Yummy Maxisms

Here are a couple of things Max came up with:

#1. Daddy usually leaves a little note for the boys before he goes to work early in the morning. Max and Miles love to hear what daddy has written to them each day. The other day Matt kiddingly wrote at the end of the note 'and no cookies today!'

When I read that, Max answered back, "yes cookies today!" and I said "NO!" to which Max replied, "That's ok. We'll just go to DQ instead."

#2. Miles and Max met my good friend from WI, Sara, for the first time on Sunday. She asked Max what his favorite animal is and he said, "A kangaroo because a kangaroo is the same color as pumpkin bread!"

Max does love his sweet treats.

P.S. This photo is from Uncle Lu's b-day a couple of weeks ago.

Trolley!

My boys love all things train or train related. And lucky for us there's a great historic trolley ride in our city available everyday during the summer.


Check out the cool light fixture and the seats covered with a wicker-like material.

And the old ads are so fun to look at.

4,5 or 6

When I was a little girl we had a beautiful clematis growing on the side of our house. They were a kinda light purple-pinkish color and I thought they were such pretty flowers.

Since moving into this house almost 5 years ago I've worked on the gardens around our yard and every spring I've tried planting a clematis, but to no avail. They all seem to be fine during the summer, then fall comes and the vines turn brown and die and nothing comes up the next spring. I think all 3 of my past clematis have succumb to clematis wilt.

I'm not giving up on clematis yet, so I decided to try one more time. I bought a clematis, planted it and so far, so good. And then I met Cindy, a friend of my step-mom. Cindy had some good clematis advice: she said it has to be planted 4-6 inches deeper than you would think. Armed with this new trick, I'm digging a deeper hole to replant it, hoping this trick will help me establish my own clematis in our yard. The only reason I'll be planting clematis #5 is if I want to add another because the fourth one is doing so well.

Here's a photo of my clematis. I don't remember clematis having a varied number of petals, but this plant currently has 3 flowers - one with 4 petals, one with 5 petals and one with 6 petals. Kinda cool!

Have Dog, Will Travel

Last weekend they had the Lifetime Fitness triathlon starting at Lake Nokomis. I decided to rally in the morning and take the boys down to the lake to watch a little cycling and running.

Now usually, if we run errands, we put Gus in the bathroom (it's contained, cool and he likes to hang out there even when we're all home). But being that it was a beautiful day and we were going to be outside the entire time, I figured we should bring him along to the festivities. There were just 2 slight problems. He's only 4 months old and still isn't too keen walking on the leash. And he's only 4 months old and walking all the way down to Lake Nokomis and back would be a little too much for him.

Well Miles was going to ride in the double chariot stroller and Max was biking it, so I decided we could squeeze Gus in the stroller next to Miles. Gus seemed to think this was ok (except for a little whining), but then Miles (like any good mischievous 2 1/2 year old) thought he should play with (torture) Gus while we strolled along. Gus put up with Miles' antics and giggling for a bit until he decided he'd had enough and just sat on Miles to quash anymore torture. Then Miles started complaining. Fortunately, we were at our destination so I freed them both.

I took the photo with the screen down so it's kinda hard to see them, but here are Miles and Gus traveling together.

Cabin Fever!

My boys and I spent the last few days up at Grandpa and Grandma's cabin. Auntie Allie came up too with Lucia and baby Rio. Everyone had a fabulous time (although I think Grandma and Grandpa will need plenty of rest for the next few weeks to recover from the toddler frenzy). Max summed it up like this, "I love the cabin and I love Florida!"





We discovered all kinds of cool things up north. Smores aren't necessarily better with bigger marshmallows. Kids+shovels+sand= all day digging. We thought Miles had a fear of water, but he actually loves it; it's the dragonflies he didn't care for too much. Max takes any and every opportunity to take off his clothes and go naked. Lucia and the boys love the boat and if Grandpa isn't driving fast enough (like when he's backing it out of the boat lift) she yells, "go faster!" And baby Rio loves the great outdoors.

Thanks for the fun times Gange and Pop-Pop!