My Valentines

Happy Valentines Day to my funny little valentines! 

No amount of bargaining or asking nicely could get a single nice picture of them. That's what I get for asking during a silly mood streak! Love you all dearly! 

Big Girl Bed

 I've never had an escape artist.  Nora never once tried to climb out of her crib.  Myles tried one time and that was it.  One time.  Leave it to Great Bear to be the one to climb out continually.  One of the first times she tried her knee got stuck between the rails and she didn't do it again for a couple of weeks so I thought I was in the clear.  I looked at her knee getting stuck as a blessing - she found out it can hurt when climbing out so she didn't do it again.  But it's Greta we're talking about so of course she tried again.  Silly me.

So when she started climbing out 7, 8, 9 times during nap (and consequently giving up her afternoon nap at the same time... sigh) I decided I'd better be safe than sorry.  It was time for a big girl bed.

She was thrilled but tried to play it cool.

Much easier to get out now (at least there will be no broken bones, concussions, etc.) 

Did it happen much quicker than I was ready for? Yes.  As a matter of fact it took me an extra day to take the side down.  It hit me as I went to tuck her in the night before I was planning on making the change that she's growing up entirely too fast.  She talks like she's three.  She's fully potty trained and has been since 19 months.  She doesn't even wear pull-ups at night anymore for goodness sake.  And now she's getting a big girl bed too?!  What?? So as I tucked her in one last time before tucking myself in I shed a few tears.  Mostly happy ones.  

But wow, this is going fast. 

The first sleep as a big girl.  

Now if only you'd stop peeking out at bedtime and go to sleep... one thing at a time.  

Back to School

Nora is officially back in school... and a Kindergartner!

Myles starts this coming week.

To make things a little smoother on the first day (Nora starts at 8:15 - we are used to lollygagging on our pjs and eating breakfast around this time) I cheated and did back to school pictures the day before!  

As I was clicking away I was struck by how grown up they both were looking.  Especially if you look back to last years' first day pictures.

Nora has continued to say she thinks she'll like Kindergarten but she's not excited to go.  She's never been one for change and this year means a new classroom and a new teacher (two new teachers!).  So the first day came with a few tears on her part - and mine once I got into the hallway, I'm not gonna lie - but I knew they quickly dried up.  She always gets teary when I leave during new situations but as soon as I'm gone she's fine. 

Myles on the other hand is more than ready.  In Pre-K they start by checking out the classroom one day, a couple days later they go for just an hour and on the last day it's your full time.  He wants to skip all that and just start.  Although most of his friends moved onto Kindergarten this year (they were the older kids in the room last year) he's looking forward to being back and meeting new friends.  He asks me almost every day if it's his turn to go to school yet. 

Now that Nora has had a few days of Kindergarten under her belt she's no longer getting watery-eyed at drop off and comes home happy and talkative about what she's learning and the friends she played with.  "And guess what!? We had recess!" 

Annual back to school interviews --

Every year I'm thrilled with our growing St. Paul family and this year is no different.  Praying for a great year for both of them.  

WI State Fair

It's that time of year again.  Time for the Wisconsin State Fair.  For the past three years now we've been making the trip to the fair with our parents (it's always nice to have the adults outnumber the kids at a place with so many people).  As usual, the kids had a great time, and this year Myles wasn't as obsessed with animal poop as he was last year! Ha! 

Two rides down the pig slide for $1.
The silliest slide but they always love it.

We of course ate our way through the fair.  There's no other way.  Always on my list is a cob of corn dunked in butter (just thinking about it is making my mouth water...) and a corn dog.  Yes, culinary excellence right there.  I love a corn dog at a festival. 

Nora and Myles were looking forward to the big slide since they found out we were going to the fair again. Nora was pretty sure she'd be tall enough this year to go alone.  She was barely tall enough but she ended up chickening out and went down with Grandma. Myles went with Dan and even Greta had her inaugural ride!

The best part about the fair for Nora and Myles this year had to have been the "Power Jump". 

Have you seen it before? It's a ride where you get buckled into a harness and lifted up above a trampoline so you can jump really high and even do flips if you want.  

Waiting his turn

My prediction was that Nora would love it but I wasn't as confident about Myles.  I thought he could go either way - either love it or be a little nervous about going that high (I mean they were waaay above our heads.)

Strapped in and ready to jump!

Turns out he LOVED it! He did a few summer saults and everything.

And look who we happened to run into! 

Karen's family and Dave's family! 

Luke, Caroline, Evan, Myles, Ben, Claire, Greta & Nora

We finished the day with our traditional Sky Glide ride from one end of the fair grounds back to the beginning. 

Myles with mom and dad - Nora went with Gram.
Greta goes with Grandma and Grandpa with the strollers to meet us at
the end.

It was such a hot day. We were done with the fair by 1:00 and headed back to Dale and Mary Ann's to cool off and take a break in the air conditioning for a while.  After a couple of hours we headed to the club to take a dip in the pool and dinner on the patio.  A perfect end to a great day.

The following morning we walked down to the train park before lunch.

We weren't prepared with swimming suits for the fountains there.... 

but swimming suits at splash pads are kind of overrated, right?

There's just something about being soaking wet in your clothes that screams childhood and summer.

We're making memories.

On the walk home Nora asked if we could stop in by Gramma Gramma's to say hi. Can't say no to that!  After a quick change we walked over.  

Greta wanted NOTHING to do with Gramma Gramma this time.  She usually
is really good with her but she didn't even want to sit for the picture.
This is better than no picture though, right?

This is a weekend that we ALL enjoy every year and this year was no exception. 

Catching Crayfish

Dan had a work event downtown on Friday so I packed the kids up Thursday afternoon and took them to Gram's for a couple of nights. We were already planning on heading up for the weekend for our annual trip to the Wisconsin State Fair so we just extended our time there.

Our Thursday started out like many of our summer days do, with a morning hunt for real cicadas. I'm completely grossed out by them but the kids aren't so I try to put on a brave face. Who am I to dampen their excitement when they find one that hasn't crawled out of its shell yet?

Myles proudly holding his critter box, a birthday
present from Uncle Greg, filled with six cicadas
and two caterpillars.

Checking out the stash.

Friday morning we met my Uncle Greg for breakfast. So nice to see him again.  It had been a long time. Right before bedtime the kids and I will often share 2-3 of our favorite things from the day.  Chocolate chip pancakes with Uncle Greg topped both of their lists Friday.  Warms my heart.

In the afternoon we headed to the river by the park to go crayfish hunting.  Warning -- I took along my DSLR so this post is picture overload! 

Monkey see, Monkey do.
She crawled all the way to the top! Meanwhile Gram was under her
making sure she didn't fall and giving her heart palpitations. 

I was so happy I snapped quite a few great pictures of this boy.  Looking back through the past few months of pictures I have I noticed I didn't have many of him that he wasn't making a face, not looking, or blurry! 

He was a little nervous to get all the way to
the top but kept trying and eventually made it! 

Forever striking a pose, usually with that
shoulder. 

Finally after some climbing it was time to head into the river.

Greta didn't get into looking for crayfish but she did enjoy collecting rocks.

And watching them make a big splash.

The first, and smallest, catch of day went to Nora.

Myles caught the "granddaddy of them all" as
he called it.

Proud of his haul.

Setting them free.

It was a really hot and humid day -- perfect for crayfish hunting. We finished the day with dinner, ice cream and an early bedtime. Everyone was happily exhausted.