Photos

Wed - October 18, 2006

Wedding Bells

We are back from a whirlwind weekend in Atlanta - where Dana made her flower girl debut. She had a great time and it was a lovely wedding.

The kids cleaned up nicely:

Twelve years ago this month, Doug and I got married. (October is a big month for weddings in the Nelson family - his parents and 3 of their sons were all married in October.) All of his nieces and nephews were about the age that Dana/Davis are now. The nieces and nephews all danced at our wedding and were absolutely adorable.

We saw them all at again at this wedding. I blinked and they have all grown up and are talking about colleges and apartments and boyfriends and SATs and bands that I've never heard of. They taught us the latest dance moves. Did you know that no one is doing the Electric slide or even the Macarena anymore? We did something called the "Cha Cha Slide." Evidently, it is all the rage now.

So, now I'm trying not to blink. And to cherish every minute of this lovely "flower girl" age. (Even if she did ask me to do the Cha Cha Slide with her again this afternoon...)

Posted at 09:26 PM

Sat - September 9, 2006

First Day of School Photos

Busy, busy, crazy, exhausting week.

We had some down time today - Dana woke up at 5 am throwing up. My lovely gem of a husband took care of her all by himself and when I woke up at 6, I found him frantically cleaning the bathroom. She seems to be much better tonight - but we completely cleared the schedule (3 parties and a gymnastics class) and just vegged out at home all day.

Dana's new classroom

Her locker

School bus arriving at school.

Waiting for the bus

More bus waiting

Check out the shoes

Weekend boat ride with my father and son. Who, us? Related? What makes you think that?

Building a road through the living room.

Posted at 07:17 PM

Tue - July 11, 2006

Butterflies!

Nine out of our ten caterpillars made it to the butterfly stage. (One of them ended up in a half-caterpillar/half butterfly hybrid and he just never quite emerged...but he sure tried.)

We kept them in the net for 2 days and then released them into our yard this weekend.

Yes, Davis is wearing a German Soccer Uniform. (and he would tell you that the lego men on the lego airplane are German soccer players on their way to the World Cup.)

Posted at 08:50 PM

Tue - July 4, 2006

4th of July

Our neighborhood goes all out on the 4th of July - a race/bike parade/lunch/festival/softball game/fireworks....you name it, they've got it.

4th of July bike parade...with water stops

4th of July kids race and 5K. Dana and Davis both did the kids race. Davis and I did the 5K (he rode; I ran and pushed the stroller! He kept turning to me and asking, "Mama, why are we last?" Because I'm the only woman pushing 50 pounds in front of her, dear son....that's why! And we weren't dead last. close, but not quite!)

Swimming lessons started last night. Davis did his first round of "solo" lessons - (no parent involved.) He had a GREAT teacher and he seemed to enjoy them thoroughly. We are back to the pool for another dip in the pool tonight before the fireworks.

Happy 4th!

Posted at 01:36 PM

Sat - March 18, 2006

Hap Birt Da

Dana announced earlier this week that March 17 was Davis' "Half" birthday. (The day he would be 3 1/2.) We've never paid much attention to half birthdays before...they have slipped by unnoticed. But now that she is out in the world and is learning of other families and traditions, she has decided that half birthdays will become a Nelson Family Event.

I asked "How does one celebrate a half birthday?" She replied "with half a cake, of course!"

So, we attempted to make a half cake. (green of course, seeing that it was St. Patty's day.) We found 3 1/2 candles. We made half birthday cards and sang a half birthday song. (All orchestrated by Dana.)

Luckily, no one asked for half of a birthday present. And surprisingly, the evening was quite fun. (And not just half-fun, either.)

She has already started the plans for May 20...when she will be officially 6 1/2.

Posted at 08:22 PM

Sun - February 26, 2006

The weekend in photos

We spent Friday night reading/listening to/watching the news about the world...civil war overtures in Iraq...continuing genocide in Darfur...Nukes in Iran.....and so on and so on. Am I just paying attention more as I get older and wiser or has the world gotten noticeably scarier in the last year? (But on the bright side - at least Cheney didn't shoot someone this weekend!)

We decided to escape for the rest of the weekend and took the kids swimming and sledding and to a very crowded noon showing of Curious George. No pictures of swimming or George, but Doug got some good ones of the fun in the snow.

I love those rosy cheeks. After a full afternoon of sledding, neither one of them wanted to come inside. I had to bribe them with hot cocoa to get them out of the snow.

Posted at 09:12 PM

Thu - November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving

Doug took all the photos tonight, so alas, there are none of him....

Posted at 10:10 PM Read More

Wed - November 16, 2005

Photos

So far the best part of Dana's upcoming birthday has been the packaging boxes in which the gifts from afar have arrived.

The most exciting present, so far, has been a rather large box that was used to ship a smaller box from American Girl sent by my mom's sisters. Davis commandeered the outer box and made it into a boat...and a fire station.

He won't need an expensive doll for his 6th birthday - he'll be quite content with the box.

And I'm going to try to stay in denial about todays weather (20 degrees and snowing) by posting some photos of last week, when it was warm and beautiful and the children helped out by shoveling the leaves. (These crazy Wisconsin-born children are actually looking forward to winter. How can that be?)

Posted at 10:15 PM

Fri - October 21, 2005

Field Trip

Another perfect Wisconsin day. We rode a ferry - ran through some fields - went on a nature walk - visited a farm - rode on a hay ride - went to the pumpkin patch - and lunched at a park. All in one field trip.

I like this school. It's as type-A busy as I am! Why do one thing on a field trip when you can do five?