The game of Monopoly

We have a few things going for us with this game. Trevor likes to play games....what kid doesn't?.....and has seen mom play some games on pogo's site including Monopoly. We have the game for Wii as well. In addition to a Twin Cities version of the game (in "real life") we also have the Nintendo version. This is Trevor's favorite. And now that I've given him two dice to play the game with, he is doing really well understanding the game. I'm not playing with him yet, because a big part of playing the game is his imagination to come up with how to play the game. But slowly I've been teaching him how the game works. I LOVE how fast he is becoming familiar with the addition of the two dice. He started out having to count everything out, but now, he recognizes a good portion of the rolls and knows what the sum is almost immediately. So if anyone needs a fun thing for kids to learn their addition, I do recommend playing a game with two dice.

Most recently, he has been using the property cards, which in this case are characters from the most popular Nintendo games. He matches the cards up to where they are on the board, and is starting to talk about buying them. Hopefully soon we'll be actually able to play the game. I did look on the box, and it is recommended for ages 8 and up. I thought it was 10, but we still have some time.

Of course Gwen would love to be playing whatever we are playing, but she is ok with coloring and coloring and coloring. I've finally gotten out her new 16 color box of crayons, and upgrade from her 8 box that was pretty worn down. She was in heaven. All the new colors, including PINK that she never had before, and how new the crayons are.....she loves to color. Maybe she'll have a career in the arts.

Trevor got a little cold this week, but it was gone pretty quick. Now Gwen has it, and she isn't really having a good time with it. She is much more irritable. But I guess it is our turn. We haven't been sick much at all this year. She should be better soon. Right now, she was up this morning, but asked me to shut the door and seems to have gone back down for another rest.

As a side note, I shot my best round of the year at league on Tuesday. A 46 with 4 pars, two of which should have been birdies. Too bad I couldn't post that on Sunday, maybe we could have earned more money than we did.

So this week is the last week of summer. So far we just have a trip to the fair this week, and then heading to the cabin for the weekend. Tonight is Trevor's Twins game with me. It's our first date night.

Woo Hoo, we got a trophy

Well this weekend was the Couples championship at our golf course. The first year we played in it, we won. Last year we came in 3rd or 4th place. And this year we won again. Unfortunately, I wasn't the one that carried the team. I haven't been playing well this year at all. Except for a random day here or there. Oh well.

So we got our trophy for our win and were able to show Trevor, which I think was something that he was happy about. But he was pretty confused by how if we both won, how we both didn't each win a trophy.

Thanks to Grandma, Tracy, Derek, Teresa, Amy, Kyrsten, Jason, and the pets for helping with the kids while we were at the event. It was a beautiful day to be out golfing as well which also made for a great time. Now we have our relaxing week to get back into the swing of things....And we get a few more days of summer.

The summer programs have ended

Although this week wasn't very good weather-wise, the week completed with a camp called "Twister Moves" after the video game that makes you dance in order to get points. I guess they also played Dance Dance Revolution, which Trevor is familiar with due to us owning it for the Wii. They also played a lot of other activities, and Trevor seemed to do well and have a good time. He rode the bus for the last time this week and gave the bus driver a card that he had made, thanking her for driving him this summer.

I really think that even though he did pretty much the same thing as last summer, he really has learned a lot, even if it was socially, this summer. I'm glad he had the experiences he did on the bus, and I can tell the fact that he isn't the biggest is finally starting to become realized. We had our not-so-good days, but we had some pretty great days too. The understanding that sometimes I need to take care of Gwen when she is out of sorts doesn't seem to spur as much jealousy as it once did. The fact that she wants to do things just like he does is what really gets to him now.

There are a few things left on the to-do list before school starts in a few weeks. But it all does include a lot of time with Gwen, so hopefully he'll be ok with it. We have the Children's Museum, the Zoo, the Library, the State Fair, and perhaps an indoor park or two.

So there went the summer. I've felt the end near, so a lot of organizing and setting things up for school has happened. A big Thanks to Russ for re-doing our mud room closet. Now the kids can hang their things up without needing someone to reach the hanger for their coats. And my computer was having issues, and the computer geek resolved that one as well. What would we do without him? Love you sweetie!

