driving

In order to get the photos of Emily and Louie actually sitting next to each other last week, I had to resort to good old fashioned bribery...and the one thing that they will do anything for, absolutely anything is driving or pretending to drive.
We don't let them drive in the "new" van, but we do let them sit in the driveway in the Camry.
First, you buckle up.
Then, you have to drive to your destination. I had no idea where he was actually "going".

Until I heard him yelling out the window, "I'll have TWO happy meals, chicken nuggets and cheeseburger, with chocolate milk" and then I knew that he and Emily had driven to "Frickdonalds."

I'm sure you think that we go to Frickdonalds on a very regular basis, but no. We really don't. It is either a rainy day lunch and they go to PlayPlace or a quick lunch after ECFE. Either way, our kids LOVE McDonalds. Apparently, more than we ever imagined.

Charlie's Angels

Once upon a time, there were two little kids who pretended to go to the police academy....Now, they work for me, my name is Mommy!

I was just going through my photos for the month of August and deleting...I came across this one, it just made me laugh and I immediately though of Charlie's Angels. This was from a few weeks ago, on a day when both kids came across their rain boots behind the front door... they thought it would be a really good idea to wear them in the swimming pool! Not so much!

finger painting

Dan got out the finger paints yesterday afternoon...Emmy and Louie had fun!
Louie loved finger painting and didn't mind having dirty hands, yet...

Emily loved painting too!

and then Louie realized that he had paint on his hands and he was "dirty." He absolutely HATES to be dirty and have dirty hands.

Summer afternoon

We were playing around outside tonight and for the first time in a really long time, my children were "willing" to sit and let me take their pictures.....

Even Teddy let me take his picture.


Watching a HUGE 747 fly over, clearly loaded to the gills with cargo...sometimes it seems like they're going to just skim the house.
It seems like a new style with photo editing is to make the photo look over exposed. I'm not a huge fan of it, but the exposure and colors in this one were all wonky and running PW's "sunshine" action on it was the only way to go. I love their cute faces!

Happy Birthday Charli!

We went to Charlotte's 2nd birthday party on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for a pool party. We rode out to Wenzel's with Mary, Bill and Louie Lynch; my Louie was very excited to spend time with Lou Bob. He loves Lou Bob.
This is the only picture I got of Charlotte on Sunday. She was hiding from my camera all day. Dan M. was taking Louie and Charli for a swim. This chick never got in the pool.

And this kid refused to get out of the pool. It made for a fun party for me! Dan was out of town, so I was flying solo with the two kids. Thankfully, for their sake, Mary and Bill stepped in to help out!

Here's Lou Bob. He loved the pool also.

and here is the dynamic duo, the 2 Louie's. They had so much fun!

Dirty

Friday night, I had book club and Alex came over with her mom. Emmy and Louie just LOVE Alex; Alex loves to play with them... They played "Ring Around the Rosey"

I think it was Wednesday??? Maybe??? Dan and I were sitting outside talking. Emmy and Louie were playing in the backyard and it got very quiet. I was wondering what they were getting into.... Well, When I went out behind the garage and found this, my children taking a nap in the pile of dirt....

and Emily was so happy and proud of her "cake," she was making a mudd cake in the wheel barrow


Louie finally got his remote control car, the one that he was supposed to get for going poop on the potty. Well, he finally did it! Yeah !!!! and then the Lightening McQueen that I bought on Ebay didn't work. So, off to Target we went to get a different one.... He is pretty happy with this one.

A visit from Becca

A while back, Drea and Becca came down for a visit when Dan and Rick went fishing. We grilled some lunch and had corn on the cob. It was Becca's first time eating the corn right off the cob and she loved it and ate 2 cobs!

Emily is an old pro with the corn on the cob....

The girls loved jumping on the trampoline....such a fun afternoon!

