Lake Minnetonka or bust, take one:

It was a half-bust.
How is it that we can have 3 weeks straight of 70-80 degree sunny days and the ONE day we all arranged care for our children, broke out the bikinis, bought a days worth of food and booze-it's 60 and cloudy. Seriously. I thought those 10-consecutive church visits would have gotten me somewhere with the big-guy. Perhaps I'll switch to worshipping meteorologists.
I did, though, manage to get quite sunburned, oops.
Stay tuned for LMoB, take II...

the arnold off-spring:

new jersey shannon & the mama

isabella, emma, ella, grant, ava & torren

ella, please don't put make-up on your brother:

on dreams:

I had this really great dream last night that I was driving around in my pre-mom-manual-transmission-vw-jetta, it was super fun....then I woke-up and remembered that I actually drive an automatic-transmission-kid-clobbered-mini-van. it was a gigantic downer.

Perhaps this is how I stay thin: the pie-chart squeeze diet.

on appreciation:

e: Bockie (grandma annie) you don't understand people.
b: what do you mean I don't understand people?
e: you don't appreciate me.
b: what do you mean by that? I appreciate you.
e: no you don't appreciate me, I said I was sorry and I still got a time
out.

(she took g's shoes and wouldn’t give them back)

why we don't have pit bulls:

ACS: Albrecht Charity Services

e: Lucas, did Montana get the money I gave her?
m: what, ella? you gave our neighbor money?!?!?
e: yes.
m: was it coins or paper money?
e: coins.
m: alright, but we cannot give our money away. If we give our money away, you won't be able to go to college.
e: okay...but I'm not going to college.
m: yes you are, but we'll talk about it when you get older.
--
m: ella, where is the other ice pack from your lunch bag?
e: I gave it to grace because she had a yogurt in her lunch and it was going to get rotten.

Not only do we have a potential higher-education-drop-out on our hands, we are poorer and without one ice pack.

Y Chromosome:

Evidently boys are born with an interest in all things male. Trucks, motorcycles, buses, boats, guns, sports.....an average morning commute with grant goes like this: mama! look! truck!......mama! bus!......mama! boat!....more boat!, more boat! (considering we're surrounded by 100-some miles of lakeshore, this boat thing is getting old. but, he does have the cutest minnesota accent when he says it)...mama! loooooook! trucccccckkkkkkk! yea, truck!!!!!!, more truck!!!, bus, bus, bus, look mama, bus!!!!!!!....you get the idea.

In addition, even though we have not demonstrated how a gun works, nor do we have any toy guns, everything pointy turns into a gun. and he can even make that pew-pew sound that goes with it.

and baseball....baseball rocks. G lifts his left leg and swings a pretend bat around the house, saying, Swing! Bat! He'll sit, yes SIT and watch a Twins game on TV. Ryan holds his right arm and helps him throw with his left...apparently that might make us rich some day...we're holdin' out for that....

and then....when all that boy stuff is over, he'll find a doll, kiss her, say "ni-night," lay her down in the stroller and proceed to take her for a calm little stroll...soooooooo sweet. "Mama, baby go ni-night, Mama hold baby?"

There is, thank God, a little X mixed in with the Y.

:the softer side

chicken pops.

e: mama, is that a bug bite or one of your chicken pops?

thursday musical beds.

9:00pm, Mama's bed: Daddy, Ella, Mama, Jake

11:00pm, Mama's bed: Daddy, Ella, Grant, Mama, Jake

12:00am, Mama's bed: Daddy, Grant, Mama
12:00am, Ella's bed: Ella

2:00am, Mama's bed: Daddy, Mama, Jake

4:ooam, Mama's bed: Daddy, Ella, Mama, Jake

6:00am, Mama's bed: Daddy, Ella, Grant, Jake
6:00am, Ella's bed: Mama
6:20am, Everybody Up! Wake-up, it's morning Mama! (ugh.)

For cripe's sake, could we all just s-l-e-e-p....in our own beds, please.

so well-behaved:

buddy jack's 2nd birthday party
clockwise: jack, blake, ella & grant

sunday morning breakfast:

e: mom, why are you drinking orange juice?
c: because I thought it sounded good, and it goes with breakfast (not-to-mention, I have a bit of hang-over)
e: I thought you only drank wine and beer?

If you've followed my blog since the beginning, you're starting to see a trend.
Perhaps I should switch to tea...

The Class of 2021:

Shoreline Early Childhood Development Center's
Penguin Class of 2008:

Our crabby little graduate:

g has a new phrase:

"I deed it, I deed it!!

girls just wanna have fun

Today the little ladies enjoyed a make-over at Club Libby Lu in the Mall of America, which included a hair do complete with trashy extension thingy and glitter, blue eyeshadow and sparkle lips, nail polish, a bag FULL of girly trinkets....hair pretties, lip gloss and the like...and most importantly some cherished kodak moments. Afterward we ate at [the new and improved] Rainforest Cafe-followed by a quest to find the perfect flower jibbet for our crocs, and finally and possibly most important for the mama's........the crepes. yum. a nutella crepe. mama loves nutella. An all-successful girl's day, unfortunately on the first 82 degree day of the year...oops!