Candy break

At this rate I will never shed those extra pounds that I packed on this summer. We opened up a box of Mike and Ikes and Mommy was more excited than the kids to dig in!

Notice our new Ikea bedspread? It was about time. But white? Again, what were we thinking!!!???

Just when you get a little vacation time...

the kitchen faucet explodes. (Gross, I know I need to scrub that sink, sorry!) Anyhow, Andres was doing the dishes tonight when suddenly the arm of the faucet decided to make like a rocket and just flew right off of the arm. Apparently plastic fixtures inside a faucet are not such a good idea - this is the second time we have trouble with this sink, mainly because our pipes are copper and so the water stays way too hot on the first floor (and never quite hot enough on the second and third floors) and the fixtures within actually end up melting down over time.

Ugh. I know what tomorrow will be - searching for a white faucet that matches (which I am sure we will never find) as well as looking for a plumber who might be able to come over and install it.

Until then, we will have to be real careful on the amount of dishes we dirty :(

Back to the old grind

Well, the summer's over, school has started and we are finally getting into a routine (looks like another homework-heavy year, about 2-3 hours a night for my poor Agustin, although he is taking it like a trooper and always comments on how fun his homework is), the teaching course has finished and some of my other obligations are over with, and this next week will be time to stay at home and:

• decorate
• clean
• clean
• organize and sort
• and clean.

My poor house has been very neglected lately.

Needless to say, my basil and dill did NOT survive our extended vacation, so another project is to go ahead and start new plants.

Because I am so far "behind", and my sisters have written about all the good stuff already on their blogs, I will just bless you with a mini collage of some of our best moments this summer...

State fair moments - always a highlight!

Hanging out with my SUPER smart, SUPER cute, amazingly funny and quirky little nieces!

Trips to the Home Depot to do minor fixups on the new houses!

And one of the houses!

Junior Science Camp at Mommy's old school.

Spending time with my four beautiful and fantastic sisters!

Catching up with dear friends.

Playing a game of marbles up at the lake!

A visit to the Saint Paul Cathedral.

Finishing a 5k, beating my old record of never having run one before. I ran the whole way and made it under 45 minutes!

A couple side trips. To:

Mora... such a quaint, picturesque little town! Andres liked all the Scandinavian touches.

and to Hinckley... (the kids LOVE to stay in hotels - really, I guess, what kid doesn't?)

A behind-the-scenes look at the Grandpa Dan Show!

Como Zoo

The Pine County Fair and Parade! Oh, the candy!

Some moments with everyone's favorite grandpa, the one and only Grandpa Dan!!!

A pre-wedding popcorn party...

Swimming and lunch at Hannah and Hailey's.


Lots and lots of trips to the library!

A little time with the Miller/Mars side of the family.

A great dinner, just Andres and the "girls" :)

The toys up at the cabin!

Tractor rides

Lots of time spent with our beloved Legos.

A visit to Chuck E. Cheese's.



Pontoon rides (even getting stuck out on the lake was a bit of an adventure!)

And, back home, the clean up afterwards!







Whew! What a great, awesome, amazing summer!!!!!!

Needed: Plant Babysitter

Who will take care of you, my little basil and dill plants? Who will check to make sure that you get enough sun, enough water? Who will check to make sure the birds and bugs aren't bothering you or picking at you? Who will take you in out of the hail and the tsunami-like rains? I want to taste you so badly, but fear you won't make it through the summer all alone... :(

Fingers crossed!

A little sun

We got a little sun this afternoon, so everyone ran out into the garden to soak it up.

It lasted about 5 minutes. Oh well.

Saturday Ribs

It's hard to find ribs here, even though they eat so much pork. So when Andres saw them in the supermarket, he grabbed them up in a flash. We had a great meal this afternoon, sticky sweet bbq ribs and baked potatoes and corn. Even the kids ate them!

Family Game Night

One of my favorite childhood memories growing up was family game night. As I recall, and because our childhood minds gauge time differently from our adult minds I could be completely wrong about some of the details, every Friday night we would have a family game night. This was before "the girls", when it was just me and Amy and the rents, and dad had a collection of board games that to this day makes me jealous. I remember Dad reading the rules, explaining them, and always doing a "practice round" (very teacher-like of him!). Then we would play, and boy did I love playing those games! I remember the Las Vegas Nights casino game, horse race game, Uno and Skip-bo (sometimes we'd play these at Grandma's instead) and who knows what else! It was always a surprise. To this day I think that a lot of my "school smarts" came from learning and playing those games. I think people, especially children, acquire a lot of cognitive flexibility from board games and card games, learning things like logic and statistics and cause and effect in a natural, fun way. So, yes, I think that board games can make you smarter!

I have decided to try something similar with the kids. We don't manage to do it every Friday night, but I want to try to play as many games with them this summer as I can so that their brains remain supple and ready to learn, and the beginning of the school year isn't so painful!

One of our favorite games is Multiplication Bingo. We make Bingo boards with multiplication products and then use flashcards to call the numbers. Agustin just sees the equation, and no one can mark a number until he gives us the right answer. It is a complete blast, and he gets good practice with his multiplication tables as well.

Next year we'll be doing addition and subtraction bingo with Nico!

Up with a fish!

The kids made me buy this app, since we got The Cat in the Hat. They will spend hours (well, minutes, because it goes through the iPod battery pretty fast), playing this game. I played the other day and it was fun. Especially with the kids next to me, screaming as Thing 1 and Thing 2 came crashing down to destroy my carefully balanced fishbowls!

Problem is, I get a little hungry when that cake comes down.

Physical trips and etrips: which is better?

Some of the books I have on my iPod which need to be read. I have gone overboard a little, as I normally do at the library, and I think I have a few too many on my plate, especially considering that in less than a week we will be in MN, and I won't have time to read for all the visiting I'll be doing!

Even so, sometimes I just sit and stare at my ebooks. A world waiting to happen :) But I do miss having a real book to touch and hold. One of the biggest drawbacks to an ebook is not being able to page through it before you check it out, not being able to see how long it is (sometimes you get a book and realize that you're not willing to trudge through 900 pages!). It's also very VERY uncomfortable to browse, and often books that "aren't" on the shelf if you browse, are if you do a search. But it makes it hard if you're not really searching for something specific.

A physical trip to the library will still be one of the first things I do when I get home, but it just won't have the same magical pull as it normally does...

Back to Legos

Didn't I tell you? Every day the kids are pumped to get home and make something new that they thought about while at Grandma's house. Today it was this: a transformer robot (Agustin) and a big monster truck thingy (Nico's). (I'm sorry, Nico, that I couldn't work out anything more specific, but if I dare ask what it is you made, you get a little in my face and look at me like "Can't you tell!?")

Reminds me of the comment Hannah sent us a few days ago. I am still giggling over that one!!!!

Big as ... Grandma!

This weekend when we went to the hotel buffet, as we were leaving Agustin went on ahead with his grandma. Suddenly I saw my "big" boy - it can be hard seeing changes in them as they grow up, since they do it before your eyes, and they will always be your baby - but today I looked up and saw this!

Agustin looked so grown up and big, and thinking of it, he will be eight in a few months! Soon he will be as big as Grandma!