Maisie is 9!

Last week was Maisie’s 9^th birthday!

Instead of a friends party this year, she asked to go up north to The Edge. The Edgewater is a hotel with a waterpark that she and Ella love! Happily, her BFF Ophelia was able to come with us. It was a quick trip – the girls were off school on Friday the 30^th, so we went up in the morning, hunted for agates on the shore of Lake Superior...

watched the bridge go up, and then got an early lunch at Grandma's.

Lunch complete with hot chocolate - it's colder by the lake!

By noon we were swimming and playing in the waterpark!

Ella, Maisie, Tiki Tom, and Ophelia

Saturday morning the girls got up early. After a quick breakfast, it was back to the waterpark for a few hours, before it was time to head back to Minneapolis for trick or treating. We had so much fun at the Edge with Ophelia. It was a great alternative to a birthday party!

Maisie’s actual birthday was on a Tuesday, so we went to dinner at her favorite restaurant (a buffet place on Lake Street) with Gramma Liisa. Our server caught wind of the birthday, and they brought her out a little dessert plate with the most amazing candle! 

It looked like a firework at first, and then opened up to reveal a flower, with a little candle on each petal.

It was so cool. Maisie was completely delighted!

Then this weekend, we had dinner with Auntie Laura, Dylan, and Dan at their house, which was awesomely fun. Check out the Portal cake they made for her – she loved it!

At 9, Maisie is just a great person. She loves Pokemon, anime, her family, koalas, reading, drawing, and cooking. She’s beginning to act a little tween-y sometimes, but still loves to snuggle and be read to.

At Convergence 2015 - she loved this person's cosplay of Lucy from Fairy Tale, a favorite anime.

She’s smart and funny, a caring friend, and a fierce fencer.

She told me the other day that she’s glad that I’m her mom. I told her that I’m glad she’s my kid, and it’s true! She’s a wonderful person and I can’t wait to see who she grows up to be.

Maisie's home!

Maisie is home from Salolampi!

She had a great time, and definitely plans on going back last year. So far, I've figured out that she managed to lose a dress (!), a hat, a small makeup bag that had her earrings in it, sunscreen, bug spray, and a bug bite anti-itch stick. I'm not yet sure what else is missing!

There are some pictures of her on the Salolampi Facebook page, and even more can be found on their Google+ page. This one above is from their Google+ page. Their photos are great, and looking through them really helped Maisie tell us about her time at camp.

We're so happy to have her home!

8!

Maisie is eight years old today!

We celebrated her birthday with local family yesterday, which was super fun! Auntie Laura and Dylan hosted us, Gramma Liisa, and Jim. We had dinner followed by a beautiful cake that Gramma Liisa made. Maisie loved her presents - lots of clothes, all of which she liked (everyone seems to have her sparkly tops & knit pants style down!), a beautifully fuzzy blankie and cute knit owls from Gramma Jo, and a book she'd been wanting from Jim.

8-year-old Maisie is delightful. Her favorite things right now include fencing...

She absolutely LOVES fencing! As a leftie, she's got a natural advantage. I think she'll keep up with it for a while - we just finished our first three-month session and she's ready to go back for more!

She loves reading and writing...

Maisie always seems to have a journal with her, and is constantly drawing pictures and writing about things that she sees. Some of them she shares with me, other things she keeps private. She also loves to read - we're currently into book 6 of the Harry Potter series! She's also really into the Emily Windsnap series. She likes to bring a book wherever she goes, and will happily read to herself, or read to Ella and keep them both entertained!

Maisie loves Ella...

Yeah, they do fight sometimes. But most of the time they're each other's best friends. Sometimes on the weekend, they wake up and tiptoe out into the living room to watch Netflix or build with Legos before Aaron and I get up. They're never really all that quiet, so we usually do wake up. But we stay in bed and snooze and let them play. It's pretty sweet.

She loves her Finnish dance group, Pikku Kisarit...

