Adventures in Modeling

Check out this coupon from Mall of America's Amusement Park and notice the girl in maroon! Look familiar?

Since my little girl is as famous as SpongeBob now, I'll tell you how she ended up on these coupons that are all over town.

Since the MOA is basically our second home, when I found out the kids could ride the (expensive) rides for free by participating in the photo shoot, I thought it would be fun to sign up Aubrie.

Then, after arriving at the casting call, I found myself second guessing this great idea. There were overly-excited moms primping their well-polished model kids, and we were far from fitting in. I realized I would have a hard time if Aubrie wanted to pursue modeling. The process of having my daughter feel like she has to be judged by her looks is not something I feel comfortable with. Fortunately, this casting call was selected on only a first come basis, so I tried to downplay her observations of the others' fancy dresses and well-done hair.

Aubrie was selected for the kid bumper cars, and she ended up riding them for about 45 minutes! She loved it and had no problem flashing her smile for the camera.

At one point, they lined up the cars with just one in front. They specifically picked Aubrie for the front car and took a handful of just her pics for that. The photo assistant said to me: "It must be rough to have your daughter be a star!" That was a total compliment to her and fun, but I have to say I still don't feel like my self esteem has to come from her succeeding in a photo shoot and (hopefully) neither does hers. This probably says a lot about me, but we were there for the free rides, free prizes they gave her for doing it, and a new experience.

I figured we may or may not ever see her in promotional materials, so I was surprised when (less than a month after the shoot) our neighbors told us she was on a coupon! Then we found the same coupon on the website. The thing I'm surprised about is they probably took thousands of pictures of all the rides over a course of three days and hers was the one selected for the coupon!

Ellie Idol

This video is somewhat old (I think from March), but one we just couldn't forget about! Enjoy!

T-Ball - The 1st Season

Aubrie completed her first year of T-ball for team "Strawberry Shortcakes," and it looks like she may be signed to a long-term contract extension next year.


Aubrie won the "most improved player" medal! We're proud of her work ethic and of course cuteness! Enjoy highlights of Aubrie's 1st season in the music video production below.

While Mom was away ...

Nothing like a good taste of mud. Where was Daddy anyway?

Happy First Birthday Teyah!!

My baby had her FIRST birthday Saturday! Teyah is just a ray of sunshine in my life. We had a great family day and made some awesome memories. I have to say she "takes the cake" between the three girls of the most entertaining cake eater. Here's the video, feel free to skip the singing to get to the funny part ...












I believe in SPOILING our kids on their birthday and Christmas, and the rest of the year we usually don't give them hardly anything. So when it's their birthday we totally party!


Our town had a parade in honor of our little Teyah (well not really for her, but it was fun anyway).


At dinner at the Olive Garden, our waiter saw Tey's shirt and surprised us with a breadstick candle and song!

Teyah LOVED having a huge breadstick to herself.

Here are a few facts about Teyah:

-With all three of our kids we've had a "surprise" genetic something. Aubrie is a lefty, Ellie has very curly hair, and Teyah is extremely petite. Unfortunately, Teyah has been sick this week, so I took her in Friday (has her third ear infection) and found out she weighs 17 lbs 12 ounces. I looked online, and it looks like she doesn't even make the 5th percentile! Yikes! The sad thing about that is it's going to be a long time until she weighs enough to be able to put her in a forward-facing carseat (the recommended weight is 20 pounds).

-She is probably my best talker at this age. She says: hi, Mom, more, Dada, all done, ball, Ellie (Eyi), Aubrie (Auba), up, uh oh, yes (uh huh), yeah, out ... I think there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

-Teyah is not walking yet, but she seems to be close and also doing it backwards from how my other kids learned to walk. She can stand up in the middle of the room all by herself and even without pushing herself up from the ground with her hands. It's quite impressive (Dave says he can't even stand up the way she does). She will stand there forever but usually only attempts about 2 steps before she sits down or falls over.

No tomatoes here

I am full of Ellie stories this week. Yesterday, it was storming and she was scared of the thunder, so she decided to say a prayer. In her prayer, she said, "Thank you that the tomatoes didn't come inside our house." After the prayer, I was laughing and trying to figure out why she would be afraid of tomatoes (other than the recent salmonella scare). Then, Aubrie said, "Mom, she's trying to say tornadoes!" Oh, silly me. Of course!

Lake Elmo

I totally forgot to take pictures, but last night we went to Lake Elmo (a filtered swimming lake with a beach) with a bunch of friends. The girls were super excited, but they weren't quite sure what to expect at a lake with the name of Elmo. They were trying to figure it out, and Ellie said, "I think Elmo is going to pop out of the water ... or maybe we're going to have to look everywhere for him and yell really loud: 'MRS. ELMO, WHERE ARE YOU?'"

The Dancin' Video

Unfortunately, this is just the dress rehearsal because they wouldn't let us take video at the recital. I think she was extra amazing at the recital!

The Dancing Beauty Queen

Our little "Dancing Beauty Queen" was the star of her dance recital performance. She knew every move and danced right on beat, smiling and singing the words to the song!


Our little performer loves to be on stage! She said she wasn't nervous at all and just had a ball.


Ellie was so proud of her sister and says she really wants to do it next year too.


We were treated with the arrival of my sister Lauren just in time for the recital. Lauren is a trooper since she basically went straight from her all-night post-graduation party to the airport to come here.


