Florida Vacation Blues... :-)

Hello all. Long time no see. :-) The now "Minnetonka" Eiden's just returned from Florida spring break. This was the first time the kids have ever been to the ocean. We were very excited to take them along with us. A bit nervous about the whole "under tow" and "waves" and Hazel was very concerned about Sharks! We worked very hard to help her understand that it is unlikely a shark would be an issue where we were. But she was adamant that she "was not going in the ocean". So we decided not to push it. The first day we were there we arrived on Easter afternoon and immediately went to the beach. Within the hour Hazel told me "this is the best Easter ever!". So I think she got over the fear of sharks pretty quickly. We spent a lot of time on the beach and in the pools at the resort. Not as much as we would have hoped though because the weather was forecast for 80's on the Saturday before we left, but when we arrived we were treated with low 70's, cloudy and for two days we go some rain. But we still had an awesome time. We went for walks along the beach, Ollie and Haz chased sea gulls, we dug holes, usurped a few holes and looked for sharks teeth. The kids were able to actually swim from one side of the pool to the other by day 3 and I can't tell you how happy that made me feel. They still sink like stones and can't tread water, but at least if they launch themselves from one side, they could make it to the other! Ollie learned on day two that there is this wonderful thing in Florida called a "hot tub". Since he has only about 20 minutes worth of swimming on even the hottest days before he is too "cold", we had a few stops just to warm up a little. Turns out when you spend time in Florida you can't think of being anywhere else. Peg and I even talked about what it would be like to retire down there. But reality begins to set in and you realize, that Humidity and sand everywhere is pretty cool is short spurts...but maybe not every day. We returned to get 7 inches of snow...that that was awesome. But hopefully Minnesota will get the memo and start the Spring process. Oliver told me Thursday morning that he wanted to go back to Florida. Ollie has the Florida Vacation Blues..... Minnetonka, We moved last Fall to Minnetonka. Both Peg and I are super excited about the house. We think we made a great decision. I am about 10 minutes from work. The kids are still at Lake Harriet and Peg is working like crazy again. Turns out when you teach something you have never taught before you spend an inordinate amount of time reading books and researching how to impart knowledge. Luckily Peg has really enjoyed the kids this year and teaching has been great. Hopefully future posts will come more frequently! Pat.

Ballerina Hazel!

Hazel had her first dance recital. It was pretty awesome. Peg and I were a bit nervous about how well she would do. She's not always known for listening. :-) She did a fantastic job. She was on the stage three different times. First time up she did all of the moves along with the rest of the troupe. The next time up the group got a bit out of sync and some of the kids were off doing something and Hazel and another girl were looking at each other and you could tell Hazel was letting the other girl know that the other kids were doing the wrong thing. So Hazel started what I can only guess is the right set of foot work. It was very cute. The end "celebration" was to have all of the dance kids on stage. There were about 50 kids of all ages up there and they had cranked up the music. Hazel came out on the stage with her hands over her ears. It was kinda funny. She doesn't like loud things at home either. Several of the older dancers tried to get her engaged, but to no avail. She was not budging. Anyway, the show ended and she got flowers from her teacher and we got her some Pink Tulips. They were Ollie's idea. When he and I went to get flowers I asked him what he thought we should get. "Well, she likes Pink." he says. Then a couple of seconds later "and she really likes Tulips.". So that is what we got and she was extremely happy about that! We had to toss them today and there were some serious tears. But she was able to get over it. :-) The kids have started Soccer again and the team is pretty good. More aggressive than last year and so we are scoring some goals. I am coaching again and it's pretty fun. The kids are good kids. About 1/2 of them listen really well and the other 1/2 listen some of the time. What more can you ask for from 4 and 5 year olds? Our house has been on the market now for a while and today we had a 2nd showing right after the first showing. I hope that is a good sign. It would be great to get out and find something with a little more room. Pat.

Summer is Over....

Well, we have been incredibly lax lately on our blogging. I blame Peg. :-)


It has been a pretty busy summer. The kids played soccer, then tee ball, then soccer again. It was really fun to be involved with it. Dan Droll and I coached the Tee Ball and the soccer coach in the fall was gone for a couple of weeks so I had the kids for those evenings.




Peg took on the coaching responsibilities at Lake Harriet Middle School this fall. There was an expectation that this team would not be as good as last year since two of the girls that played last year were not playing varsity high school volleyball. But Peg did what she always does and "coached up" those ladies until they took home the championship trophy. We had to coordinate our lives a bit differently and the kids got to spend some time in the middle school gym watching the ladies setup the gym for practice or games. They really enjoyed that and the team enjoyed the kids. Hazel was able to get a ribbon for her hair most days. Can't go wrong with a ribbon!

