Doughnuts for Dinner

Greetings!

 

Sometimes you need to have doughnuts for dinner!  Elsa and Jonas had their first trip to legendary doughnuts.  They were impressed!  The doughnuts are the size of a small planet.  It was a sweet treat for the final full weekend of summer vacation!

 

That's right...school starts next week.  Jonas and Elsa went to school with Dan and helped him set up his classroom.  The picture of Jonas building a jenga tower is from the classroom (the guitar is already unpacked:).  The kids are both very excited to be returning to their same teacher.  They are the big kids now and can't wait to tell their teacher about all the things they learned. 

 

We spent a day at the annual Sand in the City event in Olympia.  Jonas and Elsa were able to meet Smokey the Bear!  It was pretty cool.  The event was awesome with lots to see and do.  It is adjacent to the Children's Museum so we were able to parlay the event into a double feature of activity!  Lots of fun and a great day.  The museum has a play stream outside and it is always a massive hit with the kids.  See below for tons of pictures!  Jonas had a big personal victory at the museum--he made it to the eagle's nest!  This required climbing and crawling through an elaborate structure that adults have a difficult time even entering--he had turned around at the ladder the last two times but conquered it this time. 

 

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

 

 

 

August Smiles

Greetings!

August really smiles on us!  The sun and the time to play makes this a great month!  While we have been kind of taking it easy the past couple of weeks while Elsa recovers from her surgeries, we have been trying to stay active and make each day great. 

We spent today at Remlinger Farms with Elsa and Jonas.  It is a great farm with lots of activities for kids.  We have gone there the past three summers and it is really a fabulous day every year.  We were talking about how the farm has been awesome every visit but for very different reasons each time.  The first year it was great to see the kids get excited about the steam train and the eric ode show.  Last year, we went with friends and had a blast on the antique car ride and playing in the hay bale play area. 

This year...well this year Jonas and Elsa discovered the roller coaster.  Dan screamed the entire time and the kids laughed.  It was a blast!  Elsa also rode a pony for the first time ever and could not stop smiling!  It was yet again a wonderful day with the family.  Our kids are growing up nice and slow and we are loving every minute with them.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Sweet Peas

Greetings!

This was a big couple of weeks for Team Lysne.  Elsa had a couple of surgeries that seemed liked they popped up all of sudden.  She had started to complain about a pain in her mouth a couple of weeks ago and then upon inspection the dentist determined an infection.  This led to an extraction, clean up of the infection and lots of antibiotics.  She did great and was ready to run and play later that day.  We were thankful and surprised.  

The following week she had her tonsils and adenoids removed.  We had been on a wait list to see a doctor at mary bridge and a spot opened up.  She had the same surgery with the same doctor that Jonas had a year ago.  It is a slow recovery and she has moments during the day where she is high energy and then there are other times where she is clearly in a lot of pain.  We are taking it slow and she is doing the best that she can.

One of the pictures is of the kids shelling peas.  We bought a share of a local farm and have had a lot of fun visiting the farm, picking herbs and flowers, and taking care of the produce at home.  The kids like to run through the fields and notice what is coming up!

We also had our first experience with miniature golf.  It was fun to see Jonas with his methodical approach and Elsa with her Happy Gilmore swing.  We had fun hanging with friends!

Jonas and Elsa have been putting on musicals this past week in our house.  Dan was in a production of Seven brides for seven brothers and the kids practiced the songs with him.  They have been nightly performing "bless your beautiful hide (we changed hide to 'eyes' when we sang with them).  They are great!  Elsa has been working with Dan on the dances from the show and loves the lifts in the dance!  They had a great time at Dan's show too!  It was really sweet to see them so engaged in the show and so excited to see Dan at the end of the show.

We had a great time seeing Caspar Babypants at a park concert this month too.  Lots of catchy tunes!

And...a raccoon visited the tree outside our living room.  Lots of excitement!!!

What a truly great summer!  We still have a month until work resumes so we are going to keep on playing (and resting as necessary!).

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas