Common Mom

They may not remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

The 3rd Installment of our weekend on the move.

Getting ready to head into the waterpark! They could NOT contain themselves. We only had about 30 minutes before we had to leave for the baseball game, so they got as much fun in as they could

 

This huge play structure was cool! All kinds of fun water surprises. See the bucket on top? It holds about 1000 gallons of water - and periodically dumps that water onto anyone standing below it.

 

Here they are waiting for the water.

 

Here it comes!!!

 

I swear, they’re under there somewhere! That’s a LOT of water!

 

Warming up in the hot tub after getting all that cool water dumped on them. They LOVED the hot tub. It was for kids, so not too hot. Only 3 feet deep and they had a blast!

Dude relaxes with a snack. I keep telling him he needs to loosen up his goggles, but he refuses

Keira got one last picture with the bear on her way out of the waterpark before we headed to the airport.

We had a wonderful time on our trip - it was worth the time and the money We had a great time on all the waterslides, in the wave pool, and playing in all the other water. I highly recommend it for anyone with kids of all ages.

We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge! It was truly worth it - I will get around to posting about it . . . but this made me giggle. As Dude and I were hanging out in the hot tub Tuesday morning before we left while waiting for Hubby and Princess to finish breakfast and join us, this is the conversation that ensued . . .

Dude: Hey Mom. Did you get a picture of that big water structure over there that we can walk around on with all the fun stuff?
Me: Yup.
D: And did you take a picture of that huge bucket on top?
M: Yup.
D: And did you get a picture of me and Keira standing under the bucket before the water dumped out?
M: Yup.
D: And how about when all that water came crashing down and there was so much that you couldn’t even see us . . . did you get a picture of that?
M: Yup.
D: And what about after, when we were standing there totally soaking wet? Did you get a picture of that?
M: Yup.
D: Good. Because that would make a really cool scrapbook page! You could start with cutting out some water to put across the bottom. Then you could put the pictures in order across the page so people could see how huge it was and how much water there was and how you couldn’t even see us through all the water and then how wet we were. That would be really cool.

Ahhhhhh - I’m teaching the boy well

A fun time was had by all . . .

We are Twins fans!!!

I remember listening to The Twins games on the radio with my Dad every evening in the summer while we were out camping. I can still hear that voice on the radio. I hope my kids love summer baseball as much as I did and still do.

Actual real live baseball players - just to prove that we were there

What’s a baseball game without cotton candy and see food with your friends?

This was an unexpected treat after the game. How fun!

We’re on the move for a few days! Here are Princess and Dude watching Enchanted on my iPod during the flight. They’re gonna need glasses anyway (Hubby and I are both blind!) so I figure I might as well ruin their sight now

For the previous installments of the Adoption saga of Princess’ teacher, go here, here, and here.

Ms. Lupita travelled to Mexico again last Friday and guess what - she came home with a birth certificate for her little girl! Woo hoo! That is the best thing she could have hoped for - it basically means that the Mexican government has approved and recognized the adoption. Now, she has to go back to Mexico in June and complete the adoption through the US Embassy there. There really is no reason why it shouldn’t be a smooth process . . . the US was not being real helpful convincing Mexico that they should let the adoption happen, but the US wasn’t putting up any roadblocks either - basically, the US wouldn’t get involved. So, now that the Mexican government has approved the adoption, there should be no issues.

So YAY for Ms. Lupita, her family, and her daughter! Please pray for her and her family that the rest goes smoothly and this adoption is complete in June, with this little girl at home where she belongs.

And a few words . . . come on! It’s me! Did you actually think I was capable of not writing ANYthing?

We had our first spring soccer games on Saturday - we got to play on the brand new artifical turf at the new YMCA! I was a bit concerned when they said it wasn’t grass, but artifical turf . . . but, they put all these teeny tiny little pieces of ground up rubber in the “grass” and it makes it soft and squishy just like real grass . . . it’s actually really cool. Anyhoo - it went down to the wire - it was sunny, but it was COLD (25 degrees for Jason’s game!) and WINDY (almost 40 mph wind at times). But, the kids played and actually had a blast - they’ll play in anything if you bundle ‘em up

Here’s my Cheetah scoping down the field for someone to pass to. Yes, they chose the Cheetahs - which was a huge relief after the previous name-choosing fiasco. My Cheetah scored one goal in a 6-1 win (no, they don’t officially keep score, but yes, the kids always know the score!).

 

And here’s my Wild Pony (which outvoted the Ladybugs this season) heading toward the goal. My Wild Pony scored 4 goals in a 7-7 tie

She INSISTED on wearing shorts, because that’s what you wear for soccer. Ironically, that’s the only part of her uniform you can’t see She’s got on long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, the orange hoodie, and her Y jersey in addition to her shorts and her brothers extra long soccer socks so I could pull them all the way up and roll them all the way down again for an extra layer. I think the pink hat adds a finishing touch to her whole ensemble.

It was SOOOOO nice on Sunday, that the minute we got up, we knew we were going hiking. My behind has made marked improvement in the past 3 days, and for the first time in 3 weeks I felt like actually walking. It has truly SUCKED not being able to get any exercise that past 3 weeks! Anyway, the kids got dressed and got snacks and Duma’s stuff ready while I sorted and started the laundry. Then we headed to the grocery store to grab donuts and OJ for the drive (mmmmmmm, nutritious breakfast!). We chose Red Rocks because there was too much snow up north at one of our favorite hiking spots. We had a great time!

I love watching Jason and Keira together, especially now that they get older. For as much as they may argue and bicker, they are really good together. Here’s Jason pointing out a hawk to Keira.

Of course Dude is never happier than when he finds a snake or some other “thing” to pick up and inspect.

