"Best Mom"

Jacob has told me a couple times - "You are the best mom I have ever had." Very true, poor kid.

Memorial Weekend

We started Memorial Day weekend with Jacob's last day of preschool on Friday. They had a little ceremony at the beginning of class and they all got certificates. He'll be returning to Miss Patti's class next fall for another year of preschool. His best friends though, will not - all are going to different schools or classes. I do hold out hope that his friend Maggie will get into his class and the good news is that his good friend Kyle will be in his class too. Not that it's a big deal to Jacob, he tries to make friends with anyone that walks by.

Preschool Accomplishments: Counts past 20, recognizes most of his letters, writes his name (almost legibly, but while not holding the pen correctly), made lots of friends

Fred took Friday off, so when Jacob was done with school we started our trek up to Tenstrike (past Bemidji). We made about 4 stops before getting out of the cities, hit some traffic and then got to St Cloud about a half hour after the kids had fallen asleep. We had to drop off the dogs with my parents, as dogs weren't allowed at the resort. The boys woke up and that was the end of naps for the entire 6 hour drive. Arg.

We had to stop in Brainerd at a park to let the kids burn off some energy. Jacob was a pro at the rock wall.

We got to the resort on Friday night and checked into our cabin. Rustic is how I would describe it and unlevel. Every room slanting towards the lake except the bathroom, that slanted away from the rest of the cabin. It was a meagerly stocked and I was not quite fully prepared, but we made due. The kids had a great time playing with cousins. Jacob did a lot of biking, there was a small playset, and lots of t-ball. Gavin did a lot of wandering where ever he wanted. They boys both slept great at the cabin, thanks to all the activity and fresh air.

We rented a pontoon on Saturday, but I ended up in the cabin with Gavin for most of that time while he napped. Poor little babes have to wear those annoying lifejackets with the floaty in the back of the head and he was not liking that. I enjoyed my time finishing up my latest book.

Gavin playing with cousins Jesse and Jared.





MacKenna and Jacob, little sweethearts.

On Sunday we headed to Melrose during naptime. We were to be in Rogers on Monday at 11 am and did not want to do the whole drive that morning. It was much better to break up the drive. Plus the boys got to go to the farm and see cows and play with the remaining Middendorf cousin, Jordan.

Laney, Parker, Claire, Gavin and Jacob

On Monday we went to Jason and Amy's beautiful new house for a cookout. A delicious spread was supplied and we enjoyed bbq chicken, chicken salad, veggie pizza, and fruit. I supplied some desserts. It was fun to see Paul and Abby who have moved back to Wisconsin and see how much their kids have grown. The kids had a great time playing and swinging on the porch swing. So cute!

Upcoming Weekend

Jacob was weighed and measured today for his 4 year appointment. He was 41.25 inches tall and weighed 38.5 pounds, putting him at the 72nd percentile for both, pretty impressive for a preemie who took a little while to get on the charts. The one stat my mom knows about me is that at 4 I was 40 pounds and 40 inches - so lucky for Jacob he is taller and lighter. The appointment went especially well since no shots were required. Yeah!!!

Jacob has his last day of preschool (for the school year) tomorrow. There is a little ceremony at the beginning of class, I'll be there with my camera. He was going to go to a friend's house after school, but his friend got sick and now that party is cancelled.

So we might get to head out of town a little earlier tomorrow. We are heading up to Tenstrike (past Bemidji) to "camp" in a cabin at a resort with most of Fred's family. From what I've heard thus far about the resort and cabins, this is as close to camping as I am going to get with my 2 little ones. I spent last weekend with my sister Alyssa and some friends at a scrapping cabin on Lake Osakis and that cabin was very nicely furnished. I am afraid that my standards have been set very high and that this cabin that we are heading to, where we have to bring our own towels and dish towels and garbage bags (what?) will pale in comparison to the cabin that was furnished with a dishwasher and where the towels were so fluffy I checked the label so that I could get some for my home (JCPenney Home). I am hoping it isn't too chilly and that Jacob has a great time playing with all his cousins.

