Sean and Aleece

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was a good day.  When I was younger I used to crave a action packed day full of sugary treats and loads of stuff to do.  Never wanting to stop, all my friends around, and needing a couple of days after to recover.

Now, I like the quiet days where I don’t have to do much and I can just enjoy life around me.  And that’s what I had yesterday.  It stared with brunch at my parents, then the kids stayed over there for their naps and I came home to my nap.  Later in the evening I had a bunch of family over and grilled out.  I love grilling.  I love hanging out with family.  It was a good time.

Presents you ask?  Well this year I only wanted 1 thing.

A Duluth pack.

You see I am trying to scout out a route in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to take my kids.  I want to find a route that is suitable to them and I want to be able to know the route so there is no surprises.   A Duluth pack is basically 1 large compartment backpack that you can carry your stuff in.  I like to use one as the food or kitchen pack, keep all the food and food prep stuff in one place.  This makes it easier to carry and at night when you are done eating it is easier to tie 1 pack up in a tree.  You know, so the bears don’t get it.

So this year I pooled everything together and got my pack…

This!

That is a top of the line Camp Kitchen Pack.  The center compartment is big enough to carry all the food we need.  The two side compartments are big enough to hole the stove, pans, and dishes.  In the front, under the flap, is little pockets for all the cooking utensils.

This is gonna make my BWCAW trips rock!

I think Leif has an urge to be an artist when he grows up. This week he decided to practice his art. All over our walls. Take a look.

Books,

Legs,

Face,

Kalvens railing,

The Side of the bed,

The bed sheets,

But not THIS hand

Oh, and the wall here…

and here, and here, and here,

and the ceiling.

You bet we made him help clean up.

Kalven even had to help.

I sure hope he makes it as a successful artist and starts selling pieces soon, he has a bit of work to do to help pay to fix everything.

Just kidding, it all washed off pretty well.

So a couple of weeks ago I was looking for new bands to listen to.  I needed some new music.  Lo and behold what came in the mail?  The Minnesota Zoo Concert schedule.  The MN Zoo holds outdoor concerts at the bird amphitheater.  If you have not gone to one, make it a point to go sometime.  It’s a lot of fun.

So, I was looking over the bands that are going to play this summer and one kind of catches my eye, Gaelic Storm.  Interesting name.  So I looked around for them.  I found this site, http://gaelicstorm.musiccitynetworks.com/.  On that site they had samples of their newest album, I gave them a listen.

They were pretty good.  The even had a song that really stuck out to me, “DON’T LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY”.  You can listen to it here,  http://gaelicstorm.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?id=5432.  About half way down that page are the lyrics.  I don’t want to post them here because I am not sure if that will make the band mad and since they are a new favorite of mine I want to be on good terms.

That song really reminded me of my Grandpa.  He LOVES to tell stories!

Now Grandpa does not tell lies, but like any good Irish man he is ok with embellishing a little, for dramatic effect.  As a kid I used to wonder why Grandpa would get some of the little details “wrong” in some of his stories.  Later on I realized these details were called “flavor of the story”.  And just like any good cook, each time you re-tell the recipe for a good story you tailor it to your mood at the time and the audience that is eating up the story.

My Grandpa passed on a few years ago but he still tells Stories.  I think of them all the time, but each time just a little different than the last.  Not making up details, just changing the flavor.

So on Mothers Day Aleece went to take some pictures of me and the kids.  Leif started making faces so I joined in and we had some Silly Face Time.  Check it out.

Pretty silly huh?

Kalven was more interested in playing with the playdough, but I think next time he will join in.

We signed Leif up for soccer this spring. Today was his first day. And just like any excited parent I brought along my camera. I ended up filling up the whole memory card on this 1 hour session, here are some highlights…

Here is Leif in his team uniform, he is the blue team this week.

There was a little instruction before things started.

Then some warm-ups.

They were needed, Leif is either a little cold or really excited. Probably a lot of both!

To stay warmed up the coach told the kids to chase her around.

Leif wonders why they are not playing with the balls, that’s why they are here isn’t it?

But Leif is a trooper and goes along with the warm-ups.

Finally he gets a ball!

But he is told to just stay put for now.

Then they can practice some kicking across the field and back.

Then practicing stopping the ball with your foot.

Kalven is enjoying the cool brisk morning watching Leif play from Nana’s lap.

Now to practice scoring. Each kid kicks the ball at the net then takes a turn being goalie right after.

Leif practicing being goalie and stopping a score.

Game time! But they have to get the kids in place first. Leif was told to stay here, so he took a break.

Ok, all set. Time to PLAY!

The ball went that way!

Leif thinks this is silly, there are balls all over the place, why play with just 1?

We tried telling Leif that the ball to play with was at the other side of the field…so he goes over to the extras and gets one of those. Only thing is, they are not the game balls, they are practice balls.

Ok! Back in the game.

Now it’s Leif’s turn to be goalie.

The ball went that way.

Now it’s over there.

Now way over there.

Leif seems to think that goalie is boring.

Ah! better. Back in the game.

The ball went out of bounds so Leif got to throw it back in. He has such a good arm that the ball was out of frame by the time I got the picture shot!

