Trevor's 2nds

Well, Trevor has added to his trophy collection and now we have used a trophy display that was given to him for his birthday last year. This actually came about more because one of Gwen's bed rails broke off of her bed and has now made to move her bed so the railing can be used again. When Trevor saw how "cool" Gwen's room had become because she was now sleeping directly under her calendar, he wanted his room changed around as well.

So now Trevor's room has been rearranged as well. His one request was that his bed was also under his calendar. His room now has a large space in the middle, all ready for his sleepovers, so I don't have to keep moving the bed around to make room for the air mattress. I saw that we had still not found a good place, other than the floor, for his trophy display. And now that his room was rearranged, I asked him where he would like it. We found a place, asked my dad to help hang it up, and immediately his 2nd place trophy from baseball went onto it, along with his accumulated golf and talent show trophies.

I would say this year's baseball was a great success. The team ended the season 2nd place in their bracket, although their bracket had the upper 4 teams removed and playing in their own bracket. And I know all the kids, and coaches wanted to win that 1st place game, but it wasn't meant to be that day. I think slowly Trevor is beginning to understand that 2nd place is still ok. Given the fact that not every team made it to the weekend, and not every team got a trophy. The trophy that they got was very nice. He loves to show it off to anyone, even the people that were there to watch him get it, because now he can talk about his growing trophy display.

Last Friday both Trevor and Gwen finished off their golf lessons with their own Junior Tournament. Trevor again took 2nd place in his 5 hole league and again was upset by not taking first, but it seems that 2nd is really in the cards for him this year. Add to these two 2nd places, the fact that he is going into 2nd grade this year, and it may have helped him start to graciously accept not coming in 1st place. He is still very competitive but really has had some good experiences with teammates watching to observe how they react to the news. As parents, we are trying to be supportive and happy at Trevor as long as he is a good sport and tries his best.

Congratulations Trevor on a great baseball and golf season. May you continue to enjoy the sports and have wonderful experiences in the years to come.

First boatride of the season, birthday, wedding #2

Sorry for the lack of effort on trying to get some of these in, but hopefully I'll get through them while giving them their due, or is that do? I don't really know. We were up at the lake on my dad (Papa's) birthday as our first boat ride of the season. The weather had been very warm previously so the lake water was a nice 81 degrees. Everyone except my mom took a jump in the lake, but Trevor was nice enough to splash Bubba so she at least got a taste of the water.

I'm pretty sure the fact that you cannot see your feet or the bottom of the lake confused Gwen a little bit just like it does Trevor. We put her "life jacket" on that she will jump into a pool with, but she wasn't happy to jump into the lake with. I had to catch her the first few times, but after almost losing my contact I had her do it on her own. Really though it was just sitting on the ledge of the boat and sliding in. Trevor was good after the first jump and never did his traditional cannon ball, but maybe that was reserved for the next trip.

So the kids got to take part in their favorite activity with Papa, which is blowing out the candles and opening the cards/birthday presents. I really hope the birthday honorees are ok with how they throw themselves on them and "help" them for these activities. I still have to remind both kids that when they are at their friends' birthday parties, it isn't like our family that lets them blow out their candles and open their presents. It is their time. But thanks to our family for letting them take part!

Anyway, Kevin, Kelsey and Ethan arrived on Friday night and while it rained Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, the kids did get in a little bit of swimming Friday morning and Saturday afternoon before we had to head off.

It was on to wedding number 2 of the year for us which was actually Russ's family friend which I can now affectionately call one of my pseudo-psisters.

We all were invited to the reception but unfortunately Russ was not able to attend because the golf tournament was all out of whack because of the rain the day before. I think it was perfect for the kids because Gwen's favorite part was the dancing and Trevor got to hang out with Derek and Michael, Kyrsten's brother. I didn't have to keep bothering them to sit still, and act polite because they had both had a good nap in the car ride back and made it all the way until 10:30 before coming back home for the night. Tracy was asked to sing before the dance part of the reception and did a wonderful job. Then she danced the night away with the kids there even if she had never met them before. I think everyone had a great night.

So then we get up the next day to run up for a fun shower on Sunday afternoon. It was a pretty packed week! But it was great to be with everyone and say hi and have the kids have as fun of a time as they did.

Next up: baseball weekend!

