Winter Wonderland/Christmas 2009

Anders and Katie checking out the new dollhouse

Anders and his night vision goggles


Reading "The Night Before Christmas" together

The winter wonderland in Mountain Lake, MN

Trenton and Katie dancing to some Neil Diamond

Katie attempting to make a snow angel...pretty heavy snow!

Making "Frosty" with genuine Christmas snow

Imitating Rudolph

In anticipation of opening gifts...

The fastest slide ever...very fun!

A swing with very little clearance

Isaiah and Katie checking out the icehouses on Prior Lake

A very cool gingerbread house!

We had a wonderful Christmas and it was very white indeed! Many happy memories were made and I wish all the very best in the New Year!

Wise man and angel

Anders in front with Corey and Jaxon backing him up as wisemen #2 & #3

Megan Odegard our neighbor friend with Katie pre-concert in the preparation room.

Ezekiel Lutheran Church had their annual Christmas program yesterday and thanks to our wonderful neighbor, Teri, we have some photos of the event.


Anders was Wiseman #1--"That star is so amazing! It's so bright!" said with feeling of course

2nd line: "Yes, that's it!" said with even more feeling and a bit of an English accent


Katie was an angel--no lines that were specific to her, but did two action rhymes with other kids her age.


It was a fun program and it was great to have an audience of Dad, Grandpa Bud and many others. Merry Christmas to all and enjoy your time with friends and family!

Funeral play...

I have commented on Sheri the wonder caregiver before. I love being at work and getting a play by play of Katie's day.

Katie says: That was a good funeral
Sheri repeats: That was a good funeral?
K: yes, My puppy died
S Oh (feeling and looking a little perplexed by Katie’s smile and joy)
Hope: Yes her puppy died.
S: Walks around the corner and there is Ian Laying dead on the floor…Of course I cried


And they are continuing to play funeral and dead dog…haaaaaah….TGIF this is a very emotional job….

Later message from Sheri...

Okay now they are talking about how the puppy died

Katie: You got scraped by a tree


Ian: No I got runned over by a car


….this is so hard to ignore

Halloween fun

Katie with Mrs. Langer

Testing out costume pre-parade

Soldier Olson in his second grade classroom.

In Grandpa Chuck's cap Preparing for the great carving party

Katie Bear on the big night.

The Dorothy, Toto and Scarecrow pumpkin

Wicked witch Mom with her defender...WWII soldier Olson

Halloween 2009 has come and gone and many wonderful memories are in the bank. Anders had a vision of being a WWII Soldier and he was successful in his pursuit. Katie was a bear and pulled it off quite smashingly. I decided to give my true spirit--witch a whirl and was more than convincing.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for celebrating our fifth annual Halloween together...it is truly a gift/tradition we would love to keep going indefinately.

Apple Orchard afternoon

Katie, Julie, Libby and Karen met at a crazy little apple orchard last Sunday afternoon. Julie and Karen have established a long tradition of giggling copiously whenever together. It is almost inevitable.





The tradition has been passed to their daughter's Libby and Katie...

Preschool mania!

Katie is the newest school member of the Olson family.

Anders introduced Katie to school life at Jacob's Ladder and to his former teacher, Mrs. Langer. The top of Katie's classroom list includes: spending time with friend Quinn, painting, special days, crafts and learning about Jesus.


I'm just afraid that I'm going to blink and she will be walking across the stage to claim her college diploma...I'm trying to enjoy every minute.

Back 2 School

Anders is now a 2nd grader and started school on this Grandma B's birthday--September 1st. He is currently going to school, playing football, attending Sunday School, starting piano lessons and enjoying the fleeting days of summer.

The other night, I got home from a meeting at 7:30pm to meet Anders, his friend John and sister Katie running through sprinklers--skeetos in full force, sun setting and temps dropping quickly. The trio was not phased one bit, they were relishing the last few moments of outdoor freedom.

Antics

Message from Sheri:
"Lucky Ian, two girls (Katie and Hope). They worked so hard to lay out all these blankets.
Took them over 10 minutes to set up and played it for 3. "

This is a photo of Katie and Ian on the "spin board"

Message from Sheri: One of our fish bit Ian this weekend, and he cried and cried and wanted to
call Katie, cuz "only she 'wood' make him feel better." :) I almost tried Betty and Buds at 8:25 in the am. :)




Thanks to Sheri for taking such good care of our little lady and also keeping posted of her antics--big girl is going to be a preschooler on Thursday...time flies!

Transportation

This is how Katie rides to daycare most days...what a glorious way to travel!

Kate in the Day Update

Hours of dress up and playtime for Ms. Katie Cat. She loves to spend her day with Sheri, Ian, Maiya, Hope, Evelyn, Jack, Quinn and Maggie.

Very much into:

• choosing her own clothing
• chewing gum for pooping on the toilet
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (I think she knows all the lyrics)
• immediately asking to change her clothing when she gets home because she is "too sweaty"
• helping wash dishes
• planning her 4th birthday party
• wearing her MN Twins dress
• asking her Daddy if she looks pretty
• sneaking into Momma and Daddy's bed at 1:30am
• sleeping with Uniqua (character from Backyardigans)
• visiting people--often asks who is coming over to visit or who we are going to visit

Days are never boring with Katie. As a family friend, Foisia stated "Katie is Bold and Brave".

Golden

Last night was a highlight of a very special summer. Our friend, Sharyl called a group together to enjoy the fleeting hours of Glen Park Pool Family Fun Night.

Michelle-Abby and Joey

Sharyl-Alex

Jesse and Angie-Jack

Mike and Sara-Aeva and Peter

myself-Anders and Kate

Just as this photo was captured, the sky turned a the most beautiful golden color. Thanks my friends, for a perfect finish to an eventful summer.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Weekend at Bud and Betty's about a month ago...after a much needed rain came the most lovely and sustained rainbow I've seen. The origin of the rainbow seemed to be coming from the middle of Wood Lake. A sight to behold!

Fish

Anders Cole passed level 2--emerging from depths--touching bottom--front crawl (Phelps-like)

Anders and Kate eagerly awaiting the go-ahead from teachers to jump into the pool

Kate braving up to go under...

She's officially a fish!

Clorine in the eyes--ouch!

Braving up to try a few "scoops"

Anders and Kate just finished up another season of swimming lessons. Anders passed level 2 and Kate will be moving on to "Bubbles" next summer.
This is our last year of parent-child swimming lessons, which is kind of sad as the weather during week 2 was almost heaven like--but we feel Kate is ready to move on and swim on her own.

Anders is really strong on all of his strokes and had no problems jumping or sliding into the deep end. There is the problem with paying attention to the teacher while waiting, but he improved very much in that area as well.