Vegas

Long story short, I had the chance to take a quick jaunt to Vegas with my good friend, Kory...basically for free! I had a great little get-a-way with Kory and we danced the night away and walked our toes off during the day. No gambling or craziness, really, just lots of sightseeing and good dinners and dancing. Kory's cousin is a VIP Host at a hot club in Vegas and very kindly used his connections so we were treated like movie stars the whole time. SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!

Some of you may know that I have an unexplainable affection for Justin Timberlake. He was perfoming at the hotel we stayed at - the night we left. But there were posters of him everywhere. This is me trying to be cute.

Kory and Mags.

We were seated in the VIP section at a club at the Hard Rock hotel and this pic was snapped and posted on the internet - hence the logo in the corner. Oh so fake-important! :)

My impression of a Hollywood starlet in those hats they are all wearing. Not mine, by the way! :)

Kory and Mags at our table at KOI, overlooking the Bellagio fountains.....it was AMAZING.

Apples and Pumpkins

We spent the most beautiful, perfect, glorious day at Pine Tree Apple Orchard selecting pumpkins and apples galore. We took a tractor ride around the gorgeous orchard, posed for pics and ran around the corn maze. I LOVE FALL!!!! Here are a series of pis in several posts.

Silly posing.

Liam on the tractor

Sooooo many apples

Pine Tree Apple Orchard - a little piece of heaven on earth. Seriously.

The gang on the tractor ride around the orchard.

Apples and Pumpkins

Maggie and Liam - strolling through pumpkin patches and corn fields on a perfect Minnesota day.

Apples and Pumpkins

Nick and Liam on the quest for the perfect pumpkin.

Hi

Where has the time gone? Was my last post really three weeks ago? I must say, I think that the adjustment to grad school along with everything else has cut into my blog time! The good news is I have finished my first grad school class! I LOVED the course material and am really enjoying being a student again. So far so good…..

Despite all the studying, the whole Harris crew has been super busy! Nick has been traveling all over the country for work. I took a quick jaunt to Vegas, Nick and I celebrated our birthdays, my Mom came to town and SO much more. We have had lovely fall excursions with the kiddos, Liam and Kate are entrenched in their various activities – little gym, music class, dance class, Chinese class and school. SO – there have been lots and lots of photo ops. I will be sure to post soon. Just didn’t want anyone to think the blog had faded away.

For now I am calling it a night, but keep an eye out for pics and posts – coming soon! ☺

In the meantime, I thought you might like to know that the other day Liam announced to me – in true Boston fashion – “Mom, I’m wicked cool”. I pretty much fell on the floor laughing. Clearly confidence is not a problem with this one!

One, Two, Three Funny

Some funny snippets of kiddo conversation:

ONE
Location: The Children’s ER
Time: 2am
Reason: Kate has the Croup and sounds like a sea lion.
Scene: Kate is sitting in her jammies in the ER with her arm in a blood pressure cuff. It is the automatic kind, hooked up to a machine. Kate is terrified of what one nurse once called “the huggie bear” and the name – and fear – remain today.

I had a chat with Kate on the way to the hospital, anticipating a meltdown when it came time for “the huggie bear”. I basically told her that she was 5 years old, now, so was old enough to use special tricks to get through it. I told her to think about happy great things while it was going on and JUST when it seemed like it was super tight on her arm, she had to think about the HAPPIEST thing in the world and then, surprise, the tightness would go away. This was a very lame attempt on my part as nothing else had ever worked on getting her to be calm during a BP check. It would lead to a vicious cycle – because of her stress, her BP would be high for a little peanut like her and they would want to check it again. SIGH.

Imagine my surprise when during “the huggie bear” Kate took a deep breath and said “OK, Mom, I am going to try your special trick”. She was tense, but closed her eyes and just as I expected her to say something like “ponies” or “princesses” she took a deep breath and said “Ok. There is an anaconda on my arm. There is an anaconda on my arm. It is squeezing my arm but will go away soon. Go away anaconda, go away.”

Not exactly what I had in mind, but whatever works!


TWO
Location: The Children’s ER
Time: 3:30am
Reason: Again with the croup.
Scene: Kate is getting ready to leave the ER after receiving steroids to make her breathe easier, literally. It is the middle of the night and we are tired…

Nurse to Kate: "Bye bye, Kate! Have a great rest tonight! Get some sleep for me – I am here the rest of the night working."

Kate – turning to look at the nurse – very calmly and frankly says : "Well, you know, if you are lonely and want to talk to someone in the middle of the night, you can call China. Everyone over there is awake right now because it is daytime there, so you won’t wake anyone up and I am sure they would love to hear from you!

