Christmas Eve

Here's the guys enjoying Christmas eve at Granna's house.



Otto has two recent favorite books: here is Uncle Mike reading The Day the Dinosaur's Died. Pair that with Fighting Dinosaurs and you have a great little story time. But then Otto wants to play fighting dinosaurs, and it turns out the club on the end of his "tail" is his favorite weapon. Well, he likes the sharp claws and big teeth, too.

Chrismas Preparations

Here we are getting ready for Christmas - we had some quality time with Santa and found a beautiful long needled tree! And there is Tim, happy with a cup of coffee in his hand!

Birthday fun

Here is the Oreo ice cream cake Otto made his birthday wishes on, he did not divulge the content.



We went to the indoor playground with friends and shared a lunch and a lot of running around. This is the card group posse minus one family that was busy napping...

Grammie

We had a fantastic visit with Grammie - she was even willing to get up early to work with Otto on his Lego projects before school...

First Day of School

With a fresh bite on the cheek from Cricket and a fortifying cereal bar in hand he is out the door to Jump Start.

He was a little nervous but not as unhappy as he looks - I think this was about the fourth photo and he was tired of it.

OK - Finally

As you can imagine there is quite a back log, I'll see what I can do...

Here are two sleepy photos - one with Otto "watching" Mary Poppins, that is G-Rae in the box - she spent the whole movie that way. The other is someone else hogging the bed - she wants her own pillow!

Songs

One of my favorite parts of camp was all the singing.

We all ate in the dining hall for lunch and dinner and before every meal we sang a song together (lyrics in songbooks kept on table) and sang a grace. My favorite grace was Johnny Appleseed:

Oh, the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun, the rain and the apple seed
The Lord is good to me
Amen, Amen
Amen, Amen, Amen
AAAAAAA- men!

Always sung loud, fast and with spirit.

We also sang classics like Waltzing Matilda, If I had a Hammer, Inch by Inch, Edelweiss, Old Mountain Dew, and Johnny Rebeck's Machine. The last two were new to me but very fun and somewhat weird, just like the Titanic. (Otto about died and went to heaven when the Titanic was the song before dinner!)

We also had campfire song night when the couselors sat around the campfire with guitars and fiddle after s'mores and we requested any song we wanted from the songbook. A favorite there was "Throw it out the window" - you'll have to ask about that if you want to know.

Oh, it was sad!

This is a photo of campfire song night when Otto fell in love with the song The Titanic. I'll type up the lyrics here - we found a version on iTunes by Pete Seeger but it doesn't have nearly the vigor that the camp song does:

Oh, they built the ship Titanic
To sail the ocean blue
And they thought they had a ship
Which the water wouldn't go through
But the good Lord raised his hand
Said, "This ship will never land!"
Oh, it was sad when the great ship went down

Chorus:
Oh, it was sad (So sad)
Oh, it was sad (Too bad)
It was sad when the great ship went down.
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives.
It was sad when the great ship went down.

Oh, they were not far from England
And they were not far from shore
When the rich refused to associate with the poor.
So they stuck them down below
Where they'd be the first to go.
Oh, it was sad when the great ship went down.

Chorus

Oh, they shoved the lifeboats over
In that rough and raging sea
And the band struck up with
"Nearer My God to Thee."
Little children wept and cried
As the wave rolled over the side.
It was sad when the great ship went down.

Chorus

Soooooo, we have disected every line of this song, borrowed books from the library, examined photos on the internet, learned about icebergs, learned about the different levels of the ship, talked about how it broke, etc, etc since having learned this song. Otto is officially obsessed with the Titanic. Did I mention that we sing the song (especially the chorus) over and over?

There is counselor Kylie again roasting marshmallows with Otto. The rule was you have to give your s'more to someone else before you eat one. Otto doesn't like them anyhow so when Georgia-Rae gave him one he turned around and gave it to James!

Age Group = Free time!

While Otto was at age group I learned how to Inkle weave. Here is me at work and Tim sewing my creation onto Otto later.





We also hiked Ol' Baldy - a tree is blocking the view of Burntside Lake where camp was located:



We also did activities such as canoe, kayak, play cards, and on the one rainy day SIT ON THE DECK AND READ! Verrrry relaxing.