Kind of random, right? But she absolutely loves this activity. The Finnish-American community here in the Twin Cities is really active and a great group of people, so I'm glad that she's having so much fun. She had a great week at Salolampi last summer, and is excited to go back for more. And of course, I think it helps that she has a Finnish pen pal! They send each other little gifts and letters. It's adorable.

At 8, Maisie is growing into a delightful person. I can see the beginnings of the young woman she is becoming, and I am excited to see who she is. Even now, though, Maisie brings a lot of joy into our lives. She's smart and funny, caring and considerate, enthusiastic and creative. We can't imagine life without her!

Ella is 5!

Today is Ella's 5th birthday!

Ice skating lessons at the Augsburg ice arena

5 year old Ella is an amazing, wonderful person. She's physically confident, and loves to swim, skate, run, jump, swing, bike... anything! She's a girl on the move. Right now she's saying she wants to learn to play soccer! She's got a good kick - I'm sure she'll do well.

She's incredibly silly at times, even though she'll insist that Aaron is the silly one in our family. She tells silly jokes and stories, and likes to make people laugh. She makes the funniest faces!

She's also very affectionate, and likes to give people hugs. Her preschool teacher said that everyone has a bucket inside of them that you can help fill up with kind words and good feelings. That image really resonated with Ella, and she talks a lot about helping fill up our buckets. It's so sweet.

Ella also enjoys making art! She's really pretty good at drawing, and loves painting too. Our house is full of her artwork!

Playing at the Big Bugs! exhibit at the MN Zoo

Right now Ella is SUPER interested in insects, and has been for a while! Maisie does not share this interest, and actually refuses to go into the butterfly houses at the Zoo or the state fair. But Ella loves bugs! She was really the driving force behind the whole millipede thing. She loved the Big Bugs! exhibit at the Zoo, especially when she got to see and hold real insects! She told me once that when she grows up, she's going to be a scientist who finds new kinds of spiders. I believe her!

Snuggling with Auntie Laura at the Highland Park pool

Ella still loves to cuddle, especially when she's feeling sleepy. (She fell asleep on Laura's lap about 10 minutes after we took this picture!) She asks to cuddle Aaron at bedtime every night. She also has a whole collection of stuffed animals (pandas, mostly) and blankets that she snuggles up with. As grown up as she seems sometime, she's still a real cuddle bug, which is just the sweetest thing ever.

Modeling her flower crown at the American Swedish Institute's Midsommar celebration

Ella's a wonderful person. We're so fortunate to have her in our lives. Happy birthday Ella!!

Last day of school!

It's a beautiful sunny summertime Friday and it's the last day of school!

Ella will be off to kindergarten!

I think Aaron and I were a little nervous about the whole High 5 thing. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, since the public pre-K was going to be very different than what Maisie did at her Montessori preschool. Happily, it's been a great year. Ella's learned SO much! She made a lot of friends and is really well prepared for kindergarten. High 5 was a great way to begin her school years.

And of course, Maisie's on her last day of first grade!

It's been a challenging year in some ways, but mostly a really good one. We had homework struggles, pen pal letters and packages, lost teeth, and best friend sleepovers without much sleeping at all.

We've got some big plans for the summer - swimming lessons, art camp, CONvergence, Chris and Kim's wedding, and even a week at Salolampi for Maisie. Can't wait to get started!

Happy summer everyone!!

Growing up milestone: lost tooth!

This winter has been neverending. It's so depressing, you guys. We had 50 days in a row of subzero temperatures. 50! We finally broke that streak with a few warmish days last week - all the snow melted off our roof, we managed to excavate our sidewalk and driveway (which were under several inches of compacted snow and ice), and I even got out on my bike once or twice. I thought winter was over, but nooooooooo... last night it started snowing again.

Seriously, it feels like the dawn of a new ice age. I know that all this means, really, is that spring will be about two days long and we'll head straight into summer. We'll go from 30s to 70s within a week. But right now, it's hard to see. It doesn't help that our house has been hit by a nasty cold that's making the rounds... I was sick for almost three weeks. I'm finally, finally over it, and then Ella woke up with a fever and a cough this morning. Poor kiddo!

