Salmela Girls

Monday, November 08, 2010

Brown Bear Brown Bear

I found this video in my archive and had to post it. Sofia was a little over two and her language was just developing. I love how she shouts it out so loud.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Sunday, September 05, 2010

The Hermanson clan gathered in Delano for a family picture before departing on a private cruise of Lake Minnetonka for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was beautiful and probably the biggest surprise was how much fun all the kids had. My sister played the part of Julie from the Love Boat, being the cruise director and providing a personlized "How well do you know Don and Jan" crossword puzzle and a cute coloring page for the little ones to make for Grandma and Grandpa. She also wrote and read a very nice poem... which of course made some of us cry. Then later we headed back to Steve's house for a slide show I put together of old slides which also made some of us cry but really only tears of laughter.

Summer 2010

This has been one fantastic summer! Even though we had a lot of rainy days, we really had one of the warmest summers I can remember. These pictures are a very small sampling of the fun we had. Lussi went to the Hartley nature camp in June and then spent the next four weeks learning to swim at UMD. She went from barely putting her face in the water to trying to do the front crawl and able to backstroke. The girls spent two days a week at Jody's house which turned out to be a great schedule for them and I. Jody let Lussi tye-dye the t-shirts and socks in the picture and they did all kinds of crafts, water balloons and slip and slide. We went camping to Herbster in August and the girls loved it. Last year when we went camping we had to drive Sofia to sleep for fear that she might wake up the whole place but this year she even put herself to bed one night. They also had soooo much fun with cousin Silo. (There will be pictures when we get them form Souliyahn) Sofia also is officially out of diapers and doing everything on her own, except the wiping. It took longer than Lussi but Lussi always needed potty reminders and diapers at night, where Sofia is a one woman show and doesn't need diapers for naps or night time.
Well, it's hard to believe the summer is over, it went so fast! School starts Tuesday for Lussi and thus officially ending the summer fun.

Our very special Grandmas and Grandpas!

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Sofia's Birthday!!

Sofia's birthday was truly one of the most enjoyable three year old birthday parties I've been to. In the past, Sofia has been a bit shy with a lot of family around but this year she was sooo happy and excited for her party. You could tell she really felt like a princess and was enjoying her party as much as her party guests.

sofia's on her 3rd birthday06-Jul-2010

sofia's on her 3rd birthday
06-Jul-2010

Auntie Tia did a great job capturing me on my third birthday. I was completely playing the part of the birthday princess, magically in my element. Click on the purple lettering to see video.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Lussi's First Recital

Today Lussi mastered Row Row Row Your Boat on the piano and she got so excited that she invited all her neighborhood friends and Grandma and Grandpa Salmela over for a recital (that's what she called it!) She gave out tickets to the kids and cleaned up the sunroom and put out chairs for all to sit on. She also made these signs by herself and put them up for her concert guests. (Hi! I am Lussi. I have a concert for you. Yes! I have a concert for you. I love you.) It was the shortest recital on record... 22 seconds.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

Mega Mall... once every 6 years is enough :)

6 years old!!!

Another year has rolled around and this one has been filled with giant leaps physically and mentally. Last summer Lussi learned to ride her bike, in school she learned to read and write and now spell some common words as well as add and subtract, and recently she has become comfortable with going under water for 10 to 15seconds. Everyone told us that the years would pass faster and faster... well now we know first hand that it's true!

Kindergarten

It is so hard to believe the whole year of Kindergarten has almost passed! What a busy year it has been but so much fun. Lussi loves school and when I asked her about school and whether or not she liked it she said, “I love school as much as I love you Mommy and that’s a lot!” She loves her teacher and really likes most of her classmates. She has had a few boy friends this year... Aaron first and now Aidan. Her best friends have been Maria then Gretta and now Lydia. On the academic side, she knows how to read now! She is reading at a first grade level already and she really wants to keep getting better so i know what we will be doing all summer! She is fun to listen to too, I can't believe how fast she went from barely writing all the letters to reading books all by herself. At our conference with her teacher we learned that Lussi is not emotional in school and the teacher had never seen her cry, unlike some of the other "emotional" girls in class. We were shocked, she is still pretty emotional with us but getting less so since Mrs. Rolfe blew her cover. We also learned that Lussi is not to be messed with on the playground or in class. Mrs. Rolfe says she stands her ground and that she personally would not want to cross her. Mrs Rolfe called her a confident, smart little cookie. Of course, as parents we are proud but mostly relieved that she is happy, challenged and maturing into a little adult.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Tea pot song- Sofia style!

Untitled from Kara Salmela on Vimeo.

I love books!

Untitled from Kara Salmela on Vimeo.

I can read book after book and now that my parents have read most of them to me a million times, I can usually recite part of the book as I am doing here. One night, my Mama thought I had gone to sleep because it was quiet in my room. She asked my Dada to check on me. He came in my room and noticed I wasn't in my bed, then he saw the light on in my closet so he peeked in. I looked up at him and yelled,"I readin' books Dada!" (It was 9:30pm at this point and I had been readin' books since 8 o'clock)