Apple Crisp!

We bought a huge bag of Zestar apples at the orchard fully intending to bake something with them the same day but I just didn't have the time or motivation for that, but for some reason this Monday evening I did! So I got my lil helper away from Bert and Ernie's Great Adventure and she helped me slice the apples with our twisty apple corer thing and stir and sprinkle the toppings. It got finished just in time for Linnea to have some as a bedtime snack, however she preferred just the side of ice cream. Chris and I sure loved the special treat though! We also had turkey chili and corn bread for dinner...I love fall food.

Afton Apple

We decided to go to Afton Apple Orchard this year for one of our fall activities. Erik and Lisa and their boys were free on Saturday too so we all got to go together and it was so. much. fun. I just love apple orchards and it was perfect weather to be outside all day! We hadn't been to Afton Apple since our wedding 5 years ago so it was neat to see it now. The kids enjoyed a cow train ride, playing at the playground, petting/feeding the petting zoo animals and climbing on the hay and big tire mountain. We all took a hayride together and then had lunch. It was a wonderful afternoon! Linnea took a good nap and then when she woke up her and I headed back out to the Afton area to celebrate my friend Katie's husband's 40th bday. Linnea enjoyed swinging on their hammock and playing with Isabelle and her toys. We got Linnea down and then Chris and I got to have a movie night of our own. We have been wanting to see Bridesmaids since it was in the theaters so we rented that from Amazon and laughed hysterically for almost the whole thing.

Baby Kaylan and Doodlebops!

We got to babysit baby Kaylan for a few hours this past Friday! She was a sweetie and we would be happy to do it again anytime. Linnea thought it was pretty fun too and gave her many kisses and pushes in the swing. On a side note, we tried making buffalo burgers with ground buffalo from the Farmer's Market, however we sadly added enough salt for 2lbs instead of one. The recipe we found online was for 2lbs and someone forgot we only had 1 pound. And by we, I mean Chris. Oh well! I tried making zuke fries to go with them, but didn't like them very much either. So it wasn't our best supper. It happens. We had a cute baby over to cheer us up! Kaylan is growing so fast and doing so many different things! Her smile fills her face and lights up the room!
Saturday morning when I went to get Linnea before my run she asked where her baby Kaylan was but then quickly remembered, oh yeah, uncle Brian picked her up. She decided she wanted to snuggle with daddy instead of run with me so off I went on my own. Chris and her made their way downstairs shortly after and found her fav Saturday morning show, the DoodleBops! I think it's a very strange show and am happy it is only on on Saturdays at our house :) She had her breakfast in front of it while we got ready to go to Afton Apple.

Cousins from Colorado!

Kim, Eoin, Eloise and Owen were here for a couple of days visiting. We saw them almost every night they were here. I couldn't take a day off since school just started and I just know I will need my vacation days for our trip to AZ in about a month and Im sure I will get sick or Linnea will get sick and I will need a day or more then. We made the most of the evenings and Linnea and I even slept over one night too! We had a movie nigh nigh with popcorn and Eoin and Eloise the second night they were here. The first night we had fried chicken from Rainbow at GG's and their last night Kim made yummy enchiladas and then we visited GG quickly before bedtime. Linnea and I headed home even though I was tempted to sleepover again. Linnea had a great time with her cousins and kept asking where is my Eoin and Eloise? And I just always love seeing the visitors from CO! Hopefully we can go out there sometime sooner than later!

Our Weekend (sept 17th and 18th, Im a little behind)

