CELTICFEST 2013

We went to CelticFest once 3 years ago (when Cora was itty bitty) and had a good time eating corned beef and cabbage, drinking Harp and Guiness, and watching the Irish Dancers and bands, so we decided to go again this year and take Jamie on an adventure. Other than the oppressive heat, it was awesome. We ate and drank, enjoyed the dancing and music, and the kids were old enough this year to play in the kids area (which had a bounce house, barnyard, and train).

Eating homemade, old fashioned, churned ice cream

Watching the log toss (or whatever the official term is...)

Cute kids holding hands of their own accord. Check.

More junk food. Check.

Lauren is a WALKER now!

Watching the "dancing girls"

Our kids can't resist sharing Manu and  Leo's stroller...

Watching the musicians

Showing us their sad faces because the train conductor wasn't around (Leo was trying to get James to smile)

After the conductor came and took our money, promising a ride

Worth the wait for those happy faces!

Jay and I wore our kilts, but completely forgot to take a photo.
Guess we'll have to go back next year!

PLAYLAND

James had a great week at school. And so did Cora (until today...) So Uncle Jamie sprung for a trip to Playland and the kids bounced themselves silly for over 2 hours. Good times.

FRIDAY PROJECTS

James' Humpty actually looks kinda annoyed to have fallen off the wall...

Interesting place you glued those eyeballs on Cora...

MUSIC DAY, THE OFFICE ASSISTANT, AND HOMEWORK, OH MY!

Getting mini buns for school today, since her hair was a WRECK when she woke up.

Cora leading the K2 and K3 classes around during music time.

Dance it up girl. (Poor thing has her mama and daddy's dance moves...)

Manu and James flanking Coley (their favorite girl in their class, who is often fought over as "MY best friend") during the K4/K5 music time (the three of them are sitting at the bottom of the photo).

Hanging out in the school office with the director, while she should be napping. When I questioned her about it after school she said "But I didn't want to take a nap!")

 Amy taught her how to use paper clips.
Pretty sure we need to invest in a pack for busy time at home...

 Happily doing her homework and getting pretty darn good at tracing her name.

This summer her Auntie Taryn was very impressed with her pencil grip, but we can't take any credit for that. Cora just REALLY likes to write, trace, and color, and seat work is one of her favorite activities, whether at school or home. We don't know if her K2 teacher taught her how to hold a pen correctly or if she just learned from watching us and others, but we admit that it's nice not having this particular struggle with her (it took a lot of time and effort to get James to hold a pencil correctly). Now, if we could just convince her to write her name FORWARDS more often when she's doing it freehand... (She tends to start with the A and work back to the C for some reason). Also, we think it's interesting that when she writes her name freehand, she uses a capital C with everything else lower case, whereas James ALWAYS writes his name in all capitals. He's learning to write lower case letters as well, but they never appear in his name.

THE BEER IS ALL MINE!

Lunch with Jamie today at Martin's. Yumma yum. 

We also had Reese's chocolate peanut butter mini bundts. And they were also delicious.

LITTLE READERS

Getting dressed for school is overrated. They'd much rather sit around in their jammies and read.

LITTLE MAN WILL ALWAYS BE MY BABY BOY

He may be 4.5-years-old, but he still sleeps like a sweet little baby. Seeing those toes tucked under his bum in the morning makes me smile so.

eDNA SAMPLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI

Thanks to Jamie being here to help us this week, I was able to go out with my team today to collect eDNA samples (that's environmental DNA, AKA "DNA found in the environment", like floating in the water) out on the Mississippi River for one of our Asian carp projects. We sampled 30 sites south of the Mississippi River Bridge down to Racetrack, and we saw a few jumping carp while out there. In fact, one randomly jumped when the boat wasn't even moving (usually they jump because they are startled by the boat/engine) and smacked Matt hard in the left kidney (better than his head...), fell onto my right knee (that thing weighed at least 12 pounds and was flying through the air with a force!), then bounced immediately back into the water. Crazy fish. No awesome bird sightings, but I got a nice sunburn from my upper arms to my gloves and my shorts to my rain boots (not nearly as awesome as my tan from my running shorts and tanks and socks). At least I remembered the sunblock on my face and neck. It was hot and humid, but we had a good time. Thanks for making it possible for me to get away from my desk/lab for a day Jamie!

IMPROMPTU SPLASH PAD BREAK

We spent most of the holiday at home today doing random things, but decided to get out of the house for a bit this evening, stopping at Orange Leaf and Catfish Row before heading over the river for lotto tickets and daiqueris. We live large. Anyway, we didn't exactly plan the stop at the splash pad, so Cora stripped to her undies (she didn't want to get her dress wet) and went crazy while James remained modest and reserved. No surprise there...

UNCLE JAMIE!

Uncle Jamie arrived this afternoon!

After collecting him from the airport (having searched for him up and down, since his flight arrived early and we casually sat in the waiting area while he collected his bag and went outside to find us...), we stopped by the sports store for soccer supplies (Cora needed shoes and a ball, and James needed new shinguards since his are being passed down to Cora), then went over to the Natural Science Museum to check out their reptile exhibit. We stayed just long enough to chase the kids throughout the place, then went in search of a splash pad (but none were operational), and ended up at PF Changs for dinner (not the best restaurant for kids, though yummy, and it was one of the strangest dining experiences any of us have ever had...)

Kissing the Alligator Snapping Turtle while her brother refuses to pose nicely

He loved the special exhibit, though was surprisingly uninterested in the chameleon (even though that was the one thing he originally said he wanted to see most...)

Entertaining the kids with iPhones and Uncle Jamie's iPad at dinner

WEEK ONE = SUCCESS

Week One of Chore Charts is done and it was a success. The kids were more helpful than usual (doing extra chores, and doing things we asked them to quicker and without complaint) and were so proud to mark their check marks at the end of each morning and afternoon. They each earned a dollar, and we decided to keep their allowance separate from their piggy banks (so they can actually spend it, since the piggy banks are saving for college, obviously), so they wrote their names on some old Sasser BBQ containers (in Sharpie, oh the thrill!), and for some reason Cora writes her name backwards? But at least she can write all her letters. Even if they didn't all fit in the same row... Of course, neither did James' letters...