Slowly But Surely

Cooper had his tonsils out five days ago. After many bouts of tonsillitis that were happening with increasing frequency,we decided they had to go. Hoping this year he won't miss 10 days of school. I can't even begin to describe the the nervousness and sleeplessness that a parent feels the night before a child's surgery ..I was a walking zombie too in the days following ..Got to give those pain meds at midnight and 4 am. Poor little guy, he did so well. We received excellent treatment from everyone at the hospital(it helps when your husband knows the OR staff-ha ha ha). On day 5 he started having an appetite and he had a little zest again. He was even able to play the Wii a few times with his friend. The weirdest thing of all is that it took him four days to speak. My child is a talker...all day long I hear all sorts of amazing info (and some not so amazing too) I really missed hearing "Mama, Mama..guess what???" Plus, we missed a beautiful week which might have included swimming and going bowling with friends.I was able to get lots done around the house though and managed to sneak off to the gym. Luckily, I sent Quinn to our school's summer day care program the whole week so she wasn't stuck at home. She went to Cascade Bay waterpark and Crystal Cave where she saw bats and was able to see a bunch of friends from school. We walked in and I heard a 6 year old girl group squeal of "QUINNIE!!!!!!" She was in hog heaven. I am hoping we have turned the corner of recovery because we need to pack alot of fun things into this upcoming week before school starts. I want Coop to end his summer on a high note.

Day 1..post surgery

Day 6..a little spark is starting to come back

Baseball Fever

Well, for me and Quinn...maybe not so much... Cooper and Ron have gone to quite a few games in the new stadium but it was my first baseball game in about 10 years..I am good for another 10 years.The stadium is beautiful but it was so hot and humid..I enjoy football and hockey much more. Cooper enjoyed telling us about the players and stats though. Quinn and I will do something "girly girl" when it's time for the next game in Sept.

Are You Ready for Some Football???

I'm not sure if I am. Cooper had his first football practice(he missed the first two because we were in South Dakota). Getting him all suited up was a 20 min ordeal. Although I thought he looked so cute..in a tough, menacing football way of course. So much gear to put on. He is so excited but I was so nervous. My friend said at one of the practices a whole bunch of the boys were near tears because it is so intense and her son bruised his finger the first night. We will be having 3 practices a week and they are 2 hours long.Yikes! I am happy to report that Cooper thoroughly enjoyed learning the correct way to tackle, and defense drills. When we picked him up he was smiling and talked nonstop about how cool it was. I can rest a little easy now that we have that first practice under our belt..looking foward to experiencing a new sport this fall.

Cousins

Cooper and Quinn went to a waterpark with their cousins and then headed to Grandma and Papa's house for a few days. Ample amounts of fresh air and using your imagination..no DS, TV, computer..just playing all day. They went to the city pool, had ice cream from The Spot, and Cooper golfed(where he drove Papa's golf cart into a bench!) Since we were 48 hours child free, I went shopping, had a mani/pedi, golfed with Ron and then had a double date golf/sushi dinner date with some friends we havent seen in forever.

What I found on my Iphone

I finally uploded pics from my cell phone...appearently, my kids take bunches of silly photos in addition to ones that I took.some of my favs:
toes at a soccer game(looks like Quinn) Snowcones in May

Project Runway

there were about 20 of these self portraits of Coop

Quinn's Lego self portrait

GloDoodle app artwork...well worth it's 1.oo price tag-countless masterpieces created

Creative Outlet

Quinn attended a girl's only art camp through the local park and rec...she had so much fun of course because she loves anything crafty/artsy these days. The last day they had a gallery showing all their completed projects which included things like painted jewelry boxes and a portrait of your favorite doll. I was so proud of Q because the instructor wanted each girl to tell the group of parents what their favorite part of art camp was and all the girls were very shy and hesitant (Quinn was one of the youngest;they had girls as old as 10) and Quinn stepped up and spoke first in front of the whole group.

Football Frenzy

Cooper had a two weeks back to back filled with two football camps. One was at a local catholic high school and the other was a flag football camp through the city park and rec. I even saw him score an awesome touchdown(too bad my camera was turned off)He enjoyed both..he is all about football at this moment..

Cabin Fever

Saturday started out a little gloomy and we almost cancelled our day long trip to our friends' cabin. So glad we decided to go. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Our kids go to school together and are the exact same ages and the grown ups had fun getting to know each other better too. We had a blast except that Quinn came down with a virus so she spent part of the day napping on the couch.

Enjoying Every Last Bit

I know that in a few weeks the State Fair will be going on, and then next thing you know school is starting, there is a chill in the air and so on and so on...so swimming is what we've been doing most days. The last three days we were at the Maple Grove pool, the Lifetime Fridley pool and the local swimming hole catching up with various friends..

The Bullet List

Blogging is hard to keep up with in the summer. I'll do a bullet list to recap because I am too lazy to do lots of little posts.
-been swimming at the lakes and pools a lot with various groups of friends
-had an impromptu Fri evening happy hour with our good friends E,K and M..so nice to catch up with a cocktail
-saw Ramona and Beezus with Quinn..loved those books as a kid
-sent the kids to J Care two days last week so they could see some of their school friends and a break for mom too
-bought new school uniforms and school supplies(learned my lesson last year about waiting until the last minute( you try to find low odor Expo markers at the end of August)
-bought football equipment for Coop
-made root beer floats with the kids
- and we played tourists in our own city..took the kids for lunch at the Midtown global market and went to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and took the kids to see the iconic cherry and spoon

Controlled Chaos

Had a blast with my friend Sarah and her crew. They came over for a swim and I tried to snap a pic or two. Sarah's turned out way better. It was great to catch up(finally!!)