Adwoa und Ama

Last weekend the Charliers came to visit. Steve is interviewing in anticipation of graduating with his PhD in business this summer and had flown in and out of the Des Moines airport. I took E, B, J and Atti to the state park for the hike. It’s the begining of springtime so we get to see something new every week. Lots of birds migrate through the midwest and all the mud makes it easy to see animal tracks. Here the kids are climbing up and down the levees made to stop erosion during spring flooding. Like last week, the water is so low that we can go down onto the sand bars.

E was pretty excited to tell mom that she had gone “real” rock climbing. A note to dog owners, climbing rocks with a camera and a dog pulling on his leash add an extra degree of difficulty. I spend a lot of time teaching Atti not to pull now.

We made it down with few problems. It was still early enough in the day that the ground was frozen. The downed tree is why the rock levees are needed. When the spring midwest floods happen, like you see on TV, this whole river bed is overflowing.

Atti had fun. He gets so dirty, though. He also gets loaded with burs. When we get home we put him straight in the bath. Afterwards, the bathtub needs a bath. On this trip we found two burs between his paws and a couple by his mouth. Atti tries to pull the burs out himself and then gets them stuck in his beard. All that drama is tiring. After bath, he finds a sunny spot by a window and falls asleep.

We also went to KidsFest last weekend. It is basically a kids’ convention. There are booths set up by local businesses with games and treats. Here E is counting how many times she can hula hoop. She’s dressed in her gymnastics uniform because her team did a demonstration on the main stage.

There were a few bouncy houses too. Here’s B coming out of the castle. B and J tried out a few while E was warming up. The jumping kids were a bit big for B’s younger brother P, so P watched while trying out a few french fries.

I don’t know why, but kids like picking up younger kids. You can tell them not to as many times as you want, but when you turn around, they still pick the other child up. When asked, they’ve found some reasoning/ logic/ loophole that required the pick up. Here J is lifting P into the soap box racer. “What?? P needed help! Otherwise he would have fallen.”

After a couple of hours, Liz and Jacqueline were ready to go home. The kids were pretty spent and getting tired. By this point I thought that the Kidsfest really hadn’t lived up to the name. Long waits in line and somewhat lame treats. I’d remembered from last year that they had given away popcorn and popsicles on the other side of the exhibit hall. Free bomb pops … now that’s a kids’ festival.

Yesterday E had her last swim meet. She also sold the rest of her cookies with her troop at a nearby home improvement store. J had art class. Later they both got their hair cut. This morning, Liz went with Ann, E and M to pick out summer camps. This way E and M can be in more camps together. While they had their meeting at Panera, J and I took Atti for a hike at a state park. The temperature went up about 20 degrees today. It was in the 40s and the ground was pretty muddy. The picture above was taken after J and I climbed down onto a sandbank in the river. It was tricky for us, but Atti just ran down. Here he is trying to go out to the geese. Atti had a great time, but was put right in the bath when he got home.

Here is J playing in the sand. She decided that the sand bar was a good place to collect rocks. She found a lot of slate. It was neat because it was so flat and black. Another connection was that it was the same rock used on Little House on the Prairie for the black board. J gave me a large piece to put in my pocket. I looked, but couldn’t find any fossils in it.

Liz took E to the Ronald McDonald House today. Several family members had bought Girl Scout cookies from E. Thank you! They said that E could donate them to a good cause. E chose RMcD House. Her troop had already gone there to decorate for Halloween a couple of years ago. It’s a big deal for families to be able to stay close by when their child is in the hospital.

I still need to do a few more catch up posts.

December was a busy month. The biggest event was definitely Christmas. Dinner at Nine and Lee’s was great. It was a packed house with a lot of activity. The kids played well together and everyone had fun. Nine and Den put a lot of work into it. There was a little experimenting this year with a stuffed pork loin. It was awesome. Mom brought some of her signature salads and Uncle David brought his prized cake roll. It is crazy that the vanilla cream candy needed for the fruit salad will eventually be something we’ll have to buy from some old fashioned candy website. D and M are really grown up now. Which wiseman brought the Asian salad? It’s comforting that they had the Ramen noodles 2000 years ago.

