It's 40 degrees outside and you want to do what?

That was the response I got on Saturday morning when I announced that it was time to get swimsuits on and head out the door for lessons. No one was too excited about it.

I was really surprised at how well Baby Bear took to the water this time around. You may remember from last time, that he was more interested in the teacher than the actual lesson. This time he literally jumped right in the water and was always first to volunteer to try something new.



Mooka was so excited to be back in lessons, especially after the whole cheer leading incident.



Overall, week one was a success minus the chilly morning. Hopefully by the end of this session at least one or both of them will be able to swim without a float belt.

Rock the River

If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you are probably sick of hearing me talk about Rock the River. But seriously, I cannot express how much fun we had!

If you haven't heard about it yet, allow me to share. Rock the River is a music tour coordinated by the Franklin Graham. It is targeted towards the younger generation and they do an amazing job.

Leading up to the day, I did not have high hopes for having two kids out at an all day concert. They cannot behave for a 30 minute trip to the grocery store, let alone, 9 hours in the sun.

We prepped them by letting them know that there favorite band Skillet would be performing.

And it worked.

They got along most of the day. There was limited fighting. There was minimal whining.

The only negative to the day was when we had to make the trek to go potty. The funny thing is that it was so horrible, that they didn't ask to go back again. (If you have ever been out to eat with the House of O, you know that this is MAJOR as we normally make no fewer than 5 trips to the commode during an hour long dinner) I'm not exaggerating when I say we were gone for nearly TWO HOURS. Someone thought it would be a great idea to only order 15 porta-potties for the event. Since nearly 71K people were there, it did not make for a fun experience.

I digress.

How about some pictures!?



I absoltely love this one, so I had to feature it by itself.


During the time between bands, they showed video testimonies from people that the kids in the audience could relate to. These were very powerful. When they showed this one from Brian Welch, you could have heard a pin drop under the arch.



It was a surprisingly great day. If you live in Minneapolis, I highly recommend catching the show next weekend!

Busy, busy

We made up for our previous week of being shut off from the real world this past weekend. I have lots of pictures to share.

First up, we headed out of Saturday morning to preview the new "A Christmas Carol" by Disney. They are doing a US wide train tour promoting it.





You walk through the train and see the process they used for creating the movie... from concept art,



to paper models,


to the technology behind making a real actor become a cartoon character.


At the very end, there was a 3-D screening of the movie.


Everyone had a great time and even better, the whole thing was FREE!

Mortified

Remember when you were a kid,

and it was so much fun to play outside,

and sometimes you would feel the urge to go to the bathroom,

and you really didn't want to because you were having so much fun,

but you ran inside anyway?

Well, my kid experienced that last night.

Except, he missed that part about running inside.

My neighbor and I were sitting out on her deck, enjoying the evening while the kids played on the swing set. When suddenly the three girls started shrieking "EWWWWWWWW!!!!!"

The rest is a bit of a blur because I'm pretty sure I blacked out from the embarrassment that ensued.

Me: What happened?

Girls: He pooped in the yard.

Now, I get that it's tough to be a boy in a neighborhood of girls and that it's his job to be gross, but COME ON!

Seriously, I'm trying really, really hard to be a good mom. I promise I have never at any point given this child the indication that dropping turds in public was even remotely okay.

After collecting my children and delivering them to their father, I took the walk of shame back over to the neighbors house to PICK UP MY KID'S POOP IN THEIR BACK YARD.

Just mortified.

Jump around

This past weekend, we went to Grandma with the brown hair's house. Grandma and Grandpa have recently gotten into the inflatables business so we got to try it out.







If you are located in this area and need a great idea for a birthday party or get together, you should check them out at www.herecomesfun.com/mei

Tennis time

I became moderately obsessed with teaching the kids how to play tennis after finding some rackets on clearance. Fortunately, this weekend the weather cooperated and we were able to try them out.





And as with most athletic activities, Mooka excelled right away and Baby Bear was more interested in hitting inanimate objects.

Because the neighbors would think something was wrong...

if we ever did anything "normal".

Last night as I drove home from work, I attempted to do my normal phone call to give A. the heads up to start dinner. There was no answer.

So I called again,

and again,

and again,

and no answer. I have an extremely overactive imagination so I started fearing the worst.

They were going to go sledding, what if someone got hurt and they are at the hospital and he lost his phone in the haste of getting to the hospital and I wonder if I would be able to get a police escort to get to the hospital and I shouldn't have said I regretted teaching my child to speak and I should be a better mother...you get the picture.

As I pull into the sub-division, I notice that the lights in the house are on and this has been created in my front yard...

a giant snow Wall-E



After being grateful that no one was in a horrible accident, I immediately admired how the family had selected stair banisters for his arms.

Ah, thank God for family!

Fishing and turkey calls

A few weeks ago, Baby Bear woke up and instead of asking his normal question about whether it was school or church day, he announced that he wanted to go fishing. Completely random comment, as neither A nor I are the outdoor sports type. What to do?

Call home.

My dad and brother both love fishing. One of my favorite childhood memories was having my dad teach me how to fish. Another favorite memory is of a trip wherein my sister, brother, me and my dog Bailey all took off in a Jon boat for an afternoon of fishing, but I don't think we actually took fishing gear(that story just makes me smile.)

So my dad and step-mom came to the rescue today. We agreed to all meet up in one of those small don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it towns. They were waiting with brand new Spiderman and Barbie fishing rods.



The kids had an absolute blast. Mooka was the first to catch a fish. After about 30 minutes, it became quite obvious that she is cut from the same mold as her grandfather and uncle. She was casting like a pro and showed amazing patience while waiting for her first catch.



Shortly afterwards, Baby Bear also reeled one in. He would have been just as happy to stand there and toss the practice fly into the lake all morning. For him, it was just a contest to see who could throw it the worms the farthest.



In an attempt to help Baby Bear catch another one, I volunteered to cast the line. I was so excited to catch something on the first try. I anxiously handed the rod over to him. As he was reeling it in, it got caught up in the rocks. Being the avid outdoors gal that I am, I went over to untangle the line - thinking that the fish had long sense gone on it's way.

And then, out of nowhere, the killer blue gill lunged at my jugular. In an attempt to call for help, the only thing that came out of my mouth was some sort of wild turkey call. Fortunately A has heard this cry for help before, the same noise came out earlier this summer when we uncovered our pool and discovered a bloated dead frog. And with all of his manliness, he came to my rescue. Actually, it played out more like this...

A - What is wrong with you?
Me - LALALALALALALALA
A - Are you kidding me?
Me - LALALALALALALALALA
A - Let me get the camera.



Killer fish aside, everyone had a great morning and I'm sure the kids will be talking about it for a long time to come.