Sadie's Missing Something!

Last Sunday, September 16, Sadie lost her first tooth. Actually, I pulled it, but only because she wanted me too. It was awesome!

The tooth fairy has been visiting our house a lot lately!

Also, Sadie got her ears repierced this weekend. Yes, last year Sadie got her ears pierced on her birthday, but they got really infected in December so the dr. made her take them out. They healed up nicely and she decided it was time once again to get them pierced. They look great!

Happy 7th Birthday Eli!

Somehow Eli managed to get 3 parties out of this birthday. You have to love a birthday that just keeps on giving!! The first, as pictured previously, was a mini-celebration at Grandma and Grandpa S's. The second was his actual birthday. The neighbor kids came over for cake and icecream.

Then we went to Putt-N-Go for a little mini-golf and go-kart action before heading to the mexican restaurant where, according to Eli, they serve the best chicken strips! Ha! Yes, that is my jumbo margarita and yes our server was nice on the eyes. The kids love being sung to almost as much as they love the icecream!

The last party was a pool party with friends. It was 10 days after his birthday, but better late than never!

Abby, Sadie and Zoe

Ryan, Abby, Will, Zoe, Ella, Sadie, Nile, Simon, Eli, Reid and Anissa

Presents!!

Abby, Nile, Sadie, Zoe, Ella, Eli, Will, Simon, Ryan, Reid, Darren, and Anissa

Yellowstone Vacation: Part 5--This is the end, I promise!

Day 11: We packed up very early, as in just-throw-the-kids-in-the-car-still-snuggled-in-their-sleeping bags early, and left Yellowstone behind. We didn't take take the shortest way, as that would be too easy, we took the "scenic route" which involved curvy mountain roads. We left through the northeast entrance of the park and headed to Cody, WY from there. There were lots of scenic stops along the way, but we were truly far too tired (or nauseous in my case) to enjoy them. We made it to Gillette, WY that night. The kids were excited for a hotel with a water park, more Olympics watching and the Chinese buffet across the street from the hotel.

Day 12: Another lllllloooooonnnnnggggg day in the car with a brief stop and picnic at Devils Tower National Monument. At this point, we were all kind of ready to be home. Thank goodness we made it to Grandma and Grandpas house that evening!

Day 13: Grandma and Grandpa S. in Napoleon always have special treats for Eli and Sadie. This time, the special treat was a birthday cake! We enjoyed going to Nita's attic, trying on Paula's hats, playing on the teeter-totters at the Napoleon City Park, watching the Olympics and not spending a single minute in the car!!

Day 14: We left one grandma and grandpa's for another. We stopped in Fargo for school shopping.It seems that Eli's shoes were 3 sizes too small. Yikes!! Then, Dennis and I went on a date-- dinner and a movie and shopping-- all while Sadie and Eli were being spoiled by grandma and grandpa!
Day 15: We made it make safe and sound to our house and our own beds... just in time to celebrate Eli's seventh birthday!

Yellowstone Vacation: Part 4

Day 7- Day 10: We finally made it to Yellowstone! We spent the first day hanging out at Old Faithful. We saw Old Faithful go off 3 times!! We spent a lot of time at the Visitor Center, we went on a boardwalk trail, and participated in the "Animal Olympics". We camped at Madison Campground which is centrally located to all areas of the park so we'd have easy access to all areas of the park. We spent one day in each area of the park.
There was still a lot of driving each day mixed in with sight seeing and animal watching. We brought along 2 pairs of binoculars which was a godsend and the kids took turns taking photos. I think "we" took over 350 pictures!
We saw lots of buffalo, elk and marmots. We woke up early 2 mornings to look for wildlife. We saw (with the help of a spotting scope) 2 grizzly bears one morning and a pack of wolves another morning.
I truly enjoyed visiting the Canyon area as a lot has changed in the 17 years since I worked there. It brought back a lot of memories.
The kids enjoyed the campground the best, imagine that, but they love meeting kids from all different parts of the country. Plus, we let them ride their bikes freely which they also enjoy.
We spent some time swimming in the Fire Hole. The water was swift and cool. We weren't very prepared for the depth of the water or the crowd but we made the best of it!
I know that if you haven't been to Yellowstone that I haven't described it's magic very well for you to truly understand it. It is like being on a whole different planet with many different ecosystems. It is one of the most spectacular places on earth.

The line to take a picture of the Yellowstone sign was very long!!

The kids watching Old Faithful.

Sadie got a little sunburnt!

This is what Eli thought of the sulfur smell of most of the pools.

Canyon!

I'm very proud of the kids for walking all 300+ stairs to get down Uncle Tom's Trail. They didn't whine too much!

Eli and Sadie both became junior rangers.

Petrified tree.

Our First Week at Schoolcraft!

