Cool Outfit

Oh, to have the freedoms of a little girl!

Dangerous Game

Oh, to have the freedom of a little boy!

Wearing the Mississippi River

I know I've said this about 100 times, but this spring has been amazing. I think it's been warmer the past three days than it was all last summer. We spent the day yesterday at Itasca State park (which is the headwaters of the Mississippi River) with Uncle Greg, Aunt Michele and Cousin Ben. It was a glorious day, temp was about 67, no wind, sun shining, absolutely perfect...

When you're there, you must walk across the river. I mean, how many people can say that they've walked across the Mississippi River? I started off taking both kids across at the same time which turned out to be a really bad idea, so I brought Sadie back on the beach and brought Eli across first.
We made it across the river the first time with no problem. Our feet got a little cold in the frigid water, but we made it.

But, the second time... Well, this picture was taken right before Eli slipped and got wet. He started to cry and wanted to be carried, so I picked him up and lost my balance and fell in too. We didn't get too wet, but it was kind of funny!

Sadie just wanted to be carried across, which was ok with me. She ended up falling in later when she was just playing on the rocks collecting snail shells. So the three of us got wet while Dennis managed to stay quite dry (he didn't even take his shoes off!). We had a picnic, did a little walking and the kids did a little bike riding all while catching up with Greg and Michele (who is 38 1/2 weeks pregnant!). It was an awesome day.

Easter

We made a very fast trip to Bismarck over Easter. Why not Napoleon? Well, Dennis' mom was in the hospital there having a series of tests done (which we're still not sure what was/is wrong with her, but she is home now and feeling better) so we camped out at Dennis' sister's house. This house belongs to the much talked about Emily and Ashley, who are pretty awesome cousins. They kept my kids entertained by taking them to the zoo and dying eggs and playing games and reading books and teaching them gymnastics... Oh, and they babysat the kids while Dennis and I went to church on Easter Sunday. See, they went to the Easter Vigil the night before so they were free to watch my kids while Dennis and I went to church and actually got to listen to a sermon. Turns out that Sadie's Easter dress was a waste of money. Anyways, we always have a great time when Dennis' family is around so I'm glad we got to see them, and Cindy's clan, and Mick and Mel, and Terri, and Paula, and Grandma and Grandpa too.I'm including this picture of the baby goats because baby goats are soooo cute, not as cute as lambs, but pretty cute none-the-less.

And on an entirely different subject, Dennis reached his goal of running around the lake today. I wonder what his next goal will be? I hope it's something like, cleaning the house all by himself for 52 consecutive weeks... Now, I need to quit daydreaming go rub my husbands aching muscles!

My Birthday Present

Oh how I've longed for a hammock to lounge on in the summer: a cozy place to read books, take naps and snuggle all outside while the sun warms me and the gentle winds lull me. Well, this year, I took my birthday present into my own hands and ordered one for myself and told Dennis that he was getting me a hammock for my birthday. The weather, oh the beautiful spring weather we've been having, has been absolutely perfect for hammock lounging.

The kids have had reading time every day in the hammock since it arrived. Just look at that thing. It's monstrous and has turned out to be the perfect place for snuggling.

Sadie's First Dance Performance

There was a tiny-tots expo in Bemidji yesterday, a place for local businesses, schools and organizations that have anything to do with young children to gather in one place so parents can be aware of these services. It was a lot of fun. Lots of games, crafts, and activities for young kids. They gave away some cool prizes (markers and band-aids, no candy!!) and the kids made some cool things. First City Dance, where Sadie dances, gave a little performance. This was Sadie's first time dancing in front of strangers and I was a little worried that she wasn't going to do it as she didn't want to put on her tap shoes when we arrived. But, she rocked it. She's in a class for 3-5 year olds. She's standing next to the only other 3 year old in her class. They've only been working on this dance for several weeks. It's for their spring recital, which Sadie won't be in because we're going on vacation that week! Enough jabbering, here she is!!

