Rochester & the Aquarium

Chilling with Daddy on the sofa and their DS's.




Toothless, smiley boy




I LOVE that they are friends!




Strong O at the House of Bounce in Rochester




Always a subject of much discussion as we drive through the small town of Coates. How exotic are these dancers in a town of 316 people? Do they bus these girls in? Dave told us this year that his Shoe Show has been closed down for several years, which will probably end our debate over the dancers.




Our kids with the world's largest beaver at the Aquarium under the Mall of America



Cool tunnel surrounded by water & fish.

Vacation so far

The kids behaved excellently driving up to Minnesota. We got on the road at 6pm last Wednesday and drove almost 350 miles before stopping in Eddyville, Kentucky for the night. We stopped in St. Charles (my childhood hometown) and drove by my old house (wow, it looked small!). Then we stopped in St. Peters for lunch at the Pasta House (my favorite where I ate cavatelli and their famous salad) before meeting my cousins Erica and Emily for a few minutes before getting back on the road.

The kids even took naps as we drove through Missouri and Iowa!

We arrived at Todd's Mom's house around 8pm Thursday night after a full day of driving. You can see the kids being sweet and hamming for my iPhone camera here.

Owen lost his other top tooth the next day. He likes sticking his tongue through the gap now because he thinks it is shaped like a heart

Can you tell he is proud of these missing teeth?

We are headed Up North later this morning. Still need to do breakfast with Todd's Mom and then stop at his Uncle's house to visit for a little while. The weather does not feel like summer. It is windy and 65 outside. Thinking it really needs to warm up for us for the rest of this week while we are relaxing and fishing!

Drive to Minnesota

Cool moth we found on the sidewalk outside our hotel room




Rest stop with a great playground in Kentucky








The Arch



Chloe is stacking up Apple Jacks rings in her hands



Sleepy kids in Iowa

Going On Vacation

We are are now on the road to Minnesota. From our driveway to Todd's Mom's driveway, it is exactly 1000 miles. Which equates to sixteen hours of fun in the jam-packed minivan. The DVD player is hooked up and plenty of Disney movies are packed. As are the coloring books, crayons, story books, bicycles & helmets for the kids and then all of my bead & jewelry stuff on top of our suitcases of clothes.



I am hoping we get to Kentucky tonight, but that is dependent on me staying awake. Although Todd and I split the driving fairly equitably, I am the night driver because he has a harder time seeing well after the sun goes down.



Really looking forward to seeing Todd's family, hanging out with friends, fishing, reading and sleeping while we are gone through the 4th of July! I am already missing my torch and know that by the time we get back, three weeks will have passed since it was fired up. But even more, I am already missing my kids. They are staying behind to be spoiled rotten with love by the grandparents for three weeks. Right now, my CountDown app on my iPhone says it is 32 days before they come home.

He's

Well, not really. But might as well be for as excited as he is because it is the FIRST tooth that has come out of his head. Owen first noticed one of his top front teeth was loose two weeks ago. And then the other top front tooth loosened up a week ago....that is the one that came out yesterday afternoon when he was at summer camp. Apparently this tooth was in a hurry and didn't want to get beat out by the first loose tooth.



When I was putting him to bed last night, he wondered about how much money the Tooth Fairy would leave for him and asked me to make a prediction (yes, my 6yr old said prediction). He wondered about the logistical aspects of the Tooth Fairy's entrance...is she like Santa where she comes down the chimney? Or is she like a ghost and comes through the windows. Owen ruled that out quickly after deciding ghosts aren't real.

He asked what would happen if he was still awake when she came 'because he's been staying up late. As late as Mommy & Daddy' ....so he says. I told Owen that if the Tooth Fairy arrives at a home where the child is still awake, she leaves and goes to her next job. His eyes widened. But that boy stayed in bed. It was the first night in months that I did not hear him get out of bed to read books or play with his pokemon cards on the floor.

Todd and I are betting the other tooth comes out soon. By the time we head up to Minnesota in two weeks, the boy will no longer be able to eat corn on the cob!

Kindergarten Curriculum

Kindergarten has changed very much in the last three decades. When I went to Kindergarten, it was a half day of fun, which included learning the alphabet & colors, graham crackers, Kool-Aid and a nap. Now it is a whole day and they are taught so much more. Nap time is ditched mid-year over the Christmas break. And the sign language wasn't covered with me until the 6th grade.

May 29th is Owen's last day of Kindergarten. He passed with a handful of awards for his efforts & smarts during the year. He learned many things, but I'll keep the list short to the most significant.

1. Reading - the boy can now read billboards, magazines and books. There is little he can not sound out on his own.

2. Writing - his printing has improved exponentially over this year. Not only is it legible, it is neat. Spelling needs work as he writes most words phonetically that have not appeared on his weekly spelling lists. But that will come in time.

