Graduation!

I have to admit, the idea of a preschool graduation ceremony seems ridiculous.  But the sight of this melted even my cold heart:

There was singing.  SINGING!!

We got seriously lucky with her preschool this year.  Her teacher was amazing and because Solei was fine academically, she really focused on her social skills - manners and classroom etiquette.

This is the face of a girl who - drumroll please..... can WAIT HER TURN!!! (sometimes)  That's worth a ceremony!

Happiest Mother's Day to all!

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect Mother's Day. From the amaaazing hand-delivered breakfast that included an entire bowl of bacon, to the Primary kids who managed to sing the right words beaauuutifully in Sacrament meeting despite the fact that I had all their cue cards in the wrong order.

I asked Jared to take some pictures of me and the reasons why I'm getting pampered so beautifully on this Mother's Day.
Trying to keep these two kids still for a nano-second is just impossible.

I know that motherhood is a wonderful, important job, but there are gazzillions of women doing it right now on this earth, far better than I am. I recognize that - and yet Heavenly Father gave me these incredible kids to get to grow with.

I feel like the luckiest mother on earth. Thanks to all of your for your amazing examples, I hope your day was just fantabulous!

The revenge of the bovines

We braved the rainy chill today to celebrate the return of the cows.  If you had a good ARM you could probably throw a rock from our driveway and hit one. Yeah, our neighbours are cows.

Solei wanted to pretend to be a cow, Forster wanted to swing and watch them, and I kinda wanted a burger.

Happy Easter!

Growing up, my mom dressed us to the nines on Easter and always got a big family picture of us in our finery, with our Easter baskets.  I don't know what she did when there was a one year old around, but we were less than successful at capturing that one, poised moment.  Let's face it, we're never poised anyway...  so here are a few of the *best* representations we got of our Easter selves.

The Easter Bunny sewed these baskets up, all by herself.  No joke.  I'm shocked too.

The kids were kinda thrilled.

Aaaaand, the finery.  We have some dapper menfolk, the closest we could get of a picture of the two kids together, and a a darling lady.

And in full disclosure, here's the more typical pictures.  Happy Easter, everybody!!!

Perks of living in a small town.

The local grocery store has a mechanical pig. The price of this magical experience?  One sweet nickel.

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We're snowed in - iced in this time.  Sigh.  This displeases me.  But there are lovely things to think about.  Things like Daddy's sweet pancake making skillz.

Seriously, this was the view from my front door yesterday.  Do you see all the green??? Gorgeous!!

We were sent home from church after sacrament meeting today because - despite there being no snow on the ground when the meeting started - the accumulation was well over an inch already by that point.  Freezy, nasty stuff.

They were the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen!  When they fell on your head, it was like they were punching you!

Regular posting will resume as soon as decent weather stays around.

Life lessons

Santa was a dear and brought a sled for Christmas.  We didn't get out of the house until 2 days after, but we live across the street from the best hill in town, so it would be ridiculous not to enjoy it.  Getting a kid all dressed up to sled is an ordeal, so I of course decided to make it way more complicated and insisted on coming along with Forster.  We had a snow suit, we had boots, but they just didn't fit quite right and were too tight in the wrong places.  But, I figured, he needs to be outside!  He's been inside for months, he wants this!

True, when we got out to the street, there was wonderment in his eyes.  But there always is.  I let him down and he took some excited, curious steps before he plowed face first into a snowbank.   His face was covered in snow and he was seriously mad.  But that crazy mom gene was going full force and I knew this was a life experience my 16 month old needed RIGHT.  NOW.

We got to the top of the hill, and Jared, Solei and Forster all piled on the toboggan.  To my credit, I did must that they were pointed towards the seriously steep side of the hill, but they went off any way.  I watched them got faster... farther... and CRASH!  There was a cloud of snow and a bit lump of Pagets in a snow drift.  I ran down the hill, positive they were all maimed or worse, but I got what my dear Lola calls the "funeral giggles" and couldn't stop laughing.

The scene was seriously bad.  Jared was shaken, Forster was howling and his head was bleeding, and Solei was laying there, screaming at the top of her lungs "SANTA BROUGHT A BAD PRESENT!!  HE SHOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN US THE SLED!!  WHY, SANTA, WHY?!?!?!"

