Grammy & Poppy come to visit

Grammy and Poppy came to visit a couple of weeks ago now, but they just sent me these pictures from their trip. We had a great time!

This picture is of course from Teddy Bear park. Poor Teddy got his head cut off! Mags had a tough time here. She slipped a couple of times and skinned her knees. Good thing Poppy was prepared with band-aids!

Two different days we spent several hours at Lake Elmo Park - at the man made lake. There is a zero depth area (not zero depth really, but it only gets about 3 feet deep, max), so the girls can wade and play in the sand. It was very relaxing as Poppy and Daddy kept an eye on the girls and Grammy and I relaxed in our chairs on the beach. Poppy and Maggie made the MagPop river that they are sitting in in the picture.
After a few days at the ranch, we loaded up the car and headed north. We stopped in Duluth to visit the Duluth Aquarium. It was quite expensive for very little aquarium. It 's very small and I have to say, had only a few fish. Moral of the story...keep driving through Duluth. So we headed north again and took the scenic route up to Two Harbors, where we stayed at the AmericInn. Nothing fancy, but it did have a continental breakfast and a pool. We did a hike at Tettagouche State Park (our favorite) to a place called Shovel Pointe. This was some point along the way. It was really beautiful. This picture was taken at Gooseberry Falls State Park. There are several falls you can hike to. Of course, the girls just wanted to throw rocks in them. : )
After we got back we went to the zoo and saw the new Grizzly Bear exhibit which is really nicely done. We were sad to see them go. But Maggie came away with an early birthday present - - a new big girl bike! This one fits her much better, but she can't start by herself and has suddenly forgotten how to use the brakes, even though they are the same as her old bike that she's been riding for 2 years now! Yikes!

Babies on the brain

No, no, no, we're not pregnant! For heavens sake no! Our neighbor Amy had a baby boy last night and Maggie and I went to the hospital to visit them after dinner tonight. Of course Mags wanted to hold him the whole time so I kinda lost out. Oh well. I'm so glad someone on the block has a new little one so I can get my fix!

Yesterday Dean and Michele rolled outa here headed for Texas, never to return. I have their key and garage door opener, so now we can party in their empty house! Just kidding, we would never do such a thing! They did find out they were having a baby girl though. Jacob was right all along. : )

Today it was hotter than the blazes and is supposed to be all week long and through the weekend. Saturday is Fandango, so I guess we'll all sweat it out. We reserved a bouncy again and a firetruck and ambulance are coming for the kids to check out too. Oh, and the face painter will be here also. All in all it should be a good time. I'll make sure to get some pictures to post next week.

A visit from Grammy and Poppy

I guess it was 2 weekends ago now, I completed my triathlon (.4 mile swim, 15 mile bike, 3 mile run). 1 hour, 51 min. I think that's at least 30 min. faster than when I did it 5 years ago, and my goal was 2 hours, so I feel pretty good about it. My neighbor Paula did it with me and I beat her by 10 minutes!!! Yeah! Below is Maggie sporting the always stylish swim cap that we had to wear, and the free T-shirt, on backwards of course! She and Maya and Daddy came to watch and cheer me on.
Jacob has gone to Texas. He goes every summer for a couple of weeks and stays with his grandparents and cousins. So, to celebrate his leaving, all the neighborhood kids who are around during the day went to Chuck E. Cheese the day before he left. They had a great time eating bad pizza and playing games and collecting tickets. Mags and Maya had more fun on the cheezy rides than the games but they didn't care. Mags ended up with only 23 tickets, but that was fine because the only prize she wanted was a sucker, and luckily those were only 10 tickets! Michele and Dean leave on Tuesday. The moving truck came today so now they have an empty house for a few days. It will be very sad. They were great neighbors. Still haven't sold the house.

Grammy and Poppy came last Friday afternoon. Monday morning we left for the North Shore. We stopped in Duluth on the way up and went to the aquarium there. Not worth it. It was sooo small, and was way to pricey for what they had. Oh well! The girls got to touch and hold a turtle and we watched a huge barge go by out one of the windows facing Lake Superior. We stayed in Two Harbors, just north about 20 min. of Duluth in a hotel and traveled the next 2 days up to the 3 state parks within 30 min. north. We went hiking, threw rocks in the lake, and checked out the Split Rock Lighthouse. It was a relaxing and fun time. Maggie said her favorite part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool. (of course!) We've also been to Lake Elmo, and today, the zoo.

Tonight during dinner, Maya finished up and was playing on the couch. She kept popping up with this huge grin on her face. I had to run and get the camera!

Poppy and girls were wrestling in the grass in the backyard. We told them to "take him down!"

Here's Maya at Lake Elmo. Half of the lake is basically a wading pool so she can goof around and play in the sand. She had a great time. Maggie and Poppy went all the way out to the ropes and the deep part. We got a spot under one of the giant umbrella's and had lunch and watched the girls play in the water.
This was just funny. She discovered the vent by the front door and her hair was just a blowin' in the wind!

