Logan's 7th Birthday Celebration

Logan had a full day on his birthday celebration. One of the blessings of having a December 23 birthday is that there is never school on your birthday.

We started the day off at 8:30am at the Mall of America. After checking out the new Lego land and playing on their computers, we spent several hours going on rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Little secret - kids get a free all-day wrist band on their birthday if they register in advance online. Our two clowns spent hours going on the flume, jumping in the pineapple, driving the bumper cars, shooting ghosts on the magic ghost ride, etc.

After Nickelodeon, we had a family lunch at the Rainforest cafe' eating dinosaur nuggets and Logan's favorite food - RIBS!

After lunch Logan really wanted to go to "build-a-bear." Age 7 is a little odd - one minute they are on the cusp of a tween and the next minute they want to build a stuffed animal. Logan made his "fuzzy doggy" and dressed him as Joe Mauer. The store does a great job making the bears with the kids - they even get to give the bear a bath and go online to print a birth certificate.

In the evening Grandma closer, Jason, Matt and the Easton's came over for pizza and cake. After that we all went to Hosanna! for an early Christmas Eve service with the camels (Joe and Cody), sheep, chickens, lama and Dominic the donkey. Needless to say....we were exhausted after that and Logan crashed until 9AM the next morning.

48 Hours till your "7"

Logan -

Almost 7 years ago your mother woke me up in the middle of the night and said the bags were packed and it was time to go to the hospital. Being the "patient Dad" that I am I encouraged her to relax a little and after I showered we would be on our way. After driving 30 minutes "into the dark city of Minneapolis" at 1AM I gently pulled the car around to the identified entrance during our new mommy/daddy orientation - of course the door was locked and all the lights were dark. I tried to move the car into the parking garage and encourage your mom to walk a little - that was not such a good suggestion. Finally we found an open door and made our way upstairs to the maternity ward - 6 hours later you decided to join the world....screaming! And more screaming....and more screaming. I don't think you stopped screaming upon waking up from any nap/nighttime until after you had your anoids/tonsils removed at 3 years of age....just ask daycare.

Now 7 years have passed and you are a little man. So grown up going to school and learning to read. We have watched you go from crawling across the living room floor to scoring "3" goals in a single soccer game. We have been blessed watching you transition from eating off a tray on the garbage can - still have the pictures - to eating your favorite food...RIBSs. Your sensitive disposition has created numerous friendships in the neighborhood and school.

We look forward to the next 7 years and where they will take us: how many more stamps will you get in your passport?....what sports will you continue to play?.....when will you walk off the bus and tell us about your first girlfriend?....when will you go down your first waterslide - please soon!....etc.

Happy 7th Birthday Little Man!

Blizzard 2010

In Minnesota we pride ourselves on snow - but sometimes even we are amazed! Everything is closed...they even pulled the snowplows and state patrol off the roads. We probably have about 12+ inches and it is still snowing hard...but it is the wind that is crazy. The boys and I just came in and some of the drifts are 4+ feet. You can barely see across the street. Check out the picture below of our backdoor in the garage. The drift is about 3/4 up the door. You can also see our family room windows are getting covered in snow drifts. After the storm the temps are suppose to drop to -20 degrees.

Tonight we are joining the neighbors on snowmobiles to go caroling - only in MN!

Happy 7th Birthday Logan

Yes we are about 2 weeks early, but due to the holidays Logan had his 7th birthday last night at "Triple Play Sports." Eleven of his best buddies (including 1 brave little girl) - plus little brother Carter - spent 3 hours running around like kids on a sugar high. They played kickball in the gym, jumped on inflatables, played unlimited laser tag, smashed some balls in the batting cage, aced the mini golf course, and battled against the arcade games for tickets. Logan was in heaven!

