Pre-Halloween...Star Wars Adventure

Now that the family is healthy and soccer season is over, our entire Saturday was free for adventure. One of our friends shared that the Ridgedale Library was hosting a Star Wars adventure day so Shawn and Logan made the 40 minute journey with his buddy Ewen. The kids were not disappointed as there were several Star Wars figures including: Darth Vader, a couple Storm Troopers, the Emperor, some Sand Type guy, and several other figures that adult Star Wars junkies would recognize. The kids participated in several Jedi exercises and won losts of prizes. Logan continued his lucky sweep and won the first raffle prize - he choose a Melanium Falcon kite. Here are some pics.

The little Jedi's on their way to a galaxy far, far, away.

While we were at the Star Wars adventure, Sara took Carter to his FAVORITE location - the Zoo. It was "zoo boo" day so Carter filled up on more candy - then they had to get even more candy at Cub during their zoo day. Think we should enroll in supplemental dental care for all those cavities in a couple of years.

Morning donuts.....Carter likes to wear his!

In case you haven't figured it out, Logan is a Jedi (Anikan) and Carter is Bob the Builder for Halloween this year.

On the mend.

Quick update. Logan went back to school yesterday and appears to be normal. We kept him home on Monday even though his fever was gone Sunday night. I guess 5 out of the 22 kids in his class were out sick Monday and 6 of the 22 (27%) were out yesterday. The BUG is definitely alive and well in the Lakeville schools. Knock on wood - Carter is healthy as a clam.

The dreaded mid-day phone call....

Well - we knew the call would come sooner or later. On Friday around 11:30am we received the call from daycare to come pick up Logan as he had just "lost his cookies" (pc way of saying vomited) all over the floor. There was no Kindergarten on Thursday or Friday due to MEA so we invested $29 in daycare for the day Friday....Logan had been talking for weeks about seeing his day-care friends again; and I guess he got to spend 3 hours with them.

He woke up with a little cough but we thought nothing of it. Daycare said his nose started to run about 9:30am and by 11am he was crying, saying his head hurt and was running a fever. Luckily Shawn works from home on Fridays so he was able to get him before round 2 came - all over the couch and family room floor. Did I mention his bucket was at his feet. At least he made it to the bathroom for rounds 3-7; and some additional rounds (we lost count) later that night with Sara.

By Saturday morning he was doing much better, and by Sunday he was wrestling with Carter and eating anything. However he is still running a 101 fever so no school tomorrow. With all the illness' going around I understand why they need to stay home with any fever, but at the same time you just shake your head when they are wrestling, eating pizza, playing soccer and dancing around the house. Logan had a flu shoot several weeks ago for the regular flu so more than likely this is some of the other junk going around - hopefully this will be his case and the rest of the winter will be smooth sailing.

Knock on wood - Carter and the rest of the family are all healthy!

Pictures from our adventure....

Vienna, Austria:

Salzburg, Austria:

Zurich, Switzerland:

We're Home - Welcome to "4 Letter" Words

Sara and I arrived back from Europe yesterday afternoon - it is great to be home! We had an amazing time in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (Salzburg and Vienna). Not sure how to capture 8 kid-free days in a quick blog update - I will share some highlights here and then add another post with pics only.

"4 Letter Words"
1. SNOW! In Vienna we enjoyed records temps near 90 - landing in MSP we were warmly welcomed home with snow! I guess Logan's soccer team enjoyed their Sat game during the snow - we have his final game tonight and there is still a couple inches on the ground.

2. "SUCK!" Logan ran to Dad from the bus yesterday. When Shawn asked why he wore his snow pants home he responded..."the teacher told me to, it sucks!" Let's just say if it wasn't our first time seeing him since we returned, his little tush would have gone straight to the time out chair. Per "grandma closer" he must have picked it up on the bus as they were chanting "Vikings are awesome, Packers suck." Great - the bus education begins!

3. "Zone" - or time zones. Sara and I are getting older as it was more difficult adjusting to the 7 hour time zone difference than we thought. We slept about 11 hours per night in Europe - this morning we woke up at 3:30am ready to go.

