Gardening, a picnic and attacking 4 yrs worth of girls clothes!

In between the snow, the rain and the sicknesses this spring we did plant a garden. My parents helped with flowers on Mother's Day which I think I posted about and then I was finally able to get the veggies my parents had started in after school was out. We planted the usual...tomatoes, beans, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, cucumbers and peas. I sure hope it works better than last year or we may just have flowers next year! I will try to get a picture tomorrow.

Along with fun, family stuff this summer we are determined to organize our basement, get updated pictures on the walls and finish other random things around the house. I started with the girls clothes...turns out we had a total of 8, yes 8 totes of little girl clothes!!! Some weren't all the way full so I did a lot of combining along with the organizing and labeling. SO now when Harper needs her bigger clothes I will have a much easier time finding them! And we were able to borrow baby Cora a bunch of clothes too. (blog post about Cora to come)

That project took about 2 hours one morning which meant Linnea had to kind of entertain herself while Daddy helped with Harps and other house stuff. Linnea sometimes has a hard time doing that...she likes to have us play with her all the time or put things out for her to do. We are working on this :) She did pretty good for the 2 hrs I worked so we had a family picnic at the choo choo park.

It was a great start to summer!

Kickoff to Summer Reading and Gorilla Forest

We just love love love the free special events at the libraries throughout summer. A person could literally go to one everyday of the week if they wanted. They have musicians, magicians, yo yo professionals, jugglers, storytellers, movies, etc. We will likely go every Thursday to the same one her preschool goes to so that she can see the few friends who are doing the summer preschool program. I doubt we will sign her up for any of the preschool program for a few reasons, it is just too expensive, I keep us busy enough and we don't want to miss out on any more family time than we have to this summer since during the school year it is very rare. She is however going to do tumbling/dance through parks and rec and maybe a few other two day cheap camps, but other than that we will play with our neighborhood crew, our cousins and each other :) The girls are beginning to really giggle with one another and kind of play.

But anyways...back to the libraries...a few weeks ago (I'm very behind in this blog, sorry) we went to Ramsey County's summer reading kickoff with our neighbors. The event had ice cream, radio disney, crafts and a scavenger hunt. We also picked up Linnea's reading log/chart which she gets to fill out for everyday of reading and then she gets prizes such as new books, stickers, tickets to the state fair, twins games, etc. There is a very cool tree branch hut/house at the Roseville Library that you see above that Linnea was in.

The following weekend I took Linnea to the St. Paul summer reading kickoff which had similar things to do so now we are all set to read and earn fun things!

In between the library fun my parents came to the Como Zoo with us to check out the new Gorilla Forest! It cost something like 11 million to make this awesome home for the gorillas. Unfortunately it had been rainy so we didnt see the gorillas outside. We live minutes away though so we will go back soon to check it out! We enjoyed the other animals though and walking through the conservatory :) 

I'll get the few pics from that day on here soon! 

Pre-School Picnic and My Last Day!

I took a half day on June 3rd so I could go to Linnea's little end of year preschool picnic. I'm so glad I did so I could once again be reminded of how happy she is there and what a great group of teachers and students are there. She will likely have a break from school this summer to save some money. We have her in one parks and rec class and Im trying to decide between one or two more and this mama keeps her plenty busy :) Here are some pictures from the fun morning:

such a proud preschooler!

Later that week (Thursday) was my last day of work for the summer unless we absolutely need me to find a part time seasonal job...always a challenge and maybe not worth it considering how much I would miss the girls and Chris. I celebrated with a glass of wine after Harper nursed, Linnea had ice cream and Chris may have sampled the wine. 

schools out for summer!!

Half Marathon, Gardening and Flint Hills Music Festival

Well I made it through my first half marathon since Harper! And it went surprisingly well! I didn't train nearly as much as I usually do or as much as I would have liked but I still PR'ed! I did it in 2 hours and 2 minutes. I thought for sure I would be near 2 and half hours, so now I know with training I can break 2 hours! I also have confidence I can do a full marathon this fall. Maybe Whistlestop in Ashland, WI. We will see. The half was the Minneapolis Half. My lil bro and sister in law did it as well and so did a few friends. However none of us ran together. We all ran with our headphones!

It was super early...started at 6:30am. I had run at that time plenty during "training" since I would do it before work but only for about a half hour not 2 hours! I know having spectators and being in a totally unfamiliar area helped me have such a good time. The weather was absolutely perfect! My dad was so nice to get up early and drop me off at the start right around 6:15 (yes I like to get places just in the nick of time) This way I didn't have to leave their house around 4am to catch a shuttle and park and all of that.  After the run my mom made a yummy brunch and the girls and stuck around their house to "help" them garden.

On our way home we stopped at a great little Children's Music Festival. I wish I would have got there sooner or gone on Saturday because it was so much fun! Pictures to come from that event...I think the phone and camera died shortly after getting there so there won't be too many :(

School Carnival #2

We went to my cousins daughter's Kyndra's School Carnival a few Fridays ago and had a great time. The girls got their hair colored and nails painted, jumped in the bounce house and played a few games!

Lake Elmo

I took the girls to Lake Elmo for the first time this summer. It was a visit your trails/parks for free day and a favorite kids band called the Okee Dokee Brothers were performing so it was perfect! We packed a picnic and found a spot to lay our blanket and eat on the ground before the show. 

    

After the show the sun was out and it was quite warm (something we hadn't seen or felt for a while) so I let Linnea do some wading and playing in sand. Harper and I also played in the sand but the water was kinda chilly for us! The sun sadly didnt last too long and we had to make a run for the car in the rain! 

What a geat afternoon nonetheless! We ended up at my parents afterwards for a sleepover and spaghetti dinner before my half marathon the following morning. That event will have its own post :)

Brad, Sophie and Lahf

My aunt and uncle Brad and Sophie along with their sweet dog Lahf visited over Memorial Day Weekend. It has kind of become a tradition! They stay with my parents and visit GG as much as they can and we head over to my parents as much as we can to catch up with them. Linnea loves playing with Lahf!

The Meyers with Brad and Sophie and Lahf

On Monday the whole family came to visit with Brad's and I was hoping it would be warm to do some ice painting on the path or driveway...it really wasnt so we did tried it on paper. Still outside even with the wind!

Hooded baby getting close to army crawling maybe?

fun with grandma! 

 the dessert~ yum rhubarb torte!

Cousin Ian and daddy with Harper!