Ama Lama

Ama brought this turkey home from school today and told me its name is Ama Lama.

She said, "My turkey is so cute, but I can't sleep with it because it's made out of plate."

Halloween Song 2010

Halloween Song Lyrics (by Ama):

Candy and junk that you enjoy
from Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Junk that you enjoy, junky stuff that you want to...
that you enjoy from Halloween
Throw it up at the sky
Eat/catch it in your mouth

Halloween in Minneapolis

Cook and Chris and I had kind of a Star Wars theme going, with Darth Vader, Queen Amidala, and a young padawan. Ama was a kitty princess, with a hoop dress, tail, tiara, cat ears, and whiskers.

Como Zoo 10-10

The Ama Song 10-10

The Ama Song Lyrics:

A is for Ama, it's really really great
M is for Ama, it's really really great
A is for Ama, it's really really great
That spells the word Ama

Toddler Talk 9-10

I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, and there was a little girl playing in the yard of a house as we walked by. The girl came up to us and started jabbering. She said something like, "Hi! This is my house, and that's my dad's truck! He uses it for his work! My name is Hannah (or something) and I'm three years old!" She awkwardly held up 3 fingers, then turned to Ama, "What's your name?"

To which Ama replied, "My teeth are razor sharp."

First Day of School 2010

Both of my babies had their first day of school!

Cook started the 4th grade at Roosevelt:


And a week later, Ama started pre-school at Becep (she goes half days 4 mornings a week).

Summer 2010

Here are the kids chillin' on the hammock at grandpa and grandma's house. They spent a few fun days over there (especially in June when I was in summer school) hanging out with Satori, swimming, playing outside and having fires.

They also helped me out at the garden quite a bit. Here is a picture of the watermelon that we grew, and some other fun stuff we harvested out of the garden.

Swimming - Summer 2010

Here are a couple pictures of the kids swimming at Raging Rivers while Eric was here in August. It was like 95 degrees that day, which is the perfect temperature for going to the waterpark!


Here a pictures of the kids swimming at Elks Pool. Grandma and I took them one afternoon when we were all hot and bored. I think it was the only time we swam there all summer.

Minneapolis 5-10

The first weekend after school got out, we took off for the twin cities. Chris not only let us stay at his house AND borrow his tent, he also let us put up the tent INSIDE the house (it didn't really fit). It was a super fun weekend, and we got to do lots of things, like the Mall of America, swimming, sailing, and more swimming. Here is a video of the kids swimming at Lake Nokomis with Joe's dog Stella:

Mall of America 5-10

Boba Fett the bounty hunter...made out of legos. Rad.



The whole point of our trip to Minneapolis was to see Legoland, which Cook had earned as a reward for reading so many books during the school year. Legoland and the amusement park at the Mall of America were such a hit that we had to go back a second time before we left the cities, and they had so much fun AGAIN!!


The butterfly room was awesome - I had no idea it would be that great....we spend a LONG TIME in there. Cook liked to pick them up on his finger or on a leaf. Ama just liked to lay on the floor and look at them.

Mother's Day 2010

We went to a greenhouse for mother's day. I decided that it would be cool to put a bed and a kitchen and a toilet into a green house, and then you could live there forever.

For Crying Out Loud!

Ama's 4th Birthday

Ama's 4th birthday party was at grandpa and grandma's house--she said she wanted everything to be EXACTLY like it was at Cook's party. Two cakes, pinata, water balloons, seriously everything. We did our best. And we learned that it is in fact possible to stuff 8 plastic tiaras into a single pinata. I think she had a lot of fun!

Ama got a princess scooter and helmet, a bunch of barbie stuff, a bunch of Ni Hao Kai Lan megablocks, and a fur real friends bunny. You could hit her birthday balloon and Dora's voice would sing happy birthday.

2010 Studio Pics

Got pictures taken of the kids - for Ama's 4-year-old pictures and Cookie's 3rd Grade replacement pictures (because he missed pictures and retakes at school). I'm pretty sure this was the first time we've gotten Ama's pictures taken when she DIDN'T CRY!! Not a single tear shed during the whole photo shoot.

Cook's 9th Birthday 4-10

Cook invited a few friends over for his birthday party, which included some outdoor activities like a pinata and fencing. The whole time there was this enormous black cloud slowly creeping toward us out of the south, so we were racing to get done before it rained - we mostly succeeded, although the fencing was cold and soggy.

We had pizza and 3 kinds of soda and 2 cakes and mint chocolate chip ice cream, as per Cook's insructions. He got a lot of legos and bionicles for gifts, which was exactly what he wanted. Grandpa and grandma gave him two racing remote-control cars and a pair of rollerblades. It was a great birthday!

Sledding January 2010

The Adventures of Catgirl and Fruit Batman

When people ask Ama what her name is, she answers, "I'm Amaranth Rocio Catgirl, but you can call me Ama." Then Cookie gets disgusted with her because she's not supposed to tell people her secret identity. Here is an action-packed video...sorry about the weird ticking sound and focus problems. Stupid camera.