3 years + 2 months

Lincoln is sporting some of his favorite pj's in this month's picture.  He has made more developmental strides this month.  For the first time, he has attempted, and somewhat succeeded, at drawing different shapes.  He has also started to play a lot more pretend and make-believe.  Much of this takes place during the hours he pushes trains around the wooden tracks.

Accompanying the pretend play has been a sharp increase in the scope and complexity of Lincoln's vocabulary and speech.  It often takes me by surprise.  His most common phrase right now is, "Guess what, Mom?!?"  The answer to the this question is often, "I have a new meeting."  When asked what the meeting is about, the answer is usually, "Jesus."  Ever since attending VBS in June he talks about "going to meetings".  Sunday school is also called his "meeting".

We're making slow but steady progress on the potty training, too.  We had a couple 4-day streaks (including during our vacation) where we didn't have to change a dirty diaper because he did his business in the toilet every day.

Besides pushing trains and going to "meetings", some of Lincoln's favorite things are helping Mom water plants, helping Dad wash vehicles, ignoring his bossy sister and playing outside despite the heat.

Library fun

We hadn't participated in many of the summer reading program activities at the library so far this summer other than filling out our book lists, but there was some fun stuff going on this week.  On Tuesday, Dan Wardell from IPTV Kids Clubhouse was there with his Reading Road Trip.  The kids enjoyed the show and taking a picture with him afterwards.  Emily took his message about turning off the TV, going outside to play, using your imagination and eating healthy food very seriously and declared we weren't going to watch any more TV the rest of the summer...until she woke up the next morning and wanted to watch a video. ;o)

The next day there was a juggler/comedian at the library.  Lincoln was particularly excited and impressed.  The comedy was more aimed towards the adults in the crowd, but it was a fun show!

Nebraska Vacation Day 4 (& 5)

We left the state park on Friday morning and headed to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.  I hadn't been to this zoo since I was in high school, so I was really excited to go.  The kids were excited, too.  It was fun to see their faces as they saw different kinds of animals in person for the first time.  We saw most of the features of the zoo, but ran faster through some than others.  We saved most of the air-conditioned inside exhibits for after lunch when it got hot.  Most of time Lincoln was more interested in the water features (waterfalls, fountains, pools, etc.) and concerned about where the train was at and whether or not he could see it than the actual exhibits.  His highlight was definitely riding the train.  Emily's favorite exhibit was the Kingdoms of the Night.  Overall, it was a good experience.  Here are some picture highlights...

We left zoo around 3:00pm and headed to Austin's parents in Waukee.  We went out for pizza and then went swimming at the pool.  We stayed overnight and headed the rest of the way home after lunch on Saturday.  It was a nice pit stop and a fun visit with Grandpa & Grandma Lorenzen!

Overall, our first family vacation was a big success.  It is a lot different "vacationing" with kids, and I learned some lessons for next time.  It makes me really appreciate all the places my parents took my sisters & I growing up!  I know the kids had fun, and it created some lasting memories.  I'm excited to think about where we might go next year!

Nebraska Vacation Day 3

Thursday was our service day.  In order to make the group trip fun for everyone, families take turns helping with childcare and prepping and cleaning up a meal during the week.  I played with the kids in Lincoln's age group (2-4) during the adult small group session after breakfast.  We ate our picnic sack lunch outside by the marina on one of the small lakes (more like a pond).  Then we rented a paddleboat.  It was blazing hot out in the sun, but we saw a turtle, an otter and lots of dragonflies and minnows.  We also fed the big fish by the dock.  It was hilarious listening to Emily try to be a backseat driver.

I also had everyone pose for a family picture in our matching t-shirts. They were thrilled! ;o)

We got good naps in before heading to the campsite area to help prepare the evening meal.  They have an amazing set up with a chuckwagon housing a large stove and grill as well as a large freezer and fridges.  There was a second trailer with all the serving tables, dishes, utensils and dry food.  Everything was under canopies.  Our meal was hamburgers & hot dogs.  Austin manned the grill.  We also helped wash dishes afterwards.  They have quite the system set up, complete with a portable sink & garbage disposal set in a piece of countertop!  Since it was the last night, Austin also helped out with tearing down and packing up everything in the trailers.  He noted that grilling and helping at the campsite was his favorite part of the trip.

