Self Portriats

I have been wanting to add these Self Potraits for ever. They are from last spring, at the end of the year school Art Show. I love them! I guesses which ones were my girls without even looking at the name! I love Abby's big lips! I always tell her she has her Mama's lips... clearly, she agrees!

THREE MONTHS????

Has it really been three months since I posted??? Wow. Bad blogger!! This would be the reason I hesitated to make my blog public! I am afraid the secret will be out. I am L A Z Y.!!!

The biggies are now back in school! They started Sept. 8th. Maddie is in 4th grade and Abby is now in 1st! When did that happen?!?! My little girls are getting so grown up!

Here they are, the morning of the first day: Lily insisted on having her own back pack.

Walking into school

Maddie unpacking her supplies. The girl sitting at the desk behind Maddie is Desha. Desha was one of Maddie's BFF's from Central Lutheran. Desha just started at St Anthony Elementary this year, her Grandma is the school secretary and "helped" them get into the same class!! Yay Desha's Grandma! Maddie is THRILLED to have her there. I asked Maddie for a kiss before I left. She said no (whhaaat?... uh uh. You are WAY too young to refuse to kiss your mother. You will always be too young to kiss your mother!") I kissed her anyway... of course.





Abby getting settled in. She has a real desk this year, and this was very exciting! There was a little bag of playdough on each desk for the kids to play with while everyone unloaded supplies and talked to Ms Holmgren.









Lily liked the desk right next to Lulu. I said good bye to my big 1st grader she was all smiles, and kissed AND hugged me willingly (enthusiastically, even!)

Then Lily and I headed home to deal with our emergency waiting for us. Maddie's Guinea Pig, Cali, was very very sick. We noticed there was something wrong with her the night before, and the morning of the first day of school, (yeah, thanks, God! Nice timing) Cali was laying on her side, struggling :( :( :(

Maddie was hysterical and made me promise to take her to the vet. So I did. Cali died. Maddie was very sad. Not a fun addition to back to school day.

Maddie did get a new piggie (Patches) just a few days ago. Scruffy (Abby's piggie) was so so happy to have a new cage mate! I have never witnessed such rodent jubilation! Jumping and purring and squealing... oh my! It was pretty fun to watch!

So, we are back into the routine here! Maddie started Theater classes at a local theater ( www.stagecoachmn.com ) on Saturday Mornings for 3 hours. They do vocal, dance and acting. An hour each. In December, they will put on a performance of The Lorax, then in winter semester they gear up for the big Spring production, which is Annie this year!! Jeff and I took Maddie to see Annie at the Chanhassen dinner theater when she was 4. She knows every word to every song! This is very exciting! I think theater is right up Maddie's ally!

Abby and Lily started gymnastics too. Lily and I are doing a Mommy and Me class, and the same time and in the same gym as Abby's class! Lily is LOVING this!! And Abby, I think, was made to be a gymnast. They are both little monkeys and strong too! Oh, to be young and flexible again.

So, this is what we are up too these days!



I have to send a shout out to Kailey and Jordan, my Connecticut nieces. LOOK at them!! They are young ladies!!! Again... when did this happen?!?! You two are beautiful! I miss you both a bunch, and really hope we can see you soon. You are too far away!! Waaaaaa!

Oops... Kamp Dels link!

I just read back, and realized I did not leave the link for Kamp Dels!

www.kampdels.com

Memorial Weekend camping trip!!

Ok! I am going waay over board on pictures here, but I love them all, and we had so much fun on our first camping trip in over THREE years!! I just have to share them all! And, because of my bloggin inexperience (well, and my laziness... because I know how to move them around, but it would take way too long!) I am just going to "narrate" in the order that they uploaded!

We camped up north of here, near Taylors Falls. The park is on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The hiking pictures are in Taylors Falls State park. We actually camped at a campground that was a few miles away... a pretty crappy campground, compared to the state park one... but what do you expect when you try to make camping reservations 3 days before Memorial weekend?! These are hiking pictures. The state park is Am-az-ing! Huge rock cliffs, right on the river. Paths to walk in between the rock.

Here, Maddie is reading a plaque about the rock formations. And Maddie and Lily in a "pot hole", a naturally created hole from erosion. Many were filled with slimy water, but this one was dry.

On this day, Jeff had taken Maddie and Lily hiking, while Abby and I went into "town" for some groceries and supplies to fix the leaky drain on our camper. So, all of these pictures were taken by Jeff on his camera phone. We all went back the next day for a day of hiking, but FORGOT THE CAMERA!!! These pictures are nice, but NOTHING like what we saw when we hiked through there. We are going to camp there (at the state park, not the crappy campground we stayed at this weekend) very soon, so I will have pictures. You will all want to come to Minnesota!

