Happy Birthday Chris!

We enjoyed a family dinner of grilled buffalo from the Farmer's Market, sweet corn and boiled potatoes on Monday night for Chris's 33rd birthday. We also went to the Choo Choo Park upon Linnea's request. We sadly were so full from the yummy dinner that we didn't even have any bday cake or ice cream! Chris said he wasn't heartbroken and that it was just fine. I also started my part time job on Chris's birthday! I will be gardening 9-4 Mon thru Wednesday until school starts again. My friend and her husband own their own gardening company and I worked for them many summers ago so I asked if they needed any help this summer and sure enough they did! So I will be weeding and landscaping 3 days a week the rest of summer! It's great...I get to be outside all day with good company and it's a workout as well! All while getting paid! Love it!

Sick=Despicable Me time

So I have been hinting around in the last few posts that Linnea hasn't been herself. She has been crying at daycare dropoff and that is almost a sure sign that something is wrong. She even cried when we left her with my parents on Tuesday night for the Twins. Totally unusual. We still don't know for sure if it is/was her two year molars or a virus of sorts but she was not up for much except watching tv and sleeping for most of Friday and all of Saturday. It started Thursday evening with a slight fever, then crabbiness, complaint of an earache and upset tummy. Friday she had some diarhhea and was just lethargic and more crabbiness and slight fever. So this weekend we pretty much stayed low key and watched Despicable Me at least 5 times. Sunday she seemed a bit better so I ran with her and then she played at the choo choo park and ran around on the soccer field right by it. We then checked out the Farmer's Market and got some fresh veggies and buffalo meat to grill for Chris' bday celebration with us Monday night. The market had plenty more things I want to try so we will be back and they have fun music which Linnea had to stop and dance too!

July Birthdays!

July is very full of birthdays in our family! We combined 3 of them last Thursday night at Brian and Megan's. Chris was turning 33, Dylan Z was turning the big 5 and Brian is getting closer to 30 at 28! As a you saw in an earlier post we celebrated Dylan and Jakes special day already but we still have Papa Dave and Great Grandma Bremer's to celebrate too! Whew! Anyways...the bbq at Brian's was very fun! We had grilled burgers and chicken, pasta salad, veggies, chips and three different desserts for the three bday boys! Brian of course had jello cake, Dylan and Ian decorated superhero cakes for the big 5 year old and I made a Twinkie dessert for Chris! yep...a Twinkie dessert. I had bought Chris a Twinkie cookbook many years ago for a bday or Christmas present fully intending to make something for him at least once or twice a year from it. I haven't done it until now, but it was a hit! Super easy...sliced Twinkies on the bottom of a 13X9 pan, chocolate or vanilla pudding layer, crushed heath, whip cream and more crushed heath on top! Refrigerate until ready to serve!
Happy Birthday Boys!

Bazillions!

One of many of our fav kid bands called the Bazillions was playing out at Centennial Lakes in Edina last Thursday morning so Linnea and I of course didn't want to miss it and headed out there. I hesitated a little because Linnea didn't seem quite herself but she said she wanted to go so we did. And we loved it! It was acoustic with just two of the band members and one guitar. Most families and daycare centers there were having a picnic lunch and we did too. We sat, ate, danced and sang. We took our time getting back to the car and walked along the pretty paths at Centennial Lakes.

Al's Visit

My friend Al from high school, who now lives in Colorado, was in town most of last week and we got together three times!!!! Hooray! It was so much fun! We went to a Twins Game on Tuesday and even though it was during the heat wave of the century and we were just sitting sweating we loved it! (I forgot the stinkin camera in the car tho!)We had lots of water, ice cream and wet towels to stay cool and the Twinkies even won for us! Wahoo!!! It was so exciting! Fireworks even went off which I have been waiting and waiting to see at Target Field. We had pretty awesome seats on the first level 25 rows up in near Right Field!
On Wednesday I had ladies night out with Al and her mom and Chris and Linnea ordered Jimmy Johns and had a great time at home together. Al's mom baked us a delicious dinner and then we went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Eagan High School. We ended the night with some pie at Bakers Square and chit chat.
Friday Al, Linnea and I had a date! We headed to the Grand Ole Creamery for some ice cream. I'm sure it helped with Linnea's two year molars, which 'Im pretty sure are coming in, but I don't think it helped her tummy that she said had been hurting...
We had a wonderful time regardless! Besides this blog, Al had not seen Linnea since she was 6 months old at her wedding so it was a great reunion!
I may or may not remember to add pictures from Chris's camera to this...

