First Day of the Last Year of Preschool

Today was Sam's first day of school. It was a long wait, but he was super excited! He was such a big boy. Walked right in, put his backpack up, washed his hands, then went to play at a table. Just like he was at school last week. That is something I can always expect from Sam. Once you teach him a routine, he will following it to a "t".

Taking the lllooonnnggg walk up to school. If you look closely that is actually rain on the ground. I'm sure the teacher's were super excited that the kids might have not be able to go to the playground on the first day of school. Since it hasn't rained in something like....forever!! Luckily, I checked with Sam after school & they did get to visit the playground.

The Super Sammie Smile!

Gotcha Day #3

We can't believe it's been 3 years since you joined our family forever!

We spent the day together....forever!!!!

You also practiced walking & rolling in your new Heelys!!!

First Day of First Grade

Another school year has begun and Matthew was ready to go and tackle First Grade at Steiner Ranch Elementary. His new teacher is Mrs. Burk and I have a feeling this is going to be a great year.

Matthew woke up on time without any trouble and when he got home he told me about all the homework he will have this year, Guided Readers and Math Keys. He said that he knows and understands that he might have homework every night! Yea, hopefully he will keep the great attitude.

It was pretty quite around the house without Matthew, we all missed him very much, but the day flew by and we are ready for the next one to begin!

Entering First Grade for the first time!!!

Water Wars

It always amazes me that the simplest things are the things the boys love the most! Their biggest thing lately on these triple digit days is to play with the water hose. Their idea of play with the hose is having Kurt spray them. All this started fairly simple - Kurt was watering some dry spots in the yard and it turned into an all out war. The boys even had to grab the cover of the trash can to protect themselves!

How to drive your Momma crazy in 1500 pieces!

One of the places we HAD to visit when we were at The Mall of America was the Lego store. The boys weer told they could pick out two sets of Lego's. Well, of course, there is nothing there that the boys want in their age category so I was on deck to put them together with their help (or so I thought)!

First we started with Matthew's Star Wars ship. This is what it looked like when we started.

This is what it looked like 6 hours later. Now I'm pretty good at putting things together. But with all the help that I was getting from a 6 and 4 year old. It took much, much, much longer than expected & it was finally done by the time Matthew had to go to bed.

Now the next day, I got a little smarter. I waited until the boys were in bed to start Sam's Indiana Jones set. I started at about 9pm. At 10:30pm, Kurt was kind enough to ask me if I wanted his help, I politely declined stating the fact that when it comes apart, I'm going to be the one here that will have to put it together when it comes apart. This was the final product...

And this is the time I finished....

Remember that is 12:19 PM!!!!!! And if you wonder how long they looked like that.....about 2 days! Now they are all in a box, all apart, waiting for me to get a pot of coffee brewing and a Valium!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer Summary

Since I have been so lazy with updating everyone with our summer fun, I'm doing it all at one time! School starts Monday, so I gotta get caught up, so here is the longest post every.....Summer 2008!


After we went down to Nannie and Paw Noska's, the boys went to Vacation Bible School at Triumphant Love Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, I took off to New Orleans the last day when they had their "show", so Kurt had to go to the "show" and didn't take any pictures! So the boys had fun learning great things at church all around the premise of a farm.


As I mentioned above, I headed to New Orleans with some girlfriends. We had a ton of fun, but there were some things in New Orleans, more specifically, on Bourbon Street that frightened me! Ok, now those of you who know me best, can wipe the tears of laughter off your cheeks. There were some things I saw there that even I was offended by - which takes a lot!!!!! I don't have many pictures because I wasn't in charge of the camera that weekend, but here is a great shot of Becky and Lissa enjoying participating the the song "It's Raining Men"!


Next we headed up to our Cabin for two weeks. Just before we got there Grandma and Papa Wagner surprised us with buying a new pontoon boat. We had so much fun on it. It was nice to have something big enough for all of us to ride on and the boys had a blast tubing behind it!
Matthew got to go into the Twin Cities one day with his cousin Alex and they visited the Museum of Science which was having a Star Wars display. It was right up their alley, they saw all of their favorite characters!
Then we all went to the Mall of America and hit Lego Land & the boys goofed around with their favorite sponge.......
And oh the rides, they boys rode for many, many hours with an unlimited pass!
Once they were tired of amusement rides we went over to our hotel, The Water Park of America. In this Radisson hotel, they finally created the perfect atmosphere for kids - bunk beds!!! We did initially have a brief argument over who would sleep on top, but that was soon resolved and peace was restored!

In Stillwater, Minnesota we had lunch at Lily's Grill & Malt Shop, the best Malt Shop ever. It was a race for me and Kurt to get any from Matt and Sam!

