout.

A fast trip over to C.R., but a great one!

Yes

Why yes, fellow grocery shopper, that is my darling boy child making that horrible noise. It sounds something like the most annoying noise in the world. I believe Lloyd once deomonstrated it in the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Yes, cashier, that's right, scan my items as fast as you can.

Yes, angry fellow shopper, it annoys me too.

No, fellow shopper, I am NOT enjoying it at all.

Yes, other mothers, you can understand...

Little Fish

Dylan started his first swimming lesson yesterday. He was a bit hesitant to jump right in, without little floaties on his arms, but as time went on, he became more comfortable. He is WAY more excited about swimming than he is about school! :)

I saw in an observation deck and watched during the lesson. There were only four kids in his class, with two teachers. Occasionally, when it wasn't Dylan's turn, he'd be "off task." The teacher had floating dumbells in the pool, with one end resting outside the pool, one end floating in the water. Dylan got out of the pool, walked around all three sides of the shallow area, and pushed every single dumbell into the water...and watched them float away. The teacher didn't seem to say anything, just gathered them all up and put them back.

Also, at one point Dylan was running across the pool deck. He was spoken to by the head swimming teacher, and after that seemed to take things more seriously!

They spent a good amount of time kicking their feet and paddling with their arms. Then, they wrapped a noodle around their waist and went swimming across the shallow end! Dylan was unsure of this, but the teacher helped him. I think he did a great job for his first lesson!

After the lesson, the kids get 5-10 minutes of free time. There was a basket of boats and other toys available for play. Dylan had a great time!

I'm moving...

My blog, that is. I've had trouble with this blog, and in order to have full access to my own posts, and be able to make this blog into a book, please visit http://girlygirlandtheguys.blogspot.com for updates on our family.

I'm hoping to transfer all the old posts (manually, mind you, as none of the "transfer posts" options work for me due to the blog errors) when I'm recovering from surgery.

Dylan's First Day of Preschool

The day started out a little worrisome. Dylan told Brian he was sad. He didn't want to go to school. He told me the teachers were mean and his friend Addison pushes him. It sounded like a lot of drama to me.

I asked Dylan if we could take his picture on the front step, wearing his backpack. No how, no way. Then suddenly, across the street we saw Addison wearing her backpack, having her picture taken. Then, Dylan was willing to have his taken.

On the way to school, we talked about what Mommy & Brody would do while Dylan was at school. When I told him that we were going to the Y, and Brody was going to play, except Brody didn't get a snack, Dylan started thinking going to school would be better. At least at school you get a snack!

We arrived and he was happy as a lark. He ran over to the coat rack, looked for his Scottie Dog symbol and name, and hung up his backpack.

Once in the classroom, he first washed his hands. Then he got to work. He was thrilled that the play-doh table is always set up.

Brian and I each got a hug and a kiss, and we left. No crying, no worrying, just happy playing.

Brody and I went for a walk, then came back. Today's class was just 9-10:30, an easy introduction to school. The teacher opened the door and released each child as she saw his/her parents waiting. One little boy came out, then Dylan saw me outside the doorway. He jumped up, told the teacher "my mom's here!!" and ran out of the room. I suppose we'll have to talk to him about waiting his turn, but it sure was nice to be greeted that way! I managed to get a picture of him as he ran out the doorway.

Dylan walked over to me for a hug, and said (big sigh)...."Mom, I've had a hard day."

I'm not exactly sure what he was talking about, because he told me he played play-doh, listened to a story, had snack (animal crackers and apple juice), and played blocks. Sounds like a good day to me.

He also brought home his special folder.

Though the day started out much different than I expected, by the time we were dropping Dylan off, I could tell it would be a good day. He had fun and is ready to go back on Thursday!

Back to School Crown

From reading another blog, I got the idea to celebrate the school-boy the night before school starts. I made Dylan a crown to wear. He was having none of that. He was not at all interested in the crown.

He was not acting like himself last night. I think maybe we built school up a little too much, and that just gave him anxiety. Last night he told me he didn't want to be 3 anymore. Because being 3 means you go to school! How sad is that??

We did our usual bedtime routine and didn't talk much more about school. I knew he'd be excited about school, but maybe not until he walked in the door.

Our trip to MN

I'm having some trouble with my blog! First, I wasn't able to make last year's into a book, I can't move the posts to another blog, and now it won't even let me edit my own posts. I may have to abandon this one in the hopes of making the future posts into a book. I had five posts about our trip to MN ready to go, I just needed to add the text, but they are lost in cyberspace. You'll get the condensed version below...