Ok, then!!!!!!

THREE
Location: the mini-van
Time: sometime deep into a road trip
Scene: the kids have been in the car for hours and are ready to watch a video. This is from our Colorado trip and I have been meaning to blog about it for a while. I had purchased some special road trip games and videos and had been spreading out the disbursement over the trip. The kids were starting to get antsy so I told them I was about to introduce another surprise. The kids, especially Liam, were SO excited.

Liam, bouncing in his car seat, squealing: “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!!!!!!”

Kate, somewhat indifferent due to her being pretty fed up with being in the car: “OK, thanks Mom. So what is it?”

Maggie, building it up from the front seat as Nick drives: “I don’t knoooowww. What could it beeeeee?”

I reach into the bag and find the new Strawberry Shortcake video (some gifts were more for Kate, some for Liam) that is tempered in it’s girly-ness in that it is about going to a Dude Ranch and camping etc. Given our wild-west vacay I thought it would be nice. Liam is giggling and squealing and practically escaping his car seat in excitement.

Maggie: “Here it is!!!!” (And I reveal the video).

Liam, instantly freezes in his seat and all joy flies from his visage. “Oh,” he says with a completely flat tone. “It’s pink.” He looks out the window, depressed.

Everyone in the car erupts into laughter. Well, except Liam.

Funny

You know you are an overtired parent when a comedien's bit about "Dora the Explorer" has you rolling on the floor laughing. Probably only fellow parents of young ones will find this remotely funny, but it brings the LOLs to our household and is clean humor.

Luciano Liam

Liam has been gracing us with several interesting versions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" these days. I think it is a result of one of the playgroup classes we take during the week. Here is one version - interrupted by him spotting a "hairerplane" (aka: airplane) through the window. Too cute, I say.

Slam Dunk

More video of Liam and his stellar basketball skills - the boy has game.

Get Your Head in the Game

Liam is exposed to the soundtrack to "High School Musical" regularly thanks to his older sister. There is a basketball scene in the movie with a song called "Getcha Head in the Game"....here is Liam singing and shooting hoops. He gets really into it. TOO FUNNY!

Translation: "Get your, get your head in the game, gotta getcha getcha getcha getcha head in the game"

SURPRISE!

When I asked Kate what kind of birthday party she wanted for turning FIVE she told me "a surprise party".  Well, with everyone in town for the wedding, I thought it would be a great chance to do just that! Kate stayed at my Mom and Dad's place on Saturday night after the wedding and Sunday morning we all gathered at home to wait for Kate and surprise her with a birthday brunch party! I made beignets and fruit salad and a yummy cheesy egg dish and we had brunch and birthday cake. It was a great morning and Kate was SO surprised! Here is the video of the "surprise".

Birthday Girl!

Here are some pics from Kate's early bday party.  She wanted a "pegasus" theme, so I did a cloud theme (hence the cloud cake) and had pegasus figurines on the table and pictures of pegasus on the wall etc. She loved it!

Kate's Cloud Cake

We called this "the birthday helmet" - was supposed to be a crown, but - not so much!

Blowing out the candles!

More Wedding Pics

Some shots of the gang at the party - we had soooo much fun on the dance floor.

Wonderful Wedding

We truly had a wonderful wedding weekend. My dear friend, Ryan, married the love of his life, Kersten. Their reception was at the U of M's art museum - complete with guided tours of works of art - and was SO much fun. I saw several people from college that I have not seen in literally a decade, which was surreal. The best part, though, was that SO many loved ones were there - my folks, Patrick, Jillian, Stacee, James, and my good friend Drew. We had a BLAST! The only thing missing was Rin and Morris but Rin was due any moment with her third baby so could not make it. How lucky that my friendship with Ryan is so strong that he is so connected to my whole family. I am so blessed in life.

Here are many shots of the celebration.

Kate- so excited for CAKE!

Mr. and (Dr.)Mrs. James and Stacee Topper

Kate and Jillian - members of the mutual admiration society.

Dancing with my Dad! Yay!

I love these girls.

Friends and Family

One of the most cherished things about our friendship with Stacee and James is that they love and understand and appreciate the joy of Kate and Liam. I literally cannot describe how happy our time together is and how grateful I am that our best friends love our kids as their own. I overflow with joy! We had a some great time together on a picnic near the house, overlooking the Mississippi River on a bluff. It was a beautiful day and the kids got a kick out of running and clambering around.

