Hiking Frontenac

We took the boys for a hike on Sunday. They really enjoyed it. Ty loves to find bugs and spent most of the hike trying to find them. Trying to get a good picture of them together is next to impossible.

Favorite Game

The boys favorite game recently is for Deke to chase Ty on the trike. They sometimes fight over this trike, but yesterday, Deke beat Ty to it, rode it around for a little while and then got off and asked Tyler to get on so he could chase him. He used a lot of sign language to communicate that this was what he wanted since he's not speaking that great yet. Deacon loves to chase Tyler on this thing and Tyler loves to be chased so its win-win. They'll do this until they're both red in the face and asking for water to drink. In the last picture, they went on a hunt for bugs and rocks. The joys of having boys.

Garage Sale

Last Saturday, we had a mult-family garage sale. I made pretty much no money which is what happened the last time I participated in one of these. I think I'm done doing the garage sales. I'll just donate my stuff. I believe that Heather and Kari did way better than me, but still not as much as any of us was hoping for.

This and That

Tyler's last soccer game. He loved playing and we will be doing this again next year. It was a lot of fun to see him hustle after the ball. And then of course stop, look for us, and start jumping up and down madly and waving to us. You could tell he was having a blast.

We had parent-teacher conferences this week at the school. At first, I thought this was kind of strange, but I love it. It's nice to see they see some of the same things you do and it's a great chance to ask whatever questions we may have. Plus, some of the things they see can be quite surprising. Deacon's was on Monday and this was the one I was dreading. We've been having issues with him biting and there was a time not too long ago that nearly every day I was getting an incident report that he bit or hit or did something he was not supposed to do. I'm raising a hoodlum, was what would go through my mind every time I had to sign one of those. Fortunately, I haven't gotten one in at least a week. Maybe we're finally moving past that stage. At any rate, his teacher, Sally, had nothing but good things to say. She chalks that biting and hitting up to the stage and reassured me that he was not the only hoodlum in the class. Just kidding, he's been doing really well. He's hitting all the targets that they look for at this stage and he's a delight to have in the class. You can tell she really loves him and I know from watching his interactions there that he loves his teachers. Ty and Deke race each other in the morning to get to class, and there have been some afternoons that Deke doesn't want to go home because he's having too much fun. It breaks my heart a little, but at least I'm glad to know he's somewhere he enjoys. It would break it a lot more if I had to drop him off and have him cry and cry because he didn't like it there. I give him the option of staying and having Daddy pick him up, but he always chooses to come home.

Tyler's was today and I wasn't worried at all about his. His teacher, Natasha, just adores him. Again, he is meeting or exceeding all expectations. This is strictly just meeting the behavioral or other targets you'd expect from a 4 year old, like listening when they're told to get into circle time, or washing their hands when they come in, being able to write their name, that kind of thing. His language skills are at a E and that's where we saw most of the "E's". She is just blown away by his vocabulary as am I. The way he says things sometimes, just surprises me. The other day, when I was bringing him home, he was talking about sharing some candy with Deacon. Deacon would get a "smaller serving of the candy." "Smaller Serving", really? I love to hear him say "frustrated" too. His big words just crack me up. She also mentioned his creativity. He is one creative child and she loves the stories he tells. He can tell a story for 25 minutes or more and they are so entertaining. What's funny, is Sally was Ty's teacher when he was in that group and she had mentioned Ty's stories when he was that age when she was telling me about Deke. He can tell some stories, but they tend to get a little long. I really should pay more attention and try to write some of those stories down. Maybe he'll be a writer some day. All in all, they were both some good reports and I'm proud of both of them.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

These are pictures from last April when we went down. We're making plans to go back down there May 28th. I'm excited to see my family again. Not really looking forward to the drive, but Joel and I made the investment in DVD players for the van so hopefully it won't be too bad. Ty is super excited about going fishing with his grandpas. Both of them are planning on taking them. Joel's dad will be taking him the gulf to go fishing off a pier there. Hopefully, the oil spill will not ruin this trip.

Sunday

Sunday was a beautiful day here. Sunny and gorgeous. We had a bunch of people over. It was chaotic and wonderful. I loved having everyone over. Tyler picked me the dandelion bouquet and I thought it was super sweet.

Saturday Night

This past weekend, we had our really good friends, the Loos', come down from the cities. We went out Saturday night in the great town of Winona. It was so much fun to see them again. I miss having them right next door and wished that we could see them more often.
We had a busy day on Saturday as we got up early to hit the WE valley garage sale. We were out there for over two hours hitting all the sales in that neighborhood. I got a few things, but nothing really spectacular.
On Sunday, we had all of our friends in Winona over to our house so they could visit with Mike and Jenna. It was so awesome. It felt like having family over with the kids and the dogs and the great conversations. I miss Texas, but I love my Minnesota friends who have become like family to me.