After a serious weekend packed with end-of-summer fun (including Valleyfair, http://www.valleyfair.com/, and another trip to the State Fair by Toben and Tomas), today is back to school. We are not letting the RNC interfere with the MN ritual of back-to-school occurring the day after Labor Day!

Tomas has started Kindergarten at Kinderberry Hill (yes, Stacy and Brendan, we really do care that much). His teacher is Ms. Lois, an 18-year veteran of kindergarten, and there are 6 kids in his class. No, we have not moved to rural MN, and he might be ready for 3rd grade after this year.

Avery is in a new “loop” at Parkview Center School in Roseville. His teacher is Kathy (yeah, that better make some of you laugh)… we’re not sure yet how much of a Kathy she is, but it looks like a heavy emphasis on math, so i’m happy. And, 5 minutes ago Toben started school too, teaching his first class here at the U!

hugs to all:) Stace, I’m definitely remembering our kindergarten coffee this morning. miss you!

OK, we didn’t eat anything on a stick. BUT, we did have chocolate covered bacon which was totally awesome (Avery could’ve eaten about $50 worth!). We also did our walking billboard duty:) who knows, maybe we’ll parade around in them next week during the RNC as well. ANYWAY. the state fair involved: al franken, the dems, creative arts building, space needle, pizza, the twins, international bazaar, a parade, the education building, the gophers, my friend andrea at quitplan, the giant slide, chocolate bacon, fun house, 2 roller coasters, a basketball shot, the cattle barn, the swine barn, the birthing center (totally cool might i add) and the dairy barn for ice cream on the way home. I think that’s it, but i probably forgot something!

There’s just not much more to say about this look, except i find it charming in a way only a mother could! He’s *finally* lost a front tooth (yes, the tooth fairy did not reveal the first night! he had a good recovery though, deciding it was because he had woken up too much in the night and spooked her. phew). And, yesterday the football pads came out, practice starts tomorrow!

it took a lot of coercion, but, on the last day at the lake he finally tried skiing and got up! of course, tomy is mad that he has to wait until next year to try…

For now, tomy has to settle for Kowabunga jumping off the dock

Man, is it smokey! We started the day by driving up the valley to Sonoma lake, a beautiful spot! However, it was at this location that we realized port-a-potties are not such a good idea in these hills! tippy potties… no good.

Our random, not planned trip then took us to Napa and Calistoga’s famous mud baths. This is a very wierd thing! that’s right, we’re in our own hot mud tubs (as in over 100 degrees)… oh, and it is mineral mud. so it smells a bit funky too:)

One we were zenned out, we stopped by the petrified forest on our way to Bodega Bay (only one road was closed from fire). Here we sit now, with the sun setting!

Greetings from our fantastic vacation! Avery is enjoying Camp Koda in Fargo, Tomas is at Theatre Camp in Hopkins, and Toben and Heather are celebrating 15 years of marriage in Cali! yes, there are fires, but we haven’t seen any flames, just the smoke (which is making for fantastic sunsets).

On Tuesday, we rented bikes! yes, that’s right, the girl from the FLATTEST place on earth tried to bike in SF… but, it was fun. we started at Fishermans Wharf, peddled over to the golden gate bridge… all very lovely. THEN, we went up and over the Presido, through a bustling section of the city, and around a bit of golden gate park. The ride back to the wharf was not quite as brutal (and, at that point, we’d figured out it was good to walk the really steep parts… you know, work the gluts too). It was, actually, very fun.

On Wednesday we rented the superfun mini-convertible for our drive up north.

Our first wine-tasting stop was spectacular as it was at a winery/lavendar farm in full bloom. Smelled fantastic, and the wine was good too!

Today we are off to Bodega Bay…

Special note for my little guys: mommy misses you!

Megan and her boys came to visit for the weekend! we had a great time, including

• a baseball game (Declan made it on the Jumbotron! the Twins won, and we saw the best part of the game… the downside was post-game-middle-of-the-night puking, but hey, our carpets needed cleaning anyway!)
• birthday party (we went to “pump, it up!” a very efficient outsourced party… where nearly everyone has a meltdown, and yet a lot of fun.  its the Minnesota thing to do…)
• grandparents (yeah!  a huge part of moving back)
• plus pizza and a movie!

Thanks for making the trip Megan, it made Tomy’s birthday extra special!

Hello Friends and Family!

It is Tomy’s 5th Birthday!! Which, of course, has me very homesick for our old Boston friends:( However… I’ve decided to copycat Libby’s awesome blog to try and stay better connected with our friends and family.

Of course, unlike Libby, I have no idea what I’m doing, so bear with me… Here are the pics from Tomy’s big day.