1st Missing Tooth

When Magnus was younger, it took him a while to loose any teeth. He was probably one of the last ones in his class. So we were quite surprise when Soph lost her's at only 5 years and 3 months. 

One week, she kept telling us that her teeth were hurting her. If you know this girl, anytime someone doesn't feel well, she doesn't feel well either. DON'T ever take a Pepto beside her because her stomach will start to hurt also and she MUST take a Pepto too! So we don't take her "pain" seriously. Then one day, John tells me her teeth were looking weird. I took one look at it and sure enough it was so loose that it was all crazy crooked. 

A few days later, John had the kids clean the car before we went on a trip. They were probably alone for about 2 mins, when John brings in Soph and her tooth in his hand. 

The story goes, they were "cleaning" and Magnus sat on her head and out came the tooth. Gah, these children!!!

Camping for 5

We love camping, but haven't been since we had Soph. That's quite some time ago. We don't like to do anything when the kids are little for fear of them acting out. When we had Magnus we didn't take any vacations until he was about 2. By the time Soph was 2, I was pregnant with Odin. And there was no way, we were going with 2 little ones in tow. Do you know how dirty they would get! Yes, I know that camping and dirty are synonymous of each other.

I love how Magnus is showing his sister how to hammer down the stake. He's got a few camping trips under his belt!

We borrowed this chair from a friend and oh my goodness, Odin was in love with it! He wore this anytime he wasn't sitting in it!!! Thank you Lea Ann and Grace!

What's a camping trip without roasting marshmallows???

I love this picture of Magnus. This is what childhood and life should be about. All the cares cast aside and soaking in the glory of the skies.

When you're camping at the beach, you must also play in the sand. I appreciate that I have a kid that doesn't like to get dirty/messy. So this is the closest Odin will get to be being dirty.

On the other hand, I have 2 other ones, who doesn't give a hoot what I think! Look at them, ridiculous. This was after they had their breakfast. John too them down to the beach while I cleaned up camp. He came up to get the camera and when he got back, he found this. I would've freaked out! It's a good thing dad was there!!!

 We told Odin to get closer to his siblings for the pic and this was close enough for him. Ha! That. for sure, is a child of mine! I think they took half the beach home with them. There was sand in every nook and cranny...

The 5 Year Old Girl

In July, Soph turned 5. She was so excited for to be 5. I guess perhaps, 5 signifies that you are old enough to start school. I'm not quite sure. We started the morning off with swim lessons and then a birthday donut.

Every time we get donuts, she always gets the one with sprinkles. But she will only eat the sprinkles and leave the rest of the donut. Perhaps we should skip the donut part and just give her sprinkles!

And happiness!

We had an incident with an older copy of this book involving poop and since it was her favorite, we had to get her a replacement. No, the poop was not from a Grandberg...

This face is priceless! Magnus has really enjoyed gift giving and he was very involved in choosing what he wanted to get his sister. 

Frozen is her love, if you haven't gathered that! 

She also requested her own Lego set. I'm so thankful for pink and purple Legos!

Some things about Soph right now:
*you are a morning person. you are the most cuddliest, agreeable person when you first wake up
*because you are a morning person, you wake up so much earlier than most of us-ugh
*you are continuing to be the most girliest girl. loving anything that shines, sparkles, and spins
*constantly gets frustrated at me because I won't let you wear make up
*put away the silverware like a champ
*you love to be outside. whether it's going for a walk, bike, or the park

*My memorable moment of you this year, is going on a walk that you and I and Odin took. You were wearing a skirt and having such a great time. It started as a simple skip, then a flip of the skirt, and then the longer we went, the higher the skirt flipping went. At one point, you were flashing your undies for all the neighbors to see

Soph, I love you. You are so difficult sometimes, but mostly because you are a lot like me. I am so thankful that you are my one and only Sopheary! Happy birthday baby girl!

South America Part 2

When we got together this time for South America, we focused on their cuisine. We had a lot of fun with this! I went out to the Latin Markets around town and picked up different flavors of Empanadas to sample as well as different fruits. These were the empanadas that we made.

Chicken Empanadas 

These were delicious! You could even freeze these for a treat later. I haven't had time to do this yet, but it's on my to do list.

 Apple Empanadas-Oh my! These were even more delicious than our savory chicken pocket. But you can't really go wrong with apples and cinnamon. Hands down, the favorite of everyone.

The different fruits we sampled. Some were new to us and some not so much. There were some funny faces after they tried jackfruit. They were all good sports though and tried every single one. Mango was a winner! 

Quinoa a product of Bolivia(it said so on the package) haha Mama Shelly made this and it was the best quinoa I have ever had. It sure hit the spot for me! Broccoli with anything is always a winner in my book!

It's such a good feeling to be able to enlighten these youngens about the different countries and cultures out there. Summer learning is the best kind of learning! I wonder what we'll do next year?!?

