Koo Withdrawal

Calvin is having Koo withdrawal. It's not like we used to see her everyday, but now that he knows she is gone, he is talking about her non stop. He keeps telling me that we need to go and see her and tell anyone who will listen that she is in Oregon which is far away. Koo was there when Calvin was born and has lived near us ever since, so he is having a hard time accepting that he is not going to see her for a long time.

Another Graduation

Here are a couple of shots from Calvin's preschool "graduation". Actually they had track and field day and then the parents came to see them get their medals. Calvin was not impressed and refused to sing any of the songs with the rest of the kids. He did love his preschool though and his teachers; he just does not like being in front of a crowd!

Calvin getting his medal.
Natalie at least smiled!
Next fall, Natalie and Calvin will be moving to a three day a week preschool class (2 1/2 hour a day).

Koo's Graduation

I need to play catch up on the blog yet again . . . I find when I have company in town, that a lot of things slide - the blog being one of them, my weight being another! Mom is leaving tomorrow and Koo left on Saturday morning. We are all going to go into mourning as my only sibling has left us high and dry in the Midwest. I am already plotting which of my other siblings I can convince to move out here, but the prospects are dim.

Here are a couple of shots from Koo's graduation from The University of Minnesota. The ceremony was long and typical. Sophie leaned over about 15 minutes in and said "Mom, this is really boring". Not 10 minutes later she leaned over and whispered loudly "Mom, this is STILL boring!" She kept up this pattern for the entire ceremony.

The kids liked this guy with his "Lord of the Rings type thingy" he was holding.
Grandma Johnson waiting for Koo after the ceremony.
And now she is off to Oregon for a year long fellowship - Calvin suggested today that we could drive there to see her - on his tricycle!

Birthday Wishes

Koo made the wonderful coconut cake for the birthday party/Mother's Day celebration we had for Grandma Johnson and Mom. Both of them celebrated birthdays in the weeks before they came out to see us. Calvin is always asking for birthday cakes, but he NEVER eats them - I'm not sure why. The coconut cake was no exception.

Baptism

Max was baptized last Saturday. Mom, Dad and Grandma Johnson as well as Koo, David and Trisha and their kids came to see his big day. It is amazing to me that I have a child old enough to be taking this step! Max is an amazing child - so inquisitive and smart and playful - in short, quite a handful! He was very nervous on this day as I watched him sitting in the front row, waiting for his time to go up front. He was the only baptism that day and his primary teacher gave the opening prayer and our new home teacher gave the talk - mom gave the closing prayer. We were very grateful to be able to share this day with our family!

Bryan was able to baptize Maxwell and my Dad did his confirmation with our Bishop, Bryan and David in the circle with him.
After the baptism, we took everyone out to breakfast at Jensen's!
Calvin LOVES baby Matthew. He uses this little baby voice and says "oh, look at the baby! I wanna hold the baby!"

Out of Towners

On Thursday of last week my Dad and Grandma arrive for Max's baptism weekend and Koo's graduation. My mom arrived on Friday. We had a very busy weekend with all of the family events, but we also spent some wonderful time just hanging around the house together and catching up. Dad and Grandma had to leave on Tuesday, but Mom is here for another week!

Max and Grandma share a love for Chinese checkers though the adults played "owen" more times than I can remember!

We did some baking - big surprise!

We all were in the middle of books - Dad read Rule of Four and a The Broker while he was here. Mom just finished Twilight and New Moon.


The kids loved sneaking down in the morning and climbing in bed with Grandpa to wake him up! There is no privacy in our house - we do not have a guest room so Dad and Mom were in the living room at the bottom of the stairs! Grandma slept in Sophie's pink room which Sophie was extremely pleased about!


We went to the park that is 2 blocks from our house. Johnny and Calvin love the swings . . .


. . . especially if Grandpa pushes them!


Sometimes Grandpa joins the fun himself!


This is the pond by the park - there are birds everywhere right now!


We spent one morning at the sculpture garden in Minneapolis and then toured around the downtown lakes looking at all of the gorgeous mansions.

Look who's back!

Look who Mommy found buried under a winters worth of junk in the minivan?! That's right, Hobbes is back - and on the same day that daddy finally found replacement Hobbes at the 12th Walgreen's he visited!!!
There was much rejoicing from Calvin!

Piano Recital!

Max had his piano recital last week on Monday night. Our piano teacher (Mrs. Friend) teaches half of our ward though she is not LDS. To accommodate all of her LDS kids, she has a special non-Sunday recital for them on Monday night. Max did a great job - he had his piece memorized a long time ago and we were very proud of him!

Some of the other piano students after the recital.
Max and his teacher and Calvin.
I think Sophie may start lessons in the fall.

The Host Tour - Mom's Day Off!

So, confession time. I love the Twilight books - LOVE them! I realize they are not the next Jane Eyre, but I think they are a marvelous little story and I literally inhaled them when my friend Susan lent them to me in January. Actually I read the first book and then threw the kids in the car, raced to Barnes and Noble and bought the two sequels in hardcover. Stephenie knows how to tell a good story, one that has found a huge fan base in both the tween/teen girl market and also with adult women like myself. I have strong opinions about the movie, but that is another thread altogether.
On the 6th, Bryan gave me the gift of a day off from being a mom. I met up with Julie and Jenny and about 40 women from the Twilight Moms message boards at the Mall of America for the book signing for Stephenie Meyers new book, The Host. We spent the day getting to know each other, reading The Host and wandering around the mall. Lori stopped by to visit as well as other friends from our ward. By the time Stephenie arrived to have a discussion and sign books, there were well over 1000 people there with the line snaking around the hall for 1/2 mile! We were in the first row and were able to chat with the author for a few moments as she signed our books.
Julie and Jenny with their books!
We brought camp chairs to hang out in during the day.The whole rotunda was filled and then they started another line down the hall!
Kelly came with her kids at about 5:30 and when it came time to sign books, Stephenie's publicist came over and insisted that she go first as she had her kids with her!

Stephenie has an amazing story. She attended BYU the same time as I did and went on to marry and become a stay at home mom with 3 children. When her oldest was 6, she had a dream about a boy and a girl in a meadow and then next night she started writing Twilight. Within six months of having the dream, she had finished Twilight, found a literary agent, gotten Twilight published and secured a 3 book deal for sequels! She has since written three sequels to Twilight (Breaking Dawn comes out in August), sold the movie rites to Twilight (the movie comes out in December) and wrote and published The Host, her first adult work of fiction. It is really a remarkable story and all 5 of her books are currently in the top 17 books on Amazon.com!
By the way, The Host is very good. I finished it the day after the signing. It took me about 50 pages to really get into it, but when I finished, I found I just wanted to find someone to discuss it with. I loved the complex characters and how vastly different the journeys are that they take during the course of the novel. I do not usually like sci-fi, but I would recommend this one.

What's Blooming in the Garden

I can still hardly believe that spring has arrived, but the gardens have blossomed this last week! The rabbits have eaten a good number of the tulips this year and the hard, long winter has killed off some of the daintier plants, but the hardy varieties made it through and are gorgeous!