Rooney (Cuddy) Reunion

Ethan and I had a great weekend in Des Moines, IA for the Rooney-Cuddy reunion. I have to be honest...not the greatest turn-out for my generation. Where were you guys?! In fact, I only saw 1 of my immediate Rooney cousins (out of 17, plus all your families= 40+). The older generation was well represented though, and we had a fun time. Mostly, I had a great time with Ethan because it was his first hotel experience. He had a blast! Staying up late and swimming until 11pm, fun dinners and all you can eat desserts, running around the hotel with cousins and site-seeing in Des Moines.

(Ethan thought Jack was the coolest!)

We were super impressed with the Des Moines DT Farmers Market! It was like a Fair!

Then we went to the Zoo- also impressive! My favorite part of the zoo was the pond full of Koi fish. It brought back memmories of feeding the fish off the dock at Lake Mead. Long ago we would take visiting family to Lake Mead, and they used to sell bags of popcorn to feed the ugly bull-catfish. The Koi were much more colorful, although still a little gross in large masses.

For the next reunion, in 2 years, our generation should be in charge of the planning. It's time to pass the torch. Ideas?

While Ethan and I were in Iowa, Nick enjoyed Labor Day weekend in Boulder with Doug, Tom, Ian and other Boulder Buddies. Here he is at the CU vs. CSU football game!

Go Buffs!

Little Cabin Time

Barefooting on Crooked Lake

After looking at that picture you'd expect to hear that we have spent most of our summer enjoying the cabin...

BUT, you know, traveling with toddler twins is not on our list of favorite things. Even if it's just going to the cabin.

We've had the lowest attendance at the cabin this summer than any summer on record. Last year we somehow managed to get up there every two weeks with infant twins. This year we can count on one hand the number of times we've been up there. Toddler twins are much more difficult at the cabin. They love to run toward anything dangerous, in opposite directions. Nothing is twin-toddler-childproofed in the northwoods. It ends up being exhausting.

But, we obviously love the cabin and try to get up there once per month this summer, especially for Ethan. We know that next year, and the following years, will only be easier with the twins, and we'll be enjoying it more as the kids get older.

This month we had a great time with Nick's cousin Kristy (we always say Krsity is Nick's Colin) and her family at the cabin. It's always wonderful to see pictures of the fun we have at the cabin to remind us of why we love this place so much, even though it's challenging this year. Check out some pics from Kristy:

BONUS!

Nick celebrated his 15th year of Barefooting on Crooked Lake this summer. Check out the video of Nick and Jeremy Barefootin! (watch them drop their skis 40 sec into the video) They make it look so easy!

SOLD!!!!

After almost 4 months on the market, over 60 showings and 10 open houses....
We finally sold our house!!!
The purchase agreement was signed yesterday. The inspection was this morning, and passed with flying colors. Plus, we even get to close at the end of the month! -No more wasted mortgage payments!
Yippy!!!

Turtle Timeshare

I bet most parents have been suckered into bringing home a small pet (a hamster, mouse, guinea pig, fish, lizard or turtle) for their child. I sure suckered my parents into getting me a handful of pets as a child. Growing up I had 2 hamsters, an iguana, a frog, a hermit crab and a few dozen fish, in addition to having a dog or two.

These "pocket pets" were always SO much fun...for the first couple weeks. Then the excitement dies down and the poor animal spends less and less time out of the cage being social. Over time it gets less attention and is only socialized when the cage is being cleaned.

The intentions are great. But think about the life of this poor animal. How horrible. And what does this teach our children?

As much as I LOVE animals, and love having them as pets, I know a pet would not get the attention it needs living in our house. This is especially hard when Ethan asks about our future dog. This is a weekly discussion. We are NOT getting a dog now, or any other animal.

BUT we have come up with the perfect solution to having a small pet. TIMESHARE!

