Joey's Graduation Party

Our cousin Joey graduated from Chaska High School and had his graduation party a couple of weekends ago. It was a beautiful day and he had a great turnout. Joey is off to the University of Wisconsin - Madison next year and wanted to do his party in a red and white theme (ala Madison colors). He's very excited.

It was a warm day, but we spent most of it outside playing games, running around, visiting with people, playing on the swingset -having a great time!!

Uncle Sean and Auntie Wanda drove up and spent the night with us. As soon as Andrew woke up (which was at 6:30am) he wanted to go down and give Uncle Sean a 'good morning' hug and kiss. The kids missed their Auntie and Uncle!
The kids loved playing and running around in the back yard.

Cheese Fest

One of the traditions we try to hit each and every year is something called Cheese Fest in Pine Island MN. Mike grew up in Pine Island and the second weekend in June has always been taken over by Cheese Fest since he was a small child. They bring in carnival rides and games, food vendors and have entertainment and games all weekend long. We originally were going to camp down there for the weekend, but ended up needing to cancel due to other weekend engagements that had come up. We spent the entire day on Saturday in Pine island.Cailin was ready to go on all the rides as soon as we arrived. The rides didn't start going until 1pm, so we hit the playground first for a little play time.


Lauren and Cailin on the swings.

Cailin even went on this ride (see above) - it's the kiddie roller coaster, which actually had some speed to it. She had a great time. I'm sure having Lauren with her helped a lot! She was the rule girl. The attendant told the kids they needed to hold on and as soon as the ride got going, one kid a few seats back had her hands up in the air (like most of us do) and Cailin was trying to correct her "you have to hold on, please put your hands down...."

Andrew was more apprehensive about the rides, wanting to watch his big sister first, then maybe hit a ride or two. By the end of the day, he was the first in line and wanted to go 'again mommy!'. We were blessed with lots of free ride tickets through a family friend and so we had an abundance of rides that day.

Mike's cousin, Kelly came down with her three kids and they played on the rides. The youngest, Lauren was willing to go on rides with Cailin (lauren is a year or two older than Cailin). Cailin was in heaven being with Lauren and was very brave to go on all the rides Lauren wanted to go on.
Andrew actually got to pose next to the firetruck (below) that his great grandpa drove along time ago. He also got to climb inside a current fire truck and check it out. He was amazed. He said he wanted to drive one when he gets bigger.



Andrew wiped out at the very end and cracked his head on the ground when he tripped over his feet while running away from me. Cailin scraped her elbows on a ride, so those were the only two injuries. Although Mike and I managed to get quite sunburned, me more than him. I always forget to sunscreen myself since I'm busy lathering up the kids.

They were so tired by the end of the day. We also had cousin Joey's graduation party the next day, so we headed home Saturday night from Pine Island and as soon as we got home, we all crashed.

Camping - part two

We spent four nights at Baker Park in Maple Plain, then headed down to Pine Island to visit Mike's family for the weekend and took the camper. We figured it was already packed, the kids' loot was all tucked safe and sound inside so we'd just keep driving.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpas and Grandpa had his mustang outside and his John Deere Tractor. We got the camper all set up and then Andrew wanted to take a tractor ride. Cailin and Grandma disappeared to the playground on Cailin's bike. The kids were totally pooped out Saturday night.

Wanda was in town from Milwaukee and Katrine and Tony came up and we all had dinner together. It was also the birthday weekend, as we celebrated Mike and Wanda's birthday. The kids enjoyed 'helping' open presents.

Cailin isn't really captured in any of these pictures because she was off playing, having tea parties, playing on the neighbors swingset, going to the playground - etc etc. Grandma and Cailin disappeared for awhile, off playing.....

We also saw cousin Kelly and her children, which Cailin and Andrew both LOVE to play with the kids!

We had one last visit with Great Grandma Bea as we headed out of town on Sunday. But Andrew was soooooo tired, he actually fell asleep in my arms and slept through the entire visit. Cailin chose to sleep the whole way home while Andrew watched "Cars".

Then, when we got home, it was laundry time! I don't think I've ever seen so much laundry piled in front of the washing machine - yikes!

First Camping Trip of the Season

We ventured out for our first camping trip of the season last week. We were gone almost a whole week, so it was a brave one at that. The kids were pretty excited, or I should say Cailin was super excited. Andrew appeared like he didn't know what we were talking about when we discussed camping and sleeping in the camper and camp fires - etc. But he soon remembered and jumped right into his bed upon arrival to test it out.

We went with our neighbors and friends, Luke, Sarah, Caleb and Dawson. We went to Baker Park Reserve which is part of the Three River's Park District in Maple Plain, MN. It's super close and now with the new Hwy 12 bypass, it's really quick too! The weather was great, cool the first night (needed the heat on) and then pretty warm the following days (needed the A/C). A little bit of rain the last night overnight.

The assorted animals had to join (below) us on our trip as well. They mostly watched but occasionally were dragged to the different destinations....

Since we were there during the week, the campground was pretty empty, but then Friday night, things filled up. We spent time in the lake - Cailin and Caleb are little fish - they loved the water and we had to drag them out kicking. Andrew and Dawson hung out near the shore, getting their feet wet or playing in the sand. We also spent time at their huge playground as well as at our campsites playing with the large quantity of toys and bikes that we had brought. Made it really fun! Nevermind the pictures with the kiddos in their jammies - hey it was vacation right? The kids certainly kept busy. We were all tired by the end of each day.

S'mores were of course a big hit and everyone loved that too. On the last night, we pulled Cailin and Caleb out of bed (since they are the older two)so they could stay up late and sit around the campfire with the adults and they LOVED that. Cailin reported that was her favorite part.
Masher with lots of left over chocolate on his face. After this picture was taken, the chocolate was promptly wiped on mom's sweatshirt. Nice look!