Kieran's ComboBall

ComboBall wrapped up last night, starting in mid-May and lasting until the end of July, it was time.  ComboBall is for boys and girls going into second or third grade.  Kids get three pitches or strikes from a pitching machine and if they do not hit the ball, they use the batting tee.  Most of the major rules of baseball are used, except everyone on the team bats every inning, though if three outs are recorded the bases are cleared.  I helped coach the team again this year, we'll see about next year (though the free activity pass to Central High School Athletics is enticing).

Unfortunately, because I was busy coaching, I don't have a lot of pictures.  Here's the individual picture of Kieran and team photo that we took in mid-May.

Knowing I didn't have any pictures, last night we went to the field early so I could get some video of Kieran batting off the machine.

That hum you're hearing is the machine going at a mean 34-35 miles per hour.

Well.....you can't hit them all....

The best hit that I captured on video is below (I hope all the videos are visible, I know the quality goes down quite a bit when compared to my computer)....

Luke's Summer School

Luke has been going to summer school two times a week for the month of July.  This is his last week of school until September, when he begins his second year of preschool (he was born 4 days after Minnesota's cutoff date for Kindergarten).

All smiles waiting for the bus

 Compare the picture above from this morning to the picture from his first day of preschool last fall below.....

Little bit of a difference.....he's also been attending school with his cousin Henry, they get on/off the bus together at our house.  

Luke and Henry looking for the bus

Video from this morning of them getting on the bus, may you can see Luke waving from the window on the bus....

Kieran's Bike Riding

Alright, I've got pictures and posts that are piling up.  It's been a busy summer and I haven't gotten around to posting them like I should have, but here we go.....

Kieran finally dropped the training wheels and is riding his bike on two wheels.  A few weeks back (when it was 90+ degrees), Lex and I were walking and Luke/Kieran were riding down to the lake.  I told Kieran that 'today is the day we ride without training wheels', we work on it as soon as we got back home.  Kieran was worried about what would happen if he fell, I told him he would just fall and have to get up.  It didn't take long for him to figure it out....

There he goes....

 We started in the backyard, on the grass.  We moved to the road fairly quickly because I said it would be easier to pedal on the road.  He worried more about falling on the road....

Here's the video of him coming back:

He only fell once that morning.  He had done a nice job riding and decided to stop.  He stopped like he always had on training wheels, turned to the side and pick his feet up while sitting on the seat.  Well....gravity dropped the whole thing on it's side and the crash shattered one of his pedals.  Kieran rode the bike to the ground and never made contact with the street.

He is pretty proud of himself

He gets a little tippy every now and then.....

He's had one major (in his mind) crash since.  He fell on the path by the lake in Cologne.  There was screaming and writhing in pain, all from what amounts to blood smaller than the diameter of a period on this page.  I didn't give him much time to think about it when we got up to him, I put him on the bike crying and said get going.  Hey, he stopped crying and started riding....

Kieran riding off into the sunset (actually, sunrise - but whatever)

There should be more posts coming from May/June/July soon.  They won't come in order, but hopefully you'll see them showing up soon.

Kieran's First Twins Game

Today was Kieran's first Minnesota Twins game at Target Field.  Kieran received 3 tickets to the game, a Twins shirt/hat and a baseball for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa.  Craig and I accompanied Kieran to the game.

Kieran saw two home runs hit in the first inning (back-to-back shots hit by Seattle Mariner batters), ate a hot dog/chips and box of popcorn, and was really curious if TC Bear could fire a T-shirt from field level to our seats.

The first half of the game was in bright sunlight and then the clouds moved in.  Right about the time Kieran saw another home run hit (by a Seattle batter who had already hit a homer in the first inning), it started to rain.  The last three innings were finished in rain.  It was 4-2 Seattle going into the bottom of the 9th inning.  The first three Twins batters walked.  After a sacrifice fly scored the first run, Ryan Doumit hit a walk-off triple scoring two runs (Joe Mauer scored the winning run) ending the game and setting off the celebratory fireworks.  All of this in the rain....great day.

I'm falling behind in posts, you can expect the following posts in the next few days/weeks:

1.  Luke's Pre-school program

2.  Kieran's 7th birthday

3.  Kieran's Combo Ball uniform and practice

4.  Memorial Day 2013 trip

Como Zoo

Last week, Luke had the opportunity to visit the Como Zoo with his preschool.  We don't have a lot of pictures, but I thought we'd share one.

Luke and a Mountain Lion

Luke's favorite animal, by far, was the polar bears.  There were two polar bears in a relatively new exhibit.  He especially enjoyed when both polar bears were swimming.  Other animals he saw and liked were the gorillas, giraffes, wolves, lions and tiger.  He had fun.

