Going Bananas

Austin REALLY likes bananas. He'll go to whatever lengths are necessary to get to them.

Day at the Fair

I signed up with a friend of mine who organizes a home school group to get into the fair each year. When you go with the group you get in free. I decided to pull Caelan, Ben and Megan out of school for the day and we all spent a fun day at the fair. The day we went last year was super crowded, especially all the kids events, but this year was perfect.

We had a great time: *Climbing and exploring all sorts of military vehicles (it was Military Day) *Watching the Pig races *Getting a milk shake from the dairy *Watching the White Lion show *Climbing the rock wall (Ben was a little monkey and went up twice in flip flops, Caelan also made it to the top, even when it got kind of hard for her, and Megan made it about half way) *Seeing lots of goats and sheep and pigs and cows *Going into the petting zoo and feeding the animals *Exploring the kids section, "Old McDonalds Farm" *Having fun in the "Agventure Land": corn box, riding little tractors, making coffee filter painted flowers, saddling a fake horse, making your own scarecrow, etc. *All the kids got to ride one ride (Megan, Ben and Caelan all went on the ferris wheel and Nathan rode the motorcycles). *Checked out the craft winners (the kids loved the Lego displays and a couple of the wood carvers made the kids wood owls) *Ate cotton candy and freshly made donuts - good fair food. I honestly didn't think we would last so long (I thought for sure one or more kid would have a melt down at some point), but we were there until after 4 PM and we all left happy.

It's Birthday Week

It's the week of birthdays around here. Nathan celebrated his fourth birthday last week. Monday was Sean's birthday and yesterday was Austin's birthday.

Nathan went to preschool and brought a special treat to share (fish sugar cookies). Then he went to his buddy, Jonah's house for a couple of hours. Tuesdays are our busy nights, but we managed to get dinner in before we headed off to soccer practice and such. Originally he told me he wanted noodles and rice for dinner. I asked him several more times to see if we could get something other than carbs added to the menu. Two days before his birthday he told me he wanted "the same dinner as last night. Only no peppers and no meat and no zucchini." I said, "so you want corn on the cob?" "Yep, just corn on the cob." HE HE HE. I managed to get him to agree to chicken, so we had chicken, rice, corn on the cob and red peppers ("not cooked"). He had been telling me for months that he wanted a shark cake (I'm thinking he got the idea from Jonah who had been saying the same thing). Then about a week before his birthday he changed his mind and said a wolf cake. Then he changed his mind again. The day before his birthday I went through thing after thing (cars, race track, truck, shark, monkey, any other animal I could think of, beach, etc, etc - probably 30 things, showing him pictures of different options and everything). Sometimes he would said yes to something and then a minute later he would say no. Finally I gave up and decided to make my own choice. So I made him a snake cake, which he was happy as could be about. It was a fun day. The next morning he asked me if it was still his birthday. I said, "no, but guess how old you are," and he got a big grin on his face and held up 4 fingers. Nathan is quite the character in our home. He is a real mix between the personalities of all our kids. He is just an all around fun kid - fun and happy. He's smart. We can see the wheels moving around in his head (about all sorts of different things). He is a sneaker. There has been more than one occasion that we have found big chunks taken out of the middle of cakes or brownies during the night (realizing it was him). He likes to ride bikes on the back deck and jump on the trampoline and jump from the couch to the love sac (despite the number of times I tell him not to). He loves cottage cheese, other cheese, most fruits, red and orange and yellow peppers (he will eat them like an apple), anything sugary (he must take after his Mom), chicken, rice, plain noodles, pancakes, and lots of other things. He will ask me if he can help me drive once we get onto our little dirt road almost every morning...and he has some pretty good control. He LOVES his little brother. Austin can make anything better for Nathan. He says great prayers. He finally likes our dog but isn't very fond of most other dogs (well, he likes them....from a distance). He is pretty independent and capable: can buckle himself in the car, put on his own clothes and shoes, take his own showers, help himself to his own snacks and is even pretty good at cleaning up (when it suits him). He says some awesome things. We just love him to bits and can't imagine life without him.

