daycare

Last summer was Victoria's final days at daycare before the start of kindergarten. Daycare was in the process of "transitioning" to a nature preschool. "Transitioning" is in quotes because the kids used this word repeatedly, every time they talked about daycare. It made me laugh each time to hear them use such a big word: "Daycare is tran-si-tion-ing to a nature school." "Davey is tran-si-tion-ing away from driving his cab." haha. love them.

The kids were integrated into this transition 100%. I think that was very important, as they say favorite toys leave and I was afraid they would be sad. But they were included, and so they embraced the change.

Here is the outdoor classroom they built. I heard they rolled the logs into place, and even helped pound nails into the boards with hammers:

A nearby tree had fallen down, and the kids showed off their balancing skills. I love it when kids can just go play in the woods!

Vic learned how to grab onto this branch and swing her way from the tree onto the ground!

Chickens have been a mainstay for a couple years. I laughed the day I left the car door open and found this lady picking up the kid crumbs off the floor:

After that she always tried to get in my car! haha

Here are some of our daycare friends:

First one on the left is Alden or Owen (brothers -- look so alike. I think it's Alden?). Then: Remy, Alex, Liam, Hadlie, Aubrie, and Vic.

One day I showed up at daycare and Alex was in the driveway with this cool "bow and arrow."

Look at his beautiful bow arm! Elbow high, arm straight back.

Vic had to get in on the action too.

The kids invent all sorts of ways to have fun.

Hadlie, Alex, Aubrie, Leon, Vic

This summer Vic wanted to master the monkey bars. She was out there working on it still on her very last day at daycare before starting kindergarten. We did some goodbye pics of her and "LouLou."

Here is Lou explaining to Victoria how she knows Victoria will do awesome in kindergarten. Such an adult like conversation!

And then this sweet hug. LouLou is very special!

A few more video clips ...

the kids swinging ... Alex has learned to pump his legs and swing on his own! It's always fun, though, when the big kids will do "underdog." Aren't the giggles the best?!

Vic and Aubrie doing their thing on the monkey bars. Vic started doing flips to get off the poles while upside down.

And, finally ... remember how I said Vic wanted to do the monkey bars all on her own across the swing set? Well, she "did it" ... in her own Victoria style!

growing goodness

We don't have a ton of time to garden (just look at the weeds), but this year Matt built three raised beds. And it was worth every bit of effort to watch the kids start seedlings, water them, watching them grow, and harvest.

And the day my kids were at my cousin's house and Alex correctly identified plants in her garden ... my mama heart went pitter patter.

That monster zucchini decorated our porch all fall!

a trip to the fair

A perfect day at the Carlton County fair ...

Vic, with Dad and Alex close behind!

And a video clip of how this happy boy galloped through the fair:

Christmas in August

Now that the real season is upon us, it's time to recount a story from August.

The kids and I had visited a rummage sale and they asked me to buy two small Christmas trees for them. It was easy to say yes given the reasonable price and my love of Christmas. When we got home, I unloaded all our rummage sale purchases into the garage and knew that someday soon I'd have to find room in our basement for the new trees.

Several days later the kids were happily playing outside, riding bikes and having fun. I was on the phone chatting with my mom and I could hear the kids on the porch, and then coming in and out the door -- enough happy noise to know all was well.

By the time I got off the phone with my mom the kids came running into the kitchen. "Mom! You've gotta come see our rooms!"

Here is what I saw in Alex's:

And in Victoria's:

I was STUNNED. In a short amount of time, my 3 year old and 5 year old had quickly collaborated to haul in trees, hold the front door open for each other (and not let the dogs out), haul one of them upstairs, and decorate them with whatever they could find around the house. Strings of beads, bracelets, crowns, toys.

The cooperation and creativity was definitely worth celebrating. I raved over their trees, took these pictures, and even let them keep them up in their rooms for a couple weeks ;).

Vic and Alex, you two are just a dream of wonderful surprises. I sure love you two!

soccer!

Both kids were so excited for summer soccer.

This would be Alex's first year. He grabbed Didi's old soccer ball (she had sweet talked her dad into buying her a new BLUE one) and ran out onto the field the first night. The warm-up went great. He was ready to KICK and PLAY! ...

... and then they started entertaining the kids with games like freeze tag and duck duck goose. He kept looking at us on the side lines, and then finally told us "I don't want to do this!" We let him come off the field early the first night, thinking it would just take him some time to warm up.

The second week was pictures! Look how heartbreaking and confident this little guy looks ...

After pictures, he went over to his team ... and promptly refused to do anything. Sigh. Soccer for him was done for the year. He has asked if he can "do soccer" again when he gets "older like Didi" and can "just pway soccer" -- i.e. not all the other games.

So what does it mean to play soccer "like Didi"? This was her first year in the U6 league. She got to play with a team in our neighborhood, meeting a bunch of teammates who were also going into kindergarten. Look for Vic in the knee high blue socks in these pictures.

In the orange: Marty, Victoria, Griffin, Amara

In the above picture, the girl on the far right is Amara, who is also in her kindergarten class this year!

Their head coach was Andrea Minnehan, seen above. She was a great coach!

Here are some more fun action shots ...

I think Victoria's favorite part of the game is throwing the ball in!

We had to encourage her a lot to get her to assertively go after the ball ;)

Check out this big smile on her face!

Assistant coach was none other than Matt!

Alex embraced the life of brother-on-the-sidelines. He occasionally brought along a soccer ball, but more commonly it was toys. And there was plenty of goofing around to do.

And did I mention the toys? There was one particular tree at our home field that Alex loved to hang "guys" in ...

And at one game, I laughed at the fact that R2D2 was enjoying soccer with us!

I will never tire of watching and listening to his animated play.

And when Grandma and Grandpa came to watch? Even more fun! Check out these amazing giggles:

Looking back, I feel bad I didn't get any videos of Victoria playing soccer. When she was on the field, I was pretty glued to the action and it was hard to anticipate when she would actually have a chance at the ball. (Come to think of it, I could have videotaped her throwing or kicking the ball in. Why didn't I think of that?) Thankfully Matt had his camera nearby.

 Matt took some team pictures too.

Amara, Whitney, Victoria, Garrett, Noah, Griffin, Adrian. Not pictured: Marty

On the last night, Coach Andrea and her husband grilled supper for everyone after the game. It was a great season.

All in honor of our soccer stars.