Lakes and Haircuts!

On Wednesday Linnea and I went to visit Andersen Elementary School where I used to work and had a blast seeingthe 1st graders soon to be 2nd graders. They were all so much bigger and smarter than when I was with them as little kindergardners! But the cool thing was they remembered me and they also remembered Linnea. And they wanted to hold her and give her all their toys and favorite books. So sweet. I miss Andersen and working with kids. I also love being a stay at a home mom...oh such a hard decision for what to do come fall.

After we visited Andersen we went for a beautiful walk around Lake Calhoun. I just love Uptown and the lakes! Linnea did too. She ate her lunch happily in the stroller and pointed at all the dogs and airplanes. We found a park to play at as well.

We also found a spectacular playground, beach, picnicing, walking area today! I didn't have the camera but boy did we have a blast! The park was just right for toddlers and Linnea loved wading in the water! She went all the way up to her waist! Next we are bringing our suits to Tony Schmidt Regional Park by Lake Johanna!

Along with playing in the water and at parks and dealing with molars coming in (which means shorter naps and some crabbiness), daddy let mommy find time to head to JCP to get a new haircut! It has been since November! I think I like it...but we will see how I do styling it on my own tomorrow! Hopefully Linnea recognizes me!

sitting, swingin, playing, dancing, pushing

This cute lil pink chair is another garage sale find. I debated getting it but am so happy I did. Linnea loves to go in the backyard and climb into it, sit and look at the airplanes and blowing leaves, climb down, climb back in and do it all over again. So yay mom for spending one dollar on this cute pink chair. I'm sure we will use it camping too!

These next two pictures were taken on the hottest day Linnea has experienced. This past Monday. so.sticky. We were only outside in the morning for a little while walking around and then she swang for a few minutes.

Then we went inside the Sun Ray Library where we attended a special music class put on by The McPhail Center for Music. Here she has a plastic egg that had something in it to make it shake. She loved it. We went here with my friend Lisa and her twins who are almost two and a half. sun Ray Library has a great play area as well so we took advantage of that after our class. Tuesday we did our usual music class and Lisa and the twins were able to come to that too so we then had them over for lunch!

I lied, I guess we were outside Monday evening too. We were at my parents to reunite with our friend Andre. We had pizza and salad outside and then played in the hose water. Linnea wasn't crazy about it but she did seem cooler and happier afterwards.

Cool enough to be inside my parents unairconditioned house playing with this new sesame street toy in her diaper! We then put her summer pjs on and went for a walk. I love summer evening walks!

Sunday afternoon we had our playdate with my new parent group.

Linnea loved pushing this stroller around and playing with the other toddlers.

Totally off topic...but Sunday night was a sad night. The end of the show LOST.

We had some friends over to watch the two hour series finale where all our questions were answered. Well almost. I am still watching the rest of the seasons. I hadn't seen every episode like Chris. What a great show but it was time to end.

Our Week

This is the cutie I found one morning this week! Just sitting waiting for mommy to come retrieve her from her crib so we could start our day!

We had lots of fun this week...mailing letters,

playing with daddy's hat,

resting on this comfy footrest mommy found for free at a garage sale (it will eventually make its way into our porch but for now someone loves it in the middle of the living room),

sitting with our stuffed animals in the new toy bucket,

hugging Mr. Bear,

and going to the MN Zoo again!

We will make our membership worth it!

It was a pretty warm day so we tried the sprinkler system at the Grizzly Coast, but Linnea was not a fan this time. The water was quite cold so we just played on the park instead. Linnea is really starting to LOVE parks and gets excited when she sees them.

Linnea has a cute new chair which can also be used as a step stool when she is taller/older. Iot came from my grandma's house so that's kind of fun and memorable!