Since Austin is only 1 (and basically has no idea what having a birthday even means)plus it also landed on our busy Tuesdays, we decided to do his cake and ice cream today instead of yesterday. I made the cake yesterday, but we didn't have time before the night activities to do it. I made a cute little lion cake. I was thinking about getting him some kind of little push toy. I went to the Salvation Army and he is the one who found this little push car toy. He immediately started pushing it around the store. It looked a little strange to me and I realized it was because it could also fold down into a little car he could sit on. It was pretty dirty, but I thought I could probably clean it up pretty good. The lady said she would give it to me for $2, and you can't really beat that. Then when I grabbed it to go pay Austin was lurching toward it and crying and wiggling like a crazy dude trying to get out of my arms so he could play with it. So, it was a winner. He was just as excited after I cleaned it up and gave it to him for his gift. Austin's personality is really coming out lately. Sometimes he thinks he is just the funniest kid ever (and since everyone cracks up at him when he acts like that he is pretty much right). He loves basically ALL food, and is quite insistent about getting said food when he wants it. At dinner time he sits in his little Bumbo seat on a chair next to the table and pretty much screams for bites for the entire duration of the meal (not crying - screaming until the next bite gets to his mouth). He loves Bruno, our dog. I'm counting "da" and "br" (with a little bit of a rolled tongue) as his first words (both of which are referring to the dog). He loves to play outside and has recently figured out he can climb onto the big wheels, which he feels pretty big and special about. He is a good little sleeper - has been since he was a couple months old. He likes to walk around in the stroller. He is at the curious stage - aka "getting into stuff" phase. He goes from drawer to cupboard pulling things out. He can stand on his own - for a pretty long time, especially when he is distracted and doesn't realize his is doing it. He is snuggly and loves his binkie and blanket. He also loves the bottle. One morning I could hear him fussing in his bed. I went down and got him a bottle ready. I walked in the room and noticed his eyes closed. I quietly asked, "Austy - you want a drink of milk?" I noticed the slight movement of his lips, but his eyes didn't open. So I said it again and noticed his lips start to go up in a little smile, but his eyes were still closed. I said it one more time and again with closed eyes he broke out into a full on smile. Adorable.

He is a delight to everyone in the family (and pretty much everyone else too).

Dirty Dash 2012

On Saturday I ran in the Dirty Dash - a 3.5 miles mud run. I ran with three other friends, which was super fun. The weather was actually a little chilly, but once we got moving I didn't notice it.... until we showered off afterwards and then I was COLD. The race was great - mud pits to run through and climb out of, walls to climb over, water slides, tubes to crawl through, etc. I went back later for the kids to do the Piglet Plunge (just one mile with a few of the pits and obstacles). Ben loved it. Megan was totally fascinated and slightly obsessed with picking the dried mud off, and Nathan was pretty much over it after the second mud pit (it took some convincing and carrying to get him through it...HE HE HE). Good times. I haven't done any kind of race in years and this definitely got me itching to do another one.




We didn't rinse off very well after the kids race - it was already drying (which I thought might be a better condition to drive home in), but then we had to rinse off before we showered.

First Day of School

School is back in session. The kids were all thrilled to start.

Caelan is in 4th grade with Mrs. Jorgensen. She started before any of the other kids. I asked her if she wanted me to walk in with her, and she said, "she could go in by herself."

Ben is in 2nd grade with Mrs. Huffaker. His best bud switched schools, but he has made some new friends and it enjoying his class.

Megan is in Kindergarten with Mrs. White. This is same teacher that Ben had two years ago. She walked in on her first day and found her name tag. Sitting right next to her was her friend from dance class. Then her very best friend walked in the door and Megan realized that her name tag was in the seat on the other side of her. She and Presley were elated. (That seating arrangement didn't even make it through the day, but it sure made the morning fun - HA).

Nathan started preschool at Parky's Pals with Ms. Denise. We have pretty much been counting down the days since Megan's last day at that school in May. He was dressed and ready to get in the car 30 minutes before we had to leave. He is loving it.

