This Week: November 2nd- November 8th

On Saturday morning, I had a conference to attend to gain hours toward my teaching license renewal (I need to get 125 hours every 5 year period to keep an active teaching license).  Paul and the kids had fun going to see Choo-Choo Bob, story/songtime at a train store in St. Paul that has lots of fun trains to play with.

Then they went and parked near the airport and had fun watching the airplanes come in!  They look so big that way :).  Here are some videos Paul took...





After naps, we went hiking at Lebanon Hills , one of my all time favorite things to do.  Both kids hiked a long way on their little legs!  We walked for about an hour and half and Summer made it over an hour, and Colton about a half hour/45 minutes!    Both kids loved the little "bridges" we went over.  Here are a few pictures...

On Sunday we went visited Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ty's church and had lunch with them.  Fun to catch up!  That evening, Paul and I went to a Wild game with tickets he got through is work.  It was a fun date, and they won!

Mondays  are always are catch up on chores/errands day.  I love watching the kids play because they play so well together!  Today they read books, played cars, did puzzles, played in the laundry baskets, and helped me fold laundry/clean.   I snapped a few pics and videos of the kids...

For the longest time they read books on my bed...so I took a little video from behind the doorway...

"dusting" the floor (and walls, and carpet....)

puzzles

Here is a video of Summer...she is so excited she can "help" fold laundry now :)



Here is video of Colton...I heard him singing this song (to the best of his ability) while I was folding laundry, so I pulled on my phone to capture a video...




On Tuesday we went with friends Ms. Tara, Lilly, and Ameila to their library storytime in Richfield (they used to live in Apple Valley, but moved recently, and told us about the awesome play area in that library).  We all had a lot of fun!

Huge play area, and Summer's first choice was to sit and read ;)

Colton driving the "bus"

play area

Colton was fascinated by the gears

Each kid picked a carpet square with a letter or shape to sit on during story/songtime

Summer wrote her nametag all by herself

Colton spent a while playing with the big letters...and we talked about their names...

Then he put them down for "night-night"

We had a busy afternoon of baking, tutoring, gymnastics, and couples Bible study...one of the couples brought their baby along to Bible Study so we set up the pack n play for him to sleep in, so....

On Wednesday after BSF, the kids had so much fun playing in the pack n' play!  They brought their toys and blankies in, we put a blanket on top to make a fort, but the top game they both liked the most was when Summer (inside the pack n play) tried to toss beanie babies out, and Colton, on the outside, tried to toss them in.  Beanies were flying everywhere and the kids had a blast!

Playing in the Pack n Play

We had our first snow Tuesday night- Wednesday morning, and with the cold weather now, we have been enjoying more hot lunches (vs. cold sandwhiches in the summer).  Our favorite lately is making Panini's on our George Foreman grill...and dipping them in spaghetti or pizza sauce.  Its a winner with both kids and their Mommy :).

While we enjoyed our Panini's we started working on our new verse of the week we got that morning at BSF.  I'll post that one next week, but here is last weeks' verse....it was a long one, but we drew some pictures to illustrate it, which helped her the first few days, and then after saying for each meal thereafter, she had it down!

and Summer saying it from memory...



On Thursday, Summer had another "first" at swimming lessons...she jumped/swam all by her self to her teaching, including putting her head in by herself.  Each week she is progressing so much!  The kids had some fun Grandma K time after swimming while Tucker and I had an outdoor (chilly) running date :).  That evening we went to the opening night of Chik-fil-A!  We now have one in Apple Valley.  It was so busy, but we were quite impressed how they moved the crowd through.  We got lots of freebies, and also enjoyed playing in the playplace.



On Friday, we tried to tackle some of the leaves....we are blessed to have four large trees in our yard, but that also means a TON of raking in the fall.  We currently have piles without even needing to rake them (the leaves are so thick on the ground!) and not even half of our leaves have fallen yet!

Our yard...notice how many leaves are on the ground, AND how many are STILL up on our trees?!?

Our first pile

Gotta get one with Tucker in there too...

My little helpers

Sliding into the leaves

Colton's turn

Taking a break

We're getting close!

Summer loved getting buried, and it was pretty cute to watch Colton try to find her since he could hear her but not see her!  He would find her boot...and then her other boot...and grin the whole time looking for her!  Here they are both buried.

 After a chilly morning, it felt good to come inside and do some school.

Colton knows all of his shapes now....(see video)...we like to practice his shapes in a way that he can move...a lot...!



