Colorado Bound

May 20th we started our venture to Colorado to see "Addie and Kelsey" (and Jason and Deaner, too, of course).  This was the first time we would have all three kids in our vehicle.   During our two previous trips to the centennial state my parents went too and AJ always rode with them, forcing poor Grandma to sit in the back seat with her.

We took off after a full belly of oatmeal and fruit and made it over 4 hours before making our first stop.  I was economical and packed lunches that morning so we stopped at a rest stop somewhere along the beautiful Nebraska landscape :).  It was really windy, but we managed and there was a little sand pit that the kids played in, (although I cringed a little knowing they would be getting sand all over the van when they were done).  After potty breaks, diaper changes and dumping sand out of their shoes, we hit the road again.  On any other day, each kid would fall asleep for a good 2-3 hours.  Yeah, not that day!  The twins took mini-I-don't-need-a-nap naps and AJ "wasn't tired," so after a couple more hours of riding everyone was ready for another break.  We stopped at a Wendy's and shared a Frosty and allowed the kids to get their wiggles out.  We spent the next few hours making up silly games, playing any song or watching any movie possible to keep everyone happy.  This was definitely the longest stretch of the trip.  Just an hour away from Loveland we stopped for dinner because the twins were still on Iowa time and according to their internal clock it was time for dinner.  A little after 6:30 CO time we pulled into Canterbury Court.  The twins fell asleep pretty well that first night while the older girls spent 40 minutes deciding where they were going to sleep.  In the end, AJ ended up sleeping with Justin in the basement all week while I slept in the guest bed upstairs.

Day #1:  Deaner had to work, so the rest of us played outside, went to the park for a bit, then went to their indoor pool/aquatic center after nap.  AJ and Addie loved the hot tub and the twins enjoyed jumping in the pool from the side.

Day #2:  Both Jason and Deaner had to work so we decided to keep all the kids at home with us (instead of having Addie and Kelsey go to daycare).  We packed some snacks and loaded both mini vans to head out on our little adventure.  A year ago, we went to a really nice outdoor park/splash pad in Fort Collins and thought it would be fun to head back.  It was perfect weather and luckily not very busy, so we were able to keep a good eye on 5 kids running around.  Addie and Alena did their own thing and I'll be honest and say I didn't really know what they were doing the majority of the time.  Justin and I each were in charge of watching a twin (of course they couldn't be doing the same thing), and poor Kelsey just did her own thing-sometimes playing with the twins and big kids and sometimes playing with some random kids at the playground. I think one adult even asked her where here mom/dad was!  Hey lady, we're doing our best to watch these kids!  While pushing CW on the swing, the mom next to me asked how many kids I had.  (Apparently she realized I was having a little trouble keeping track of everyone).  Regardless, everyone had a grand ole time, no one got hurt, and no one got lost.  I call that a success.

Day #3:  We all decided to head to Denver and go to the Children's Museum.  We got there a little before lunchtime and had a picnic outside before heading inside.  There was an amusement park nearby and the kids enjoyed watching the roller coaster and other dare devil rides.  The museum was really busy for the first hour (think end of school field trips!), so it was a little chaotic at the beginning.  Again, AJ and Addie did their own thing with Kelsey usually in tow behind them with an adult.  There was a fire truck with child-size jackets/hats.  Caleb was in heaven and looked absolutely adorable in the get up.  There was also a big bubble area where you could stand on a platform and raise a square rope that would form a bubble all around you.  The twins got inside with Justin and of course when Caleb was getting off the platform, he stepped into the pool of bubbles.  Every step he took caused bubbles to form from his right foot!  Although cute, I'm sure it annoyed the crap out of him so I took his shoe and tried to wash if off as best as I could in the bathroom.  Let's just say, bubbles are made of lots and lots and lots of soap!  Then I attempted to dry his shoe with the hand dryer.  Poor guy.  Luckily we found an area that was only for kids under 3, and get this-you had to take your shoes off!  So we spent a lot of time in this area, which was perfect for the twins.  I'd be a liar if I didn't say Caleb probably enjoyed watching the tractors and construction workers outside the window more than the actual exhibits.  Lauren loved the little house, kitchen and general store that was just her size.  (Have I mentioned how girlie girl she is and how macho boy he is before!!!).  The older girls made rockets, painted, built a house, and lots of other fun things I probably missed out on since I was following around the munchkins. It was a fun day and we were all tired on the ride home.

Who's missing?

