Prince the Betta Fish

We said good-bye to Prince Eric, the Betta fish today. Ailey got him about a year and a half ago and he kept us company from the kitchen counter until yesterday when he went to the bottom of the tank to take a nap and never came up.

 

It was the girls' first experience with a pet dying, and while it was really hard on them all evening, I think they handled it really well. They would cry that they missed Prince, but follow it up with something they remembered about him. I think it's a testament to the imagination of children that they could come up with so many ways to miss him considering he was a fish in a tank that they barely gave a glance to most of the time. But they did always know he was there and they did like to talk to him and feed him. And while they eventually gave up on asking if they could "hold him", they did like to draw him pictures for his tank walls.

 

This morning we buried Prince in the backyard because they couldn't handle the idea of "sending him out to sea" -- either via the traditional toilet funeral, or taking him down to the beach to let him go. So now he will forever fertilize be remembered with a visit to a certain spot by the fence.

 

Ailey and Prince Eric

Since I didn't know how the loss would go over with them I decided to let them guide us on how to handle it. I was surprised, though maybe I shouldn't have been, that all three girls responded almost immediately to the news of Prince Eric's (The Little Mermaid, Ariel's, true love) death by asking if we could get another fish. So, soon after burying him we took a trip to the pet store to pick out a new Betta.

Meet ... Prince Charming. :-)

Suggesting naming our new fish after another Disney prince seemed to help the girls with both moving on from Prince Eric and assuring them that they would not forget him. Prince Charming is now getting cozy in his new home and (hopefully) enjoying the girls' fly-by greetings.

 

 

This has sure consumed us for the past 24 hours, but I'm sure life will settle very quickly now. Excuse my long, drawn-out introduction to our new pet, but it was kind of fun to write about. :)

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round



And all through the town the wipers on the bus were swish-swish-swishing this morning. But rain or shine, after watching Ailey get on the school bus the past three years, Marin and Silje finally got to ride it themselves today. I think they were more excited about the bus ride than anything else this week!

 

 

Ailey got to sit with them on the bus, and she helped guide them to their class at school too. I think Ailey was just as excited about playing the big sister and showing them around.

 

I spent my first morning of school out to breakfast with a friend who also sent her Kindergartener to school today. Not surprisingly, our conversation was almost entirely about school.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to hit Target during the school hours ... because taking all three girls with me is such a scary idea that I have put it off far too long. :) But I am hoping to spend most of my mornings NOT running errands. I have good intentions toward exercising, keeping the laundry baskets low and the floors clean, and tidying the house on a daily instead of a monthly basis. But I am familiar with where good intentions can lead, so I'm not holding my breath for stay-at-home-mom-perfection. We shall see!



 

Marin and Silje also started back up with gymnastics classes this week, which they are very excited about. We do love Coach Annie!



 

 

And Ailey starts piano lessons next week. Gosh, we're growing up! Cheers to all things fall!

Back to School

The girls were back to school today, with a bit of a slow start. Ailey took the bus to 3rd grade, but Marin and Silje and I had Kindergarten orientation mid-morning. They will go all morning tomorrow. Everyone was up and ready to go, but tomorrow will be the real beginning -- all three girls will get on the bus together.

 

Marin and Silje are in half-day this year, so they'll be home for lunch. But while it will definitely leave an empty sort of feeling to have them all get on the bus, I am looking forward to my mornings. ;)

 

 

Ailey, 3rd grader

Marin and Silje heading to Kindergarten together - same class!

Silje showing off her new backpack

Marin showing off her new backpack

Neighbor Lauren will join us in the mornings again this year

Ailey getting on the bus. Hope to get a picture tomorrow morning of Marin and Silje getting on their first school bus!



Go Huskies!

I have to admit, I'm not a huge football fan. I enjoyed it in high school when I knew the players and Friday night football was part of the scene. I enjoyed it at college as a social thing and because, well, PLU football was awesome. I've enjoyed the couple of years I've played fantasy football, but that's a numbers game and I really only pay attention to my scoreboard online. So these days, well ... the food is fun on Super Bowl Sunday.

 

Andy, on the other hand, gets into college and professional football. So, I have to admit, the lovely fall season is marred a bit by Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Really, we non-football fans only get Tuesdays and Wednesdays?!?!

 

Don't worry, I keep myself busy while the games are on. And usually I keep the girls busy too. But as they get older Andy is trying harder and harder to get them into watching football with him. Is it working? Ummmm, no. But he'll keep trying and maybe one day....

 

The girls all decided on their Halloween costumes about a week ago when we found Husky gear at Costco. We'll have two Husky cheerleaders and a Husky football player come October 31st. And boy, are they cute! In order not to completely wear out their "costumes" over the next two months I told them they could only wear them on Husky game day when Dad was watching the game. So tonight -- Husky opening night -- they've got their Woof gear on and are very excited about it! Andy has his jersey on too, so of course the camera came out and the smiles went on and we got some fun pictures.

 

Enjoy. And if you hear cheering or crying in sync with the Husky game tonight, that's probably Andy, 'cause our windows are open.

 

Go Huskies!

 

 

 



Minnesota Visit 2013

We drove to Minnesota to visit family earlier in July. We took three days, enjoyed the hotel swimming pools (not so much the 102 degree weather through Montana) and saw lots of rest areas along the way.

 

Our first morning started early, so we stopped along the freeway to enjoy "breakfast" out of the van. The girls had their books, readers and headphones, as well as a movie set-up to pass the time on the road.

 

We got to stay at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Arnie's farm for a couple nights and the girls were shown around and entertained by cousins Jonny and Nick. We had a blast out there on the "new" golf cart, the four-wheeler, and the combine.

The Fourth of July was spent on the lake with more cousins, kayaks, fishing, boating, surf-boarding, and skiing.

It seemed like everyone was setting off fireworks around the lake that night. The kids had sparklers while we watched the show.

Silje got up on skis!!

The most important part of our trip was visiting my grandmas. We got to spend the 4th with Grandma Hazel, then visited her in town one day too.

We spent a day out at Grandma LaVerne's lake cabin too.

Aunt Vicki kept the girls very busy with dress-up galore.

 
We got some "quieter" time at the lake with just us and Gma Linda and Gpa Mark. The girls really enjoyed swimming in the lake.

Later we also had lake-time with cousins Luke and Sam.

(A rare moment when we weren't in swim suits.)

 

The Minnesota sunsets are some of my favorites.

Uncle Dan had us fishing, skiing, surf-boarding and boating. Including the remote-control kind. I think the below is my favorite picture from the whole trip: Uncle Dan looking on as Ailey drives the boat.

 

 



Despite our moving back and forth from the farm to the lake to other visits, it was a really relaxing trip. And we are really grateful that we got to see as much family as we did considering we were only there for about a week. Hopefully it won't be three years before our next visit.