First Camping Trip - 2013

Last year, the boys and I slept in the backyard in our tent during the third week of March.  That was definitely not to be this spring with the winter stubbornly hanging on well into April.  This week started with another 3-4 inches of snow and ended with 3 consecutive (and counting) days above 70 degrees, the story of Minnesota always contains our ever-changing weather.

Well the forecast for the weekend looked great and we had decisions to make, do we 'camp' out in the backyard or off to a state park somewhere.  Honestly, when Saturday morning came around I was voting for the backyard, though I was out voted (and I gave them numerous opportunities to change their minds).  Between class, training, work and the Cologne Fire Department steak fry - Sarah was to be gone most of the weekend.....so off we went.

We ended up at Flandrau State Park in New Ulm, The decision was between four parks within the Minnesota River Valley.  Being late April, I didn't expect much of a crowd at any of the parks.  I asked the worker for recommendations of a site that would keep us away from most of the other campers, he said that he was keeping people away from the 'rustic' campground, but that we could use it as long as we didn't need electricity or water.  We tent and had brought our own water so it was perfect.

We had the run of the entire campground, the kids were busy off running around doing whatever they wanted without concern for the world.

We did have to deal with two cars who drove into the rustic campground and then left, not sure if we scared them off or not.

I said we were alone....right?

Really alone....we did share the campground with one other visitor.....

Every hour or so, this turkey would wander through the campsites looking for food.  The kids loved following, chasing, watching, etc. the bird all through Saturday night.

So much so that by about 7:00 at night Luke and Lex wanted to go to sleep, they kept bugging me about it and I turned them down each time.  Eventually they would get in the tent at about 8:15 or so.  Kieran said all day that he wanted to stay up until he saw the first star, but he gave in at 8:15 as well.

Actually, this was the first night in a new tent.  The tent we usually use is the REI Hoodoo 3, by far the best tent I've ever used (it will be my personal tent when the boys start sleeping in their own tent), but it only fits three people.  We had to borrow a tent last summer when Sarah and Lex came camping with us and would have to in the future as well.  So earlier this spring I had a 30% coupon from REI and used it to get a six-person tent, the Base Camp 6.  It seems to be a much bigger version of our favorite tent, vestibules on both the front and back again and tall enough that I can stand up in the center.  At least we have something that can be quickly used if the camping bug strikes us and we grab our gear and go.

Of course when we were hiking down by the Cottonwood River or checking out the sand pool on Saturday, I didn't have my camera with to take pictures.  The plan was to go on longer hikes along the river Sunday, this time with the camera in two, but Lex woke up sick.  Running a fever and throwing up (four times), we made breakfast and packed up so we could get home and she could feel better.  We will be camping again, Lex included, sometime soon.  Actually the boys and I made a goal of camping at some point during seven consecutive months this year (April is done and we've already got reservations for June and August), so we'll see how that turns out.

Collecting Sap from Maple Trees

Even with the prolonged winter/spring this year, Kieran and I have not had the opportunity to do any helping with the maple syrup process.....until yesterday.  Even Luke came along, his first time helping collect sap.

The process has changed some since last year when Kieran and I helped to set things up.  Gone are the long tubes carrying sap downhill.  Now the individual maple trees have a several gallon bag hanging from the tap.

Of course, some of the larger trees still have several taps drilled into their trunks, meaning there may be several bags hanging from the trees.

To get the sap from the bags down to the road requires buckets....and someone to carry those buckets.

Of course, once those buckets are filled with sap, it's too heavy for Luke to carry.  Keep in mind there are a lot of bags to collect sap from....most of which you need to walk uphill to get to and then carry the fully loaded buckets downhill.

But the boys both had fun helping, out in the last remnants of snow (I hope) of the year, even though Luke tripped on a stick and landed face-first --- leaving a cut beneath his lower lip and another cut inside his mouth.

View the video if you like to see the fresh sap dripping from the tap.  The sap was dripping directly onto the ground, we were too focused on getting the video to think about catching the sap in a bucket.

Back in the garage (or the 'sugar shack' outside) it's time to process the sap, meaning you have to boil the excess water off, leaving the syrup behind.  Rough estimates are 40 gallons of sap equal 1 gallon of syrup.  Yesterday we collected about 75 gallons of sap, bringing the season total to around 290 gallons.

For a another video showing how we collected the sap yesterday.  It's not rocket science....

Spring Break 2013

Spring Break 2013 is coming to end....back to school for everyone on Monday.  We got away to Duluth for a few days late this week.  We stayed at the Edgewater Resort and Waterpark up on London Road, everyone seemed to have an okay time (if you plan on going...take the stairs, not the elevator).

