Feelin' the Valentine Love

I've been a lazy blogger lately, especially since discovering Smilebox. So today I thought I'd do an old school post and share some pictures from Valentines Day. I meant to go to Simon's school party, but of course, Nina and I arrived just as the party was ending. Always a minute late and a dollar short! :) I had arranged with my friend Sarah for Zach to come straight home to our house after school. When the boys got in the car I handed them a scroll of paper tied with a ribbon. The note said, "Welcome to your valentine treasure hunt! Here is your first clue: 1,2,3,4, somewhere on the hardwood floor. 5,6,7,8, before Nina climbs up them, we'll need a gate!" They were so excited to get started and hunt all over the house. But first things first. They both had to dump out their valentines from their classmates and eat the pixie sticks. It's colored sugar - what could be better!!



Then they got busy searching for their treasure. Here they are hopping off the kitchen counter after finding a clue in a water bottle in the cupboard.



They finally found their goodies and were nice and sugared up by the time Zach went home. So it's only logical that we decided to make brownies for dessert that night.



Mind you this was still the day before Valentines Day. The morning of Valentines Day, Brian and I exchanged these:



We went swimming on Valentines Day at the Brighton pool. Nina loves it, and loves to drink the water - yum! Simon showed me his newest skill, treading! And we got plenty of time playing sharks and minnows too. It's hard to play with only one shark and one minnow, but we manage. In the afternoon we headed down to our friends down the street for a Lego birthday party. It was a hoot! We played lego charades, had a treasure hunt and lego cake. It was a great way to celebrate O's birthday. Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Scottsbluff to visit Grandma Klein. We love to visit her and stay in the retirement home in guest quarters. They happen to be right next door to Grandma's apartment so it's really convenient. Of course the whole place knows we're coming days before and Simon and Nina get lots of pinches and attention from all of the residents. They eat it up! Speaking of eating, we love to eat with Grandma in the dining hall of the home. My mom's brother Roger and his wife Kathy came to eat lunch with us the first day. Despite the somber looks on their (and Grandma's) faces, they really were glad we came! :)



My uncle Roger is a career military man and will be deployed to Kuwait in April so it was nice to be able to see him and spend some time with him before then.



Aunt Kathy is a natural with the kiddos, and they both love to visit her and be spoiled by her.



On Monday we visited my dad's dad and brother in the afternoon. Grandpa has been in the hospital recently, but he's on the mend now.



Grandma Klein came with us to visit them. Simon and Uncle Bill played catch most of the time. Then they played chinese checkers and the old game of concentration that my brothers and I used to play when we were kids.



When we got home, we got a visit from our Tuesday afternoon crew! We have a standing playdate on Tuesdays with our friends, and Nina was excited to see her BFF again.

Merry Christmas!

Well, last night was the firm's annual holiday party. What a hoot! Enjoy the pictures and the videos of Brian's "performances". :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Handel's Messiah

More pictures from the season, including Brian singing Handel's Messiah with the Chamber choir of Augustana Lutheran.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Holiday Photos

Ok, I'm having too much fun with Smilebox!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

9News Fun!

Through our moms' group, Momslikeme.com, Babs and I were chosen to showcase some homemade holiday gifts on 9News at 4pm on December 9th. We were soooo nervous, but everyone was so nice at 9News that we were able to calm down. The segment was lots of fun!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ouch!

What a week! I won't go into detail since, as Simon says, "I don't want to talk about it!", but let's just say Simon won't be jumping on any trampolines again anytime soon - if ever! :)




Thanks for all of the calls, cards, and goodies for gimpy. He's doing much, much better!

Yes We Can!

Change has come. Here's to a better future! God Bless America!

BOO!

We love this neighborhood! At 6pm, the streets are full of little trick or treaters. So much fun! Nina's bedtime is usually 6:30 and (surprise, surprise!) she decided against her naps yesterday. So she was extra tired, but hey, we can't miss Halloween. The plan was for her to be an eggplant, and we got (and still get) lots of use out of our adorable eggplant hat, but alas, mom was not organized enough to figure out the costume. Last week after Boo at the Zoo, Nina's Cha Cha dug up Kate's bumblebee costume and loaned it to Nina. It worked out great too because it kept her nice and warm. Simon decided against the white face make-up for this go-around so the brown eyeliner was all we needed.



In keeping with our Halloween tradition, we trick or treated with our friends down the street. The kids were giddy and hyper, even before the candy. Isn't that what Halloween's all about? But I think we adults have even more fun chatting with all of the neighbors and taunting and teasing those with the dreaded McCain/Palin signs, while cheering for those with Obama/Biden signs. J is a centipede below. How stinkin' cute is that idea?



This was Nina's and her BFFs first Halloween. They were both so thrilled, as you can see. :)



Now, prepare your eyes for what you are about to see. Mom and Dad went to a Halloween party in the Villages. A lot of people do some sort of "couple" costume so mom and dad decided to go as each other. Mom is wearing one of the meat department frocks from dad's job at the local Winn Dixie supermarket. Please note that she is also sporting not only a mustache, but also dad's legendary "serial killer" smile so often seen in most of our family photos. Dad is wearing a ladies golf skort, too much make-up for even the most beautiful drag queen, and some sort of breast enhancing device. He asked to wear some of mom's pantyhose as well, but mom got a little nervous about his total enthusiasm for the project and had to put her foot down.



Seriously, Dad does seem to be enjoying cross dressing just a tad too much, don't you think? And I'm betting that mom's golf stance is better than that. :)



Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored Simon for both the Run for the Lynx and the Jump Rope for Heart events! He did a great job and participated (once again) in honor of his Great Grandpa Klein. And yes, we do feed him. I can't help it. He is so dang skinny. I am trying to fatten him up the best I can.