But regardless of the endless winter, life continues and the girls continue to grow. Here's the latest evidence:

Maisie finally lost her first tooth!

It took long enough - she's almost seven and a half! Maisie's best friend, Ophelia, is two weeks younger and has already lost seven teeth. But Maisie's teeth were late to come in (she had just one tooth on her first birthday), so it makes some sense to me that they'd be hanging around a little longer, too.

It first started wiggling about a week ago, and she finally pulled it out last night. She was pretty excited about the whole thing. "I can't BELIEVE I lost my tooth!!" The tooth fairy brought her $5 in Sacajawea coins, which she was also pretty excited about.

The tooth fairy is now pondering just what to do with that tiny baby tooth, and its sisters that are surely soon to follow. As some friends said on Facebook, one baby tooth is sweet. But a whole jar or box of them? Pretty creepy. Who knows... maybe someone could use them in an art project, or something? Or maybe they'll just end up in the compost bin.

What feels really big and important to me about the lost tooth is that it does really show just how quickly Maisie's growing up. She got kissed by a boy last week (she said, "I just strode away!"), and then this week, a lost tooth. It feels like teenage Maisie is just around the corner. And while I can't wait to see who teenage Maisie turns out to be - I bet she'll be amazing! - it also makes me appreciate those moments where she's still my little girl who just wants to snuggle with her mama.

Ella update

The last post was almost all Maisie, so I figured I'd share some Ella pics, too!

I love this one - I think she looks a LOT like her cousin Nika.

Aaron took this one a day or two ago, as she was getting ready to go to school.

Ella really loves school, and she's doing really well. We didn't have conferences this quarter, thanks to all the days cancelled for cold weather - the school district decided to hold classes those days instead - but her teacher sent us a really sweet email. She said that Ella's "just been a rockstar" in their classroom, and her love for learning and for life bring smiles to all her teachers. It was a lovely note, and made us very happy.

Grandma Liisa taught her to eat Oreos this way

She did say that Ella tends to get chatty during lessons and will forget to raise her hand before speaking, which wasn't a surprise to us. Ella is very, very verbal - she talks a LOT! She also seems to process things through talking about them. She's talked through movies, plays, and orchestra performances, narrating the whole experience to whoever is sitting next to her. It's exceptionally cute, and a fun little window into how she's experiencing what she's watching.

She does have her stubborn moments... Ella is frankly one of the most stubborn people I've met. (Some apples don't fall far from the tree, I guess!) When she digs her heels in about something, woe unto you if you're trying to get her to budge. Aaron and I have to pick our battles pretty carefully, because when she's made up her mind, trying to get her to go against her decision is not a fun experience!

Truer words were never worn on a shirt

But even with the stubborn moments and tantrums, Ella brings us joy every day. She's smart, funny, and generally a wonderful person to have around. We're so lucky to have her in our lives!

Folk dancing at Urban Expedition: Finland!

A few weeks ago we were at Suomi-koulu when a woman came up to me and said, "You're Maisie's mom, right?" When I said I was, she said "Great. Just so you know, there's an extra practice on Thursday night, so we'll be ready for the performance on Sunday..." Wait, what? "Oh," she said, "Didn't Maisie tell you that she said she wanted to perform with the dance group?" Ha ha what?

Suomi-koulu isn't just about language - they also learn about Finnish culture as well, and folk dancing is part of that. Maisie loves dancing, and has been really enjoying the Finnish dance lessons in class. I knew that some Suomi-koulu students did folk dance performances at various events along with Kisarit, the adult dance group, but it was always something that was presented as for older kids. (2nd grade and up) Maisie's not quite there, but she's been working really hard at it and really wanted to perform, so the group decided they'd let her in! She just somehow forgot to mention to me and she'd signed up for the performing group. :)

So on Sunday, we headed over to the Landmark Center so she could perform at Urban Expedition: Finland!

The Urban Expedition series is a neat series that the Landmark Center hosts. Once a month they host a free series of activities and events that are centered around the culture of a specific country. Cambodia, Senegal, and Brazil are still coming up if you want to go check it out - it was a lot of fun! In addition to the performances, there was food, crafts, and even LIVE ANIMALS.

