Svea Is A Reader

Svea is a reader!  See for yourself!

Here is Svea's first book that she read on her own.  She practiced and practiced and I bet we she read this to me 10 times before we got on the phone to call Grandma and Grandpa D and then Gaga so that she could read it to them.  Another day we hopped in the car so that we could go to Great Aunt Shirley and Uncle Williams house to read it to them too. Svea read to them and then Shirley read to them while they devoured her pumpkin muffins. Svea is so proud of herself and it is a joy to watch her learn and take off with reading!  

Svea's Party!

 Svea had a cat birthday party.  We had it at Courts Plus at their indoor play land.  Our kids LOVE this place and it's a great place to burn off pent up energy.  She invited some church friends and her class.  I think we learned out lesson in inviting the whole class.  This party was huge and maybe a little overwhelming, but she handled it very well. Gaga and Grandpa Ron came too as well as Great great aunt Shirley! We weren't too good with pictures.  It was hard to keep her sitting still for a picture, which is understandable. 

 It was fun to see her interacting with all of her friends, giggle, laugh, be creative, and run around.  

 Presents were a huge hit as you can tell!

 I think Dan should be in charge of ordering the cake next year.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I ordered WAY too much cake.  We ate 1/3 of it and the other thirds we'll eat for my birthday at Thanksgiving and I guess we're having Christmas cake.  

 Eyes closed cutie face:)

 Svea and Meeko with a tiny fingerprint.  Woops! 

We love you Svea Grace! Happy Birthday!

Svea is Six!

 Svea had a fabulous time turning six this year.  She loved her special day and soaked up the attention, cake, and presents.  On her actual birthday Papa came for a quick visit before leaving for Mexico.  They got in some good story time before bed.  We had spaghetti and Halloween cake.

 The next day Grandma and Grandpa D came and this is Svea's reaction to opening presents with them.  I think she was excited, but I'm not sure.  

 Here she's opening a pet cat with a carrier and all of the things to take care of it.  She choose to have a cat birthday party so her cake had a picture of herself and Meeko on it.  More on the party later!  The kids get so excited and love having Grandma and Grandpa here.  We think we wear them out, but know they love it too.  We went to the zoo one day, had the party another day, church, and trunk or treat at the church!  It was a packed weekend. 

Svea on her birthday getting cat pajamas from mom and dad.  Svea Grace, we love you so much.  Your silly spirit and drive to be creative at whatever you are doing is so fun to watch.  Your deep concern for others is humbling and the love that you give us melts away our crazy days.  We love spending our days with you and it was so fun to celebrate you on your birthday! 

All Things Fall

Pumpkin Painting!

Tongues out for concentration!

Almost done!

All Done!

Our favorite tree out our front window.  It isn't ours, but our neighbors.  They can't see it from any of their windows and it's about a foot from our property so we claim it for pictures!

Random

These are some random photos from the past two weeks. I don't have any of Dan so we'll work on that! We are doing well and in a good routine. I took up coffee and Dan goes to work before 8 am now, which is really weird for us. The cool thing is he surprised us the other day and beat us home. Fun treat! Kids are doing great with school! We had a Food For Kids event at church on Sunday and the kids were such hard workers it made me want to tear up how helpful they wanted to be. Svea even went back for a second shift with Dan

First Day of School 2016: Kindergarten and Pre-School

 Svea wants to be a Kindergarten Teacher and Kieran wants to be taller.  Ha!  I love that!

 Kieran is going to the school pre school and Bethesda as well.  He's loving both so far although it's taken longer for him to get used to Bethesda.  A few times he's said he wanted the bus to take him home after school.  He's getting there!  

 Svea was so incredibly worried about starting Kindergarten.  It's been a hot topic all summer. At the last minute we decided to send her to private school at Oak Grove.  It was the best choice for her.  She has a really small class size and is getting lots of love and attention!

We're so thankful for a good start.  Everyone is wiped out at the end of the night.  Kids go to bed on time, Dad doesn't stay awake longer than 10 minutes after the kids, and mom started drinking coffee.  No kidding....hated it, but it's now a need.  We couldn't be happier.  Thing are good and we are thankful for every day we have together!