After winning the championship, I like to think she "shocked the world",even though she had a "Chris Webber" moment and called a timeout that she didn't have which gave the opposing team a point and the win. It didn't matter because Lake Harriet went on to trounce in the last game.















Our second year of pre-school has started. We just had our first conference with the teacher. She really likes our kids and thinks they are doing well with the other kids. That is nice to hear. Our Hazel bean is not as outgoing as Ollie but we hear the kids really like the Haze and seem to gravitate to her. That is excellent!

They have become expert Angry Bird players on our phones and are learning everything so quickly.

Ollie has really taken to football and we play "football" almost every night. It consists of me tackling Ollie and making him fumble. But he does get his scores in. The end result is usually a tie between Daddy and Ollie. That way no one loses. He is the one keeping score. I think he doesn't want to hurt my feelings.

Hazel likes to cheer for us and call penalties. Nothing specific, but we "do things wrong" sometimes so penalties must be called. She also likes to call water breaks so I guess she is also our coaching staff.

Anyway it has been a really long time so I wanted to start something again. I will do better in the future and try to keep this up to date.

Welcome Summer!

Memorial Day has come and gone, and so it seems summer has arrived. Until recently, it sure hasn't felt like summer with the cool temps we've had. We spent part of the weekend at my sister's cabin and enjoyed being at the lake. We look forward to going up with hot temps so when Hazel goes/falls in the water, it isn't quite so shocking! On Sunday we cruised down to visit Anna and Eric in Rochester and had a bbq with my whole family. We were also able to celebrate my dad's birthday! Monday we had another bbq with our good friends/neighbors. It was a super busy weekend, but it was all fun!


The preschool year ended with a great concert and we are now gearing up for all kinds of summer activities! Soccer continues to go very well. Both kids are enjoying it more each week, and maybe even grasping the concepts of the game. Last night Hazel stopped during the game to yell, "MOM!! I kicked the ball a lot!" Both kids had shots on goal! Mom and Dad were so excited for them!




After soccer and a short break, we start t-ball. Until recently, Hazel has been saying she doesn't want to play. However, she now has agreed to try it if she can use her pink baseball glove! If that's all it takes!

Other summer activities will be: tennis camp, dance, swim lessons, vacation bible school, gym camp, and hopefully an art camp. Sounds busy, but I can assure you, there are many hours in summer! :) We are also very excited about our upcoming trip to Colorado to visit family! And, the kids will have their chance to walk down the aisle this summer at their cousin's wedding in mid July. We are already prepping Ollie he will have to wear shoes other than his trusted tennis shoes.

We are looking forward to a fun and busy summer. We will try to keep the blog updated as our adventures unfold!

It's Official

Our kids like Soccer! Hazel was running all over the place this week at soccer. It was freezing and raining and they still had a great time. The separated the kids and had Ollie on defense while Hazel was on offense. She was a bit frustrated at times. She ran past us during the game and said as she passed "They won't let me kick the ball". It was sad and funny at the same time. She took a tumble (the goalie on the other team was pretty agressive) but Coach got to her quickly and she was off again.


Ollie is a little less interested in where the ball is and more interested in where Hazel is. He did finally get to kick the ball once so he was pretty proud of himself.



So this week was pretty crazy weather wise. We had 80's, Severe Thunderstorms, Tornado warnings early in the week and then 40's and mist.

When the sirens went off I was ready for the kids to freak a bit. But I ran upstairs to shut windows and although it was exceptionally loud, the kids slept right through it. What a shocker and a blessing that was!

We didn't get much of anything. We had friends with golfball size hail in their yards (Saint Louis Park got hammered) and he sent me a few pictures of it. No tornado ever came out of it though. Just lots of warnings.

We have also been playing tennis in the driveway quite a bit. Ollie likes it but Hazel tires of it pretty quickly. She will start riding her bike rather than hit balls with Mom or Dad.

At one point, Ollie was going after a ball and Hazel as was riding her bike in the way (purposely) and Ollie accidentally hit her on the head with his racquet. Hazel was a bit perturbed and needed a bit of love from Mom and Ollie turns to me as he is hitting the ball back at me and say "luckily it wasn't my head". Which pretty much busted me up. He was right. Thank goodness he hit Hazel in the head and not himself. Good stuff.