The north lobby had a "petting zoo" with two year-old reindeer, and an arctic fox that didn't really look like it wanted to be petted.

Gramma Liisa had made Maisie a beautiful costume in a fancy Finnish style - a beautiful full skirt, and a black vest with gorgeous silver buttons. Unfortunately... we didn't know that they weren't wearing fancy dress costumes! Instead, they were performing peasant-style dances in Karelian work clothes-type of costumes. Fortunately, they'd found an outfit for Maisie to approximate the pinafore type of dress. Add an apron and a headscarf, and she was all set to go!

There dancing was last, so we sat through a few other performances and things first. Ella's favorite, I think, was the language lesson from two Salolampi counselors. They taught the audience a Finnish song (Pienet Sammakot), and then taught us all to count to six in Finnish. Ella was very impatient, though - they were repeating yksi, yksi (one, one) and Ella would yell out KAKSI!!! (TWO!!!) I think they were only going to go to viisi (5), but when they got there she wouldn't stop yelling out KUUSI!!!!! (6!!!!!) so they went to kuusi. It was hilarious! And, if I had any doubts that she's actually learning some Finnish at Suomi-koulu, they've been laid to rest.

After the other programs, the children's group did three dances. The first, Tikkuristi, is almost like a game... you do a dance around sticks, and try not to step on or knock your sticks.

The music gets faster and faster... the last person left is the 'winner' of the dance.

Maisie LOVES Tikkuristi dancing! She practices at home with scarves on the floor. It's awesome to see how hard she's working at it.

Tikkuristi was followed by Seni, a threshing dance, and they ended with Helsingin matka, a dance about a trip to Helsinki.

Maisie was by far the youngest and smallest person in the dance group, but she did a GREAT job. She really kept up with the older kids and adults, she knew all the steps, she stayed focused, and she had a LOT of fun. I was so proud of her, I thought I was going to absolutely explode with it!

The program ended with an audience participatory dance called Svetit Mesjats. Even Dylan and Auntie Laura got in on the fun!

It was a super fun, and very Finnish, afternoon. I feel so fortunate to have found this great community through Suomi-koulu!

Braving the polar vortex

Brrr you guys, it's been COLD! That's been true across North America, and our little corner of Minneapolis has been no exception. In January, Maisie and Ella lost five days of school to closings due to extreme cold! I know some people thought the closings were excessive - this is Minnesota you guys, of course it gets cold, parents have to work, etc. etc. etc. But when it's that cold - air temperatures of -15 to -20, with wind chills -35 to -40 - it's just not safe for kids to be outside waiting for a bus that might be 15-20 minutes late. Little noses and fingers and toes can get frostbitten in just a few minutes! Not to mention the middle school & high school kids I see waiting for their buses without hats or mittens, even in the depth of winter. I am such a mom, I always want to slap a hat on their heads and give them a talking-to.

Anyway, winter, amiright? There's no escaping it, so you might as well try to enjoy it. The extreme cold finally let up a bit this weekend, and I think the cabin fever may have been getting to be a bit much, too. So we took every opportunity to be outside! On Saturday afternoon, the girls and I joined Laura and Dylan for some activities at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. We did some craft activities in the Landmark Center, and then headed outside for Maisie's new favorite activity: ICE SKATING!!

A few weeks ago Maisie attended a friend's birthday party at the Depot ice rink, and since then she's been NUTS about ice skating. The problem's been that it's been so cold out, we haven't been able to get outside much! But on Saturday it was beautiful, maybe 15 degrees out, so we hit the ice. And this time, Ella (who hasn't wanted to skate before) decided she wanted to try it too!

Dylan and Maisie were super happy to try to help Ella get comfortable on the ice. And it didn't take her long...

And she was off to the races! She fell - a bunch - but each time would look up and say "I'm okay, mama! Help me up!" and she'd be off again. She worked hard, and before long she really had the hang of it. I'm so proud of her!