We are still working on his colors as you can tell from this video from breakfast...!




Summer worked on stencils while Colton and I practiced his shapes.

We also practiced writing her alphabet by herself (she needed help on K, V, X, and Z but did the rest by herself)...

 and matching capital letters to small letters.  She did all of them correctly (including the type written small "a") except for mixing up "b" and "d".

 That's all I have for this week!  Happy Weekend!

This Week: October 25th - November 1st

We had a fun week...

On Friday, we went to the community center's open gym (the first time we have gone since Colton could walk) and both kids had a blast running, kicking balls, somersaulting on the mats, and making baskets!!  We also met up with Summer's friend Sydney.

Colton lovin the basketball hoops...

Summer spent a large chunk of time running all over the gym kicking a ball.  Future soccer player?

Colton climbing up the mats

Summer and Sydney (birthdays one week apart!)

After naps, we turned the house into a construction zone for Colton's cars.  We made tunnels from wrapping paper tubes, roads from masking tape, stoplights and parking garages from paper, and had a ton of fun.  I loved seeing Summer's creativity.  She loved making the masking tape roads all by herself this time.  Both kids enjoyed the clean-up process almost more than the creation process--masking tape is fun to pull up!

The start of the creation....

Making the tunnel longer...

Colton testing the tunnel

Summer laying down the roads

Roads now have stoplights

And a tunnel leading up to the parking garage

 In the meantime, Colton found Tucker's discipline squirt water bottle and had a blast squirting himself...love the giggles in this video...

Cleaning Up

While I was finishing dinner, the kids played "swimming lessons" with the dolls "Nikki and Nora".  They jumped them into the water from many "high" surfaces.

Jumping Nikki and Nora into the "water" off the "side of the pool"

I love that Summer can play cars with Colton and Colton can play dolls with Summer :)

On Saturday, Paul had men's breakfast at church so the kids and I had fun playing with Summer's giant foam alphabet puzzle.  Putting it together had us saying the letter names frequently for Colton, and after it was put together Summer LOVED hopping from one letter to the next spelling all sorts of words (she picked the words she wanted to spell and as I said the letter sound, she would try and jump from one letter to the next).  After Daddy came home, we went for a family run.  After naps, we headed to a local church's "Trunk or Treat" carnival/games for candy.

At Trunk or Treat

We then went to our church for a bonfire and Summer got her first experience with roasting marshmallows and S'mores. :)

On Sunday, we had our pretty normal day with church, family time, and projects/chores.  I also got to get out for coffee with a friend. :)

On Monday, Grandma T. had the day off work, so she drove down from Fergus Falls to see us!  We kept her busy with playing with baby dolls and cars, playing Hide-and-Seek, reading books, and going to the park. :) I wish I got some pictures, but we were too busy having fun.   Fun to see you Grandma T!  That afternoon Summer worked a bit in her preschool workbook.  I snuck this video when she didn't know I was taking it because she is more natural that way, and I wanted to capture her adorable concentration :)



On Tuesday (and several days this week) I got some special Colton time in the morning while Summer slept in a little later than usual.  I love this little video of him playing trains and making his "train noise"...




Tuesday was our first day of gymnastics for the year!  While TAGS offers gymnastics year 'round, we only sign up during the cold months when we can't play at the park :).  Summer was SO excited to go!  Actually, ecstatic might be a better word choice than excited ;).  This year she is in the 3 year old class, so she goes all by herself, whereas last year. she and I did the parent-child class.  This year I decided to do the parent-child class with Colton so that he wouldn't have to sit around and wait during Summer's lesson, but could be "doing something too" and it is a blast!  He LOVES it!  So many giggles.  So weird for me to be in the same class, same teacher, doing same things as last year, but with a different kiddo!

Colton wore his backpack all around the house....for a long time.  He loves it!

Ready to go!

Practicing our "tree"

Practicing "Ta-Da"

Both kids (and me!) like watching the big kids

Ta-Da!  We're ready for class!

 Colton sat with Summer on her class's mat until her class started.

Summer in her 3 year old class

Colton watching Summer through the kid's window

Colton's turn!  (his class is shorter than Summer's and starts 15 minutes after hers)  He loved the foam pit, along with EVERYTHING else!

