John Deere Girls

Today was our first day of Cousins Camp 2008!

Audrey and Madelyn look a bit like little boys in these camp shirts, but girls can drive John Deere too!

With Daddy

For Father's Day I made Gary this heart-shaped carrot cake (his favorite)

Madelyn wants to dig right in!

Here she is trying to score some of Daddy's cereal.
And with a smile like that, who could resist?

Audrey's Party

Celebrating at cousin Audrey's 2nd birthday party

Madelyn loved when Uncle Bryan tickled her with Audrey's new little squirrel puppet

And here's all the grandkids getting ready for birthday cake!

Carwash

Madelyn got to be Daddy's carwashing assistant this afternoon.

This looks just like that warning symbol on the side of the bucket!

Um, I think the car is already clean, young lady!

Just Cute

I wanted to take a picture of Madelyn's cute pigtails, but this is the best I could capture before she slid at warp speed down the stairs. She was most likely hurrying to try to escape out the dog door before I could catch her. This new attraction is a very annoying one, because going outside the dog door is akin to stepping into the basin of a Port-a-Potty. It's not that Gary doesn't keep up with the scooping, but there is still residue that I'd rather not have my daughter crawling in, you know?

Hand Truck

Madelyn spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Winkel while Gary and I attended an all-day meeting. They went to my brother John's new apartment to unload some of his things, and Madelyn had fun playing on the hand truck.

Taking a ride

This pose is reminiscent of a Calvin Klien or Coca-Cola commerical...

And then back at home, a little bit of ice cream with Grandma. Yum!

Extreme Rice

Me: both hands occupied stirring and cooking on the stove

Madelyn: rooting around in the pantry on the other side of the island

Me: stabilizing what I am doing in order to go get Madelyn out of the pantry because she might touch the broom (yuck) or drop a glass jar on her toes

Madelyn: walking around the side of the island toward me carrying an open bag of white rice

Me: cat-like reflexes springing into action, lunging to rescue the bag of rice before she...

Madelyn: turns it upside down and every grain of rice pours onto the floor, jumping in all directions

Me: standing dumbfounded with my hands one inch away from the now-empty rice bag, feeling like I ought to cry, but taking a deep breath instead

I think I was in shock for a few minutes because I could not decide if I should quickly salvage what I could, knowing the rice would be ridden with dog hair and floor crumbs, or just let Madelyn have her fun now that the deed was done.

Before the frustration passed enough for me to get to work cleaning up the mess (plus I still had dinner cooking that required my attention), Loki and Kezia ingested a fair amount of raw rice, which made for some interesting poops Gary got to clean up. Madelyn had lots of fun, and the next time we have to pull the fridge out for some reason, we'll be reminded of this incident by all of the grains of rice that my vacuum couldn't reach.

Friends + Babies

I really enjoy opportunities to visit with old friends. Bridget and her daughter Miriam were visiting from out of town, so we met up with Sarah and Demitri at Mikael's house. Bridget is expecting her second baby girl, but her little belly was put to shame by Mikael, who has full-term twin boys about to join us in the world any minute.

All of us keep up-to-date with our blogs, so even though we see each other rarely, we can easily carry on conversations about current events in each others' lives. I feel really close to these women in spite of our geographical distance, and I think that is awesome.

While moms visited, the kids played with all of Makenzie's toys. Mikael's almost-two-year-old daughter wasn't there to join the fun because she gets to spend a lot of time with Grandma and other friends since Mikael can hardly walk. :) Madelyn liked sitting in the doll stroller.

We attempted to pose a photo of the three little ones, but you can see the efforts weren't very successful.

Unfortunately Madelyn was quite cranky today because she was ready for a nap shortly after we arrived. She kept banging on the front door like she wanted to leave. How rude! Madelyn is so adorable and fun when she is in a good mood (which is most of the time unless she's tired), and I hate that she left the impression with friends who never see her of being a whiny little monster.

Roll It

While we all played a rousing game of Clue, Bonnie had the intelligent idea to let Madelyn play with the Yahtzee dice to distract her from eating Colonel Mustard.

She loved it and only tried eating the dice a couple of times.

My Crib

Today Madelyn wanted me to open the little door on her crib so she could get in and play.

She spent probably 10 or 15 minutes doing nose dives and barrel rolls in her bed.

She loves to bite the fringe on her blanket.

Climbing in and out is fun too!

I swear Madelyn does not always run around naked, but she seems to get a lot of energy right after a bath and a clean diaper, and she can't wait long enough to get dressed before she starts acting all cute and camera-ready.

My Neighbor Totoro

One of Madelyn's gifts from Yuka's family is a DVD of a Japanese animated movie called, "My Neighbor Totoro." I popped it in while folding laundry, and to my delight, Madelyn laid down and watched about 20 minutes straight! Then she wandered around playing while I watched some more, but then she got bored so I had to finish the rest later. Because of the way it's animated, the English dubbing is seamless, and I was surprised to hear Dakota Fanning as the main voice. The story is really cute and it was fun to watch, although I felt that the "forest spirits" were a little bit creepy.

VW

Have you ever been shopping for a new car? It can be a frustrating experience if you have to deal with a salesperson who is slow, tries to play ridiculous mental games, or doesn't listen to you. And that frustration is tripled when also taking turns entertaining a tired, cranky, energetic toddler.

I let Madelyn play inside this New Beetle on display because it kept her quiet for a few minutes during one of the salesman's disappearances behind the proverbial curtain to ask The Wizard "what he could do." In the reflection on the car door you can see Gary trying to stay calm. We did not get a Volkswagen today.

Airport

Today's the big day: Yuka gets to enjoy a 10-hour flight home to Japan after spending ten months as a part of the Winter Family in the USA.

This little stowaway wants to go along. No way!

Checking in for the flight at PDX went smoothly

We played outside the security checkpoint for a little while so that Yuka wouldn't have to wait alone for too long.

Don't tell me what I can and cannot do!"

This was an emotional day for us all. In spite of some unexpected challenges of hosting an exchange student, it was a somber occasion to say goodbye to Yuka. We definitely bonded and she will be missed. The saddest part to me is that Madelyn will not remember her wonderful Big Sister. But we'll tell her stories and show her lots of pictures. If Yuka passes her college exams she gets to come visit in the spring, so study hard, Sweetie!