Perfect Month!

This is something I will never attempt to do again but, I am proud to say, I blogged every.single.day this month! 31 days, 31 posts!!  It was such a buys month with summer ending, kids starting school, etc etc. there was just so much to share. So while this isn't necessarily a post per say, it still counts! 

You may ask why was it so important to share so much, the world will go on if they don't read what the Eberhardt's did last Thursday. Well, it is because I  plan/ already made my blogs into blog books by year. I hope to receive said books, hopefully for Christmas HINT HINT BRANDON!
This time in our life is going by so fast and I find it fun to go back to a few years ago and read the ole blog to see what we were up to. I of course remember the big events, births, Disney world etc, but I find I forget about the fun day to day-ness of it all. I can't wait to get it in book form and look at it with the kids!

I found a great website to do it rather easy. 

http://blogspot.sharedbook.com/blog2print/googleblogger/index.html

You just type in your URL, pick your settings and call it good. You can use blurb.com to make one as well, but the blogspot one is from Google and works perfectly with blogger. I made my books in all of about 10 min, not too shabby! There may come a day where I want to have more options and switch to blurb, but for now, this is what I am going with. 

Have a great Labor day weekend( remember when we were kids and we thought it was the day people were in labor...or was that just me?)

How I Watch Football Now

Well after much talking and promises, I finally gave up my coaching gig in May. I have zero regrets. I have enjoyed every second of my summer, not having to worry about getting the dance team to camp or ordering uniforms and the thousand things that surface in between. I enjoyed my years of coaching but it was my time to be done. Here we sit, the season of football is upon us, and for the first time I don't have to be at the games. No finding someone to watch my kids while I spend 7 hours at the Alerus Center, no walking around all day with nothing to eat while I try to manage the crazyness of the event, no cheer drama, no worrying about music that won't play, no more being at a football game and not actually watching any football, no more my friends. Thursday I pulled up to the Alerus center as a fan, not a coach...and it was wonderful. I went through the gates and had my bag checked like a commoner. I found my seat and sat back to actually watch the pregame show. I snacked, I laughed , I enjoyed the game...it was glorious I tell you, glorious. While there will never be any seats better then on the field, I enjoy my new view much better, the view as a fan!

Samuel got all dressed up in his Sioux attire and got ready to head to the game!

 Annie was excited about the noise cancelling headphones( thanks Kellie) and she wanted in on the picture action as well. As luck would have it, I forgot the headphones at home, oh well, SamSam didn't seem to mind

 Another young Eberhardt heading to his first event, lets take a trip down memory lane to see the other's first sporting trips shall we

 Elias: basketball: 2 months old

 Annie:Football:2 weeks old

Benjamin: Hockey: 1 week old

 Although I didn't get to go as a coach, I did get to go in style! Kellie's parents have season tickets and the coveted champions parking pass! We parked closer then I got to as a coach...not too shabby

 My new view of the event

 Samuel's view

 Family picture? Maybe in a few years

 Look who is so good at holding newborns now! Kellie's boyfriend, Andrew educated Samuel on how to become a star football player.

We stayed at the game until about halfway through the 3rd quarter. I got in my car and had not an ounce of sadness, it was awesome! When you stop doing something you love, I think everyone hopes that they have no regrets. This football game solidified it for me. I loved it while I did it, now I am loving not coaching. I guess I quit at the right time! Out of old times sake, I did go and do my usual McDonalds run after leaving an event, just one last time...you know, for the memories....and the warm fries:)

Here is to a football season as a fan! 

GO SIOUX

Sick

prepare for a rant:

The kids have been in school a mere 8 days....8 days for Elias, 4 for Annie and the older three kids are already all sick!!! What the heck!!! I knew the sickness would start back up after a cold-free summer but seriously 8 days! UGH. One more reason I will be thankful when we home school, less germs to spread around. Well here is to hoping you and your family are staying healthy this back to school season.

Dyno Mini

As you may recall, Annie started gymnastics when she was two. First we did the parent and me class. When she turned 3, she moved to the 45 min on your own class. She learned how to follow rules when mom wasn't with her. So after being in gymnastics for about 18  months, she is ready for the next step and was asked to participate on the dyno minis pre-team. Its a program that puts you on the track to be a competitive gymnast.Yesterday, Tuesday, Annie had her first practice!. She will have practice 2 days a week for 90 min each. If all goes well she will be on one of the pre-team teams for the next several years then begin competing level three once she is ready. If at any point Annie stops enjoying gymnastics, we will take her out or switch her to a rec class. I am not trying to raise a Olympian or force her to do something she doesn't love, but I don't see that happening any time soon. She loves her class she LOVES her coaches and she loves her friends in the class. 

So anyways, Annie walked into practice and RAN and SCREAMED when she saw her friend Ana was in her class. She had so much fun all class long and I am sad I didn't' bring my camera. They are the only kids in the gym at this time and I am hoping her coaches will say I can take a few pictures. I mean in there anything cuter then a squad of little girls running around in leos just loving life? Practice went great, they worked hard and Annie maintained her craziness the best she could. I can't wait to watch her again tomorrow. The class is from 2-3:30 so I won't be able to see her every time since Brandon works, so I am really enjoying the days I can!

Annie still desperately needs a nap! She usually naps from noon-2 which is a problem with this class. We have been giving her a early nap on gymnastics days and waking her up before we leave. It takes her a bit to really wake up...as you can see here. 