After the recital, we had some adventure as we raced home to beat the storm that supposedly was dropping golf ball-sized hail. We didn't quite make it home before the dime-sized hail hit our car, but that's not so bad. The night continued with a handful of tornado sirens. At one point, Dave went outside to checkout the storm and happened to see these "wall clouds" (the clouds that produce tornadoes) forming. Then he noticed it starting to rotate. He then decided to join us in the basement! As he came down, we heard on the news how a "trained spotter" had located a rotating wall cloud in our area. Despite all the sirens, crazy clouds and hail storms, none of the funnel clouds touched down. (For those of you who don't know much about tornadoes, it starts as a wall cloud, then rotates and becomes a funnel cloud, and once it touches the ground it becomes a tornado.)

Warning: Travelogue of Wisconsin Dells

While tornadoes barreled through our home city, we were enjoying a nice long weekend of sunny skies in Wisconsin with two families we just love. I wasn't so sure how the waterpark experience of the Dells would work with young kids, but it was wonderful! We loved every minute of it (well except for the middle of the night when Teyah didn't sleep). I'm amazed how the resorts are setup so well for little ones who don't swim. The Lazy River, wavepool, and many of the pools were not higher than 3 feet, plus there were all kinds of little slides and play places for the kids.


It was fun to be able to take some turns on the adult slides too! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Kimberley, Ruby, and I screaming our heads off as we braved the steep slides.


Teyah loved snuggling after playing HARD in the water. It was wonderful!


My little Ellie was the daredevil. After going down this kiddie slide once, she said, "I want to go on the huge slide now all by myself." She did all of the bigger kid slides by herself, and I loved watching her from up above because the whole time she had a gigantic grin on her face. She then asked to do the adult slides and Dave tried to take her on them, but she wasn't tall enough. Around people, she tends to be shy and timid, but she is very confident with any type of physical skill or experience.




A view of the Dells from the "Duck Tours."


The "Duck Tours" were cool because they went in and out of water effortlessly which allowed for a beautiful tour of the scenery.




And we took in some crazy sights at the Tommy Bartlett Show.


I thought for sure this nut was going to kill himself right in front of my eyes.


Nothing like a tub that can bathe six kids at once!


OK, so I'm not even sure what to say about these pics, or if I even should be posting them. These photos were taken by Aubrie's "friend's" sister who is seven. We only saw them after the fact. Every time we turned around they were hugging and being affectionate. At one point, I realized I needed to have a talk with her, but I wasn't sure how to go about doing that because I wasn't sure if she realized it was any different than hugging and kissing her friends who are girls.


I'm not sure I'm ready for this stage of parenting yet! Yikes. Already, really? Does this mean Aubrie's already had her first kiss? Ahhh!

My super cute graduate

Why didn't anybody warn me that preschool graduation would make me so emotional?? I know it seems meaningless, but as I was watching her end-of-year program, it just hit me that she would never be in preschool again ... I will never have all my kids just at home with me all day where we set our own schedule and do our own fun things ... I will now lose control over the bubble I've kept her in ... soon she will be spending more time in a day with a teacher I don't even know yet ... this is a big change! My tears have flown and flown. I couldn't be more happy for her though. She's so ready for a new step (she's reading, doing math, she has great classroom and social skills, she knows how to tie her shoes ... go conquer the world, kiddo!)



I am looking at these pictures and here come the tears again. Oh brother. I'm such a sap. This is ONLY preschool! What am I going to be like when it's high school graduation?



Aubrie is so social. She just loves her friends and is such an extrovert. I often have to remind myself that I must give her social time because it's truly how she gains energy.



She actually had two days of graduation because she was in Joy School and a regular preschool.



I love you Aubrie. Now, if I can just let go a little.

Proud to "host" Mrs. Meyer

I spent my Tuesday evening at my favorite place, with my favorite author, with some of my favorite people, with a new book in hand! This is what I have to say about that ...





My friends all wrestled with what we should say to her. We knew our time would be supremo limited, so this is how my 20 seconds went:

Me: "Thank you for giving me something fun to read. Your books help break up the monotony of being a stay-at-home mom. I love having that to look forward to at the end of the day."

Stephenie: "Yeah. The days can get long can't they. But you're good to wait until the end of the day. I used to sneak it in during the day."

Me: "Well, I do too, but it sounds good that way, doesn't it?"

Stephenie: "Chuckle, chuckle."



I wish I knew exactly how many people were there for her book signing. I know they anticipated 3,000 people. I imagine there were about that many. The line twisted all around and went all the way down one of the Mall of America Hallways.



Necia and I thought we were pretty smart for NOT getting into line at 8 a.m., like many others, and arriving just before Stephenie did her Q&A at 6 p.m., then we went to dinner, and finally joined the line as it dwindled down. We ended up only waiting in line for about an hour and a half.





I felt so privileged that of all the places in the whole world, Stephenie chose Minnesota to launch her new book! It took me a while to post because I got a copy for my mom for mom's day and I didn't want her to know!


*Thanks Allison. I totally stole your pics. I hope you don't mind!

My presents

My sweet husband brought me home this $9 "Mugen Puchi Puchi" (everlasting Bubble Wrap) from Japan. It's a tiny bubble wrap simulator that tries to imitate the feel & sound of popping bubble wrap when you hit the buttons. Quite fun and creative concept, but it's just not the same as stomping on it. Evidently, these are all the rage in Japan as you can see from the TV ad below.

Here's a great demonstration of the puchi puchi on Youtube




He also brought me this alarm clock that he found in Akihabara (the electronics district) in Tokyo. When the alarm clock goes off, the flying saucer takes flight, and the only way to make the alarm clock go off again is to find the flying saucer and stick it back into the clock. Can anyone guess why he might have bought this for me? Actually, I can't remember the last time I woke up to an alarm clock rather than a kid!



This broken stroller wheel was my present from the airline on our flight home. My double stroller is my lifeline and especially when we travel. You should have seen us trying to get through the Phoenix airport on our layover with a three-wheeled stroller, three young kids (one who can't walk), four carry-on bags, and a carseat. That turned some heads!