A few noteable things

From the past week, there have been a few things going on. Some will remain unmentioned, but you know what you are. Trevor finished his week of Sports Camp and without even asking, he told me he had "so much fun" during that week. He played soccer, t-ball, "team ball" (taking a volleyball, throwing it to a teammate where that person could only take 3 steps before throwing it to another teammate, and trying to shoot a goal), street hockey, and parents vs. kids kickball. It was the hottest week and Trevor was sweating every day after class. We left on Friday after class to head to the lake for the weekend.

Gwen was much more ready to head into the water this time and of course didn't want to get out, even if she was exhausted and hungry. Although usually, once she understood that everyone else was getting out, she partially complied.

The weekend flew by, and the kids are now trying to play catch-up with their sleep.

I am now registered for 2 accounting classes on my way to getting an accounting degree through an online university. My academic advisor tried to tell me that registering for two accounting classes isn't something that he recommends because it is a lot of accounting to dive into, and unless you really like accounting, you might get sick of it. As kindly as I could, told him that uh DUH....I HEART accounting. If I didn't love it, why would I be majoring in it? It reminds me way back when, when my academic advisor told me that she advised against registering for 4 classes my first term because she wanted me to have a social life. When I came back and was graduating in 3 years, she said she remembered our conversation and was sorry for doubting me.

So my classes start the week of September 14th. I'm very much looking forward to it. Rick Moranis, you are my idol. ;-)

Trevor gets to see some celebrities

The weather finally turned nice. Or at least warm enough for me. The PGA Championship is here this week, and Russ and Trevor got to go off and follow Tiger Woods during his practice round on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we went out to 3M to meet and see all the Nascar stuff of Greg Biffle.

Both days were beautiful weather. And I wasn't there for the PGA, but when we were at 3M, it was great for Trevor's age group. He got his picture taken, got an autograph, saw the inside of the Nascar, heard the engine revving, and saw a trophy that Greg Biffle had won. It wasn't very crowded so he was able to stand and stare at everything.

As far as golf, thank goodness the Ryder Cup will be at Hazeltine in 4 years. He'll get a chance to see the good golfers, and hopefully Tiger again. But even if he doesn't, he still will be imitating him for years to come.

What would happen

Well, I know what would happen. But for some reason, Gwen decided that I needed to play with her all the time yesterday. We went from dropping Trevor off at the bus to the grocery store. So I had $100 of groceries in the back of the car when we came back to the house. As soon as we were in the door, Gwen said, "Mommy, come play dolls with me?" She hasn't really done this as an immediate request, so I thought, awww....how cute. Of course I couldn't get the fact that I had melting groceries in the back of the car out of my mind. But we did a few slides down the roof of the doll house, some hide and seek and then we moved on to the, "Mommy, come play cheeseburgers with me?" Leading to the "Sit right here." Which is my designated spot on the floor where we play cheeseburgers. She is the chef, and brings all the kitchen supplies and food over to me.

After I got the groceries out of the car, I figured it would be a good idea to get out to the park. There weren't any kids at the park, but we got a good turn on everything she liked to play with before we came home. No screaming, no real protesting either.

We got Trevor off of the bus after lunch, where he was in his Sports Camp this week. I could see how much fun he had when he got off of the bus. His hat was wet from sweat. He said that that day was soccer and that maybe the next day would be kickball. Being as active as he is, I know he had a great time.

Today is his last night of t-ball for the season. That is going to be pretty hard to be done with. I know he'll be waiting for it to start up again in the spring.

Unfortunately, during the afternoon, Gwen decided she didn't want to nap. She still had her quiet time, but it was the second time in the past 3 days that she has done this. Yikes. I know it's temporary, and she's still a ways off from not napping, but I don't even like the glimpse.

So if we ran the day the way that Gwen wanted it, I'm pretty sure we'd be playing all day long.

