Veda's Creation

Veda's been doing great lately occupying herself when at home (with art projects).  On Saturday, she spent about 2 hrs creating a witch, delivering a 4 layer carrot cake, on her magic broom.  Each piece individually created & then taped together (the hands, the feet, the witch hat - with a heart on top of it, the individual cake layers and even the 'action stream' behind her to show she was moving).  It's fun to see her get so involved in her little creations.

Living Room Obstacle Course

This is what our nights are like.  But at least we wear them down and they sleep well.  For whatever reason, the rocking chair is the center of attention and they can't get enough of it (jumping off of it that is).  Kathy holds her breath the whole time, waiting for them to get hurt and I film it.

Leaf Pile Jumping in November

The first big leaf pile of the year for the kids to enjoy (and Winston's first ever).  

Backyard Gymnastics

A video from one of the last days of the summer.  A little recreation of Jennifer Grey's famous dance move in Dirty Dancing (certainly much easier to showcase with Adele vs. Veda).

Pancake the Size of your Head

We've found a new favorite breakfast place in Minneapolis, the Original Pancake House in Edina. Their specialty, the apple pancake: a combo funnel cake, apple pie & state fair cinnamon roll, delicious...even better, one pancake fed all the kids + some extra to take home.

#BoysWillBeBoyz

I'm not sure Winston has ever rode in this contraption at Home Depot, but for some reason he ran through the door and took a straight line to the race car shopping cart.  He sat in here for a solid 30 min while I shopped and browsed around.  A nice departure from our usual experience.

Another Trip to the Zoo

I've been traveling a bit lately, so Kathy has been stuck at home with the kids by herself.  We decided to take the kids to the zoo this past Saturday to get them out of the house and have a little fun.  They absolutely love it every time we go.  Winston just runs from exhibit to exhibit and his sisters love to show him around.  Fun had by all.

Halloween 2013

An elephant, a dancing wolf and a hamster named Niblitz.

The Landing + The Playground

Veda and Adele disappeared for 20 min the other day and burst into the living room to have us come check out there latest creation.  This is a scale model of 'The Landing' + the playground across the street in Clear Lake (off in the distance here).  Both Veda and Adele shared several details about each section of their creation. Obviously a fond memory for each of them.

Who Loves Baths?

This guy!  Winston loves taking a bath so much, that we have to be careful to lock the door when we give the girls a bath.  If we forget or get distracted, guess who's going in (clothes and all)...

Adele's Sleep Over In Madison

Adele rode up with Didi to Madison this weekend to give a surprise visit to Owen.  She loves any opportunity to get one on one time.  She was a champ on her 4 hour drive up there, writing in her journal, eating snacks and talking Didi's ears off.  Here is a pick of Adele and Owen getting some movie time in.

Movie night & snuggle time with Owen

Getting ready at Didi & Papi's House

Pajama Day at School

Early Halloween Party

We went with some new Mpls friends to an Oktoberfest party and a Halloween party this past weekend.  I was awarded 'Best Costume' at the Halloween party (not the Oktoberfest party, which turns out, was not a costume party). This could become my go to costume, considering it is my favorite funny movie of all time.

World Travelers

A couple nice pictures of Didi and Papi on their big trip overseas with the ISU Alumni Association tours.  Here they are in Athens and Cypress.  They also went to Israel and will finish up their trip in Istanbul before heading back Friday, flying into Minneapolis.

Rhodes, Greece

Rhodes, Greece

Acropolis of Athens, Greece 

Limassol, Cyprus

Papi Walking Veda to School

A few days before they took off for their big cruise.

Buddies

Ok, well maybe not very often, but when they are buddies, it's pretty damn cute.  BTW, they are now able to officially share clothes.  

Releasing the Butterflies

Veda received a butterfly kit for her birthday from Ryan.  She was able to grow them from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.  Today it was time to release them into the wild (and frankly we were getting tired of feeding them in their net in the kitchen).  Pretty fun project for the kids to watch over the course of 3-4 weeks.

Fun Times at Home Depot

I started taking the girls to the monthly Home Depot workshops (first Saturday of each month).  Pretty impressive ordeal that HD puts together.  Several hundred kids and some very cool, kid friendly projects. This week, they got to make a Fire Department rescue plane and then when they were done, they got to paint it (the color of their choice - or at least whatever dad could mix together with red, white, yellow and black).  Afterwards, they got to tour a fire truck outside, sit in the back and front seats and hold on to the hoses.  Pretty good little Saturday morning activity.

A Serious Cleaner

One of Winston's favorite 'toys' is our dust-buster, well, at least until it turns on, then he runs like a scared little animal.  Today, after his normal eating routine, where he finishes, then throws all of his food to the floor, he ran to the dust-buster and got it turned on. Scared him at first, but then he had a blast vacuuming up all his food.  I guess throwing food is forgivable if you are willing to clean up afterwards.

Re-Tell Day at School

This past Friday, Veda's class had a Re-Tell session where the parents were invited to class while the kid's talked through their stories.  They had made little posters and stick figures to act out the play.  The stories were Rosie's Walk, Three Billy Goats Gruff and Henny Penny.  As you can see, Veda is in a pretty large Kindergarten class this year with Miss Williams, lots of kids at Kenny Elementary...

Picture Day at School

\

Vancouver 2013

This past weekend, we took a little trip up to Vancouver with Kel & Chris for a weekend getaway.  It was also the 3rd time Kathy & I have been to the Vancouver International Film Festival.  We were able to take in a couple movies, one starring Robert Redford, called 'All is Lost' and another about big oil in Africa, called 'Big Men', produced by Brad Pitt.  Lots of eating out at nice restaurants, shopping and wandering around the city, despite some pretty rainy weather.  Always nice to get away for a few days and glad we could share one of our favorite cities with Kel & Chris.

Oktoberfest in Mpls

Adele's Entourage

Adele has been spending a lot of time with her 'friends' and her 'sweeties' lately at home.  It's lead to some high maintenance behavior, which can be challenging whenever nap time, sleep time or travel time happen.  She travels with a minimum of 8 animals (anywhere from small beanie babies to large breed dogs).  Lately, she's been carrying a backpack and 2 purses, just to help transport.

Minnehaha Falls

Impromptu photo shoot by Uncle Ryan at Minnehaha Falls.  Kathy deemed the walk down to the waterfall area as 'too dangerous' but I think she's probably happy with the end result.  At least I only got a few eye rolls during the process...

Pics from Uncle Ryan

Here are some great pics from Uncle Ryan's last visit to Minneapolis.

Reading with Nana and Bull

Waiting for the Blueberry muffins