Weekend before a big Milestone

We had a super fun end of summer party at our neighbors. Some of the kids and adults had started back to work but the kindergarteners first day was the following Monday. It was a blast to get all of us friends together. It was amazing that all our whole families could be there. 

The kiddoes...Harper is in there...you can see her pigtail in the left corner behind the lone boy.

Harper and her buddy Linnea P.

Caroline is one heck of a hula hooper!

We made it through the first week back! We all work in the school district.

We had a very late summer bday celebration for all these guys!

we love Leslie, Diane and Bina's new deck!

Harper was so tired from the party she fell asleep in her own bed!
She only lasted a few hours but we will take what we can get!

I think these were taken on my 17 mile run. 

What lovely morning and route I had. 

Whistlestop Marathon is approaching quickly!

New haircut for school! She likes to get it chopped off!

 Playing at the park and cheering on the Vikes!

I may have had her pretend to be asleep as you can tell from her tiny smirk. 

This gal went to bed a little girl and woke up the next morning a KINDERGARTENER!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Linnea and I had a girls night out to the Twin Game! 

Thanks to facebook garage sale/barter/trade pages I got some Twins tickets for free! 

I had started back at work but Linnea had not yet so I thought, what the heck she can be up late again and come to the game with me. She had been asking all summer to go. My parents happened to also have tix to the game so we were able to sit with them and enjoy the game. 

And the  twinkies played well and won so we really did enjoy the game!

mommy/daughter picture on the gold glove!

 GREAT SEATS! 

 We snacked on popcorn, peanuts, $1 hot dogs, my dad and I shared a beer and we of course got ice cream for the littlest Twins Fan. 

It started to rain on and off and actually did stop the game for about 20 minutes but we stayed for the whole thing anyways! 

What a fun (late) night! 

Good thing Linnea was staying home with daddy the next day :)

French Regional Park

We had one last summer blast of fun at French Regional Park with our friends. I had heard great things about it so we decided to check it out. It was Labor Day and Chris had it off and we were planning on him coming too but he started to feel icky so I went on my own with the gals. We missed him but still had fun and know he will come another time. The park was great but I am sure glad my friends were there to help Linnea climb. No way could I have done it alone with Harper and her.

French Regional Park

 Cooling off with a summer treat!

The bridge on the way to the beach!

girlfriends working hard in the sand.

What a fantastic summer we had. The summer fun is done now since I started work the next day and the girls hopped around with different care from neighbors, my parents and daycare. Linnea started a week after me. 

I know the fun isn't done there is just a new kind of fun ahead. I feel so lucky to have my summers off with the girls. We sure have fun exploring and going on adventures together :) I am also glad I have daughters who are up for going, going and going with me!

Playin with Papa

We went to church the morning after our cousin sleepover and then stayed to play with papa at the park and then cooled off in the slip and slide for a while. Daddy was at work and grandma was at a friends canning tomatoes so it was nice to keep each other company. 

 Someone is getting pretty brave on the twisty slide :) Hopefully she will listen and not climb up when someone is sliding down. No one was at the park besides us so I decided it was okay for her to climb up. I strongly believe in picking your battles as a parent :)

 Harper may have gotten braver in the sliding department but she is still unsure of the slip and slide and tends to cry when people actually slide on it. Linnea tried to lighten the situation for her with her goofiness...

I don't know how to make these videos work but they are still cute without sound...maybe?!

Full Fabulous Day!

 August 30th I got to run in the Women Rock Half Marathon and it was so much fun! I have been thinking how fun it would be to do a run or event with just women but hadn't signed up for anything yet. I knew this one looked awesome but was planning on maybe doing it next year, however my friend texted me the night before and said her friend had an extra bib and asked if I wanted to do it for free...how could I pass it up!? I feel great that I have been working hard on training for my marathon which made it possible for me to just decide on a whim to run 13.1 miles. I was supposed to do 12miles that day but I thought well what's one more mile? Especially in a crowd and with the excitement of it being a race I knew I could do it. It was a great morning for it...got a lil hot and humid near the end but overrall awesome! 

 Hot firefighters were also handing our charms out at the end so that helped. These stairs I had to walk up afterwards were not so helpful. I likely could have taken an elevator but I was just focused on getting to my car the same way I got to the start and not get lost. 

 I also knew I needed to hurry because we were meeting my cousins and their kids and my parents at the Como Zoo :)

 After the Zoo we went to Como Pool with them and we redeemed our free family pass from the library. Have I mentioned how much I love the library and the summer reading program? Free Fair, free pool...all for reading :) Of course the pictures are on Chris' phone but there are some cute ones so I will work hard to get them here! After the pool we got ice cream from Nelson's and we went here for a particular reason. My cousin is ALWAYS looking for a food challenge...

 Nelson's gives ridiculously huge servings as it is and their challenge is outrageous. It is called The LumberJack. It is 5 scoops and their scoops are not to be joked around with. This picture above doesn't do it justice and was after my cousin had been eating it. He couldn't finish it but I helped him get close! He blamed it on his ice cream choices...he picked ones that were way to sweet and full of candy. But delicious nonetheless. 

Me and my girl enjoying ice cream on this sunny fabulous day :)

We ended the night at my parents house for pizza (just a lil), visiting, movie night for the kiddoes and also a sleepover. Linnea actually made it all night in bed with my cousins daughter. I was very surprised because they don't see each other that often but they definitely clicked and played very well together.  Harper and I were on the Hid-a-bed.