This weekend was soooo needed! it was a long first full week at work. Friday I had to sub on the bus so didn't get home til 5:30 and did not feel like cooking so we used our Quiznos Groupon and had a picnic and gave Linnea some playtime at the park, which these days means swinging. She is obsessed with it! It was quite chilly though so we didnt stay long and headed home to have our first hot chocolate of the season, with a little bit of Tinkerbell before bed. Tink is Linnea's new favorite movie/character. Could make a cute Halloween costume, but that is still a little ways away and her fav character could switch again! Before Tink it was Winnie the Pooh, before that Despicable Me and before that I believe it was Toy Story. So who knows where we will be come Halloween. Anyways...so Friday night's activities put me in a better mood. And Saturday helped even more. Linnea and I were able to meet our New Parent Connection at Carpenter Nature Center. Again, it was a little chilly but we stayed warm in the nature center learning about owls and seeing them eat mice (yes, real dead mice, sort of disturbing but real life) and looking at the other displays. We then had a cold picnic and went on a nice walk. Saturday night we dropped Linnea off at my parents fully intending to go to Stillwater to use another groupon but thank goodness I called the restaurant we were heading to see if we could walk in, turns out it was a full house and they werent taking more reservations! So I quick printed off yet another coupon (Livingsocial this time) to a place in Hudson. So Chris and I still got our date in, but I am pretty bummed we wont get to use our Groupon in Stillwater. it expires this Friday :( Linnea and my parents had a great time. They took her to eat at GG's and they also got to watch Tinkerbell! I guess Linnea had GG laughing out loud! Yay! Chris and I enjoyed our time out just the two of us too.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day and very drizzly. So we did some art inside, playing catch and in L's kitchen and watching Tink and the Vikings. Linnea kept asking why the guys were falling down and if that was "her" guy. Meaning Adrian Peterson. She was also concerned when he players missed the ball. I went for a rainy run while squirt napped and then picked up pizza for dinner. It finally stopped drizzling and Linnea and I went for a short walk around the block. I barely needed the stroller! She had a blast playing in the puddles and throwing a walnut up the hill and then watching it roll down and then chasing it. We also found a basket full of apples a neighbor was giving away. How nice! They were small enough that Linnea just ate one whole. I didn't even have to cut it up! Love it!

Trout Run

Well even though my school weeks have been hard, the weekend have been awesome! So I always have that to look forward to an of course seeing Chris and Linnea after work. On Saturday the 10th I ran in the Kinni Trout 10k Race in River Falls. It was pretty hard running on the trails since I havent done that in a while but so beautiful and fun! We spent the night at Erik and Lisa's on Friday since the race started at 7:30am. That's pretty early for us! The route went right by Erik's house about 5 minutes in so I got to see my cheering fans! Chris and Linnea got up early for the occasion. About an hour after my race there was a kids Trout Trot! So I headed back to Erik's to help get the kids ready for it. My parents were babysitting Dylan, Ian and Kaylan while Brian and Megan ran the Mudrun so they brought them out and all the cousins got to "run" a race together. It was Dylan Henjum's 2nd but the first for everyone else. They were so proud of their medals and Ian kept saying, we are all winners. It was a 1k around Glen Park which is a super nice place! So many playgrounds and shaded and it even has a wading pool (which wasnt open but hopefully next summer we can go in it) So a 1k is pretty far, Linnea made it a couple blocks running, then maybe walked one more and then went on Daddy's shoulders. We played at the park a bit afterwards, I won a raffle to a restaurant in RF and then we headed to Erik and Lisa's for a lunch of Mac and Cheese and then headed home. What a fun morning/afternoon!

Back to Work

Well we have survived the first two weeks of me being back to full time work. And I don't use the word survived lightly. It has been HARD. I am with elementary students this year so they are smaller than my middle school kids last year but if possible, their behavior is worse than middle school students. I constantly have to remind myself that they are at BVS for a reason, their needs are severe to profound. There is always a reason behind their behavior and how to deal with it won't be solved in two weeks. But we will get there. I also need to get used to working with my new staff members. I was placed with a new teacher (but I knew her since she was a student teacher in my room last year and she is awesome), an aide from the high school part of BVS who is new to behavior problems, and another aide who has been with BVS for 7 years but definitely has a different outlook on working with the students at BVS than I do. We also have a new time schedule at school. I am now there at 9:15 until 4:15 versus 9 and 4 last year. Not extremely different and it makes for an easy morning not having to get up early but for some reason leaving at 4:15 seems a lot later and it makes getting a run in, dinner made and some quality time with Linnea before bath and bedtime very difficult. There are also fewer bus aide subs and I have already had to ride the bus once, make me get home at 5:30pm and waking myself and Linnea up an hour earlier. I don't like it. But we will get used to it and it will get better or I will try to find a different job where I am happier, but for now this is where I need to be. Chris was also doing some research in the Lab at the U of M 3 times a week to finalize his degree so that was hard too. It helped having some premade frozen meals in our freezer and a groupon to Quiznos and a meal with my parents and GG once too! Linnea had some better dropoffs at daycare which helped and she continues to make me smile everyday. Potty training is almost complete...just have to figure out when she needs to poop before she is actually doing it! She usually makes it but every now and then we need to change the undies. Preschool is just around the corner! whoa baby! Sorry for no pictures...in the busyness I didnt get any and I didnt get the camera charged :( but here is a video from we left for the Weezer Concert...she was really into that wand, playing her cat piano and having Winnie the Pooh on. All at once. she would also sometimes try to say abracadabra, you're an elephant (or whatever animal she wanted us to act like).

