Let's Get It Started

In some ways, I feel like this weekend was our "coming out" weekend in Sioux Falls. Sure, we've been here for 8 months now, but for the first 7 months we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment that didn't allow us much opportunity to entertain. But here, we have all of our old kitchen stuff (serving bowls, etc) and soooo much more space. In other words, we're ready to party ;) We decided to break up the winter with a Kiddie Dance Party. We've got an unfurnished basement with laminate floor and lots of space. And we have an Ipod. So what more do we need, right? We invited all of David's school friends, our playgroup buddies, and then assorted other VIPs; our former neighbors, our ND friends, my book club pals. In the end, we ended up with about 25-30 children ranging in ages from 10 days to 6 years, and 25-30 accompanying adults. The kids had a blast! They did the Limbo Rock, the Hokey Pokey, the YMCA, the Chicken Dance. They went "Dancing in the Dark" with some Target glow-sticks. They proved that they can "Jump Around" with the best of them. They busted a move for about 4 hours and broke only for a pizza dinner. David and Michael were so excited and were dancing their pants off. David was super excited to greet his friends as they arrived, and to pass out the glow sticks to them. Michael organized the largest game of Ring Around The Rosie that this city has ever seen. And at the end of the night, the boys crashed, with visions of disco balls dancing in their heads ;) Hail hail, rock 'n' roll!! Special shouts out to Aunt Gina and Uncle Pete who helped develop the playlist. You guys rock.

The Sound of Musik

One of the many wonderful things about having young children in your life is getting to watch all of your old favorite moves from childhood through their eyes. They boys have recently discovered The Sound of Music, and they LOVE it. David's favorite scene is The Lonely Goatherd puppet show. And My Favorite Things. And Do Re Me. And So Long, Farewell ;) And Michael, especially loves the part when the captain whistles out each of the children's call and has them state their names. If you think it's because Michael digs discipline, you couldn't be more wrong. If you think it's because Cpt. VonTrapp's whistle "sounds just like a choo choo train" to Michael, then you would be right on ;)

Michael has also started taking Kindermusik classes on Mondays. On the first day of class, the teacher let the kids mingle and play for the first few minutes of class and then brought the kids into a circle and began her initial greeting to the class. "So glad to see you all here! I remember when I used to..." It's at this point that Michael excitedly interrupts. "Th Th Th Th Th," he stutters in his rush to get his voice heard, "These used to be my ears," he blurts out, grabbing one of his ears. Michael, welcome to class. Class, welcome to my Michael ;)

David Joe

David is such a sweet, smart, and awesome little man. Check out some pics of him from December...

Loving Michael

It's so dang easy. Here are a few pics from December of our little firecracker, Michael Patrick.

Celebrating With The Engles

In December, we took a trip to Minneapolis to celebrate Andreas Engle's 3rd Birthday. We almost got ourselves killed driving through a pretty bad snowstorm to get there, but once there, what fun we had! Birthday party at Pump It Up, sledding, and most of all, enjoying the company and hospitality of our dear friends.

Monet and Michelangelo Got Nothin' On Them

A sampling of my boys' artwork from late in 2010...

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!

Gotta love Michael Bear. At soccer, Michael is the youngest "player." He often isn't quite able to participate in the drills the way he is supposed to because of his age/personality/attention span. But he is an important and well-loved part of each soccer practice just the same. Beginning of practice. All the kids are gathered around their coach. Coach Leo asks, "Did you guys have fun last time at soccer practice?" No kids respond audibly...except for Michael, who yells, with gusto, "Yaaa!!!!!" "You guys ready to have some fun today?" asks Coach Leo. Again, only Michael is heard with his enthusiastic, "Yaaaaa!" "You want to play a game?" says Coach Leo. "Yaa!" yells my Michael. So on and so forth, you get the picture. Says Coach Leo, "I like this kid." Don't we all, Coach Leo, don't we all.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far...