So in my last post I mentioned something about having more time for just Chris and I, and guess what? It already happened! We shipped Linnea off to the grandparents last night and dinner time, only this time it wasn't for wine tasting and massages, it was so we could do some organizing and rearranging of the house. Sometimes it's just so hard to do things like that with a toddler around...and sometimes it's just hard to get ready for the day or go to the bathroom too! So thanks mom and dad for another break and the time to get some stuff done! They also took her overnight so that we could run a race in the morning and get there on time. However, Chris ended up getting a hurt foot so just I went. I didnt take any pictures though but my dad did, so I will post them soon! It was a great 10k at Carpenter Nature Center! more details to come...in the meantime here are some pics and details of what we did last night while we had some free time:

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We tried to find homes for some of the items I found at the many garage sales Linnea and I hit with my mom. Woodbury hosted their huge Lions Club Garage Sale weekend. Im not kidding when I say huge. There are signs on almost every corner and it is kind of overwhelming and hard to decide where to go, but I just love it anyways! I will gladly admit I have garage sale fever and have a hard time controlling the car from either driving by if not stopping at every one I see. I know it drives Chris nuts, but it also allows him to have a new bedstand, a big pink tub for Linnea's stuffed animals, a kitchen set for our lil peanut and a variety of other things.

And since I found Chris a new bedstand, Linnea now has a bookshelf in her playroom instead of a mattress on the floor. Yes, for a long time we have had a mattress on the floor. We had it there for when I babysat my nephews for naptime and then we had it there for when friends spent the night and then we had it for Linnea to play on but we decided it needed to go back up to the office and we needed to work on making Linnea's playroom an actual playroom with cool kid stuff! So here is a start...

This white bookshelf you see above has been with me since college! Chris was using it by our bed, it will be much better in Linnea's playroom. The room has a ways to go yet but we at least got a start. We also went to my grandma's old house and picked up some boxes of things I am taking and we brought some of her old books to Half Price Books. We also took a book shelf home. I had the matching one so now we have at least one matching thing in our room and we don't have piles of books on the floor. They have a home on a bookshelf now! And Linnea's armoire is back in her room. It has been in our room since her carpet was installed before Christmas! Hooray! It may not sound like a lot got done but it sure felt like it and our house looks at least a lil less cluttered!

This week we had a few falls and one visible wound. Linnea is getting more and more confident with her walking so she tries to go faster or squeeze through places that she really can't fit...well one time she somehow fell onto her play drum face first with her binkie in her mouth and when I picked her up as she screaming, not breathing and then screaming again (this girl does not mess around when she is hurt or has just simply fell) I saw her lip getting puffy and a little scratch showing up. She of course got over it as all toddlers do and continued totting about.

She is trying to jump and stomp as well. It's quite cute and she does it on command!

And we also thought yogurt would make fantastic shampoo. I don't think I need to write anymore about that other than she literally picked up the container and before I could grab it she dumped it on her head. She had a before nap bath that day!It's always an adventure being a stay at home mom, or any kind of mom for that matter!

Swirl!

The weekend before Mother's Day Chris and I had a date day where I also received my Mother's Day gift from him and Linnea. We started out dropping Linnea off at grandma and grandpa's and then headed to Afton where their new wine shop called Swirl had their grand opening which entailed free wine tasting and free apps. We found delicious wine to buy and also some Rum Chata...if you are familiar with the group Vampire Weekend you may now have a song in your head. heehee.

The gift however, wasn't the wine. It was a couples massage at Calla Lily Day Spa. And it was FABULOUS and affordable so if you are looking for a new spa, head to Afton!!!! I was so tired afterwards though that we just had energy to grab some dinner at the Winzer Stube in Hudson and then head back to my parents to get Linnea who had a lot of fun sleeping and playing at the park while Chris and I got some time to ourselves. It again had been way too long...the last date was December! We are going to try harder to have one date a month!

The restaurant was very cool and made you feel like you were right in Germany! We had a great day!

Happy Mother's Day

My second Mother's Day as a mom was very fun!

I got to watch my daughter play with all of her cousins that live close by and I got to see my amazing mom and grandma and my wonderful mother in law.

I also got to go for a run, have breakfast with my family and relax! Something which is greatly appreciated with our lil peanut who is getting more and more active everyday.

I love being a mom and having a day to celebrate it!

We celebrated with my grandma at her home at Woodbury Estates the Thursday before Mother's Day. There were fun musicians, delicious treats and a raffle for flowers which I won!

Dylan and Linnea are heading out for a drive! We spent the late afternoon and early evening in River Falls at Erik and Lisa's with lots of time play outside and have homemade lasagna.

Lunchtime and part of the afternoon was spent in Ellsworth at Chris' mom's house where we had Randy's Chicken from Red Wing which is like KFC.

It was so fun to see the twins and Linnea play! They loved the little kitchen!