We went for a long weekend of fun! The first day we went to the Mall of America and walked for a bit, then had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We had never been, and I thought the boys would really like it. They did enjoy it, but also seemed a bit overwhelmed with everything that was going on. It was also super expensive, and that, combined with so-so service means we probably won't go back. But we had fun while we were there!

Later that day, Kelly, Oma and I took the boys on a walk to the playground. We had fun and played for quite awhile! Dylan was the fashion superstar of the night...

His winter boots go everywhere he goes these days!

This was just a fun picture I took at the Mall.

Saturday morning, I took the boys and met four of my high school girlfriends at the Blast, an indoor playground at the Eagan Community Center. It's always fun to see my old friends, see their kids, and to catch up.

Later that day , my mom hosted a graduation party for my brother Matt. He graduated this summer with his Bachelor's degree in history. We had family and friends over and had a good night!

On Sunday, my dad had a party for Matt. We got to see more family and have some fun "ice cream" cakes. Dylan did the decorating with the sprinkles - that was a fun project for him. As usual, Great Aunt Nancy had some really fun surprises for the boys and they were kept busy with their new toys!

Sunday afternoon, Brian and I went with Kelly and Matt to Gameworks, in Block E downtown Minneapolis. It's basically an adult arcade place. We had a fun time playing a few games.

Everything in downtown Minneapolis seems to be squeezed in so tightly. The new Twins stadium, Target Field, butts right up against the parking ramp, and we were able to get a pretty good view of the stadium from where we parked. It looks pretty neat!

Monday we went to the great Minnesota Get Together! In my personal opinion, it's the best state fair (oh wait...I haven't been to any others...). It's a great way to spend the day. We got there shortly after 9:30 a.m. and didn't leave until somewhere between 3 and 4 in the afternoon! The boys did pretty well for no nap and uber-stimulation. We had quite a group - me, Brian, the boys, Oma, Kelly, Matt and his friend Jess. The nice thing about that many people is that you can taste just about everything the fair has to offer without having to eat the whole thing. A great way to sample all the delicious treats.

The boys saw a picture of Sponge Bob on the side of a vendor cart - it was ice cream. I knew it would be messy, and it was, but they thoroughly enjoyed their treat! Of course we had to get the cheese curds. Just one and we all shared them. I just had to try the deep fried Twinkie. By the time everyone else had a bite, there wasn't much left, but that was probably for the best. My review? It was okay. The first bite led me to believe it was going to be fabulous. But, I quickly realized the sponge cake had totally been absorbed by the batter, and it was really just twinkie filling (cold I might add!!) and fried batter with powdered sugar on it. Don't get me wrong, it was a whole combination of sweet flavors, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Papa Gordy and Vava were at the fair too, and they took the boys off for some fun. They went on rides and played for a bit. It was nice not having to push the ginormous stroller all over the fair for an hour! The boys seemed to have a fun time, and they even had some leftover tickets that we used later in the day for Dylan to ride. Kelly took Dylan on the ATV ride pictured above. It was rather jolty, and went up and down. Dylan was terrified. I was terrified that he was going to try to crawl out of the ride while it was still going. Kelly did a good job hanging on to him until the torture was over! He talked about the scary ride for days after that.

Whilst in the Kidway, Brody (who was too small to go on rides, even with an adult), met the Vulcans. They are devilish fella's who run around town during the Winter Carnival. I guess they decided to make a stop at the Fair, and they were smudging people. When I was a kid, I remember, they used to wear black beards on their faces, painted with shoe polish. I remember them walking up to women in a crowd and would smudge them with the shoe polish. Kelly said the Vulcan's have had a small problem with sexual harassment suits, and now they politely ask if they can smudge you!!

Of course Machinery Hill was a big hit with the boys. I think they would have stayed on the tractors all day if we had let them. They both pretended they were driving, intensely steering the wheel, shifting the gears, etc.
And let us not forget Brian and his gastronomic quest. He is featured here with his walleye cakes. The rest of the day he was talking about Spam Curds, just as he had last year, but the booth had moved and by that time of day we were all too tired to walk to the new location. Maybe next year Spam curds...

All in all, we had a really nice time. Though we kept busy, we weren't over scheduled like we usually are. We had enough time to relax and enjoy the trip. We were also ready to come home. I'd say six days well spent!