The Carousel

Every Monday, Dan and the kids go to Como Park and meet the dad's from his ECFE class. A couple weeks ago, Tesa and the kids met them over there and had a picnic lunch. It was also free carousel rides that day...

This is the water garden out in front of the Conservatory.

Power blogging and mexican food

I make no excuses, I haven't felt like tweaking any pictures to post here....I've been too busy watching Mad Men. Yes, I started watching another series of past episodes because summer TV is so awful. Reality TV is terrible!
A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids over to Nokomis to fish off the dock. On the way there and back, we spotted a couple of restaurants that we wanted to try. One of them was Dominguez, over on 34th and 50th in Minneapolis (I think??). The dining area is about the size of our living room, not very big! We had fun and the kids loved the burro and the gaucho that was out in front.
The food was good...I guess we're spoiled with Boca Chica and El Burrito...the refried beans however, were delish!

Louie wanted to give the guy a hug before we left....

Nokomis Fishing

Louie wanted to go fishing on his birthday. Dan took the kids over to Nokomis to fish off the big dock over there.


He didn't catch any fish, but was ok with that. He's anxiously awaiting his fishing outing with Grandpa Don!

what is it??

When we built the raised vegetable beds back in May and had the soil delievered along with the organic growing mulch, we planted the little seedlings that had been growing since early March. In the middle of June, a mystery plant was sprouting up in the middle of the tomatoes, I didn't pull it out as it didn't look like a weed.
Then, it began to flower and bud.

Does anyone have any idea of what this is going to be when it grows up??

Swimming

I got up and went into work incredibly early yesterday and so I left work early in the afternoon. When I got home, I took Emmy and Louie over to the Wabun Pool to cool off. It was so awesome over there. The water temperature was so nice!

Dan rode the bike over when he finished mowing the lawn and he brought a picnic dinner with him. We stayed and played until after 7pm.

We are so lucky that Minneapolis added this wading pool so close to our house. I love it and so do the kids!

Baseball.

Louie got a "real" baseball bat, ball and glove from Uncle Rick and Auntie Drea for his birthday. Have I ever mentioned his undying love of baseball?? We can't drive by downtown Minneapolis without him saying "hey, that's the Metrodome, where the Minnensota Twins play." Or else he asks where the Twins play when we drive by St. Paul. We're going to the Twins game on Thursday afternoon for his birthday and he can hardly wait!
But, the point of this post is that he's been outside everyday with his bat and ball practicing. He's actually been out practicing since he got his batter, batter, baseball set in early June. At three, he's able to hit the ball when it's pitched to him. It's awesome that he's able to make contact with the ball!

He cranked this one across the yard tonight. We don't have a big yard, but it was still a great hit!

Then his Dad helped him put on his new glove and he practiced catching and throwing the ball. He still needs work on throwing, sort of side arms the ball.

But I see weeknights and weekends spent at the baseball diamond in my future. AND I see him really enjoying outdoor baseball at Target field next summer! Yeah!!! Can't wait to see what game we get in the season ticket package we bought into! It's going to be so much fun!

Pirate Party!!!

We had Louie's "Pirate Birthday Party" on Sunday over at Wabun Park. He has been so excited for his birthday, every day he would ask how many days until his party. It was so much fun!
He is really into pirates right now and asked for a "treasure map" cake. Dan thought maybe we could make one, no way! So, we ordered one from Wuolletts and it turned out awesome! Dan took a plate from the party supplies we had for them to use as a guide. Louie saw it on Saturday and was excited.


Anxiously waiting for his party to start.

The awesome cake, it looked great and tasted great too!

He got lots of pirate stuff. Auntie M found this skull cap at some motorcycle store and he LOVES it!

Lorenzo tried out the eye patch. He isn't big on the pirate thing yet!

Sara and Charli gave him a couple of foam swords. Uncle Scooter and Louie had a little sword fight before the party was over.

Louie got a new eye patch.

Modeling all his new attire.

What a fun day! He received so many great gifts, he loves everything!