Man vs Deer

Life always has a way of keeping perspective. Tonight Shawn and Carter were in another car accident. This time a deer tried to play chicken with the Pilot. We all had dinner at Culvers and then Sara and Logan went to the ski hill while Shawn and Carter went home. Going down Cty Rd 50 at about 40 miles per hour a deer came out of no where and hit us. Good thing is Shawn never saw it until they hit - hence they didn't swerve into oncoming traffic. Bad thing is there is a lot of damage: we will need to replace the front bumper, hood, right passenger door, paint on the back passenger door, get a wheel realignment and replacement the front right wheel well. I guess that is why you have insurance. At first it wasn't drivable, but after pulling some of the wheel well casing off it appears ok to drive short distances - not sure we will go on the highway.

Good thing it was the Pilot, I think if it was the BMW the deer would have flipped right up onto the wind shield and who knows what would happen from there.

Lakeville = 11.7" of Snow

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=886527

Snow totals as of 12 p.m. Saturday:

Lakeville: 11.7"

Hutchinson: 11.6"

Zumbrota: 11"

Carver: 10.5"

Chaska: 10.5"

Burnsville: 10.5"

Northfield: 10.2"

Brownton: 10"

Prior Lake: 9.9"

Farmington: 9.5"

Chanhassen: 8.1"

Minneapolis: 8.0"

Our Ski Deamons

The snow has been flying in MN. Carter went skiing for the first time last weekend and did great. Today all (4) of us strapped on our equipment and enjoyed the 10" of new snow - unfortunately fresh snow is more difficult to ski in and Carter had a hard time. Logan is doing great - today he made it through all the gates on the black diamond race hill twice. I thought the kids would be exhausted after skiing, but 30 minutes after being home they announced, "lets go to the health club." Tonight Sara and I have a date night to get some Christmas shopping done while our Friends watch the boys - something tells me they will crash tonight!

Happy Thanks - Christmas!

We just returned from our Mattson Thanksgiving-Christmas in Duluth. All had a good time. The boys enjoyed playing with their cousins (going on hikes in the enchanted woods, visiting the Aquarium, playing "hide-and-go-seek," and making Christmas cookies). Friday night we all went to visit Bentleyville in downtown Duluth - AMAZING light display complete with Santa, free hot chocolate, and cookies).

http://www.bentleyvilleusa.org/

Bentleyville attracts over 200,000 people each year for a light display encompassing over 3 million lights! The event is free and run through volunteers - highly encourage a visit to Duluth to check it out. This year they added a 12-story Christmas tree with over 50,000 lights that is synchronized with various Christmas songs.

Today we are headed out for our first ski day of the year - Carter is primed to test out his new skis. Hopefully the next post will be filled with fun pics from the hill and not from the ER.

Dry as the Sahara

Logan is on day 11! I wish we would have become friends with "Maylem" 15 months ago - it is amazing to watch his transition and he is so PROUD of himself. We are celebrating tonight with a party at "Triple Play Sports" with one of his buddies.

Welcome to winter!

MN went from the high 60s early in the week to 8 inches of snow Saturday morning! Some parts of the city got over a foot. The boys woke up at 6am SUPER excited - we forced them inside until 7am and then they were out playing (per the dark pictures). Grandma closer had a sleep over Saturday night for the kids and Logan spent most of the afternoon shoveling her driveway.

Had to share the torture poor Carter has been going through via his Mom! The really scary thing is that he wanted his "ponnies" kept in his hair all night.

A week of firsts in the Mayfield House

Outside of the first winter colds being passed around our house, we have had a couple BIG things to celebrate this week:

1. Logan has learned to tie his shoes! We have been practicing a lot and it finally clicked! The only person happier than us will be Logan's friend Zach who has become the designated first grade shoe tier in Logan's class. Logan still wears his velcro shoes to school, but maybe next week we will send him with his "big boy shoes."

