Summer 2011

Summer went too fast!! We had SO much fun and did so many things. I didn't keep up with our Blog so I am giving you a glimpse of a few events.

Clayton lost 4 front tooth in a short amount of time. The first tooth lost was quite traumatic but the other 3 were easier. If I remember correctly the kick boards at swimming lessons knocked out two of the loose teeth!

Bible school was so much fun! The "Go Fish" guys have an awesome curriculum and they are one of Clayton's favorite singing groups! Bible school is a fun time to be with friends and learn about Jesus! We went to a "Go Fish" concert this summer and I have a Christmas concert planned as a surprise for him early December.

Fourth of July is always a fun holiday!!

The West End Pond provided fun with fishing, kayaking, running around, and cruising in the Kabota with cousins and Papa Bruce!

"More more more smores!!!!"

Clayton is 6 years old and his tree is growing along with him!

Myles enjoys the bike rides with Mom and he has learned how to peddle his tricycle and tractor!

We went camping twice with the boys and it was a blast. I need to find those pictures! Hope you enjoyed a few moments from our busy and fun summer!

Cars 2 cake for Clayton AND Grandma Jeri ! The cousins had fun celebrating and eating cake!

Clayton is 6 years old already!?!? I love to tell him about the day he was born and stories from when he was a toddler :) He likes to hear them and I love to reminisce.....

He wanted a baseball glove SO bad and he had to wait until June 23! Actually he got his glove a few days early as we celebrated his birthday on Father's Day with the Goodell side of the family. Grandma Jeri's birthday is on the 22nd and we celebrated her double nickel day also.

On the day of his birthday we picked up cousin Jake and went to Arnold's Park! This was Clays first Scrambler ride as well as the Tilt-o-Whirl. I had a hard time even watching them as the circular motion makes me dizzy!!!

Clayton is not too tall for the small roller coaster but it getting close! He is practically tall enough for the big wooden coaster but he is not feeling the excitement about it that I am. I can't wait until he rides it with me for the first time!

A fun day with a fun cousin!

We also invited four friends from Lake Park to the movie "Cars 2". It was so much fun! Love my tall, slender, quirky, toothless, kind, caring dude!

Myles is TWO! .....as of May 23 :) He is such a big boy and a blessing to our family! Two years went really really fast!!

We had a big family party at Pizza Ranch and Myles loved every single minute of it! It was so much fun to see him interact and just be silly!

Buzz Lightyear cake! yay!

Mommy had to hold him back from grabbing the candle!!

Great Grandpa and Grandma Goodell!

Great Grandpa and Grandma Bosma!

And the Goodell and Krummen Grandparents were there too but I didn't get the pictures!

It was such a fun day and the party was a blast! Myles got this monkey that has a zipper, snaps, buttons, and ties to learn fine motor skills. He was not really sure about it, as you can see! hilarious!

We love you Mr. Myles!!

Clayton was enrolled in Pre-Dance at Dawn's Dance Connection in Spirit Lake. Pre-Dance is for ages 3-5 yr. olds and consists of 1/2 hour of tumbling and 1/2 hour of dance every week! Every Thursday, Clayton, Myles and I headed over to Spirit Lake for class. Clayton enjoyed it so much and the 9 months went by very quickly! While Clayton was in class, Myles and I had time to run errands together!

Clayton met a lot of new friends and i did too! It was so nice to meet other moms in the area and make some connections! Myles enjoyed just tagging along:)

The big ending to the year was the dance recital of course! It was SO much fun! Clayton's class performed some tumbling and dance to an Aladdin Medley of songs. It was under 2 minutes! :) Each student had a costume in a different color! Clayton pulled off the pink well I think:) They all did so very well and we were so excited to watch him on a big stage! He knew his routine and enjoyed it a lot! There are many students in the recital and we watched lots of great talent. Clayton loved the "big" boys tap and hip hop. We are waiting patiently for the DVD of the recital to arrive in the mail and I anticipate watching it over and over again!

A fun bunch of great friends from Lake Park waiting patiently behind stage for their big debut!

The studio is holding a dance camp in June and Clayton will go two mornings and try out some different things: tap, jazz, hip hop, tumbling, and some others......

He is looking forward to some fun dance time and will maybe find a style he likes for next year.

Royce and I think this has been a very positive experience for him! It builds a lot of character!!

