Ethnic Enrichment Festival - 2012

I can't believe it has been a whole year since I posted THIS. This year Lyla was not a fan of the port-a-potty's like she was last year but we had several other highlights at the Ethnic Enrichment Festival ... 

Red hair spray provided by the girls selling cable, weird.

Steven's teacher doing Norwegian dancing (her back is to the photo), teacher's have real lives, too!

Sumo Steven

Sumo Lyla

 The food was pretty good, too!

First Day of School - 2012

Border Star, Here we come!

This is Steven's first kindergarten year! While he is still only 4, he made the cut-off date and we decided to send to him. Some selfish reasons (we don't have to pay anymore) and other more thoughtful reasons (he's in a multi-age class so he won't be the youngest). He has Mrs. Jongeling again this year and we are looking forward to a great year of learning the moveable alphabet, the addition board and binomial or trinomial cube. Montessori is learning for us, too!

Lyla is a P3 this year and she is in Mrs. Moore's class. She has had a pretty rough transition but we expected that with her. She is quite the hard-headed child right now and we've had a few days where she's spent some time in the "safe" spot but overall we think she is going to grow at Border Star. We just need to keep her away from Steven during recess so  she starts making her own friends!

32 Weeks?

I almost don't want to post the following picture. We are officially 32 weeks and a few days and I am looking like the baby could come any day. People are always asking me - how much longer? I never really had stranger annoyances with my other pregnancies but I am sure getting them this time around. 

Even our midwife declared that I am big, so much bigger than our date (she measured 36 centimeters which should mean 36 weeks - 4 weeks beyond where we really are) that she ordered us to get another sonogram to check on the baby's size. We got it done this afternoon and the preliminary results say the baby is 6lbs 6oz (+/- 1 lb) which is about 2lbs greater than the average baby. We grow them big in the Clark family!

We won't get the official information until tomorrow or Friday but we're hopeful that his size and fluid levels are in an okay range so that we don't have to change any plans!

Baby Boy Clark's Profile

Update: Baby boy Clark is big. Sono results showed that his heart is fine, brain looks good, kidneys and stomach have fluid in them and his size is above average. Our midwife wants to consult with the obstetrician and may recommend a hospital birth in case delivery complications arise but I am hopeful that we can continue on our current path. I did it with Lyla so I think we can do it again!

10 Fish!

The summer fun continues for the Clark family. This time it involved hot dogs on hooks and a bunch of little blue gills.

After our night out camping we drove to the fishing area on the lake and let the kids cast their lines to see what we could catch. Steven was on fire! He caught nine blue gills (one was a whopper) and kept telling us he's caught ten fish because he remember catching a tiny fish in a net with Grandma Pam when we visited Emerald Isle so long ago!

Lyla helped me reel one in but left most of the casting, bobber watching, and fish catching to me and Tommy. 

Finally we can report success in the fishing department. Had to be the hot dogs!

Our Inaugural Camping Trip

Tommy has been obsessed with the VW Vanagon since he got to ride in one owned by his coworker. He would troll Craigslist from Minnesota to Oklahoma because someone in our family would be able to check it out if we found one to buy. I was adamant against it because where do you put car seats? 


Finally, I realized he really just wanted something that we could do as a family - something that we could build memories with for our kids. I've always liked camping so it wasn't that I was against camping but I just didn't see how a Vanagon was practical for our soon to be family of five. Then I thought, how about a pop-up camper, and Voila! suddenly we owned one! Seriously, just like that Tommy found one he wanted, bid on it (he also trolled ebay) and won! 


During our family vacation to Arkansas over the fourth of July, he and his dad drove to Ada, Oklahoma to pick it up. The man he bought it from had a teenage grandson who had outgrown weekend camping trips and they decided to sell the camper. He seemed happy that it was going to our family to continue the fun! 


Since the ditch at the start of the driveway to Sugarloaf Mountain is inaccessible by low clearance vehicles, we parked the camper at the neighbors and waited to take it home the next day.




Getting it in the driveway was another fun event. Tommy had a hard time thinking backward about turning the wheel but eventually he got it in the driveway. We bought a hand truck (accessory #1) to help guide it down the driveway and eventually, we'll need it to put it in the garage. 

Our inaugural camping trip was on July 20 to Longview Lake. We went with friends - Danny and Michelle and their kids Mia and Miles. It was great fun! We were super worried about the heat - during the week it had been over 100 degrees everyday and heat advisories. Tommy was worried about our baby but I told him I would sit in a lawn chair near the ice bucket the whole time, if needed. In the end, the weather was great. The Van Doren's got a site in the shade, there was a nice breeze and overnight the temperature dropped to at least 70 degrees and we actually needed blankets to cover up! It was great!


During the evening the kids played really well. Steven even took the kids to the edge of the "woods" to tell them ghost stories by the light of the flashlight.

Bedtime was a little rough since it was 10pm and the kids usually go to bed around 8pm. It was also bad because we forgot pillows and sleep toys. Won't do that again!


However, once they were asleep the kids didn't wake up until the sun started shining in. Our little girl who always wakes up first was actually the one who stayed in bed the longest! Note the deflated air mattress - we're going to have to work on that. 


PHOTO TO BE INSERTED ONCE DOWNLOADED FROM MY PHONE


All in all, it was a great adventure and we're looking forward to our next trip!

Things we see

Kids are consistent. Everyday we drive them on the same roads to and from school and inevitably they point out the same things every time we pass them. It always makes me smile to hear them say, "mommy, did you see it, did you see it?"

Just don't want to forget the funny things.

Like how they tell me they are going to eat the apple on the Applebee's corporate headquarters sign.

Like how Lyla calls this billboard "the bad guy getting married." Poor Abe.

Like how Lyla sees the tiny weather station on this clocktower, calls it the spinner and tells me how fast it is spinning.

Like how we can't wait to see the horse with wings because it means we are close to home.

I told you so

It's not like me to tell Tommy "I told you so" but this one, I really did tell him "I told you so."

During the first half of the week of the Fourth of July the kids were on Sugarloaf mountain with their grandparents. During the week they had captured a few toads outside and held them hostage in the bug catcher for a few hours. Note that I mentioned they held them OUTSIDE. Later in the week, when Tommy and I returned from our anniversary trip/babymoon, Papa found a frog outside and caught him. He and Tommy were so excited that they brought him inside to show the kids. Tommy then proceeded to suggest that the kids should pet the frog and he'd take him out of the bug catcher (such a sturdy housing unit anyway). That was my first mention that this probably wasn't a good idea and should possibly be moved outside.

And then it happened, the frog got loose.

He jumped to the only nearby spot to hide - under the dishwasher. The frog rescue then commenced. It involved tools, dishwasher removal, wire rearranging and finally a traumatized frog removed from the space between the wall and the dishwasher connections.

At least Grandma got to have the men folk vacuum underneath her diswasher!

A reward (?) for all his hard work.

NOTE: No frogs were harmed during the filming of this event. Maybe a little traumatized but he got washed off and hopped into the woods upon release!