The week of VBS

That was Trevor's activity for the week. This time it was our church and the theme was "Discovery Canyon". Gwen enjoyed the theme song, but was a little confused that it wasn't "Son Rock Kids Camp" anymore. She still remembers that one.

I'm still astounded at Gwen's conversations and I do know that it comes from TV and such. All she wants to watch in the car is Finding Nemo, so that has become her "Toy Story" as that was for Trevor at her age. She is starting to complete the conversations that are in the movie, so if you know any of it, she'll play along with you. But the statement on Thursday that came out of her mouth was, "Germs on your hands, you need to wash your hands." BLAH! My girl is a teenager, I swear.

Trevor is completely into asking everyone any question he can come up with. I went to pick him up from VBS on Wednesday and his teacher was with him because he said he wanted to ask the speaker some questions. The kid's brain does not turn off. Last night, we had some pretty loud storms that made him wake up, and then he couldn't go back to sleep. He kept asking questions and explaining how scared he was, that we would miss the siren to be in a safe place. So he was up a good 3 hours in the middle of the night last night.

So only two weeks of programs left. Then two weeks off before school starts. I think I need to get some new clothes for the kids, but otherwise we are all set. I'm hoping that the hot weather will kick start the summer feeling before fall comes.

A unique weekend

This was the first time that someone else had both of the kids overnight. And second since it was for the entire weekend. Russ and I got to play in (separate) women's and men's tournaments that were on Saturday and Sunday. I was glad to have participated in it, although I was more concerned that the kids and my family weren't going crazy having both of the kids.

Turns out, there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. The kids got to go to the county fair, and enjoyed everything there was to see. I did check out the pictures...Thanks Mom! My aunt and cousins were visiting, so Trevor got their attention and seemed to play a lot of his beloved baseball.

Russ and I ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, so we even got a little time together. And it sure was nice to see the kiddos again. Gwen couldn't stop hugging me, although she didn't want my mom to leave either. Trevor couldn't stop talking about all the things he did, which means he really enjoyed doing it. He even asked when the next time was that they could go over and sleep over. And wasn't too thrilled with the idea of it not being until next year.

Gwen of course has learned a lot of new phrases, or at least a lot of things to chat about. She now completely says, "know where nukie is?" Instead of whining about simply "nukie?" And this morning she was singing her lullaby from the nights at my parents house.

So gratefully, the weekend was great. If only Russ and I could have won trophy's like Trevor did. There's always next year ;-)

His first trophy

Trevor had his last golf lesson on Friday and with it, they got to participate in 3 skills contests. First was putting, giving points for getting it in or close to a certain distance of putting. Trevor did ok with that. He never got it in the hole, but got it close a few times. Between 2 and 20ft putts. Second was a game called Snag Golf. You use over sized wedge and putter to hit a tennis ball to a flag stick that is wrapped in Velcro. You tee off, and then putt your way to the "hole". Trevor doesn't take very big swings on the "drive" so he did really well. Even if he didn't get it out very far, he could putt it a long way, and in 6 holes, his score was 18. He beat his age group and actually the age group ahead of him. I think it would be a really fun game for him to have and play at home. Last was a chipping contest. Again, getting points for getting it close or in the hole on 4 holes. Very tricky for him at this age. But, he had a great time doing everything.

Then after that was finished, we went inside for a buffet lunch and ice cream bar. They got gobs of "prizes", just silly toys and such. A picture framed of them, and were recognized for being in the program as well as called up if they had finished first in any of the skills competitions. All of the kids got the same trophy and medal and since that time, ALL Trevor wants to talk about and show off is his trophy. He LOVES it. It is his first real trophy. And he will let you know it if he talks to you. He has gotten medals from all his sports things through the YMCA so that's why the trophy is much better. Or perhaps it is because dad got some trophies from golf recently as well.

I did want to make a big THANK YOU to Ann Marie for watching Gwen during this two hour deal. Unfortunately, she was not very happy that I left, so it was a big task for their family. But she is feeling a bit more attached to me recently. So hopefully the fact that I left her (with Trevor this time) at my parents house for the weekend won't do anyone in.

Off to take my turn at a golf trophy.