Just Another Park ... Having Some Fun in the Wind!

Sophie's 3rd Birthday

Mommy and the girls traveled to Maple Grove today to attend Sophie's 3rd birthday party! It was definitely a day for princesses!

The girls had a lot of fun feasting on pizza, cake and ice cream. They were extremely well behaved and polite during the gift opening and had lots of fun running and climbing in the Maple Maze at the Community Center after the gifts were done.

We are looking foward to a return trip to Maple Grove for a visit to check out all the new toys and spend some more time with Sophie and her new little sister Lilly.

Lagoon Park

Click Clack Moo ... Cows That Type!

Today was another big field trip day for our preschool ECFE class, which really means another school bus ride for mommy and a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This field trip brought us back to Stages Theater in Hopkins, MN. Our lively bunch of 3, 4 and 5 year olds were there to see a production of Click, Clack, Moo ... Cows That Type, yes adapted from the lovely children's story by Doreen Cronin.

The production was well done, but again, the length was pushing the limits for children of this age group. The girls did pretty well but mommy was glad it was over when it was, as we made it through it with minimal interruptions, aside from having to remove Madison's shoes as she kept setting off the flashing lights in them during the play in the dark and both girls being confused as to where the actual cows where on stage ... apparently the children wearing white dresses with spots on them and a pair of ears on their head were not enough to make them cows through the eyes of my 4 year olds.

The girls enjoyed the show and really enjoyed getting to high five the characters in the actors line outside of the theater after the play came to an end.

After the show, we all boarded the bus once again and headed over to a fun little park in a nature preserve which has become known by all as "Chutes & Ladders" due to the sheer amount of climbing and sliding options.

Some families opted to eat lunch at the park but we opted to quickly eat lunch on the bus ride from the theater to the park in order to optimize our child burning energy time while at the park.

The girls loved the park and had a great time playing on the equipment with all their little friends from school. One highlight of the park is the long runs of climbing ropes. Madison scooted right up the ropes to the top and took off with other kids while Alyssa took the ropes at a bit slower pace on her first try. She made it up the first two sections and then got scared and froze while crying. Mommy talked her back down and told her that she gave it a good try and when she was ready she could try it again if she was so inclined. It only took about 10 minutes of resting to dry the tears and help her find the courage to try the ropes again. This time she made it all the way to top and stopped when she got there to wave for approval at mommy!

All the kids had a wonderful time and before we headed back to the bus for the ride back home, the teachers got all the kids together for a group photo, which was no small undertaking!

We Love Our Parks!!!

Three Rivers Park District

Another beautiful springtime day for us ... I can't remember such a wonderful spring in years and we are trying our best to enjoy it!!!!!

We took some time out of our day to take the girls to Three Rivers Park District and hit the playground. It is one of our favorite parks and boy were the girls happy to get the chance to run and explore again!

Before heading back home, we decided to drive to Wayzata and hit the local Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream in hand made sugar cones ... yummy!!!!

ECFE Spring Fling!

Tonight was the ECFE Spring Fling ... basically the annual spring "dance" and dinner hosted by the girls' teachers in the ECFE program they attend. Daddy was home and we made it a fun family evening. The girls wanted to dress up in party dresses for the dance and they looked absolutely adorable when we left home!

The girls enjoyed a good dinner of pizza and lemonade followed by a whole lot of dancing, running, jumping and laughing with each other and their friends.

Mommy had an especially good time watching the girls dance The Tootie Ta with all their little school friends.

We finished the evening up with an ice cream sundae before heading home to get ready for bed. One more year, one more dance and then it is off to kindergarten ... *sigh* ... our little girls are growing up soooooo fast!

Visting the Baby Farm Animals at MN Zoo!

Today mommy and the girls meet Chris, Tammy, Christian and Heath at the Minnesota Zoo to see the Baby Farm Animals seasonal exhibit, which has become somewhat of a tradition with our children. We also finally picked up the season passes that Granny M so graciously gave our family for Christmas, we know we will have a lot of fun memories over the next year because of this pass!!

It was absolutely beautiful weather for an outdoor day and we all arrived at 9 a.m. just as the zoo was opening for the day, which thankfully afforded us the luxury of seeing all the farm animals and removing ourselves from the "farm" just in time to find literally thousands of visitors heading to that exhibit. Our timing was perfect to avoid the crowds and kids got plenty of time to see the animals.