Atlantic City and the Pseudo-Psisters

Eventually, we will have some pictures to post on facebook, but I think we are a ways off because of how crazy-busy life has become for the next month or so. And I'm not talking about me! I was lucky enough to get to go on a trip out to Atlantic City, NJ with three lovely ladies, two of which were classified as brides, a "moh" and a bridesmaid (me). The schedule was put on mostly by moh, and a quick snapshot is as follows:

We left on a flight Thursday evening flying direct to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the plane was over an hour late because of a weight imbalance with the luggage. Uh...ok. Nice job with that one. We arrived and went out to rent the car to drive around an hour into Atlantic City. Although it was almost 2am by the time we checked into the hotel, it was a great view of the city all lit up. I'm not sure if anyone in our group had ever been to Vegas before, as I know I have not, so I'm guessing it is a similar sight to driving into Vegas with the lights everywhere.

We checked into our hotel and talked to a very nice check-in guy who helped us by telling us about some local facts. We were near the edge of the shady sort of town, but there were plenty of ways around. He explained that the bar at the hotel closed at midnight. There was a great diner less than a block away. A wonderful seafood restaurant across the street. How to quickly find our way to the boardwalk, and also a menu for a pizza place that delivered late.

So we all went up to our room and crashed for the night. How sweet is it that we got to sleep in until 10:30 before rolling out of bed? It is an extreme luxury for me! We slowly meandered over to the recommended diner and found that they served breakfast throughout the day as well as other foods for a very cheap price. After getting some food, we wanted to check out the boardwalk. We saw the beach, and although it had a funky odor, it was interesting that there were plenty of people swimming and lifeguards every block or so on the beach. There was also a lot of construction. Although the weather forecast was a bit scary coming into town, we didn't see rain during the day on Friday. It was pretty humid but in the mid-80s was pretty tolerable to me. Our first stop was at the House of Blues restaurant to grab a drink right on the boardwalk tables. We said our cheers and then decided to check out some of the casinos. We were happy to find $1 blackjack seats for everyone and the dealer and one other player were very kind to us. No one lost a ton of money, but no one was ahead a lot either, if I am remembering correctly.

I believe it was at the casino where we were told to check out the beach bar back where we started. So we did. It was very nice as how many places have a bar right on a beach complete with dancing? It was early enough in the afternoon so that it wasn't completely packed so we grabbed a table near the dance floor and before we left some people at the bar remarked that they picked up the front row of tables to make more room for later in the evening. They said they had a huge crowd at night. We left after a couple hours but it sure was nice to sit in the sun with drinks and hoppin' music!

We went back to the hotel to grab some drinks at the bar with an order at the pizza place. We all were ready to go out for the evening so we grabbed a taxi to the Tropicana Quarter which is the Tropicana as a casino attached to a little mall that included shops, a few nightclubs and a karaoke bar. That is where we spent the evening on our way out, in the cab, was the only time during our trip where there was rain. And it was HARD rain. I wonder how the beach bar did that night?

We got back early the next morning and slept late again. Some of us headed out around noon to get breakfast from the cheapo diner and then moh and I headed out to the boardwalk for more casinoing. I stink again. We did the $1 blackjack and I won some of my money back after being down $40 but I still enjoyed being there.

We met the rest of our crew after we walked around a bit and sat at the other beach bar. For a late lunch, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then for the evening we hung out at the casino. Pink bride won over $170 in slots that evening! The rest of us didn't get our money back. So for our closing number, we went to the delicious seafood restaurant across the street from the hotel. Yum Yum.

Unfortunately, we had to wake up at 3am to catch our flight back to Minnesota. We had to get back to Philly and arrived in Minnesota shortly after 8am. I had a nap and just kept on going. Russ had to leave that evening for his trip to Tennessee.

Overall, it was a spectacular trip. Except for the flight delay on the way out, it was wonderful! And us pseudo-psisters are going to have to plan next years trip, perhaps to Chicago? Not likely that we will get to go out on free airfare again. Thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful event!

July is over before I know it

So with all going on this month, I knew it was going to get away from me. We have already been through the 4th of July, another weekend, and are at the lake for the first chance to be on the lake all year. Too bad the weather was horrible or we had scheduling conflicts until now to be able to get out here.

