Winter fun

First off, I offer my apologies for writing about snow and winter when we are just beginning to thaw out and forget that a month ago we were buried in over a foot of snow around here. I meant to share these picture sooner, but you know, kids, life, blah blah blah. 

Anyway, we did manage to have quite a bit of fun during our extended winter here in MN. During the late March blizzard, I was gone for the weekend so Seth was on his own with the kids. When I came home, I was greeted by the biggest snowman I have ever seen and a very impressive igloo-type fort. The fort doesn't look that big, but we actually fit 7 people inside it at once (one of them was Seth so we didn't even cheat by squeezing in only tiny people). Both of these feats are something this mom would never be capable of doing with the kids - my best snowmen usually end up around 3-4 feet high. Seeing this made me once again thankful that our kids have such an adventurous and creative dad who can do those things with them that I'm too small or feminine (or lazy) to do. 

Speaking of things I would probably never do with the kids, Seth also brought the boys ice fishing this winter with our brother-in-law. It took Charlie about 5 minute to catch this guy! Looks like he has his Great-Grandpa Lawrence's knack for fishing!

Grandpa Lawrence (on the right)

More questions from Charlie and other observations

Why are there such things as scary dreams? I wish we could delete nightmares and scary dreams.
Why did dinosaurs live before people and why did they all die?
Why do people wear earmuffs and why do they look so weird?
Why don't hornets have horns?
Why don't moms fart?
Do our tongues go all the way down to our tummies?

"I know why Reed's name is Reed. Because he likes to read.
And Noah's name is Noah because he likes to say No.
And my name is Charlie because I like choring (doing chores). Except I don't like to do chores!"

Charlie: Mom!! There is a black coat on the back porch!!
Me: Ok.
Charlie: It can sting people!!
Me: What?
Charlie: Black coats sting people!
Me: (going to look) Do you mean a yellow jacket?
Charlie; No, it's black! It's a black jacket.

Hidden cuss words

"Dad! You said the B-word!"

That was Sam when he overheard Seth say the word "obituary."

On the same line, Charlie has asked me more than once, "How come there's such things as swear words?" I have found that's a difficult one to answer. I've been getting lots of those lately:
"How come you couldn't have had me first so I would be the oldest?"
"Why does there have to be coldness?"
"Why are there such things as germs?"
"How come men can't have babies, too?"
"Why are there bad people?"
"Why do good people do bad things sometimes?"
"Why do girls have to pee sitting down?" (that one I could answer). 

He's a deep thinker, this one.

Quote of the Day

"I'm Anus!!"

This was enthusiastically shouted by my nephew, Reed, today. The kids were watching the movie Ferdinand, and each kid right away picked the character they wanted to be. Sam wanted to be Ferdinand, Elena picked Lupe (the calming goat), and Reed was a bull named Angus.

He just got the name a little wrong. Fortunately, none of the other kids were familiar enough with the term to notice.

Happy Easter Fools Birthday!

April 1st marked 3 celebrations for us. In addition to Easter and April Fool's Day, it was Elena's 11th birthday.

The kids started the day with the Easter Bunny giving them prank gifts with clues to find their real gift. The few toys they got are all old toys they already had.

Sam followed his clue, but found a pack of hot glue gun sticks that I had left on the counter the night before instead of his actual gift. So when I came down in the morning, he said, "Mom! Is my only gift really this pack of glue sticks??"

Then we celebrated Easter with Seth's family. We brought chocolate with surprise fillings (olives, grapes and mushrooms), and set them out on the counter. Food does not go untouched at the Myhre gatherings so it wasn't long before people were getting pranked. By the time we had been found out, there were 4 left that no one would touch (all olives and mushrooms). Frankie spotted them and wanted one. After arguing with him a bit, I finally gave him one. He liked it so much he finished the rest of the bowl! I guess he's young enough not to have any preconceived ideas on how a truffle should taste.

As one last prank, we stuck a "dented your car" sign on Seth's sister's car, and left our nephew's phone number. We finished the night with a mini-birthday party at our house - because after all the goodies on Easter Sunday, what we really needed was cake and ice cream. Elena did a great job decorating her Easter-themed cake.

At the end of the night, Seth and I went to bed and couldn't figure out where our top sheet went. We finally figured out that it had been pulled all the way up and tucked in at the top of the mattress so it looked like the bottom sheet. Underneath, we found a note from Elena saying "April Fool's!" Given her birthday, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that our daughter has started to effectively prank us. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Dinnertime with Frankie

Last summer I took several videos of Frankie eating with the intention of sharing them on the blog so we could always remember how mealtimes were when he was 1. When it comes to making messes with food, Frankie takes the cake. It didn't help that he always refused to wear a bib or sit down while eating. 

These are a little dated now, and I'm happy to report that he is much better. Still messy, but not quite so extreme or deliberate. I'll also add that with most of these videos I would have normally intervened sooner, but I wanted to capture how he was uninterrupted and in his natural state.

This first one occurred when I sat him down to eat rice and beans and then quickly ran to use the restroom. When I came back out, this is how I found him. It cuts off at the end, but he was trying to rub refried beans on the bottoms of his feet when I finally reached my limit of tolerance.

