Cubscous, Soccer and busy days

Well, with being sick and working a different schedule last week, I missed a blog! But, we have been extra amazingly busy! I also somehow lost all my photos on my phone from before Thursday and I have no idea how or why. :(  Hopefully they were backed up on other sources, but I am not certain. Anywho, here is what has kept us busy.

 

Kai has been so very cute watching his brother's Mighty Machines videos. Just like Markku, he loves to sing the theme song. I got some cute videos of him singing (more like humming mostly) but they were lost from my phone. So you will just have to take my word.

 

Kai loves to take Suvi to school. He has to pull her backpack all the way in, and then runs down the hall to her classroom. He runs in as if he owns the place and starts playing with the toys. I usually have some trouble getting him to leave without a tantrum. But this past week we started his speech therapy, so I asked him if he wanted to go to Kai's school. He said "Yes! Kai school. Kai school!", then stood up and ran all the way out to the car. He was so excited. When we got to speech, he went right with the teacher, even though we had never met her before. After 45 minutes he came out screaming. He didn't want to leave. He was so mad he had to go home!

 

Markku and his Tiger cubs went to visit the Kyle Fire Station the week as well. We were taken on a tour and got to see the meeting rooms where they continue to learn new ways to help people in emergencies, exercise room where they stay fit and active, the kitchen (they have 3 refrigerators, one for each shift) and living room (they had like 10 large leather recliners around a TV) their own personal bedrooms (it literally had a small desk, a bed, 3 closets (one for each shift). They have loud speakers and a red light that flashes in each room to announce an emergency. We also got to see the trucks! That was the best part of course. Markku and the boys got to take a ride around town in the firetruck (Heikki thought the Car Seat Nazi aka Casey wouldn't let him go but they did have seat belts for each boy!) They also got to get a tour of where everything is kept on the trucks and then they got to spray the fire hose. They even let Kai take his turn! It was an amazing tour, the Kyle Fire Department did a fantastic job!



 

Lt Mark Schultz and Freddy Rolan (Hazmat specialist) and the boys

Markku putting out the fire

Suvi's turn to fight the blaze

Fireman Kai was next. He LOVED it!

Here is the crew in the lobby, with Den Leader Darin

Kai got to drive this truck (note he was dressed in full fireman's gear!)

 

 

We also had Suvi start soccer. She was really excited to play again (we did play last year on a different league). We decided to try a YMCA league for her this year. She really didn't get the game last year, but this weekend she just jumped right in and was really into trying to get the ball and running all around. It was freezing cold so part of it may have been to keep warm! She even scored a goal! Yeah Suvi!

Here she is ready to go to her first game

 

On the field, ready to play!

She is dribbling the ball above!

 

 

Earlier in the week we also took the cubscouts to the radio station on Texas State University's campus in San Marcos. The boys had a communication unit they were working on. It was fun to see inside the station, and see how news and music is played on the airwaves. It was also in a really old building called Old Main. It was built in 1899 on top of a hill. It was a little creepy and they are doing pretty extensive renovations to the building with scaffolding everywhere.

 

 

Markku had a homework assignment this weekend to make a diorama of his favorite part of the book "The Littles". As I was researching stuff on google, I was thinking that I never remembered reading this book series, or the other series Markku is enjoying, The Magic Treehouse books. The amazon description read, these books have been enjoyed for decades by young readers. Decades? But how-I never read them. Oh, they were written in the nineties! Ah Yes, that is right. How could I forget that I am 40 and these were written well after my time! Humpf! Am I really that old???  And, before he says it, Heikki is old too. He turned 39 this week! Happy Birthday Heikki! Enjoy this last year in your 30s! Next year it all starts going down hill (not really, but he has been saying that since I turned 40, so I feel ok giving him some grief.) We did not have a true birthday celebration for him because he was supposed to be at work, but then he got sick and called out (and then I got sick!). And he decided to try the Paleo diet and was not eating any carbs or sugar! What a bad week to be on that diet (yup, he only did this diet for one week before deciding it wasn't all it cracked up to be). Next year, I say try the cake and ice cream cause I'm turning 40 diet! Maybe margaritas too! That would be a better diet for a birthday week. (I did ask him if he wanted a birthday donut in the morning and if he wanted a cake. He said NO!)

 

 

My mini me

So most of you know that Suvi really does take after me in many ways.  First of all, she really looks a lot like my side of the family (me in particular!). My relatives will tell you that there is a remarkable resemblance to when I was a little girl, and I can even see a lot of my cousin Shannon in her as well (although I will admit that Shannon is way prettier than me as an adult!). Even my co-workers call her my "mini-me". These are some photos me as a 4 yr old...

 

 I am the one on the right in above photo, in case you couldn't tell!  This picture really looks like Suvi I think!

 

It is also apparent in some of her mannerisms. She is super sensitive like me. If you yell at her she cries and when she gets frustrated she cries. She is very sensitive. I see this in Markku too, but not yet in Kai. This is obviously a part of me I wished she didn't inherit! But as she gets older, it is fun to see how her personality as well as her physical characteristics are developing.  Something else that is very similar is her love for school. I loved it so much as a child, and I would be sad if I had to miss school for some reason. Suvi only goes to preschool twice weekly, but she counts down the days each week. The night before, as I put her to bed, she asks me what is happening tomorrow. If I say, "You have school!" she gets so excited. She will almost always reply "yay! The next morning?! yipeeeeeeeeee!" She bounces out of bed in the morning and is so excited to get dressed. We have to get Markku off to school first and then have a short break before she goes, and she will constantly ask me what time we are leaving and if we are late! (We are late a lot, I admit!).