So short and sweet, our 4th of July was mostly spent at home getting caught up with yardwork, housework, and some "office" work. With the weather finally getting hot, we have been able to be out in the backyard but have found out that all our blow-up toys have holes in them. I'll have to run back and see if I can get some more cheapo things because Gwen can stay outside for a good chunk of time if she has some water to play with.

We did spend a day out at a local winery. It was a beautiful day, and although the drive out and back was a little long, we were able to visit with the great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and owners of the winery. This is the business that I currently do some part-time bookkeeping for, so it was nice to be able to put all my thoughts as real sights.

Trevor had the week of the 4th off from his parks program and he used it to heal from his ankle injury as well as getting better from a summer cold. Prior to the 4th, we had went out to the Mall of America and both kids went on as many rides as they could go on during the afternoon. My cousin and her family were in town and the kids enjoyed having someone to ride on rides with. Gwen was ready to go on any ride that she was tall enough for, and Trevor actually found a ride he is too tall for, so he would go on the crazy-wild Rollercoaster while the little kids went on their bumper cars.

So we have some time at the lake this week, a wedding, a shower, and then the end of the year baseball tournament for Trevor. It is going to be a fast flying month!

First wedding of the season

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending one of my cousin's wedding. It was the first wedding in the cousin group that we all had attended as a family of 4, not including my brother's wedding (because he is not my cousin ;-) ). I think everyone had a good time, and I know our family had a great time. The kids got to play around with some kids their age and Trevor tried to hang out with two older women.

At the wedding ceremony, Gwen was very interested to see the flower girl and what she did. Just like the wedding she will be in in a few weeks, the flower girl was dropping petals out of a basket. The ring bearer was my cousin's son which she also knew, so she was always waving to whomever was coming down the aisle and saying hi to them.

It was a bit tricky to keep the kids from not running around up until the dance started, but once that did, it was a chance for the kids to really let loose. Gwen even got permission to teach the group her dance recital piece to "R-O-C-K in the USA". While I did not get any pictures of the occasion, I saw the wedding photographers snap a few so there will be some documentation of the event.

There were two events where each kid lost it once. One I could have predicted since it was the end of the night, and Trevor, not exactly being a night owl, crashes pretty fast after the 9 o'clock hour. During most of the night of dancing, Trevor was playing a chasing game with the older girls, and they would hide out in the girls bathroom. Well, shortly after 9:30, Trevor started crying because he thought the girls didn't like him, or were being mean (which I know they were not, like I said, Trevor was beyond tired at this point).

Gwen's was a bit of a surprise. She was dancing to the "Single Ladies" Beyonce song and then they did the bouquet toss. We had not said anything about a bouquet toss, so she had no idea what it was about. But she stood in the area where they were throwing the flowers and she saw the lady next to her get the flowers. I think she then realized that they weren't going to do it again and she didn't get the pretty flowers. And then she lost it. Dad saved the day by giving her what looked like a bouquet from a centerpiece of small wildflowers. She felt much better after that and made a full recovery.

In the morning, for Father's Day, the kids got to play in the hotel pool for a good 2 hours before heading out on the road home. It was a decent ride home and one where Russ got a surprise gift from his mom and sister who helped remove the remainder of the dirt to the dumpster for us. It was a very nice weekend for all!

Wow...what a week for Trevor

Granted, the week isn't over, and I'm veering off of my course of trying to recount the past few weeks and fast forwarding to this week. I will try to get back to things soon. I'm feeling like I'm finally getting close to getting caught up. If anyone follows my train of thought.

Anyway, this should have been an AWESOME week for Trevor. It was his first week back at the parks for the summer. Capped off tonight with a sleepover. Thankfully the sleepover is still on, but a lot has happened this last week: I think it may have something to do with a development or growth spurt. As I have learned, things can become a bit disorganized with Trevor during these times. In the past school year, he had two weeks (non-consecutive) where he seemed to be completely out of sorts. It was the only time of the year where he even seemed to approach bad behavior.

So this week thankfully didn't have any bad behavior associated with it, simply lots of injuries. Now that I think about it, I wonder which is worse. At least bad behavior can be dealt with immediately, whereas injuries take time to heal.

On Monday night we found some scrapes that looked more like burns (not that I think they are burns, but they look more like a rubbing scrape, ya know?) on his back. He had been complaining that he felt like his back was sunburned but I explained it wasn't possible unless he took his shirt off at the park, which he said he didn't do.