South America Part 1

For our summer learning session, we chose Evan Moor's South America. As an enrichment to the book, we got together with some friends and did an art project on a Toucan(native to South America). I found a video from YouTube that we followed. We watched it a few times and then they went to town with it. We also had a box of Fruit Loops, as a sample, to eat and to look at!

 Look at them concentrating so hard! I love these kids! The best students ever!

The end product! They had such a good time and I had a good time too.

4th of July Shirts

I think I've talked about this before, but we have a tradition of designing our own flag shirts to wear for Independence Day. And as usual, Magnus always picks the same design. I guess when he likes something, he really likes something!

My favorite this year is Soph's. I went a little daring and used two designs instead of one. Wowza! I lead such a radical life! haha 

And Odin's was the most easiest to do! Once I had a star template on the freezer paper, all I did was take the eraser part of a pencil, did it in paint and dot the shirt with it. So simple, so easy, but so cute!

 Here's all of the shirts. Did I mention, I am such a procrastinator??? We made these shirts the morning of the party.. At one point a blow dryer was used to speed up the drying process. Yeah, please don't be like me...

Lonesome Carrot

Over the summer of last year, we planted carrots. None of it came up and we forgot all about it. Then one day, we saw big green leaves. We thought it was a carrot, but it was almost a year old, it couldn't be. We pulled it up and sure enough it was a carrot! The seed must not have sprouted until later on in the season. Or last least that's what I'm saying...It's much better than saying we ate a carrot that was a year old. Ha!

It was actually pretty good. It tasted a little more like dirt than store bought carrots. I'm not quite sure why or whether it was normal. This was our first one ever! 

This is the start of her perfection to the eye rolls. It's funny now, not so much when she is doing it to you.

Graeagle Fun

We kicked off summer vacation with a trip to Graeagle, CA. Graeagle is a small town,about an hour north of Truckee. We've gotten really good at road tripping to Tahoe now, that we can make the drive without stopping. Although, we did stop in Truckee for groceries and while we were there, we had Panda Express for lunch! Ack, what was I thinking?!?

Anyhow....

Graeagle is beautiful! It's so small town, so slow pace. We loved it here. Thanks to our friends the Kilbys for sharing their vacation home with us. There was a small fishing/swimming pond down the road that we patronized everyday. Every morning John took the kids fishing, then they'd come home for lunch and naps, then in the evening we went out swimming. It was great! After swimming, we'd take the kids to the General Store and ruin their appetite for dinner by giving them ice cream. But we were on vacation! And it was hot! And it was a treat! And yummy! 

We'd sit on their porch, eat our ice cream and watch for any cars that would drive by. That's because it is so small town that only 1 or 2 cars would pass by in the 30 mins while we ate. Glorious! So different than our town. 

Here, they are exploring the property. No, that is not poop that the boys are playing with. They found ants in the water bowl and stuck a piece of wood in it to see what the ants would do. And the ants! They were so big. Much bigger than the ones we have here at home. 

Isn't that Odin silly! He loves putting himself in a box, or a laundry basket, or a storage cube.

The silly people hanging on for fun. 

On our last day, we stopped at a BBQ joint for lunch. It was nothing worth writing about. We did fill our time posing for some pics. 

As we were driving home, someone had a tummy ache from the BBQ(we won't mention who). We pulled into a rest stop and the children found this little hill. So they ran up the hill, they ran down the hill. It sure doesn't take much to entertain our kids! And whatever the big ones does, the little does too.

Thank you Kilbys for helping us make memories! The best sleep we ever had on vacation!

Promotion Night 2014

At the end of every school year, we have a Promotion Night to honor the kids. It's something we all look forward to. There's usually some sort of skit/video, a presentation of the families, an honoring of the moms, then dessert and fellowship.

My favorite part of the night is during the presentation of the families. Each child has a character trait that is chosen from their parents. It's such a chore to find one for each of the kids, but when you find one, you know it's the right one!  

Here are the kids practicing their songs the day before the big night.

 The only boys in their grade level. It's a good thing they like each other! Looking forward to seeing the shenanigans these two will come up with!

 Odin was super pleased when we put this shirt on for him! At that point everyone was already spruced up except for him, so when we put this on, he felt like he was part of the clan. It's so interesting to see how quickly they pick up on things!

 One of my sweet students! Man, these kids they grow and grow and grow. Here I am wearing 3 inch heels and she is almost as tall as I am. And she is only in 3rd grade!!!!

 A procession line lead by the Kindergarteners. Or in this case, the mature 4 year olds that were a part of the K class.

 Studly son!

 And beautiful Soph!

 One of my other favorite part of the night! The kids come down the aisle carrying flowers to give to their mama. Before we became a part of this group, I went to one of our friend's promotion night. Let me tell you, during this part of the night, I balled my eyes out! It was so sweet and it reaffirmed my desire to join in.

So now that I am on stage waiting for my children to bring me flowers, I don't ball my eyes out. I am too busy praying that they can make it towards me without fighting. That when they come up to me, I don't fall off stage and flash everyone my derriere and then some! So yeah, that's enough to keep the emotions in check!