3. Math - he is quick with addition, decent at subtraction and knows some basic multiplication. Ask him what 30 x 30 or 40 x 40 is and he will correctly tell you the answer. Like I said. Smarts.

4. Sign Language - aka. the Bird.....while brushing his teeth last month, he stopped and very carefully held up his hand with his palm facing him. O proceeded to pull all of his fingers down to 90 degree angles, leaving only the middle finger standing. "Momma, this is the middle finger." Pause. And another pause. "But we don't do that," he added. Owen continued brushing for another 30 seconds before stopping and asking "Why don't we do that?" complete with his head cocked to one side. I explained because it is not very nice.

I left it at that.

Memorial Day Weekend

My Uncle Mike flew in this past Friday. He is my Mom's older brother who lives in Phoenix and it is his wife Gail who taught me lampworking in her garage studio so many years ago. Since I was a little girl, I remember flying out there to spend a week or two every summer (yay for having a Dad who worked for Delta and had flight privileges!). The weekend went quickly while he was here, before a jet whisked him back to the heat of the desert this morning. We enjoyed spending the afternoons/evenings with him, as well as the delicious salad he made last night to go along with my Dad's savory barbecue ribs. This picture of Mike with my Grandma is several months old (I was negligent with my camera this weekend & hope he will email me pics), but as I look at it I can see the similarities in facial features on my Mom's side. It makes me wonder how different I will look when I am in my 50s or 60s or 90s.

Today was a day of relaxation. We spent several hours hanging out with friends and neighbors in the street/sidewalk while our children played baseball, kickball, pokemon trading and sandbox digging this morning. My good friend Wendy came over shortly after naptime and we enjoyed melting glass throughout the afternoon while it rained on and off. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the backyard of another neighbor while our kids played in a few blow-up swimming pools, water slides and video games in the cool of an open basement.

Todd and I were talking about the significance of this holiday over dinner with our children. I remembered how both of my grandfathers fought in World War II. I don't know anything about my Dad's Dad or where he was during the war. But my Mom's Dad was a scout, among other positions and traveled throughout Europe...mainly in Germany. He stood inside the Eagle's Nest, looking out over the landscape through blown out windows and he brought back a parchment paper declaring Hitler the Chancellor of some little village in Germany. My Grandpa talked fondly about many of his experiences, but saved the haunting and gruesome memories for himself and sometimes the other men in the family. He fought for the freedoms of our country and for the end of a horrid dictatorship.

We also talked about our most memorable Memorial Day that was close to five years ago when we drove up to DC to visit my good friend Mary and her family. Her Dad, Henry achieved the rank of Colonel before retiring from the army in the last couple of years. Henry and Mary's mom Kathy drove us around downtown DC on the Sunday night before Memorial Day. We saw the Vietnam Memorial (oh-so-humbling), the Lincoln Memorial and had our own private tour through the Pentagon where Henry worked at the time. We saw where Henry's office had been when one of the planes struck the Pentagon on 9/11 and how fortunate he was to have been on the other side of the building that morning. We saw the pressroom where Rumsfeld regularly held new conferences.

And we thought about all that had been given up by so many of our service men and women over the years. The husbands of some of our good friends and our family who serve to protect our country, our rights and our freedoms. They have missed the births of their sons and been rolled over by tanks. They have been wounded and had their wills tested. Their families have been tested. But they have stayed true and voluntarily continued their service to our country.

.

Thank you to all of our veterans who gave so much and to our current service men and women who continue to give.

My Honeys

He turned 44 yesterday. He insists that he has another 364 days until he can be considered in his mid-40s. I asked if that meant since he's still in his early 40s now & mid-40s don't start until he's 45, if late 40s begin the day he turns 46. The very quick answer would be "No, late 40s do not start at 46." Good for me to remember in case he decides to give me grief in ten years when I hit 44 or 46. I like that he gets to feel out each year ahead of me so I know what to expect. ;)

This is the second year in a row where Todd was gone for the weekend of his birthday. Gone doing what he loves most, only second to his family. TENNIS. And not just TENNIS, but TENNIS at the STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS TENNIS! Todd won the tennis games he played and his team did well overall. Todd drove home Sunday afternoon, napped and chilled. He had his birthday off yesterday and spent a very relaxing day on the couch surfing the web & sneaking in a late afternoon nap. We went out to Five Guys Burgers for lunch, which was nice. For dinner, we had Papa John's pizza and then Ghiradelli brownies with hot fudge and vanilla ice cream....all at his birthday request. The brownies were fresh out of the oven, so some of the candles were falling over before we sang. After getting the kids to bed, we watched the two hour season finale of 24. I'm not sure if Todd felt his day could get any better. Perhaps if tennis was being played in there at some point. Maybe. But he may be all tennis-d out after playing so much in preparation for the state championships.