Eli and Sadie started school this week at a new school. They will be attending a charter school called Schoolcraft Learning Community that is located on the French Campus of Concordia Language Village which is located about 5 miles from our house. Schoolcraft follows the "expeditionary learning" model that focuses on leadership, fieldwork, and service projects in an authentic way. I am constantly blown away at the work that is being done at Schoolcraft and I can't wait to share them with you as the year progresses! Before you roll your eyes at all of this, know that this year Schoolcraft was named a Minnesota Reward school for it's academic excellence and scored in the 95% on achievement tests!

Schoolcraft is a very non-traditional school. First, their classrooms are housed in cabins. I'm excited to see what Eli and Sadie think of this situation when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground and it's 20 below or when it's pouring rain!! They have to walk outside to all specialist classes (music, p.e., art, etc.) and to use the bathroom.

There is only one section of each grade with the exception of first grade and each grade is capped at 18 students. There is a lottery to get into the school because of the low numbers. Once a family is in, preference is given to siblings. Sadie's class has 14 boys and 4 girls!!

Eli's class is more gender-balanced.  The teachers stay with the same class for 2 years. Sadie will have her teacher, AnnaMae, for kindergarten and first grade. Eli will only have his teacher, Sarah, for one year because he attended a different school for kindergarten and will get a different teacher next year for second and third grade.

There is no playground equipment. The kids can play soccer, explore, jump rope, play ball and the like. They go outside everyday for recess, rain or shine, 20 below or not which is why raincoats and rain boots are on their school supply list. These are tough northern Minnesota kids!!

They eat lunch with grades K-8 eating at the same time (that's 197 kids + staff). They eat family style and serve themselves. I will tell you that lunch is very chaotic, but big kids help the little kids and magically they all get to eat a very healthy and delicious meal.



Because they are located on the French Campus of the language village, they are learning French. They are also learning piano and they get a class in cooperative life schools (aka conflict management) taught by moi!



Schoolcraft truly is a special and magical place. I am so pleased that Eli and Sadie have the opportunity to be Schoolcraft kids.

Sadie's quotes for the week: "I didn't have a favorite part of the day because I loved it all so much." "Schoolcraft's chef's make the most delicious meals. They pick the best grapes."

Eli's quote for the week: "I like Schoolcraft, but I don't like school."

Eli lost his first top tooth this week!
 

How was my first week teaching Conflict Management at Schoolcraft? It was a blast. The kids are so bright and engaging and so willing to participate and share their thoughts and ideas. Because many of them have had conflict management since kindergarten I can see already that I'm going to have to challenge them. Being a peacemaker is easy for them, I'm going to have to encourage them to be leaders with their peacemaking!!

Yellowstone Vacation: Part 3

Day 6: We packed up our lovely camp site and headed for Idaho Falls. On our way, we did a little detour to see Craters of the Moon National Monument. The kids got to try their hand at spelunking and loved leading the way through the lava tubes with their headlamps.

 

We made it to Idaho Falls and stayed the night at a hotel. The kids were thrilled to sleep in a bed, go swimming and watch the olympics. I was thrilled to have a shower and coffee. Dennis was thrilled to get the oil changed in our car. Oh, the simple things in life!

 

Day 7: After more swimming and a trip to the grocery store, we headed toward Wyoming. Along the way we discovered a cute little ranch that gives horseback rides and they just happened to have a newborn calf!



The kids were too small to go on a trail ride, but they did get to walk around a little lake and on a trail into the forest. They thought it was pretty awesome.

Back into the car (like I said, we travelled over 3,000 miles!) and on to The Grand Tetons.

 

 

The kids were super excited to swim in the lake. They quickly realized that lakes fed by icemelt from the mountain peaks is really really cold.

We stayed that night in the campground in the Grand Tetons. Our peaceful camping was over, now we were staying in a campground that packs you in as close as possible with 300 other tents and camper-trailers!

Yellowstone Vacation: Part 2

Day 4: As I expressed earlier there are many pros to not planning too much on a vacation, and this is one of them. While we were camping in the Beaverhead NF, a ranger stopped by and told us about this crystal park where you could dig for crystals for $5/day. We were a little leary, but the guy promised that we would find crystals. We went armed with spoons as that was the only "digging tool" we had and we came out with pocketfulls of crystals. It was awesome and probably my favorite part of the whole trip. I could have dug for crystals for days...

After digging for crystals we drove into Idaho singing along to Yonder Mountain String Band to my friend's house in Challis. This little trek was amazingly beautiful and we also saw lots of animals: moose, big horn sheep, cranes and pronghorn.
My friend suggested that we stay at a hot springs in town. It was great. This was my kind of swimming with water temperatures in the upper-90s. It was fabulous!

Here is my friend Amanda. We were roommates in Yellowstone NP in 1995. We cleaned rooms in Canyon's cabins. It was not a great job, but it was a fun place to work.

Day 5:Amanda works for the National Forest Service so she knew of all the best places to go. She recommended a great campground and an easy hike for the kids.