The Latest Pictures From School

These pictures were taken by Frances at Enchanted Garden in February and March. Sliding on the ice that has since melted (thank goodness for an early spring.)
Hot, hot soup.
Hot, hot soup.
One-a-penny, two-a-penny,
Hot, hot soup.The beginning of what ended up being a beautiful spring flower arrangement.


I'm including this picture only because Eli is finally dancing. It only took 6 months...

Turn Off TV Month

Technically it's Turn off TV week and it doesn't start until the week of April 19-23, but we've been spending too much time watching the old boob tube, so we're declaring it turn off the tv month. We started Monday (as we were speding 6 hours driving on Sunday and needed the DVD player in the car!) and we're ending it on April 29 (because I'm going out of town on a women's retreat that weekend and figure that Dennis might need it!). So far it's going well, but I must admit that I am bribing, ahem, motivating the kids. Legos have been promised if they can survive and they are excited for their Legos so we might just make it. Lots of activities have been planned. Thank goodness for an early spring and playing outside and for the Crafty Crow!!

What Dennis Did This Weekend

Spring has been good to us. We've been able to finish projects we didn't think we'd even be able to start until May. So, when the weekend presented itself with sunny 50 degree days we got started on our outdoor to-do list. Several trips to Home Depot and 13-some hours later we are now able to cross "buy and set up swingset for the kids" off of our list!! (well, sort of, I need to water seal it and we need to add some mulch and sand, but the kids can play on it.)
Next lesson: Learning how to pump so mom doesn't have to give 3,000 underdogs a day!!

Eli's New Obsession

We gave Eli his first box of Legos for Christmas not realizing just how much he would love building with them. Well, he made his way through the little booklet that came with his Legos and started getting better and better with each car and building he made. He started doing more and more on his own and will sit for hours building. He's starting saving his money to buy Lego sets and is already anticipating what he's going to get for his birthday and Christmas. Some of the little Lego sets that they sell at Target are so pricey. I wanted to find things he could build with just bricks that don't need any of the extra little pieces. Well, wouldn't you know that the Lego website has a bunch of directions using just bricks. Eli spent the whole of yesterday (minus the hour at Spanish and the 2 hours we spent outside) building new things from the directions (which are seriously step by step or brick by brick that they are pretty easy to follow). He can do all of the "easy" ones on his own. The intermediate ones, he can do, but we found that they are quite fragile and will easily fall apart and the "hard" ones need dad help, I don't like to do them! Here are the fruits of his labor:
A bus and a girl jumping rope: A hockey player:A snail:And with a little help from dad, a sheep and lion:And a dragon:By the way, these were all made by using Eli's Lego Starter Set, but were meant to be made using the Legos Basic Bricks. We had to make some color changes, but his starter set worked just fine for all of these.

Wood Pile

Dare I say that spring has hit Bemidji? It's a little early yet, so I'm probably jinxing myself and it will probably snow a few more times before summer, but I'll take the warm, sunny 45 degree weather over cold and blowing snow anyday. We're all glad spring is here. The snow is (mostly) gone. I've raked up the gazillion pine needles that fell over the winter and our grass actually looks a little green. The kids have had the bikes out every day since the thaw and have been wearing sandals (with socks!) just to let their toes wiggle a little bit. They've protested their winter coats and are only wearing their "spring mittens". I've put away my winter boots for more practical and stylish shoes.
We've been waiting until mid-afternoon when the sun is hitting our backyard just perfect and heading out for playtime. We can actually stay out for several hours without saying "it's cold" once. I even hear lots of "I love the sun." comments. It's been fabulous.
This week we had two dead, gigantic pine trees cut down because we were afraid that they might fall and land on a car or the neighbors house or my children. We told them that we wanted to keep the wood so we could have fires this summer. Well, one can't quite perceive how much wood two 120 year old trees will produce until you have to haul the wood from the front of your house to the back. But, now we will have firewood for the next 10 years or so!!
The kids enjoyed watching the men climb the trees and cut them down foot by foot but, they enjoyed playing on the wood pile even more!

