Wild Rumpus, Sebastian Joe's and Kowalskis

The girls and I had to zip to the Wild Rumpus last Monday afternoon to pick up our Trick or Trolley tickets that I almost forgot about! It was nice to be there in the afternoon when it wasn't very crowded because Linnea got to see the chicken and the cats and pet them all! We treated ourselves to some Sebastian Joe's ice cream afterwards! yummy!

Tuesday we went trick or treating at Kowalski's here in St. Paul. It was so fun! A dance organization put it on and they had a trail of pumpkins on the floor for the trick or treaters to follow and they handed out great treats! Linnea went as a ballerina so the dancers all got a kick out of that. The last dancer to hand out candy was Tinkerbell so Linnea got a kick out of that since she was Tink last year and just loves her!

Bremer Gathering

Sunday we headed out to Bellechester to have a Bremer family reunion Sunday Oct. 21st. Chris' aunt and uncle were here from Atlanta and every time they come we try very hard to get to the whole family together for them. We did it again and it was so fun! It was also a time to come together to celebrate the birth of I think 3-4 new babies this year, grandma and grandpa's birthdays and their anniversary. Aunt Sue was able to get a professional photographer there too so I am looking forward to seeing those pictures of everyone.

I only have these two pics for now from the fun day...I think Chris has some more on his phone..

We stopped by Zumbrota on the way home to see our friends the Corey's since they hadn't met Harper and it had been since June since we'd seen them. We did not get any pics but the kids had a great time playing and eating pizza and we enjoyed chatting.

Run for the Apples and Carpenter Nature Center

My favorite race occurred two weekends ago and I got to do it again! It's called the Run for the Apples and it takes place at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake. I think it had been a few years since I was able to...I didn't run the full 5 miles it but I walked about 3.5 miles of it. My lil bro Brian and sister in law Megan ran it so it was fun to be there with them. It was a beautiful morning and just so fun to walk through the pumpkin patch, strawberry fields, apple trees and corn fields. After buying some yummy apple doughnuts, cookies and apples I headed home to get Chris and the girls and get ready for our next event of the day.

Next event of the day was Carpenter Nature Center with my parents and Brian and his family. It was put on by Thrivent Lutheran and there were free fall treats, a bounce house and petting zoo all of which we love. There was also a bird show that he kids got into and a craft.

bouncing Strawberry Shortcake!

sweet Kaylan

We left the girls at my parents house afterwards to go out to dinner with a couple friends in honor of Carolyn's birthday. (Carolyn was my friend who lost her life to domestic violence earlier this year). It was nice to get out with our friends and reminisce about our dear Carolyn and have a short break from our girls. The plan was for Linnea to sleepover at grandma and papa's and we just take Harper home, but our night owl/staller was still up and decided she wanted to come home with us. Yup, the night owl and girl with troubles sleeping is back. We thought we had it figured out for about month, but poor sleeping is back. Anyways...we packed her back up and all headed home for bed. We had a big day Sunday!

Frogs and Ghosts!

We also made some Halloween treats...ghost! So simple and fun and easy...Nutter Butter's with melted white chocolate on them with chocolate chips for eyes. Linnea was a pro at placing the ghost face on, even with a princess dress on :)

We made it to the Como Zoo Lil Explorers program again and learned all about frogs!

Errands, GG, painting and leaf jumping!

Well I am behind again...the days have run together but at some point I took both girls to Target for our first successful trip. We bought Linnea some shoes and me a hat and Linnea tried some hats and purses on:

We also found time to go visit GG and have lunch with her and my parents. It is so nice to see GG's face light up when she sees Linnea and Harper. The transition to the nursing home has been a bit challenging so it is wonderful to see her smile. 

Before we visited GG we went on some errands...I think we went to three different places...just to stop in quick but let me tell you there is nothing really quick about doing errands with two kids...getting them in and out of the car/carseat a total of 6 times is no easy task! But we managed and the girls were troopers. One stop was the bank so Linnea got to look forward to a sucker, one was the Dr and she likes the receptionists' Halloween stuffed toys and the drinking fountain with little dixie cups and the last stop was Rainbow where she got to pick out mini pumpkins that she knew we would be painting later, so all of those little incentives helped us get through the errands...it may have taken a good half hour longer than these errands would have taken by myself but we did it :)

Another afternoon last week we went over to our neighbor's house for some leaf jumping! The girls were so cute together and deserved to have a fun time. We enjoyed our storytime at The Red Balloon Bookshop but then both of us got pretty crabby towards each other at lunch from being overtired so I think naps were had by all three of us.

We had our first of many Halloween events a few Saturdays ago. We brought along our pumpkin muffin/cupcakes and our little bee. Linnea wore the bee costume we found at the thrift store to our New Parent Connection Halloween gathering. It is so fun to see all the kiddoes in their costume and see them play so well together even though they all only see each other once a month, if that. Harper wore a little pumpkin sleeper and hat. Quite a few of us had babies within the last few months so it was fun to see/meet them and hear how everyone is doing as parents of two. My parents came over in the evening and brought us Arby's and visited.