A busy weekend

A busy weekend indeed. Daddy took Thursday off and had a four day weekend! The weather was hot, hot, hot so there were trips to the pool and runs through the sprinkler. We had lots of fun.

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago. Mags finally got her princess balloon from DisneyWorld re-inflated!!! She was so excited. But then as she was running through the house, it snagged on something and ripped a hole in it so that was the end of that. : )

Hot days call for the hose! Watch out or you'll be wet!

One day, daddy and Maggie went to a St. Paul Saints baseball game. They had a great time, but apparently didn't watch much baseball.

For the 4th, we had a block party/going away party for the Culpeppers. We BBQ'd, played games and lit off some fireworks in the cul de sac. The kids made Parade Sticks, and then had a little walking parade around the street.

Smoke balls were the biggest hit with all the kids.

Miss Priss chillin', ridin' a pony.

One evening they were driving me so nuts while I was trying to make dinner, we made masks out of grocery bags. It kept them busy!

Maya had her 18 mo. check up today...2 months late! She had a low grade temp and so didn't get a shot, but that was all right. She weighed a whopping 22 lbs, about at the 15 percentile, and has dropped to around the 50th percentile for height. Her newest word is "whoops"!

Bye bye paci!

Yes it is true...Maya's paci is outa here!!! I just decided yesterday it was time to go, so it went. I just pretended it was never there. She looked around for it, and only cried for about 15 min. at her nap...and that was it.

Daddy flies off to DC tomorrow afternoon, but he's taking the morning off and we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how 'bout you, you, you! (for Poppy!) They have a new exhibit, Russia's Grizzly Coast, with bears, otters and who knows what else. And of course, we'll hit the dolphin show.

Piggy tails

Just when you thought Maya could not get any cuter, her hair is long enough for pigtails. Seriously, she was SO cute today!



Maggie had her first "moms morning out" thing with the Parks and Rec. It was at a nearby park and the theme was the Olympics. When I ask her what they did she just says, "I don't know!" Nice. I did get out of her that they played Duck, Duck, Goose, and soccer, but she didn't get the ball because all the boys wanted to play. So there ya go. I think she had fun though, and it was a break for me. Maya and I ran errands and had some mommy and me time back at the house.

Tomorrow I'm throwing a baby shower for our neighbor Amy, and it's turning into quite the ordeal and taking up a lot of time. It'll be fun though. It's her first shower, and at least one lady on our street has never been to a baby shower before, so it'll be a new experience all around.

The landscaping is finally done. I planted the garden yesterday evening, basically in the dark. Why in the dark, I have no idea. I planted cucumbers, pumpkins and carrots, and just need to get a couple of tomato starter plants to go in there also. The bricks and rocks are all in though and it looks really good. Next year will be new shrubs. The landscaping budget for this year has long since been used up. : )

Oh, one other thing...Maya did an actual jump today...both feet off the floor, or deck actually. She thinks she's hot stuff!

Bye-bye grandma and grandpa

We had a great time having grandma and grandpa visit. They got here last Thursday, the 9th around midnight and left this afternoon. We did a lot of hanging out and grandpa helped us with a couple of big projects. He finished a dresser for the guest room downstairs and put lattice up around the deck. I'll have to get some pictures of the almost finished landscaping. More rocks are coming this weekend I think!

One of the nice days, we went out to Stillwater and to a cute little playground there called Teddybear Park. The kids love it because there are tons of play structures, big and small, and a bunch of sand and rocks to climb on...oh and of course, a giant teddybear to sit on! Then we walked down to the river and had a picnic dinner and watched the boats. Grandpa took the girls down to feel the water and of course they both ended up wet. But they had a marvelous time.

Another day it was warm enough to go swimming in the neighborhood pool. Maggie thought she was hot stuff and got a little too far out and a neighbor had to jump in to save her!! (Oops! No parent of the year award for me!) Then she learned her lesson and stayed closer to the stairs.
Daddy was in San Francisco for almost all of the visit. But when he got back Monday night, he gave the girls their long awaited presents. Princess dresses!
Grandma's 60th birthday is on Saturday, the 14th, so we had a little early birthday party, complete with a cake with sprinkles! Maggie arranged the candles beautifully, as you can see, and helped grandma blow them out.
Maggie really wanted grandma to have a princess cake, but she settled for eating the cake on princess plates! Yummy! I think both of them got their fingers in the frosting before the cake was cut.
All in all we had a great time. We wish we could see everyone more.

Mags started Vacation Bible School this week also. The theme this year is "Jesus is the Bread of Life". Today she came home with a freshly baked loaf of bread. It was good! Last day tomorrow. She gets to bring home a bible and her T-shirt that she's been wearing. Her class is light blue! She also got a CD of songs that go along with the theme of the week. Unfortunately there are only I think 6 songs, so we've had to listen to them about 100 times already. : )

Oh, another update...Mags is good to go on her bike, starting and stopping like a champ all by herself. Yay!