Maddie's Newest Adventure

After several weeks of taking a few hesitant steps at a time, Maddie is walking! It is so fascinating to me how quickly one or two steps becomes all-out walking, but once it clicked, Maddie was off. She's excited to be able to keep up with her sister more easily and is having fun practicing her new skill.

We're all settling into our fall routine. Norah loves her new teachers and is making some good friends at school. Maddie has been a good sport about being my running buddy as I attempt to get back a workout rhythm. And Dan is, as ever, busy at work... but definitely still finding time to prepare for the upcoming ND football season (that is, he reads a bunch of football blogs) and to play the occasional round of disc golf.

I was lucky to be able to spend a wonderful weekend a couple of weeks ago over at the beach celebrating Maggie's bachelorette party. It was my first overnight away from Maddie, but both she and Dan survived with no problems. (Thanks to Grandpa and Jake for the assist!) Maggie wanted a (mostly) low-key affair, so we stayed away from the usual activities in favor of wine tasting, eating, an art party, and some good stories. We're looking forward to Maggie and Jake's big day in a little over a month! And thanks to Maggie's friend Adam for some great pictures!

Laura and I toasted Maggie with some Middle Sister Sangria

Bachelorette cookies - this was as racy as the party got!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and go Irish!

A New School Year

After what seems like just a flash, our summer has come to an end with Norah's first day of school this week. I was a little nervous back in the beginning of June about keeping her busy during her break, but we all fell into our summer routine (that is, lack of routine) quite nicely. Norah's "Box of Summer Fun" provided fifty days of activities and outings... and even a little bit of learning. We started with the ABC's, but at Norah's request added some number projects and more "Daddy Activities," bringing us all the way from the Monday after school got out to the Saturday before school started. I'm glad she was so enthusiastic about our projects. Thanks to Pinterest and some mommy blogs for some great ideas. So here's a quick recap of some of the favorite activities not mentioned in past posts...

For "E" day, we did an "E"xperiment with "E"ggs. We tried the classic dissolving eggshell test, where an egg + vinegar + eleven days = a egg that will bounce (at least a little bit). Norah had fun making her observations every day or so and was amazed (and a little grossed out) by the end result. The egg did, in fact bounce... but only if dropped from a low height. Dropped from too high, the egg splatted into a gooey, vinegary mess. (Luckily we tried this part of the experiment outside!)

"B's" activity involved making our own butter. This usually easy (but very time-consuming) project took a turn for the worse when Norah sustained a butter-making injury. She was so excited about shaking the jar (at least for 30 second bursts during the 15-20 minutes of shaking required for butter to form) that she hit herself in the face with the jar. She started crying, which made Maddie start crying, which made for a big teary mess. Everyone recovered, and we finished the butter. We even added some fresh herbs from the garden... so delicious. But please note: butter-making is more dangerous than it first appears!

While some days involved somewhat elaborate activities (as in "E" above), others were pretty simple - but still much enjoyed. "Q" brought Norah the chance to be queen for the day. Her royal proclamation: an extra dessert at dinner. For "S" day, we went to the park and counted how many things we could find that begin with "S." "W's" activity was a water-balloon fight.

We even took our projects on the road. During a long weekend in Aptos, we did a few days of "Beach Activities." We went berry picking at a local farm, and then headed to the local cage-free egg ranch to buy eggs from a vending machine and watch the dancing chickens. (Yes, it was a little hippie dippy, but it's Santa Cruz, after all.)

Back in Fresno, we took a field trip to the San Joaquin River parkway to learn about the wildlife...

...and then ended the whole thing with a final Daddy Activity. After Dan's backpacking trip a couple of weeks ago, Norah wanted to try sleeping in a tent, so she and Dan spent the night out in the backyard. They cooked hot dogs and s'mores on the grill, then enjoyed sleeping under the stars.

Maddie wanted to get in on the fun the next morning. Norah made it through the night with no problems and was ready to do it all over again the next night. (Dan decided one night was enough for now!)

So that was our summer of fun. This is the first year we've had a true summer off with Norah - since I always worked through the summer before - and I do have to say we were all a little sorry to see it end. Norah was, however, also VERY excited to go back to school this week. She is a Prayerful Panda this year, and her class has about half of her friends from last year plus a lot of new kids. We're looking forward to another great year!

Happy Birthday Sweet Maddie

Maddie celebrated her first birthday last week - how time flies! We had a fun day with her, including cake, presents, and lots of play time. She was a little unsure of how to get into the presents at first, but she was pretty quick to dig into her cake... and kept eating it until we had to take it away.

Norah was happy to help her little sissy, and the two of them had lots of fun playing with all of Maddie's new toys. (And yes, as you saw from Norah's concern in the video above, we eventually did give her some cake.)

In honor of her first birthday, we wanted to do a review of all things Maddie. She has developed a cute little sense of humor, which mostly involves her putting things on her head and laughing at herself...

...or blowing raspberries on my arm and laughing at herself (apparently the silliness of toot jokes is recognized early!).

Her favorite activities are climbing...

...and climbing some more.