Two Boys, One Birthday Party!!!!

Our nephews, Dylan and Jake Henjum share a birthday! This year July 18th was one of the hottest in history! We had a HEAT wave for about a week we lived in smilar if not worse weather than living in the Amazon! The humidity was outrageous! Thank goodness Erik and Lisa set up a mini waterpark in their backyard and have AC in their house for the gift opening and eating! They made taco salad so no one had to grill in the ridiculous heat! The boys got a lot of great gifts (mostly CARS related...someone LOVES Lightning McQueen) and we all enjoyed the CAR colored cupcakes. Thanks for the fun Erik and Lisa!
We have a few more bdays to celebrate this July too...it is the month of birthdays for us! Dylan, Jake, Dylan, Brian, Chris, Dave, and Grandma Bremer too! All within about a week of each other!

Winnie the Pooh

Saturday morning I got up and got a run in before breakfast and packing everything up to go home. The forecast was looking pretty horrendous heatwise so I knew I better get the run in somewhat early! There will also probably not be too much running going on in the next couple days either. Way too humid for me. I wonder I lived in New Orleans for a year. i have become quite the wimp when it comes to heat! Anyways..after my run, my mom and dad were cooking up some Belgian Waffles and bacon with a 2 foot tall helper. While they were cooking Brian called and said they were coming over too so we got to see them again. It was also Brian's 28th birthday so he had breakfast made for him and got many Happy Birthdays said to him. We finally finished eating and playing and packing and headed home where we got to see daddy/Chris.
We were so happy he was home! Linnea watched a lil tv with her lunch with her daddy and then took her nap. We had been telling her that when daddy gets home we will go to her first movie on the big screen so that is what we did when she woke up. She had seen a few previews for it and thought it looked pretty good and would always dance to the music.
And it was pretty good! In fact it was great! We all three loved it! Perfect first movie! Pretty short, colorful, musical, sweet and funny all at the same time. She also liked the previews and the music during the credits at the end. I took Linnea to the bathroom with me and to get candy with about 20 minutes of the movie left but other than that she was really good. She nibbled on popcorn, fruit snacks, goldfish and apple juice. She also really loved curling up on the big seats! Cant wait to go to more movies on hot or snowy or rainy days!

Crafts, Puddle Jumping and Over the Hedge

Friday morning we awoke to rain again!!! This time we stayed in and did lots of crafts with Dylan and Ian. Brian and Megan needed someone to watch the boys just for about 2 hours so I said I would love to! I have been wanting to crafts with them for a while anyways! So we did! We also ate, made some lego towers, danced and had a great time! We made tractors, duckponds, bday hats and a crown for the bday boy (Dylan will turn 5 this Thursday...5. wow! whole hand!) and we painted with kool-aid and ice cubes. That may have been the best craft! Megan and Kaylan came to get the boys right at lunchtime so they stayed and had lunch and Megan and I got to visit. We were hoping to to the Coin Carnival that Ojibway Park in Woodbury hosts (lots of kiddie games and prizes and a puppet show) but it was rescheduled because of the rain. When the boys left, Linnea took another good nap and when she woke up it had stopped raining so we took advantage and went for a walk and to two playrounds...Linnea also found some puddles. I have never seen her go sloshing through but that is what she did! Then she decided to sit right down! Right in her dress and diaper! silly girl! I didnt care this time because we had a change of clothes and werent in a hurry so I felt we could dawdle away. When my parents got home we had some pizza and then had a movie nigh nigh. We had a busy week and didnt feel like doing anything else. My mom popped some popcorn and we put in Over the Hedge. I had seen it years ago in one of my after school activity classes I taught and remembered it being pretty funny. It was a hit, but no Toy Story! Linnea enjoyed taking turns cuddling with her papa and grama and during the movie credit music she danced with each of them. Then it was off to bed! We ended up staying at my parents house one more night because Chris' flight was delayed/cancelled due to rain so he wouldn't be home until mid morning on Saturday.

