Summer's Last Hurrah ... with Daddy Home!

Our days of summer break are officially numbered ... five including today ... daddy leaves on Sunday and the girls and I are heading out camping with the family on Saturday for two nights.  Since I have classes tomorrow, daddy decided that today should be fun and we did our best!

We headed out to Excelsior for our last summer lunch at Maynard's on the patio by the lake ... it was beautiful and quiet and there were still enough geese, carp and ducks present to eat our traditional bag of bread after we ate.

After lunch, we headed over to Wayzata and when daddy is along of course that means Ben & Jerry's for ice cream ... and an iced coffee for mommy from Caribou ... yum!

Finally and actually still as I type this entry, the girls are in their pool at home likely enjoying their last outdoor swim of the year as the pool will come down next week and the weather likely will not be this warm again until next year ... they are making the most of it!

Sad to see summer end ...

JES Open House

The girls finally got to meet their 1st grade teacher, Ms. Gleixner, and they loved her immediately.  They were also impressed that they had their very own desks this year rather than just a spot at a table.  1st grade is cool ... at least that is what I was told by two very excited little girls tonight!

Both girls were also super excited to learn that their good friends Mia, Devlin and Jesse would be in their class PLUS they get to meet new friends!

We also took a few minutes between class pictures and paperwork, to visit Mrs. Schussler (their Kindergarten teacher) as well as Mrs. Marijean (their former preschool teacher).  They even got to get their faces painted at the preschool open house ... such good memories of those days!!

We are really excited for school to start next Tuesday ... but in the meantime ... there are a few days of summer break left for fun!!!!

Happy Birthday Granny M!

Today we were lucky enough to spend some more time with the majority of our family at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  With it being Granny's birthday, we celebrated with a taco buffet and lots and lots of pies!!!!

Happy Birthday Granny M!!!

Mancini's Steakhouse ... Yum!

It has been a very busy week starting with our lovely Farmor heading back to Sweden, we all missed her as soon as she stepped out the door.  We are already looking forward to her next visit with us.

This past week has also brought visitors from the great state of Florida with the arrival of our cousin, Alex, as well as Aunt Linda and Uncle Pat a few days later.  They are all visiting to help us celebrate Granny M's 83rd birthday.

We have had the chance with visit with everyone during this week and tonight we meet up with Grandma, Grandpa, Granny M and our Florida family to have dinner together at Mancini's Steakhouse, a favorite within our family!

As usual, the food was wonderful all the way around, with the small exception of the deep fried mac and cheese that the girls had decided they share for dinner ... not a big hit with either of them, next time we will stick to the grilled cheese or pizza!

Since tomorrow is Granny M's birthday, the good folks at Mancini's decided help us celebrate after dinner tonight as well and brought out cake for everyone!

We had a lovely evening with family and afterwards we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's to visit with the Barker branch of the family too!  Even a great sunset to enjoy from the deck!

Minnesota Zoo ~ Butterflies & Dinosaurs

Another beautiful day nearing the end of summer and we decided to visit the Minnesota Zoo as daddy was home and able to join us this time and the girls were super excited!  The last time the girls and I visited the zoo the butterfly garden was not open yet, so we were anxious to get a chance to visit the garden today.

We arrived at the zoo right at lunch time and we settled in to enjoy a picnic to start out our afternoon.

After lunch, we decided to walk the tropics trail as we knew the butterfly garden was at the end of it and it also happens to be one of our favorite trails to walk in the zoo.

  
Stopping to see the monkeys and a tapir laying off to the side and out of the picture. 

Exploring the hidden passage along the trail ...

The tropics trail includes a tunnel that leads to a large fish tank and the girls loved sitting in front of it and watching the fish as they swam passed them.

 

This fish is called a spotted unicorn fish and although the girls LOVE unicorns, they found this fish rather funny and insisted it was NOT a unicorn!

This little guy was the girls' favorite little swimmer ... they sat next to him in front in the tank and giggled themselves silly.

Finally, we found our way to the butterfly garden and the girls were armed with their identification boards and ready to find all the different species ...  They named this little one "Julia".

Daddy even had a good time and found he had a little hitch-hiker who didn't leave his side the entire time we were walking through the garden.

Mommy had fun using the macro function on her Nikon ... :)

 

Next we headed back outside to search for the dinosaurs and, of course, we had to stop by the water fountains for some fun!

Back on the trail in the search of dinosaurs ...

 

Success!

Our last stop was at the family farm within the zoo and the girls spent some time feeding, brushing and petting  the little goats.

We finished the day playing in the yard at home and even the neighborhood ice cream truck happen to find us ... indeed a great ending to a fun day!

Dakota Light Rail Biking Trail

Today was a beautiful day and we decided to load up our bicycles and head to Wayzata to try them out on the Dakota Light Rail Trail (DLRT).   We had a quick picnic lunch in the park right before our ride and then we were off.   We ended up biking a solid 4 miles, likely closer to 4 1/2 miles, round trip which we were very happy with considering Madison had to really pedal with those 16" wheels.  She is so close to fitting on her new bike with bigger wheels ... it is patiently waiting for her in the garage!

The girls did great ... each one took one spill on their bikes but brushed it off like champs and hopped right back on them and kept going.

After our ride, we hung out in the park at the playground by the lake for a bit and let the girls have a little more fun before making the drive back home.