The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!

At the age of three, Soren has given me the BEST Mother's Day gift ever--no more diapers to wash!!!!!  Sunday was the first time that he went the entire day (including church and going to a movie in Marysville) wearing underwear and not getting them wet.  Today he again went all day dry.  The days of diapers are over!

Since February we've let him know that he will need to be wearing only underpants to go to preschool in the fall and it became even more imperative when I signed him up for summer swim lessons.  The rules at that pool are that you have to be 3 and potty trained for the lessons.  He started to see some value in going around without diapers when we put swimming lessons on the line.  He is really enjoying the lessons that he is taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays and remembers Einar's outdoor lessons last summer.

So congratulations Soren on becoming a "Big Boy!" and entering the world of knowing where all of the bathrooms in all of the public places are found.  We're excited to have you in the underpants club.

Birthdays, Lost Teeth, and a "New" Piano

Happy 40th Birthday to Jared!

Our "New" Piano

HappyBirthday to both Soren and Jared!  Soren turned 3 on March 30th and Jared celebrated his 40th on April 12th.  Lynn and Dennis came up to Bellingham on Jared's birthday for a yummy lamb dinner and then had an overnight so that they could walk Einar to school the next morning and see his kindergarten classroom.  The following Saturday we went down to Seattle and celebrated with more of the family by serving 40 of each of the following: Ezell's

fried chicken, Larsen's pastries, baked humbow, steamed asparagus, vegetables on a platter, cups of coffee, and cans of sparkling water.  All "Jared Foods."

Einar's first lost baby tooth.

Soren's Blue Monorail Cake for his 3rd Birthday Party.

Tonight, Einar lost his first baby tooth.  Last Thursday night was the first time that we noticed that he had some loose teeth and it took just over the weekend for his tongue to push the first of them out.  It happened about 9:45pm, just in time to put in place for the Tooth Fairy.  Shortly after that he finally fell asleep for the night.  He is still very much a nocturnal boy.

They are both very much enjoying their sleep these days in the morning.  One Easter morning, one of those days when you'd expect an excited kid to pop out of bed at the crack of dawn, we had to rustle them both out of bed at 8 so that we wouldn't be late for church.

Celebrating being 3 with the cousins.

We celebrated GUS' birthday too.  GUS stands for  Great Uncle Steve.

For Soren's birthday bash he wanted to have a family party at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we combined one with GUS' since his is only 2 days after Soren's.  He also wanted a blue monorail cake.  I had been planning on getting away with cupcakes for the celebration, yet he kept saying that he wanted a blue monorail cake. It's hard to pass off cupcakes as a monorail.  So I eventually came up with the idea of frosting twinkies and putting them on our existing toy monorail track and I think it

 turned out really cool, if not so tasty for the over 6 crowd.

Here is Steve about to blow out the candles on his birthday pies.  He always wants pie on his birthdays.  Then it was Soren's turn at his three candles.

We also finally got the Bjorklund family piano moved up to Bellingham from Tacoma.  This is the piano that my Grandpa Ed bought for his mom with his paper route money.  My cousin Diana has given it a home for the past many years, but no longer had the space so had offered it to us.  It took a year of pestering a local moving company that had given me a low-ball estimate, but they finally had space on a truck and delivered it on Jared's birthday.  We are all pretty excited about giving it a home, just be advised to bring your earplugs with you if you come for a visit!

Blowing out Three Candles.

Catch-Up Time for the Blog

Making breakfast form Mom.

Einar and Soren have become quite the team lately when they want to make breakfast.  If they manage to both get out of bed before me (not an easy thing for a nocturnal boy like Einar) I can hear stools moving and cereal being poured.  Perhaps I should be rethinking the gallon containers of milk that I purchase when I see Soren hefting out the milk from the refrigerator.  On those mornings I must rush to the table to enjoy my special breakfast and my already milked cereal.

During Christmas break we also got the whole family to Mt. Baker for a day of skiing.  It was the first time I'd been skiing since Einar was 2 and we went to Bend to celebrate with the Ogles.  Soren and I were ski bunnies on the rope tow hill all day and Einar got a couple of runs with Jared on the big hills too.  It was a gorgeous day and I got to enjoy the view even more after Soren finished his last run and said "Go home!"  I convinced him that we had to wait for Jared and Einar and I held him outside on the patio.  He promptly curled up on my lap and fell asleep!  When it was time to go, we took off his rental boots and I carried him over my shoulder to the car.  He slept all the way back to Bellingham.

Let's see, it's been awhile since I last posted.  We have been keeping busy with school, work and general goofing off.  Jared just got accepted into his elementary education program at Western and officially declared his major today as General Science Elementary Education!  Einar is still enjoying kindergarten but has realized that it's not all play and recess and has said that it's a bit too much work at times.  He just got his first report card and we are very proud of him.  I'm back to working evenings again since school began again.  At home we've been overrun by Legos and I even found a lego head in the dish drainer this morning.  I've been impressed at the way that the boys have integrated all of the Legos with the train tracks and trains.  Einar even made a train out of Legos that ran on the wooden tracks.  I think if we were to find tons more Lego wheels, he would construct a huge Lego train.

