Two Years

Seems like a long time, but it has gone by in the blink of an eye....



Thinking back to two years ago, here and here..... +
I miss my Dad.

More Sibling LOVE!

A shot last night from around the campfire....I love my 50mm/f1.2 lens! Couldn't have gotten this shot without it!
on a side note, me and my three siblings are rarely together, ever....last night we were.

Sibling Love

The Graduate

Emily's very first babysitter graduated from high school last week!

Congratulations Claire!

Target Field

We went to our first Twins game this season at Target Field and it couldn't have been a more perfect day! Dan couldn't go, so we took my nephew, Patrick with us. He's a big sports fan! To avoid parking downtown and to also avoid the lightrail, we drove over to Minneapolis and took the bus.
We walked 2 blocks down 7th Street, rigth into the Plaza.

Then headed up the stairs to our seats. Emmy and Louie were so excited!
the view from our seats was great!

Across the field is the Budweiser Beer Drinking Deck.
View of the field from our seats:
Louie and I walked the whole concourse. Our seats are directly above the little red spot on the MLB Logo. You can see Emily's white Twins cap....
a
a view from the expensive seats....directly behind home plate.
A wide angle shot from our seats.
the scoreboard with the largest TV monitor at any field in MLB.
I guess this thing lights up to show their hands shaking when the Twins hit a homerun. They had a tough game on Sunday and I don't recall if they hit one...

Louie got a souvenier "inaugural season baseball."
Emily had to sit in the front seat of the bus, all by herself on the way home! She was talking to everyone that got off and on the bus.
We had a great time at the game and couldn't have asked for better weather! Outdoor baseball is back... I remember going to Twins games with my grandparents at Met Stadium when I was a kid. They were big Twins fans!

The Wisconsin Dells

We took a short vacation to the Wisconsin Dells a couple weekends ago with some of the Pelletier cousins (the second generation Pelletier cousins). We stayed at Christmas Mountain Village and resided at the House on the Hill (the townhome portion of this HUGE resort was built on land that resembled the streets of San Francisco. It was CRAZY!)
On Friday, we went to the Kalahari waterpark on Friday and then went to the pool at the resort on Saturday. After naps, we headed out to miniature golf.

Auntie Drea is having a new baby boy cousin in May, the little girls spent a few minutes on Saturday feeling his kicking to get out!

Miniature golf

Hole in one!

after dinner, all the dirty kids went up to take a bath in the giant bath tub....

after the other kids got out, we turned the jets on and Becca and Louie enjoyed the bubbles. She washed his hair

Easter (part deux)

Easter Sunday came a little early this year. Emmy and Louie found their baskets and we headed off to church.

They got a light saber and some crocs (and some candy) in their baskets. Louie asked when the Easter bunny had time to shop at Target, because that's where you get a light saber....

Oh, and they got some new sunglasses and undies too.

Emily was so careful and deliberate about going through her basket. Either that or she was still half asleep.

Then, after church we headed out back to find the eggs that the bunny hid out there. Whew, found them all!

The Easter Bunny screwed up this year...she spotted these cute puzzles at Target and there were some 25 piece puzzles on the shelf next to them....Well, the bunny grabbed the wrong ones and they got 100 piece puzzles.
The Tapio cousins came over and ate a delicious BBQ chicken and ribs dinner. We then played some fun games out in front.

Easter (part one)

Coloring eggs! We colored egges on Saturday before Easter.


I love the concentration that this girl put into coloring the eggs.
and then there is this one....he wasn't concentrating at all.

half the eggs were done. I ordered the egg coloring kit from Coborn's Delivers and it had 9 colors in it! NINE!

Patiently waiting for the coloring process to be complete.

patiently More concentrating going on.

I think we colored a total of 18 eggs. Lots of fun!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

We have another favorite meal around our house....and Emily LOVES to help make it!
Spaghetti and Meatballs! This recipe is in the "easy" catagory and relatively quick to make.

Dan and I were pleasantly surprised to watch our kids clean their pasta bowls when we served this to them last week. Twisty noodles are a definite favorite.