Day Camp Pictures

I finally got around to uploading the day camp pictures... none were taken by me, thankfully the day camp director got a bunch! There's a few of me and Madison in there, but most are just a nice example of all the fun!

Making Aprons...



Bicycle Safety...



Magic Bubbles...



We are the cougars!!!....





Frog Eye Salad...







Exploding Soda Pop...




Food Shelf Donations...



Mixing Gorp...



Madison hula hooping and jump sticks...











Mad Scientists:



Apple Pies! This was a lot of messy sticky fun!







Craft Straws...



Making Recipe Books - Look how patient I'm being!



And... the program specialists!

Day Camp and Stuffin' the pinata...

The end of an exhausting week is drawing to a close... I spent the last 3 days as a program specialist at Madison's Girl Scout Day Camp. I've come home absolutely exhausted and cranky each night, but it has been an absolute blast. I've spent the past few days helping 150 girls decorate aprons, making GORP (aka trail mix), making frog eye salad, mini apple pies, recipe books, and preparing our "no cooking bag lunches" for tomorrow's beach day. While I have had a lot of fun, I have also remembered why I didn't become a teacher. I have NO patience, and when I have 15 5-6 year old Daisy Girl Scouts ALL whining to me at the same time that they "CAAAAAN'T do it" (loop their plastic lanyard through their punched holes to make the recipe book), because it's "TOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAARD", I had to REALLY struggle not to start whining right back at them. I think my kids would have been amazed to see how well I kept my cool, cause I know I woulda bit their heads off it were my own.

So the last day of day camp is tomorrow, and I'll get home around 5 PM... at 7 PM I have about (12) 8 year old girls coming over for a SLEEPOVER??? Am I NUTS or WHAT?

We went shopping tonight for the party gear, and came home with a High School Musical pinata - Madison and Cade had a BLAST stuffing it. Caden kept shrieking "Tannah Tannah", which is his word for Hannah Montana - he get's Madison's characters mixed up a bit.

As they were stuffing the pinata, Caden reminded himeself every 1.7 seconds to "No eatin' da candy".

I got a little nostalgic while watching them stuff the pinata... As a child, my mom always bought me a pinata for my birthday parties. I have many fond memories of stuffing the pinata the night before my party. That and sorting the beans for the chili she'd make the next day. She always threw a big party in our backyard in San Jose with dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I remember feeling so special and loved. I hope that Madison will look back on these years with the same fondness.











Wish me luck for tomorrow!!! More pictures to come!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Another fun day of swimming today. William reluctantly added a C-time in the 50 backstroke, and swam within 1 second of his other times, so all was well. Madison has fun no matter what she's swimming, she just loves to swim!

A shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Bradford, Madison wants to thank you for the ADORABLE new "build a bear" - she LOVES IT!!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

I can't believe that 8 years have passed since my girl was born. I still remember the elation I felt when I found out she was a girl - some of you may recall that I didn't find out that fact until she was born because she was shy and crossed her legs during my ultrasounds. Today while I watched her listen to my iPod at the swim meet her legs up in the air and her underwear showing to the world I couldn't help but reflect upon that memory with fondness.

We spent the majority of the day at a swim meet at the University of Minnesota. This venue is AWESOME!!! It's an indoor 50 meter pool, and it was both kids first time swimming in a pool this size.



Brent and Caden joined us down there later in the day, and there was lots of room for him to run around and get in trouble. It was mostly uneventful, only one scare where he fell down several cement bleacher stairs, but the nice lady in the front row broke his fall. There were a few tears (mostly my own), but a few minutes of cuddle time with Daddy and he lived to give me a heart attack another day.

Both kids did well today. William added another C time under his belt in the 400 Meter freestyle. He was very close in the 100 back, and I'm not convinced that he threw that one on purpose - he was heard saying that he didn't WANT to get a C time in anything backstroke because that would mean he'd have to swim it again. No doubting that he's my son, I felt the same way when I swam, backstroke stinks!

Madison did really well - she got a best time in her 100 Free, and had some fun with the 50 Breast, though she ran up to me when it was done and said she think she "got DQ'd'ed" - but she said it with a smile and was on her merry way.

Here's some pictures from the meet:





















The meet ran late, so we had an impromptu present opening in the car - Madison got a new toy called "My Life" - a little handheld game... Up until 3 days ago she wanted an iPod, and then changed her mind... I wonder if she'll realize when she's older that the iPod was about 3 times as much money... we sure ain't complaining! She did get some new clothes too, which evened the score:













Then we headed to Old Country Buffet for dinner, although William tried his best to convince her to choose Khan's Mongolian BBQ instead... But all you can eat stirfry up against all you can eat ice cream??? Forget about it!

At OCB, Caden gave us yet ANOTHER classic moment. He went to pick up a slice of pizza, and got a gob of pizza sauce on his hand. "Puck", says Caden. Except the Puck really started with an "F". Unfortunately, this has happened with him before, so I was not entirely shocked, and knew from experience that reacting strongly would only make it worse. I simply and sternly told him that was not a nice word, and to please not use it again.

Not 15 seconds later, he was taking a bite out of a corn on the cob, and corn juice squirted in his face. "Dammit", says Caden.

I'm sorry, this time I could NOT help it. Brent and I both turned our faces to silently laugh. Then we told him that was a naughty word too and to please not say ANY naughty words. His next exclamation awhile later was "Holy Cow", so hopefully he got the message this time.

I know it's not funny, and that a toddler with a potty mouth may be hysterical, but a child with a potty mouth is annoying. I know that we need to nip this in the bud. I know that the fact that he can use naughty words like these in context is a poor reflection on our parenting skills. But, it was too damn darn funny.

I'm exhausted and need to get myself to bed. We've got another day down at the U of M tomorrow!

It's a Friendly City

My little town is self proclaimed "The Friendly City". This motto is inscribed on all of our town signs, and I'd say that overall it's pretty true.

This past weekend was the annual Friendly City Days, comprising of your typical overpriced small town carnival, fireworks, cheese curds, mini donuts and parade. The family spent some time there on Friday burning through carnival tickets and the kids had a good time. Pictures are below, and don't think I'm a bad mom cause there aren't any of William. He's too cool to hang out with us anymore, he was off with his own friends.

Caden LOVE LOVE LOVED the rides, and was his typical beastie terror self not wanting to wait his turn... oh, I love these toddler years... but he had fun!





















After the rides, we decided to stick around for the fireworks. I quickly found out that there was no way I was going to stay still enough for decent pictures, so I had some fun with it instead.





Then I decided to take some pictures of Caden. This is the position he assumed the SECOND the first firework boomed and there was no coaxing him out of the position. Funny thing... when they were done he wanted them to start again, go figure!



The next morning we had to get up bright and early for the Hopkins Happy Days swim meet, which was a fun 50's themed meet. It was very small, which means short, which was a nice change. Despite the quick turnarounds on swims (having to swim 3 times in about 20 minutes), William had an EXCELLENT day. He got 4 best times, including his first ever B time in the 50 FREE, wow! I expected his first B time to be in the breastroke, which he has been very close on for a long time. Madison had a more leisurely day, but had fun and did a great job!