My Little Firefighter

Day #4:  Since this was our last full day here, we decided to just play outside and at the park. Jason lives in a cul de sac with a great group of neighbors.  The kids are always outside which is fun and everyone just helps watch all the kids.  AJ and Addie dressed up as Anna and Elsa most of the day, acting out different parts of the movie.  Kelsey and Lauren played with dolls together and Caleb just wanted to be on something that moved, asking you to "push" him whenever he had the chance.  That night we decided to get a little ice cream so we headed to Baskin Robbins right as a huge thunderstorm was coming, complete with hail.  This is pretty atypical for CO and that night Loveland received 4 inches of rain!

First Manicure For L

Elsa and Anna

Day #5:  It was time to head home.  We decided to start the trip after lunch, praying to God everyone would take a nice long nap. It was the best decision ever!  All three kids fell asleep for a little over 3 hours and we were able to drive another 2 hours before stopping.  We stopped at Valentino's (somewhere in NE) and enjoyed a yummy buffet.  Everyone filled their tummies.  Then like ghetto travelers, we changed the kids into their jammies in the restaurant bathroom, brushed teeth and headed back into the van.  We made it home without another stop!  It was amazing and such an easy trip home!

It was definitely a bitter sweet trip as it may have been our last trip to Colorado (to visit my brother).  If all the stars align, they are likely moving to Madison, WI.  We are looking forward to them being 5 hours closer and many more get togethers.  We will miss our trips to Colorado though.  Traveling there, any time of year is always fun and there is a plethora of things to do there.  I have a long list of things we never had the chance to do.  I'm sure we will still make family trips out there in the future, but it's so nice having family there to enjoy it with.  I'm just not sure skiing in WI is going to compare to CO.  I know AJ will love having Addie closer. They are the best of buds and play so well together.  What a great trip!

Money Maker

A month ago we thought it would be fun to participate in our annual block sale.  For a number of months I had been collecting stuff in the basement that I wanted to get rid of. I sold some of the higher dollar items on Craigslist and started my "appliance fund," with my earnings.  Throughout the months as I would collect items to get rid of, I would slowly notice a few items missing from my pile.  Justin is definitely a keeper, (a Schaack trait), and if he thinks we may use something within the next 10 years, it's a keeper.  (It took me a couple months to convince him that we REALLY didn't need the janitor-sized mop bucket with a mop handle, but no mop head).

Word spread that we were going to be participating in the garage sale and family members decided to bring a few things over hoping to make a little spending cash as well.  It was a great deal of work setting up all the tables and organizing all the items, (although J and I both enjoy organizing so that part was quite fun, even if it meant staying up a little later than normal to get it all done).

A total of 6 houses on the street participated and we had the best weather with temps in the 70's and no rain.  Friday morning I opened my garage door a little before 8 o'clock, walked down to the end of the block to put up one more sign and when I came back to my house, there were two ladies leaving my garage with items in their hands, (they had left money for me).  Dang, some people are really into this garage sale thing!  The entire Friday morning was very busy and we sold a lot of items.  My dad and Uncle Willard helped as I did have to go into work for a few hours.  I was thankful to have the help because things were busy and I would have had a hard time keeping up with everything.  Some people bartered the prices a little bit, but for the most part, people paid the sticker price.

The afternoon, things slowed down a little bit and we just had a few people come by after 4:00.  It was such a successful day, I decided to bake cookies and sell them along with lemonade the following day, knowing parents would likely be shopping with little ones.

Although Saturday wasn't as busy, we had a great time, sold a lot and made twice as much money as we thought we would.  Between the four families, we made over $800 and no item sold for more than $50.  Oh and that janitor mop bucket sold for $10 to a Hispanic gentleman the first morning of the sale :).  Pretty impressive for our first garage sale. I may have to start checking out some garage sales for myself, because apparently for some people, this is a die hard hobby!  My "appliance fund" has gradually grown and I'm hoping to do a little upgrading by this Fall.  Although from previous posts, you know I am quite the saver so it wouldn't surprise me if that money sat around for a while...

Reason # 287 Why I Love My...

...Mini Van:

There's a sentence I never, ever thought I would write!  So when we heard the news we were expecting twins, one of the first things that went through my mind after holy crap, and how can I afford two more kids was, we need a bigger vehicle!

Many may know that Justin and I have been anti-mini van our entire lives. In fact, I'm sure it was discussed early on in our courtship, and luckily we both had the same opinion regarding these "soccer mom" vehicles.  Needless to say, we were going to have two more added to our family and needed a way to transport our three kiddos.

