Mall of America and everything else...

More pictures of the Mall of America...




Eli had a hard time driving the bumper cars. Keeping his foot on the gas pedal (is it called a gas pedal when it is a bumper car?) was not a concept he could grasp. As soon as the car started to move he would release the pedal and try to steer... of course as soon as he released the pedal the car would stop. He moved about 1/4 of an inch... It was awesome.

Mall of America and the Backyardigan's...

Eli loves the Backyardigan's. Our DVD player is on a continuous loop of various Backyardigan's videos. He loved all the Backyardigan's stuff at the Mall of America. There are statues of all five of them... on this day, he loved Tyrone and Austin, so that is who he posed with...


While in the gift shop, Eli decided that he loved Pablo, so we bought him one... he is sleeping with him as I type this.
Although he loved the statues of the Backyardigan's, the living, breathing Uniqua scared him to death. Isobel stepped up though... she loved seeing Uniqua wondering the halls of the Mall of America (and we loved getting a few free rides from her companion).

For those of you who are concerned that Tasha was forgotten, fret not... Isobel did get a stuffed Tasha. Just in case the Backyardigan's are reading this, I don't want Tasha's feelings hurt... they love you all equally.

New pictures (just a little late)...

Here are some more pictures of our vacation. The kids had a great time.

Isobel and Grandpa spent some time fishing. If you ask Isobel how it went she will respond "It was so much fun, but we didn't catch any fish. We only caught weeds, weeds, weeds... everything was weeds." She was really unhappy about the weeds, but loved spending some alone time with Grandpa. Unfortunately (for us, fortunately for Jon's parents), they sold the lake house, so we will not be back. Hopefully, they will end up somewhere that will allow Isobel and Grandpa to spend more time fishing. Perhaps they will catch something other than weeds... perhaps a fish.
And finally... here are two pictures with Eli almost smiling. He really loved the boat...

I have some great pictures from the Mall of America coming soon.

more pictures...

You will notice that there is not one single picture of Eli in this bunch. He has become very difficult to photograph. He will either stand in the shot and not smile or refuse to be in the shot. I took a couple today on the boat, and it is possible he was smiling... I am not going to get my hopes up though. Perhaps if I was better about taking pictures, I would get one or two of my son... Oh well, I will take what I can get.

The last picture is Isobel showing her cheer from cheer camp to her Grandparents. It is so cute. The final line of this cheer is "you think you can beat us, whatever!" Isobel definitely has the attitude for this final line. Those of you who have known me since high school can just imagine how well she does it... Oh and just for good measure... she has also inherited my classic, passive aggressive, "fine". I am sure there are a number of you smiling right now thinking that it is a classic example of what goes around...

Lakehouse Fun...

The kids are having a great time in Minnesota... in fact I am not sure they ever want to leave.

Did I mention that Emmy is walking now. She is doing pretty well and getting better each day.

Today we rented a pontoon and explored the Lake. It is quite a bit bigger than I thought. It was so very nice. I wish I could spend every free minute of my life in a boat on a lake... of course, if it were my fantasy world I would have a speed boat and go crazy fast... unless I had the kids with me, then I would go crazy slow because I am an anxiety ridden mother hen.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend. I will post more pictures soon.

Two weeks in, Two months to go...

Summer is exhausting. As a child, I hated the idea of year round school. As a parent, I am open to it.

Isobel spent the first week of June at Safety Town. If you have a child about to start kindergarten and you have Safety Town in your area, check it out. It really was great experience for her. She was sad when it ended.

My parents were here last week with my niece (L) and my nephew (Z). I am so glad they came. The kids had a great time and I finally got to spend some time with Z. He is such a great addition to our family and I am so thankful that he and my sister found each other. I have never spent much time thinking about adoption, but I am so glad that it is available. I can't imagine any reality without Z as a part of our family. If anyone is looking for an International Adoption blog, feel free to check out my sisters.

Now that we are back on a semi-ordinary schedule, I will be able to blog more (I am sure you have all been checking daily and cursing me for my lack of posts). I will add some pictures soon... of course I didn't take a single picture last week, so there won't be any of L and Z... but then I would have to ask my sister for permission to post them, and I am too much of a rebel for that...

Bored...

Isobel has a hard time being home all day. She will get very grumpy after spending just a few days in the house. So, I have been very concerned that summer will be very difficult for her.

So far it has not been too bad, but we aren't very far into the summer. She has taken up photography to pass the time. There are about 12 pictures exactly like this one...

Some random pics that I love:

Summer Vacation...

Yesterday was Isobel's first day of her first summer vacation. I realize she was only in preschool, but I have decided it is enough. She did start school in September and finish school in May, which is, technically, a school year. Therefore, in my mind, it counts.


Today Isobel told me that summer vacation is a sad time. She is going to miss all of her friends from school. There are only two other kids from her class going to her grade school. I have tried to explain to her that she will get to make new friends, this makes her sad, which makes me sad...

She has a lot of fun stuff planned for the summer, hopefully it will occupy her.

She has Safety Town next week, my parents are bringing my niece and nephew the following week, cheer camp is the week after and then a couple of weeks later we go on vacation. She will also have tumbling, swimming and gymnastics each week. I don't think she will have much time to dwell... hopefully.