To round out a complete tour of summer, our cousins Darian, Jordan and Aunt Vicki came to visit for a week. We took them ice skating for the first time. They liked it so much we had to go again.
We also enjoyed the Children's Museum on a rare rainy day this summer. Matthew and Sam were trying to feed me the strangest meals in this picture. It was too funny, I think Sam said he was mixing everything with poop!


Other that going to the pool about every other day, this was super summer of '08!

How we are spending our summer...Part 1

Sorry for not posting very much lately, but we have had a busy, busy, busy summer. I'm so glad that I didn't put the boys in any camps because I don't know where we would have fit them in!

As soon as school was out, we headed to Nannie & Paw's for a week. We hung out with our cousins and got to experience many new things. On this particular day, it was full of new experiences.

First, we went to Quintana Beach. The boys had never been to the beach. Mostly because I was too afraid to take them because I knew they would love it and want to go deeper and deeper. Well, sure enough that is what happened. They had on their life jackets, and that helped a lot. But Sam is not as tall as Matthew, so every wave that came I had to pick Sam up. Do you realize how many waves hit a beach?!?! I had to take several breaks and thought for sure my arms had been lengthened at least an inch. They had a great time and have told me they want to go back every time we go to Nannie & Paw's.

Second, we stopped at Church's Chicken to eat on the beach. They boys did not know how to eat "fried chicken". They could figure out why there was a bone. At this point I was complete embarrassed that my children only new chicken nuggets. Amazing how we I was a kid, fried chicken, bone and all, was all I ever new. They finally got the hang of eating around the bone, but the best part of the chicken was that they got to throw the leftovers to the seagulls!
Last, the boys got to buy ice cream from an ice cream truck. You know, the one that drives around playing the music. I think the boys picked some sort of Spiderman & SpongeBob sugar-fill bomb, that upon immediate contact with their teeth, turned them to cavities! They didn't even finish them, but at least they know that things off the ice cream truck are not the best! Because of that I don't have to rely on a story from one of my girlfriends. He parents told her that when the music is playing from the ice cream truck - they are out of ice cream. That is some quick parent thinking!!!

Next summer stop....Triumphant Love Lutheran Church Vacation Bible School....

Kindergarten Graduate

I can't believe that the school year is over.

My oldest child has finished his first year of the 17+/- years he will attend in a classroom! He learned so much - he can read, write, & do arithmetic. Just like they said he would, but I had my doubts! He did so well through the year, continually improving in every aspect of his life.

No doubt with help of his wonderful teacher, Mrs. McCord.

No doubt without the help of his very, very proud parents.

And just as school started, it ended...with Sam hugging his best friend and brother as he got off the bus for the last time as a kindergartner.

Sneaky Sam

Oh Sammy Sam is my junk food junkie.....

We have this bucket in our pantry, it's called the "Boo Bucket", it's a bucket we received as a gift around Halloween that was full of candy. So as the months past it basically is the catch all candy bucket, or better yet as Kurt and I whisper, the crack bucket. First it was Halloween candy, then Christmas candy, then Valentine's Day, then Easter - you see a pattern, my kids get way too much candy!!!!

Well, every time the boys want a snack, they want the boo bucket. So time and time again I have had the discussion with them of the boo bucket has junk in it, it's not healthy and you can't have it e v e r y t i m e you want a snack.

Push came to shove last week and I couldn't take it anymore. Mostly what was left in the boo bucket was crap that even my hard up, detoxing, gotta get my fix boys didn't want, so off to the trash it went.

But of course, me being the smart Mommy that I am, I put the bucket back up there, so I could show them that they ate all of the candy and there was no more.

Then, of course, Sammie would not, could not believe that all the candy was gone, so this is what happened while I was getting ready for the day. He was so focused on getting that damn boo bucket down, he didn't even realize at first that I was taking his picture! And yes, that is our tall bar stools that he pushed across the entire kitchen. That is what tipped me off something was going on, I heard this weird howling sound, it was the bar stool taking off the finish on my wood floors!

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise....

I can't believe I pulled it off.

Kurt was C O M P L E T E L Y surprised with his 40th birthday party. He is now questioning everything I say to him since I was such a good liar over the past week. It was when the 5th person showed up that he finally said...ok, what is going on.

A great time was had by all that attended, we drank, joked (at Kurt's expense), laughed, and caught up with each others lives. Here are a few of the great shots take by our great friend (and shot enabler), Jackie Lum.

If you want to see all the action from the party, click on Kurt's picture in the sidebar titled "Kurt's 40th Surprise Party".