We initially started looking at the Chevrolet Traverse, a crossover SUV.  We both liked the look of it and the inside was spacious with an option of captain seats for the second row or a bench seat.  We knew we would likely need to use the captain seats for the twins, meaning AJ would be in the third row. This left very little room in the "trunk" (is it still called a trunk in a mini van?).  Anyway, shortly after checking out the Chevy Traverse, I was placed on bed rest, which made car shopping a lot more challenging.

So we decided to poll family and friends about their likes and dislikes of their SUVs vs mini vans.  Both vehicles had their pros and cons that we had to sort out.  Since I had a lot of free time on my hands, I did my research and we decided a mini van was the way to go.

We narrowed our options down quickly to the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey.  Their specs were pretty similar as were their prices.  We loved the sporty look of the new Odyssey so that swayed us.  Justin test drove one on a Saturday, bringing it home so I could at least sit in it and check it out.  I've never made a decision so quickly before, but realized I didn't have a lot of time to shop around :).  We decided to go with it, but the most important thing was picking out the color.  Screw bedrest, I'm going to the dealership myself to pick out the exterior and interior colors!  I spent way too much time on my feet that day, but finally decided on a perfect combination. Of course, we had to have leather-can you imagine cleaning up after two toddlers?  I love how easy leather is to clean and the look of it.  By August, our garage occupied our new minivan (which we didn't drive until it was time to bring the babies home), and Justin's truck got demoted to outside.

We've never regretted buying our family truckster and two brother-in-laws/sister-in-laws have purchased mini vans since us :), so others must have thought it was a good idea too.  I love never worrying if we are going to have enough room for everything. In fact, we often over pack, but even when we do that, there is still room. It has survived two road trips to CO, with another in the plans for this month.  All kids can actually climb into the van by themselves and love to play in there. Some times, we take out the middle console and let them hang out in the van (with their shoes off, of course).  They love it.  I never know what's going to be on when I actually turn the van on, (rear wiper, front windshield wiper, bright lights, hazard lights...)  One rainy weekend day, we took the second and third rows out and they had a hay day.  This was also a great opportunity to do some deep cleaning!  I'm sure my vacuum sucked up at least half a box of Cheerios during the last deep cleaning.

So yes, there are many, many reasons why we are the proud owners of our mini van.  Just don't go calling us soccer mom/dad!

4 1/2 Year Old Adventures

So the activities have begun. Alena had her first soccer practice last week and I had no idea what to expect. We had anticipated going as a whole family but it was a little chilly and windy that day so I braved it alone with my little 4.5 year old.  We drove the 1 mile there because we didn't want to be late, but I love that if we wanted to, we could walk to the soccer fields, (another plus about our location).  As instructed we got there early and found the field where it looked like other 3-5 year olds were running around.  Alena jumped right in playing with the other kids while we waited for the coach to show up. I was quite impressed at how well she was able to run, dribble the ball, and kick the ball.  When it's nice outside, she likes to play soccer with a set of twin boys at school.

Finally the coach appeared, (a young Australian :)), and grouped the kids together, then divided them into two separate groups.  Alena was easily the tallest girl and possibly the tallest of all the kids there.  They spent their first practice working on different basic skills and playing a few games that 3-5 year olds would enjoy.

I am always so proud at how good of a listener AJ is.  Her teachers have never had any trouble with her listening skills and I'm glad this skill seems to have carried over to sports, too.  In fact, all of the girls were good listeners, but there were three boys who wouldn't give the coach the time of day.  Multiple times the coach  had to ask them to stop messing around and listen to him.  I looked around to see where the parents of these boys were because if those were my sons, I would have pulled them aside myself and set them straight.  Yet, as I looked around I saw parents chasing after younger siblings, playing on their phones and even one father reading a book.  That explained a lot.  I purposely left my phone in the car so I could focus on my daughter who kept looking over to the sidelines to make sure I was watching.

One of the doesn't-know-how-to-listen boys was messing around and somehow got a bloody nose.  That was the end of his lesson.

LW wanted to try out the soccer gear

Alena said she really enjoyed her first soccer practice and is anxious for her next one.  She doesn't have any games this year d/t her age, but would next year if she wants to participate again.  Although when we got back in the car after her practice, she told me she wanted to do t-ball this summer.  I guess it's nice she wants to try a variety of sports and honestly, Justin and I wouldn't be too upset if soccer just wasn't her thing (as long as she tries volleyball and goes out for track :)).

