'Vanfest' 2010

*Disclaimer-What I'm going to write about is quite possibly the craziest thing you'll read about on this blog...

My brother (or Uncle Peter as he is more commonly known on this blog) and I, like to plan 'crazy' surprises for people in our family. Not 'crazy' in the sense of scary or dangerous, but rather fun events that create lasting memories such as the goat we rented for my Mom's surprise birthday party last year. 'Vanfest' 2010' is one of those such events.

A few weeks ago, we told my parents that they needed to leave February 13 open on their calendars and that's all we told them. As we got closer to the date, they learned that they needed to meet at our house bright and early and dress for comfort. That's all the information they got. Little did they know, that we rented a 12 passenger van and that we'd be heading south towards Iowa 'just because'. Our goal was to make it to Des Moines and we were successful! The look of shock on my parents faces when the rental van pulled up in the driveway were priceless. I don't think any of us have laughed so hard in quite a while when they realized that we were all going to pile in and head to a mystery destination.

"We don't have any idea what's going on, but we sure are good sports!"

Miles was the first one to fall asleep. He made it about 5 minutes before closing his eyes.

The magnadoodle thankfully entertained Amelia for quite a long time!

Once on the road, the surprises didn't end. Uncle Peter had party subs from Subway waiting to be picked up near the Iowa border. The number of sandwiches was quite entertaining considering there were only 9 passengers and 3 of them were under 3 years old!

Taking a break from driving. Amelia was so happy to be out of her seat!

Graham and Grandma

Graham was the next one to fall asleep. He successfully took his afternoon nap at exactly the same time I would have laid him down at home. This kid loves routine!

Our driver-Uncle Peter

Somewhere in Iowa...Graham's looking a bit stunned...at this point the kids had been in their car seats for nearly 7 hours! Miles is way in the back, Amelia is next to Jeff, Uncle Peter is driving, and I was lucky enough to be the co-pilot for a while.

Amelia was the last one to fall asleep, sometime after 9 pm. This is HUGE though because this it the first time EVER, that she has slept in the car!

I have to say, that when we planned this day, we knew we were taking a gamble. Taking 3 toddlers in a giant van for 10 hours of drive time 'just because' is a little bit risky! We were pleasantly shocked though, with how well each of the kids did. They did a fantastic job and were perfect travelers. YAY for Miles, Amelia, and Graham, YAY for the Grandparents who tolerate the craziness of their kids, and YAY for 'Vanfest' 2010' and a day filled with laughter and memories! :)

Professional Portraits

In mid-January, Amelia and Graham had their pictures taken by a professional photographer. As evidenced in this blog, we already have TONS of pictures of these two, but it was nice to step back and let the professional do her thing with her fancy camera and fantastic studio filled with natural light. We don't have the digital rights to the pictures from our session, so what I'm posting are just scanned copies. I'm sorry if the quality isn't the best. I assure you though, the originals are beautiful and we're thoroughly enjoying them at our house! Now, if we could only figure out how to get a decent picture of the four of us...that is our next challenge.

Here are a few of my favorites!

Making Valentine's

Amelia was thrilled to see glitter in her classroom today. She could really care less about paint, but this girl LOVES glitter. Unfortunately, I do not appreciate the mess glitter leaves around my house so it's not very often I offer it as an art supply. Amelia spent nearly 10 minutes (in the toddler world that is a very long time!) shaking glitter all over her pink Valentine's Day heart. I'm happy she got to make an extreme mess with sparkles today...I'm hoping the need for glitter is out of her system for a while and perhaps washable crayons, markers, and stickers, will suffice!

Our Nurturing Girl

Today was a school day for us. On Tuesdays, Graham and I attend his toddler class, and Amelia attends sibling care right down the hall. You'll probably remember that this arrangement was quite traumatic for her early in the year, but thankfully, she now walks into the classroom with a smile on her face. When I return to pick her up after 90 minutes, she greets me with an even bigger smile and the tightest bear hug and wonderful slobbery kisses you could imagine. As I was helping Amelia into her coat, the teacher pulled me aside. She asked me if I knew how sweet my kids are (Graham has this same teacher when he attends sibling care on Thursdays). I smiled and gave a nod, wondering where she was going with this. Apparently, one of the smaller babies was having a very tough day being away from his Mommy and spent a good deal of time crying. Amelia didn't leave this little guy's side. She patted his back, played peek-a-boo and when he was still crying, she quickly grabbed toys and made a mountain of play things directly in front of him. Amelia's kind heart and nurturing ways always amaze me. How is it possible for a 19 month old baby to just 'know' what other people need at the exact time that they need it? I often wonder about the personality traits of my two little munchkins and wonder if they're a product of nature or nurture. I'm thinking that both Amelia and Graham are the perfect blend of both!

Baking Cookies

It's another snow filled day for us. So much snow in fact, that we cancelled our plans for the day and are just hanging out at home. Graham loves to help with any task involving the kitchen, and Amelia loves to do anything that Graham is doing, so I decided it was a good opportunity to bake cookies. I asked Graham if he wanted to be my assistant, which he of course answered 'Yes!' to. He then went on to tell me that he too, needed an assistant. I suggested that Amelia would make a fine assistant for him and thankfully, he agreed. I can't say that he really let his assistant do too much though. Her job pretty much consisted of holding a lone spatula, an empty butter box, and a chocolate chip bag with one measly remaining chip stuck in the corner. Thank goodness Amelia is easy to please!

My assistant and his assistant

I know, I know, many will say this is a 'Bad Mama Moment' to let the kids lick the beaters. But really, how can I make cookies in front of them and take an occasional taste myself without offering them some of the raw cookie dough goodness! It's a good thing Daddy wasn't here! :-)

I'd say she likes it!

Enjoying the finished product - There is no better treat than a warm cookie and cold milk!

She can do it all!

We've had a busy past few days. We had friends over on Friday and attended a birthday party yesterday (where Graham got to ice skate for the first time!) so today, it was nice that we were able to spend a lazy day at home catching up on stuff around the house. Although the Super Bowl will be on at our house, since the Vikings blew their chances, nobody will be forced to sit in front of the tv wearing purple and gold which left the entire day for Amelia and Graham to just play, play, play!

Amelia demonstrated her ability to multi-task earlier today. Like usual, she was dragging around a doll and also attempting to play with the trains at the same time. I asked her if we should put her baby in the 'backpack' (what we call the baby carrier she still occasionally digs out of the closet and wants to be carried in) and she nodded an emphatic yes. Since we don't have a doll baby carrier, I made do with a scarf. Had I not been to Korea several times and witnessed how the babies are carried over there, I would have never even thought to use a scarf. So thanks to my travels, luckily I knew just how to attach her baby to her back and today, Amelia sported a fashionable Burberry 'baby carrier'.

She can do it all!

The multi-tasking Dolly Mama

She's proud to be starting a new fashion trend-animal print and Burberry...at the same time!

Sharing Cheerios

I've yet to observe an interaction when Amelia won't share something she's being asked for, and this morning was no exception. As you can hear, Graham is politely asking Amelia to put her breakfast into his mouth. Sometimes, instead of happily obliging, I almost wish Amelia would just say 'no' occasionally. She needs to stand up for herself eventually, and well, Graham needs to understand what it feels like to be stood up to. Either way, both kids are clearly having fun with this feeding game, so I guess I can't complain.