Winnie the Pooh and Riverview Cafe

Linnea finally got to experience my favorite theater in the whole world...The Riverview!

Winnie the Pooh has been there for the last couple weeks mid morning on Saturday and Sunday so it's the perfect time for us. We had time to get up and play a little and it was pretty cold a few weeks ago so we headed to the theater. With Winnie this time ;)

Just Linnea and I had a little date. Daddy was still feeling pretty lousy with sinus pain so he stayed home.

There is a cute little coffee shop across the street with a kids play area so we spent about an hour there afterward seeing Pooh for the second time on the big screen.

We loved it as much as the first time and I learned I love Nutella Hot Chocolate from the Riverview Cafe. The only thing missing was daddy.

Girls Day at the Minnesota Zoo!

My mom, Linnea and I had a girls day at the Minnesota Zoo!

I lucked out and was able to check out another free pass from the library thinking we would either use it the Sunday before Halloween to check out HallZooween or this weekend just for fun. Well we did ZooBoo at Como so the pass got used for the Zoo. Chris had a terrible sinus infection and bronchitis so he stayed home and we steered clear of him so as to not get resick! My mom was able to come though while my dad continued to help Brian work on their garage.

Linnea thought the penguins were quite cute and posed with the statues. She also waited her turn to sit on this tortoise!

There was a tunnel to crawl through and see the monkeys! I had no idea this was here! YAY for grandma finding it!

Some of the scarecrows from the scarecrow alley event were still up by the farm too so that was interesting to see! I don't know why, but L loves scarecrows! One of the many creative scarecrows is pictured below...there was also a bear ballerina, a flamingo, A Vikings something, a pig, a peacock and many more!

She will always love goats.

And who wouldn't want to sit in this cool egg!

and pose with the chickens!

We ended our trip with a picnic lunch inside. Linnea fell asleep in the car on the way home, which as many of you who read this may remember is extremely unusual! I guess we wore her out! Her nap did not carry on into the house though. But we had some quiet time and sleeping 40 minutes is better than none!

It had been years since mom had been there so she enjoyed herself and Linnea and I just always love the zoo. Most of the animals we went by were out and about too, even in all the wind! Can't wait for our next visit to the Zoo when we have breakfast with Santa!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!!! We started our Halloween at Linnea's daycare after work. Last year squirt had only been there a week for the party and was one of the youngest. This year she has been there a year and is the oldest! Hard to believe! All the kids had their cute costumes and it was nice to see them interact together (well sort of, most hung out with their parents since they had been with each other all day. Linnea quite frankly was ready to go and was very confused why both her parents were there and werent leaving!) But it was a fun party with lots of yummy snacks and they even did a pinata this year!

Once that was broke and everyone got their candy/snacks it was time to go home and bundle up for trick or treating.

Two pretty princesses!

We put a pair of leggings over Tink's tights and a long sleeve shirt under her dress and she was good to go! We walked up the street to our friends and started out with them but then separated and found more friends!

There are kids coming out of the woodwork in our neighborhood and its fun to finally get to know them! We hadn't trick or treated in our neighborhood yet because L hasn't really been old enough and we always ended up in Woodbury visiting GG and the cousins but with it being on a Monday it worked better to stick around our own house. We had seen everyone on Saturday so it all worked out great.

Linnea lasted just over an hour and walked most of the time again and came home with a bucketful of goods! There are so many ways of dealing with eating all the treats and

we have decided to go with all three of us are sharing it and having 1-2 pieces a day! yum!

Cuddling in Halloween jammies with daddy while winding down before bed after a super fun day!

ZooBoo!

We went back and forth as to whether or not to take Linnea to ZooBoo at Como this year. Would she get it, would she get scared, is it worth the money? She was still battling an ear infection, cough and runny nose...

But boy are we glad we went! We made a last minute decision to go and had a blast! Linnea loved looking at all the cute signs the zoo puts up and people in costume seem to usually make her day so she was in heaven.

There were lots of people dressed as Disney characters, she didn't know who they all were but she did see TinkerBell and since she was dressed up as her too that was pretty neat. She could not figure out these parrots. She walked up to every one and stared at it and touched it and stared some more as if she was waiting for it to move. Who knows if she ever realized they were not real. We told her they were pretend birds but the confusion remained ;)

She had some "tea" with Belle!

And posed at Linus from the Great Pumpkin. She actually posed with just about every wooden plaque with a character on it so we definitely got our moneys worth with the amount of time it took to get through :)

She walked most of the way which was nice and she got very good at saying trick or treat and thank you. I loved that they gave out healthy treats mixed in with the candy too :) We ended the night with Burger King since I had been busy baking all day for treats for her daycare Halloween party, it was late and no one felt like cooking.

Carving Pumpkins!

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween in the morning we thought we would continue on into the evening after nap and carve our pumpkins! I decided to make a cat on mine this year, Linnea picked a face out of the book "Five Little Pumpkins", and Chris found a flame face online to do.

We were amazed that Linnea sat through the whole ordeal! She didn't care for cleaning the pumpkins out but she peeked in them, colored on them, ate an apple and just seemed very content watching her mommy and daddy hard at work. After we were done we made some trick or cheesy mac n cheese and hot dogs, watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and called it a day. It was a spooktacular day!

Fall Festival at Valley Creek Mall

We did our first round of trick or treating at Valley Creek Mall in Woodbury. The mall puts on a great fall festival for families! Each store was handing out candy or a cute Halloween toy, there were some crafts, face painting (or hand painting which is what L preferred) a scarecrow, and a balloon artist. It was so much fun and a great way to have the cousins (well most of them) see each other in their costumes. We also were able to zip over to GG's and visit her so she could see her great grandchildren in costume. She also had some treats for the kids. We dropped GG off in the dining room so she could have lunch and we headed over to my parents house for a Jack-O-Lantern Pizza!

Yummy!

Here is our Tinkerbell all ready to go!

Most kids were afraid of him but she walked right up with her arms out to give a hug and then plopped on his lap for some pictures.

she chose a ghost for her hand!

Baby bunny Kaylan!

art!

Spiderman Ian, Skeleton Pirate Dylan and Tink.

Tink loves riding on her GG!

Pool, Catalina State Park, MoneyBall

Chris and I had breakfast with the Clemens Monday morning before they left for Phoenix to catch their flight and then said our goodbyes and had a Chris and Amy day. One that did not involve Urgent Care :) Instead it involved the pool and then one more hike. We went to Catalina State Park and ended up finishing 2 hours later once again. We really planned to just go for about an hour and then go to a movie and dinner and get back to the hotel early. Well it was just too beautiful and we were having too much fun to just be there only an hour. We ended up hunting for 2 letterboxes finding one and seeing a few lizards along the way as well. There were some horseback riders who we ran into who informed us there was a mojave rattlesnake around the corner...thanks. We (well, I) was then nervous for the next 30 minutes of the hike. We thankfully never did see one :) After the hike we went out to dinner at the Thunder Canyon Brewery where we tried some of Tucson's locally brewed beer. yummy! We then went to see Moneyball and loved it. We were completely exhausted and ready for bed and to head home in the morning. Thank you for the fun Arizona! We hope to return in the next couple years! Pictures to come...