Flat Estelle

Estelle has a project at school - they read the book, Flat Stanley and then she made a flat version of herself. She sent Flat Estelle to Seattle to be photographed in various locations. Flat Estelle helped in the garden and played soccer.

Flat Estelle went to Easter dinner and to Costco with cousin Emelia.

Flat Estelle had waffles and applesauce for breakfast. And finally, Flat Estelle got to watch a UW baseball game from the press box (or maybe she was just looking at the guys in the press box!).

Thanks to Unky Jeff, Aunt Meghan, and cousin Emelia for all of the excellent adventures with Flat Estelle.

Isn't It Spring Yet?!

Old pictures of my dad and my uncle, scanned in during our family gathering for Grandma B's funeral (Calista Bechthold Sullivan, November 10, 1914 - February 6, 2009). Estelle had a great time with her second cousing Bennett and wants to spend more time in Tonka in the future (that's Minnetonka :) for those of you who don't know the lingo).

On the night flight home we gave the guys our upgrade - seats in First Class ... in reality we probably had more space in the back because there wasn't anyone sitting next to us. George got the cool hat (ala Ryan Evans from HSM) at American Eagle in the Mall of America. Good thing we didn't have more time to spend there or we would have gone broke!

Ottawa Park skating skills are improving.

Pinewood Derby - 2nd place for design!

Estelle's birthday trip with Becca and Reagan to Chicago... E doesn't look too perky because she was actually sick, but she was concerned she wouldn't ruin the trip for everyone, so we still made it to brunch at American Girl Place. Our bedraggled crew included recently hospitalized and bereaved moms, so even though Estelle was sick it was still a nice getaway. Sunday Estelle was recovered enough to make it to shop at Water Tower Place.

The weather keeps being undecided here ... it was over 50 degrees this morning and it was snowing a few minutes ago. We will keep thinking spring!

Winter Break

We had a great but too short break in Florida. Sitting by the pool and walking on the beach were so relaxing! We did way too much eating and it was good too.

On the boat to Caps' Place for dinner with Grandma Winky.

Kids made friends with others staying at the hotel - played a lot of Marco Polo in the pool and thought the beach was OK, but the ocean tasted "horrible".

Turtles and pools at Gumbo Limbo.

We had fun even up to the last few minutes of our trip!

Happy New Year

This is the first post of 2009. Took me a while! We had a good Christmas with visits from family and friends. Toledo is seeing its share of snow but we've only had one snow day so far - and believe it or not, the kids were upset - it was supposed to be their Christmas parties and gift exchanges. Oh well. We're looking forward to our weekend trip to Florida to get out of the cold.

Here's some pictures of the winter activities. Brrrr....

Christmas morning presents were well received!! Thanks everyone =)

Outdoor fun involved burying boys in snow. George said it was warm - HA!

Even mommy got to have some fun in San Fran!

Pageants

Church skit called for a brother and sister combination and these guys fit the bill!

School pageant was a fun time with silly songs and surprises (kazoos and a round of "who let the dogs out"). These kids have the moves!

Good thing grandma didn't give up the secret after attending the afternoon performance!

More Catching Up ...

Also around the same time in October Estelle's class did The Jungle Book Kids musical and I got to see it before heading to Minnesota to visit Grandma B. and aunt, uncle, and cousins. Good show, good trip. :D