Special

Each week at NELC, there is a special person in the class. This week, it is Louie.
He was VERY excited to be the special person and had a great time going through pictures to pick out some for his poster. He chose the photos that he wanted to bring....
Each of the kids in the class tell the teacher a nice thing about the special person and it gets written on the poster, funny to read what the others are saying about him.
The "special" boy!

Sunshine and happiness....

62....that is what the thermometer said today! After my disagreeable and defiant 3 year old took a nap, we headed up to St. Kate's to feed the ducks our old crusty bread.

The ducks were waddling around on top of the half of the pond with ice on it.

Highlight of the day: sheets on the clothes line!

This was the second best smell of the day....love the smell of charcoal!

Here's the last of the snow left in our yard...and as I was walking around checking thing out, I noticed that all the onions that didn't come up last year are coming up now. The onions are about 2 inches tall now.

We didn't get the patio furniture out yet, so the kids had to sit in the driveway like this:

sort of trailer trash....

the dells, swimming lessons and goggles

We went to the Mall of America last night to exchange a pair of clogs that I ordered for Emily. Those European sizes are so confusing for me! I've been eyeing the summer swim collection at Hanna Andersson, waiting for a sale. The color combo is my absolute favorite!

We needed to get swim suits for our weekend in the Wisconsin Dells in April and also for the many weeks of swimming lessons this summer! We found some goggles at Hanna Andersson too! Emily and Louie put them on in the store and walked around the whole mall with them on, slept in them and also wore them to my office this morning to pick up my computer.

After shopping, we went to Nickelodeon Universe to go on a couple rides. It was really crappy and raining outside, so it was a nice break. First stop, the tour bus.

Louie chickened out on the rides. He headed to Lego Land with Dad to build a race car and check out the Star Wars Lego sets. He thinks that he's old enough for an 800 piece set of Legos to build the Death Star? not a chance!

Emily wasn't afraid of the rides. First we went on Dora and Boots Ferris Wheel.

Then, we went over to the Hot Air Balloon ride. It was fun and Emily loved it!

She really wanted to go on the Backyardigans Swing Along, but I thought she might still be a little young for it. There is a Blues Clues ride coming soon!

We found Louie over in Lego Land and persuaded him to go on the Big Rigs. He wanted to go again and again...

But, we had to go home and get to bed. It was another late night. 8:30 to bed! and they both still love their goggles!

A Long Time Ago.....

I had a blog that I updated more than once a month....
Last month, Dan and I went up to Larsmont, outside of Two Harbors with some friends for a long weekend. Emily and Louie went to Grandma's for the weekend.
We got up there Friday night and unpacked....unpacked the wine.

After a lovely Friday night of dinner and drinks, the boys needed a little hot tub time on Saturday morning to "cleanse" and get ready for the day.

While they were in the hot tub, I headed down to the Lake and took some pictures. Lake Superior is beautiful in the winter.

Then, the guys sent a friend some birthday wishes. We went to a little bar in Two Harbors and had one of the best bloody mary's ever!

This is the law firm that is right across the street from the bar....

We went to Canal Park in Duluth to see what was going on, the Lift Bridge is under construction this winter, while the shipping season is on hiatus. I wondered if they were building a space shuttle in there.

Then we headed out to Park Point to see the beach....this totally reminds me of Florida, minus the ski slopes in the background....

We went for a walk on the beach.
We headed up to Gooseberry Falls.

Check out the stairs that went down to the falls, we decided to go off the beaten path.

After Gooseberry, we headed up to Split Rock.

It was a lovely long weekend!

Dream BIG!

Maybe some day! If this boy keeps up his art of negotiation and manipulation, he'll be very successful some day!

and she sleeps....finally!

A few nights ago, Emily went to bed and she did her typical banging around the bookshelf, playing with her babies and rearranging her clothes in the drawers and closet. After telling her to "get in bed!" several times, she finally crashed.
I went in later to cover her up and this is what I found....

not a great shot, it was taken in with just the light of her nightlight. But you get the idea....

Emily Mary, how does your garden grow?

Louie and I were at Menard's a couple of weeks ago, buying Dan one of those fancy show shovels with the curved handles that are easier on the old back...While we were there, we noticed that they had the garden seedling trays and vegetable seeds out already. We had such success with our plants from last year, I thought we would give that a try again this year. I started the seeds in early March last year. This year, we started them in mid-February. Hopefully, we'll have tomato plants that are a little stronger to start with. We'll see.

First, you put a potting mulch disk in the bottom of the tray and add water.

After the disks have expanded, you put a couple of seeds in the middle of the disk.

We planted tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and watermelons.

Then, once they're all ready, we put them on the ledge of the bay window.

Emily reminds me to water them occasionally.

She is going to be a great little gardener. Last summer, she helped water our gardent and pick tomatoes. Of course, she loves to eat tomatoes and would eat the cherry tomatoes right off the vine.

Happy Valentine's Day (belated)

Yeah, I'm a little behind....but I've been busy watching the Olympics. We've been recording all of the coverage so far and I'm going through it all! Love it!

Speaking of love, Valentine's Day has come and gone and I never posted any of the pictures that I took. I blog-lifted an idea for the kids Valentines this year. (I'm not going to post a link to the other site, her photos of them are much nicer than mine.)

Started trying to get a good shot of each of the kids with the heart pillow....
Add a little message in Photoshop. Resize, print in wallet size and voila:

I even broke out my scrapbooking stuff and used the edge distresser on the photos.

They turned out cute, if I do say so myself....

Yep, terrible pix of the actual Valentine's, but you get the idea. The kids loved them and so have their friends. The photo prints were actually less expensive than buying YoGabbaGabba or Spiderman or Princess Valentine's that we could have ended up with.

Sneak Peek....

We got our lens back from Canon last week, used it on Saturday to take some pictures so we could make some Valentine's for the kids to pass out at their parties at school this week...here's a sneak peek....

Return to me....

We got our lens back and finally it works.....Fed Ex delivered it on Tuesday and I took it outside and took a couple of test shots to see how the focus is working.