Now There Are Two in Double Digits

Yes, it's true. K Man is the big 1-0. He started fifth grade on Monday, then yesterday he had his tenth birthday and it's a whole lot of growing up in two days.

 He's growing into such a handsome and smart guy. He's funny and loving (most of the time). He can also tick me off to no end, but that's not surprising considering he has two stubborn parents. Love this boy so much.

Wordless Wednesday: Painted Sunset

Halloween is Never as easy as it should be

 By evening the children were all ready to go begging for candy...but it's never an easy road there. I woke this morning to Ms. D barfing in my bed in Craig's vacated spot. So that was fun. D and I took the Bigs to school while we were still in pajamas, then returned home and back to bed.

Thankfully, D awoke with no more barfs. 

M went to school intending to be Katniss from The Hunger Games. We were at PTA Tuesday night later than I thought we'd be so when we got home I had to attempt the Katniss braid. Meh. I did okay for a first try, but I'm no Hollywood hair stylist. Of course when the "character parade" (NOT Halloween parade of course...we are all ostriches with our heads in the sand, right?) came around and she saw the other cool costumes she was not as enthused about the somewhat plain Katniss costume. Plus, most of the kids had no idea who she was supposed to be. So, after school M morphed into a zebra instead. Her face paint looked fabulous. Damn, her mom is gifted.

 K Man wanted to be a zombie. In his head all he needed was ripped clothes and green hair. When I told him to take his t-shirt outside and get it dirty he balked. I give him permission to get dirty and he doesn't want to listen. Finally he did it but today he wears the shirt backwards (where he didn't get it dirty and I didn't rip it.) because he loves to drive his mother as crazy as possible. He also refused to wear makeup to make him look more like a zombie. Of course once I finally coaxed him into the makeup I forgot to take a close up photo of just him.

We made it through it all...and now I'm thinking about next year's costumes. Is that normal to think that far ahead?

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours. May your holidays be blessed.

Cub Scout Cake Auction

I had big plans to post a photo of K Man with his cake too, but I apparently can't upload more than one photo right now. Sigh. Anywho. K Man and I made this cake for his Cub Scout auction and it sold for $20. Much better than last year's cake which brought only $5.
(Not so Wordless Wednesday.)

We Should All Have Hats Like This

Winter Wonderland-First "Real" Snowfall of the Season

Fall Beauty

Searching For the Best Pumpkin

Downtown Rochester, MN

Online Contacts!

I had my first photo session brought about by Twitter last weekend. @MinnesotaJoY contacted me after I asked if anyone would be my first Twitter session and we met with her whole family last Saturday. I think we all had fun (maybe with the exception of the 16-year-old, but even she admitted it was a smidgeon fun by the end!).

My favorite photo of the session:

11 Years

We look so young in our engagement photo...and in the wedding photos. 11 years, not so long but a lifetime ago (or three lifetimes ago) in many ways.

I love you Craig!

On The Lake

I Hope She Didn't Kiss This Frog

I'd Like to Stick Them in the Freezer, But Most of Them No Longer Fit

There is nothing to do to change the fact that our main job as parents is to teach our children to leave us. We are growing beings who will ultimately break our hearts to venture out on their own terms. (Though by 18, perhaps most parents are not so heart broken when the chicks leave the nest.)

I've been in denial about my littlest chick growing up. It takes me aback when I look at her sometimes, or when I hear the things she says. She sets me straight more often than I'd like to admit. She laughs at me, though good-naturedly, about the blinders I have when it comes to her growing up.

Her dad put training wheels back on one of the little bikes we had for M and K and sent D off to ride. She was fearless, riding up the (very low-traveled) street and careening back down the hill with reckless abandon. Predictably, she crashed on her first wild ride, but she was wearing her helmet and landed in the grass so after a quick brush-off she was back on the horse.

Craig thought to teach her how to use the brakes too, so that helped.


Miss M attended a preschool co-op planning meeting with me yesterday and came up with some good ideas for us. As if I needed more proof that she is growing into a young lady and no longer my little girl.

Thankfully, the little girl still comes out. She brought some of her collection of My Little Ponies to the meeting. Her love of creatures great and small continues to grow. It doesn't phase her to watch a sow birthing piglets, to watch a fish being fileted (which may seem counter-intuitive to being an animal lover to some, but makes sense to me), to pick up a toad and realize just how to hold it so it doesn't pee on her fingers...

Her big heart serves her well.

Then there is The Boy, the K-Man, Destructo-Boy. He received his long-pined-after big boy bike for his birthday this year. The funny thing is I bought the bike on clearance (something like $12!) about 5 years ago and it's been in a box in our basement all these years. The bike still seems too big for his smallish stature, but like his little sister nothing stops him.

(Incidentally, the Maple tree in the foreground of this photo is one Craig and I planted when we first started dating. It was a stick-ish trunk then. Now the tree is probably 25 feet tall or taller.)

I always think I love each age my kids are better than the age they were, which is a good thing, because I get to know who they are better as they grow. But then there is that catch-22 again. They keep growing away from me.

Window Visitor

The BOY is Seven

First Day of School 2011

County Fair