For Xavier’s 5th birthday he wanted to go to the Kalahari, so we’re here in the Wisconsin Dells for a 3 day mini-vacation. Here’s a photo for everyone of the not quite 5 year old taken yesterday. Oskar has been really interested in the new indoor amusement park they’ve opened and has discovered rock climbing. He spent close to an hour on the wall yesterday. Xavier gave it his best trying to keep up with his big brother…
This doesn’t cover all we’ve done this summer, but it does cover what we’ve been doing for the last two weeks. Not included: vbs, multiple bike rides, winery, playgrounds, swimming and so so much more.
Just a few random pics…
Oskar and Xavier wanted me to record this silliness last night, enjoy!
Oskar participated in the 2nd and 3rd grade musical today, Dig It. Gretchen, Xavier and I all headed out to see it. Enjoy.
The video may not be available until Saturday early morning, so if it says it doesn’t work, just check back later.
Erik and Oskar both worked very hard on their cars over the last two weeks and today was the race. Erik’s car didn’t place too well due to the lack of graphite, but Oskar did well placing 2nd in a very competitive den.
You can see some more photos on Flickr and a video of Erik’s car going backwards.
Today was certainly a full day for everyone in the Alyn household. Erik turned 10 today and Xavier attended Erik’s party as well as Alex’s (from his pre-school). Everything came off as planned and a good time was had by all. To see the rest of the photos, be sure to check out the Flickr set or just see them all after the jump. (more…)
Okay, perhaps breaking out is an exaggeration, but he’s on there! Sit back and enjoy the first episode of The Peter Show the boy’s snow day project.
For those who may not have heard, Erik is spending some time with us while Pammy recovers from a surgery she underwent on the 22nd. She’s recovering nicely and Erik’s doing okay being here with Oskar and Xavier. The Alyn Family spent Christmas in Minnesota this year. We were also fortunate to have a white Christmas again.
Gretchen made the annual gingerbread houses, this year adding stained glass windows. The current thinking for next year is to create one larger house and let everyone collaborate on it. The kids had a great time decorating these houses, and eating candy too. Oskar’s friend Aounghus came up and decorated one as well. Xavier decided after a while that he was done working on his, so Egg took over and did some decorating where he felt the house was untouched. You can see a collection of the photos here that include the finished houses.
Christmas morning, the bigger boys were up at 4am to start in on their stockings. After eating most of a chocolate treat they were sent back to bed. Of course they had a hard time sleeping after that. Xavier finally kicked everything off at around 6:30am and our day began. Everyone had a great time opening presents and Xavier finished around dinner time while the other two were done much earlier. More pictures from Christmas day are online here. This year, Xavier received his own Pikachu plush toy like Oskar’s which Xavier immediately turned around and gave to Oskar. Gretchen and I were awestruck at his unselfish action towards his brother. The remainder of the day was filled with Bakugan, Legos, Radio controlled things and art supplies.
The day after Christmas seemed like a good time to get out of the house and so we headed to the Science Museum of Minnesota. The traveling exhibit of CSI is scheduled to leave on January 4 and so Gretchen smartly got us there. We watched the Mysteries of the Great Lakes IMAX and had lunch too. Egg was pretty excited to see the Seismophone and the CSI exhibit as evidenced by the photos he took. Photos from our day are here. We all solved case #3 successfully and enjoyed exploring the dinosaur, weather, light and myriad of other great exhibits the museum has.
Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas too!
Snowed here last night adding another inch to the couple we had already. Definitely looks like winter here. The boys are ready for breakfast and we’ll be spending a good portion of today getting ready for Erik to come next weekend.
Oskar started back at Folwell this week and is enjoying being with other 2nd graders. He’s in Mrs. Jagusch’s class without most of his 1st grade buddies but he sees them at lunch and recess. Xavier has had a very long week as Gretchen has been a sub twice at rainbow school giving Xavier two extra school sessions. He’s really been enjoying the extra classroom time and has been sleeping well as a result.
