Duluth / Two Harbors Weekend

We were able to go up north this past weekend. We had actually planned it some time ago, long before our previous invitation to Lutsen (thanks again Sarah and Luke!). So we headed up north again, just a short 3 weeks after our last trip. We stayed at Superior Shores in Two Harbors and played around that area.

We stayed in a lakefront condo, which was very, very nice. We were right on the lake. There were spots you could stand in, where you could not see any shoreline, so there were times it felt like you were on a boat. The weather was overall nice. And the lake was open, free of ice. This was new from the 3 weeks ago when we drove past last, and it was frozen solid then. Now it's open and ships were traveling in the distance.

The kids loved the view. Andrew kept saying 'splash, spalsh' when the waves would crash outside of our window. He also loved seeing the birds and loved the big whirlpool tub in our condo. Cailin thought the big swimming pool at the lodge was swell as was their hot tub. She would have spent the whole weekend with blue lips traveling between the pool and hot tub.

We went to Gooseberry Falls (above, flowing fast under the ice, it was loud) and into Two Harbors a few times (hey, Pamida has great toys to play with in case you didn't know...) We also stopped in Duluth on our way up and way home so we got to spend some time hiking around Canal Park.

We had an amazing sunrise on Saturday.

We all had a blast and happy to say we have another 'trip' under our belts. We love to travel and are thrilled the kids do too!

wow, that's a lot of snow!

We got another wonderful snowstorm last week. It was swell. Not to say that our lawns were clear of snow and it was really looking like spring. Mother Nature had something else in mind. Nice and wet and heavy too. Swell.

The only thing about March snow storms that is nice, is that it's generally gone pretty quickly.

Geez. blasted snow!

Reading the paper

It is common in our house to have the newspaper sitting on the dining room table. Especially on the weekend. Cailin loves to read through the Walgreens ad (yes, it's true) to see what fun stuff they have on sale. Daddy likes to read the Menards, Home Depot, Lowe's ads and such. Mommy usually reads the actual news sections. So then Andrew had to get on board. So he decided he wanted to read about food. Not shocking to anyone that knows him. It was quite a site, the whole family looking at the newspaper at once. I was only able to capture Andrew still reading though, even after everyone else was all done. Hey, he even has it right side up this time!

What's even funnier is that neither Mike nor I have many books or spend a lot of time reading. The kids must have gotten some mutunt gene or something. Because they both LOVE to read!

Easter 2008

This year, as with most holidays and birthdays, we had several different Easter celebrations. The first one was actually held on Palm Sunday and the Lechelts house. There was a big group and there was an Easter egg hunt in the yard. It was little chilly and the snow posed a few obstacles, but none the less everyone had a blast! Plus the candy was super yummy, or so I'm told.

The next Sunday, the kids woke up and the first thing Cailin wanted to do was to look to see if the Easter bunny had left a basket for her. Which, sure enough he had. Andrew got one to of course.
Then we were off to Pine Island to visit Grandma and Grandpa Friary. We played with the puppies too - including the new puppy Bullit. The kids had a blast. There were Easter baskets there too and the kids played and played and played. They got soaked playing in the sink and then played in the tub. Hey, who needs real kiddo toys when you have water and tubs to play in I guess.......

Field trip

Cailin went on a field trip with her ECFE (early childhood family education) class on Friday. We went to Richardson Nature Center in Bloomington. We met at the school where we have class to meet up with the bus. She was a little nervous about riding the bus, but got on board and sat very quietly. Then as the bus got going, she got more comfortable and turned to me and said "mommy, I'm riding a big yellow school bus!". It was super cute. I actually found myself a little misty at the fact, seeing her, looking so grown up and all. I wondered what had happened to my little pipsqueak of a baby. Goes quickly!

Here, the big girl on her first big bus ride!!

She had a lot of fun. The purpose of the trip was to learn about how to make Maple Syrup, so the kids got to learn about trees and the maple syrup making process. It was quite fun. A little chilly, but overall pretty fun!

Cailin's favorite part of the trip was drilling into the tree and pounding the spiggot into the tree. She thought that was pretty cool.
Here, she was sampling some of the homemade syrup. Yum, she wanted more, more more!

Andrew got stuck at daycare that day, but had fun. He was a little confused as he left with Daddy and mommy and Cailin were still at home. But we picked him up after daycare and got Shamrock shakes (which he polished before we even got home....) and then went to the mall for haircuts and dinner.