Sunday I got Linnea to Sunday School and she made it very clear to me that she wanted me to leave when I dropped her off and she would go to Sunday School with just grandma. So I did just that and headed to Sam's Club to get some much needed foods! I went back to church for her and the church service and then we headed home. Our friends Chuck and Deanna were over to meet the Harpster, have lunch and visit with us. Chris went to pick us up some burgers and shakes from Snuffy's. YUM! Then we showed Chuck and Deanna the choo choo park before they had to head home.

We ended Sunday night with Finding Nemo, popcorn, fruit and veggies for supper again after an early bath.

Colic/Reflux Baby

Two Thursday nights ago and leading into Friday was the roughest time of a family of four yet...Harper had a terrible night of no sleep and lots of crying and discomfort which equals mommy up a long time trying to soothe little one. Daddy was able to come home early from work so I brought Harper in to the Dr to get some tips or see if she had acid reflux problems since thanks to facebook we learned plenty of our friends assumed this was the case. Well they were right. Harper is now on Zantac to help with the reflux...it has helped decrease the spit up but she still seems super gassy and uncomfortable most of the night so now I'm thinking it is colic and we will be dealing with it for months, just like I made my parents deal with it when I was a baby. She is generally calm and sleeping during the day and quite the opposite during the night. She rotates between sleeping in our arms, the swing or the bouncy seat at night. Or just crying and not sleeping.

 On a happier note that morning I did muster enough energy to make new pumpkin muffins for our Halloween party on Saturday. The recipe is so simple...a can of pumpkin mixed with a yellow cake mix! thats it! so easy and quick and Linnea can easily help! After they cooled, we frosted them with chocolate or orange frosting and then decorated them with reeses pieces. Very festive, quick and easy! Thank you Pinterest! On another happy note I have watched plenty of my fav girly movies during the late nights! I thought I had a picture of these creations...but I guess not.

And on an even happier note Friday evening was spent at our neighbors house with a few other families and their kids. Linnea had fun doing some crafts and playing dress up and dancing with the girls, Harper enjoyed being passed around and Chris and I enjoyed being with other adults! One funny story about the night happened when the girls all came charging down the stairs ready to tattle on "Linnea", only it wasn't our Linnea, it was the other Linnea in the neighborhood, yes there are two. So the girls went and told Linnea's mom that she was hitting them and our Linnea comes to us in a very worried voice saying, " those girls keep telling me I am hitting them, but I'm not hitting them, I'm a nice girl." We had to remind her without giggling that there is another Linnea in the group and that is who they are talking about. We don't have any pictures from the evening but here are some of Harper from throughout the week that I have randomly taken:

Thrifting, Lunchdate and Jammie Day!

The Monday after watching the Marathon was Columbus Day and as on most holidays or around them, the thrift store had their half off everything sale...we desperately need pants for our growing big girl L so we attempted the store...we survived but I was in there probably a record short amount of time since it was so busy and I had a full cart of carseat and preschooler, or if the preschooler was walking (which she did most of the trip) it was quite hard to keep up and keep an eye on her among all the people. 50% off days are CRAZY! But we did go home with some pants, shirts and Halloween stuff! We stopped at McDonald's on the way home for a lunchdate.

 Tuesday I contemplated going to the Mall of America for their toddler Tuesday event but chickened out on doing that alone with the two. If I had a carried I liked for Harper maybe I would have or if we had a double stroller but we dont, so then if Linnea decides to be done walking I would be in quite the pickle! Or if we needed to leave quickly it would also be a challenge. SO I asked L if she wanted to go anywhere and she said no, she just wanted to stay home. So we did. and we did it in our jammies and had so much fun! I got a pile of dishes done while Linnea worked on some art on the kitchen floor and Harper slept in her bouncy seat. I just gave L some supplies and let her go at it...she ended up making a sparkly ghost on a paper plate. We also had "pumpkin" PB sandwiches for lunch. We did get dressed after supper to go to the Choo Choo Park with the neighbors for a bit.

Wednesday we stuck with our routine of the preschool storytime at the RedBalloon Bookshop.

That's Linnea above in the pink holding onto one of the many puppets at the shop that she is OBSESSED with! She plays with them for like a half hour after each storytime!

Thursday I had a nice early morning reading and snuggle time with Harper but then needed to get up because we had registered ourselves for a free MacPhail Music Sing Play and Learn event at the library. We have gone to these before and Linnea just LOVES them. Her face lights up at the songs and dancing and parachute play they do!

There she is in the purple. She picked her outfit out all by herself..purple dress and purple pants. She did not care one bit the patterns were completely different!

1 Month Old!

Harper is already 1 month old! Here are the weekly pictures with Linnea's stuffed pig. We used an elephant for Linnea and wanted to use something different for Harper, so the pig it is. There are some more fun ideas on Pinterest that I may switch to in the coming months, but for now it is the pig!

1 Week Old!

1 Week Old!

2 Weeks Old...an owl and a pig.

   

I forgot to do an actual 3 Week Picture with the pig but this is around Harper's 3 week bday with her big sis.

  

4 Weeks/One Month...a butterfly and a princess. This was all L's idea!

Happy One Month Birthday! Where did that month go??? We are so happy you have made us a family of four
Miss Harper Marie!