My Little Lake Bums

The kids and I went to Grace Lake this weekend to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nyhlen. We arrived on Friday and came home on Sunday--so it was a quick trip, but we packed a lot in on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was a bit cold that day so we weren't able to enjoy the water too much, but that didn't stop Zoey and Zander from playing around for awhile at the lake. Here are the pictures from our weekend. . .

Zander waiting to go on his first boat ride!

Zander and Grandma on the boat.

Zander and Grandpa drove the boat for a bit--they even managed to keep us out of the weeds.

Here is Zander's face after he and Grandpa discovered the horn.

Our little sailor became pretty brave on the boat--he walked around and everything.

Zoey really enjoyed the boat ride, but she stayed in one place.

Zander has been excited about seeing all kinds of veichles. He makes sure to tell me everytime a big truck or a motorcycle goes by. . .so when he and Grandpa saw our neighbor's motorcycle, Zander got on for a picture--he didn't like being on the motorcycle, just seeing it, I guess.

Zoey had a great time getting buried in the sand.

At Art in the Park, Zoey got her face painted with a butterfly.

The annual picture of the kids by Paul and Babe.

The train was working this time!!!

Couldn't resist a quick walk down memory lane. . .

Last year at Art in the Park, Zoey got her face painted with a butterfly.

Zander and Zoey by Paul--Zander couldn't even walk yet!
They have both grown so much in just a year.

Ta-Dah!

Back in the Spring, Grandpa Nyhlen bought Zoey this wooden birdfeeder because Zoey wanted a birdfeeder for our yard. After her persistent asking about when she gets to paint it, I finally let her. She had a great time painting and it seemed every color had a story as to why it was there.


Zoey also successfully completed swimming lessons this week. She was the only one signed up for her group lessons--so she essentially had private lessons all week long. It was fantastic for her! She gained a lot of confidence in the water.

A Little Story from Nana

Or, What Happens at The Annual Sleepover

Zoey and Zander said good-by to their Mom and Dad with no problem. (About 5:30 p.m.)They were excited about having fun at Nana and Poppa's house overnight while Tyler and Judy had an anniversary to themselves.

First off, Zander wanted to go outside. He immediately enlisted the help of Poppa by pulling Poppa's finger toward the door. Zoey and Nana played Jr. Yahtzee according to Zoey's rules. She even had me do a "magic touch" prior to each of her throws of the dice. "No Nana, you can't touch it by taking the shaker, just a little touch will work the magic." I must have done it right because she won.

In no time at all 6:30 rolled around and I couldn't figure out why Zander and Poppa were still outside. Zoey and I went to see where they were. It turns out they had spent the hour walking up and down our two streets with Zander pulling his wagon ( garage sale for one buck. The best toys are the cheap ones I always say.) I knew this would undoubtedly have worn the little guy out BIG time. We had about 45 minutes left until bedtime for him. So, into the tub - very willingly - they both went. Snacks were made and last drinks given out. So, now it's 7:30 p.m. Are you tired Zander? "No." We read a few books. We play every game we have.

It's 8:30 p.m. Zander is still shaking his head that he isn't tired. We set up the crib. Make it all nice for him in the office and set up Zoey's air mattress bed in the spare bedroom. The kids jump up and down on the mattress and have a great time. This has got to be wearing them out... right? Wrong... ! So, we go through the routine get him down into the pack and play and he looks at us, his lower lip trembles and he wails out the loneliest heart-wrenching cry and starts sobbing. My heart is breaking. No amount of consoling was helping. So, we get him up and hope he's going to pass out soon.

Then Zoey and Zander decide they are hungry. Zander takes my finger and brings me to the refrigerator and I open it. He snatches a yogurt and Zoey wants one too. They gobble down a yogurt each. New diaper to Zander and we pretend sleep on Zoey's mattress. It's almost 9:30 p.m. Past my bedtime. We read four books - a Zoey special. The "Tins" are over. We're all in our jamies now. I get a brilliant idea. We ask Zander if he wants his bed in the same room as Poppa and he says "Yes!" We transfer the pack and play into the bedroom. He lies on Pappa's bed looking like he is due to be executed in 5 minutes as we set it up. I've never seen him so frightened. Is this one of those rites of passage? Going to bed with no Mummy or Daddy around?? We cross our fingers, turn off the lights and all lay down, but Zander is soon crying non-stop. Then Zoey freaks out with the lights off so we turn a couple of lights back on. Doesn't help. It's time for tough love and we let him cry it out -- after about 10 minutes he gives up and lays down to sleep.