On our shopping trip, Abby and I picked up hats for all the girls. Here we are in our rainbow of hats!

Lily loved playing in the coolers! She mostly ate the ice, but also delivered beers and dumped the entire carton of eggs out. Amazingly, not one egg broke... and we had alot of beers (c'mon... could you say no to that face?!) Here is our camper. It is really pretty roomy! I did not get good (well, any) shots of the inside. I will do that next time. Maddie and Abby shared one bed, a king size... I hung a sheet down the pole on the middle of the bed, so they have "privacy"... they love this. Jeff and I have the other bed, and Lily in in the porta crib in "the kitchen" . In out old camper, the porta crib fit where the dinette table goes, but it doesn't fit in this one :( but, our dinette is a slide out, so it is not too bad.




Here is Abby, she spent a Loooong time rubbing sticks together

to start a fire! It kept her occupied!

Poor Sadie.

I do not think camping is the life for her. She wrapped her lead around the picnic table, the awning poles, the neighbors

camper wheels (whom, by the way... parked WAY in our site.

Like 8 feet into our site, grrrrrr. Jeff was complaining about it, and I just ignored it, until I realized just how far onto our site they were (and these were tiny sites to begin with) Me, being, well, me... did have to say something to them... no worries, I was polite.. kind of a "just so you know... %$^^$$)$$#@.... ;) They had a huge camper-of-my-dreams camper., so we weren't going to make them move, but it was a little annoying.

Back to our peaceful camping trip.

This was the afternoon after the hike Jeff took Lily and Maddie on. Lily was sooo tired. She would not lay in her porta crib, so I layed down with her, and practically had to wrestle her to get her to nap... not easy!!

How freaking cute is she, though! I laid with her for an hour or so... looking at her sweet face... she slept for 4 hours! Then she and Nina (her baby) had a snack.

Lily and Sadie dancing. She was giggling so hard! It was adorable. Her and Sadie are such buddies. They really do love eachother!

This is a shot I took when we picked Jeff and the girls up. They were WAY up on a cliff! Good zoom on that camera!

Can you see them up there?

Abby avoided falling asleep during actual nap time... but at dinner time, she couldn't stay awake anymore! This kid RUNS from sun up til sun down... makes me tired just watching her! You can see the divider sheet in this picture... this is Abby's side. It is really cozy! There is a shelf across the bed for "stuff". Good thing, because, as you can imagine, the girls have LOTS of "stuff"!

This is post nap Lulu... we had already eaten dinner (I think that picture is at the end!) I think i ended up bringing her dinner to her in this chair. After a good nap and some food... she was up until after midnight! Good thing we had a roaring campfire and many s'more fixins!

The girls (mostly Lily and Abby) loved scooping up rocks and putting them into pails, moving 6' , dumping bucket, and starting again. Maddie rode her bike in a big circle around our camp site, like a million times. We actually let her go to the play ground by herself (gulp... I hate that she is getting to the age where she wants "trust" and "independence".... HATE IT!!!) But she is a good kid... and I spied on her (shhhh) I love this picture of Lu... pure Joy, and a little nutso.









Jeff and Sadie. He growled at me when I took this picture of him loving Sadie, because the "official" word is, "this little worthless dog belongs to my wife" (but he really loves her... don't tell his brother's!)

Gotta get that fire started! Rub those sticks Lulu! Maddie was actually pretty good at the campfire teepee.

Yep... more bike riding and scooping tiny rocks into buckets. Really, alot of time was spent doing this!















This is Lily's bike trailor. Lily lovves her bike trailor. Jeff, the week before we went camping, bought a "tag-a-long" for Abby. It is a one-wheel bike that Jeff attatches to his bike. Abby can pedal, and NO training wheels. She Looooves that too. Maddie is a pro on her bike, so now we can go for family rides. I pull Lily (and Sadie in her little kennel, which Lily loves, in the cart. Jeff pulls Abby on her Tag-a-long!

So! This was our First Karan's camping trip in 3 years! The girls had a blast. We all agreed we love this, and Jeff, Abby, Lily and I are going camping next week! Maddie is going to South Dakota with Grandma Dette, Aunt Sandy, Will and Zoe (for 8 days! :( ) But Abby is looking foreward to ponies (you can rent them at the camp ground we are going to. The petting Zoo will thrill both of them and the small kids water park will be perfect for them! This is the link, if you want to check it out. We are off June 11-14.

Why we survive through 5 months of Minnesota winter!!