I went golfing on Saturday at 44 degrees and rain. We had a great time. Even though it was crazy cold. As I was leaving for gave Ollie game be some very sage advice "Dad. Remember to try and get it in the hole". I told him I would do my best. I would not have played as well had I not remembered those words on each hole. :-)

We have a new bird feeder and this week was awesome for birds! A few years ago I saw a bird in my back yard that I was sure was a scarlet tanager ( I looked it up before I called her) and she was very confident in telling me that it was probably an Oriole and not a Tanager.



Well on Saturday morning an orange bird hit the window and I jumped out of the couch to see it and sure enough, there it was again. I had not seen it in at least 4 years. Well, this time I have a picture! It certainly is a Tanager.


We also had a red bellied woodpecker on our suet and 10 rose breasted grosbeaks all at the same time. It was a banner day!








Well, I can officially say I am exhausted from being outside all day, but it has been some time since I have posted anything so I figured today was a good day.

Pat.

Spring?

Well, it's cold again. Peg has gone off to spend time with a friend up at their new cabin for a birthday weekend and I am home with the kids. Great weekend weather to be cooped up.

We signed up Ollie and Hazel for Soccer this week through the Y. Hazel said she does not want to play because she doesn't know how. I told her they will help her learn and she will like it. I am not so sure about her. She gets tired running around the kitchen. But I feel like they need to start learning to play some sports. Ollie is happy to be playing soccer. Any sport is a good sport to him.

We also started swimming lessons this last week. The first time that the parents don't swim with them. I asked Peggy to watch them like a hawk. Those little dudes sink like stones when you put them in the water. Who knew kids were so dense! I guess the Haze did great (they were learning to dog paddle) and Ollie cried and needed some consolation from Mom. He said he won't cry next time though. I will let you all know how he does. :-)

If you can believe it they are also taking tennis lessons for a week. We bought tennis raquets for the kids and there was some angst as I could not find a "blue" one for Ollie. It's yellow and black. It took him a day to finally come around and ask if "is that spot right there blue?" to which we replied "sure". Hazel didn't even take notice of hers. It's purple and so that must have been good enough. I am really looking forward to having them learn to hit a tennis ball.



My Mom gave us bikes for the kids. Hazels is Pink and Ollie's is Blue. But Ollie does not like his because it's really hard to peddle. Hazel has taken to hers and really likes that she can now out pace Ollie easily. He rides his trike and she rides the bike. I think the peddle ratio is about 5 to one. Ollie does great but he gets frustrated by not being able to keep up. The Haze tips over at least once every ride, but she never cries much and we always get her right back on it. Eric and Kelly Eiden gave us a 16" bike for Ollie. So we need to get training wheels on it and a chain guard. It's not blue...but maybe I can find some blue stickers to put on it.







Spring has been pretty great so far. I have been to two Twins games already. Both of them day games. We have been going for walks after work with the kids (they ride trikes and bikes) and so it already feels like we are getting out of the house and back to nature.

Cancun

Peg and I had a great trip to Cancun Mexico last week. When we arrived it was raining cats and dogs. Peg was disappointed, but that didn't last long. After sitting and having lunch with a margarita. That disappointment fades pretty fast. We were on vacation!



So that evening we spent inside or on the patio of the hotel. We were lucky to be on the first floor so we could walk right out our front door and 20 feet later we were standing at the pool.

Sunday was beautiful. Peg and I ran along the beach in the morning. It was crazy windy and the walk back todk three times as long as the run down the beach. We actually had to lean into it in order to make any headway! When we got back, Eric and Kelly were up so we went to lay out at the pool. We spent all day just lounging around and reading books. Super relaxed. Eric and I got a bit sunburned, but it was fantastic to not have any requirements on your day.


That evening we went to downtown Cancun to eat with the locals...or as "local" as we cared to get. We had to take the bus, walked down some seedy alley's and Peg had to ask for directions multiple times. But we ended up finally getting the to restaurant. La Parilla. Seemed very authentic to me. The waiter only spoke spanish with Peg (thank goodness we brought the translator) and we had a nice dinner. Afterwards we stopped at the a local grocery store. Quite a sight! We nabbed the bus and went back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.


Monday we went for a run again. We went up the coast this time. Saw some crabs on the beach, lots of people on their morning walks. It was great. Another day was spent by the pool.

Tuesday we did some shopping (turns out the shops on Cancun are all things like Versace, or Dolce and Gabbana, or Louis Vuitton, needless to say, things were a bit outside of our price ranges. But it was fun.



We came home on Wednesday to 50 degree weather. Sounds like it was pretty nice here while we were gone also.

Anyway, would liked to have stayed more, but being away from the kids for a week is a long time and asking people to take care of the kids for that long just seems like too much to ask.

Pat.