Schedule

Here was our camp schedule:

8 - 8:45 breakfast in dining hall. We only made it the first day - it made life too hectic so we ate granola bars at the campsite instead.

9:15 - 9:45 Jr. Naturalists. Led by counselors, assisted by mom or dad. We earned our badges!

10 - 12 Age group. Otto hung out and played with other 3 and 4 year olds and had a blast. They had four counselors while mommies and daddies went off to have their own fun (more on that later). Otto LOVED Kylie and James especially.





The final day of age group was pirate day:



and if that wasn't exciting enough, they also finally found Mrs. Troll who answered after three knocks and handed out her favorite food, Skittles!



More to come...

du Nord

Okay! Time to play catch up! If I can get a few of these posted I'll go back to a great visit by cousins Z and N!

We just got back from YMCA family Camp du Nord. It was a fantastic trip - I'll start with pics of our cabin tent site called Deer. Inside were two sets of bunk beds and a double bed for Tim and I.

Visit to the Zoo

Here we are at the lovely MN Zoo with pals Leif, Georgia-Rae and Vince. Leif didn't make the photo but here the other three are playing in the new fountain.









Here are some geese babies that roam the zoo - they are very used to being followed and this close encounter didn't even rate a hiss.

Good times!

All that fun can tire you out and the cabin rule is: you can stay up late if you are cheerful and a cooperator. This was a rare insurance policy. It was a good thing - the golf cart joy ride ended early when the battery died on Tim and Otto and after some pushing they had to walk home to get help!

Fun on the dock

This was spring opener for the boat on the lake - Otto and I were taking off the cover and he was underneath and noted calmly "I've never seen a bird under here before" right before a swallow flew out from under and into my face. I let out a pretty good one then.

More Party Animals (literally)

Okay, here are the bunnies, turtle and the hedgehog (prickly on top but soft underneath!)

Piggies!

After the pony rides they set up a fence with every pet in the world. They wrapped up the guinea pigs so they couldn't get away and then fed them carrots!

Birthday party

A kid a Otto's preschool had a "Pony" birthday party and Otto was in heaven. First he rode the small horse, Zippity-Doo-Dah then he rode big old Dr. Pepper. You can see the horse trailer in the alley - they went up and down. First he fed the horse apples or carrots in a bowl then hopped on. Check out the cute teens who are leading the horses, they were such good sports.

Robin

This sweet little robin built a nest in our light fixture by the back door. We checked on it several times a day every day, even looking to see if there were eggs yet. We checked out books from the library about robins and their nests, eggs, hatching, and food. Then it up and moved out, not appreciating the examined life. The empty nest now just waits to be cleaned out. On the bright side, now we can use that light again (pun intended!).

Hello again!

Well, we're back after a long respite. I've organized the photos, now I just have to get them up! We'll start with Otto painting.





That is the workbench the Plathes gave him for his birthday that usually sits in the basement but we brought out for an afternoon.

3 Little Birds

A video, brave new frontier. I still haven't got my iMovie going so I'll share some short videos here. Sadly, Otto seems to have inherited his mother's dance moves. I know someday (tomorrow?) I will look back on this and wonder why we let him stand on the radiator. This is his favorite winter perch. Yep he still asks to see it EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Springtime Snow

Well, it's still snowing although we had a few beautiful days there. Otto is my best helper with the shoveling. He also likes to shovel out rainbows as is seen here around his dad's tamarack tree.

Baby's bed

Otto made a bed for his baby, just like his daddy made a bed for him. How kind!

Dapper boy

Here's Otto looking dapper in his suit from Poppa Mike at Easter. He got lots of admiration which he's looking forward to again when he wears it at a wedding in May.

How Grand! (Channeling former Grammie!)

TIm and I took a solo trip to the Grand Canyon and it was lovely and serene. We took a few nice long walks and watched the ravens glide over the edge without a care. It made my stomach hurt just to watch but I still loved it! As you can see the path is on the north face (south rim) so it was still pretty snowy/icy - the walks along the rim were more fun because you could get your blood flowing instead of tiptoeing to avoid an eary demise. Unfortunately, we don't have a photo together.

Home Again

We had a lovely relaxing time in AZ - we took a walk in the wash and admired cacti (from a distance) each and every day, plus lots of dips in the pool and some riding around the beautiful countryside. Here are a few photos.