A Very Strong Cousin

We said all winter that we were going to go to the farm (Dennis' parents old place) to go sledding. We attempted last weekend, but we waited too long. It was far too wet and slushy and muddy for sledding, but we got to see the cousins (and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa) anyways.
Eli and Sadie have always been in love with Emily and Ashley. Here Emily shows her strength by bench pressing Sadie.Eli took pictures:

When It's Too Quiet

I should have known something was up. It had been way too quiet for far too long. Before I entered the bathroom, I asked, "What are you guys doing in there?" The response I got, "Just decorating our house with these stickers."

About the tampons Eli said, "We really like these things. You can throw them and they have a string!"

A Man In Uniform

Dennis has spent the last week and a half (only 4 days to go!) in Washington D.C. doing officer training and basically learning other military things like standing in formation and learning the Commissioned Corps march. Yes, Dennis is a Lieutenant in the Commissioned Corps. What is the Commissioned Corps you ask? Well, it's the uniformed service of the United States public health guided by the Surgeon General-- think public services like the FDA and CDC-- and Indian Health Services happen to fall under public health. They could be called to emergency duty if there happens to be a "public health crisis" as in the cases of natural disasters (Haiti) or terrorist attacks (9-11).
He sent me some pictures of his pinning ceremony. I can't tell you much about them, because I don't know any more than that. This is the first time I've seen him in uniform (as he just got them at this training) and it will be what he wears to work every day. And he has to follow other military-type regulations, like he has to keep his hair short and sideburns up, etc...

His class. He's in the second row, third from the left.

Ice Fishing Derby

The 16th annual perch ice fishing derby was held yesterday on Lake Irving in Bemidji. This was an awesome event. It is a free event for kids: no fishing licenses needed, just bring your own pole and they provide the hole, the minnows, a hot dog lunch, and prizes-- lots and lots of prizes! In fact they gave away 87 bikes, twice that many fishing rods and reels, tackle boxes, t-shirts, gift certificates and more. Every kid was a winner and lets just say that there were lots of kids. I think every kid in Bemidji was there hoping to be the lucky one who got to bring home a new bike. I think the kids we were with were tickled just to be getting their very own can of pop!Did I mention that is was warm? Notice that Eli was not wearing a coat. I think it was 48 degrees (Hello, spring!) with the sun beating down. I even got a little sunburn! I was a little worried about going on the ice as it was above freezing all week. But, every Minnesotan told me that it takes months to melt 2 feet of ice so I tried not to worry even as we were driving on the ice and splashing through some pretty massive puddles. Needless to say, there is still a lot of ice.
Eli did not win a bike, however, he did win an ice fishing rod and reel. He was so excited to hear his name called!Are there any fish down there? Apparently not many considering that in the 2 hours hundreds perhaps a thousand people were out fishing and only 5 perch were caught.

Sadie won this wonderful ice scoop. She was pretty tickled considering that that was all she did the whole time. She would kick snow into the hole and dig it out, kick in some more snow , then dig it out, kick in some more snow (you get the idea)! Oh and she got some new ice fishing jigs.
As a side note, Zoe fell into a hole not once, but twice. Poor thing, soaked to her thigh each time.

(Almost) 8 Months in Minnesota

It's hard to believe that we've been in Minnesota almost 8 months. The months seem to go by pretty quickly, though some days seem to last forever. We've managed to survive the hard part of winter, though we still have a couple months left before spring arrives in full force. We've stayed pretty healthy all winter long though we all currently have a bad case of spring fever!

Sadie seems to be growing very fast and I'm amazed at how much she knows. She has an amazing vocabulary for a three year old and loves to tell you stories. Sometimes it's still hard to understand her, but she seems to be growing out of a lot of her "baby talk." She currently loves to play The Ladybug Game and Uno. She is no longer napping so afternoons and evenings can be a little trying on all of us. Her latest major accomplishment is that she's been peeing in the regular potty all on her own. (Yes!! I even heard her peeing in the middle of the night all by herself.) She is also mastering buttons and zippers and can often be seen wearing some unusual clothing combinations. She seems to have her mother's personality: she is stubborn and hates to be wrong, but she's also friendly and can be pretty outgoing. She can be a bit dramatic and she wears her heart on her sleeve. All of this means that Sadie and I tend to butt heads more often than I'd like. She does have the most beautiful big brown eyes that you've ever seen and her smile will melt your heart. Oh, and she's just learned to kiss by making the loud smooching noise, so she's been giving away a lot of kisses lately!