Preschool Graduation

Clayton had a great year of preschool and it ended with a celebration! Great G'pa and G'ma Goodell, Papa Bruce and Grandma Jeri, and Royce and I were there. I'm not sure where the year went but it sure went by fast!


Clayton's class acted out the story, "Class Two Went to The Zoo", which was a favorite story in his classroom! They had a very cool anaconda prop !

Clayton was a Hippo......


Who hopped in the dirt!

They sang various favorite songs from music class with Mrs. Anderson and songs from the classroom!


Lots of friends and lots of great memories!!

Have I mentioned to anyone that I cannot wait to spend my full days with these two hooligans?!
The end of another school year is ending and another wonderful summer with my guys is beginning. I cherish my time with them and am so thankful.

Clayton's preschool class has a friend, Leo. Leo is a stuffed Lion and visits a new friend's home everyday! We were able to provide hospitality last year to Leo and had the opportunity to do so again this year. Clayton takes this very seriously and has been planning his time with Leo for weeks now. His home is a clear plastic backpack and a journal is included to record your experience with him. I must say that Leo had a better odor and appearance to him this year......last year I was tempted to give him a bath in the washing machine :) As much as you may like a detailed story about Clayton's day with Leo, I have tired of the story a bit. Don't get me wrong! I love the excitement of it all and Clayton had such a great time but. but. We sat down to record the adventurous story and read through it several times. Clayton continued to "read" the journal from recall several, several times. I think the pictures will explain our day with Leo! Papa Bruce and Grandma Jeri's farm provided the entertainment!

Happy Easter!!

This is Myles' talent: stacking.

The boys have a play firehouse and Myles is either climbing up on it or stacking the little furniture.

I love how the boys are so different and I enjoy seeing both of them grow and develop in their own ways and in their own time ! Clayton has always drug out tractors and other pieces of farm equipment from his room. Myles chooses the blocks. He stacks so carefully and we can't really believe some of his creations!!??

Clayton and I went to the Lake Park Community Center and played BINGO last night! It was fun! I had not played BINGO in a very long time. Young and old and in-between came out to play the good old-fashioned game. We did well and even came home with prizes. Clayton did not in fact get a win on his card but Grandma Betty let him pick out a prize from her win. He got an Easter bucket full of little prizes. All this evening as Royce and I were walking around the house we would find this Easter basket in our path. The Easter Bunny had fun leaving the basket and hiding. Too funny :) * * * * Often times on Sunday evenings I will make a trip to "The Walmart" and stock up on diapers and whatever else is on our list. The boys like some time to wrestle and hang out with Dad as well. We had ran out of milk and it was on my list! I was running a bit late tonight and it was getting close to Myles' bedtime. He was mad that we had no milk. I got a phone call and told Royce that he may have to make a trip to Stan's Corner. It's in "the routine" to have a slurp of milk before bed. Every. single. night. Royce thought that maybe he could get by with some juice water but Myles took one drink, held it in his mouth, looked up at Royce, and spit out a mouthful on the floor. The cup went flying and he had a tantrum. Myles was put in his crib with blankets and Royce prayed that he would forget about it and fall asleep. It got ugly. They loaded up in the pickup and got some milk. Myles won. The End.

Clayton is getting so big and brave. He has loved the new adventure of riding the 4wheeler at Papa Bruce and Grandma Jeri's farm. We really were not sure if he would ride on his own or not!? Uncle Tim was there for the first ride. He set Clayton up with the helmet, goggles and riding gloves. I call the equipment the "extra courage". Tim rode on the back and guided Clayton through the steps of starting the machine, steering, running the throttle, brakes and all of the safety precautions. They rode around the building site and Clayton pulled up to the barn and turned to Tim, "You can get off now. I can handle this!"

He sure did! Cautious but confident:)

A quote from Clayton yesterday, "Mom! I am getting SO tall. Those growing pains worked!"