Svea learns how to swim

Guess who learned how to shed the life jacket this summer and learned how to swim.  THIS GIRL!!! she's been so proud and excited about it. This picture is from K's birthday party. The next day she tried it  and she was hooked. She can't go super far or swim above the water, but under she is a fish! We bought her a pair of goggle that cover her nose as well and she loves that too!

Cute sayings

Auntie Jill (my cousin) was visiting for a night and she's pregnant. Kieran thinks babies get into mommies tummies because they eat them (we're working on it) Jill is also a dental hygenist so when I asked her to look at the kids' teeth K was a little hesitant. When it got to be his turn he said, "Jill, dont put a baby in there".

The kids play with a neighbor boy, Simon, at the park. They play this game where they pretend they have powers. Kieran said one that that he was going to take his power and swallow it.

Way back in May before K was potty trained he announced across the whole library that he pooped brown stuff.

Fast forward to August and K is well trained. We were visiting Grandpa Marlan and I asked him to go potty before we left. He told us that his penis told him that it doesn't need to go. Grandpa laughed so hard at that one.

Svea was packing up her backpack with Gaga and told her, "it's going to be a real budget getting this into my backpack". We think she meant "bugger ".

Svea has been pretty apprehensive about school to start (post on that soon) and to pump herself up she told Gaga one day....."Kindergarten here I come"!

First Half of June + Father's Day

I'm so behind on blogging that I get overwhelmed knowing where to start so I figured I'd just pick up where we are and if I can slowly fill in and back date I will!

Summer so far has been a blast.  I know Dan might not say the same thing since his work schedule picks up it seems here, but it's been a nice requiescence for me and the kids.  So far in June we've had....swimming at Lake Ida, my best friend Pam got married to Rob and I was her maid of honor plus got three nights away to celebrate (thanks Dan and Gaga for making that happen), we swam at a friend's pool twice, played on our new play-set for hours and hours, attended two potlucks one with friends and one at church, attended a week long of vacation bible school, visted Grandpa Marlan and had a nice visit, played with other friends on their inflatable water slide while the parents sipped margaritas, attended our new outdoor Wednesday worship, Papa came for a visit to help put together the play-set (slowly working on staining it), Svea started gymnastics (she LOVES it), Kieran started bi-weekly speech, Dan's done more wedding and funerals than I can count one of them being for our music and worship leader/Jon from church, and I finished a book, which doesn't happen that often during the school year.

Finally, we celebrated Dan's 42nd birthday yesterday and now today is Father's Day!  We just want Dan to know how much we love and appreciate him.  Here he is with my Dad putting together the "new to us" play-set for the kids.  They've spent hours on this thing already.

Swimming at our friend's pool while they were away for the weekend. It was a huge gift to our family!

I'm not sure, but I think he likes it?

Happy Father's Day Dan!  These two know how much you love them and that's the most important thing! 

Svea's Preschool Graduation

 We are so proud of this girl!  

 She was incredibly nervous for the ceremony, but once she got going she did just fine. 

 This is Paige, Svea's teacher.  She was so sad to be done with preschool and asked if she could have those days back again:(  Kieran will have her next year as he will be going there full- time.  It was SO hard to tell Jill, his daycare provider because we LOVE her so much, but this will be the best and he'll be around kids his own age and language more.  I still feel like having him at his home daycare this past year was the best for him.  She did amazing things for him and will always hold a special place in our hearts!

 She was so proud of herself and excited to see her friends.  

Gaga got to come too! 

Christmas in Wisconsin 2015

After a 10 hour drive the kids were SO excited to be in Wisconsin to see Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins! They are always wound up after being stuck in a car for so long and run around like crazy with excitement.  They always pick up right where they left off with Dean and Kathy.

It was the first year that the kids could just go off and play with their cousins and we didn't have to follow them to make sure (Kieran) wasn't getting into anything he shouldn't.  Ashlyn is old enough to be that watchful eye and they enjoyed the freedom to soak in some time with them. They LOVE their cousins!

Opening presents!

The Dornfelds open one gift at a time starting with the youngest person so we get to watching everything happening.

We enjoyed our time.  The kids always struggle with sleeping the first night, but after that it went well.  

They love coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Merry Christmas 2015!