Keira was long gone screaming I love that my kids love the outdoors as much as I do. I guess that’s probably WHY they love it . . . because ever since they were babies we’ve been outside hiking or playing or riding bike or something. But still, I have to believe that they actually like it or they wouldn’t ask to go and wouldn’t have fun. And I also love that for as little as their legs are, they’ll hike almost anywhere. They especially love the hike up in to the quarry.

Do you see ‘em up there? Here’s a close up - notice the fun steps to go up to get there . . . it’s actually pretty steep - Duma was not impressed and needed a little coaxing.

They love playing around in the quarry. There’s so much to climb on! Duma liked the little water to play in, and Jason and Keira found a way out to the “island” - amazingly, neither one of them fell in

So there’s the fun part of our weekend in a nutshell . . . the rest involved things like laundry and scrubbing kitchen floors and other fun stuff like that. Definitely not blog-worthy!

What did you do this weekend?

Yup - I’m still here I took Thursday and Friday off to play with my Mom who’s here visiting from MN. The kids were out of school for spring break and we had fun! Thursday we mostly hung out and relaxed while everyone caught up on a little sleep from playing with Grandpa (he left Wednesday), visits to the ER, and late plane flights. Friday and Saturday we had fun shopping, playing games, hiking, and playing outside. Sunday we played more games, went to the dog park and BMX track, attended a birthday party, completed out tests for the last ice skating lesson (I passed Basic 4 even though I couldn’t actually skate with my tailbone and Jason passed Hockey 4 - woo hoo!), had a yummy dinner, and read books with the kids. So we’ve had a busy week with spring break and lots of time with Grandmas and Grandpas. It was tough for the kids to get up for school today after so much time off and a tweaked schedule. But, we’ll make it. We’re actually kind of glad to be getting back to some kind of regular schedule. Unfortunately, Noisy Grandma has to go home today We’ll miss her terribly and can’t wait to see her and Monster Grandpa again in May when we head to The Black Hills for a week to play and have fun!

Hope you all had a fun weekend!

 The Egg Hunt

The View On The Way To Boarding

Keira Uses The “Little Kid Mirror” In The Hotel Room

Dan (left) and Jason (right) Practice Connecting Their Turns
While Keira Works With Her Instructor (center)

Keira Practices Her Turns

Boarder Boy

Boarder Dad

Boarder Mom

Who Knew The Easter Bunny Was A Skiier?

My Daughter Will NEVER See This Picture
Or I’m Sure She’d Want To Do This

We all got our own gear finally (way cheaper overall instead of renting all the time!). I’d say we even kind of look like we know what we’re doing! We’re definitely ready for another lesson

So we had the kid swap Friday night - 4 extra boys at the house overnight - it went great! The kids had so much fun playing together, and all of them got along great. It’s just so funny to sit on the sidelines and watch 6 Montessori “trained” kids interact. They are definitely wild and crazy boys (except my little Princess) and behave like boys, but they are all also very polite and well-behaved. We sit down to eat pizza, and they start talking about where they’re going to sleep.

6 Year Old #1: Oh Good LORD! I forgot my sleeping bag!

I of course informed him that he should not fret because his sleeping bag was indeed in my bedroom waiting to be taken out of it’s stuff-sack state.

They all continue the conversation, having moved on to the hockey game they went to last weekend.

6 Year Old #1: Ya - that goalie was STUPID!

I’m surprised that the other 5 at the table didn’t choke on pizza dust from the collective inhale that occured! They all got the most surprised and horrified look on their faces, and then . . .

8 Year Old: Ms. Jodie! Did you hear that? He said the S word!
7 Year Old: Ya. You shouldn’t say that awful word!
6 Year Old #1: I’m sorry guys. I won’t say that word again.

It’s so fun to watch them police themselves while not to choke on my own pizza

4 Year Old was completely oblivious to the entire hockey conversation . . .

4 Year Old: Hey 6 Year Old #1! Bemember when we was out in the dak and saw a BAYor!? That was sccaarrryyyy!

6 Year Old #2 was also completely oblivious to the hockey and “bayor” conversations . . .

6 year Old #2: Hey Ms. Jodie? Where is Mr. Dan? Why isn’t he here? My mom said he’d be here.
Me: Well, he was supposed to be here, but his plane ended up being late, so he’ll get here after you guys are sleeping.
6 Year Old #2: Oh man. That’s a big darn it.

After pizza and sugaring them all up sufficiently with shakes, they played hide and seek for an hour and then got ready for bed. It took a little maneuvering to get everyone in the exact right spot so they had just the right amount of night light available to them, but they did it, ending up with our own little version of The Waltons . . .

“Goodnight Jake.”
“Goodnight Keira.”
“Goodnight Ian.”
“Goodnight Jason.”
“Goodnight Gavin.”
“Goodnight Nicholas.”
“Goodnight Duma.”
“Goodnight everybody!”
“Goodnight poopy head.”

Huh HM!

“OK. Goodnight.”

Pancakes, waffles, and fruit for breakfast and they were off to play again!

We headed to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade downtown to meet a couple of the parents who were running the 5K before the parade. The parade was fun as usual . . . I mean really, what’s funnier than humonstrous cows doing the chicken dance?

Then this car came along . . .

 

4 Year Old: Hey Mom - look! It’s a Transformer!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I guess if you’re 4, it IS a Transformer

About a gazillion groups of these guys walked by . . .

 

In varying versions of the “uniform” of course.

7 Year Old: Hey Mom. Why is there so much Ireland stuff in this parade?

Um, I guess we forgot to tell him what this parade was all about

Much fun was had by all, much candy was collected off the nasty dirty street, and many children are needing naps after a fun fun night.