Grant's Piano Recital

I have had so much trouble uploading videos to blogger that I finally gave up and uploaded them to Youtube. I am embedding them into blogger from Youtube in hopes this works.

This is Grant getting ready to play in his first piano recital in front of approximately 50 people.

Grandma and Grandpa Kaempfer made special arrangements so they could see Grant's recital and they flew in a day early!


He was the first to go and the youngest by a good couple of years! This is his first time playing on a grand piano too. He has a keyboard to practice on at home.

His first song in "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". It is his solo.


His second song is "Up on the Housetop".

He plays it through by himself then plays it through again while everyone sings along. His piano teacher explained at the beginning that a lot of kids play piano for years but never actually play while accompanying so one on the piano. This is why she has all her kids play while a verse is sung during their songs.

Grant did so great. He was very brave and said he loved playing in front of everyone. We are of course very proud of him. I know I was choking back tears while he was playing.. :-)

Here is a picture of all of Miss Verna's students. Grant is the little one with the blue tie (he wanted a tie like Daddy and he insisted on wearing it out of his sweater!).

What a little boy can think of...

Here is an example of what a little boy can come up with when
1. He is an only child
2. His best friends are not around
3. His parents are busy with chores and work outs.

PS. Yes he did dress himself this day....

Grant Fourth "Bite"day - Sharks!

Grant's fourth birthday was quite a success! We were lucky enough to have family in town to share it with. James' parents, James and Cheryl, his sister, Lauren, brother-in-law, TJ and their daughter, Carys all flew up for a visit from Texas. They were so wonderful on the day of the party! Huge helps which made it a great stress free day for all!
Texas James cooked his brisket which turned out fabulous and made the house smell delicious all day! It was so nice to know that the meal was in good hands and I did not need to give it a second thought! Thank you!
Lauren made the party favors, made the fish for the fish toss, helped decorate the cake (she is super artistic just like her brother), cleaned the house, tidied things up and all the while was taking care of her baby Carys whom is only 4 months old! She amazed me with her great attitude and the energy she had to get it all done! Thank you, Thank you! (She has earned herself a free ticket to come up for Grant's next birthday for sure!)

TJ was a wonderful help too! He and James made the one and only game we had for Grant's party this year which was a great success for not only the kids but also the adults. It was a very impressive Shark "fish" toss! They cut is from scratch and hand painted it. It really turned out awesome! TJ also had some great input on the cake decorating!

Grandma Cheryl was a great help by keeping iddlybits AKA Grant busy while we were all trying to pull this together!
The birthday boy posing in the Sharks mouth!
Tate got his turn.
Sarah Beth did actually put her head by the teeth but I was not quick enough to catch it. So this is what I got instead. I can't say that I blame her I would not have stuck my head through those jagged teeth either!
Ayden unfortunately was having nothing to do with posing at this time. I think the following picture may explain the type of mood she was initially in this day.
After the posing (or not posing) the tossing/throwing commenced. Grant and Tate loved how the bags hit the shark and would sometimes get stuck in his teeth. Check out the cute shark shirts they had on!
A couple of action shots!
Notice all the adults wistfully looking on. Wondering when their turn would be?


Ummm is there a dentist around? This shark really needs to floss his teeth!
Once the kids AND adults had there fill of tossing fun. We headed in for dinner.

The kids had there own table (the coffee table) that they were all able to eat together at.
Dinner consisted of YUMMY brisket (two types), mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, potato salad and zucchini herb casserole (Recipe here). The dinner really hit the spot for a summer day. The kids favorite was probably the corn on the cob as illustrated below.




After everyone had their fill of dinner we got out the cake! Carys volunteered to pose with it. Could she possibly be any cuter?!?! I mean seriously! :-)
A rare photo of the three of us. Grant being Grant of course!
So the day before the party I baked a from scratch strawberry cake (Grant's request) from a recipe that Amber found online. It turned out AWESOME if I do say so myself! (cake recipe here) I used fresh picked strawberries from Bells farm (right down the road) instead of frozen and it just oozed out the summer taste. I was so glad Grant came up with this since strawberries are in season this time of year. I think he just wanted it because it was pink but it really was wonderful tasting.

Overall Grant's fourth birthday was just what it should be a fun, happy celebration of his four years here. Thanks for everyone's help!