I was mostly just a helper where needed.  After two days of declaring she was bored a lot, Emily spent the entire time (nearly 4 hours) engrossed in the Magic Tree House: Games and Puzzles from the Tree House book I saved for an occasion such as this.  Lincoln mostly just played in the dirt.  It was fun to serve our fellow campers!

Nebraska Vacation Day 2

Wednesday was a "free" day with no scheduled activities or meals besides breakfast.  We took a (short) family bike ride and checked out the larger of the two playgrounds in the park.  Both kids had a lot of fun with the digger toys.  There was also a fun little merry-go-round and a really cool lion drinking fountain.

After lunch and naps we went to the on-site water park.  It was very busy on a very hot day!  After holding out for almost an hour, Emily finally decided to cooperate and go inside and had a great time going down the little frog slide about 50 times.  Neither kid was very brave about getting splashed or dumped on by the wide variety of water features.  Lincoln mostly loved the water pipe contraption.  He also laughed and laughed when Austin took him out to "jump" over the waves in the wave pool until he got a face full of water.  Austin & I both tried out the big water slides.

For supper we took a little road trip to the town of Waverly, NE (population 3,328), which is only 20 miles down the road from the park.  We ate at McDonald's and then stopped for ice cream at a little hole-in-the-wall drive-in type place called Joni's Dairy Sweet that I found online.  It was everything you'd expect it to be from hometown posters covering the walls; the junky "backroom" with a chest freezer, vintage bike, piles of empty cardboard boxes, two arcade games and a single highchair; the owner sprawled out in a booth talking with a regular customer to the 13-year-oldish boys behind the counter overly eager to help but still trying to figure out how to tell when a pizza burger is done (they took it out to the owner on a spatula for inspection and approval).  But it had really good, cheap ice cream that was a perfect way to end the day!

We made one final stop on the way out of town for a picture by the cool town sign.  This little side trip was the highlight of the vacation for me (especially the brownie blizzard!).

Nebraska Vacation Day 1

This year we took our first ever family vacation (or "trip" as we more accurately call it) to a destination other than visiting grandparents.  In order to break ourselves in slowly, we tagged along with the Orchard Hill West group to E.T. Mahoney State Park just west of Omaha, Nebraska.  Every two years our church plans a family camping trip complete with full meals served out of a chuck wagon, planned kids' activities, small group sharing time and entertainment.  I don't camp (for many reasons I will not go into here), but there was a really nice lodge with air-conditioned hotel suite rooms.  We enjoyed a two-story room with the beds in a loft room upstairs.  It was great to be able to go back to the room after lunch, cool down, nap for 2 hours and then go back out for the rest of the day!  This year about 40 families with a total of 150 people went along.

Nebraska doesn't sound like a very exciting vacation destination, but there are lots of things to do in the Omaha area, and since the kids have never been outside of Iowa, any place new is exciting!  We arrived in Omaha around noon and made a stop at the Durham Museum housed in the historic Omaha Union Station.  There was a lot of stuff about the history of Omaha that the kids pretty much just ran through the exhibits.  The big draw was the trains.  They had some refurbished coach cars circa 1948 that you could walk through.  It was very interesting and one of the things Emily named as her favorite part of the trip.

There was also a huge model train display.  This would definitely be Lincoln's favorite part of the whole trip.  He literally ran back and forth between the windows for over an hour watching the trains go around and pushing different buttons.  He has talked about going to the train museum every day since.

The special temporary exhibit was called Mindbender Mansion.  It featured all kinds of games and puzzles to solve like moving a certain number of toothpicks to change the shape of the design or arranging smaller shapes to make a larger shape.  Austin & Emily worked to solve several of the puzzles while Lincoln & watched the trains.  It would be an awesome activity for kids age 8+.





We arrived at the state park a couple days later than the rest of the group due to the availability of the lodge rooms, but we jumped right in.  The kids at the camp had decided to put on a parade before supper.  Some moms had made a Wal-mart run along with lots of random things people had in their campers.  There were hats and capes and streamers and playing cards clicking on bike wheels.  Emily ended up with a butterfly mask, a lei and a pinwheel.  Lincoln had his lawn chair, a lei and shared a hula hoop.  Over 50 kids marched/rode around the campground led by a couple on motorcycles.  What a fun sight!