I remember Brian's mom telling the story about how Brian, as a preschooler, was sitting at the dinner table when he had a "math revelation." "2 5's is 10!," he announced. I bet Brian's folks would have felt like they had experienced deja vu had they been with us a few evenings ago when David, who had been sitting quietly at the table announced, " 3 plus 3 plus 3 is 9." Pause. "And 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3 is 12." Pause. "And 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3 is 15!!!" All the way to 21. I know he got those skills from his Daddy because I still have trouble with those times tables, even to this day ;)

The Children's Museum of South Dakota

So, Children's Museum of South Dakota. New, and in Brookings SD, about a 1 hour drive from Sioux Falls. Rumored to be awesome. To take the kids or not to take them? That has been the question. Pros: Tons of fun. Cons: 2 hours of driving for 2 hours of play AND likely messing up Michael's nap (Read: messing up my afternoon ;) We decided to give it a go this morning. Drive went great. Kids had a blast at the museum. They left cooperatively (a small miracle), ate their "picnic in the car," and Michael stayed awake for the whole trip, then angelically went down for his nap as soon as we got home. All in all, a fabulous morning for this stay-at-home mommy and her little boys!

All Stars

On Saturday, David and Michael started playing soccer AND learned to ice skate. They were both super excited about both activities. If a picture says a thousand words, then a video says a million...

Going For It... Again

Again in 2011, for the 33rd year in a row, Mamo and Papo are in the running for the prestigious Best Parents Ever Award. They offered to drive back with us to South Dakota to help occupy the kids while Brian and I continued to unpack our new house. They drove on a parallel route - while we were on 90 from Chicago, they were on 80 from IN. They arrived in Sioux Falls about 30 minutes before us, ran to WalMart to buy a shovel, and shoveled out our driveway just in time for our arrival. With their tireless playing with the boys, we were able to get sooooo much done. Like I said, for the 33rd year in a row, Mamo and Papo are contenders ;) Thanks, guys!

It is RIDICULOUS how much stuff we have in our house; toys, books, kitchen accessories, toys, and have I mentioned TOYS???!!!! I truly believe that we have weeks and weeks of work in front of us...

That being said, we love our new place. We have 2 guest rooms, so start booking your trip to SD ;) And we have a whole basement full of toys. FULL of toys. FULL OF TOYS!!!

New Year, New Blogging Philosophy

So, I keep waiting to post on the blog until I have time to go back and catch up. I realize that I may never have the time to catch up, and for every day that I wait, I am falling farther and farther behind. So, I am going to start posting about the current day as blog-worthy things happen. And then, when I have a moment I will come back and retroactively post things from 3 months ago that I never got to post at the time. So, the blog will be sort of like one of those books or movies that the time manipulation makes it almost impossible to follow. Like Memento. Or The Time Traveler's Wife ;)

2011. We rang in the New Year with a big "New Year's Eve Party" in the well-known party town on New Carlisle, IN with the ultimate party animals, Mamo and Papo. We started off the festivities with a game of bumper bowling. Then, the real insanity began at about 7pm when we busted out the party hats and used our good pal YouTube to find footage of Times Square on New Year's Eve 2009 (one of the many good things about kids is that they don't really know the difference.) We did "The Countdown" and were about ready to call it a night when we realized that there had been some misunderstandings. David wanted to know, "When are we having our party?" "We just had it David," we all explained, confused. "But when do all the people get here?" "Oooooooooh. You thought we were having an Aunt Gina style party. Sorry, David. Just us." Disappointed look that only a 4 year old can give. "When's my birthday party, Mama?" says Michael. "No, no Michael. We just had a New Year's Eve party. It's not your birthday today!" Crazy temper tantrum that only a 2 year old can throw. So, we took our dessert, stuck some candles in it, and sang Happy New Year's Eve To You. Just for auld lang syne, as they say ;) Kids went to bed. But not to sleep. So, the adults ended up staying up until almost midnight waiting for our darling Michael to finally stay in his crib and fall asleep. The kid truly is a party animal.

Happy New Year!!!