The hotel provided a couple of pools, a lazy river, a waterslide and a slide dedicated to tubes.  Basically enough for everyone to have fun.  Luke proved to be his typical self, it took a little time before he got comfortable going down the slides (he really doesn't like to be splashed).  There were several kiddie slides that he was able to enjoy (as well as everyone else).

Lex also proved to be herself, fearless and determined, always wanting things her way.  She does not have an aversion to being splashed.

Kieran was.....well....Kieran, after a few tears here and there, he figured out he'd have fun.  He enjoyed waiting for the large bucket to spill on him and everyone below (Luke would hide during these times)...

We were able to get away for a few hours to head up the shore to Gooseberry Falls State Park, where we'll be camping in a few months.  It was nice seeing a different perspective of a waterfall we know so well.

Closer to the lake, the area that the boys call the 'tadpole place' (in late June, every pool in the rock crevices is filled with tadpoles) was covered with a winter's worth of lake spray that had frozen on most surfaces.  Many inches of ice covered almost everything.

Back at the hotel, we kept swimming.  Even though Kieran is not the strongest swimmer, he found a way to walk over the water that was almost four feet deep.

Before leaving Duluth for home, we had to visit Canal Park, taking in the sites of a fairly frozen harbor.

Ice-breaking began a few weeks earlier, allowing 'lakers', those ships dedicated to traveling the Great Lakes to come into and out of the harbor.  We missed a port record by a few hours, late on Friday night, the first 'saltie' was due to come into the harbor.  Salties are ocean-going ships that pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway.  This was the first time a 'saltie' passed under the Aerial Bridge before April 1st, thus a record, who said this winter never wanted to end?!

Just a few more months and we'll see this bridge again (of course....minus the snow and ice)....

Snow Day!!

What's with the big snowstorms at this point of the year?  Last year, February 29th to be exact, one that winter's largest snowfalls canceled school.  Well....March 5th was the date this year...somewhere in the range of 6-10 inches of snow over the last two days canceled school for two-thirds of the state.

The boys came outside around 7:30 to play while I shoveled snow (for the second time), they stayed out until about 10:00, until they were "freezing cold".  They were able to push through the cold while playing with a few neighborhood girls.  After naptime, Lex joined the boys outside to play.  Sorry about the poor quality camera phone pictures.

Luke playing in the snow...by himself

Luke has always been okay with being apart from the crowd.  He spent a lot of time building mound of snow that he said was a clown...I didn't see the clown.

Kieran shoveling 'trails' for Lex so it would be easier for Lex to walk

 I prefer if the boys play with their shovels somewhere other than near the driveway.  Before knowing that school was canceled for the day, I spent 30 minutes from 4:45-5:15 shoveling the driveway, within minutes of being outside Luke was shoveling snow back on the driveway.

See.....Kieran's 'trails' work

One problem with Lex, when she falls down in the snow, she still is not comfortable getting up by herself.  She just sits and whines until she gets what she wants....which is what she also does inside I guess.

'Trails' make walking easy for little legs

Lex was really happy while playing outside....until Luke put a shovelful of snow on top of her head, most of which went down her back.  Fifteen minutes after the shovelful, she and I were inside.

Luke pretending to nap outside

Just a few more weeks and most of this snow will be gone.  Forecasts call for 40 degrees and rain/slush by the weekend.  No more snow days this year.

Minneopa Falls

Saturday morning the kids and I went to Minneopa State Park just south of Mankato.  Even though the area had 5+ inches of snow the day before, we sort of expected the paved trail to the falls overlook to be plowed (we know now that it is not plowed, though the parking lot was).

The hike to the falls overlook is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 mile....it was a little difficult for Lex, we moved slower than the boys would have liked.

The bridge over Minneopa Creek, between the 10-foot upper falls and the 39-foot lower falls was completely replaced (trust me...it needed to be) last fall.  In my mind it is safer now, the boys can't lean over the railings of this bridge.

While the boys were off throwing each other in the snow, Lex took some time to actually look at the falls.

Eventually I was able to get the boys over so I could get a picture of all three kids.

I took two pictures of Luke, Lex, and Kieran together by the falls -- I have no idea how both of them turned out okay (no one mad, crying, blinking, hitting another, etc.).

One more picture of just the lower falls, because of the dry conditions we've had since the middle of last summer, this creek has been mostly dry since at least September.  It wasn't much of a surprise to see the falls  without much ice.  The little bit of snow that we have isn't going to make much of a difference in the ground moisture when it melts, especially if it all runs off when the soil is still frozen.

Altogether, we spent a couple of hours at the falls, until the kids were soaked and cold.  Trust me, the moment the kids realize they are cold occurs almost instantaneously....