We are leaving the north woods on Sunday afternoon and heading to Melrose for the night. On Monday we get to see the Michaels' (not so) new home and see friends, the Rozeskis, who are visiting from Wisconsin.

A 4th Birthday for Jacob

Jacob turned 4 yesterday. What a sweet and caring 4 year old he is. Very bright, very inquisitive, always asking for the definition of any word you say that he doesn't know (and some that he does). Jacob wanted to have a party with his friends for his birthday and I obliged. I was going to just have 4 kids at the party (I hear that you are suppose to have the number of guests equal to the child's age), but I didn't want to leave out any good friends, so we ended up with 6 kids here including Jacob. My parents were down to take care of Gavin and be my party assistants, which helped a ton.

So, if you are wondering, this is how a birthday party goes for 6 four year olds...

It starts with pizza and cake, to make sure they have enough energy for all the fun you have in store for them. They sit around the table and tell 4 year old jokes - such as "what if someone ate a volcano". This is followed by uproarious laughter and then another joke such as "why did the chicken cross the road" is told, more laughter. There are no punchlines to these jokes, these are the entire jokes and they all think they are hilarious and can make up endless versions of the same joke. It was so fun to listen to them. They actually at and joked for about a half hour.




Jacob had requested lots of party games. Mostly his requests were pin the tail on the donkey, pin the tail on the bunny, pin the tail on the cow, and bobbing for apples (we'll wait for Halloween for that). I only found pin the nose on the clown at Party City, so that's what we had. Above is Jacob's friend Johnny having his turn.



Then we had a game reminiscent of my childhood, Penny Drop. We always did the clothes pin drop, but I don't have that many clothes pins. This is Jacob's friend Kyle having a go at it after stating that it looked "pretty complicated" as he watched Jacob try it.



Another game we found at Party City was Dog & Cat Match, which was like a memory game. Not such a hit, but entertaining none the less.

Then we had craft time to make visors and decorate our treat bags in preparation for the pinata. Just foamie visors and stickers makes for cute projects.

Then, onto the pinata. I had a baseball theme to the party, mostly based on the pinata. Each kid got about 5 whacks at the pinata before I decided we needed to break out the real bat to make any progress in cracking it. Jacob put the first big crack in it and it was soon busted open for all the kids to scramble for the treasures.



Here was the hit of the party, Freeze Dance. They loved this game. Everyone was jumping around dancing and laughing as we turned the music on and off. I wasn't too stern about the part where they were suppose to sit down if they were still moving when the music stopped. There were no prizes, so it really didnt' matter. They had a great time dancing and taking turns being the DJ.



Here are Jacob's party guests. 3 friends from preschool (Johnny, Maggie and Ben), friend Kyle from MOMS Club playgroup, and Parker who we've known since they were both in the special care nursery. I was a little worried about the mix of kids, but they all did great and meshed with no problem. Poor Maggie was probably a little overhwhelmed by the boys, but she had a good time too. Even I had a good time. The party lasted 2 hours, which was just perfect. It was so fun to watch them all, but I was glad when it was over and I could enjoy a cupcake and relax.




Gavin and a leftover cupcake. There is frosting half way up his arms, across his belly and of course covering his face. He's really mostly just interested in getting the frosting off - my boy!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. We are all confessing something unbecoming by saying "Not me!" Get it?

So, I did not have to make our first expedited trip to the hospital (in Melrose) after Jacob ran his dump truck into one cement step and his head ran into the next cement step. That would be awful! I did not have to witness Jacob's first CAT scan since he was in the NICU, but I do have to say he did an awesome job and did not (truly) have any internal damage.

All the damage, as you can see, is very visible. And I might say that it is looking rougher as the days go on and that I did have to cancel family pictures that I had scheduled for later this week.