On Tuesday, Trevor asked to wear his crocs to the park, and while I explained that it was his choice it may not be easy to move around in them. Well, Tuesday night he said he wasn't going to be wearing his crocs anymore because the inside button scraped his foot. Eh, not that big of a deal.

On Wednesday, he had his field trip to the roller skating rink. I'm not sure if he doesn't know his shoe size or if the skates weren't tight enough on him but he came home with big scrapes where the sides of the skates rubbed against his legs.

So on Thursday, we were at Grandma's house, and Trevor came over after the parks to jump on the trampoline. Not more than 10 minutes later, he had landed on his foot wrong and rolled his ankle. Thankfully, I happened to see exactly what happened, and it sure looked like it hurt, but I don't think it is broken. We have since iced, adviled, and elevated the ankle as much as possible. When I went to take off his sock after he twisted it, I noticed that the had an infected toe, probably from a blister. Poor kid! The infection has been soaked and bandaged as well as aired out for most of the day today. So hopefully he is on the mend now. He was not able to go to golf today and he was not happy. He has been able to hobble on it which is more than he was willing to do yesterday, although we might have scared him to even try to walk on it. Another lucky thing is that we did have Dr. Kyrsten take a look at all his ailments and while he didn't let her touch much of his foot, she can take another look at it tomorrow and make sure he shouldn't be taken in.

Ah the joys of having such an active kid. Hopefully next week will be better. And hopefully his growth spurt/development spurt is done soon.

Medals and Trophies

Trying to catch up here....this is from way back at the end of May and beginning of June. At the end of May, before Gwen's dance recital dress rehearsal, they had their final practice. I had seen a sign-up for parents that wanted to get their kids a trophy for being in dance 3 or 5 years, or maybe even 5 or 7 years, I cannot remember. Obviously I knew we didn't qualify and neither did any of the kids in her class. But on her last class I was pleasantly surprised to find out their teacher was handing out one of these to each classmate. While this picture was not taken when she got the medal, you can tell how happy she was to get it. We have kept all of Trevor's medals on a handle in the play area, so she has seen and even worn them as necklaces for a good amount of time. She was so excited to have one of her own, AND it is different than any of Trevor's. So she has started her own collection and will probably unknowingly be adding to the collection in July or August during her first experience with T-ball which starts in a few weeks. It will be interesting to see how she does with T-ball as she has been wanting to be just like Trevor when he has his baseball games. However, when she plays indoors, she often doesn't quite get the concept of running bases. Perhaps that will be the first thing she has to learn.

Now Trevor does not seem to care a whole lot about medals, perhaps because he has always had a lot of them from being in youth sports since he age of 3. I don't think he dislikes getting them, but he does have a special spot in his heart for this trophy that he got for performing at the talent show the last week of school. I believe this is his 5th trophy and he knows he will be getting his 6th after he completes his golf lessons at the end of July. It could be perhaps that it is due to professional athlete games and their trophy's, but whatever the reason, when he found out he was getting a trophy, he was overjoyed. I MAY have known about him getting a trophy before he performed, but I didn't let him know about it. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for him. You can bet that the idea of getting another trophy is and always will be a motivating factor for him doing any event. That does mean you will see more of Trevor in the golf world, hockey world, and talent shows to come!

Last day of school

Again, out of order, but this was one I wanted to make sure I got all the details about:

Gwen's last day of preschool was the Thursday before Memorial Day, so she has been out a few weeks now. We have had her go back to the childcare side of preschool, which she identifies as another class, simply with another teacher. She does get that she won't see her usual teacher until September, but I think she enjoys being able to play at preschool with some of her classmates that are also in childcare at that time. I am prepared to bring her back for some random days during the summer if she asks, or maybe if it works out that I have something else going on, but otherwise she has a few weeks of activities, and mostly trying to enjoy the summer.

Trevor, has been a jumble of emotions this year. Because he was a first grader in a multi-age class, most of the year he had been told that he would be continuing in the same class as a second grader, and older helper in the class. His teacher also had her first baby the beginning of April so the class transitioned to a different teacher at that time for the rest of the year. Then we found out that Trevor was accepted into a gifted and talented class next year which will put him into a different class for second grade, not the same class he had originally planned on. So throughout all these changes, he has become a bit upset. For a seven-year-old, it is a lot to handle. He has had a great year, full of growth, blossoming, and yes: change. Thankfully, we do have the entire summer to talk about how he feels about the upcoming change, and he isn't changing schools, simply classrooms so he does get to see his teacher and class from time-to-time.

