Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday last Saturday March 30th!

It was a wonderful day...a little cooler than we were hoping for but we had a great time regardless. We started out at the Como Zoo with the whole family and walked around the conservatory and jungle area before heading out to see the animals.

I think the polar bear was the biggest hit of all! Linnea and I have been to the zoo plenty of times and never have we seen the bear playing so much! The kids all had a front row view of the bear splashing away, playing with a huge plastic pickle and white garbage pail. The kids all flinched everytime he did anything causing a splash.

When all the animals had been seen and we worked up an appetite we headed back to my parents house where we had hot turkey sandwiches, chips, salad, beans and fruit. When lunch was finished the kids played a bit before grandma opened her presents. She got a special grandma charm necklace from all her grandkids and many other special nice gifts! Lisa and Dylan made some cake pops and I made a poppyseed cake for dessert.

We of course brought the kids to the park for a little while and then we thought it would be fun to try to my moms new game Quiddler while the two remaining kiddoes watched Toy Story with their supper. It actually sort of worked!

Hopefully mom enjoyed her special day! We sure did!

A belated post...

A few weekends ago we met Grandma Sarah, Aunt Allison and cousin Naomi for lunch in Hastings. We hadn't celebrated their birthdays so it was a good way to see them and give them their presents. Linnea worked hard on some cheerio birdfeeders for grandma Sarah. It was fun to eat at the deli we chose since it happened to be the same one we got sandwiches from on our wedding day! Well, us ladies did anyways since we got our hair done in Hastings.

It was a lovely lunch, but ended on a rough note as Allison slammed her thumb in the car door when we were done and had to head to the ER. No stitches were needed, but we all had quite the scare, except maybe Linnea. She didn't seem to know exactly what was going on.

Carver Easter Egg Hunt and Bunny Sandwiches

We started our Easter celebration 2 Friday nights ago (sorry so behind on this blog) by going to Carver Lake in Woodbury for a free outdoor Easter Egg hunt! My parents joined us for the fun. Linnea loved hunting for her red and green eggs (1-3 year olds were allowed to find 10 red and green eggs). She also loved seeing the Easter Bunny and giving him hugs and high fives!

Sunday we had some bunny sandwiches in preparation for the special day coming up this weekend.

Como Lake Treasure Hunt

I took Linnea on a long morning walk a few Sunday's ago. It was pretty chilly so we bundled her up in layers (bottom being her jammies) packed a breakfast on the go, stuck her the wagon and off we went. I was hoping she would stay in her wagon eating for at least a half hour so I could get somewhat of a workout out of this walk. And it worked! We made it halfway around Como Lake before she wanted to walk.

I think it also helped that I made her a list of things to find along the way...ducks, trees, the sky, cars, dogs and then when she wanted to walk she collected rocks, sticks, pinecones, etc. It was a lot of fun and we ended the walk with some well deserved playtime at the Choo Choo park before heading home for lunch.

Harriet Alexander Nature Center

Linnea, myself and my dad headed to the Harriet Alexander Nature Center after her dance recital to get together with the good old New Parent Connection group.

There was a maple syrup tapping event which lead to many yummy maple syrup snacks! We didnt get to see much of the "tapping" since the weather has been so poor for it this year.

There were some activities in the center for the kiddoes which we did for a little while, then we had a picnic lunch and then went on a walk on the boardwalk!

Linnea hung out in her tutu the whole time and fell in love with climbing on rocks!

Dance Recital!

After 8 sessions (well, I guess just 6 since we missed 2) Linnea's dance came to an end with a very cute dance "recital".

My dad was able to come and watch with me and we got some cute pics and videos. Sadly, my mom was sick so she missed it and daddy's baseball draft was scheduled for the exact same time so he only got to enjoy his daughter by way of video.

She seemed to really like dance though so I am sure there will be more recitals!

Enjoy our little dancing queen:

Bubbles and Forts and Fishes!

We have a new member in our family at our house. Her/his name is Colleen. She (he) lives in a bowl with water and some pretty rocks. She (He) needs to be fed ONLY once or twice a day and ONLY 4-6 pellets each time. Colleen is Linnea's Beta fish! Colleen is a boy fish but we almost always say she because that is what Linnea uses most often and Colleen is a girl name. Anyways...Linnea earned Colleen because she finally only uses the big girl toilet. We had been letting her continue to use the potty chair because it was easiest for her. Well we got tired of cleaning it so we bought some fun potty "rings" to put on each of our toilets and Linnea now only uses those. She picked out a Dora one and an Elmo one. She claims the Elmo one hurts her knees (legs, Linnea calls her whole leg her knee) so she generally just sits on the toilet seat and assures us she wont fall in. She is so short and tiny though so it is difficult for her to do her business without the "rings". We are proud of her for moving on from the potty chair!

She loves her first pet Colleen!

We have a bigger bowl for her now so I will have to get a picture of that up soon.

I am not sure when these were taken but I think they are cute and we were having fun so I am sharing them!

YAY bubbles!!!

Floor picnics in a fort on rainy days are the best!