A few weeks before, we’d gotten our tree for Urbandale. There was one fewer week between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and we got our tree early. There’s a place in town we’ve gone to every year. The guys have a tree farm in Wisconson. By their accents they have been in Wisconsin for generations. The girls get excited about decorating the tree. We have to keep reminding them that lights and ornaments need to go on first. If it were up to them, the tree would only be covered with candy canes. If you were stuck with peppermint, it would get old. With the number of different kinds of canes avaliable these days, that might not be such a bad idea: Jelly Belly, Sour Patch, ect. We’ll need to wait until they mix something into the cane that allows them to glow in the dark.

The girls got a real treat this year. Ms. Celeste invited them over for an afternoon of Christmas baking. They had a great time. I got to try many of the samples. I’m pretty happy that the girls have a neighbor like Mrs. Svoboda in their lives. Now we just have to convince Ms. Celeste to install a pool.

We went on the Polar Express again this year to see Santa with the Charliers. I don’t know how she did it, but Jacqueline got tickets for the caboose. It was a real treat. There was a second level where the kids could climb up. Being in the last train car was fitting since this likely was the last year we’ll be going with the Charliers. Steve will graduate this summer and they will be moving somewhere to a new job as a professor. I’ll miss the experience. It’s time though. The kids are getting older and the sleigh bell ring gets softer every year.

Here are the girls in front of Santa’s caboose. Inside the train station, it’s warm enough to take off your coats. That is after you’ve had a hot chocolate and icing-coated sugar cookie. I hope the Polar Express is one of the memories that sticks in the girls’ heads.

E’s Girl Scout troop (and families) went to the Nutcracker Ballet again this year. Here are J, M and E at Pizza Hut beforehand. M’s mom is the troop leader and sets up the outing. It is a big event. By the end of the night, the girls were really tired. They fell asleep on the way home.

Before going to Streamwood, the Stutlers came over to exchange presents. This was one of those times that J will use to say “Mom and Dad always …”. Since we got together in the morning, Liz had gotten some doughnuts for everyone. It was funny about a week later when J called out to Liz as she left for the store. “Could you pick up some of those doughnuts Mommy?” … No, J.

That lion hobby horse that my parents got for E when she was a toddler got a workout. While it does not scare anyone anymore, it is still incredibly loud. Atti was very wound up by all the activity.

Coming back to Christmas Eve, E and Grandma are making little chocolate pies for Christmas dessert. E got to lick the bowl.

Christmas morning was fun. The girls were excited. Hugglepod, Tether Ball, an American Girl doll bed and lots of rocks! J asked for various gemstone and mineral kits for Christmas. Here she’s showing off a set to Liz. I thought rocks were very cool when I was a kid too. Atti got a new toy and he played tug of war with Grandma. Lee got a Gandalf Pez dispenser in his stocking. He also got a Kindle Fire. Lee is more tech savvy than I am. He spent some time teaching me about different apps on his phone. Den got a toy chainsaw (and some awesome glasses). Liz got the complete Little House on the Prairie DVD set. I got 3 seasons of Psych. I think the show is really funny. And I got an ice cream maker. We’ve used it a few times, but haven’t perfected the recipe yet.

Here is a happy picture. Nine, Den and Rich were a machine getting dinner ready. This is towards the end of the night when we took group pictures. This one’s a keeper.

Look how big D and M are. We were so glad that we got to see them. K and the girls were all over the house. This is one of the few moments that they sat still. I’m afraid to ask Nine what things were moved or made ‘irregular’ during their adventures. I still remember breaking a drumstick using it to “fire” a garter I found behind Mr. Svoboda’s bar. With J and Lee’s combined love of tools, there’s no telling what was played with in the basement.

E’s our gymnast. Here she’s being lifted up with straight arms. At this point in the night she was starting to get pretty tired. On the way home she told us she was hungry.