Synopsis of our trip:
Flights - very smooth. Shawn's elite status got us exit row seats both ways

Switzerland (Zurich). Enjoyed a beautiful hotel looking out over the city. Did a ferry tour of the lake. Walked around looking at a ton of churches. Enjoyed Zurich style wiener schnitzel and beer.

Train from Zurich to Salzburg. Probably the best part of the trip. Amazing 6 hours traveling through the Alps. Pictures can's capture the majesty of the mountains and glacier lakes!

Salzburg. Toured Aldstadt, Schloss Mirabell, drank more beer and ate more Wiener Schnitzel, toured Festung Hohen Salzburg and a bunch of churches. Took a day trip to Germany and visited the Salt Mines and Hitler's Eagle Nest.

Train from Salzburg to Vienna.

Vienna. Shawn enjoyed touring his old college stomping grounds. Visited tons of things: KartnerStrasse, St. Stephans Dom, numerous churches, FlohMarkt, NaschMarkt, Schloss Schunbrunn, Schloss Belveder, enjoyed drinking Sturm and Beer. We went to mass at St Stephans Dom on Sunday. The service included a local orchestra and the sound was beautiful in the huge cathedral. We also enjoyed an organ concert at St Karl's Church.

In short everything went great and we enjoyed the time together. Thank you soooo MUCH to grandma closer and grandma far-far for partnering in their kid duties. They told us they had a blast with both of you - and according to your diary they didn't even miss us. Guess we will not have to wait another 6 years before our next solo journey.

Back in the swing of things....

We have slowly found our routine again with the start of a new school year. Although the routine is a little crazy with various activities/commitments and business travel, everyone is doing well. Quick synopsis of events in the Mayfield casa since our last post.

Logan: Is still really enjoying Kindergarten. We have been blessed with no separation anxiety and minimal evening meltdowns resulting from being over-tired. He is meeting some new friends and loving the bus, recess and lunch. Last Friday Shawn volunteered for a couple of hours in the am, and Logan wanted to ride the bus instead of drive to school with dad. Oh well. Volunteering was a great experience. It was fun to watch Logan interact with the other kids and see how his teacher directs the class. I was amazed at her organization! From 9:30-11:30am they went from one project to the next. During reading/spelling, they were following nursery rhymes on the projector doing a letter/word recognition exercise. If the kids went ahead of the group she would walk over and tear up their paper and tell them their is no cheating in class. YIKES! Logan is memorizing his nursery rhymes for their program next Friday. Logan's soccer team also won their first game this weekend (5-4). In the words of a 5-year old..."we are no longer losers!"

Carter: Still loves to watch the "wiggles" and go to the zoo. This weekend we let Carter pick our Sunday activity and he said, "go see animals." Carter has adjusted to daycare well without his brother. He loves reading books and playing matchbox cars in the basement. He likes to line them all up in a line. Carter and Logan are starting to be "older brothers" pushing each others nerves and wrestling. In short, Carter won't let his big brother push him around. Yesterday Carter was laying on the coach and Logan tried to sit next to him - Carter pushed him right off the coach.

Shawn and Sara: Still remaining sane between work and raising 2 busy boys. Shawn is coaching soccer on Mondays/Saturdays and we are splitting Logan's HALO (Sunday School) small group on Wednesdays. Shawn is also taking an HR certification prep course on Thursdays; not to mention traveling most weeks. Yes, exhausting! But we are excited for vacation - Switzerland and Austria here we come. The boys are counting the days to grandma(s) time. They are pushing us out the door :-)

Hopefully everyone will remain healthy. For those out-of-towners who read our blog. One of the elementary schools in Lakeville had 30% (over 170 students) of their students out with the flu last week. It is not Logan's school, but close to daycare. Logan's school has some strict rules to avoid germs spreading (i.e. no drinking fountains).

Have a great week!

1st Week of Kindergarten

Logan is doing really well. Meeting new friends and having more fun each day. Yesterday, Logan and Madison (former neighbor) received the Awesome Possum award for being the best sleepers during nap time.

Here are some pics from the first week.

Logan and Madison:

Logan and Iliad on the 1st day at the bus stop.


Neighborhood kids waiting for the bus on the 1st day.

Logan's locker.