Lutsen Weekend

Our neighbors and new friends, Luke and Sarah invited us up to their family cabin outside of Lutsen this past weekend. It was our first long drive and our first vacation with both kiddos. It was sort of a trial run, but we were very excited for our trip. Luke and Sarah have two boys, Caleb, who is almost 3 and Dawson, who is 9 months old. The kids had a blast together and the adults did too, if I do say so myself!

This is Cailin and Dawson. Cailin and Andrew were very taken by him. Although Andrew did get very, very jealous if mom paid any attention to Dawson.

The cabin was beautiful and Caleb was kind enough to share his toys with Cailin and Andrew. The kids had a lot of fun playing. We went to Lutsen Resort and went swimming in the pool and hot tub and then back there for dinner. We also hung out at the cabin quite a bit and enjoyed the wildlife. It seemed that there were constant deer visitors the entire time we were there.

Here, one deer was hopping on it's back legs to eat the bird food. There were times when we had six or so deer right outside the dining room window!!

We had great food and great company!! The trip back was also uneventful. Made Mike and I feel almost like 'regular' people again. Getting out, traveling - we haven't done that in a few years.

One of the kids' favorite games was a foosball table - that they called the 'soccer ball game'. All three of the bigger kids (Dawson would have played, but he was busy doing other things....) really enjoyed playing that pretty much non-stop.

Caleb and Cailin were busy with lots of games. Caleb introducted Cailin to Veggietales and Cailin suggested she and Caleb build a Duplo tower bigger than both of them together.

Thanks again to our neighbors for a wonderful weekend!!!

Playing with the Laundry Basket

With the cold winter days, we still are creating some fun games. The kids found the laundry basket and we took 'rides' in the basket all around the house. Big fun!!

Boy, are we excited for warmer weather!!!!

Goofball

Andrew has been sick lately and was certainly feeling better this past weekend. He was back to himself and up to his old tricks.

The first thing he did was find Dad's old coffee pot. Dad got a new one and Drew found the old one waiting by the door. So he helped himself to the coffee pot and started to lick it. He's never had coffee before, but apparently, he likes it.

Next, he found one of mom's t-shirts and insisted on wearing it. He brought it to mom and said "shirt on" over and over again. So on it went. It was a little big.Then he found a pair of dress shoes in Cailin's closet. Cailin and Drew are the same shoe size now, so he decided to try them on. They matched his outfit very well. He liked wearing them though....
He's got quite the sense of humor!

Cailin is 3!

Cailin is three years old. Hard to believe. We had a few parties, as usual, to celebrate.

We had a party with the Friary side of the family at Uncle Gary and Aunt Rhonda's place. We had a cupcake-cake and played with the family all day. We didn't want to go sliding when everyone went outside, so we just watched from the window.

Then Cailin had a party at daycare and a party on her birthday night. She wanted to go to Culver's for dinner on her birthday because she liked the idea of the ice cream they have there. We also went shopping and Cailin picked out a new chair for her bedroom.

Then a few days later, she celebrated with mommy's family. We had cake, candles and presents once again. Bear even got a present. Big fun!! Andrew liked to 'help' with the presents.

I think she likes her birthday pretty good and she LOVES to celebrate the 'birthday season'!

Winter fun...again

Ok, so we have been a little bored in the house. Between the bitterly cold weather and constant illness traveling through our family, we've been somewhat stir-crazy inside.

Cailin had been rumaging through the cupboards and found a box of wine glass charms in one of the drawers. She decided that they must be jewelry and took each one out. Then put them on all of her fingers and toes and viola! This is what you get.

She got a little frustrated when she tried to walk around with them on. Goofball.

Yes, we do really feed him....

A week or so ago, Andrew decided he needed to eat more. We had just finished breakfast and he was playing, then all of a sudden, he headed over to his high chair and was saying "hop up" repeatedly. I reminded him that we had just (and I mean just as in within the last 1/2 hour) finished breakfast and trying to joke with him about it. He did not think I was super funny and resorted to hanging from the tray of the high chair and complaining continually about it.

We really do feed him. A lot.
:)

Sunglasses

The kids found a few old pairs of mom's sunglasses. "In the day"... they were pretty fancy schmancy sunglasses costing mom a good chunk of her paycheck (probably date back to high school or college) - so Mom would have cringed to have seen the kids do this years ago. But times have changed and kids rule the house, so they enjoyed this...

Andrew would not keep his hands off of the glasses, so he walked around the house with the glasses on and then would either tip his head way back or hold onto the glasses the whole time. Cailin was more free about it.
Hey, when it's 15 below zero, you try to find exciting new games!

Mama's birthday

We had sort of a spread out birthday celebration for mom this year. We were out of town for the big day, so had a pretty mellow celebration.Uncle John, Auntie Melissa and cousin Michael sent this cool fruit bouquet - the kids LOVED it!! It was super yummy - Thanks!!