 

She loves everything about school: Her friends, her teachers, the subjects she is learning. She is so different from Markku in this aspect. Don't get me wrong, he too liked preschool, but  he didn't look forward to it the way she does or talk about what he learned. In fact, Markku has been heard saying "It's not fair. Why is she learning that in preschool when I had to wait till kinder?!" I really do not know if it is her teachers or just that she is so much more ready for learning (probably both). Her teachers, Ms. Becky and Ms. Ron do happen to be amazing. She loves to write her letters and spell words, and of course as I have previously mentioned, draw!!! She gets excited when "homework" is sent home! She will pull out her Preschool work-book and do extra work for fun. She gets rave reviews on her ability to trace her letters (the usual homework for her preschool). But the funniest thing was this past Thursday, in the first few minutes after school, she discovered she had been sent home a packet of homework to be completed over spring break. It is at least 10 pages or so of writing letters, connect the dot type activity sheets. She had it done in less than 15 minutes. It was supposed to last her all of spring break! That is my girl, for sure! I will probably be forcing her to stop reading, stop studying, stop worrying about school in no time at all. My parents used to tease me about stressing so much about a urine test (get it, as if you have to study for a urine test!).

 



This is a family photo from around 1977 (so I would be about Suvi's age). Look at how young my parents were!

 

 

Now, when I was younger, like in the photo below, I think I see more Kai. I am on the left in the lower photo!

 

 

You want to know something really special? In almost every photo (not sure about the first one), I am wearing a dress my mother made (and so is my sister Jenn). Times were so different then, it actually saved my mother money to make our clothes! Now it is so much more expensive to buy the fabric and patterns! As if that is the only reason I do not sew my own children's clothes...



March already?!

 

Remember back in February with our Pinewood Derby races for cubscouts? Well, this past week we got our medals! Here is Markku and his fellow Tiger scouts getting their medals. Markku won 2nd place. He was slightly disappointed because he wanted a trophy, but they were only for the overall winners. Guess we have to try a little harder next year! ;)

 

 

 

 We have a little square foot garden in our backyard. This is a photo of our garden, with the snow peas growing up tall, broccoli, carrots, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard and strawberries. This is something we do like about Texas-we can grow our veggies even in the winter! The kids love going into the backyard and picking the snow peas and carrots. They eat them like they are candy. It is amazing how yummy fresh veggies can be!  We have some netting around it to keep out our cat and rabbits that frequent our yard.

The hardest part about the garden for me is that we do have some freezing temps occasionally. So trying to cover up our precious plants in the cold blowing wind can be challenging, but well worth it!

Here are the kids enjoying the fruits of their labor. Suvi picked the snow peas but they all enjoyed eating them!

Look at Kai's face! He loves his snow peas!

We had a fun school Reading night this week at the elementary school. They had each grade level pick an author and had crafts and activities to go along with it. So we had Dr. Seuss for 1st grade (Suvi was a cat) and they made Cat in the Hat hats.

 2nd grade had Fancy Nancy. This was Suvi's favorite! She spent forever at this table gluing sparkles onto paper. She was in Heaven!

 

Kai took an instant liking to Mr. Mika, Markku's first grade teacher. He really hasn't seen Mr.Mika a lot, since we tend to drop Markku off at the door to the school so we can bring Tillie with us. But you would never know that. Kai ran right up to him and sat in his lap playing cars for about 10 minutes. Amazing and so sweet.

 

The Kindergartners had Eric Carle and they had the kids cut out painted pictures to make animals or other stuff.  This was Markku's favorite.

 

Then at the end of the week, we had a School Fitness fair and 5k/1k Race. I ran the 5 K and the kids rand the 1K. Here are the kids getting their race numbers.  Kai was so cute pointing to his number and saying "Like Mama!".

 

 

I "ran" the 1K with Kai, so Heikki was in charge of the race photos. He got a cute one of Suvi crossing the finish.

 

He got one of Markku but there was another kid blocking him so not the best picture. Then he never got one of Kai because he thought we had given up! There was a bit of a delay from when Markku and Suvi crossed the finish and Kai did, but he ran EVERY bit of that race! He was so adorable and if they gave awards for the youngest runner and cutest runner, he would have won by far! So we mimicked the finish with him, and he was so enamored by everyone cheering for him and all the attention he got he did not want to stop running anyways! 

 

So I also ran the 5K and I woke up first and did my weight work-out and then headed out to the race. I was not trying to set records or anything, but did finish 1st in my age group! Woohoo! First place (and there was a second and third place finisher as well!)

 

We are doing lots of reading with the kids as usual, but tonight Kai wanted to read while Markku did his reading homework! He would point the to words and babble away! He would look at photos and say "dog" as well. I am proud with how he is doing as he has been very slow to begin talking. I am getting him evaluated later this month, but have been amazed at his attempts to talk in these past few weeks especially.  Tillie was also hanging out with us!

 

We did have some fun this weekend going to see Wreck It Ralph. We went to the dollar theatre and got all 5 of us in for....$6! OK, so not "dollar" exactly but when was the last time any ONE person got in to a movie for $6 let alone all  5 of us! The kids loved the movie and Kai was enthralled with watching the projector. It was lots of fun.

 

We are truly loving life with these kids and it is amazing to see how fast they grow. Suvi has become a big helper. She wants to help cook and she helped me take out the garbage and water plants tonight at well. She did get bored at one point, and started blowing bubbles. She kept asking me if she were a big help! Of course, who could water plants without bubbles blowing in the background? Not this mom, that is for sure!

Markku is pretty sweet as well. This weekend, when Heikki was home, he said "You're right mommy, like always". I was so proud. Heikki of course just snickered and called him a brown noser. I think I am  teaching that boy right! Some day his wife will be happy.