Labor Day Picnic!

We headed to Willow River State Park where Brian, Megan and their kids had been camping all weekend for an end of summer picnic. What a great day it was! It made me want to go back to work even less...more about work in another post. We enjoyed our sandwiches, fruit, veggies, some chicken and a new dessert made by me...it looked like apple cobbler, tasted like apple cobbler but it wasn't! Believe it or not it was zucchini cobbler of all these. sounds wierd I know, but what a great way to use up zuke! it takes 8 cups to make it! Even Chris and L liked it who dont eat zucchini in anything other than bread, muffins or cookies. The kids had fun playing their version of "catch" or "pass" and then we took a very short walk to the dam. I love it when we all can get together!

State Fair and Weezer!

WARNING! LOTS OF PICS OF OUR FUN AT THE FAIR! SUMMARY FOLLOWS! ENJOY!
















Chris, Linnea and I went to the Fair on our own this year! I don't think that has happened before. It just didn't work out to meet the siblings, parents and cousins this year, but I think a family reunion is already in the works for next year and it involves the Fair.
We were able to park for free at a friend's house only a few blocks away so that was nice. We started the day by getting breakfast, a chocolate dipped waffle on a stick! YUMMY! This may be a new fav of mine! We then headed to the animals, Linnea's fav thing! We saw cows, sheep, pigs, goats and horses. It was about lunchtime so we got the hot turkey sandwich, a corndog and some custard. While the corndog was cooling off Linnea and I went into the Miracle of Birth Building and saw lots of cute babies. I think Linnea liked petting the little lamb the most. She also loved her corndog and the custard she devoured afterwards. Loved it so much she forgot she had to pee and she had her first potty accident in weeks. We were so surprised, she just stood there and peed. Oh well, we didn't make a big deal about it and just changed her right there and went on with our day. Of course reminding her to let us know if she needed to go :) Next we headed to Little Farm Hands where Linnea got to be a farmer. This was her third time through in her short life and she definitely got the most out of it this year. it was a good way for her to get out of the stroller and walk a bit too. She had been sitting for a lil while, while we tried to find it!
We didn't get her on any rides this year so we will try for next year. I also didn't have my usual foods, I tried almost all new things and thank goodness loved them all! I hate it when I spend money to try something new and it's gross. We wanted to take her on the yellow slide but just as we were heading there it started raining so they had to stop it. We didn't have time to wait for it to reopen since we had just waited in line for Sweet Martha's Cookies so we will hit it next year for sure. While Chris and L waited for cookies, I waited for deep fried pickles! YUMMY! However, next year I need to go with someone who will share them with me. I didn't feel so good after eating almost the whole tub of them myself. I didn't get my favorite Australian Fries because Chris and L wouldn't want any and they are far too expensive and big to eat on my own. We also surprisingly skipped the dairy barn malts too since we got the custard. The final thing I tried was fruity salsa with cinnamon and sugar chips. Delicious! Linnea liked it too. Oh we did get our usual fries since we all love those! We headed home around 2 so Linnea and Chris could nap. Chris was getting a headache and squirt was tired.
Chris and I headed back to the Fair around 6 for the Weezer Concert with some friends, one visiting from AZ. So we got to try more food! I got a chicken torta and Chris found a BBQ Chx sandwich. After the awesome concert we tried the pot roast sundae! So needless to say we spent far too much money than we wanted and ate too much, but had a blast. I don't think I have ever been to the Fair twice in one day. Still came far from seeing it all and trying all the food we wanted too! I hope the Deep Fried Cookie Dough returns because I'd love to try it next year.