A Wordle for Grandpa

Today is Grandpa Nyhlen's 60th birthday!
We want to wish him a happy one!

I had a tech class late tonight and learned how to
do a wordle. Our homework was to figure out a way to use it.
When I got home Zoey was still awake (big surprise!),
so I asked her to tell me about grandpa and what makes him special.
If you click on the picture below,  you will see her words.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Halloween Weekend

We ventured up north to spend Halloween with Grandma and Grandpa Nyhlen. The main purpose of the trip was to spend the weekend with Grandpa in honor of his 60th birthday (which is today). That was accomplished. Zoey was able to hand deliver the card and all the money that she made for Grandpa. She was very excited for Grandpa to get his Zoey bucks for his piggy bank. She wants Grandpa to be rich.

The other goal of the trip was to go trick-or-treating with the cousins. So a witch, a pirate, Tinkerbell, and a bunny rabbit all went around the neighborhood and did a little trick-or-treating.

Zoey was sick on Sunday which threw a wrench into our travel plans, but I am happy to report that we made it home late Sunday night and she spent the day today recovering.

Here is Grandma passing out candy to a few of the only trick-or-treaters that came to the door. (And in my humble opinion, the cutest trick-or-treaters ever!)

Zoey got creative with carrying all her loot!

4 kids excited to get the evening started.

Zoey and the rest of the kids had a blast messing
up all of the leaves that were piled up in the back.

On Friday we hung out at Rob and Nicole's house. Here is the best picture I got of all the kids.

Last weekend we went to our church Halloween party. Here is Zander at the Balloon Pop room.

One of the newest additions to our home--a Dalmatian Molly.
Zoey named one of them Sally--maybe this is her.

The LivingZs Weekend

This was a very eventful and wonderful weekend. We did a lot of stuff and for once, I feel productive at the end of a long weekend. For starters, you saw the fish tank that we set up. Then on Saturday we went to McDougal's Apple Junction for the 3rd straight year. It is a bit of a trek from our house, but I really like the farm. We know what to expect when we get there, it has never been too crowded to relax, they have fantastic apple mini-donuts, and we get to see the kids grow by measuring against the scarecrow each year. This year we were once again joined by Tammy and Eric, plus Nana joined us for the fun!

On Sunday, it was a beautiful day. We spent most of it outside doing yard work. Tyler took out all the bushes in our yard to make way for my patio project next spring. We cleared out the garage a bit and we carved our pumpkins. The kids had fun. Zander wasn't too thrilled about getting his hands messy, but he helped design his pumpkin. Zoey designed her pumpkin all by herself--it is an alien pumpkin (lots of eyes!). Tyler cleaned our pumpkin out and I designed and cut it. It was oprignally going say The Livingstons, but that is a long name. I got bored about half way through and changed it to say The LivingZs, in honor of the two little terrors that live in our house!

Enjoy the pictures. . .

Zoey told us this weekend that she is going to be on stage some day. I kind of believe that!

Zander's favorite part of the pumpkin experience was watching the slimy seeds slip from daddy's and Zoey's hands.

Uncle and Eric and Zoey on the hayride.

Zoey wanted to find her own pumpkin this year.

About 3 feet tall (with the hat)!

3 and 1/2 feet--too tall, if you ask me!

"Just Plasticing for Halloween"

For Halloween this year, Zoey really really wants to be a witch. So we got her costume a little over a week ago. She is happy because it is what she wants, I am happy because she picked just the basic witch items. Tonight as we were trying to decide what Zander was going to be, Zoey wanted to "plastic" trick-or-treating.

I remembered that I got the kids this pirate costume last year for playing dress up and it almost fits him perfectly. So, I think he will be a pirate. He seems to like the costume and he is good at saying Argh!

In other news, Tyler acquired a 25 gallon fish tank from his school and it now graces our family room. Zoey's first reaction when I showed her the tank was, "You know I still really want a puppy!" She and Zander are however having fun with the tank--although we can't get actual fish for another week. We need to wait for the water to be just right.

Zoey has been working around the house for commission. She is saving her money up to buy things like toys for her dog and a doll. But today she wanted to buy something for the fish tank. This is what she picked. It is the first thing that she has spent her own money on. She was very proud to hand money over to the cashier at Pets-Mart.


Zoey has also been telling a lot of jokes. The funny thing about her joke telling is like most four year olds, the punchlines don't make sense and are very loud! And just to make it interesting, I taught her how to make her chin into a puppet.

Zander--I love this age!

Bonfire 2009

Wow! I think this is close to a record for me: the longest I have gone without updating the blog? It has been another busy start to the school year and as always it takes us time to adjust to the "new normal." Knock on wood, the kids have been relatively helathy this season. At school, I have 12 kids in my literacy class and I have never had all of them present at the same time--so there is definitely some illnesses floating out there.