Madison especially took a liking to a white goat and hugged him, brushed him and fed him lots of treats! Alyssa even was brave enough to pet him and brush him!

We spent a little time watching the monkeys and looking at the aquarium and then decided that was enough for this visit as with the lovely weather the zoo workers were expecting over 10,000 visitors for the afternoon.

Mommy and girls decided to head back to see Christian and Heath's new town home they are renting while their house is being built and we ended up having lunch and staying for the afternoon! The kids played, made a mess, took a walk and ended up at the park in their new living community. We even walked the long way back so the kids could catch a glimpse of some horses are a nearby ranch. All was going great until Madison decided to stick her finger in a pile of poop (presumably from a dog) so she could smell it ... ufffffffff ... did I mention that mommy no longer carries diaper bags with us ... it was a very long back to the town home holding her wrist in the air with her finger sticking up in the air ...

Pre-School Parent/Teacher Conferences

Today mommy and daddy attended parent/teacher conferences to dicussion the girls' progress so far this school year. It is funny how much, as a parent, you feel like you are being judged on your parenting skills and how the talks make you wonder what you could have done different to make things "better" for your child ... *sigh* ...

At any rate, both girls are doing wonderfully and both girls have a few areas "to work on" but we are guessing that most children have areas to work on as well, so we will go with the fact that they are doing very well.

It was reassuring to hear the teacher describe each girl and know that they are truly seeing each girl for who they are ... lets just say the teacher knows them well and their quirks, which makes me happy.

As a little bonus to the meetings, we were given these pictures that were taken during classroom activities. It is no suprise to find Madison at the paint easel and to see Alyssa dressing up!

Happy Easter!!!

The prep work was done ahead time ... eggs had been colored ... cucumbers and a dish of water were placed in the window and the girls went to bed without a struggle of any kind ... all in anticipation of a visit from the Easter Bunny while we all slept!

Morning arrived and the bunny didn't disappoint the girls in the least. They ran downstairs and immediately noticed the magic bunny tracks on the carpet and floor as well as the missing veggies with just a few crumbs left in their place ... he HAD been here!!!!!

Thoughts immediately turned to where their baskets might have been hid ... especially considering that they completely remembered that for the last two years the bunny has carefully hid them on their Elmo chairs ... which have since been removed from our home. Madison thought of the closet, but nothing there ... Alyssa stood in the middle of room lost ... then daddy suggested that maybe they should look for more footprints.

After examining the footprints the girls discovered that there was a trail outside of the front door. They didn't hesitate at all and ran outside barefoot and in their pajamas. They followed the footprints around the corner to the front of the house and straight into their brand new "barn house"!! They looked inside and found their baskets resting neatly on their lawn chairs inside the house. They were also very happy to find a pile of new Disney story books resting neatly in the play bins on their little house. I am sure their screams of delight must of woken up several neighbors as it was only 7:30 a.m.

We helped grab all the bunny loot and headed back in the house to check it all out! They thought it was amazing that the bunny had actually found their new house outside so easily!!

After breakfast, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa B's house to spend the day with the family and enjoy a wonderful meal!! Grandma out did herself and the girls both ate an amazing meal including turkey, cottage cheese, hot rolls, corn and beets (mommy was very pleasantly surprised and proud of them).

The girls grabbed a quick cat nap/rest while the eggs and treasures were being hid.

Then it was finally time for the big egg and treasure hunt that took the girls all over the yard to locate goodies. Alyssa and Madison really enjoyed searching for eggs and are still talking about all the fun five days later!

Family, good food and lots fun!! Happy Easter everyone!

Assembling the "Barn House"

Uncle Kory and family arrived today to celebrate the Easter holiday. They drove their pick up truck so that they could assist us with a little project we wanted to do for the girls. Daddy, Grandpa, Uncle Kory and Joshua took off to pick up the project and an hour or so later they arrived back at our home and got started on the assembly.

The girls were excitedly watching from the front window and trying to guess what it was that the family was working so hard to assemble.

Then the walls were stood up and they knew ... "Mommy!!!! It is that thing that we asked for!!!!!" ... followed by squeals of joy that only two little girls could make or possibly a dog whistle.

After patiently waiting for the assembly construction to be completed, they were so happy to be exploring the new "barn house" as they have now named it. The doorbell is especially a favorite feature along with the cooking grill, weather vane and basketball hoop!!!

Hopefully they will spend endless hours and have countless adventures together in THEIR own little house ... which they LOVE!!!