Ready for Christmas

The tree is up, lights are on the house, gingerbread buildings have been frosted together, and a cinnamon babka was made and consumed.  We're ready!

  

Thanksgiving in the Twin Cities

We celebrated Thanksgiving with all the Ossman sisters in Minnesota.  The meal was amazing and we had a great time.  It was cut short by treat if a blizzard in Iowa that only ended up bringing snow to Iowa City and south.  Kristina was going to be in California, but with multiple flights getting canceled, she and Francis drove up to MN to hang with us.

Sisters pose with the feast.

Kids table....clearly the "cool" table too.

Carving the turkey.  Cooked in a plastic bag directly from the freezer, 100% delicious.

Epic lightsaber duel!

Swimming at Uncle Sam's Mom's (Lynn) house.

Hot tubbin'!

  

Cousin time!

Cousin time with while posing!

Wall-sit competition

Thatchers vs Jensens.  Alena and Bentley were the last ones still sitting in the end.  We had to pull them off the wall as they were both clearly in pain but both clearly determined not to let the other win after 7 minutes and 50 seconds.

Brad lasted less than a minute.

Blast from the past

Mommy's old high school softball uniforms were resurrected recently from a Grandma Dee closet clean-out.  Still fits and still looks cool! 

Halloween

Halloween was fun filled.  Trickled and tested around our neighborhood and Edith walked the entire time, going up to each house to get her treat.  Often having a hard time deciding what to pick as she tried to explain to the hosts, "no nuts".  We walked around a few houses with Kiera and Alaina Hall and did the whole loop with Rowan and Auden.

Super Edith!

Edith battles the temporarily evil Alena.

Surprise, Alena!

For Alena's third birthday celebration (though not the last, the Jensen family party was the following day) as she turned 10, Lily decided that Alena needed a surprise party because we have gave her a surprise party when she turned 10.  It was her idea to be wrapped up in a box.  She and Finn were in there for 15 minutes, Nina in the smaller box, before Alena got back to unwrap them.  It was a very good, very big surprise!

Edith's loves.....35 months

Edith LOVES puzzles!  She's very good at them too.

Edith LOVES shows!  Especially " little baby bum" on the " little green tablet". 

Edith LOVES to read books.  "Read it for me" is what she'll tell you while shoving a book directly at your face.

Edith LOVES her tutu!  She wears it, literally, every single day.  Around the house, on Halloween, to Connie's....

Camping.....rained out

We had planned to camp at Marr park for the Halloween hike night but persistent rain changed our plans.  We still enjoyed the Halloween activities that were moved indoors and we still spent the night in Ainsworth.

Fun with wigs!






Playing with Milo, Kristina's new kitten...... Before he moved in with her and Francis.




Shelling the popcorn that Grandpa Ed grew.  Dad cranked and Alena and Edith took turns putting the ears into the hopper.


Trying on Grandpa Ed's cap from his National Guard days.




And even though we didn't camp, we still had a fire and roasted hot dogs.
It was still a great weekend!

Edith's morning ritual

For the past few months, Edith has decided that she prefers to wake up and immediately take a warm "baba" down to the living room, lay flat on the floor with her blanket, and drink it quietly and alone.  Yes, I have been standing in the room while she partakes in her ritual and have been told "GET OUT" in a gravely 2-year old tone (this picture was taken at great personal risk).  Once Edith is done with her bottle, however, her sweet little voice returns and she is ready to get dressed and move on with her day.

Early Edith gets the worm

Edith was helping Mommy with some landscaping, after a recent rain, the worms were big and active.  

Kirkwood 2018 Pig Out

Another Pig Out down.... There was the standard fare of unlimited sno-cones, face painting, charicatures, climbing wall, train, swings, and good food.  Both big girls climbed to the top of the wall and rang the bell, Edith treated herself to at least three sno-cones, and they all played in the inflatable bounce house and slide.  

Catch and release

This year we raised dozens of monarch caterpillars, some from eggs, in 7 different containers on our breakfast table.  It is amazing how much they eat and poop.  We had to pick fresh milkweed from Mommy's garden every morning.  It was always a treat to catch them in the act of making a chrysalis of popping out of it as a butterfly.

"This is the best picnic ever!"

Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ed were kind enough to offer to watch all three girls for a night and give Mom and Dad a night off.  We met them at Menards to make the parking lot exchange.  At a mile out, Dad came to the unfortunate and sudden realization that we had left Edith's beloved blanket at home (not just a cruel joke for Mom's amusement).  We couldn't send Edith off without it, it would just be too cruel to Grandma and Grandpa, so Edith stayed with Mom and Dad, as a solo act.

We hit up Aldi for a grocery refill, then stopped at City Park in Iowa City to ride the carnival rides during their final summer in existence.  Alas, we had a 90-minute wait before the carnival opened.......but were well stocked with groceries!  When a random assortment of food for an unplanned picnic is what you have to work with, guacamole, chips, and grapes is what you get!  And....nicely enough, Edith proclaimed "THIS IS THE BEST PICNIC EVER!" 

   

 

And after our picnic, Edith got to ride all of the rides AND she got to chase some ducks.



Even Edith's solo dinner was a treat, the Olive Garden.  Here, Dad and Edith share a breadstick (Lady & the Tramp style).

Starting fourth and second grade

First day of school!  It was a very nice summer, but everyone is excited for school. New shoes, new outfit, new stuff to learn.  Nora was excited to get Kiera in her class with Mrs. White and Alena gets to have Harper in class with Mrs. Lynott as her teacher.

Camping

First camping trip of the summer - Marr Park in the pop-up!  Edith was the most excited.


Edith and Mommy lay down on their "wing" of the camper.


The big girls climb a cool stump with handholds cut into it. 


A scooter tour of the 3 unique playgrounds of Marr Park.  Daddy ran from playset to playset with Edith on his shoulders saying "that's my Daddy".


Edith was obsessed with the marshmallows as soon as she saw them hit the shopping cart at the store.  Finally, she gets to have her sugar (no chocolate, Edith does not like chocolate).  Alena and Nora each got to have 2 smores because they survived a trip on the merry-go-round on the first playground of the playground tour.  They had to hang out from the bars while Daddy pushed it around as fast as he could.  They didn't fall off, so extra dessert!


Reading books before bed is a great way to wind down and get ready for sleep.  After books, however, Edith was still not ready to go to sleep, so she began an hour-long monologue about camping, saying in a string "camping, fun, Mommy, stars, big pillow, little pillow, camping, moon.....".  On and on until she fell asleep - the last one to fall asleep.