James and Liam - Buddies

Kate Picnicing

Our Picnic View

Queen of the Hill

Quick game of tag

Besties

Our dear wonderful AMAZING friends Stacee and James came for a visit. They live in Boston (color me jealous) and came into town for our friend Ryan's wedding. Ryan went to high school with Stacee and college with me and introduced Stacee and I and it has been solid and wonderful friendship ever since. Thanks, Ry! :-) Anyway, Stacee and James are some of the best people in the world and we had a great time visiting. We wish we lived closer!

We got to go out on the town one night without the kiddos. We had to celebrate!  Stacee is now a professor!!!  Clearly we enjoyed ourselves. ;-)

Fun and the Fair

It is that time of year again! Each fall our church, Nativity of Our Lord, puts on the "Nativity County Fair". It is a fantastic family event with rides, games, food and music - pure wholesome family fun. It is right on the grounds of the school/church and the funds raised go to the school. It takes all week to set it up. Can you imagine what it must be like for Kate and the school children, watching a carnival being set up outside your classroom window?! The excitement!!! :) We had a wonderful time, as usual, and the kids just loved it.

Kate and Liam on the Car Ride

Nick and Liam on the Merry Go Round

Mags and the Kiddos on the Spinning Dragon ride. They loved it!

Kate High in the Sky on the Ferris Wheel

Nick and Kate - Self-Portrait on the Ferris Wheel together

Kate's First Day of School

Kate is so excited to be back at Nativity School this fall! She goes to school every day this year. In Minnesota she misses the cut-off for Kindergarten by a few weeks.  She is academically more than ready for school, but socially we think it best to keep her with her "official" age group.  I was the youngest in my grade by a lot - going to college at 17 years old. Being the youngest has an impact more socially than anything  - everyone drives before you, turns 21 before you, and even reaches better sports peaks before you just because of general physical development. Nick and I thought long and hard about whether to move her forward or keep her right where she is. She is in the perfect spot. She is going to school M-F instead of 3 half-days so she is not bored. Her teachers are fantastic and we are seeing leaps and bounds of advancement already.  She is loving it!  Now she is right on track with her age group, and has a lot of kids in her class in the same boat, that turn 5 this month as well but are not old enough to advance to kindergarten yet.

A New Time, A New Look

No - you have not accidentally clicked on the wrong blog! I have a new background template. I just felt like a change :)  It reflects all the changes going on here in our lives. Nick's new position at 3M (which he loves), Kate starting school this week, and ME starting grad school this week!  Lots of great things going on with the Harris family.  We remain abundantly blessed.

The Colorado Kids

Nick, Kate, Liam and I just returned from a wonderful family vacation. We decided to try taking a trip together for no reason other than to spend time together and explore a new locale. No other family, no special events to attend - just a good ol' fashioned family trip. It truly was a "planes, trains and automobiles" trip - but I am happy to report it was fantastic and we had a great time.

A lot of people thought we were nuts taking a 4 year old and a 2 year old on such an Odyssey, but our theory was to get it out of the way, and get them used to it now. And they were wonder-kids. We flew to Denver at the crack of dawn and promptly climbed into a rent-a-car and drove 7 hours to Durango. There was not a peep of complaint from the kids and the time flew as we drove through endless varieties of scenery.

The first full day in Durango was a challenge. It poured rain, Liam suffered an asthma attack prompting a trip to Urgent Care, and as we were heading to the pharmacy to pick up his breathing meds, Kate puked all over the car. Lovely. We chalked all of it up to altitude adjustment, cleaned everyone up, settled in for a cozy rainy chilly family day in the condo and everyone got a great night's sleep. The bright side was all the icky stuff happened on a rainy day and the rest of the trip was spent truly in perfect weather and perfect health. My RA loved the cool dry air and the kids were so tuckered out at the end of each full, fun day that they crashed and Nick and I could relax on the couch with some wine and watch the GOP convention from afar - even though in real-time it was unfolding just blocks from our own house back in St. Paul.

We explored charming downtown Durango, traveled to Silverton, CO, took a Hum-V trip into the mountains, saw a cowboy show, rode a steam train, trekked to Mesa Verde, hiked beautiful trails, and so much more. At the end of the week we put our super kids back in the car for a long drive to Colorado Springs where we visited the Air Force Academy and the Garden of the Gods. I even got to connect with a Theta sister there for dinner. Then it was back to Denver for a flight home. Nick and I really were amazed at how easy it all was and how great the kids were. I guess we planned well, and that helps, but really the kids were angels. We awarded them gold medals for being the best vacationing kids ever. Below are many, many pics of our adventures. Enjoy! We sure did.

Garden of the Gods

Gorgeous fun. If you have never been, try to get there. So great!