Chickens!

We finally finished up the coop and now have it inhabited by some Chicks. The coop was designed and built by James with my input along the way. We made it portable so we can push it around the yard. Memorial Day weekend James Grant and I headed over to Stanwood to pick out some three week old chicks I found on craigslist. Here are the chicks we ended up getting.
Delaware - "Coopee"

Golden Campine - Not pictured
Black Sexlink - "Tippy"

Rhode Island Red - "Ruby"

Barred Plymouth Rock - "Barbie"

A few days ago we found our Golden Campine dead in the coop all the other birds were fine. I believe it was from something called Coccidiosis which is an infectios diesease caused by a protozoan parasite found in the soil. About 80% of the time a chick will recover and be immune but that was not the case for our little Golden Campine.

So Grant and I yesterday went to Cenex and picked up three more little chicks.
Black Jersey Giant - Not yet named
Black Aulstrop - Not yet named
Ameracano - "Cleo"

I know losing one and getting three where is the math in that?? I am planning ahead in case any others should perish. Our coop is also big enough for all 7 of our chicks it is just that we will be eating a LOT of eggs! :) Hopefully we did not get any roosters...

You will notice from the video some of Grant's name choices did not exactly stick. Also notice the paint job he did on the inside of the coop. The whole time I stained the outside (took me about two hours) Grant was working on staining the inside of the coop. He did a great job and not only got the coop but his face/clothes/shoes/anything else unlucky enough to be in a 5 foot radius too!

Spring Garden - What I have been up too!

Well with the sun coming out and the days warming up I have been spending more and more time gardening. I thought I would take a break from the planting and hoeing today and snap a couple pictures of how things are looking around here at the end of April.

This is a Golden Oregano plant that managed to survive the winter here. Isn't it beautiful? I can't wait to use it in some yummy sauces.

Here are my 46 tomato plants that I have started this year. I am going to be doing a wee bit of canning/preserving this year (at least I hope so if the weather cooperates). They are all heirloom varieties including Marglobes, Bloody Butcher (I did not name it!) and Brandywine Pink.
Of course just because I am doing a lot more vegetable gardening doesn't mean I am going to neglect my flowers! The blue flowers in the foreground are forget-me-nots. The flowers in the wooden basket are an assortment of annuals I will be planting in containers around our place.

Here are my newest additions to the garden this year. James made me these beautiful cold frames for me (thank you honey!!) so that I can get a few more weeks out of our growing season.
So far I have a nice crop of lettuce and spinach coming along. My 'Loose Leafed' lettuce and
my spinach 'Teton Hybrid'. Grant and I have already been snacking, oh, I mean thinning them. They should be ready to fully harvest in just a couple more weeks.
James made me a total of six cold frames and another 5 frames (no top) that I can use to stack ontop of one another to fit taller plants in. Here is the house side bed. My rhubarb is on the far right. So far I have made a rhubarb cake and had a friend (Sarah) make a delicious rhubarb pie. I love this hardy perennial! These cold frames contain basils, shallots, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower starts and broccoli starts.
Does anyone need any onion starts??? :-)
One thing I take for granted up here is how well tulips do. I bought these tulips the first spring we were here and they are still going strong. I have had to dig them up at least three times because they keep multiplying and crowding each other out.
My newest bed for 2009 is a 40'X60' garden. I asked our neighbors grandson if he would till up the bed for us with his grandfathers tractor and rototiller. He was happy to make some extra cash and Voila I now have my first big garden bed. So far I have planted walla walla onions (50), leeks (50), white potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, french fingerling potatoes and a pumpkin hill. Will be interesting to see how everything does. I still have a bunch more to plant but am really happy with what I have started all ready.
So other than the garden we have really picked up our triathlon training and are doing 6-10 hours of training a week. We have also been in a couple of races. I finished third in my age group in the Eagle Run this weekend. I ran the 5k in 27:24 (8:55 min/miles)and accomplished a goal I had set of running sub 9 min/miles for a race. Good start for the year. Hope all is well with everyone.

Conversations...