The rest of the weekend went well though. We had High School Musical 2 at the Paramount in St Cloud on Friday night and that was very enjoyable. Jacob got many double looks and sympathy groans. On Saturday I got some flowers for the backyard and now just need to keep them alive until next week to plant them. Fred was back in Chaska while we were in Melrose and he was working with our friend Aaron (and a crew) to pour cement nearly all around our house. So we now have a new patio off the deck, sidewalk along the west side of the garage, a new apron off the garage, and additional cement next to our front sidewalk so we can put in a door into the garage. It looks very good, now the yard just needs to get put back together - sprinklers, fence and grass.

On Saturday night we did Jacob's birthday party with the family at Space Aliens in Albertville. He had a great time, got awesome gifts including a tee ball tee, bat, glove, tennis racket, badmitten set, Leapster, cool helicopter outfit and k'nex. I made him a fabulous monster truck cake.

Oh, and I made a pinata and Jacob, Maddie and Isaac got to crack it open before we went to the party. Fun!

My Monster Truck Creation.

Jacob playing games with Maddie and Isaac.




Our family at Space Aliens.

Yesterday we had our last day of Sunday School at church. Now that Jacob will be 4, he can start "big kid" Sunday School next year. So hopefully somebody with a 3 year old will take the torch and continue "Little Lamb" Sunday School at our church, but as for me. I'm done until I have another 3 year old.

Gavin's 1st Haircut

Gavin will turn 16 months tomorrow. He's saying words like Mom, Dad, Hannah, bubble, that, ball, plane, puppy, bird, up, all done and bye-bye. Or at least he makes consistent noises that I know mean those things. He loves to climb on chairs and tables and has recently been standing on the back of the spin and bounce zebra we have. He loves to be outside. And he makes us crack up with his goofy smiles.

I decided on Tuesday that it was time for his first haircut. There's not much hair on his head, it's thin and it's very blond, but I thought maybe it would help his stubborn cradle cap if we got the long stuff cut off. So we made a trip to Kid's Hair and I got both the kids' hair cut. Jacob's needed to be fixed from my attempts at cutting it. Here are the pics:

New do! Or not so new.

Just had to add this picture of Gavin eating a Hostess treat. He loved it.

It was an "I have to do What?!?!" Wednesday

As a mom there are things you do that you never thought anyone did or at least you never thought of yourself having to do them. I've thought that as I've used my feet to hold down a squirming child while trying to change their diaper or when I had to "help" Gavin poop by pressing his knees into his chest and other fun methods. Wow - never thought of how my life would revolve around poop once I became a mom. Well today we went to a new park to meet friends. About 2 minutes after we get there, Jacob says he has to poop. Brand new park, no rest rooms and not even a port-a-pot remaining for the workers (who are still working on the parking lot). I suggest to Jacob that he might have to poop in the weeds. What else? We just got there and our friends hadn't even arrived yet. He decides that he doesn't have to go, I guess that would deter me too. But a couple minutes after our friends arrive, Jacob is holding his butt, on obvious sign that he is not going to be able to hold out much longer. So we head over to the weeds, trying to shield him from the nearby free-way. I strip off all clothes from the waist down, as I would have liked to have done whenever required to use a field as a restroom. Then I told him to poop on the ground. Just like a trooper he got the job done and I borrowed one of my friend's doggy clean-up bags and cleaned up after Jacob. It just made me think, "I have to do what?" And I did. It's my job.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. We are all confessing something unbecoming by saying "Not me!" Get it?



So... I most certainly did not slam the refrigerator door so hard, while scolding Jacob, that the bottom shelf of the door fell off (again). Not me!

Jacob's Latest Fieldtrip

Jacob got to go to the Lowry Nature Center again yesterday with his preschool. I did not chaperone this time, so I only know that they saw a bird with a broken wing who couldn't fly, but they were feeding and he went on the playground equipment there and he flew off the slide and landed on his butt. He was paired with his friend Maggie and her parents for the fieldtrip. Over lunch he told me, "I love Maggie." I said, "oh, she is a very sweet girl." Jacob replied, "Yes, a very sweet sweet sweet girl." Oh, young love. Too cute.