Tonight we went to our 4th annual daycare bonfire. Complete with food, friends, and tractor rides. Zander was not feeling his bravest, so he declined. Zoey, however, was brave and went for a few rides.


Here is a picture of Zander helping daddy out with the yard work. Notice his work gloves--he wanted to be just like daddy!

ABC Beauty Shop Singers

FYI--Zander asked me to put "ony ails" in his hair too!

Summer is Over

Let's see, what has been happening in our world. School is back in full swing and we are back to our normal routine . . .busy. Last Monday daycare was unfortunately closed, but the kids and I made the best of it. We visited the storytime at the library, did a little shopping, and after quiet time went to Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater. It is still one of the cutest parks we've been to and the kids really enjoy it.




Last weekend, we were up in North Dakota to visit Grandma and Grandpa and to attend Cousin Kristie's dedication service.

And just for the record, I went to Nickle Dickle Days in Waconia to run a 5k race with Roz and Kevin. It was my personal best! I ran the first 2 miles with no stopping and finished the race in 31 mins. 45 sec. (50th place in my age range). Props to Roz and Kevin who also fared very well--Roz took 2nd in our age range and Kevin finished 10th! There were A LOT of people running this race--so way to go guys! It was blast and hopefully we can do this more often!

Mommy's Birthday and Labor Day

First off, I would like to state that I feel it was very poor planning on the state of Minnesota to have school start on my birthday this year. It was just too cruel of a present to have to wake up at 6 am (and hit snooze until 6:20) on my birthday. I would not like that to happen again. Other than that, I had a wonderful birthday. Zoey tried (and succeeded) her very best to make my birthday special. She kept coming up to me and in a sing-songy voice say, "Who's the birthday girl?" When I picked the kids up from daycare, they both wished me a happy birthday (again) and then Zoey showed me the sand cake and pie that she made me--complete with candles (sticks). It was very yummy! At home we celebrated by cooking Chinese food and eating a pie. As you can see we all enjoyed it.



On Labor Day, we ventured out to Mayer to hang with Roz, Kevin, and Hazel. It was so nice to sit and visit. The kids are getting better at playing a little more independently and with each other. Hazel and Roslyn made me a birthday cake--it too was very yummy! Thanks for making it and having us over!

Check out the attitude on little miss 4 years old. It is becoming a regular thing now. . .whenever I ask her to pose for a picture--this is what I get. I have created a monster!


I was thinking over the weekend that I haven't put together a list lately of things the kids are doing/saying. So here is a start:

Zander

• knows most of his colors
• can count to 3
• can repeat almost any word you want him to
• can climb out of his pack-n-play (at daycare)
• does his chore of putting his dirty clothes down the laundry shoot
• still loves baseball--plays it every night in the family room with his little baseball and inflatable bat
• is an outdoor boy
• "Hehwo. . .I dalk on the bone. . .g'bye" (Hello, I talk on the phone, goodbye)
  
• hates getting his hair washed in the bathtub
• is getting a little better at eating more at dinner time
• drinks about 10 gallons of liquid each day. Ok, maybe not that much, but he always is asking for a dink of dada juice (Crystal Light), ahda (water), apple shooce (apple juice), or mook (milk), peeaz!
• still wants to do everything that Zoey does
• loves to read and look at books--his favorites are Z is for Zander, his Twins board book, and Richard Scarry's Things that Go--he loves to look for Goldbug!
  

Zoey

• can obviously hoola-hoop pretty darn well
• loves to play house (almost to a fault)
• wants to be a mommy when she grows up
• loves to wear dresses, fancy shoes
• is finally letting mommy do her hair in pigtails
• has her imaginary friend Robin (Hood) who she is going to marry some day
• can navigate the internet very well
• loves to play on the computer and watch movies
• Favorite Movies at this time: Kung Fu Panda, Robin Hood, Horton Hears a Who
• Says her favorite color is every color in the rainbow
• very compassionate--draws pictures for other people and loves to give gifts
• plays the birthday game--she is the mommy and she throws a birthday party for her kid. She wraps her toys in all her blankets and has hijacked many of mommy's gift bags and then the kid (usually Tyler of myself) gets to open all our presents.
• loves sweets
• doesn't go to bed well. . .I just don't think she needs as much sleep as normal people. We won't give up trying though. . .
• likes going to the park
• likes tracing shadows with sidewalk chalk
• is just starting to figure out how to ride a bike
• sings the best lullaby's--just makes up words as she goes along
• has an amazing memory--knows many many songs
• will be starting swimming lessons again next week--she is so excited!

I know there is a ton more and so I will leave this as is for now and just add to this list in the near future.

Hoola Hoop-la

Tyler called me outside today and told me that I had to watch this. I was amazed and went straight for my camera. She has played with the hoola-hoop over the summer, but I have never seen her like this. So I asked her how she learned to be such a good hoola-hooper. She said, "I just watched the big girls at Mary's and I did what they did!"