SO last night we got home from swimming (and a little geocaching) around 9:30. I plop myself down in our tv room exhausted from a seven mile run earlier that day followed up by an almost mile swim.
I am blankly watching something (I think it is the Office) when I hear thud thud thud "MOM, YOU FORGOT TO KISS ME!" So I drag myself upstairs to give the "forgotten" kiss and this is the conversation Grant and I proceed to have.
"Mom, you forgot to kiss me"
"Honey I always kiss you before I go to bed. I just haven't gone to bed yet."
Grant trying to prolong his bedtime says "Mom, why do I have to be alone?"
"Because you are supposed to be sleeping silly."
"Why do you get to sleep with Dad?"
"Because we are married honey."
"Can I be married to you?"
"No honey you can only be married to people that are not related to you."
"Like who?"
"Ummm, like Ayden."
Grant says "Hmm, How about Tate?"
Uh oh what the heck did I just start here... "Ummm, Well honey boys are not allowed to be married, well at least not in this state, well at least not... Ok Grant enough! It is time for bed we will talk about this later...." uggghhh not my best Mom moment but I just could not go into the complexities of it all at that time of night. Hopefully I can gather my thoughts and figure out an appropriate response when I am not so dead to the world.

Grant sure has been keeping me on my toes lately. The other day during "quiet time" I went in his room to find him pulling toys down from the TOP of his closet. Yes that is right the top of his closet. He was balanced on top of his chair that he set on top of his toy box which he pushed across the room into his closet. So there he is pulling down his "special" toys from the TOP of his closet! I slapped my head at his ingenuity and immediately started worrying that he is going to be too smart for his own good way to soon. I am in TROUBLE girls!

Some of you may already know this but Grant has pretty much stopped taking naps. I have tried all different things from pitch black rooms to leaving him for an hour or more to fall a sleep but to no avail. How does the saying go? You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Well in our case you can put Grant into bed but you can't make him sleep. Now I can't complain too much because he sleeps through the night like a champ and knows to not wake me before 8 am. But I have lost my nap time during the day. Ohhhh to have the hour or so of quiet time when I could actually concentrate on a project and finish it.

Now we have the aforementioned quiet time when Grant can read books and play quietly in his room for an hour to an hour and a half each day. This usually works out pretty good except for the other day when I am trying to mow the lawn. I peek up at our house and every time I go around the house Grant is sticking his head up out the window. I run inside to catch him in the act but his is quick and hears the mower stop and beelines it for his bedroom. By the time I close the front door I hear the click of his bedroom door. I go upstairs open his bedroom door and there he is laying on his bed looking at me with big innocent eyes. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy as my Grandpa used to say.

Hospital Visit

So Grant has had a reoccurring croupy cough since he was born. Yesterday was the first time he woke up crying and laboring to breathe. Very scary so I called his Doctor's office but they did not have any openings. They told me to bring him to the ER. I did and he ended up getting an adrenaline/steroid syrup and a nebulizer treatment. Within a half hour he was breathing better. Unfortunately they wanted to admit us because after 8-10 hours when the adrenaline wears off it can bounce back even worse.
Grant in his hospital gown. I was surprised by how soft it was. If he looks a little loopy here might have something to do with the "medicine" he just had!
So we got to spend the night in the hospital. Here is the bed?/cage Grant slept in.
The funny thing is is he insisted he wanted to sleep in it rather than the bed. Here he is super excited!
Although that is not what he was saying at 11:30 last night when he crawled in my bed and we practiced counting to 100 until he finally feel asleep at midnight. The nurse came in and moved him back into his bed so I got some OK(?) sleep. He slept through the night (kind of) and only needed one saline nebulizer treatment. The doctor listened and gave us the all clear in the morning.
I was so thankful that we have such a great little hospital so close to us. Everyone was so wonderful at the hospital and we were even visited by the nurse (Barbara) who helped deliver Grant. Have to love small towns.

Grant's First Race!

So Grant was very excited about running in his first race. The night before the kids dash he called me into his room and told me very seriously "Mommy I need a band for my wrist too." meaning he needed a watch for his split times. ;-)

Day of the race we got Grant signed up in his division and got his number. Here we are signing up for his race number!

So like any 3 year old Grant kept changing his mind about if he was actually going to run the race or not. He even went so far as to rip the number off and declare he did not want to. Luckily I had my swim lap watch which fit him perfectly. I told them that he could only wear it if he was racing. He was super excited to have his own watch so his race number went back on. Finally!