Ethan's preschool teacher has a turtle in her classroom. Over the summer she needs someone to take the turtle home. We volunteered! Ethan's friend turtle-sat "Stripes" for the first half of the summer, and now it's our turn. We have Stripes for 6 weeks. This is the perfect amount of time to care for a small animal. It's new, fun and exciting. As a family we get to work together to take care of our pet and the kids will learn a lot. I know Ethan will grow bored with the turtle eventually and then it will be time to give him back.

I would definitely consider doing this again. (Or maybe I should get back into Fostering) :)

Some day.

5th Birthday!

Ethan is 5 years old now! Boy did we celebrate...all weekend long. Has is become the norm to have 2 birthday parites for kids these days, or are we just completely spoiling our children?

On Friday Ethan had his 10 best buddies (8 boys and 2 girls) over for a wet and wild party in our backyard. There was plenty of adult supervision (me, Nick, my mom, sister, Bob, DR) and it couldn't have gone better. We all had a ton of fun.

Then on Sunday we had a family BBQ birthday celebration. Ethan had 3 great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, 3 aunts/uncles, a great-uncle, a second/third(?) cousin, and 2 siblings at our house to celebrate.

It was a very fun weekend to celebrate our little baby boy who was born 5 years ago.

Fun 4th

Crosby, MN is the place to be for the 4th of July. Hands-down the best fireworks and parade I've ever seen. We were SO close to the fireworks that my dad actually got hit by one! Awesome!Ethan stayed up for his very first fireworks show and he was blown away.

We celebrated the 4th in a very American way: tons of food on a stick, red/white/blue and John Deere attire, 4-wheeling, boating, dirt biking, mini-golf, go-carts, Bud Light, and a farmers tan.

We'll be in Crosby every year for the 4th. Come on up and join the fun.

Summer of Scrapes

Every single day one of the kids acquires a new cut, scrape or bruise.

Here is Cal's latest-

Cal and Teagan are almost 17 months old, and this is an adventurous age. They are exploring everything and I can't always keep up. When I'm home alone every day my attention is divided between 3 kids, which means each child is only being watched 33% of the time. Or one child may have almost, but never fully, 100% of my attention for a moment while the other two are running amuck. Sure, tons of people have 3 or more kids, but having twins is very different. Having twins means I have 2 kids the same age, at the same developmental milestones, getting into the same trouble, which makes things twice as hard (or more). Plus, I have a soon-to-be 5 year old egging them on and encouraging their daring behavior.

Knowing this, I've learned my limits and can only take them to places I've already deemed safe. Just going to the park on a nice, sunny day can be a completely stressful disaster. I can only take the kids to the park by myself when it's not packed. The busier it is the harder it is for me to watch the twins and is therefore super stressful and unsafe. The best time for the park is early in the morning, or cloudy cold days like today. I've also found a couple of quiet, hidden parks with toddler size equipment, and fence around the park is a bonus!

We've accumulated some outdoor climbing toys and slides for our backyard instead, and save trips to the park when there is a better adult:child ratio. Or we go to friends houses/yards for a more relaxing (less stressful) playtime.

Don't Let it Mellow

Have I mentioned how much Cal loves water? He loves the bath, pool, puddles, our outdoor water table and....the toilet.

Yes, he recently learned how to open the toilet lid. After lifting the lid...splash, splash, splash. Yep, he plays for a very brief moment in the toilet water until I come running and yelling.

SO, we created a rule in our house to always keep the bathroom doors closed. We don't have our doorknobs installed at the new house yet but we put one on the upstairs bathroom door to lock the kids out (Cal was also getting himself stuck in the shower).

But the main floor bathroom has a pocket door, which slides open and we don't have a lock yet. No worries (I thought) because Cal doesn't know how to open it. But it turns out Teagan knows how to slide the door open.

Today I heard the gross splashing sound coming from the bathroom and I ran FAST! Teagan opened the door for Cal and Cal was splashing in the toilet WITH a sippy cup in hand!

It gets worse. He managed to fill the cup with toilet water (very proud of himself).

Even worse. Ethan forgot our new rule of flushing even though it's yellow.

I almost threw up. Cal wet straight to the bath, and luckily he had a pacifier in his mouth and didn't drink any of the mellow yellow from the toilet.