Knife River (cont.)

Some more photos from Knife River! These would not upload when I wrote the original Knife River post because the file sizes were too large, but now that I've resized them I'll try again....

Knife River

I could blame my failure to keep up on blog posting this year on many things, but I think the main culprit is the fact that I finally joined the 21st century this year and got a smart phone. Now that I actually have Internet connectivity and a decent camera built into my phone, my old digital camera has started to gather dust and my main mode of sharing photos and information about what's going on in our lives has become Facebook. But that said, I should still try to get a few more posts up here for posterity before the end of the year!

We spent an enjoyable long weekend in late July up in Knife River (10 miles north of Duluth) with Grandma and Grandpa B., Erik, Tami, and Vivian. We found a cabin on the Vacation Rentals by Owner website (vrbo.com), and while it was a bit cozier than we had expected from the photos and the description, a good time was had by all, and none of the children fell down the steep rocky hillside that lurked just over the edge of the cabin's expansive front lawn overlooking Lake Superior. Other trip highlights: Sammy's Pizza in Duluth, the Great Lakes Aquarium, Bjorn actually napping in his Pack 'n' Play every day of the trip (but then learning how to climb out of it on the last day...), the kids all being super interested in the collection of Garfield comic books Vivian had checked out from the library, playing with fly swatters on the deck, watching and listening to the trains speeding by on the train track immediately behind the cabin, seeing a double rainbow over Lake Superior, having time for pleasure reading, and a good share of napping by the adults as well. It was much easier traveling with Bjorn this year now that we only had to worry about getting in one nap per day instead of two, and Aaron and I both felt like this was the first family trip that felt remotely relaxing for either of us. Next year, better still (fingers crossed)!

Some photos from the trip....

Bjorn's 2nd birthday

I recently remembered that we have a family blog. A bit of research revealed that although it is currently August, there was not yet any record on said blog of a significant event from back in mid-May: Bjornie Bjornstein's second birthday! Here are a few pics to commemorate that fine day.

 Above: The birthday boy (Bjorn means bear, so of course I had to spring for the cute bear-themed birthday shirt when I ran across it at Gymboree some months before the big day)

Below: Some back yard water table fun with big brother Leif and cousin Vivian -- working up an appetite for cake!

Bjorn received numerous wonderful birthday gifts from his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins (thank you again, everyone!). The biggest hit of the day was probably the toy vacuum cleaner, identical to one that he was obsessed with in our Toddlers ECFE class that semester. After opening that present, it was hard to get him to pay attention to any of the other gifts -- he wanted to vacuum the entire house first!

As with Leif's birthday, I'll try to upload some videos from Bjorn's party sometime soon in a separate post.

Spring at last!

After slogging through some snowy, slushy, sleety days well into April, we are finally feeling securely enough into springtime to pack away the winter coats, boots, hats, and mittens. We've been enjoying some warmer weather outdoor activities, too -- lots of bubble blowing, sidewalk chalk drawing, and bike/trike riding. Leif is getting to be quite the whiz on his balance bike, zooming around the large, open asphalt play area at the school across the street from our house. Bjorn sort of has the hang of pedaling a tricycle, although at not quite two years old, his legs are too short to reach the pedals on many of the trikes he encounters (much to his chagrin). He's also not a fan of having to work too hard while pedaling, so he prefers to have a grown-up push the trike unless he's going slightly downhill. We're humoring him with the trike assistance for now, assuming that soon enough he'll be insisting (like he does already with many other things), "Do it SELF!"

Leif and Bjorn aren't very adept at blowing bubbles the old-fashioned way yet (they do try, but get frustrated with their limited success), so I picked up a couple of hand-held, battery-operated bubble blowers that work like a charm -- quite the hit!

Another popular outdoor activity at our house: scaling the back yard fence. Fortunately, Aaron built it to be sturdy enough to withstand such treatment.

Leif's 4th birthday - VIDEOS

As promised, here are a few videos from Leif's birthday back in February. Well, technically the last one dates from March -- we had the traditional family birthday gathering at our house the weekend following Leif's birthday, and given the short month, the calendar page had already been turned. No worries, it still felt like winter!

Leif's 4th birthday

Hard to believe that Leify Leifster turned FOUR in February! The biggest surprise of this birthday for us was probably how little (relatively speaking) he had grown and changed since his third birthday. Of course he *did* grow and change, but after the whirlwind pace of growth of any baby or toddler, preschoolers seem to be downright stable in the growth department. (Not in the mood department....)

To illustrate, here are photos of Leif on his third and fourth birthdays:

Opening presents on his third birthday

(He still wears these size 3T "Dirt Dog" pajamas! Granted, they 

are getting a little bit short in the cuffs for him at this point.)

Showing four fingers at preschool on his fourth birthday

I have a few videos related to Leif's birthday that I want to post, as well, but given the late hour and how long it takes videos to upload to Blogger, I think I'll wait and post them another day. More to come soon!

Winter pastimes

We have been slogging through a VERY long, cold, and snowy winter here in Minnesota, and the boys and I have had to get a bit creative in order to stay sane through our many, many hours spent cooped up playing inside the house. Here are a few of the indoor winter pastimes the boys have enjoyed:

(1) Pillow Blanket Mountain

Procedure: Procure six large cushions from sofa on back porch, plus two to three throw pillows, plus three bed pillows from upstairs, along with several blankets and/or sheets. Create a large, fluffy mound in the middle of the living room floor. Alternate jumping/diving/sliding off the couch onto the Pillow Blanket Mountain, lolling around on top of it reading books, and running across the length of the dining room to leap or belly flop onto the pile of pillows.

(2) Repurposing the play mat

I don't think this is exactly what the makers of our alphabet play mat had in mind when they decided to make the letters removable....

(3) Taking over the toy bins

We have not had much luck so far convincing Leif and Bjorn that our various toy storage boxes are actually for toys, not for boys.