A year late and a dollar short

Editors Note: Happy anniversary.  Not to MT and DT, but to this post.  It chronicled our adventures during the state fair and over Labor Day weekend . . . in 2010.  Yes, this post has existed in draft form for a year under the no-nonsense working title: "state fair and labor day." It has now been revised as part "Back-Blog" and part retrospective on how much things change and yet how much they stay the same.

Last Labor day, my sister and her family combined the trip out to Cousinorama with a quick weekend in Minnesota.  It was a blast, especially because we were all able to marvel at the Miracle Babies, who, by this time last year, as you can see for yourselves, had packed on all the necessary pounds to catch up to their actual age counterparts.  Of course, the MBs caught their first cold, but they will thank my family for that this year, when their immune systems are that much stronger for it.  (The more things stay the same: Labor Day 2011 brought a similar sinus treat as in 2010!)

Here are Michael and Wagner (or is it Wagner and Michael?) last year telling each other jokes:
 

And here is a video of them this year (I think they had more fun during Labor Day 2010):

Not to be left out, of course, Counsint Chiara and Maria provide proof that the MN State Fair 2010 was truly the highlight of the summer: 

Last year, we hit the barns, the Miracle of Life booth, the sky ride, the old food favorites (fried pickles!, Chocolate Covered Frozen Key Lime Pie on a stick, fresh roasted corn on the cob, Sweet Martha's), tried some new foods (chocolate covered bacon on a stick), the giant slide, the ferris wheel (Chiara declined, content to watch her cousin get raised up, ever so slowly like on the end of a huge minute hand, to vertigo-inducing heights), and discovered that there is only one thing better than marshmallows on a stick - Hello Kitty marshmallows on a stick.  (I know, gag me for adults, but these girls have different taste buds, tailor made for sickeningly sweet sugar loads.)

State Fair 2011 was much like State Fair 2010 - animal barns, Miracle of Life Booth, rides, fried pickles, CCFKLP, corn, cookies.  But there were a few new foods: Go Blue Moon Diner! and their sweet corn ice cream.  Alas, one thing that was different was we forgot not only our nice camera, but also MT's i-phone, in the car and have no pics to document the 2011 adventure. 

Last year, MT and I also took the kids to hang with some friends (after my sister took off for Cousinorama) at a lake in Western Minnesota.  Where Little David learned to jump!

(He was so very proud-as he should be--look at that clearance!)

This year, he's doing agility drills in my state of the art training facility. Yes, that IS state of the art, OK? (And you might want to keep an eye on Maria, too).

Here is David, reacting to Maria's jumping skills from last year's Labor Day trip.

(Of course, this pic is kind of embarassing since I have really packed on a lot of muscle since last year, so....)

As for Maria, jumping is nothing.  Compared to Fall 2010, Fall 2011 could scarcely be more different.  I try to imagine what it's like for her.  On weekdays, she would be in day care 9.5-10 hours a day, compared to the 3 or so hours of awake time at home, so that was a huge part of her life.  Same building, same teachers, same routine, all since she was 4 months old.  And then, her little world changed, almost overnight.  New teacher, hundreds more kids, a building several times as large as what she knew.  Really the only thing that didn't change about her weekdays was BFF Audrey.   

Which reminds me, now that they are both in Kindergarten, their parents allowed allowed them their first sleep-over, at our house last week.  They were great, execpt for the sleeping part.  We had to intervene (for good) at 10:30, and moved Maria onto the floor in our room.  After that everyone got a little sleep.  So, the girls have each other during the day, and they seem to have taken to their new surroundings without much trouble.  As you can see in the clip below, they are learning tons, including these songs, which provided David and us some welcome entertainment at dinner.  I think they learned these in their "resource" class.  That week was music, last week was gym, this week is science, I think.  The rotating resource schedule, which also includes art was one of the things we really liked about her school.  (Clearly another thing that has changed since last year: my flip camera!  Too bad the girls are so shy.)