2. Miracles are happening in our house! Long story made short. We have been struggling getting Logan to be dry through the night for the past several months. We have exhausted everything: limiting fluids past 5pm, waking him up at 1AM to go...nothing worked. He was still wet every morning. The boy sleeps so hard you can vacuum upstairs and he will not wake up. Finally, after calling the doctor and not knowing what else to try, we ordered the "Maylam Bedwetting Alarm." We read many online reviews and learned it had about a 70% success rate - but it takes 6-12 weeks of "training." We figured we should at least try - what else do we have $175 to spend on. Logan was very apprehensive when he found out we ordered it, but as we waited for it in the mail he got more and more excited for his "friend" to arrive. In short, the first 7 days the alarm went off at 3am every morning....and I need to mention this alarm is as loud as a fire alarm. Even Logan shoots straight up and out of bed. Well...the past 4 nights he has been dry! AMAZING! He knows if he makes it 5 nights he gets a special day at "triple play sports" - his favorite place in the world. We will keep you posted.

Halloween "Take Deuce"

Logan was very upset that I forgot to upload his picture with Sam. I thought there would only be "1" Joe Mauer at Lake Marion Elementary - guess not. Have to love Sam's side burns....Joe would be proud.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend. Friday and Saturday night Logan had birthday parties for some good buddies from school (Brunswick Bowl/Laser Tag and Triple Play Sports). Saturday was Sara's sisters 40th birthday party. And Sunday was the annual neighborhood Halloween party at Evan and Sabrina's - needless to say we were all exhausted by Monday AM.

Carving "jack-o-laterns"

The boys costumes - somehow we only got one picture of Carter!

Logan's 1st Grade Class "Fall Festival" Party:

Happy Halloween - Carter Boy

We are a week early, but once you get the custome there is no taking it off! Carter has been wearing his Halloween costume to Target, Logan's soccer game, during neighborhood playtime, etc. Hopefully the excitement will not wear off before Halloween! Logan will be "Joe Mauer." If you ever doubted his obsession with the MN Twins....here is just another example (picture to come).

Think pink....

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In a house full of men, pink can be hard to come by....but Sara and the boys found the limited amount of pink in our closets and took advantage of showing their support for all Breast Cancer survivors during Caribou Coffee's recent event.

October Updates from the "Mayfield 4"

Since returning from Florida we have been slow to post blog updates. It always takes a good week to get back into the routine. Some exciting updates:

1. Carter - had his preschool screening last Tuesday and did great! He scored very well and completed all the "games" except tying a knot and rhymes. Logan is still learning to tie a knot :-) We were happy to hear that his hearing and eyes both tested normal. No concerns about speech. At times he is difficult to understand, but they said he articulates all the sounds so there is "no action required."

2. Logan - had his 1st grade parent/teacher conference last week. She said Logan is such a "joy." He is a very happy little boy with a good disposition - he is very social. Imagine that! We have been teaching our boys about "stranger danger" lately due to their predisposition to talk to everyone. Is doing very well in Math...reading is normal....need to practice more! Logan had his last soccer game on Saturday and we all survived fall sports madness. This is the first week of no activities (no football, no soccer, no HALO, no conferences, no nothing) since school began - of course Shawn is out of town for work Sunday-Friday (CA and PHL).

Outside of that - we are enjoying the AMAZING fall weather playing lots of baseball, running, having a few last minute bonfires in our fire pit, and playing in the leaves. Have a safe week!

Our Future Olympian

Before vacation, the boys and Shawn went to support the local Buck Hill Ski Swap - all proceeds benefit the ski team.

Carter got set for his first full year of skiing - complete with skis, boots, helmet and goggles. Once again we decided to get a season pass so the boys can ski anytime they want. Logan started skiing when he was "4;" as a second child I think Carter picks up on everything a little sooner. We figure if he starts when he is "3" he will be hitting the black diamonds by "5" and winning Olympic Gold by "14." Hopefully skiing will be a family activity we can enjoy for many years to come.

The goggles are adorable! I couldn't believe they made them this small.

More Disney Pictures (Post 2)