Weekends

I think the mid-winter blues are hitting all of us. While we still try to have a lot of fun - being stuck indoors for hours with a three and five year old is enough to test anyone's patience. In full disclosure - our patience has been pushed to the limits this weekend! There actually is a movement right now - happening to the millions of mommy bloggers out there - that represents the sometimes not so sunny side of parenting. Posting smiling, happy photos of our kiddos is fine. Yes, sometimes we actually do have fun and smile together. My usual cheery blogs are a true representation... of part of our lives. The other part that doesn't photograph quiet so well is the constant whining, not listening, being slow when we need to be somewhere quickly, being mean to the other sibling, always making a HUGE mess at every meal, and more often than not forgetting the manners we seem to talk endlessly about everyday. Mike and I ask ourselves - what are we doing wrong? What should we do? This is when the old adage - there is no parenting instruction manual comes into play. The kids are now in bed. We take a deep breath. Tomorrow is a new day. 

With all of that said - I like dwelling on the sunny, happy moments. I often hope that these are the times my kiddos will remember when they are older - not the ones where we are all yelling at each other, freaking out, and crying. 

Last weekend I put some good mojo into the universe - we desperately needed some distraction from the hum-drum of winter life. Friday morning we went to Gleason's Gymnastics with the Sievers where the kids swung from rings, dove into a foam pit, jumped on several trampolines, and got lots of good pent-up winter energy out. Friday night we had dinner at the Carlson's - it's always so fun to sit and chat with other adults while the kids play contentedly with new-to-them toys. Thank you for a fun dinner and delicious cake Nancy and Jon! Late Friday night Matt and his boys came to stay with us for the weekend. Saturday we all went to swimming lessons, then to Target and then bowling with the Sievers. Saturday night the cousins ran around here like crazy and we enjoyed a summer time meal - grilled burgers and potato salad. Sunday we said goodbye to the Nickolays and went ice skating. 

The kids are improving each week at swimming lessons - Miles is actually starting to get more of his face wet and Hadley splashes like a little dolphin. They each also get more confident every time we hit the rink. Hopefully we'll be able to go skating a few more times this winter. With no snow we're a little sad we haven't gone sledding yet or been able to build a snow fort. Sigh - in probably typical Minnesotan fashion - we complain when there is too much snow and we complain when there is not enough. 

Mike has recently done some of his computer magic and put all of our home movies in one place and made them easily accessible from all of our computers and TVs. It's been so fun watching the kids as babies and toddlers. We realized that since age 2 Miles hasn't really changed. His hair still sticks up in the back, he still has selective hearing (most notable when his parents are asking him to do something), he loves to pop-up on camera with a huge smile - even when he's not the primary one being video taped, and he still messes with his sister. Like most non-first born children - we have a lot of video of Hadley but she's not a solo star like Miles was - her brother is always in the background and there are a few less of her. She still was an absolute doll as a baby and some of her antics on camera made us laugh out loud. 

The kids are sleeping now, Mike's heading for the outside fridge to get a beer, and I'm ready for a glass of wine. We're going to watch Katy Perry perform the halftime show during the Superbowl (thank goodness for DVR). Tomorrow's a new day - have a great week everyone!

First time bowling

First time bowling

Miles does an awesome happy dance

Cousins

When 2 three-year olds get together lots of fun (and a big mess) is had.

When we go out to dinner the kids always want pizza. We probably go out for pizza more often than not but this weekend we went for Japanese - the adults had sushi and the kids had hibachi. Hadley impressed us with her chopstick skills - even picking up single grains of rice to eat them.

Alas - our babies are not babies anymore. As our bassinet is moving on to rock a new little baby - I had to take one last picture of my big babies in it. This bassinet sat next to my bed and they both slept in it the first few months after they were born.