Baseball, campouts and monsters

 

Markku started baseball this week. We are going through the Y again. Considering he has never played, not even T-ball, he did fantastic! He hit the ball twice when pitched (they have the coaches pitch the ball in this league) and was catching balls thrown to him like a pro! The kids really do not seem to get or understand the game at this point, but they sure had fun. The rules are not clear to me either-they do not have outs, you try as many times as you need to in order to hit the ball, and you are never out. Of course they do not keep score, as what would be the point? Every kids gets to run in to home! What has this game come to when parents can't let there be rules? I guess for the older kids they do follow more traditional rules, but I would have thought that 6-7 yr olds could handle more rules as well. It was fun though.

 

Here he is, in the green, standing on third base.

 

 Suvi is continuing to love her soccer as well. She is in the grey shirt this time around, still wearing the pink shin guards of course!

Playing defense

 

 

Markku and Heikki had an adventure packed weekend on a Cub scout campout this week as well. It was just in Austin, at Camp Mabry ( our local army base) but they did sleep in a tent with sleeping bags. Markku said it was cool, but he was freezing. Thank goodness it was only down to 50 degrees...

These are photos I was sent via text or copied from Facebook, so the quality is not quite as good...  I guess they did all sorts of challenges like building a raft that a GI Joe doll had to float on, building a shelter, learning how to start a fire and even first aid. It sounded really awesome. Heikki was also exhausted as sleeping in a tent and running around all day with young boys is exhausting. He then had to get up super early and catch a flight to Chicago to work. 

 

This is Markku partaking in opening ceremony.

This is Markku in his team's hand built shelter.

Here  he was learning how to use a sling shot! They had an ex Army Ranger who taught them this, as well as all the safety rules.

 

Much to Kai's disappointment, he did not get to go with Heikki and Markku. He was very sad to see them leave, and told me all weekend that Markku was gone. Instead he got to hang out with me and Suvi at the soccer game, around the house and at the neighborhood park. It was weird only having two kids and I was amazed at how "easy" it seemed! He loves to play monster and dinosaur. He runs up to you roaring, and says "I dinosaur" or "I monster, roar!" The first time he did this, he ran right up to me, "I dinosaur, roar! Roar!" and proceeded to bite my leg! Wow did that hurt...I think my scream scared him enough and stopped him from biting anyone else. I hope so, as he was running up to everyone at the park yelling, " Roar! I monster!".  I don't think he bit anyone though.

 

Here is Kai painting. He was so happy to sit and paint.

 

 

Speaking of monsters, Suvi has been complaining of bad dreams. She came to my room last night upset and wanted to snuggle. Then tonight she did not want to go to sleep by herself in her room. She was hysterically crying and said that she has had the same bad dream for the past 3 nights! Even with a light on, she was just so upset. I have not experienced this with any of my kids, so I was not sure what to do. She is finally asleep, and after many Fancy Nancy books, leaving lights on, trying to get her to think about her birthday in 2 weeks. I sure hope this is not the start to something.

Suvi was really enjoying herself playing with some girls she met at the park. But Kai had a poopy diaper we had to go and change it. I promised we could go right back to the park and play, which we did, but the girls had left. She was so sad, saying she never has any play dates. Now that is true, we have only had a handful. But previously they have ended with tears and not playing with the invited guest and not wanting to share her toys. So, I admit I have not had too many more. But I promised we would try it again and did today. We had Suvi's friend Marli and her older brother Josh (2 yrs older than Markku) come over for a few hours. What good kids they were-it was such a great day! We managed no fights and the only tears came when we had to say good bye. Hopefully this is a start to more fun play dates.

This evening Markku and Suvi were playing some crazy game with the white board. I never really understood the rules but I thought they sure looked cute standing and drawing together though.

Easter 2013, First swim day of 2013, school plays!!

Happy Easter, 1 day late! We had a great visit with my family for Easter. Heikki had to work, so unfortunately he missed another holiday! We actually had not been to my mom's since Christmas, so it was long overdue to spend some time there. The kids just love it there-they have toys, a large sandbox, hiking, swimming, Mummo to spoil them and of course Ukki records tons of shows and movies for them to watch when they come on his DVR (we are old fashioned and do not have a DVR!). 

We did color some Easter eggs. My mom blows out the insides and then they can be saved for years, pending any major disasters like dogs eating the eggs...only happened twice but those eggs are gone! Here Kai is excited to draw his race car on his egg. Markku is also diligently working on his eggs.

 

Suvi was busy with coloring the eggs, and she made them especially for her brothers!

Here are what last years eggs and some from 2008 look like.

The Easter Bunny also brought some fun bubbles to play with.

Look at Suvi hiking in her Easter dress with her Easter basket. She let us know that if we got lost, we could survive on her candy!

The boys discovered the culverts and Kai had to walk in each and everyone!

Yay Easter egg hunt!

They were busy trying to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden for them.

We figured we had better let Kai start first as he would probably need more time and more help. As it turns out, he didn't need his handicap and ended up with the most eggs of them all! He did have help from his Ukki though.

Here is the bunny Suvi found in her basket.  In addition to hiding eggs, the Easter bunny also hides their Easter baskets. They have to look for them first thing in the morning! Suvi was our champion as she found every body's basket this year!

Here is Suvi and Markku feeding food scraps to Mummo's worms she has for composting.

Kai was thrilled to meet Vermi, mummo's pet composting worm.

Mummo was showing them the worms and how they eat all the food and paper she gives them.

We did have another egg hunt on Saturday in our Plum Creek neighborhood. It was 30 seconds of pure joy. But boy oh boy were those eggs snatched up fast.

Kai was not happy being told to wait until the official start of the egg hunt.

And believe it or not, it is hot enough to swim. The kids all went in the pool this past weekend as well. Markku was the only one to dive in and swim around. His Finnish roots are strong! Well, it was 85 degrees and sunny, so maybe not exactly an ice hole in the middle of winter in Finland. But still, it was too cold for me to venture in!

Kai and Suvi mostly played on the steps.

But here is proof that Markku was in for real.

Suvi got to wear an apron that used to be Mummo's when she was a child. It allowed Suvi to help bake and make ice cream with Mummo and not get her pretty Easter dress all dirty!

We also had Markku's first grade play, Mother Goose Rhymes. It was really just songs that each class sang. But, they were fun renditions of classic rhymes we all know from childhood. Markku had Rock a bye baby and was wearing a tree on his head. He much preferred a song another class did-it was all in Spanish! Pio Pio Pio or something like that! We do not have a talented singer, but he sure does like to try!

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.