The Big Summer Rendevous

We had a great summer trip in July/August.We were gone 18 days, we traveled through 10 states, we attended 3 family reunions and we traveled almost 4,000 miles (and our van made it without a problem the whole way). Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

*Camping at Carlsbad State Beach - we were literally right above the shore and we could hear the waves crashing at night. We stayed here during the Sorensen Family Reunion. We spent an entire day at the beach. Of the 7 hours we were at the beach, Caelan was in the water for 6 of them (she is our little fish). Sean went out in the water, intending to just wade for a bit, but a wave caught him and took him down. Unfortunately he was wearing his glasses, which were taken right off with the wave. Luckily we found an Optometrist office that gave us a trial pair to take for free. We enjoyed another day at the park visiting, playing volleyball, eating yummy food etc.
*Caelan made friends with a bunch of my cousins' daughters, which was fun to watch. Nathan also made a friend, Brinlee. They played and played together. One day she fell and got hurt and Nathan put his arm around her and walked her to her dad (it was so cute). I sent my cousin a message after we left the reunion telling her how fun it was to watch those two little ones play together. She wrote back saying that Brinlee had been telling her that Nathan is now her boyfriend. HA! Love it.
*We hit up Los Hermanos on our way from southern CA up to Northern ID, which is always tasty (and brings back fun memories).
*The trailer story (but that deserves a post all on it's own)
*Camping at Farragut State Park (about 20 miles outside Cour d'Alene, ID). It was beautiful. We played at the lake, went boating, had campfires, took a day trip to a mountain resort, found a delicious ice cream parlor and got homemade ice cream cones and had a fun time visiting.
*We made the next trip to the final reunion in Boise, ID. For this reunion we stayed in an empty house with some mattresses for beds.
*For this reunion, the Taylor Reunion, we had a couple of swimming pool parties, we watched "How To Train Your Dragon" outside, and I actually got to watch a little bit of the Olympics....finally.
*We spent one day floating along the Boise river. There were only three decent drops and Grandpa Sorensen fell right out on the first one, which gave us all a good laugh.
*We spent one night camping at a Reservoir about 30 minutes away. The grassy campground was right on the lake, and the water was super shallow so the kids spent lots of time way out in the water. We boated and jumped off the dock and made smores and had a fun little overnighter.
*I met Corbin in Eagle Mountain, UT at Charity's house and we caravanned together back home to New Mexico.
Fun, Fun Trip!

2012 Summer of Fun

This year we made a list of some things we wanted to do during the summer, and then I kept track of things we could cross off the list (plus other fun things that we didn't put on the initial list). Here is our Summer 2012 List:

*Balloon Fiesta Museum
*Visit 3 new local parks
*Fishing (Caelan caught her first fish....all by herself)
*Nature Scavenger Hunt
*Make a volcano with baking soda and vinegar
*Bowling
*Board Games
*Make a fort
*Geocaching
*Splash Park
*Sidewalk chalk city
*Swimming and waterslide
*Cheap Movies ("The Lorax" and "Mirror Mirror")
*Library Story Time
*Bird of Prey presentation at Tijeras Library
*Water Balloons
*Sprinkler on trampoline
*Homemade icecream
*Jambo's Amusement Park (in Phoenix)
*Snow cones
*Slip n' slide
*Teddy Bear Picnic
*Visit and tour gold mine (in Colorado)
*Hike
*Make kaleidoscope
*Barbeque with friends
*Banana splits at ice cream parlor
*Mentos and Diet Coke experiment
*Free lunch summer program
*Sleep on trampoline
*Visit the aquarium
*Make rain stick
*Free Slurpie Day at 7-11
*Galloping Grace Horse Ranch
*Daily reading time
*Visit lego store
*Wii family competition
*Hinkle Family Fun Center Free Friday (golfing and arcade)
*Boating
*Float down river
*Camping
*Outside movie
*Garden
*.....plus our big summer vacation

Sounds like a pretty successful summer. Let's do it again next year.