Ryan is NINE!!!

A Scene by Nicolas

Here's a drawing Nicolas did last night during dinner at the crèperie:



It's a scene from the film Happy Feet. He did the drawing all by himself without any help or ideas from his parents.

Mosasaur

Varan, a big lizard

Last week we went to Zürich, in Switzerland, where we are going to move next year.
Nicolas and Léo saw the natural history museum, and the zoo.


Here is the zoo playground.




Here is a chameleon in the rainforest




Here is the march of the penguins in the zoo.




Here Nicolas is drawing mammoths in the math department of Emmanuel's new university.




And here is the view from Emmanuel's new office

Duluth swimming

The kids wanted to show pictures of our swimming to Nico andLeo. We had a great time in Duluth. I wasn't sure if you guys have already seen it on the applevalleymom blog.

Summer fun slide show

This is me and my neighbor McKenzie. I love babies. I get to babysit her sometimes. She is sooo cute.

One of my favorite things to do is ride my scooter around the block. I love going down the hills. I got the scooter for Christmas last year. Do you like riding your scooters?

Hard at work

This is when we were done with school on the first day of school. I ride the "light blue" bus. It is called that because it has a light blue paper in the window. Ryan got off first, then Nicole and then me.

The first day of school

This is Ryan and me on the first day of school. Ryan is in third grade, I am in second grade. My teacher's name is Mrs. Wanzek. Ryan's teacher is named Mrs. Moe.

Dinosaur drawings!

Here's a picture of the animals of the Cretaceous period:


pterodactyl, dimetrodon, terisinosaurus, giant squid, cymbospondylus, megalodon

Here's a picture of the animals of the Jurassic period:


pteranodon, diplodocus, stegosaurus, triceratops, leedsichthys, giant mosasaur, elasmosaurus, liopleurodon, archelon

(note from mom: I haven't double-checked to make sure he got the eras right on these, but I did double-check the spelling so I wouldn't embarrasss myself too much typing the captions...)

Animal Drawings

Here is a bat:

See how the bones of his wings are different from the bones in the wings of a pteranodon:

Here is a family of right whales:

Here is a cross-section of a dolphin, showing its skeleton. The dolphin has just eaten a fish:

Here's a Liopleurdon with its skeleton:

Here's a Mosasaur with its skeleton:

Here's a squid with its skeleton:

Let's go fly a kite!

Andrew is launching his kite.

Andrew is now flying his kite.

Emily is also flying a kite.

Ryan, Emily and Andrew came to Grandpa and Grandma's house and then we went to the park to fly kites. We had fun!

The Natural History Museum

We went to the Natural History Museum of Bordeaux!


We saw:

A model of a dolphin:


A skeleton of a dolphin:


A shark model along with some stuffed fish:


A snake skeleton:


Snakes in jars:


And other scary things like big spiders:


And tigers:


So many things to see!!!

We found a frog!!!

During our walk through the Jardin Public on Saturday, we found a frog!!!



(You can click on each image for an enlarged version.)



I was way more excited about this than the kids were.



The kids thought it was pretty cool too, though.



...or at least they humored me. ;^)

Nico thought it was cool that the frog has gold eyes.

Minnesota State Fair

I went to the Minnesota State Fair today and I saw many different kinds of animals. This picture shows a wagon team of very tiny horses. They are full-grown, yet they are no bigger than ordinary dogs. I think that they are cute.

Trip to Utah

I went hiking in the mountains in Utah with Laurie. In this picture you can see a waterfall behind me.













This is a picture of Laurie on the mountain hike.

First Annual Kids Camp

Last week Ryan, Emily, and Andrew went to the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa for three days and two nights. We called it "Kids Camp" because we had so much fun. Louie went with us too.
The back of the car was completely loaded up with suitcases and supplies.



Three kids on a boat! Luckily the water here is only ankle deep! We paddled to Sand Island and Fallen Tree Island.



We made funny "people" out of sticks and pine cones.







Andrew and Emily played on the swings.







The children made a secret fort under a tree by the cabin. They decorated the ground with cattail leaves.

We also had campfires, read stories, went on a treasure hunt, and made a time capsule.

We all hope that Nico and Leo can come to Kids Camp too next year.