Eating yogurt...he dropped his spoon and improvised:

And here he is eating a cup of applesauce:

Charlie quotes of the week

"Sam! You didn't do that on oops. You did that on purpose."

"Oh, I think that I found myself a cheeseburger." (singing Cheerleader)

I normally love it when the kids brush my hair...

Charlie was brushing my hair today - a rare treat for me.

After a bit he stopped brushing and said, "Wait a minute!"
Me: What?
Charlie: Probably you're going to get old soon.
Me: Why do you say that? (I knew full well why he said that)
Charlie: Because some of your hair is turning white.
Me: Yes it is.
Charlie: Probably Dad is going to get old soon, too.
Me: Well at least I won't be alone then.

Costa Rica Part 3: Almost to the beach

Our one mishap of the trip was our decision to stop at a beautiful waterfall on the way to the beach, which also had a great area for swimming right underneath the falls.

After struggling to find it, Seth and I spotted the very small sign pointing the way. Unfortunately we were following our friends who had incorrect directions. We turned off towards the falls thinking they would see us turn off and would pull over to turn around. We thought wrong. They did not see us and had no idea what had happened to us. And we had no cell phone so calling wasn't an option.

Eventually they realized their directions were wrong and also that we were missing so they retraced their steps. I was ready to wave them down on the side of the road. 

We headed down to the waterfall, parked our cars despite much confusion about where we should park. There were men all over to direct parking and collect the $4 parking fee, but every other one told us "You can park right here" then "Don't park here, you need to park in the lot farther down" then "No, don't park in the lot: it's more expensive" then "Your car won't be safe unless you park in the lot." We finally figured out that there were two separate groups collecting the parking fee so half the men worked for the "parking lot" group and the other half worked for the "side of the road" parking. 

We started our walk down the path to the waterfall, and I quickly noticed that it looked quite a bit longer than we had expected. I asked someone how long the walk was, and they said it would take 30 minutes. We hesitated and thought maybe we should skip it (it was very hot and we had 8 children - a few of whom would likely want to be carried). But after asking another couple who was just returning they said it was only 10 minutes. Another said 20, and another 15. So we just went ahead figuring on the 15 minute average.

Seth and Dan went ahead with Frankie and the older kids, Joy and I quickly fell behind with Grace and Charlie. It took Charlie about 3 minutes to decide he was hot and tired and wanted to be carried. I tried carrying him on my back and shoulders, but in the heat and with a backpack full of swimming supplies and a very full bladder with no bathroom in sight, that didn't last long. So for the next 30 minutes Charlie and I walked at a snail's pace while he whined that he wanted Seth to carry him and I could do nothing but remind him that he would have to walk a little faster than 0.0005 miles per hour if he wanted to catch up with Daddy. 

By the time we got to the steps that would lead down to the waterfall, everyone else was coming back up, ready to go. Apparently, it was completely packed with people and there was basically a rave going on. It was Sunday so it appears many locals took advantage of the day off by bringing their very large speakers and stereos down to the beach where they could blast their music, smoke who-knows-what and hang out. I guess the 100 or so cars parked outside the waterfall should have been our first clue that it wouldn't be the peaceful oasis we were expecting.

Needless to say the kids were not happy at having to make the long trek back through the heat after a half hour walk to a waterfall they didn't even get 30 seconds to enjoy. There were a few sunburns acquired as well as I was the one with all the sunblock, and I couldn't catch up to everyone without abandoning Charlie on the side of the road.

I was sure to let the kids know, however, that this is very typical of traveling in another country, and this was a very good lesson in making the best of it when things don't go as expected.

Dan got a little footage of the waterfall. You can see the delight on the kids faces :) You can't really hear the music in this one, but as soon as you got any closer to the swimming area it was so loud you could barely someone talking right next to you .

Costa Rica Trip: Part 2

Zip-lining!!! Having a 2-year-old along on the trip meant someone had to stay and watch him so I let Seth go ahead and do the zip-lining with Sam and Elena. Charlie also stayed back, although in hindsight, we really should have let him go.  So if we ever make it back Charlie, Frankie and I will be sure to finally take our chance to go.

Dan and their oldest 2 went along as well, so Joy and I stayed in the car mostly with the 4 youngest. Initially it was raining so we were stuck. After quite a while, we got stir-crazy and managed to sweet talk our way into seeing the hummingbird garden for free, which was a patio where you could be surrounded by several varieties of hummingbirds who would come there to eat. They were so used to people you could just stick a finger out by the feeders, and they would sit on your hand. We also got a very close up view of a couple of coaties.

Fortunately Dan had his phone handy so he got some pictures and footage of the zip-lining and the Tarzan swing that they got to do at the end. They went on a 2 hour trek through the cloud forest, hiking from one zip line to the next. They got to go on 13 lines total with the longest one being 1 km (over half a mile). I didn't expect Elena to go since she has a slight fear of heights, but she went and loved it.

Here they are getting ready to go:

Here's Elena on a zipline

And Sam on the Tarzan Swing