We of course had to go out and survey the course (all 25 yards of it).
Grant running his race. You might notice that Grant is not exactly "sprinting". I think this may have a lot to do with the races James and I run and he thinking he has to "pace" himself... (Yeah, lets go with that theory! ;-))



It was so cute. As the kids came down the finish chute each of them got a ribbon and a stuffed "smelt" (looked more like a dolphin to me but I went with it). Grant loves his smelt! He has slept with it every night since.
The other thing Grant loved about running in the kids dash is that he got to eat the food for all the competitors at the end of the race. I have a feeling he is going to want to run at all of our races now! :)

Here are a few of our dedicated fans! :)
I had a good race too. I did my first 10K in just under and hour for a 9:30/mile average.

Sweet

So I keep forgetting to blog this but here it goes. Grant got up early the other morning and crawled in bed with me snuggling up right next to me. We were both quiet for about five minutes and I figured he had fallen back asleep. He had not falled asleep and instead rolled over put his hand on my hair (like when you are trying to soothe away one of their ouchies) and said "Mommy. (pause) I love you.". Yep my heart melted right then and there. It was so precious and innocent and out of the blue it just made me all warm and fuzzy.

So Amber always teases me for my WI accent. I don't know what ta heck she is talkin about, eh? But Grant has some little "accents" of his own. One of my favorites is how he always calls hotels "who"tels. It is so funny because it just rolls off the tongue like it is perfectly natural and the way it should be said. There are many other but that is my favorite!

Here is a flash back from Grant's first few days of life.
We did not realize that all babies did not sound like this when they slept. Grant actually had a constriction of his airway when he was born because of the difficulty of the birth so he made this little weazing sound for the first 6-7 months of his life. I loved it because I never had to check to see if he was still breathing because I could always hear him! His airway eventually firmed up but to this day if he catches up bit of a cough sounds like a barking seal...

That is all for now!

Heidi's 30th Birthday!

So Grant and I decided it would be nice to celebrate Heidi's 30th Birthday with her on the ski slopes. We decided upon Steven's Pass a hill that I had been to once but Heidi had never been to before. We would normally go to Baker but they don't have ski lessons for a 3 year old and Steven's does. So we got up at 4:30 to meet Heidi in Burlington about 5:30 and continue on to the ski hill together.
On our way up the rain turned into sleet then freezing rain then a snow rain mix and then snow. While these changes were occurring the road kept getting sloppier and sloppier so the last 20 miles took about 45 minutes to get up. That and the 20 foot long DOT sign that flashed "CHAINS REQUIRED (flash) CHAINS REQUIRED (flash)" made us wonder if we were every going to make it. Here is a picture of the snowbanks on the side of the road after the DOT sign....
Thanks to our AWD Volvo we did end up making it and it was fantastic boarding. They had about 6 inches of new snow the night before so the boarding was awesome. Snowboarding Sisters!!!

Grant loved his ski school. They had a great set up and he did so well he even got to go up the chairlift (minor heart attack on my part) and ski down the green runs. His ski instructor said he was the best three year old he has ever taught and that when he would give him instructions he would just do it and not have to think about it "a natural skier" as his instructor said.
When we went to get him from ski school he asked to go skiing with Heidi and I. We had the rentals for the day so we decided to brave it and go up with him. He did a great job getting on the chairlift. The lift attendants slowed it down for us and were very helpful. I of course had both my arms wrapped tightly around him and the rail on the chairlift Here Grant and I are right after getting off the chairlift. That smile you see on my face is more out of relief than anything! ;-)
Grant and Heidi the birthday girl!

Here is what Grant gave Aunt Heidi for her birthday.... notice the dazed expression and black mark on the bridge of Heidi's nose!?!?
If you can't tell from my sister's dazed expression Grant was coming down the hill and rather than turning took a beeline for Heidi who was kneeling on the hill watching him come down. He ran into her (doing about 20!) and gave her this nice black and blue nose with his helmet. Poor Heidi could have ducked out of the way but she was soo worried about Grant being able to stop before the trees that she sacrificed herself and attempted to "catch" Grant. Poor Heidi.... I do have to say the area where it actually hit and swelled up gave her nose a very nice filled out look. Hopfully when the swelling goes down it will still look okay. Happy Birthday to Heidi!