He's gonna get you- hurry!

Please remind me again who the mother of all inventions is? Oh, yeah, Mother Nature and sub-zero windchill!

Her Father's Daughter

Every Friday, Addie has "Share" at her school. Each week, the teacher assigns a topic and the kids bring something in related to that topic. Addie loves to color, so she usually draws a picture. This weeks assignment was to draw a picture of a place you'd like to visit. Addie loves to visit the beach at Nini and Papa's and so she drew a picture of the beach, complete with the things she likes to do there. Mary was very interested in her picture, and so she asked Addie how she drew the house in the picture. Addie responded, "very carefully."

Life is good

Cars cars, legos and warm brownies. Does it get any better?

Amelia Bedelia

Addie really loves Amelia Bedelia. I wonder if she always gets it; most of the time I think she does. We've been reading a couple of my books from when I was young and then Gmommy send a couple for Christmas. When it was time to dress her favorite book character this week at school, guess who Addie wanted to be?

How to breed a reader

You know when you have a really good bunch of library books that you just don't want to take back?? We have a stack of like 15 books we took out and they are due tomorrow. Not sure how we stumbled upon all of them, some recommended from our friend Meg, but others just by chance. I don't want to forget about a select few:



The Runaway Dinner by Allan Ahlberg- Can't get enough of this silly story about Melvin the sausage. I was planning on reading it in Addie's class but Mrs Sable had just purchased and read it the day before! What a coincidence! This is a must buy for us I think.



Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Williams- another silly story by our pal Mo. I think he is going to be at our bookstore this month.



Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? by Lauren Child- I am always a fan of silly stories that question our fairytale expectations. And we love Lauren- she has also illustrated Mary's Pipi Longstocking tale.



Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino- I know how we ended up with this on~ Meg dated him in high school! A great story of a little boy and his Da having breakfast together every Friday. The illustrations are familiar and modern.



The other list of books that we are deep into are Little House in the Big Woods, Pipi Longstocking & The Weather Fairies series ( a classic :-) Addie also brings home 2-3 books a week from school to keep us busy.



Let me know if you need a few more recommendations!

Like a rhinestone coyboy...

Um, yes. He wore it all night and wouldn't take it off.

Twinsfest

Spring training is only a couple of weeks away so Clint kicked off the season with the girls and Maren down at Twinsfest (not pictured Mr. Tim). Mary "just wanted to say him to Joe Mauer." Atta girl-in a few years he'll be thinking about settling down :-)

End of the day

Is there anything better than a warm and fuzzy bathrobe hug?

An artiste's reflection

Click for video of our Inaugural evening.

Just hanging out.

Michael is running between the living room and the kitchen- spinning and jumping. Both are his new favorite activity.

The girls are playing house and Addi has just asked Mary if she wants to watch a show (poor TV deprived kids). Mary asked which show. Addie offered American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, or Playhouse Disney, the latter two being kid shows. Mary has chosen Dancing with the Stars.

How about that for cultured children :-)

Missing D.C.

There are some days, more than others, that I miss D.C. Today is one of them. I had to decide if Mary, Mac and I were going to go to Mom's Group at church, or stay home for the Inauguration. We opted for a Target run (very MN'tan) and back home to go to Holly & Sierra's to share the moment.

I wish I was there.

I was there as a child, a pre-teen, a teen, a young adult, an adult, a wife. I've never been there as a mom. Today would have a been a great day to be there as a mom.

Instead, I was with Mary and Mac and will tell them about it someday. Perhaps from the steps of a big white building on the Mall, maybe from the shore of Lake Harriet- I don't know. But I will tell them that we were together for a great day in our history.

They don't understand the importance of this day or what Hope means for our country today- Addie thinks is cool because he gets to live in the White House ("It has 6 floors and over a hundred rooms!!") and fly in a plane that has an office, an exercise room and a bed. I do understand, and I felt Hope today. I was inspired. I hope you were too.

Friends with benefits

When you live in MN, you are likely to know someone who lives on some sort of water, a lake or a pond. Our friends the McDonald's live on a cute little pond that has frozen just right this year! We had such a fun time skating with them today. Addie is officially skating with out any help (watch the attached video) and we are SO proud of her! Check out her fancy moves below.

-19.3

For those of you who have asked, THIS is what -19 looks like!

-9

This is what minus nine looks like- pretty huh? I wonder what minus twenty will look like tomorrow.

Flattery gets you everywhere with me.

Every night when we finally all get seated at the table, we say thanks for our food and begin our evening chatter about our days, Mary always says, "Mommy, this is the BEST dinner ever!"
Yes, every night she says it with such passion - and I really believe her ;-)

Did you know that she has 3 freckles on the back of her right hand that form a triangle? Today she named them Addie, Mary and Michael.

Here she is tonight sharing her story of her recent trip to HCMC.

Whoa!!

Today with Mac was Movin' and Groovin' at the rec center. His pals Liam and Julia are there too. Today it was COLD- blow zero all day (tonight will be a record low of at least -20) so we ran into class. We had fun singing and marching with all the kids. He really likes the cleaning up part. What does that tell you about our lives??

Michael's reponse to anything that excites him (cars, trucks, trains, planes) is WHOA! You just gotta hear it!

Strawberry's Day Out

To celebrate Mary's second visit to the ER for stiches in her chin last night, I decided to brace for the cold (its currently -11) and take her and Mac to the MOA to see Strawberry Shortcake. We got all her Strawberry girls dressed in in her backpack and drove to the Mall. We colored, drank juice boxes, and Marys' Strawberry doll was even invited to have her hair done at the American Girls Doll store.

Of course Mac fell asleep on the way home and won't go back to sleep- but we had had fun none the less!!!

Summit Brewery

Saturday night out was a visit to the Summit Brewery in St. Paul. Clint and I bid on the trip at the Annunciation Septemberfest last fall. It included a school bus ride, dinner, a tour of the brewery an open bar for 3 hours! Not a bad investment. The Jones' and Davidsons came with us too! I decided I like the Maibock best (highest alcohol content- sweet!). Clint was in heaven with all the pale ale he could drink, but I think he ended up preferring the porter and the oatmeal stout.

Meanwhile, Jenny was at home holding down the fort- and I guess the girls decided to move to the floor, along with a few friends!

When in Minneapolis...

We've really gotten into all things winter this year. I guess at some point you have to throw up your hands and just join in on the winter fun! We've been out sledding almost everyday- in our yard and down at Kenny. The girls and Clint have been out on their skates a ton already and Addie and I are headed out to the slopes again soon.

Last Saturday was the Lake Harriet Kite Festival- and it was awesome! We walked across the lake with the kids and oo'd and aaah'd all the glorious kites in the air! The ice fishing was of particular interest to Addie and she even got to twist the twisty thing to put her own hole through 14" of ice! We sat with friends and drank hot cocoa and finished it off with a good sledding run! Click through to see more pictures (thanks Ken!).