I dont think we had seen them since Christmas!

Markers

This above picture is Linnea looking at a lil chicken in a bookstore. Yes, you read that correctly. A little chicken in a bookstore. This bookstore also has cats roaming around, birds chirping in the cages, a ferret in cage and I think some lizards too and probably more! We have only been to The Wild Rumpus two times so its hard to remember. But it is FANTASTIC! It is right by Lake Harriet in Mpls so the two times we have gone we end up going on a walk around the lake as well. They have storytime every Monday morning so we headed there two weeks ago and had a great time! She of course chases the chicken around. The girl loves animals.

It got so cold we had to put her back in her fleece sleeper last week!

Since it has been so cold and rainy we have to keep ourselves occupied inside. She still loves her teapot she got for her bday and has figured out how to turn the music on and hide things in the top and open it up and then gets very excited that whatever she put in there is still in there!

so cute!

Linnea and daddy have a blast playing together! He can get her to laugh like no other! As you can see here is he chasing her with a tshirt on his head. She loves it and wanted something on her head too!

Just some cute shots of our happy lil girl! She hasnt said too many more words other than diaper yet but she is trying. She is really getting smart. She recognizes when we are getting ready to go somewhere and gets her shoes. She knows when we have arrived home in the car and points to the house and squeals. She knows when she is done eating or riding in the stroller and puts her hands on the latch like she is trying to get out. She hands us things when we ask and she puts things in the garbage or trash when we ask!

Here is a close up of her with her shorts on her head while playing with daddy!

And a bowl on her head below.

She is really into trying to put things on her head.

Here she is "helping" daddy in the kitchen.

Along with doing laps of the house, being chased by daddy, taking all of her toys out, looking at books, riding in our new jogger, bringing things to the fridge and garbage for us (which is so cute and makes me thing we will have a good helper in the future), she also likes to put things in one place and then move them to a new, "better" place.

Here is an example.

She first put all these markers on one couch only to realize they would be much better on the love seat.

Whew that was a long blog with lots of info and pictures! Thanks for reading til the end!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Last week Linnea and I pretty much played at home and did our usual day to day activities, minus Monday when we drove to Amery, WI to visit friends. She got all worn out playing with Isabelle so the two of them took naps so the moms could talk! hooray!

Here the girls are playing away...they are about 1.5 months apart. Linnea born in Dec and Isa born in Feb.

When we are at home, Linnea's new favorite toy is this musical zoo. Here is a video of her excitement! I found this at a sale and I can't wait for this weekend at the Lions Club Garage Sales in Woodbury to find more fun , cheap things!

Tuesday we went to our music class, Wednesday we had lunch with my dad at his office after finding a letterbox by his work. I forgot my camera in the car and dont know how to get pics off my phone onto comp yet so you will have to imagine us letterboxing. We found it on a nice hiking trail! Linnea even hiked since we couldnt get the stroller down the steep steps!

My uncle happened to be there for lunch too so that was fun!

Letterboxing, for those of you who dont know is super super fun! It is like a scavenger hunt and involves rubber stamps, a notepad and pen. You find the clues on line and then go on your letterbox hunt! When you find the box it will have a notepad, stamp and pen in it. You bring your notepad, stamp and pen (in case the box doesnt have a pen). You then stamp the boxes notepad with your stamp and stamp your notepad with the boxes stamp. It sounds much more difficult than it is! I have decided to try to do one a week or every two weeks! There are so many in the cities but what is even better is you can find them across the world! So we like to do them on trips too. I have to thank my family in CO for introducing me to this fun activity!

Check out the website for a letterbox near you!

http://letterboxing.org/

Baby Zoo Animals!

Last week we made it to the MN Zoo to see the baby farm animals! They were so cute and Linnea loved them and their mommies and daddies as you can see in the pictures below...

up close and personal with a sheep!

We played at the park there for a little while, where sadly Linnea got her first mini "egg" on her head. This slide was the cause...she tripped and went headfirst onto it and I couldnt catch her. I felt very bad but I know that kids fall and bump themselves in one or another all the time. Its part of growing up! But I still felt pretty bad.

More sheep! They talked to us a few times and she really got a kick out of that. We also gave the goats some food.

These were the baby bunnies I believe. We also became members of the zoo so I am looking forward to going again and again this summer!