A Great DAy At The Park

On Saturday, Kirstin and Jeff's anniversary, we had Logan and Liam all afternoon. We decided to take them to the park to play. During the walk to the park, Liam decided that he was very tired and tried to fall asleep, while Logan was busy looking around. Well, we eventually got to the park (Earle Brown School play ground) after stopping at some friends to keep Liam awake. They saw the slides and thought it would be great fun to walk up. They tried to walk up and made it only a foot. So we helped them. Then they thought they should come down. But Liam decided that he wanted to go to school and tried to get in. "Let me in", he said. But nobody was there. "Ohhhhhh! It's Saturday" he thought.
Meanwhile at the slides, older brother Logan was having a ball whooshing down the green shoot. This is the best fun he has had in a long time, at least that we know of. Well, I bet that their dad has some pretty fun stuff he does with them, but they never tell us the fun they have had.
Sometimes they decide that they must do the same thing at the same time. "Get out of my way, brother"! "No, you get out of my way". "I was here first". "But I thought of climbing up first". We had to break up the fun (at least it was fun for Grandma and Grandpa).

Both Logan and Liam found this neat cable net and climbed under it and then they stood up. They were caught. They didn't know how to get out and started to cry. Only if we could catch bad guys like this.
The last event was the swings. To Liam, this was very soothing to him and he just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
On the other hand, this was equally as fun as the slides for Logan. He was grinning ear to ear. He is one happy boy. This pretty much ended our trip to the park and we headed back home. This was a very good day with grandma and grandpa, until they caught sight of their mom and then the tears started rolling down their cheeks. It is funny. They don't miss their mom and dad until they see them, after being away for hours.

Hey, it's Ellies big day

Happy Birthday, Ellie. Two years old is a lot. Judy and I talked with Ellie in China over the computer on her birthday. It was so much fun to see Ellie jumping around and hear the excitement. She was excited to see us.
Since Ellie was living in Utah, I didn't think that I have very many pictures of her, and I thought I was going to have to use some of Kyle's pictures in this blog post. Then I got to looking and could not believe how many pictures I had of Ellie. I struggled to get it down to 27 pictures (all good memories) from the original 62 that I picked from the hundreds of photos I took of Ellie. So here they are. This is Ellie on her first trip to Minnesota to visit, just two and a half months old. Isn't she cute? We got her to smile quite a bit. If I remember correctly (let me know if this is not true), when Ellie was fussing, I would take her down to the basement to calm her. Half way down the steps she would stop crying and she was fine, as long as I stayed there. When I came back upstairs, she would start getting crabby again. It must have been all the dust mites and mold that did the trick, or maybe she just wanted to have some one-on-one time with "Bapa". Anyway if my memory has failed me, just post a comment.
The is the outfit I wore when I was blessed at church. I look like a princess.
Just call me smiley. I can clap, too (talent runs in the family).
Here I am with my boring cousins. I completely overwhelmed them with my stories and put them all to sleep. I am going to have to be more creative to keep them from going to sleep next time.

Just getting a stroller ride. Fun!!!!
I am starting to get some teeth. Can you find them? They are right there in the front.
Peek-a-boo at the park. It's me.
I love this slide. Why can't we do this more often?

I am crawling through the tunnel on the play set at the park. I have never had so much fun.
I have a lot more teeth now, and I love my stroller.
I did go to college and attended a lot of classes with my mom and dad. I must have earned enough credits to graduate. My board almost fits. Well, actually, it fits good enough.
Here I am at the graduation after-party. I am just adorable with my little brain squeezer on.

I am expecting a very important call. I think it is a job offer in China. Hello?
Noeloni is tickling me and I can't eat my ice cream. She makes me laugh all the time.
Really Dad. You have got to do something about this grass. It is almost up to my waist and I keep tripping over it.
There is something very interesting at the petting zoo. I wonder what it is? I better go investigate it. Is it okay if I go take a look?

Let me out of here!!!!!
Moooooo. Here cow! I have some food for you, but I ain't coming any closer. You are going to have to come to me. And don't stick out your tongue so far either. That is gross.
The best time at the petting zoo was my first horse ride. I was going so fast that my hair, what little I had, was flying backwards. All I could thing about was singing the theme song to Bonanza.
I had never been on a swing before Grandma and Grandpa Larsen came to visit me. This is great fun. I don't ever want to stop. Keep going. Higher, higher!!

Sigh! This is my very dreamy look. I might be thinking of someone special. I won't tell anybody that it is you, Bapa.

I love to finger paint. My favorite medium is yogurt. and my favorite canvass is me. Yippee!

This is my very scary pop up book. I am okay with it as long somebody is holding me.

These are a couple of mean, scary pirates. Arrrggg.

I am feeling a bit sad. This is my last visit to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's before moving to China. I hope I won't get too lonely.

Actually, I am not that sad, because I have ICE CREAM. Mmmmmmmm!

Well, its Tana's Birthday

Tana is the last one of our children to have a birthday since I started this blog. This means that it is picture post time. Now you might think that since Kyle is the baby in the family and very spoiled and that his spotlight was pretty big, that Tana's page would not be as big. Well guess again. It is so big that I had to break it up into two posts. I just went wild scanning old photos. This all means that next year, there will probably not be a big post when your birthdays come up; maybe just a couple. I will have to think of new things to do. This is Tana as a new born. It was time to clean Tana up in the sink.

She liked to hang around a lot, as all of her siblings (sometimes they would be taking a vertical nap).

Here is Tana in the cradle that I made. Each of our children and grand children have slept in this heirloom.

Tana liked to play in the park. Do you notice any resemblance here?

Fill-r-up please. I am getting ready for a nap.

It is another fun bath.

Hey, do you mind? I am on the phone with my friend.

Tana's first birthday and cake.

This is all that is left of it. Mmmmmm. That was good.

Mom I am practicing to be a big girl.

Is it Mary or Bo-Peep? I don't know but it looks like it would taste really good.

Me and dirt got along really well. I think that is a head lock I got my brother in when he tried to take some of my dirt.

I also like the beach.

Hi, I am the Easter Bunny for Halloween.

This is birthday number three. Where is the top of my head? I am excited, really I am.

It is fall at St. Anthony Park and I am enjoying the colors.

Number four. Man, every cake is different. My mom is sure talented.

Do you like my new glasses. They are almost Harry Potter-ish.

Time is just flying by. Tana is five with a Cookie-Monster cake.

Tana is leaving on her first day at Palmer Lake school. We didn't have cool backpacks like Joseph and Lorelei have.

On the way to the Mississippi River along the Minnehaha Creek, Tana found a feather and pretended to be a statue and posed as we walked by.

Birthday number seven. Still another kind of cake. Mom you can just make a regular layer cake . My eighth birthday with Kirstin, Kelly, Brett and Kyle.

This is a very important job in the Earle Brown Day Parade that goes by our house each year. She wan announcing her school.

My first perm. What a beaut! I like the effect of the reflective picture.