Fun times at the Cabin 2010

We spent a week at the cabin for the 4th of July this year. We had so much fun. The kids caught some fish, did a ton of swimming, jumping off the dock and tubing. The neighbors even borrowed us their tube (and their kids) for an hour. It was so much fun we bought one of our own. The kids (including Madelyn tried out the new tube). They love it. The tables have turned....last year we were begging the kids to try tubing, this year they are begging us to go tubing. Literally 5 minutes after they have just spent 1/2 hour on the lake they are asking "grandpa when can we go tubing". Collin got flipped off last weekend and since then he is a little dare devil. He looks around the lake looking for the biggest waves and hopes that grandpa will speed them right over them. Ella begs and begs to go tubing but then spends the entire time looking terrified. But then she will keep asking to go again and at the end of the day she will always say that her favorite part of the day was tubing. Madelyn of course has no fear and goes with the flow. She laughs and squeals the whole time and throws a fit when it is time to be all done. Collin and Ella tried snorkeling. They both did pretty good - Ella was crazy, she was able to swim all over the place with that snorkel and never came up for a breath! We also had a new kayak. Collin really figured this out, and quickly was able to manuever all over the place. We saw a beautiful rainbow right on Lake Moses and of course went to the 4th of July parade. Collin and Ella love this and couldn't wait to collect all their candy. Madelyn was also very excited, because Collin and Ella were excited. But when we got to the parade and people started throwing candy "at her" she totally freaked out and spent the first half of the parade on mommy's lap - safe from these crazy people. Collin and Ella of course were fish in the water - but Madelyn surprised us - she was also a fish. By the end of the week she was swimming all over the place and even jumping off the dock all by herself.

The kids each took a turn fishing with grandpa in the morning. Collin caught 15 fish and Ella caught the biggest fish. Ella's BIG fish....

Collin and Ella catching minnows with the neighbors giant net.

Madelyn's "twirling"

Along with her attachment to "blankie" and "nukie", Madelyn has taken to "twirling" her hair when she is tired. She wakes up every morning and after every nap with twirls, twists and knots that are next to impossible to get out. At least half the time I have get the scissors out and start cutting....

Basketball Camp

Collin's first taste of Basketball. He did a four day camp - just an hour a day. He REALLY liked it, and he did pretty good. He was able to shoot, dribble and learned some of the rules of the game. He was very excited to win a pair of shorts for being able to tell what the trigger finger was. He had a lot of fun! Too bad height isn't one of his strong traits!!

St. Croix Canoe trip

We did our canoe trip down the St. Croix with Gandy's this year. The kids of course had a great time. Collin paddled literally the whole way - all 6 miles! Mommy got to relax in the middle.

The kids got such a kick out of standing still and letting the minnows nibble at their toes!

Cole and Ella

Over the past couple years, you guys have all seen countless pictures of Cole and Ella with their arms wrapped around each other like high school sweethearts. You've heard me tell you so many stories about how they act like an old married couple, or play like a set of twins - often they don't even have to talk when they play. If you ask Ella "Who is your best friend"? She will answer, "Cole", before you can even finish the question. There is no doubt they have a special relationship.....with that said, and like all good relationships it doesn't come with out some bumps in the road. But even so, these two continue to surprise us.

Just recently Cole and Ella have started having their first issues. Cole wants to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ella wants to play babies. Cole wants Legos for his birthday, Ella wants a pretend horsey. Cole wants to wrestle, Ella wants to put on lipstick....and so on and so on. When playing outside one afternoon Ella was crying because Cole wanted to play with Vaughn instead of her. Another day, Ella came home from pre-school crying and told me that Cole sat next to somebody else at circle time. If you haven't noticed the underlying theme here, it is: Cole playing with anybody else, and Ella crying a lot. Now I know anyone with girls would just giggle and say "just wait"! But call me naive, I thought Cole and Ella would go through their entire life without so much as an argument :)!

Recently Kelly watched Ella for me. I called her later that night and we were talking about how the day went. She said that Cole and Ella had a conversation something like this:

Cole- "I want to play with Carly".

Ella- "But you can play with Carly all the time, I am here now so you should

play with me".

Cole-"Ella, I will always be your friend".

Ella- "Then how come you won't play with me?"

Cole- "Because I just want to be alone right now"..........all in calm voices without being mean.

I mean seriously what 5 year olds do you know that are able to carry on a mature conversation like that in the middle of heated emotions?? I'm pretty sure most of you reading this are probably not that good at communicating!!

Kelly told me that Cole later told her that he just wants some other friends. She and I went on to talk about how they will work through it, and that maybe it's time we get them a few friends of their same sex. And just kind of giggle about how cute the whole thing is.

Matt had been overhearing my conversation with Kelly. When I got off the phone he asked, "Does Cole want to see other people? Is he breaking up with Ella?" :)

It is so ridiculous, seriously are they 5 or 15??

Disney World

We finally decided to break the news to the kids that we will be going to Disney World in a few weeks! They were of course excited, but it was Collin that kind of surprised me. When I told him that I had been waiting for lots of years to take them to Disney World, he said "You mean you were thinking about it a long time ago"? "Wow", he said! He was really amazed by that. We told him that mom and dad had been saving their money for a couple years so that we could go. A while later he came to me and kind of quietly asked, "Mom is it going to use up all our money"? "Not all of it, but a lot", I told him. "Then I will give you my money too". He was really thinking about the whole thing, Ella on the other hand just can't wait to meet the REAL Cinderella!

Collin's 1st school age kiss...

I knew things like this were going to start to happen, but that doesn't make me any more ready for it. And besides that I didn't think it would happen to my kid - especially not my rule follower, Collin.

We were at the park today with a bunch of friends. At one point they all disappeared down behind the playground and behind some weeds and bushes. After awhile of being down there, Collin came back by the moms to get a drink. We asked what they were doing down there and he said, "the girls are trying to kiss us".

Later in the car on the way home. I asked Collin and Ella what they were doing behind the bushes. They both said, "that girl (a neighbor of Xan and Henry - Orian) was trying to kiss us and we were trying to get away". I asked, "so did she kiss you"? Ella says "no, I wouldn't let her". Collin says, "well maybe like 5 or 10 times". I said, "really....where did she kiss you"? "Like behind the bushes and on the park". Collin says. So I asked "but where on the face did she kiss you"? "Mostly on the cheek, but one time on the lips". At this point I'm glad to be in the car where I can avoid eye contact, because I'm trying my best not to be giggling!! "Really", I say, "how did that make you feel"? "Not very good - it made my head hurt", says Collin. Of course with all seriousness, which makes me want to giggle even more.

So we talked a little bit about kissing, and that usually we only kiss people that we love - like mommy and daddy or aunts and uncles, etc. Ella pipes in with, "but I love Cole so it's okay to kiss him"!! Then I was at a loss, what do you say to that - she really does love Cole. "Maybe just on the cheek then!", I said with a giggle, and left it at that!