A visit to Minnesota

We traveled to Minnesota last Friday.  It was a wonderful trip where we were able to see several family members and even a good girlfriend!  

 Lola turned ONE!  Another birthday I cannot believe is upon us.  It's crazy how fast the years are flying.

She is getting so big and is such a sweetie.  She had fun crawling around, eating her cupcake and watching the big kids play in the yard.  I love her eyes in this picture... they are so beautiful.

 Congrats Nikki and Steve!  We really appreciate being included in your celebration.  It was really fun.

We stayed with Sam and Emily.  We had a wonderful time visiting, relaxing, playing and eating!!  The girls here are playing with their babies.  Olivia LOVES to play babies and was in heaven with Lola and Lincoln to "take care of" while we were there.

I had the chance to give Lincoln a bottle!!  It was such a treat.  He is a GREAT baby and it's so fun to see Sam and Em as parents.  They, like Nikki and Steve, are so natural with their little ones.  I may not be remembering correctly but I don't remember myself being so calm and natural with Braden when I had him.  

 Braden's highlight was catching frogs in the pond out front!  They had a blast playing around the water. We also went swimming at a beach near their house.  Braden tried to catch sunfish that were swimming around our legs and Olivia enjoyed having her daddy swing her around in the water.  Even Lincoln made an appearance in the water.

Here Olivia is in "care taker" mode and is teaching Lincoln about what each of his fingers is called.  It was adorable.

He is so cute and is smiling a ton.  I think we even caught a few giggles.  I love that Braden, Olivia and Norah are going to have cousins to grow up with and I hope that we can see each other enough that they do feel that they are growing up together.

I don't have pictures (didn't even think about it) but we were able to watch fireworks right off their front deck.  It was PERFECT.  We were sad to miss the Tosa festivities but I can't think of another place I'd rather be if not at home.  

I also don't have ANY pictures of all of us adults together.  My mom was with us too and we talked about taking group shots a few times and then got distracted (imagine that!).  Oh well... next time!  We do plan on seeing each other a few more times this summer thankfully. :)

Last but not least I was able to sneak in an EARLY morning coffee date with Meg in Uptown.  We met at Dunn Brothers and spent a little time catching up as we LOVE to do.  I sure do wish we could see each other more.  

It was a GREAT trip and the drive went surprisingly fast. :)  This summer has been so fun thus far.

Olivia turns...

FOUR!!!  

I can hardly believe it.  

 She has been looking forward to it for quite some time now as being four means that you get to go to school at McKinley Elementary!

 Katie came and spent some special time with Olivia before the party began.  She then stayed to help with some stations we had set up!

Olivia had a princess party.  This is our neighbor Rory with her ... so adorable.

There were eight girls in all and they had a ball.  I was completely exhausted when it was all done despite having great helpers.  Our babysitter Marti came along with Steve, Katie and Rory's mom Katie.  

I cannot believe that my little girl is four.  She is doing such a GREAT job growing up. I am so proud of her and the person she is becoming.  I'd like to freeze her at this age and keep her four forever!!!  

Happy Birthday Sweet Olivia!

Safety Town Graduation

Olivia participated in Safety Town during the first two weeks of summer vacation this year. She loved it as Braden did when he was her age.  Nana came down for her graduation and got some good snuggle time in with Norah.

She loves most everything she does.  It's fun to watch her enjoy life. :)  Great job Olivia!!

Book Week and a Lost TOOTH!

Braden lost his first tooth yesterday... but if you look closely you will see that he actually lost 2 teeth!  The first one came out and then the second one just disappeared!  We don't know exactly when or where it came out but we were all very excited!  The tooth fairy came and visited last night and even left some fairy dust on the shelf. (Braden didn't want it under his pillow so he left his tooth on the shelf)

 We started book week last night.  I planned our schedule this summer so that I had some open weeks with the kids to balance out our crazy, busy weeks! I got into teacher mode and planned a fun-filled week full of books.

Last night started by giving a little overview of the week and reading a book about a librarian who was a dragon.  It was a beautiful night so after having smores with the neighbors we headed up to our porch and sat outside and read.  I knew Olivia would buy into the week but Braden was my wild card.  So far so good... he's been a great sport and into everything we've done. :)

 So far today... we read "Pancakes for Breakfast" and then made pancakes with chocolate chips in them. Read "One World One Day" while we were eating and talked about how kids all over the world live differently. Then we headed to the library to sign up for the summer program and check out books.  Before lunch we read a few books on Marsupials (and talked about their pouches/pockets), read "Pocket Poems" and "Bananas" and then made peanut-butter banana pita pockets for lunch.

This is my planning basket with books for the rest of the week!!!  It's really giving us some nice, focused family time and it's been great to watch Braden and Olivia devour books together.  

Bathroom REDO

 BEFORE...

AFTER...

The pictures don't do it justice. I love it and LOVE that it's finally done. :)

SUMMER FUN!

 We sat down at a recent family meeting and brainstormed our now annual summer fun ideas!  There are some similarities from last year but also quite a few new ideas.  Olivia, Braden and I all shared in the fun!  I'm so excited to start planning.

We have them taped around our kitchen to porch window this year and will take them off as they are completed.  

The list is...

1. Sprecher Rootbeer Tour

2. Catch Fireflies

3. Eat burgers at "Five Guys" 

4. Go to the Art Museum

5. American Science and Surplus

6. Spider Web Park

7. Custard at North Pointe on the Lake

8. Camp in the backyard

9. Smores!!

10. Swim at Bradford Beach

11. Hoyt Pool

12. Hike at Urban Ecology Center

13. Go to the Petting Farm

14. Castle Park

15. Eat a picnic lunch at Hoyt Park

16. Go see Dinosaurs at the I-Max

17. Ravinia

18. Adventure Rock

19. Tosa Tonight Concert

20. Bike along the Lake

21. Zoo

22. Lego Land

23. See Cars 2

Wow... that's a lot of fun to be had in the next three months!! I wonder how many we'll finish?

TOYS for SALE!

My friend Sarah wrote about a great idea here!  She often has great ideas that I borrow. :)  This one was to have an in-house garage or rummage sale.  This morning while Norah and I were at Children's for her ear tube surgery (which went well) Braden and Olivia went through their bath toys.  I thought we'd start small and then move on to the rest of the house if it went well.

 I got home and they couldn't wait for me to come shop.  Steve had helped them get organized.  They gathered toys, made piles of toys for 5, 10 and 25 cents and then made signs.  

 Braden even made a sign to direct traffic. :)

Photo compliments of Braden. These are my purchases!!!  They made $1.50 off me and Daddy dropped by and bought the rest for another $1.00.  Very exciting for them and awesome for me!  A cleaned out bath caddy.  Now I just have to decide which of the toys are going in the garbage, and which to Good Will.  

Thanks Sarah!!!  I can't wait to go through more toys. :)