We celebrated Cailin's 4th birthday this past week. She was so excited and was really looking forward to it (just like her mom does). Cailin (below) working on her new puzzle with Oma.
She had a party at daycare during the day and then another one with family that night.We had Oma, Uncle and Uncle Chris over for dinner and cake. Andrew was being helpful saying "Happy Birthday Cailin" over and over and over again. He also wanted to help open presents and asked "where's my presents?"
Andrew sitting on Oma's lap eating the rest of her dessert. He seems to like the whipped cream the best!
Here, the kids apparently dragged everything into Cailin's room to play. Andrew found his Halloween costume that he wouldn't wear for more than 5 minutes on Halloween, but wouldn't take off this weekend. Cailin wanted to put on one of her Care Bear costumes too.
Andrew was also complaining about not wanting his picture taken, so Mike said he'd take a picture of his puppy instead. Andrew thought that was funny!
We spent the day in Pine Island with Mike's family. His sisters were both there (even Wanda and Sean from Wisconsin were here - YEAH!). The kids were crazy yet again, although you can't blame them. The kids opened stockings first, then went to the big stuff. 
So the house is destroyed and there is stuff everywhere. But everyone is finally healthy, happy and content. The house will clean itself soon I'm sure....
We are very blessed to have a larger family. Not huge, but a pretty good sized group. So this year, as with other years, we attend a few Christmas gatherings. The first one was with Mike's side of the family on Saturday the 20th. For those of you who live here, you will remember that day as the day of snow, ice and blowing snow. For those of you who live elsewhere....feel grateful you did not have to drive that day here. (the drive was a bit tough, but with 4wheel drive, it helped that's for sure).
Andrew in his new Wild hat - he loves that hat!
Andrew was excited to get a new Lacrosse stick from his cousin Joey. Joey was showing Andrew how to use it. Thankfully, the ball is very soft and we didn't break anything.
We had a great time seeing everyone and the kids were excited to pass out presents and open them. Cailin has been unofficially appointed (or self-appointed) as the present hander outter person. (ok, so that's not gramatically correct, but it works)
Christopher (Choppy), being a ham-bone.
Here, we were just finishing up dinner and Andrew had disappeared down the hall to do 'something' as he said, which usually means he doesn't know why he's going but will figure it out when he gets there. He ended up in the bathroom and made quite a mess with the soap. (Incidentally, he loves to put his hood up if he has a sweatshirt on, not quite sure why, but he loves doing that, which is shown in this shot as well).
Cailin has been practicing her sign language, she's spelling her name in this one ('l').
The kids also were trying on their glasses they made at daycare a few months back.
In these pictures, he had just woken up from a long winter's nap and still had his "fire" in his mouth. Silly guy! He would paint the windows and I'd steer him clear of the wet paint.
Andrew also liked playing with his football and his Uncle Dan and cousin Christopher showed him how to 'strip' the ball from people. Then he spent the rest of the day practicing.
We had a bbq lunch and played and played. It was a beautiful fall day, hard to believe it was actually November. It was beautiful and we took full advantage of being outside almost all day.
We met up with Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Katrine and Tony and Auntie Wanda at Katrine's house. We had a bbq supper and played more. We finally rolled out of town at 8pm and the kids were so pooped out, they slept the whole way home.
Caillin was very, very excited to go trick-or-treating. Daddy and Cailin went over to Auntie Buzzy (Rayna) and Uncle Dan's house in Chanhassen to trick or treat. They had a blast. They trick or treated with Uncle Dan, Joey, his girlfriend, Tiffany and Christopher. Cailin chattered the entire time, soaking it all up (and coming home with a large loot of candy).
Andrew LOVED handing out candy. We were playing with playdoh inbetween trick or treaters, but then it became so often that he'd camp himself in the doorway (door open) kneeling and saying "mama, more kids coming?". I'd tell him "yes, we have lots more kids coming!". He was very happy.
Cailin found some Halloween cupcakes and decided it was her lion's (her most treasured stuffed animal for those of you who don't know...)birthday, so we needed to have a birthday party for him. The polished their cupcakes in no time and have evidence remaining on their faces to prove it.
So we packed up the camper and headed to Norwood Young America to Baylor Regional Park (part of the Carver County Park System). It was beautiful! They had several playgrounds (important to our family), and lots of room to run around. We also played by the lake and our campsite backed up to a stream. It was chilly at night (very thankful for heat in our camper) and early in the mornings and then rained as we awoke Sunday morning (thankful for NOT being in a tent and possibly getting wet...).
Cailin and Andrew brought their trikes with and CRUISED full steam ahead on the paths. We did forget our helmets, which we'll need to remember next time considering how many times I said "guys, slow down please...."
e the restroom and would happily snack in the car while watching movies - she's the easy one.
We had a blast hanging with Auntie Wanda and Uncle Sean. We played at their house, took walks, went to the playground (we even spent time on the volleyball court teaching the kidlins a thing or two about blocking and hitting), visited the Milwaukee Zoo and just hung out by the campfire, roasted s'mores - etc. We had fun. It was nice to spend so much time with Wanda and Sean.