I have been trying to express my excitement at the end of school, and of being a first grader, but it seems as though Trevor has more apprehension, without the thought of which class he will be in for second grade. When I asked him why he wasn't excited to become a second grader, he said, "But mom, when I am going to second grade, that is a year closer to when I have to move out of the house. I'm going to be so sad when that happens." Oh Trevor, I've been known to be forward looking, but wow...10 years? Poor guy, I never would have thought that the possibility of moving out of the house at 18 was so troubling to a 7 year old.

Trevor also got his report card and yearbook yesterday as well. No surprises on his report card. Trevor knew what to look for, and he was satisfied with his "grades" as we were. He did increase his grade in music, as I thought he would due to his piano lessons. His teacher remarked on his report card as well as his yearbook how she thought he had great leadership potential. I am still surprised at the impression that Trevor continues to make on the adults he encounters. It does not come without challenges, but it is fun to watch his personality come out and grow in a school setting. We just need to control it to the point of using it for the good of the school and not be influenced by the dark side.

Congratulations Trevor, on a successful school year, and I can't wait to see what is next in store for you as a second grader.

Kicking off our summer cabin season

I know most cabins in the area are open around Memorial Day, but ours always kicks off for Kentucky Derby. It is the first weekend in May and my mom's family has been doing some kind of gathering for over 15 years, although it would be longer if it wasn't considered as organized as it is today. I think the story goes that my mom remembers her dad really interested in the race for a long time. Strangely enough we aren't a race-track gambling sort of family. We love our card games, trivia games, and dominoes as well as casino games, but horse racing with the exception of the Kentucky Derby isn't something we are interested in. However, every year, it is a party date for us. We have a book that my mom has kept of all the pictures she has kept throughout the years. Most years, we noted the winner, as we draw horses in a oldest-to-youngest fashion. It is completely random as to which horse you get, but strangely enough, a lot of the people in attendance are multiple winners.

We haven't kept detailed enough records to know how we did the drawings from year-to-year. Usually there are around 20 horses to be drawn. It had been a good part of the years before the grandkids could get in on the game. So I think there were some years where we had an adult winner and a grandkid winner. Sometimes we had a "win-place-show" year so more people could win, but eventually the grandkids and the adults got to partake in the game. A few years we had to draw two fields of horses to accommodate all the people, and because of that there had been one winner that drew the winning horse twice.

Such was the case this year. Also, this was the first year that a great-grandchild has made it to the winner circle. Unfortunately, there was some heartache involved, but plenty of sympathetic ears. Trevor had a horse that was in the front pack at the beginning of the race. So he was VERY excited. Unfortunately, as is the case many years, the front horses got tired and fell to the back. Trevor was very upset. I don't think it helped that his sister won either. However, we have a list of people that have not yet won a Kentucky Derby, my mom....myself...my brother....my uncle....So while Trevor wasn't really happy to have lost, at least he had some consolation for those of us that haven't won yet, in many more years than he has been alive. Maybe next year bud!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am incredibly behind. I have a boatload of pictures to upload from the past month and many more stories to tell, so I may have many short snip its when I can remember throughout any given day. So here I start: Mother's Day fell on Kentucky Derby weekend, so actually I may have a post about that later, but I came across this scanned picture the other day and I had to write about it before I forgot the surrounding events. This paper was what I found at Gwen's preschool along with her classmates answers about their mom's. It is pretty cute how the perspective is at their age. I saw ages of parents from "really old" to 10 to 100 years. I especially loved the best thing about me.

So I let Trevor look at it, and he was able to correct a few things. He knows his weight to be 63lbs. So he thought based on that, I was 75lbs. Thanks Trevor! He corrected that my favorite food is Shrimp Tagliolini from Ciao Bella (which has been gone for about a year now....so sad) and that I like to be in the sun when it is 80 degrees. I give Gwen a lot of credit that she pays attention to all the answers that I have given to these questions. Maybe I should ask her the same thing for Trevor...what would she say is the best thing about him?