Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
Tyler Working on Standing
Tyler is getting better better at standing. We expect it will still be a while before he is walking. But he much prefers being upright. Meanwhile he has a bugger of a rash on his face from sucking his thumb.
Mazie Español
Mazie has been taking Spanish class at Burroughs and today they had a program where all the kids showed their skills. They named fruits, shapes and colors. They had some fun games that the kids played all in Spanish. I was impressed with how much she and and all the other kids had learned. She did an awesome job!
Oatmeal Ratio
Mazie and I enjoy our oatmeal. It is one of our favorite breakfasts. When she was really little I would make 2 servings and she ate about 1/2 of a serving and I got 1 1/2 which was just about right. Now though she wants more, and the oatmeal box only shows water amounts for 1, 2 and 6 servings. We want 3 servings!
Now I realize your probably thinking it’s simple. 1 cup of water for each 1/2 cup of oatmeal. Done. However, that isn’t right. Note that 6 servings, 3 cups of oatmeal, is 5 cups of water, not 6. Here is the graph.
So it seems if you want to make 3 servings of oatmeal, you need 2 2/3 cups water. 4 servings need 3 1/3 cups and 5 takes 4 1/2 cups. Hope this helps everyone with their oatmeal preparation.
My mom had us over for a wonderful breakfast this morning. Here is a nice shot of Tyler and Grandma.
Unsubscribing
I’ve started the process of having our name and address removed from all the junk mail that we get. We moved a few months ago and now it seems to be queueing up again. It’s mysterious to me that 8-month old Tyler is getting catalogs.
Mazie soccer game tonight!
Mazie's First Soccer Game
Last week Mazie had her first soccer game! She’s in the Fuller Soccer Club on the Cyclones. With no practice aside from trying on her shin guards and uniform she hit the field.
This is a league for 5-6 year olds and it was a ton of fun to watch. Little kids all chasing the ball! They play 8 periods of 5 minutes each, rotating into various positions. Her first period involved a lot of standing in place and watching, but by the 4th period she was having a ton of fun!
I ran video of the entire 8th period. Mazie was playing center forward.
Swing Set on the Way!
We are redoing a lot of the outdoor space in the backyard of our new house. We’ve wanted to put in a swing set for Mazie but it was a real challenge to find something that would fit in our standard city lot. It took a lot of creative thinking but we finally figured out a way to make it work and Tammy found a swing set that would fit in the space.
Tammy ordered the unit from CedarWorks. They send a rendered model of the swing set when you order it. Pretty cool.
Tyler loves to giggle. Happy Baby!
You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. — Tyler Durden
I’m 1000% jokey and your 100% jokey. — Mazie
Dinner in New House
Today we closed on our new house. It was an exciting day filled with activity and signing many, many sheets of paper. To celebrate the closing we moved a handful of things into the new house including Mazie’s play table and decided to have dinner at the new place from Broder’s Deli.
We don’t actually move in for a little bit after painting and some new carpet.
Tuned into Pathways on WELY this morning. Nice cup of espresso to go along. Tammy’s making breakfast. Fire going in fireplace. Great espresso. Mazie coloring. Getting ready to smoke some pork.
After 5 days I have finally found my watch. Indeed, Mazie had been “tricky” and hid it, then promptly forgot!
Haven’t been able to find my watch all day. My guess is Mazie hid it and then forgot about it. Hmmm….
2009 State Fair
We had a great time at the Minnesota State Fair this year. This year was the first year that Mazie really got into it. Highlights included the butterfly house, carousel ride, cookies, skyjump and the butter heads. Mazie had an awesome time on the skyjump.
Mazie Photo Shoot
Last Friday Mazie and I had a super fun “Daddy-Daughter” day filled with many fun things. Part of our fun day was a trip to a store to get a new dress (we ended up getting two) followed by a photo shoot in her new clothes. We decided to do the photo shoot in our front yard, taking advantage of all the wonderful tall grasses and native plants. Mazie had a ton of fun, and so did I behind the camera.
Burger Jones First Impression
Tammy, Mazie and I joined my sister-in-law Angie, Mazie’s cousin Nora and Grandma Olson for lunch at Burger Jones today. We’d been meaning to try out Burger Jones since before it even opened and this was our first opportunity.
First impression was good, but unfortunately the whole experience just stayed there at just good. I got a burger because, hey, you’re at Burger Jones. I ordered the burger medium, but it came well without any pink at all. It was a pretty uninspiring burger and I would take a burger of my own off of the Big Green Egg most any day. We also tried the cheese curds as they were supposed to be very good. They were pretty good, when they had cheese in them. The way they were prepared made a lot of the cheese come out of the breading. Mazie and I decided to give the Nutella Malt a try and it was good, but how can you do a malt wrong. Lastly everyone split the stack of fries trying the regular fries, sweet potato fries (my absolute favorite) and waffle-cheese fry. The sweet potato fries seemed like they came right off of a Sysco truck and into a fryer. Another yawn.
For the cost, I would have expected something better. It was all fine, and everyone left happy, but there wasn’t anything about the food that left me wanting to return quickly.
Peppa Pig DVD Covers Part 2
Another contribution to the Internet for high-resolution cover art. Here are the front and back scans of the DVD’s for Peppa Pig: The Balloon Ride, Piggy in the Middle and Bubbles. Mazie loves Peppa Pig.