Maisie, too, is improving by leaps and bounds. The last time she skated, she was still sort of walking along on her skates. But this time, with some help from Dylan, she got the hang of the slide & glide. I don't think she fell once! And Dylan, of course, is a confident and strong skater - he was a great help to both girls, and an excellent ice skating role model. :)

We finished up the night with the parade, hot chocolate at Dunn Brothers, and cheering on the Vulcans who successfully deposed King Boreas. The next morning Maisie told me that it was the first day of summer because the Vulcans won, right? Uh, not quite summer yet!

And a good thing, too, because Sunday was our Suomi-koulu Laskiainen celebration!

For those who aren't familiar, Laskiainen is a traditional Finnish sliding festival. You go sliding, eat pea soup and rye bread, and basically enjoy the heck out of winter. Suomi-koulu holds its Laskiainen at "Mount Como," a park in St. Paul that has skiing and snowboarding facilities. Laura and Dylan joined us for some awesome Laskiainen sledding!

(That's the 3 kids, wayyyyyyy down at the bottom of the hill. Maisie's in the red coat, Ella's on the sled in front of Maisie, and Dylan's to the right.) We stayed for three hours, sledding and playing in the snow, and warming up with hot chocolate, pea soup, rye bread, and pulla (a Finnish sweet bread flavored with cardamom).

It was a very fun - and very tiring - weekend of winter activities! By Sunday night Aaron and I were both exhausted. I could've used another weekend day to rest! But I should bite my tongue and be careful what I wish for... we might end up with another sub-sub-zero polar vortex blast, with cancelled school and broken-down buses, and that's no good either. I'll take the mild winter weather any day!

Pierced ears

Yesterday was Maisie's birthday - she's now seven years old! I'll have a recap up of our Sunday celebration soon, but I wanted to post about the OTHER big thing she did this weekend: she got her ears pierced!

Maisie's been sort of interested in having pierced ears for a while now, but always backed down when we'd remind her how the process happens. She has some anxiety in general, so it isn't surprising to me that the thought of someone poking a needle through your earlobes would make her say "maybe when I'm older." :) But with turning seven, I thought she might be ready.

Saturday morning we had Suomi-Koulu, and afterwards Aaron was taking Ella to a birthday party. Maisie and I were talking about what we were going to do, and I suggested heading to the mall to get her ears pierced. Surprisingly, she was all for it! So off to the Mall of America we went.

When we got there, though, there were second thoughts. We talked about it and Maisie said, "Maybe when I'm nine." I said okay, they're your ears so it's your choice, and we went off to try lunch. Maisie suggested sushi (I know, what?), so we went to Masu Sushi where she scarfed down a bunch of edamame, four pieces of a teriyaki chicken roll, three pieces of an avocado roll, and three pieces of California roll. Holy cow! That girl's a sushi-eating machine. She does not care for wasabi or pickled ginger (too spicy!), but otherwise, she's willing to try just about any rolls. It was a fun, fun lunch.

We were walking out of the mall when we passed by a Claire's. I said "you know, they pierce ears here, this is where we could get it done." (I know, I KNOW! I have had enough piercings myself that I'm familiar with all of the gun vs. needle arguments. Suffice it to say, this was easy and fast and made Maisie super comfortable in a way that a piercing/tattoo shop wouldn't. Don't worry, we won't do any cartilage piercings at the mall.)

To my surprise Maisie said, "Okay, I'll do it" and walked right in. Holy cow! The nice young woman working helped Maisie pick out the earrings (topaz, her birthstone) and gave her a teddy bear to hold while she marked the placement.

Maisie looks a little nervous... maybe she was starting to rethink her decision? But before she knew it... it was over and her ears were pierced!

The person who did it actually had a coworker come help, so they did both ears at once. Super fast! Maisie was really relieved and happy and proud of herself when it was over.

And now she has pierced ears!

She has to wear these for six weeks, and clean them and twirl them two or three times a day. She's really good about not touching or playing with them, and so far they're healing beautifully... not a bit of redness or overly tender.