After gymnastics, we went met daddy at Ms. Leah, Mr. Mike, and Emma's house for pizza.  We normally have couple's Bible study on Tuesday nights, but our small group does family night on 5th Tuesdays.  We had a lot of fun eating pizza and playing!  I was very proud of Summer using her verse of the week this week  (Matthew 5:44--Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you) when during playtime, one of the little friends bit her hand when he was upset...as we washed Summer's hand, she started (all on her own) praying that God would help him not to bite again.  I LOVE seeing her Bible verse in action!

Pizza with our Couple's Bible Study--Kid's table

On Wednesday, after BSF, we went to the mall to pick up the kid's pictures from Pennies.  We also had some fun playing in the mall play area.  Colton, I am learning, has a very physical side to him.  When he gets upset he likes to swing his arms, kick his legs, push, etc.  So, he had to take a few timeouts while we were playing....but the sweetest moment was when (after a timeout for an infraction with his sister) he (like I told him to) went up to Summer and clearly said, "I'm sorry Summer" and gave her a kiss.  Adorable.

Pretend driving the car at the mall's indoor playplace

During lunch, Summer and I practiced her new verse of the week she got that morning at BSF.  It is Matthew 6:19-21....3 verses long.  We have worked on it each mealtime since then, and she is getting really close to getting it down!  I will hopefully post of video of it next week.  We also did some preschool in her workbook.  Summer also helped me put my birthday present from her, Daddy, and Colton up on the wall.  It is a wall cling for our bedroom, and I have had my eye on it since last January :-).  Paul remembered :-)  It takes a lot longer than I thought to put it up, but I am really happy with how it turned out.

On Thursday, Grandma Kirkwood came over, and after swimming lessons, we went to the zoo.  Because it was Halloween, it was really empty and the kids basically had certain trails to themselves, which made it really fun!  That evening, the kids had a blast trick-or-treating with our neighbor girls, Faith and Noelle.  My favorite Summer memory is how outgoing she is...she would run up to each door, and no matter who answered the door she would exclaim with a big smile "Trick or Treat" and many times follow up with starting up a conversation with whomever gave her candy about her costume, her gloves, what she likes to do, etc.  She loves to talk people's ear off!  My favorite Colton memory is watching him waddle in his elephant costume and follow the big kids' lead saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" in his little Colton voice :).

We're ready!  (Colton used Summer's elephant costume from last year, but we added a tie to make it more "boy-ish" :) )

With our favorite neighbors!

LOVE this picture (especially of Colton the elephant!)

My boys :)

Summer's loot (yes she really was this excited all night!)

Colton's loot

Two videos Paul took...the first is of the kids trick or treating, the second of Summer handing out candy from our house (which she loved!)








On Friday, we headed off to a Halloween Party at Ms. LaDonna's house!  Before we could leave however....I have a little side-note with some pictures to share.  Colton learned the word "self" (all by myself) this week and has been using it constantly to express that he wants to do EVERYTHING by himself.  This morning he decided that he wanted to put on his shoes by himself.  I let him try for about 5 minutes (always asking him if he wanted help to which he replied "self!" emphatically!) while we waited for Summer to go potty.  In the meantime I took this string of pictures.  While he did not succeed in his task, I was very impressed with his persistence without getting frustrated, and he would have continued trying had I not told him that it was "Mommy's turn" to put his shoes on ;).  Here is his attempt at putting his shoes on...

First I have to get this velcro thing off...

How do I do this?

My foot...has to go in there....

Maybe if I try this angle...

Hmmmm, is that even big enough for my foot???

Let's try it over on the rug...

Come on, foot...

C'mon...

I got my toes in!

Anyway, after a bit of a tantrum when I decided it was time for Mommy to put his shoes on ;) we headed out to Ms. LaDonna's for a Halloween party.  Fun to compare these "couch pictures" with the first party from 2011!  (Lots more kids now too)....

Addison, Summer, Lilly, Adelyn, Leyla, Brandon, Sydney

Ian, Amelia, O'Neil, Colton, Brody

After lunch, Summer asked me to help her write "Tommerdahl".  She can write "Summer" all by herself now, and knows how to write all the letters needed for Tommerdahl (except for "D" which I taught her today), so we got out a white board I used to use when I was teaching (fyi it is made from a shower board from Menards--super cheap way to get lots of personal size white boards!) and went at it.  We focused a lot on making "tiny" letters so as to fit all the letters of one word on one line.  She did great...and we even did her middle name too.

Then she had fun drawing!  Her people now have arms, legs, belly buttons, and often bottoms ;)

Well, tonight we are off to Auntie Kristin's!  She invited us over for Macaroni and Cheese...can't resist that!