It was so awful, especially because I was laughing hysterically.  Jared took Forster home where he was much happier, and I convinced Solei - despite her insisting her leg was broken - that we could try just one more time, on the other side of the hill.  The outcome was significantly different.  We had a ball and I snapped this on the way home.

I learned a valuable lesson.  16 month olds do not, in fact, NEED to play in the snow.  If he could talk, I'll bet he would have chewed me out for inflicting that on him.

Awesome advent idea

Just a quick note - I stumbled across this cool idea for an advent activity.  We never did one growing up, so I'm not as obsessive as the rest of the blog-osphere, apparently.  But this idea is to wrap 25 books up and unwrap one a day to read.  I scoured the house for bible books and Friend magazines and copies of the Book of Mormon and managed to wrap up enough to start today.  Even though it was a book she already owned and had read before, she loved the activity and can't wait to do it tomorrow!  (cool aside, she read the book to me!!  I had to help her with the word "Gabriel," but she already knew "Bethlehem" and a few other weird words apparently. !)  Plus she's been begging me to let her unwrap the presents she already has, so this gave her a chance to rip the paper off of something.  Whew.  This tradition is totally a keeper!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving season has found me reflecting more on my thankfulness than I normally would.

It has occurred to me over the last few years how blessed I am. Anyone who lives in the USA and has traveled anywhere beyond its borders knows that we have something special here. I’m not on my rameumptom here. In fact, I’m not sure that any of us deserves it.

I was born to wonderful parents who love me and have supported me in all of the good things that I have ever done. By our standards we weren’t rich growing up. We never starved but we were penny-wise. Even in this situation I was much more blessed than the majority of people who live in this world. In my adulthood I’ve been blessed with great blessings. I have a wonderful wife and family. My job is good and stable (famous last words). We have a beautiful home in a very safe location. We have friends, food, transportation, freedoms and happiness. We have everything I could hope for.

I look around at the wealth and prosperity that I see and I can’t help but think that I really haven’t done anything to deserve being where I am. On the grand scale of things, I’ve done nothing to create the stability or prosperity around me. Frankly, I don’t deserve to live in these conditions any more than anyone else you meet in Africa, South America, Asia, Australia or Europe. These blessings are nothing that I deserve. As much as I think Americans try to fool themselves, we individual Americans don’t deserve any of this. We simply lucked out. We were born in the right place at the right time. There is no real reason that I couldn’t have been born in a hut with a dirt floor in Africa. That was all up to God. I am unbelievably thankful that He put me where I am, but I know it is all Him and not me.

There are so many people around me who suffer in ways that I do not have to. People who do their best to prepare for the worst can still be overwhelmed by circumstances that they cannot control. Children get sick. Accidents come out of nowhere. Storms ravage. Waters rise. Regardless of what I do to prepare, I know that everything that I have could be taken away from me in an instant. I see how this has happened to wonderful people. People much better than me. My heart breaks when I see the trials of others. Not only for them but because I know that I could just have easily been placed in their shoes.

Sometimes I complain about this or that, but on the grand scale of things, I really have nothing to complain about. I’ve not had to face any of the trials that some around me have. For this I am grateful.

So this season, I am especially thankful for all that I have. I’m amazed at the love the Lord has for me. I’m amazed by his grace and blessings. I’m amazed with the wonderful family that I have. I’m eternally indebted for the blessing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in my life.

gezundenschniffle.

My parents are both officially retired now (HUZZAH!!!!) and I have seen them four times now since school got out last May.  How lucky are we?!  They took a trip to visit us a week or so ago for my birthday and it was marvelous.  I haven't been able to spent my birthday with them since I was 17!  Since Forster still takes morning and afternoon naps religiously, we couldn't venture out very far, but we discovered many loverly things around us.

We checked out our local zoo.  Did you know Baraboo has a zoo?  It has prairie dogs and bears and a monkey and some deer and a pig and a goat and a llama... and maybe one or two more things.  It's small, free and adorable.

We played with the Stomp Rocket Solei got for her birthday.  So much fun!

We played at the park...

And went to a fall festival in the Dells.

And took lots of walks and played at the park across the street.  The season for being outside is quickly coming to an end.  &^%$&^$&^%.