Maisie's so proud of herself, and keeps saying "I can't believe I got my ears pierced!" Aaron and I are so proud of her too, for moving past the fear that it'd hurt (it did, but just a little, and not for long) and doing it anyway. :)

Day at the Museum/Children's Theater

Or, why I enter everything into my phone.

Yesterday morning, Aaron and I woke up to the sound of giggles coming from the girls' room. (It's a nice way to wake up.) They'd woken up before us and, instead of coming and getting us up, had decided to stay in their room and play together. It was pretty sweet.

Anyway, I looked at my phone to see what time it was and there was an entry from my calendar: Children's Theater, 2:00 Today. I said to Aaron "Hey, we have tickets to a show at the Children's Theater today." He asked what time and what show. "2:00. I don't know what show but it's in my phone, so it must be right." And it was! I got up and looked at the tickets, and sure enough we were going to the matinee of Charlotte's Web.

We hadn't been to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in forever, so we decided to go early and check out some art before the show. Maisie was initially reluctant ("There's nothing to dooooooo"), but quickly warmed up to it and ended up having a lot of fun.

She especially liked the statues. And the MIA has plenty of interesting statutes, especially in the Asian art galleries!

So there was plenty of silly posing for pictures.

They also really liked the suits of armor - this one was about 500 years old!

We ended up in one of the contemporary galleries, where the girls REALLY liked this large statue.

Ella, so silly. "I can see his butt, Mama! Take a picture of his butt!"

After seeing some art and a quick snack, we went over to see Charlotte's Web. Ella said, "I hope there's no dying parts in this show!" Uh... turns out, Charlotte's Web is almost entirely dying parts, starting with the very first line ("Where's Papa going with that ax?"). It's a lot heavier than I remembered it being - the show follows Wilbur as he struggles against the inevitability of death, starting with his own, and then being forced to come to terms with Charlotte's death. But even though Charlotte dies, her babies live on, as does Wilbur because of her efforts while she was alive. Wow, these are some pretty heavy themes for a children's story! But I don't think the girls really got all that, any more than I did when I read it at Maisie's age. They both enjoyed the play, thought it was sad when Charlotte died, but were happy that some of her babies chose to stay with Wilbur in the barn. It was one of the best shows I've seen at the CTC - I highly recommend it.

Between the museum and the theater, we had a really lovely afternoon.

School days

It's back to school time!

Maisie started school on Monday: first grade! She was really excited to be heading back. As you can see from some of these first day waiting-for-the-bus pictures, she was feeling happy and silly.

There are several of her friends from Kindergarten in her class, including her best friend Ophelia. Because her school is a Montessori, they're in a mixed-age classroom - instead of just first grade, it's "E1" with first, second, and third graders all together. This is great - it means that she and Ophelia will be together for the foreseeable future.

Another reason I really like the Montessori model of mixed-grade classes is that it's easier for all the children to work at their respective levels. For instance, Maisie's math skills are at first grade level, but she's reading at a second- or third-grade level. So the mixed class makes it easier for the teacher to get her appropriate reading material.

Ella has also started school!

Her first day of High 5, Minneapolis' public pre-k, was Wednesday. She was so excited!

She was a little nervous too, but fortunately one of our neighbor kids is going to Kindergarten at the same school, and rides the bus. So right away, Ella had a bus buddy.

Her first day report was kind of scattered. She talked about going out to play on the playground, and that they had to be quiet like little bunnies in the hallway. Also, she got to wear a nametag. And, that's apparently it!

When Ella got home, Aaron said that she had really pink cheeks. We figured the bus must've been really hot. Turns out, it was probably actually her school... the school district has closed the non-air conditioned schools Thursday and Friday of this week, and Ella's school was on the list. So her first week has turned out to be a really short one. Maisie's school does have A/C, though, so she doesn't get the extra days off that Ella does.

I'll be glad once we get past Labor Day and back into our regular school-year schedule. The transition is difficult - getting Maisie used to getting up so early is not easy. Much like her daddy, she likes to stay up late! So mornings have been a challenge this week both for her and for me. But it'll work itself out and we'll find a comfortable rhythm again.

I'm sure we'll get there by the time May rolls around. :)