Favorite foods are yogurt, cheese, applesauce, and popsicles. (Oh, and the crumbs she finds on the floor and the occasional snail from the garden. Luckily I caught the snail before she got it into her mouth - though it was quickly heading in that direction - but I don't always catch the crumbs.) And her favorite person in the whole wide world is her sister. (Especially when she gets to be in her sister's room and play with her sister's toys, but even when her sister "borrows" the toy she is in the middle of playing with. Oh, the toils of the youngest child)

It is fun to see Maddie develop her own personality. She is sweet, cuddly, curious, observant, and loving. We are so blessed to have Maddie in our lives. What an amazing year it has been!

 

Happy birthday sweet Maddie... we love you so much!

Family Time

Is it really August already? We're getting ready for Maddie's big birthday tomorrow and enjoying the last couple weeks of Norah's summer vacation. More on Maddie in our next post, but first, pictures from our trip to Festus.

We were lucky to be able to head to Missouri in mid-July to catch up with Dan's family, introduce Maddie to everyone, and give Norah some time to play with her cousins. Norah, Ember, and Autumn spent lots of time playing, giggling, and swimming - fun to watch them reconnect!

 

As part of Judie's birthday present, Dan and Matt organized a tea party and a trip to the Magic House, which is a children's museum in the St. Louis area. The girls all came up with princess names for their tea party, and enjoyed fancy (PB&J) sandwiches and fizzy drinks served up by the daddies. (Maddie decided to take her morning nap in lieu of the tea party, since she wanted to stock up on energy for later!) Then it was off to the Magic House, which had play spaces for kids of all ages. Maddie especially loved the climbing equipment for babies (no surprise there, since climbing is her favorite activity ever), and Norah, Ember, and Autumn had fun in the play village - where they could play in a pizza shop, serve pretend ice cream, go fishing, drive a car, and more. The highlight of the day for the big kids, though, was the three story twisty slide, which they went down over and over again. We were all pretty tired by the end of our trip... but luckily we had a nice car ride back to Festus to take naps and get ready for more swimming with Granny Franny that evening.

 

The fun continued the next day with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. We chose a VERY hot day for our zoo adventure (we're just not used to the humidity!), but we still got to see lots of animals, check out the sea lion show, and ride the carousel. Norah loved the sea lions and penguins, and Maddie was just happy to be along for the ride.

 

The best part of the trip was being able to spend time with family, since we don't get to see them nearly enough. We're so grateful for the time we do have together, and love watching Norah and Maddie get their Grammy/Grandpa/Granny/great-grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousin time. We're already looking forward to seeing everyone next time!

 

When we got back home, we had some monster zucchinis waiting for us in the garden. (We missed some heat in Fresno, too, which made the squash grow and grow and grow.) Once zucchinis get big, they're not good as good for eating, but they are still good for baking. The one zucchini below was enough for two loaves of zucchini bread, a big pan of zucchini brownies, and four dozen zucchini chocolate chip cookies. Now if only I could come up with enough recipes to keep up with all of our peaches!

Dan followed up his trip to Festus with a backpacking trip to Yosemite with Jake (Maggie's fiance) and Mike (Laura's boyfriend). While I love hiking, spending the night in the woods is really not up my alley, so Dan was glad to find other people to share this interest with. (Norah wanted to know why she couldn't go, but after a short explanation of the [complete lack of] bathroom facilities, she quickly changed her mind.) The guys arrived home smelling pretty manly and with a few blisters, but overall had a great weekend and saw some beautiful scenery.

And last, we finally made it to our first baseball game of the season (and Maddie's first ever) this week. The weather has cooled off just a bit, so it was a perfect night for baseball.

Love to all!

The fun keeps coming.

Hey everyone!  This is Dan making a rare blog entry.  Kristin's been doing a fantastic job keeping everyone up to date on our family's adventures, and so far it has been a pretty great Summer.  Norah's activities have continued in the last two weeks and they have been pretty entertaining for her and us.

"X" was bound to be a difficult to find an activity for, but a treasure hunt fit the bill (because "X marks the spot". Get it?).  Norah helped Kristin follow the treasure map in the car all the way to my office.  It was great to have them all visit, and I was able to hide a special treat in my office for her to find.

"H" was an opportunity for Maddie to get in the fun too.  It was crazy Hair/Hat day for the girls.  There were no trips to my office or into public places in this getup :-)  They did have a very good time at home though.

Finally, Wednesday was the last of the Box of Summer Fun.  It was the last Daddy Activity, to boot.  Now, some would say that my activities are less focused on "education" and more focused on "danger" or "cool stuff".  However, I'll stand behind the academic rigor of my selections.  For instance, this activity taught Norah about wind resistance and aerodynamics.  In our study of "things that fly" we made different paper airplanes and tested them.  We also used a very brave toy bunny as a volunteer to test our homemade parachute.  Some might say you could test these things on the ground, but what fun is that?  So, onto the roof we went!

 

We worked our way through the Summer Fun box very quickly, but there is still some vacation time left.  Coming soon... fun with numbers.

In case anyone thought Maddie was getting easier to keep up with, you would be very wrong.  Maddie is no longer interested in easy climbing.  Our little over-achiever is pushing boundaries every day and going even higher.  And, she's not even walking yet!

Chair to table - trying to make her way to the desk next.

Hope everyone is having a great Summer!