Once she woke up, she was happy and ready to roll.

I can't wait to see how this journey of gymnastics turns out. Maybe it will be a one year thing, maybe it will put her through college, who knows, but for now, it sure is cute to watch!

First Day of Preschool

When we made the decision to send Elias to school this year, We thought it only fair to send Annie to school as well. We checked out a few different options in town and decided to go with Sunflake Preschool three mornings a week. On Monday, Annie had her first day of class! She was SO excited. She put her backpack on a full hour before it was time to leave and didn't take it off until we got to school,I had to pry it off of her in the car to even buckle her in. I had no anxiety, no nervousness about sending Annie to school like Elias, I'm not sure why, just didn't. 3 hours Later I showed up to a very excited Annie who was ready to tell me all about her new friends. She chatted the whole way home, giving me every detail of what she did that day, SO different from Elias who likes to say " I have fun, then I come home" Every morning she wakes up and asks if she gets to go to school and is thrilled to pieces when the answer is yes.  After the open house, I wasn't sure if I was going to leave Annie in preschool, it is a bit of a financial stress as well as a logistical stress getting her there and back three times a week with 2 other kids in tow. However, after these first two days, there is no way I am pulling her out. She is just loving it so much! Enjoy pictures of my bean all grown up

I knew this was the school for us when at the open house her teacher asked permission to take pictures and send them to use via e-mail..uh, yes please! The first day they played outside, learned class rules and celebrated a classmates birthday with ice cream and juice.

On a side note we are in the middle of a uncharacteristic sweltering week of heat warnings and nasty high temperatures, thus the ice cream treats and park trip at 9am. I can't wait for Sunday, cooler temps in the forecast. Anyways, Annie loves preschool and so far, so do we!

Art Day

As previously mentioned, Saturday commenced the first official art day in the Eberhardt house hold. Thanks to a fun filled box from Aunt Nikki, we had a grand time painting, coloring, gluing and just having a grand ole time. I think we did 7 art projects by the time it was all said and done and we didn't even get to bead making. The kids had so much fun they have been asking non stop to do more projects. I have created a monster. At least once a month, we will be having Eberhardt art days, just too much fun not to! For those mom's wondering how I did it, my secret Vodka, lots of Vodka. Just kidding. I wrapped Samuel or he slept and I pretty much just pledged to not freak over messes or any actions by Benjamin.By the end of the day Benjamin had sampled paints and markers, he was covered head to toe in something or another. Annie had paint on her shirt and I had watercolors on my wall. I just kept reminding my self it is all washable and non toxic....we all survived!! It was good for Benj to be with the big kids and start to learn craft time behavior and good for me to not be so wound up. Here are some pictures from our fun filled day. Thank again Aunt Nikki!

We started off our morning by water color painting. I did some rough outlines to give the kids something to accomplish rather then just let them doodle for two seconds then get bored. Annie made a rainbow, Elias did circles of color and got to see what other colors made when combined and benj just destroyed. And yes, we were still in our PJ's at this point.

After watercoloring was all done, we decided to draw and make cards for Aunt Nikki. Elias impressed me with his monster drawing skills, I was especially happy how they all looked happy...and like amoeba's maybe he will want to go into science like his mommy. I then asked him to draw a family picture and he made me skinny and daddy fat. This is of significance because he could have made me fat and didn't point for you my son. He then wrote both his name and Annie's names next to their drawings so I would know that he was the biggest of the kids. Elias' handwriting still needs quite a bit of work but I was still pretty proud when he wrote Thank you all by himself without needing to look at what the letters look like.

Love Love Love this. Daddy is the one with the round belly, I am the leggy one. Elias is the big headed one next to me. Annie next to him and Benjamin and Samuel are on the bottom.

Labeling his family


Next we dove into finger painting. All the kids wanted to start with brushes. Annie was over it and dove right into finger painting. Samuel and I at this point were still just hanging out in the wrap. At least we had managed to get dressed by this time.

After cleanup,lunch, and nap we got back at it. This time making crafts with pipe cleaners, pompoms and glue. We made caterpillars, letters for our name and finally we dressed up Annie's  headband with some pipe cleaners. It was a fun day that the kids are still talking about.

Movie Time

We had so much fun this summer, that when I was writing the summer top 10 list, I totally forgot about one of our favorite activities...movie night! This was a great summer for movies and the kids got to see all of them in the theater with daddy! Benjamin has moved up in the world and was even allowed to go to two of them with the big kids. It seemed like they were going to a movie every week, all in all they saw:

Epic

Smurfs 2

Planes

Despicable Me 2

Monsters University

Turbo

We were so busy seeing new movies, that we didn't even take advantage of any of Carmikes summer kid series where they play reruns and you get a snack for $4.....maybe next year

In those first few weeks after baby, we were all so tired we spent many a night watching movies as part of our slumber parties or just for fun. I don't have many pictures of movie time since, well you can't really take pictures in a theater full of people but I have this gems from the other night. I won a red box rental through the monopoly game at McDonalds (whoever said no one wins, hua?) and Annie begged for Hotel Transylvania, so we obliged and had a fun time watching it. 

On a side note. Did you know that if you purchase the popcorn bucket from Carmike you can refill it anytime that year for $1.50?? You don't even have to go to a movie, just walk in, get a refill, walk out. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

Since school is officially back in session, there won't be as many movies but it sure was a fun daddy-baby activity to do on those hot summer days!