In other 4 1/2 year old adventures, my first born is learning to read.  It's is so fun watching her learn all of her letter sounds and start to put these sounds together to make words.  Most of the words are 2 and 3 letter words, with a few 4 letter words, but it is still pretty impressive, especially since she won't be in kindergarten for another year and a half.  She loves to write her letters and spends most of her "nap" time on the weekends, copying words from her books onto paper.  We have to give a lot of credit to her daycare for helping her learn her letters and work on spelling/reading, (and as I have said a million times, we LOVE our daycare-it's worth every penny!).  We had her 6 month conference today, and her teacher mentioned they had planned to move AJ up to the next reading group, but there are other students who will be going to kindergarten this coming Fall who they need to move up first, yet are behind AJ.  Hopefully, the teachers will continue to challenge her and she won't be bored over the next year and a half.

Yep, we are two very proud parents!

Easter Fun

Easter is another one of my favorite holidays and I love following tradition.  I'm not a huge fan of taking my kids to the mall to see some random person dressed up as a big stuffed bunny or weird Santa, but Alena wanted to visit the Easter Bunny so one rainy Sunday we ventured to the mall.  Two out of three kids were content sitting on the bunny's lap, which I thought was a decent percentage.  I didn't know the Easter bunny didn't talk though so AJ wasn't able to tell him/her what she wanted for Easter.  All three enjoyed the train ride more than anything.

Dying eggs is another fun tradition that all three kids enjoyed this year.  I may be a  more creative next year and spend a little more money on the decorating kits because I'm just not impressed with the cheapo ones.  I've also heard of using kool-aid to dye the eggs which would have been a great idea this year since Lauren kept wanting to put her colored egg in her mouth.  I hate hard boiled eggs so I think Justin ate most of our dozen eggs, except for a few I was able to get the little ones to devour.

The weather Easter weekend was beautiful so we attended Urbandale's Easter egg hunt.  They separated the older kids from those 4 and under and had eggs scattered at Walker Johnston Park.  The hunt lasted about 30 seconds, but everyone had a great time.  L was pretty proud of the one egg she gathered, C kept dumping his eggs out and recollecting them, and AJ enjoyed discovering what was inside each of her eggs, (she definitely needs to be more aggressive next year ).

We spent Saturday night in Ames to make it a little easier to get to the early church service.  I love seeing all the little ones dressed up in their fancy dresses, nice dress shirts and shoes.  Unfortunately, L threw up on her pretty sweater and dress on the car ride to church so she smelled like puke during the service, but otherwise everyone was well behaved.  At the very end of service, L had had enough and was ready to get out of there so Justin took her to the back where many other little ones and daddies were playing.  CW saw daddy leave and wanted to follow so Grandpa also got out of staying for the whole service!  I'm sure that was planned :).

After church we went home to take a few pictures before everyone put on their play clothes and prepared the food for lunch.  Of course, picture taking did not go well and Lauren was upset because she wanted the truck that her brother had.  Good memories!

We enjoyed a delicious ham with yummy side dishes and two homemade pies.  Pat and Willard joined us-it is so great they are back in Iowa.  Besides a little wind, it was a beautiful day which was mostly spent outside, watching the kids play on the driveway and venture around the acreage.  The adults even got to play some cards while the twins napped.  AJ got the movie Frozen and a Frozen book from the Easter Bunny.  She asked me how the Easter bunny knew she wanted the Frozen movie since she didn't tell him.  Good point, Alena-guess we'll have to mail him a letter next year!  Smarty pants!  I love holidays!

Last Sunday was beautiful, so we decided to make our first trip of 2014 to the Blank Park Zoo.  We are so fortunate that Grandma and Papa buy us an annual pass each year because we love taking trips to the zoo, even if it is only for an hour.

Grandma and Papa met us there right after it opened to join in the fun. Unfortunately, I had to run a quick errand shortly after we got there after we realized one little missy forgot her shoes and was missing one sock.  (Have I mentioned how difficult it is to remember EVERYTHING for a little outing, especially when you are rushing around like a crazy person, while two toddlers tug on your pants begging for you to hold them?).

Many others had the same idea as us during this beautiful day and the zoo was hopping!  I wasn't sure how the twins would react to seeing all the animals.  I have decided there are two types of toddler sight seers:  Those who love to gawk at every exhibit for as long as possible, and those who barely look at the exhibits and are more interested in the "non-exhibits," (other zoo visitors, workers driving the gator throughout the zoo, or the child crying because he ran out of goat food).  Alena is definitely the latter.  She loves going to the zoo and seeing the animals, but we could probably walk through the entire zoo in 40 minutes and be done.  The twins, we discovered are both oglers.  They loved the zoo and couldn't get enough.  DQ enjoyed pointing her little finger at every animal.  We spent two hours there and didn't even see everything.

Another great thing about zoo days is the kids take a nice long nap after their adventures.  Point for mom and dad!  I'm sure we'll be back many, many times this spring, summer and fall!