My funny picture of the day is Lincoln sitting with his lawn chair strapped to his back.  After discovering he could wear it as a backpack, he refused to sit in it because he just wanted to wear it.  He sat like this for over an hour!

Puppets, Swimming and Fireflies

We had a fun family day on the 4th of July.  I started early with a 5:30am bike ride with a good friend.  I logged my fastest and farthest ride yet!  Austin sweated walked the Shell Rock parade in the morning for the Republicans.  While Lincoln & I laid down after lunch, Emily occupied herself for over an hour creating sock puppets and a box stage to go with a short play called The Golden Ball she found in a Child Craft book.  That kid can make anything with construction paper, yarn and scotch tape!  Austin had to help out being the King and Prince while Emily was the Princess and Frog.  I didn't have enough battery to record the whole thing, but there is a partial video in the July play list that includes Lincoln's role. (It's too bad you can't see the taped-on yarn smiles on the puppets in the pictures.)

After the performance, we all donned our swimming suits and went swimming at the Waverly pool.  Although it was still blistering hot, most of the crowd was on their way home, and we eventually had the little pool to ourselves.  The kids had fun playing with Daddy and it was nice having two adults for going in the big pool.  I could definitely tell the kids were braver and more comfortable in the water after swimming lessons and our trip to the beach.  Unfortunately, our time ended when Lincoln was running back into the zero-depth entry and slipped and hit his head. :o(

After an All-American supper and bath time, the kids eagerly awaited dusk so they could go out and catch fireflies!  Lincoln definitely improved his technique over last year and actually caught the first one.  I think they ended up catching about a dozen, although there were never more than six in the bug box at a time.  Emily let them all go at the end anyway.  It's also very hard to take good pictures of moving targets in the dark!

A little before 10:00pm we climbed into the van and started driving towards the Shell Rock fireworks.  We ended up pulling off on the side of Hwy. 3 along with 50 other cars lining the road.  The kids oohed and aahed from inside the air-conditioned van with only small popping sounds heard in the distance.  We pulled out and headed home before the show was over to avoid the inevitable bottle-neck traffic.  It was a great day!

Sweet moments

Amongst the screeching and bickering over trains (the Emily engine in particular) and Lincoln Logs, rubber ducks and feet in faces, there are sweet moments.  Emily read books to Lincoln before bed for over 30 minutes while I watered the plants and garden tonight.

June 2012 videos

5 years + 8 months

I have often felt like a human dictionary this month.  Emily is always asking what different words mean.  Sometimes the answer is easy, sometimes I'm at a loss.  I certainly have a deeper appreciation for dictionary writers!  The funniest incident occurred earlier this month involving a sing-along song from a Thomas the Train DVD.   After Emily had been singing the songs for 3 weeks, she was asking the definition of several words.  After a while she said, "How can 'harm' and 'calm' rhyme?"  Then I had try to explain how if you're British (as the singers of the song are), 'harm' and 'calm' actually do rhyme. :o)

Along with singing the Thomas songs--especially the one about the engine named Emily--Emily has developed a slightly annoying habit of constantly humming the songs and other tunes.  Humming is okay until you have heard the same song four times in a row or she's supposed to be eating her lunch, or your head just plain hurts as it echos around the bathroom during bath time.  She also has a high-pitched screech that is usually used to yell at Lincoln when they are playing trains or other activities.  She can go from humming to screeching back to humming in a split second.

One big project Emily has been working on this summer is beginning to learn Spanish.  She showed great interest in different countries and languages at the end of the school year.  She's also in the critical age window where her brain is more receptive and able to pick up on intonation and pronunciation.  We decided to purchase the Rosetta Stone program to use on our computer.  Emily spends about an hour a few times a week working on the lessons--usually while I'm laying down with Lincoln for a nap after lunch.  She is enjoying the program and often tries to use words or phrases in Spanish when she can.  I have also done some of the lessons, but I'm starting to fall behind from where she's at.  The two years of Spanish I took in high school have carried me thus far, but I'm afraid she's going to pass me up very soon!  Once school starts in the fall, we hope to use contacts through the school to try and find a Spanish-speaking family in town that might be interested in doing play dates to continue to practice in a natural environment.