The Owl and the Pussy Cat

Notice: the following story is very, very funny. We highly recommend that you empty your bladder before viewing the videos below. :)

The story began about a year ago when Aunt Jo-Ann sent us some of Zach and Gabe's old books. These were books that the boys willingly donated to Sheinah. We are pretty sure that Gabe said something like "those are baby books" when Aunt Jo-Ann asked him which ones he wanted to send to Sheinah. Most of these books were really great and well liked by Sheinah. There was one book, however, that we found to be a little different from the rest. It was a book of nursery rhymes that many of us remember singing as kids, such as "Pop Goes the Weasle" and "Hey, Diddle Diddle." The very first rhyme, though, was one we had never heard of called the "Owl and the Pussy Cat." We took it to Sheinah's daycare center and no one there had ever heard it. We showed it to nearly everyone who came to our home and always got the same reaction. In fact, today, when we showed it to our friend Libby, she was the only person we've met who actually had seen it before.

Anyway, we thought it would be great fun to ask Uncle Bacqua to read it to Sheinah when he came out this summer to paint the Kingston House. It was so much fun that we did it again with Travis' parents when they came in July. Now, of course, we won't be able to have fun with this anymore because all our friends and family will have seen these videos on our blog. However, the videos are so funny that we just had to share it with everyone.

Enjoy!

Zach: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7493262025902762978&hl=en

Lala (we especially love how Opa really gets into Lala's song, even moving his head to the beat). http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1195237751161878843&hl=en

Birthday party take two...

The Minnesota Bums got to take a trip back to Colorado in October so that Melissa could attend a pharmacy conference. While we were there, we had another birthday party for Sheinah with the Colorado Bums and Vigils. We started the party at the park by David and Shannon's house but got rained out. Aunt Virginia was kind enough to open her home...not only for the party, but also for us to stay there for a few days.

Uncle David made Sheinah a really cool horse cake. Sheinah really liked eating the carrot. While we were at the park, Naomi took charge of playing with Sheinah. They had lots of fun playing on the slide.

Sheinah Turns 2

Sheinah turned two on October 3rd. We celebrated her birthday with her friends from daycare by having a party at the Children's Museum of Duluth. It was really nice for many reasons (1) No clean up (2) No clean up (3) No clean up...it think you get the idea! The kids really had a good time interacting with all the different exhibits. The highlight of the party was definitely the face-painting...although Gabe might disagree with that statement :) Check out a few highlights from the pictures below:

Gabe enjoyed the campsite exhibit Sheinah, Gabrielle, and Gabe held hands on the way back to the party room.

Sheinah really enjoyed the face painting. She chose a butterfly from the picture of options and picked the colors herself. She sat very still while the painting was happening and did a really good job of not touching her face the whole afternoon.

This is our favorite picture of Gabrielle (on the right). It really shows her curious spirit. She is Sheinah's best buddy from daycare. The two girls are two months apart (Sheinah is the older one) and they are like two peas in a pod. They even look a little bit alike! Melissa made homemade cupcakes for Sheinah's birthday (in an effort to control the sugar intake). We had juice boxes, raisins, pretzels, and cheddar bunnies for a snack. Sheinah got to sit in the special birthday chair.

Check out this video of Sheinah blowing out the candle. You gotta love the shock on Melissa's face (she didn't realize that Hannah had taught Sheinah how to blow out the candle). http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5592916894609818557&hl=en

1, 2, 3....JUMP

Sheinah really loves to jump....down stairs (which we don't necessarily like), on the carpet, and, new this week, off of daddy's tummy. Check out this video of Sheinah practicing her jumping skills (please note, the pillow's were mommy's attempt to protect Sheinah's head). http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8950204180423099482&hl=en

ABC's

Sheinah likes to sing songs (particularly the Itsy Bitsy Spider song) so we decided to give the ABC's a try. Check out this video to hear Sheinah sing the ABC song with Melissa

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7754314557732550039&hl=en

Feet and crackers

For Labor Day, we drove up the shore to Two Harbors (which was slightly ironic since Melissa had just been there on Thursday with the pharmacy and medical students). The reason we went to Two Harbors was that Travis had an appraisal to do up there so we figured we'd make a day of it. We went for a tour of the Edna G tugboat, checked out the trains and then had lunch. On the way home, we were thinking that Sheinah would sleep while Travis shot the photos for his appraisal. Unfortunately, Sheinah decided that she did not want to sleep. By the time we shot this video, she was quite deliriously tired. We are pretty sure that it was the delusion that made her decide to eat crackers with her feet, but it makes for great video.

Click here to watch the video.

We've moved

After five months of "pure joy" (can you hear the sarcasm) remodeling our new-old house, we finally moved in! We had lots of help from our friends from church and a few folks from Melissa's work. Now, the fun of unpacking begins. We'll take some pictures as soon as we get the place looking a little more presentable. Like all good bloggers, we will NOT be posting our new address on the web :) If you need it, send us an email.