Today was such a beautiful day! 77 degrees, sunny... perfect! I got to sleep in (kinda... I always have to get up to do a hair check before the biggies leave for school. Jeff doe great making breakfast, but the hair and getting dressed still alludes him. Last week, I had to gently (of course ) remind him that Abby wearing a black tank that says "Diva" in hot pink rhinestones, covered by Lily's sweatshirt, may not have been the best wardrobe selection.

But, I digress... we went and had lunch at the girls school, it was bbq day! Everyone brought their blankets, it was great. The girls school has a beautiful and HUGE park attatched to it, so everyone was spred out... glorious weather for this. The only damper was Lily falling off the picnic table and cracking her head on the cement :( :( We think she is ok.

Then Jeff and I came home, put Lily down for a nap, and worked in the yard. Mowed, weed whipped, I planted tons 'o flowers! And, my flower budget was 1/3 what it usually is. I bought a huge flat of lilac impatients (SP?) and am going to plant them all over! I did my barrels (2) and hanging baskets (3) and still have several smaller gardens (like 6 or 7) to clean up and add some flowers!

We were outside all day! When the biggies got home from school, we were still planting, so Abby and Sam (my 3 yr old neighbor buddy) planted a bunch of flowers with me. And all of the kids were playing, we had a few beers with Luke and Dana (our neighbor friends) and Tony (our neighbor friends friend... we like him too, especially Abby) and grilled salmon and a bunch of yummy veggies, some cuban rice and black beans.... YUM!

Then we went for a bike ride, Jeff gave me a new bike for Christmas, and the girls got new bikes from Santa, the bike trailer is on Jeff's bike for Lily. Today was only the second time I have ridden my 2 wheeler (tee-hee, Renee!) and it is very apparant how pathetically out of shape I am!! But I LOVE riding my bike!... as we rode through the bike path in a little city park, on our way to a neighbor hood school playground (we have a lot of fun play grounds around here, and Lily is NUTSO about slides!) We played at the play ground for about an hour... we were the only ones there... so Jeff and I climbed all over too! Then we biked home, picked up the yard, and came in.

We even had a really nice bedtime, Abby loves the Cuppycake song on the "Twinkle Little Chaw" CD, so we listened to (and sang to) that song about 6 times ("one more time Mom... pleeeeaasssee!)

Sweet end to a beutiful Minnesota day!!

Mother's Day

As usual, my husband went waaay over board spoiling me for Mother's Day. We went out for dinner at Outback steakhouse on Friday night, becasue he had to go back to work on Sat. During dinner, he gave me a beautiful pair of Ruby earrings (Lily's birthstone) and a Coach spring patchwork bag!



Isn't it lovely? Ok, truth be told, this is not actually the bag he presented me with. Same style, but I really wanted a large bag, because I really do not need to carry around a huge diaper bag all the time, but still need to carry some things for Lily (and Maddie, and Abby, and somethime Jeff) So, my doting husband took me to the Coach store after dinner, so I could select my purse!










While I was deleiberating between the tote and the slouch (NOT an easy choice!) Lily picked up a mini patchwork purse and carried it around the store. When I finally made my selection, I told Lily it was time to put her purse back. With a squeal, she turned and ran... right out the door, setting off the security alarms!! It was very cute, and funny, and a little embarrassing!

This is the Thank You note from the sales girl!

On Saturday, before Jeff left on his trip, he made me homemade Almond Toffee, yummy! He is very good to me (even when he is not buying me ridiculously expensive bags, and pretty jewelry... but I like that stuff too!) You did good Honey!! You are the best!

On Sunday morning, I woke up with some ferocious stomache bug, I will spare you the details, but I was so very sick. I pleaded with Maddie to take care of Lily so I could lay in bed. She is such a phenonemonal big sister! She fed Lily (cheerios, string cheese and grape koolaid... judging by the remains all over the kitchen!) and they painted together (oy!) and even changed her diaper. It was pretty saggy (not wet, just on loosely)

As you can see, Lily did just fine. (um, was she in the living room with those paint covered hands? eek!) I was very proud of my big girls... they are awesome!

They also presented me with a boquet of 3 pink roses and a balloon that says "I Love Mom" Jeff had conspired with the girls and bought these ahead of time, and they were hidden!

I am so blessed to have the family I have!

Happy Mothers Day to all!

WTH kind of art project is this????

While cleaning Maddie's room today, I took note of the huge variety of craft projects she has going on. She is knitting, making jewelry for her "BLING around the wrist" business, making handmade cards, has an empty kleenex box FULL of glitter (glad I found that before Lily did!) and.... these. ???????????????????????

Her creativity knows no bounds. I think I will keep these. They will make a lovely addition to a shadow box gift someday!