Meanwhile, if you remember the flopping fish story from last year... Zoey spent the next 20 minutes flip flopping around the mattress. However, she stayed quiet with no long list of questions over and over. At long last she's asleep in a normal position with head on pillow and her special blanket, the house is quiet and I also fall asleep. (After carefully tiptoeing around turning off the lights at 10:30. Whew!)

6:30 a.m. comes around and after a night of waking up with every flip flop, every murmur every 30-40 second cry I decide it's time to get up. Zoey has just had a night mare and wakes up and Zander has been awake for about 15 minutes.

What for breakfast? Zoey doesn't want eggs but agrees to cereal with cut bananas because she is going to be "open minded." Neither ate it. The open minded one took one taste and no more. So cinnamon raisin toast worked with some blueberries on the side. Zander doesn't eat and subsists on drinks I think. He loves his pullups because there are cars on them and only agrees to diapers at bedtime. He can't wait to get dressed and get outside. But first he kept pulling my finger to the bedroom and motioned for me to lie down on the spare bed and he wanted to pretend lie down on Zoey's mattress to prove he can do this next time he sleeps over. He repeated these instructions in mime twice. So we're going to get another air mattress for the big boy. Then he pulled me to get him dressed and outside. His non-verbal is quite good and can get what he wants very insistently by pulling your finger to where ever he wants to go. He's ready with his "Tins" hat and was willing to wear a big shirt over his clothes because it was quite cold outside Saturday morning. No way would Zoey wear an oversized shirt to keep warm so she stayed inside. Girls?!

The Z crew survived the night and Nana and Poppa took a nap to recoup after Tyler picked up the cute ones. Raising kids is full time exhausting work. It's good to remember that once in a while.

Nana

Nothing says summer like. . .

Drippy popsicles outside with the kids
Twirling on the swing in the backyard

A sly smile

The view of the trees while laying in the yard

And corn on the cob on a nice summer evening.

Happy Fourth of July!!

So why am I at home blogging on July 4th and not out enjoying fireworks? Pure exhaustion is a good way to describe it and also a bout of "things just aren't going our way." This week, Tyler has been off of work and we completed a bunch of house projects--including "finishing" the painting of the house (yes, we know there is some touch up work, but it will have to wait), and painting the downstairs bathroom.

On Friday, Nana and Poppa took the kids to Como Zoo for fun with the animals and some rides. They had a blast! Thanks Nana and Poppa!

I received this email this morning from Nana (It is too Zoey not to share. . .hope that is ok!)

BTW: Zoey must have cut about a 2.5 inch piece of hair off while she was supposedly going potty in the bathroom. I was getting lunch ready.

I found the hunk of hair in her dinner table chair and asked her where it came from and she said: "it must have fallen out of your head, Nana." I said, "but it looks like your hair, Zoey."

"Oh, it probably fell out of my hair then." says Zoey. Hmmmm....?

Ya gotta watch her all the time! (you can see the spot in the front of her hair near her ear.)

On Friday night, we went over a friend's house for a bonfire and fireworks--it was a blast and we kept our already tired kids out until way past their bedtimes. Then on Saturday, we hopped in the car and road tripped out to Mayer to spend the holiday with Roz, Kevin and Hazel (our goddaughter).

Our plan was to eat, play, nap, and then go to a huge park with a swimming pond. Here we are playing at the park before nap time. . .




Nap time went fantastically. Then we all piled into our cars, swimsuits on and ready to go play. As on cue, the dark clouds rolled in and it started to rain. . .hard. Roz called with plan B to go to the lake in Waconia where it looked like the rain clouds were gone. As we drove to Waconia, it did seem like the clouds were going away. We had settled Zoey down from her initial disappointment and said that we were going to another beach. As we pull into the lake, the rain cloud found us again and it threatened rain. Roz called again with plan C. . .we were just going to go to a park and play. Zoey by now is beyond disappointed, she is crying hard and just doesn't know what to do with herself. She doesn't want to do anything but swim. As we pull up to the park, you guessed it, it started pouring rain. Plan D is put into motion. . .let's drive to the local ice cream shop for ice cream. Zoey thought that was a great idea--her disappointment disappears. We drive to the shop, praying that it isn't closed for the holiday and enjoy our ice cream. . .



