We needed to travel through the Iron Range on our way to Voyageurs National Park, and Grandpa Bob (our personal tour guide who isn’t really related to us . . . more on that soon) suggested we stop at an overlook next to an old gigantic mine pit.  Since we…

Like many newly potty trained boys, Mr. TOF has quite the fascination with what he puts in the toilet.  After he’s finished each time, he takes a close examination of the toilet before flushing it away. The other day he was eating a banana for a snack and realized he…

We were at the park.  There were no bugs because it’s been too cold for bugs to hatch out.  The sun was finally shining after being hidden by cold rainclouds for days on end.  After having a great time on the playground, the kidlets wandered over to a small creek…

The Banana’s kindergarten class has had a lot of field trips this year!  Dr. Peds and I have had fun helping on several different occasions.  On Tuesday, the antepenultimate day of school, all four kindergarten classrooms were scheduled to ride a bus down to the Rose Garden, and then walk…

This is perhaps the coldest spring I can remember.  Ever.  While I consider myself a patient person, it is starting to get hard to watch everyone else move into spring and summer, and here we are, most of our trees without leaves or perhaps just the beginnings of leaves starting…

The Annual Cougar Chase race, put on by a foundation that supports our elementary school, has become a big deal at our house in recent years.  This year all four kidlets and Dr. Peds were signed up to run, and this is what our chalkboard looked like the day before…

  He came rattling up, driving a yellow plastic dump truck with a red bucket on the back and screeched to a stop on the sidewalk.  He looked over at me and said,  “AHA!!!!!”  He grinned wide, hopped off his truck and scooped a handful of dandelion heads (no stems)…

  This is how I felt last week regarding the passport application process.  Dr. Peds has planned a mini vacation to Voyageurs National Park in a few weeks.  He neglected to mention that we were going across the border into Canada for our accomodations on this mini vacation.  He thought…

Unlike his little brother, the super cautious kid who doesn’t like to do anything even remotely dangerous, THIS boy loves risky things, and even better, sharp tools.  Dr. Peds gave him an ax and a saw (shaped like a gun!) and told him he could tear apart some branches and…