My dad also has a fancy schmancy camera so I asked him to take a few pictures of us, in between Jared's migraines.  That season is upon us too - pray hard for him!

Which one do you like the best?  Hope y'all are enjoying the last few days of autumn before the evil-terrible-no-good winter comes!  Jared just got the garage ready... which means he put the motorcycles and the tractor and the mower in the back, and brought the snowblowers out in front by the Jeep.  Grrrr.

no more black lung!!

So I've been feeling bad about my favorite bedtime snack because of all the new research into the chemicals they use.  Ug.  Poor lungs.  So I tried out this fun trick today - I made my own!  Just used a paper bag, a staple (no sparking... interesting...) a 1/4 cup popcorn and some olive oil and salt for flavoring.

It was perfect!!  I used the directions from instructables.

Part-ay!!

To celebrate Solei's 4th trip around the sun, we needed 12 rolls of streamers, about 75 pieces of paper, a mile or so of yarn, a glue stick and a roll of tape.  What a party!  I couldn't decide on a guest list and I didn't want anyone to feel left out, so Jared told me to invite everyone.  At one point he counted 41 people.  Yes, I'm insane and I always tend to bite off more than I can chew, but Solei had a ball and that was the point!

I wanted a theme but Solei kept changing her mind - by the end she was asking for a mermaid-and-unicorn-and-princess-and-fairies party, but I stuck with the original request of rainbows and the circus.  I didn't do very much, really, but I decided to do a few things as big as I could and it ended up feeling festive.

To greet our guests, I strung up some yarn with little colored paper flags along the walkway.  Paper and tape and yarn... not much, but it felt cool.

I couldn't find a stick to attach the string on, so Jared grabbed a microphone stand.  Voila!

 Cheesy yes, but I made this sign to hang out front:

 I used lots of streamers and tried to give it a circus tent-type atmosphere.  I also made lots of banners to hang about.

And what's a good circus without a trapeze act?

When the guests arrived, they decorated their own goodie bags.

Our first game was Lion Tamer - that was me.  All the kids got to jump through a "ring of fire", then it got higher and higher - like of like a reverse limbo with a hula hoop

Next we played musical chairs, which was not as successful.  Too many kids of too many ages meant little ones getting bored and wandering away from the game or back in, so we couldn't ever get the number of chairs right - there were too many or too few!  Lesson learned, and the chaos was kind of funny to watch!

Then we paused for lunch - hot dogs and brats.  It's the official party food of Wisconsin!

  

And then - oh then!!!  Cake time!!  And not just any cake.  We are blessed to know the most master of master cake masters and even though she was insanely busy this last weekend, she offered to make an extra special cake for Solei.  (Her name is Julie, and she has a blog of all her baking exploits.  Absolutely drool-worthy).  

She is an absolutely AMAZING decorator, but I wanted a very simple exterior and she complied, even though she wanted to do more.  When I went to pick it up, she insisted on adding a few flowers which were fabulous of course.

She got much better pictures with her camera - I'll post them later.  Isn't it lovely??  Solei was thrilled, especially because she is absolutely in love with Julie.

And then - BLAM-O!!!

Yes, my friends - THAT is a rainbow cake!!!  6 insanely delicious layers of super awesome magical rainbow cake!!!! 

It was insanely labor-intensive - she had to freeze up each layer before adding them so it would be structurally sound.    It was delicious and all around wonderful!

Another thing that made cake time super awesome was this idea I saw a while back in a magazine.  Instead of serving the ice cream right there, I scooped some up before-hand and put it in foil baking cups and left them in the freezer until they were needed.  

It made the whole serving process go much faster (since there was quite the hungry crowd) and another side benefit was that it didn't melt all over the plate and get the cake all soggy.

Then, presents!  Unfortunately, Solei going through that frustrating awkward stage where every time I try to take a picture, she gives me this awful fake grimace/painful smile and looks everywhere but at the camera, so I didn't get any really awesome pictures of the birthday girl.  But as she opened presents, I did manage to capture a genuine look of joy:

It was a ball and we all had a lovely time.  Today in Primary I abused my role as the music director and made everyone sing the birthday song to her twice.  She beamed and danced the entire time.  I'm amazed at how much she has learned in her short 4 years on this earth, and how wonderful our lives are because she is in it.  Happy birthday, sunshine!!!