While we are eating, Zoey remembered that Roz had made cupcakes and really wanted one. Roz said that she would give us some to take home with us. It was still raining hard when we left, so all the adults were focused on getting kids strapped into carseats without getting soaked. We drove away from Waconia to head home and again, as if on cue, the sun broke free and it turned into a beautiful evening. Half way home, we realized we were cupcakeless--another diappointment that Zoey would have to live with today. Just don't tell her that we made the executive decision to skip the fireworks tonight because the kids (and I) were so tired. . .she wouldn't be able to handle it.

We will try to find a lake tomorrow to hang out at and see if we can ease Zoey's pain.

Tyler however has a ton of energy--he can even do pushups with Zander on his back. . .

Summer

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all my favorite dads! This weekend Tyler got some time to himself as I took the kids up for a Grand Forks adventure. The car ride was long, but the trip was a success and as always it was nice to be around family. Uncle Rob and Aunt Nicole and kids were there too.

Grandpa and the Grandkids sitting in Princess

Uncle Robby and Kristie hanging out in the backyard.

Zoey and Kylie take time out from their playing for a picture.

The little dude. . .just having fun at the park.

Zander's new found passion--basketball. Grandma Nyhlen found this hoop at a garage sale and Zander will be so excited when he learns that I brought it home with us. Thanks Grandma!

Zander got to play around in the Miata for a while on Sunday--he really got a kick out of that.

Kristie thinks hard about. . . something.

They don't look like they are having fun at all!

What do you think of Zander's outfit? He thinks he is such a big boy!

Other June Happenings

School is officially done for me. Tyler is back at it for the summer quarter at his school. Our summer just started and already it has been busy. This weekend we had a successful garage sale--in that we sold a lot of stuff and had a good time hanging out in the beautiful outdoors. Zoey proved to be quite the handful on Saturday as she "helped" out with the sale.

Saturday was the day that Tyler and I just kept going through the garage and our house finding more and more stuff to get rid of. We came across the dart board that we had at our old house when our basement was a game room. We haven't used it since we moved here and thought we could try to sell it. Zoey saw it and was immediately interested in this thing she never knew we always had. Tyler laid it out and we put a fair price on it. When a customer asked, "How much?" I noticed that Zoey had covered the price tag with all the darts. Later on that day, I was going around reorganizing some items and looked down at the old rugs I was trying to sell and noticed that the price tag on them said, "$25 firm." Well, no wonder no one was buying the rugs that I had originally priced at $4 for both! ZOEY!!!

We took this as a hint from Zoey and took the dart board off the market--we will hang it in the garage and hope when she goes on to win the National Dart Board Championship, she remembers all those who got her there.

Here are some pictures of our summer so far. . .

A wonderful day for the pool! Zoey jumped right in, Zander was a little more hesitant. Although, he was all for posing for the camera. (Dad, I know he doesn't have his hat on, but this is a darn cute pose.)

Zoey and Zander enjoyed some cupcakes in honor of Uncle Rob's birthday. (OK, fine they were left over cupcakes from school, but they were eaten on the 5th of June!)


Zoey has been testing every limit out there since she turned four. Here is a picture of her after a typical night of refusing to stay in her bedroom at bedtime.

Zander is in the mist of a language explosion! He is putting together phrases and really getting the hang of this communication thing. . .

Just some of his phrases include:
Dadda go?
Ba, where are you?
Mama sleeping!
Thank you
All done milk.
My turn (my gurn)
Dadda juice, please
baball baball tins (Baseball, Twins!)


In the video you will hear: I did it! and Bug, bug, bug. . .

Dance Recital

Showing off her medal with ice cream all over!

Zoey had her Show Day for dance and gymnastics at the beginning of June. It was fun to watch what she has learned and enjoy her excitement of performing. If you know Zoey at all, you know that she isn't shy! In fact, she seems to crave the attention most of the time. As always, a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds showing off routines is an event to witness. Zoey was most proud of the medal she received.

Random Zander Picture