So the answer to the previous post regarding what's different about Simon is that he FINALLY lost one of his two front teeth. Before that he had only lost his two bottom teeth. Well, Brian yanked on that top tooth until it finally came out. The one next to it is loose as well, and we have it partly out. Because is it only partly in still, it is being pushed out at an angle and it is seriously in the middle of his smile right now. You can't get much more hillbilly, believe me. Although, we think this may have helped Simon land a part in the school play this past week. His part, Tex Glitter, has a southern accent and is a hillbilly of sorts. The music teacher said his southern accent was hysterical and that with the teeth, he's the perfect Tex.

Remember when I said recently that Simon hasn't had any behavior issues this year? Well, scratch that! In his parent-teacher conference we've been informed that the reason that his grade is so poor in art is that instead of doing his work, he chooses to goof around and do his stand-up act. He knows his homeroom teacher won't stand for it, but the art teacher is a bit shy so of course, Simon took full advantage. His response when we told him that there is a time and a place to be funny, but it's not during art class? "I know, Mom, but it's my career!" Crazy kid.



He and Zach went trick or treating last weekend at a community center event. The clown costume is perfect for Simon. As Zach said, "Simon, you really are a clown!" Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I was doing his make-up that I had no red lipstick. I thought for sure I had an old Estee Lauder give-away or something. But no, I must have cleaned out the bathroom drawers. See what happens when I clean? I can't find things that I need. So instead, Simon the clown had a Raisenberry Brown mouth and a nose drawn on with black eye liner.

And Miss Thing continues to do what she wants when she wants. What a kid. The other day after a playdate I was working in my office when I heard a bang up against the kitchen island. She had pushed this walking toy from the TV over to the island. So I put her back on the carpet with it, and away she went. That kid is so strong willed! She is such a stinker - and we are loving every minute of it!! :)

Papa's back!

We love having Papa back from his conference in New Orleans. Anyone notice anything different about Simon? Besides the mask, I mean. :)

Four Generations

Well, my dear friend Janel has done it again. She traveled with us to Scottsbluff last weekend to take photos of Nina, me, my mom and my Grandma. It was so special to us, and to have Janel with us made it extra special. I'll post a few of our favorites below. Janel took a few posed shots, and then some candid shots of us just hanging out, listening to Grandma play the organ, and looking at scrapbooks together. Janel, we are so grateful to you! Thank you so much!!







My mom's brother was able to join us for a bit so it was great to have him there as we were looking through the scrapbooks. Everyone has their own "version" of what happened in their childhood. :)



Nina loved watching Great Grandma play the organ.



Can't ever hug her too much!



My dad's dad joined us for breakfast one morning and Janel got this shot of him with Nina in the Perkin's parking lot. So cute!

6 months

Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but time is really flying by! Our sweet girl is 6 months old already. She passed her six month check-up with flying colors. Mom and Dad got a scolding from the doctor, though. Apparently a 6 month old baby who weighs 20 pounds does not need to nurse three times during the night. Who knew? We were instructed to "Let her cry!" Yikes! We were terrified. And what happened? She cried for a whole seven minutes. That's it. Seven minutes. Then slept on through. And has slept through since. Again, who knew? You would have thought we would know these things since we have had a baby before. But no. We are really clueless.

In the meantime, Miss Thing is gobbling up solids like she's training to enter pie eating contests:



She's crawling all over the place and getting into everything:



And hanging with her peeps:



Simon is a big second grader, and loving every minute of it. Not that he would admit to liking it, mind you. He's had a great start this year. No *ahem* "issues" like last year (remember the note from the teacher: Simon needs to save his stories for recess)? Yea, none of that so far. He tries to schedule his stand-up routine for lunch, and that seems to be working out well so far.

His school did a fun run to raise money for their sports programs. Did I mention that Brian is currently Simon's team's assistant flag football coach? Holla! Simon collected pledges and made it eight times around the loop. There was a bouncy house on each side of the loop that the kids had to run through. It was super fun, but it was HOT. Hello, people! It is almost October. Enough of the 90 degree weather already! I want crunchy leaves and soup!



After the run, Simon's class hosted their first Authors' Tea. The parents came, and the kids read their first written pieces. This month, fairy tales. Simon read his story nice and loud, with emotion and inflection. It was awesome! I was so stinkin' proud of that kid!



Here, in its entirety, and the original, is Simon's story:

The Shark Clue
By Simon Bernhard

Once upon a time there was a shark named prefeser mysterio. Every time his family thought something was wrong of cores he had to solve it. Most of the time it was just a knook on the door or the door bell. He knew it all the time. But sometimes there keys where stolen. If he could not find them in the house, he would look all over the neighborhood. He took training to look for clues. And so he knows how to do it now. Ok, not everything. So where were we. Oh yah. He hunted at dusk but the only thing he hunted was water dragons. He never got one. The End.

You may want to consider that for your next book club selection! Hope all are well! :)

Our Little Eggplant

Well, my friend Janel has done it again! Remember when she made Nina this adorable newborn hat seen below:



Well, now that her newborn hat is too small and safely tucked away in Nina's box of newborn keepsakes, Janel has made her an eggplant hat. How stinkin' cute is this? Janel, thank you SO SO much! We absolutely love it! Now, if I can just convince Simon to be parmesan cheese for Halloween so we can have Eggplant Parmesan! So far, no luck. He wants to be a vampire. But how cute would Eggplant Parmesan be? Thank you, Janel!!