Birthdays always make me take a step back and appreciate others a little more. For Todd's, I realized that I have celebrated his birthday for the last ten years. I have seen him start off in the world of telecom barely knowing how to operate a computer or send an email to being able to talk in-depth about the latest technologies of how data and video can be sent at the speed of light from one side of the country to the other. He has moved up from a lowly billing specialist (an entry level position at Sprint) to a Service Director and now a Sales Engineer at Level 3 Communications in this past decade. Todd became a husband, then a homeowner, two years later a father and a father to two kids two years after the first. After close to a twenty year hiatus from tennis, he picked up the sport again and quickly regained his passion for being on the court & getting in better shape.

Todd is kind and compassionate. He is fair (both on the tennis courts and in his personal life) and a good sportsman. He is respectful of others' opinions & beliefs. When Owen was first born, Todd worried non-stop that he wouldn't be a good father, that he didn't know what to do or even how to hold Owen. By the time Chloe was born, it was old hat. He held her with one arm and no worries. He can take my kids from their grumpiest and stubborn mood to fits of giggles in milliseconds with just a few words and shaking his body.



Todd and I are very like-minded. We share the same parenting, political, spiritual and interior decorating ideas. We don't argue (I could probably count on one hand the number of fights we have had since we met in 1998). He has been endlessly supportive of my career choices and hobbies. His trust in me that I would not burn the house down and kill us all by moving my studio inside from the garage was phenomenal. I could not have asked God for a better husband, father to my children or best friend.


I hope you had an excellent birthday honeys! I love you so much!

Owen's Jesus Quote

It was last week when Todd was putting Owen to bed when Owen posed this question: Daddy, does Jesus always know what I'm thinking?

Todd: Yes, Jesus always knows what you're thinking.

Owen: Welllll, Jesus THINKS I'm thinking about doughnuts, but I'm not.

Mother

The day started off not with breakfast in bed, but with my bulldozer of a 4 year old climbing on top of me at 6am. I made my own breakfast later and ate at the counter between prepping the barbecue ribs and chopping up sweet potatoes for the big Mother's Day dinner. A 10am trip to Publix brought home flowers and cards from the kids, which they very proudly watched me open so they could point out their particular artsy drawings of hearts and their names. I loved their strong little hugs & kisses.

During the day, I marked a couple of items off of my mental To-Do list, like trimming the cypress trees in the backyard so they don't attack me every week when I cut the grass and writing up the annual Wenzel letter to put in the Christmas cards I had addressed & stuffed with pictures at the beginning of December (finally mailed them out today...who doesn't like getting Christmas cards in May?!). I thought about how nice a massage would be and maybe a pedicure, since it has been months for the former & years for the latter, but realized most places would be booked and I'd just have to make an appointment for another time.

My Mom and Grandma came over for dinner and Todd's Mom was in town from Minnesota for the weekend. While I was setting the table and turning the ribs, I got to listen to my Mom tickle the ever-loving snot out of my kids, which sent them into fits of giggles that drifted downstairs. God, how I love listening to them giggle and giggle till they can't breathe! Todd's sister was kind enough to clean up ALL the dishes and the kitchen counters after dinner, which was much appreciated.

As we sat around the table, I thought about how our mothers and grandmothers have impacted my life and how I am in turn shaping the lives of my children. My Grandma is 90 years old and for the last 33, she has been a source of unconditional love in my life. She has seen alot in these nine decades and is always smiling or laughing. Todd's Mom helped him grow into a compassionate and fair man, qualities which I admire and sometimes draw on when I'm lacking.

But mostly, I thought about how my Mom has shaped and changed my life. Without her, I surely would never have cultivated such a strong love for reading and learning. And for crafts, she was ALWAYS helping me start new art projects that my little fingers could handle as a child and advancing as I grew. From painting, to needlepoint, to crocheting, to quilting, to building shelves to believing in me beyond any realistic realm, I grew up believing in myself that there really wasn't anything I couldn't do if I put my mind to it. I have very little self doubt in my abilities and know I can teach myself how to do something new if I can't find a teacher. I only hope I can instill the same belief in my children as they grow up.

At the end of the day, I realized that Mother's Day for some is about being pampered and given a break from the daily routine of caring for everyone else (I won't lie, I would have liked it if that had been my day, too), but that wasn't my day. Instead, I think what I found was a deeper appreciation of my Mom and the other mothers in my life who have helped me become who I am, who shaped my husband and who put love and laughter into my own children's lives. And for that introspection, I don't think I should be disappointed in the day.

That. Was. Priceless.