Last Friday Einar turned 6 years old and we celebrated with his friends and four grandparents at our train birthday party here at the house.  We ate a Daylight Steam engine cake (special request of the birthday boy) when everyone got here at 4 and then we played a memory game, a track building game, a mail sorting game, and pin the caboose/engineer/passenger on the train.  I'm pretty sure that everyone had a good time and Einar came up to me 4x just to give me a hug during the party.  He even said the cake was "AWESOME!"  Awesome is getting lots of use in our house these days =).

All set for the slopes!

Soren getting in on the action at Mt. Baker too!

We hung out on the rope tow slope all day.

We're trying out our new lefse rolling board by making some flat bread.

This is a Dad approved activity while Mom was at work.

Happy Birthday Einar!

Daylight Steam Engine Birthday Cake, as requested.

Einar the goofy scientist.

See my tongue?

I'm ready for science!  

After the first eruption, our volcano was looking "AWESOME!"

Now it's time to add the vinegar....

Add caption

Einar and cousin Sammy celebrating Matty's 2nd birthday.

First time on skis

Yesterday, Einar went skiing for the first time.  Einar and Dad had a day out by themselves, and went up to Mt. Baker for some down hill time.  There was a lot of falling down, but at the end of the day, when asked, "Is it better than Disneyland?"  Einar said, "Yes!"

 

Snowy weekend weather

It was the first snow of the season in Bellingham.  Einar, Soren, Jared and Karla had a great time.  There was also a lot of energy expended by the end of day on both Saturday and Sunday.

Halloween Costumes!

Karla did a great job on costumes this year.  Soren was a fire truck.  Einar was a whale shark, so don't worry about being eaten.

A year ago this Monday...

We moved into our house almost a year ago!  However, if you want to see some of this last year's highlights just check out the other posts.  We have enough photos to catch up on from the last three months.

Soren at the playground at Boxberry Farms.














Einar showing off his carrot picking skills at Boxberry farms.

The Einar Express zooms down the sidewalk!













Sammy and Einar at Alki Beach.

The giant's pizza oven across the street.  (Just kidding.  It's actually a lime kiln on San Juan Island that Jared visited while on a school field trip.)

We don't know what they were planning.  We're not sure we want to know what they were planning.

Eating ice cream when you're two.  That's the way you do it.

Rainbow at sunset.  We had to go across the street and then face east to take the picture.













Over the past few months Einar finished Preschool and is now getting ready for Kindergarten.  He has been getting ready for this by doing a lot of playing and drawing.  He has also been doing some reading.

The good news with Soren is that he is starting to string two words together.  The bad news is that most of the time he is saying, "no way," and, "knock, knock."

Einar Ditches His Training Wheels While I'm at Work Tonight

In the half an hour after I left the house to go to work tonight, Einar rode his bike for the first time without training wheels!  When I left it looked like the evening was going downhill fast with lots of crying, failed attempts to go to the park, and 5 year olds making bad choices.  Jared creatively turned it all around with an impromptu "let's try this" activity and soon Einar was riding his bike down the sidewalk with the neighborhood kids cheering him on.  Thankfully, our neighbor Chris was able to get these pictures for us.

Needless to say, when I left it felt like work was the best place I could have been going tonight, but it turns out that all sorts of great things were taking place while I was gone.  

Can you select the nap skipper in this picture?

If you selected Soren, you are correct!  This was the dinner scene at our house, but it wasn't the food, because everybody else cleaned their plate, so it's all Soren.

(Karla is writing in Blue.  Thanks Jared for updating the blog tonight after capturing such a great picture of Soren asleep at the table!)  Well, I just got home from work and found out that this nap skipper and his brother were awake until 10 tonight and eventually had to be separated because they kept each other awake.  I guess a little power nap at the dinner table only fueled the fire.  


Unfortunately, it seems as if Soren won't be taking that afternoon nap nearly as long as Einar did.  I shouldn't be too surprised though since Einar still sleeps in until 10am (like he did this morning) and Soren is ready to go most mornings at 7am sharp.  Completely different kids.

Over the past couple of days there has also been a ferry ride to Lummi Island, running through the sprinklers, and other fun activities.

Ferry rides can start off as a bus ride.  On Tuesday we rode the number 50 bus as far as it would take us to Gooseberry Point.  Then we hopped on the little ferry that would take us to Lummi Island.

At the ferry terminal

Soren hanging out at the beach.

Einar playing in the sand.

Wet after a little sprinkler action across the street.

R.J, Gabe, and Einar doing some gardening work.  I paid these gardeners with fresh peanut butter cookies.  I think perhaps they got the best end of this deal since I still will have to go out there and finish up the job =).  At least I got to eat some of the cookies too!

Einar and Soren helping Jared with his homework.  Jared actually had  a physics homework assignment where he had to figure out stuff based on a 35lb kid and a 50lb kid swinging.  That is exactly what the boys weigh right now so he took them to the park and took pictures of them swinging and include the pictures in his project.  I hope he gets extra credit for including accurate models!