Eli is now 4 and a half. He currently loves legos and manages to build things that even I can barely make. I'm sure he'll be reading a map better than me in a month! He seems to have a mathematical mind as he's doing some pretty amazing adding and subtraction in his head without even knowing that he's doing math. Eli's teacher calls him "responsible" though I think it's more of his worrying tendency coming out, but calling him responsible sounds a lot better. His vocabulary recall still isn't the best and I think he still struggles with telling us how he feels and what he wants. The girls in his class love him and want to marry him (to which he replies, "Ewwwww... I'm too young to get married") and they often kiss and hug him relentlessly (to which he replies "Please stop it. I don't like it"). Eli will be of kindergarten age come September, but Dennis and I think an extra year of being a kid is a better plan for Eli. We have some options that we are playing with. We did put him in the lottery for a charter school that is just down the road. He is number 2 on the waiting list, so we might rethink things if he gets in, but for now Eli will not be going to kindergarten.

Dennis is enjoying his job as far as he tells me. Next week, he will be leaving for two weeks for officer training in DC. I still laugh a little when I hear him being referred to as Lieutenant Sperle. Dennis got some hand-me-down cross country skis from a friend and has spent the winter months trying them out. I think he's ready for less snow so he can start running again.

I still am doing the stay-at-home-mom gig, which is a pretty good job if you can get it. Sometimes I think about getting a paying job, but then I think about how how fleeting childhood is and the past 4 1/2 years have gone by so fast and that another couple of years will fly by and then I'll be out of a job :( I've moved on from belly dancing because I wanted my one free evening to be spent doing yoga instead! I got a new pressure cooker and that has been my entertainment this winter and I'm loving it! Dare I say that I'm a pretty good cook and that delicious meals are usually consumed every night. I think cooking keeps me sane!

That's our life in a nutshell. We're already planning our summer, it's amazing how fast those weekends fill up, but I promise we will fit you in if you can come and visit. Bemidji is such a great place for us. It feels like home and we're content.

Another Year Older

Dennis celebrated his 38th birthday last week. For his birthday, I got him tickets to see the band Wilco in Duluth. My mom came and watched the kids for the weekend so Dennis and I could attend the concert and just hang out. The concert was one of the bests I've seen, the crowd was full of energy and Wilco just played and played and played.

Dennis and I ate great food, went cross country skiing, spent some money shopping (okay, I'm pretty sure Dennis didn't enjoy this part, but he didn't seem too bothered by it either) and we even saw a movie (Crazy Heart) . Man, I love these weekends. It's good to reconnect with your spouse every once in awhile. It's a win, win, win situation. Dennis and I love to get away, the kids love having grandma watch them for the weekend, and grandma loves watching the kids.

Some Winter-y Things

A couple of weeks ago, Dennis spent the week in Rochester, MN at the Mayo clinic at a seminar. The kids and I joined Dennis on Thursday and we spent some time hanging out in the hotel swimming pool. Dennis has 2 UND college friends that live in Rochester with their families and one OSU friend. So, we got to play with all of them, until Eli woke up in the middle of the night with a 102 degree fever. We came home a bit early with a very miserable little boy.
Downtown Rochester was having a winter festival. There were ice sculptures everywhere. This one was in front of a jewelry store (and it was Valentines weekend). There was an ice bar that was serving drinks out of glasses made out of ice. Sadie looks a little less than thrilled, but she was sitting on a chair made of ice. I can't imagine that being too comfortable.Skip to this past Sunday, the National longtrack speed skating marathon was held on lake Bemidji. Seeing speedskaters going around and around on the ice wasn't all that thrilling, but we got to drive on the ice and park and watch from the inside of our car. Eli has been waiting to drive on the ice since he saw his first icehouse out on the lake. I don't think he was thrilled as he thought he would be.

By the way, it takes about an hour and a half to speedskate a marathon, if you're good. If you're not good, I suppose it could take all day!