Ice cream before the first day

We took the kids for frozen yogurt the night before school started.

We got back into town on Sunday evening and school started Wednesday morning. We received the kids teacher assignments when we were out of town and school supply lists. Luckily, I had knocked out most of the list before we went on our Great Minnesota Journey. I just had a few details to sort out. We missed meet the teacher, which I now regret. William, in particular, is starting at a new building with a new teacher we don't know much about. I would have felt better to meet his teacher and have him meet her before the first day.

So being out of town+ school starting + me back to work shortly after = no time to blog!

Lunch time=art time

New rug

We got a new rug in our living room. The kids cousins get enough of it! I had a hard time rolling it out with them trying to roll around on it.


I got the new rug to disguise the condition of our carpet. I'm ready to replace it, but budgets do not allow for this yet. Unfortunately, the rug does not disguise the carpet condition, but highlights it next to the pretty new rug.

Gemma speak

We are at a restaurant yesterday after spending the late morning at a festival. Everyone was hungry and the waitress stopped by to take some drink orders. I told the kids they could choose between white milk and chocolate milk. The two big kids quickly chimed in with their chocolate milk requests (as expected, but they like to make a choice on their own). Gemma continued to color on her coloring page. I knew she heard as she was sitting close to the waitress. I tried again.

Me: Gemma! White milk or chocolate milk.
Gemma: no response
Me: Gemma! What kind of milk do you want?
Gemma: no

The waitress started laughing. I tried not to and failed.

Then I ordered her chocolate milk and she happily drank it.


----/-////

I was helping Gemma into her dress for church this morning. She was very specific about what she did NOT want to wear. She did not want the first 5 or 6 options she was presented with. They were "too cold", "too wiggly" ( I have no idea what this means), "too yucky", and "too wrong". Her rejections were not helpful as you can see as they didn't provide much guidance about what she was looking for*.

I finally pulled out a pretty green dress with some pink smocking on the front. She clapped her hands and accepted. As I pulled it over her head, she declared: This dress is yove-ye. That would be Gemma speak for lovely. Where does she get words like that?

*three year olds, especially this 3 year old, are anxious to have some control over their worlds. My world is a lot nicer if I can find places to allow her to make some decisions.

Sent from my iPhone

All the kids

This picture was kind of a challenge to put together! 6 kids 8 years and younger isn't an easy task. But, it doesn't matter- my parents are so proud of their grand kids and existed to finally have a picture of them al together!

Meeting Henry Thomas

Poor Megan.

This post should be all about my sister's family's new home and all the beautiful things about it.

But it isn't.

Only because WE GOT TO MEET BABY HENRY! It was such a big deal that we didn't take pictures of the house, although it is very very nice.

Each of the kids got to hold their new cousin and there was quite a line to get hands on him. You can see by their faces, they are very proud of be the big cousins!

Next stop: Gaedke's

After enjoying a little of the sate park, we hit the road again, this time to the twin cities to spend a little more time with my best friend and family. We ate dinner, the kids played, and we chatted with our friends. It was delightful. The kids were especially charmed by getting to hold baby Cal again- he is really the sweetest little guy!


We love getting to spend time with these friends, but we had an ulterior motive. My sister-in-law was in town with our newest cousin.

This auntie LOVES a new baby and has been trying to patiently wait to get our hands on this little guy!

My sister graciously offered to host lunch the following day at her new home in Minneapolis. The baby would be coming for lunch song with his mother.