Lookout Ridge and GG's

Thursday morning we awoke at my parents house to LOTS of rain! So after debating between indoor playgrounds and a coffee shop with toys my friend and I decided we would go to Lookout Ridge in Woodbury. Her boys hadnt' been there in a while, neither had we, I have a pass and was close by and had slept in so Lookout Ridge right in Woodbury worked out great! Linnea climbed higher than she ever has, bounced in the bounce house more than she ever has and went down one of the bigger tube slides alone! The girl is getting braver and more adventurous everyday. Cautious Linnea may be leaving as she gets closer and closer to three! She did go down the slide first with me and then with my friends 5 year old and then all of a sudden she decided she would go down alone! YAY! We had lunch at a cafe just upstairs from Lookout Ridge. It's always a fun place to go. The library is right there, Brian and Megan got married there and the YMCA is also attached. SO if we were ever members we could make a whole day out of the Central Park area! Well who am I kidding, we can make a whole day out of it without using the Y. After playing so hard Linnea took a great nap, woke up, went to the swings by Grama and Papa's, packed her backpack with books and Toy Story and headed to GG's as soon as Papa got home with KFC. My mom had to work late so she couldn't join us. Linnea showed off her backpack right away by saying, "Hey, GG, see my backpack?". It's her new thing, We ate, walked around GG's floor, looked at the fish there and Linnea and Papa played "nigh nigh". Any of you with toddlers know what game that is I bet! It was a fun day despite the rain in the morning!

Elmo Park...aka Lake Elmo

My parents, Linnea and I had a picnic supper at Lake Elmo the Wednesday of the week we stayed there a few weeks ago. We also tried to look for a letterbox but didn't have luck...if we had a little more time I'm sure we could have found it but just didn't have time to walk the distance to find it and get to the playground like we promised a certain 2.5 year old. Maybe next time! We did some deer on our way back to our picnic area though!

Raspberries!

Monday night Linnea helped my parents pick/eat their raspberries!!! They have a jungle of them! We picked berries, had burgers for dinner, went to the neighborhood playground and then had ice cream with raspberries! yum! All with a student from Ecquador who works with my dad and became Linnea's best bud!

Cabin Time!

Hmmmm...who decided to take a 2.5 hour roadtrip alone with Linnea this past Sunday?? Me!!! And we had so much fun! Chris left for Florida and we left for his aunt and uncle's cabin in Hayward, WI to visit with family members visiting from Atlanta, GA and of course the rest of the family that were up at the cabin too. I was nervous to go alone but wanted to see if I/we could do it and now I know we can! Linnea hasn't always been the best traveler but the dvd player worked and we talked about how fun it would be to be swimming all day and go on boat rides and see so many of her girl cousins that she doesn't see too often. So we had a lot to look forward too! We only had to pull over twice. Once to put a new movie in and once to get her apple juice. SO I'd say we did pretty good! We had lunch right away when we got there and then went on a pretty boat ride and then we swam, swam, swam! And got pulled around on abig blue float and helped the big girls make a sand castle and mud. Linnea did great bringing them water! That was her job. I debated and debated when to leave...before or after summer. We ended up leaving after supper so about an hour later than I wanted but oh well. It's summertime and it was worth it. The grilled chicken was great and Linnea got to play with the riding toy and swing a bit which is her new fav activity! I thought maybe just maybe she would fall asleep on the way home since she didnt nap and it was definitely bedtime during the trip home, but no. The girl stayed awake the whole time!!! At least she wasnt crying, she was really pretty good. She knew we were going from the cabin to her Papa and Grandma's house so maybe thats why she wasnt sleeping. Who knows! I would have been if I was her! So anyways...we made it to my parents around 9:30 which is good because it started storming about an hour later! I would not have wanted to drive in storms, especially alone with a toddler. We have been sleeping at my parents while Chris is away. I have brought squirt to daycare, ran and then gone home to work on painting and organizing and cleaning. I've been pretty productive and enjoyed having company after Linnea goes to bed.