Favorite quotes

Ethan- MOM! Look at all those beautiful "dande-flowers" in those people's yard! I wish we had lots of "dande-flowers" in our yard!

Ethan- (I will preface this with, He thinks that any white bird is a bald eagle) Look at all those "ball geagles" over there!

Grace- (a couple years ago....she woke up and looked outside on a very foggy morning) Mommy, it is so "froggy" out....I can hardly see across the street!

Grace- (this is very recently, talking to Ethan, her new favorite word she picked up at school is "dude" and her favorite saying is"freaking me out") Dude! Your hair is freaking me out! (I don't know what the problem was.....because his hair looked fine)

Owen- he doesn't say much other than "da da da".....but it is sooooo cute when he does it!

Owen- I almost forgot....last night he was dropping his cup on purpose. I said "uh oh" and handed it back to him.... So he started throwing his cup, putting his hands in the air and saying "OH!" (SO CUTE)

Ethan- "Mom, I have an excellent sense of smell" (I think it cracked me up because it came out of nowhere and also out of a 4 year old's mouth)

Just wanted to share a few things that have made me laugh and have brightened my day. Hope this brightened YOUR day a little. Writing these down (or typing them I guess) certainly made me smile! Have a great day!

A Museum and 5 children

We were in MN last weekend for a family birthday party. We left Friday morning, and we took our kids and my 2 nieces that live in MN to the Minnesota Children's Museum . It was such a fun day. The kids got to run and explore and just have a blast. TJ and I loved the fact that at most of their exhibits there was only one way to get in and out.....So we decided since we had 5 kids to keep track of we would "divide and conquer." We took turns at the exhibits. One of us would chase the kids around....mainly Owen just for his safety (and possibly because we couldn't always keep up with the other kids) and the other parent would stand at the doorway to the exhibit to make sure no children made an early exit without us knowing. I thought I would share some pictures of our day. So without further ado......

The girls are being very protective "mommy dinosaurs" and are protecting their eggs.

Ethan and Gaby were SOOO excited about the dinosaurs!

Grace crawling through some tunnels in the dinosaur exhibit.

Owen pointing at the huge T-Rex. I thought he might be afraid of it...but I was wrong.
















TJ and Owen playing in the water. Owen would have stayed at the water exhibit the whole time if he had been given the choice. Notice his wet sleeves? It didn't occur to TJ right away to pull Owen's sleeves up.....but Owen certainly didn't mind.
















Laney, Ethan, Grace and Gaby racing their boats. This was LOTS of fun until some other kids joined in on the fun, and I made them share the boats. What a mean mom I am!














Ethan was not quite sure what to do here.....so I guess he thought it would be fun to put all those bubbles on his head.














After I showed him how to make the big bubbles..... I think he thought his original idea of the bubbles on his head was much more fun.





Other than Owen's big crash I mentioned in my last post....it was a fabulous time! I made several attempts at getting a group picture of all 5 kids, but soon realized this was NOT going to happen. Oh well. We stayed for about 3 hours....I think the kids would have stayed longer, but the adults in the group were getting tired, and we still had swimming at the hotel to fit into the day.

A few bumps in the road.

So poor Owen has had several clumsy days. He has the desire to play with the big kids, but he is lacking the coordination to keep up with the big kids. He has bruises on his forehead from 3 separate falls to prove his lack of coordination. Poor buddy!

Fall #1-

We spent last weekend in MN. We were celebrating Grace's and several nieces' birthdays and a nephew's 1st birthday. We took our kids and 2 of my nieces to the MN children's museum on Friday. The kids had so much fun! Owen even had a blast. They have "tot spots" in each of their exhibits that are just for little ones like Owen. We ran and giggled and splashed and screamed and had all sorts of fun. Anyways....the whole point to this is.....Owen took a mighty tumble in one of the toddler areas and hit his head on a railing and got his first of 3 bruises on his forehead.

Fall #2-

At the hotel in MN, Owen had so much fun with his brother, sister and cousins swimming in the hotel pool. The tile around the pool was a little slippery, and poor Owen found this out the hard way.....bruise #2.

Fall #3

On Monday Grace was having a little birthday party after school. We went to the school to pick her and her friends up. It was a beautiful day out so we parked the van and walked to the front of the school to wait for the girls. I let Owen down to walk on the sidewalk.....which of course turned into running on the sidewalk. He came to a handicap walkway on the sidewalk and failed to slow down, failed to negotiate the dip in the sidewalk, and....bruise #3. Bruise #3 also came with a little road rash from the cement sidewalk.

We're thinking about getting him a helmet.

I'll give it a try.....

All right.....I have several friends' blogs that I like to follow, and I have decided to give this a try. I have never thought of myself as much of a writer so.....we'll just have to see how this goes. I decided that having a blog might be good place to write down all the cute things my kids do and say. I always hear people say...."you should write that down, or you'll forget it." So this is going to be my place to do just that.

I am not really tech savy....and I am a little intimidated just getting this blog set up....but we'll give it a try I guess.