A Little Shopping and Dino's Pizza

We made a spontaneous trip to Mankato tonight to shop for new gym shoes for the girls and as long as we were down there, of course we stopped in at Dino's for some pizza and pasta!  

JES Carnival

Today was the 2nd annual JES carnival fundraiser at the girls' school.  I picked them up from an overnight sleepover at their friend Mia's house and they were already sporting eye make up, so the face painting at the event just added to their overall look.  We played lots of games and won many prizes.  We even had time to grab lunch while we there!

One of the girls most favorite activities was getting dressed up in a Velcro suit and jumping and sticking to the Velcro wall ... they loved it!  Madison is the first picture and Alyssa is the second!  :)

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Daddy was out of town for work but the rest of the family managed to get together to help Grandma celebrate her birthday at Axel's Bonfire tonight.   It was great getting to see Aunt Carrie, Uncle Kory, Josh and Kaylynn too.  Josh even tried to get Madison's hat in exchange for his ... :)

Kitchen Experiments with Daddy

Friday when the girls and I were out shopping, we picked up a little science experiment kit to try out with daddy when he got home from his latest trip.  This morning the three of them got together to try out two of them ... I was short ingredients for the other four so I will have to go shopping this week so they can do the rest of them.

First up was an experiment with water, oil, food coloring and salt.  It showed how the oil and water stay separate, how the food coloring suspends itself in the drop form in the oil and then how the salt breaks the barrier and allows the food coloring to drop into the water and expand.

The second experiment was to make glow in the dark slim.  Most of the ingredients came in the kit, we just had to add water, corn starch and food coloring.  It was a success and the girls loved how "freaky" their hands looked in the dark when they were covered with the slim.

Playdate with Hokansons

Today we spent a few hours this afternoon over at The Hokanson's!  Mommy got to talk with Tammy for a while and the girls and the boys raced through the house playing mostly well together.  They seemed to find a common ground with the Wii as well as Legos.

Watching TV

Who really needs furniture when you have a twin??!!!

Afternoon with the Girls

Daddy was on a trip and there was no school today for the girls, so after a morning of studying, I decided they deserved a little bit of mommy attention.  We headed out to run an errand for myself (I needed a new printer ink cartridge) and from there we made it an afternoon.   We decided to head over to the Eden Prairie Mall, affectionately known by the girls as "the P store" ever since about age 2.

The girls saw the big fireplace in the food court and decided that we would have lunch by the fire, so we did.  It is hard to find healthy options for a mommy who is trying to get herself into better shape, but I managed to select a grilled chicken salad and went very light on the dressing.

You can tell by the smiles they were enjoying the warmth of the fire after walking in from the parking lot.  After lunch we stopped by Bath and Body Works to pick out new scents for hand sanitizer for their school backpacks and they found some they loved.   Next, we stopped by Target to get me a new billfold as mine gave out on us at lunch and broke the zipper.  Finally, we went to Barnes & Noble were I found a nursing book I wanted and the girls each found new sticker books about animals that they felt were great.  We also got a science experiment kit for when daddy returns home!

Happy New Years 2013!

We opted for a quiet but nice New Year's Eve this year and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for an evening with a few drinks and lots of yummy food.   The girls opted not to participate in the fondue meal with the adults and had Moshi Monster Happy Meals from Mc Donald's instead, but they were happy!

Grandma did a great job serving up a fondue that more than filled our tummies.  The crab legs were delicious and the filet mignon, shrimp, veggies and bread were icing on the cake.  Hopefully your family room will not smell like oil for the next year because of it, but even so, it was worth it for the good food!!!

After dinner and wine, we all snuggled in and watched the movie "The Goonies" with the girls.  They got a big kick out of it and when it ended at 10 pm, we called it midnight, had a countdown with fireworks via my iPad, toasted the New Year and they were off to bed.

As for us adults, we likely should have went to bed at 10 pm as well ... but we "toughed" it out and managed to stay awake until midnight by watching Storage Wars and sipping on Bailey's, Vodka and coffee ... again, yum!

Happy New Year 2013!!!!