New Year's Day Fun - Before AND After

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve, after the kids went to bed the 'adults' (scary to say that) kept up the family tradition of Fondue. Otherwise, no clubbing or watching balls drop or anything crazy like that.


Then on New Year's Day, it was pretty casual as well. The kiddos of course love to be home. And what we're finding these days is that if the two of them are together, and it's quiet - there is probably some type of trouble brewing. Well, this was one of those days.





The other important fact in this story is that when we moved into this house, we didn't have any towel bars, toilet paper holders, shelves, anything really in the bathrooms. So that was one of our first tasks, only to realize that toilet paper ON the roll is BIG fun for toddlers. So we've been storing items up on the sink vanity - trying to keep it out of reach. Well, our kids are resourcesful, and this is what happened.

Notice how Andrew is just watching from a distance and WHO the real instigator was on this?? Yes, that is how it is most of the time....

Then soon after, we headed to Lowe's to pick out a cabinet that could be hung high up on the wall. It won't stop them, but hopefully it will slow them down at least. for now.

Christmas

We had several Christmas celebrations this year. The first was on Sunday the 23rd with a trip to Pine Island. We were at Grandma and Grandpa's place with Katrine and Tony, Wanda and Sean, Grandma Bea and Grandpa Norm as well. It was a ton of fun! The kids slowly got into the spirit by ripping the paper, but wanted to play for extended periods of time with each item they received, so they didn't want to move on to the next item. But overall, they had a blast! The drive home wasn't as much fun as we had gotten a few inches of new snow during the day and it was blowing and drifting quite a bit. But, with taking our time, we eventually made it back home for #2.

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house with Oma, Uncle and Uncle Chris over. The kids loved running around the house and Cailin kept looking at the tree with all the 'loot' under it and wanting to open presents. She played "santa" this year by delivering presents to everyone throughout the night.

Then of course Santa came Christmas Eve at our house. So when the kids got up, Cailin was very curious to see what this meant. She had been somewhat scared of Santa before, so this was interesting now. When she got into the living room she said "mom, Santa really did come AND he left presents!" She was so excited. So we spent most of the rest of the day opening presents and stockings and then Mike was putting toys together and then playing with them. Mike said his favorite toy was one of Andrew's car track presents. Funny!

We are truly blessed and had a wonderful Christmas, healthy and happy!

Nick and Vanessa's Wedding

We were invited to Daddy's cousin's wedding, which was held on December 22nd. It was a very nice affair. The kids had a blast and it was nice to see the whole family. Usually the family gets together at Nick's dad's place - Gary and Lee's for the annual Christmas gathering. But since Nick and Vanessa were getting married that day, the annual Christmas gathering changed a bit to a wedding with all the family there!! Uncle Sean and Aunt Wanda even made the 12 hour journey to attend it!! (thanks to an overturned papaya truck, yes papaya on the highway, it made for a very, very long journey for them).
Anyway, the wedding was beautiful and Cailin was so excited to see everyone, especially her buddy Jessie (the groom's little sister). They had fun playing and Cailin liked looking at everyone's pretty dresses.

At the reception, we sat with Uncle Dan, Auntie Buzzy, Kayla, Joey and Christopher as well as Wanda and Sean. It was a very fun time. Cailin's favorite part was the cake and insisted that we not leave until cake was had. She also liked the dancing, although we didn't get to do too much of that since the dancing started just as we were leaving. But it certainly was a lot of fun!!

Congratuations Nick and Vanessa!!

Setting Up the Christmas Tree

We had a night out (thanks to our daycare person, she watched the kiddos for us as a Christmas present for the evening) and went for a nice dinner and then got our Christmas tree. We even had time to set up at home in the stand before picking up the kids.

The next morning, we got the tree all decorated with the help of the kids. Cailin did her annual duty by putting the angel on top of the tree when it was all done.
Andrew LOVES having the lights up. He wants to have them on all the time, he'll just keep saying 'light, on' over and over and over.

No nap day

There are several days at day care when the kids don't sleep for whatever reason. This day was one of those days. Usually when I pick them up and they haven't slept, it's been a long day for everyone. We were eating dinner and I noticed that Andrew was nodding off in his high chair, which I don't think I've ever seen him do at home. So I pointed it out to daddy and we tried briefly to keep him awake, but no luck.

He fell asleep mid-dessert with a cookie still in his hand. He had a nice, short power nap and woke up pretty cheery and upbeat!!!

Must have been a long day at the office!