It was cold this morning, Leif is keeping his hands warm.

Game is all done. High fives all around

And shake hands with the other team.

What a great way to start the weekend.

Last week was spring break for the Apple Valley school district.  My parents thought it would be a fun thing to take Leif and his cousin Summer up to their cabin for a little get-away, and maybe a little maple syruping.  So they came and picked up Leif on Thursday and headed up, coming home on Sat.  The weather was not good for maple syruping, too cold and the sap did not run.  But they sure had fun.  Here are some pictures that my mom took…..

Grandpa is tapping the trees

Lunch break

Then it’s time for some fun in the woods.
Like breaking the ice in puddles!

Leif learned to pee on trees, but only in the woods.

Dinner of hot dogs over an open fire, can anything be better?

Maybe some hot coco!

Leif loves a campfire and he knows that the best campfires are the ones where you help gather the wood.

Time to go check on those taps.

Grandpa is showing the younger generation the tricks for getting a good tap in the tree.

A little hard work always makes the end result even better.

But other times you just gotta play!

When you are up north even the stuff to cook on a stove is done outdoors.

All that fresh air can take a toll. You just take naps where ever you are.

Leif wanted some milk yesterday morning and so Aleece gave it to him in a cup.  He wined and wanted a sippy cup and Aleece told him that BIG boys drink from cups at the table.

Leif was pouting and not drinking his milk.   Aleece was thinking of ways to get him to drink from the cup……then she got an idea, why not try a straw.

So Aleece hoped on the step stool and found a straw(we keep them in the highest cupboard over the fridge, maybe not the best place…).   His eyes lit up and he begun immediately drinking his milk.   He asked for 2 more glasses.

On the third glass, Aleece noticed that he was using a lot of napkins, she got curious to what so she sat and watched what he was doing.   The little bugger was blowing bubbles in his milk and it was overflowing the cup.   He was so cute and had tons of fun and drank all of his milk.

It’s been a month.

1 month ago Leif decided to stay dry all night, no more waking up wet. He went from having overnight accidents every single night to staying dry literally overnight. Ever since that day he decided he has either stayed dry all night long or he has gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. And we always know when he get’s up because he usually turns on the light and tells us that we went “pee in the potty”. We have even move away from putting him in pullups at night.

My little boy is growing up so fast!

So, last night Aleece went to work and I was watching the kids. We were downstairs watching a movie and Kalven was over playing with the toys in the toy chest. He was playing nice and quiet. Then I noticed he kept saying “moma” a lot. I looked over to see what he was doing and he had a little play phone up to his ear and was jabbering away, saying “moma” every so often. I think he missed Aleece and had to call her to talk to her.

For Christmas Eve we had a family gathering over at my parents house. We have a fun tradition of going over to Great Grandma’s house to sing Christmas carols.

This year when we told Leif where we were going he got all excited to sing, he could not wait to get there and sing. We had a wonderful visit with Great Grandma and I could not help thinking about when I was younger we would make a 3 hour trip all the way from Pine River to Green Isle, sometimes right on Christmas Eve, to spend time with family. It was such a fun trip for us kids, but I am sure we made the trip long for my parents.  I remember watching TV on a little(huge) portable during the trip.  TV stations would drift into and out of tune as we would pass by towns, we had no idea what was on or what we were watching, it was just fun to watch TV in the car!  The highest point of excitement was when we came into Green Isle and passed by the church.  We knew that just on the other side of town was a bunch of Christmas fun.  Sometimes the longest part of the trip was that driveway to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and the driveway was usually packed with cars.  That house did not look big enough to hold all the people that came in all those cars, but once you got inside there was room to spare (except in the kitchen where Grandma was cooking, everyone tried sneaking in for a sample taste!)

After we visited with Great Grandma we went back to my parents house.  When we got there we unloaded and got into the house.  As I was squeezing my way through the kitchen I realized we were doing it again, just like when I was a kid.  Grandmas kitchen was still the most crowded place in the house as we all tried to sneak in sample tastes.  The kids were running around playing, people were sitting everywhere talking and it was fun all around.

After a nap for my kids(boy did they need it!) and a sledding trip for half of our group we settled in to wait for that special visit.  Yep, just as it got dark Santa stopped by!  Kalven was a little apprehensive but he quickly warmed up enough to go grab a present.  Leif and Summer had no problems sitting on Santa’s lap, but I think Jackson was a little shy.  He just slept in his chair.

After Santa left we had our dice game.  Kalven just went around giving advice on how people should roll and what presents they should get.  He did not seem too interested in rolling the dice himself.  Leif was totally into the dice game.  He was rolling and checking and passing like mad.  He would get SO EXCITED when he got doubles.  And when we got to steal presents he was having a blast!

So we cleaned up after the dice game and it was time to un-wrap presents.  When I was young this was the best part of the night!  It still is but not like when I was young.  When I was young I could not wait to get new toys and stuff, now I can’t wait to see my kids get new toys and stuff.  They have so much fun!

It really is amazing how priorities and views change when you get older.  But when you look at it all traditions do not die off and get replaced, they get passed down and repeated.