THIS IS NOT MY SEA MONKEY "TANK" !!! YIKES!!! THE MOLD!! I found this pix on the internet but the Sea Monkeys look just like ours!!! :) So what exactly are Sea Monkeys? Sea Monkeys are a type of brine shrimp, and a member of the animal family Crustacea, which also includes crabs and lobsters. All crustaceans have a hard shell (known as an exoskeleton) that provides their bodies with support, the way our bones help us keep our shapes. Having a hard shell is great when you’re a small creature in a big ocean! It makes it more difficult for animals to eat the Sea Monkey and get to its gooey parts inside. But there’s a big problem. As the Sea Monkey grows bigger inside the shell, the shell stays the same size. So it needs to shed its shell, but this exposes its soft bodies to the outside world. It’s a perfect time for predators to eat them! (Fortunately, Sea Monkeys don’t have any predators in the little tank, so yours will be safe!) So they want to grow that shell quickly. Once the shell grows back, larger and harder, they are protected until the next time they need to grow bigger! I'm not sure that I can handle the tank getting this "green" and gross!! Our Sea Monkeys are happy I guess!? We feed them every couple days and Clayton does peek at them maybe twice a week. I am starting to wonder how long the Sea Monkeys can live without food? What am I going to do when we do run out of the fine green powder? Do I order more from the internet or try some alfalfa meal :) ? Do I order a new and bigger tank? hmmm......I think not. I'll let you know what we decided.......

The Sea Monkey water has purified for 24 hours and now we are ready for ........

STEP 2: Pouring in the special crystals and sea monkey eggs! You hold the tank up to a bright light and very tiny small black specs are visible! Sea Monkeys!!!????They hatch !! Stirring gently and placing the home in a safe place, on the counter by the microwave, we wait.........about 5 days. They must also be close to a source of sunlight so we carefully move the habitat to the back of the counter by the window of course!After 5 days they get hungry and we feed them. Stay tuned! Oh! We must gently stir daily to incorporate oxygen which is very important for the living creatures to survive.

If you want to learn more about these amazing and strange creatures visit :http://www.sea-monkey.com/#

Clayton's Sea Monkey Project

Clayton's preschool class is learning about the ocean! Parents and students were encouraged to bring items to school pertaining to the ocean for the student's to explore. Sophia the Spunk and her mommy brought Sea Monkey's to share! The new excitement in Clayton's life :) I had never experienced these creatures before and we decided to make a trip to "The Walmart" to scavenger around and discover them! There they were! Right in the section with the plastic snakes, Slinky's,bouncy balls, and slime and silly putty........we spotted the creature kit! The only choice we had to make was whether or not to get the green or red habitat. Green it was ! $5.00 later we owned ourselves a Sea Monkey family!

The minute we got home the box was open!

STEP 1

Place the plastic tank on very thin plastic base. We discovered that there is no snapping on....it just kind of sits there. Goal: to keep tank upright until the excitement of sea monkeys pass. Add purified water and the little packet labeled "1". Stir the contents until dissolved and let the water sit for 24 hours to "purify". The patience level of Clayton is being tested! 24 hours!?!

Stay tuned for STEP 2...........:)

(What is a Sea Monkey anyway!?)

A blog about silly randoms that the boys have been up to.........Myles and Clayton wrestle as you can see. Myles is used to his big brother hauling him around, pushing him over, wrestling and whatever else they do that I don't want to know about! We have had several snow days from school so had lots of bonding time in the house. Clayton loves loves loves Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear. Buzz flys around the house a lot and Myles has learned to love Buzz as well! He puts his arms out and runs around the house pretending to be the great super hero! Clayton has Buzz Pj's and has been seen talking into his arm, the speaker to the Star Command Center. Buzz has taken good care of the Krummen household. I didn't want Myles to be left out and got him a pair of Buzz Pj's for Valentine's Day. I actually had Myles with me when we bought them and he grabbed the package in the shopping cart and held it above his head making baby superhero noises. He knows Buzz.

Clayton had a tattoo on his arm a while back from the chiropractor. It was not just a tattoo. It was his connection to the Star Command Center. He told me one day that in preschool when they were sitting on the carpet he talked to me via Star Command "waves". Love it :)

Myles is eating with his fork and spoon very well. He is getting SO big. When we get home from school/daycare around 1:30PM, we take off our coats. I tell Myles to put it away and sure enough...he proudly carries his coat to the hallway coat hooks. Every light switch has to be turned on an off as we walk by and he is always closing the kitchen door if he sees that it is open! I have to laugh because Myles knows when he is ready to go to bed. We like to hold him off until around 8:00Pm but once-and-awhile if he is ready he walks right into his room and stands by his crib. Done. Time to rest. :)