Cousins

We had a blast last weekend when Bart's brother and his family came to visit us for a couple of days. All of our kid's cousins live in either Utah or Boston so this was a great treat for the girls to play with their cousins. We spent one whole day at the MOA riding rides (Amy & I did a bit of shopping too.)





The next day we went downtown Mpls. We ate a picnic lunch on Nicollet Island and then walked a 2 mile loop called Heritage Trail. We began by walking through St. Anthony Main in the Riverfront District. We walked across the stonearch bridge which has a great view of St. Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi, and back across the Hennepin Ave. bridge.






That afternoon we swam in the pool, had a BBQ and went canoeing on our lake. We're going to meet up with them again at the end of their road trip in Nauvoo. It was nice to just say "see you in 2 weeks!" Rather than good-bye.

Fun Fourth

We had a great time hanging out with friends this fourth of July. Aren't good friends wonderful? First, we had a little BBQ with the Barringers then our friends, the Stanton's, came up from Georgia to visit and we hung out with them and the Stotts for some fun with fireworks. It really was a lot of fun celebrating the freedom of our country with fabulous friends.

butterfly

Our kids love finding catterpillars and raising them to butterflies. We found this catterpillar at our lake hanging out on some milkweed. Here he or she is just before it flew off.

Duluth

We just got back from our 2nd annual trip to Duluth with the Amott family to run some races. Ande & I ran a 5K on Friday night then Bart and Rob ran the 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning.

Ande and I just had a goal of finishing the race since we were both dealing with some injuries but lo and behold we finished and even beat our race time from last year by about 2 minutes! We finished the race in 31 minutes and 40 seconds.

Ande totally pushed me to the finish line (not literally...in a good way!) If I'd been running it by myself I'm sure I would've slowed down or even walked a bit but Ande kept us at a good pace the whole way and we didn't stop once. She's a great friend and running buddy! Thanks Ande!

Bart and Rob did excellent too. I'm so proud of Bart for his endurance and dedication to running! Bart ran the 1/2 marathon in 2 hours and 21 minutes! Way to go Bart...I love you!

Last year we stayed at UMD dorm rooms. This year we stayed at the Edgwater Resort that had an indoor waterpark. MUCH better place to stay!! We all loved it! Here are some more pictures from the rest of the weekend.

This is the before and after shots of our kiddos that ran the kid's whipper snapper races on Friday afternoon. James, Lizzie, Summer & Kenzie each ran in their respective 100 yard dash races then Ainsley ran 1/4 mile race.

Ande & I during and after our race.

Bart giving high-5's to the girls as he ran by. This was at the 9 mile mark. He only had 4 more to go after this.

The Edgewater Hotel had a really fun indoor water park. Our rooms had views of the waterpark.

Late one evening outside the hotel TikiTom (the hotel's mascot) gave the girls a push on the swings.

Sunday afternoon we walked along Lake Superior.

The lift bridge behind Summer & Bart.

Lake Superior.

First tooth!

Macky lost her 1st tooth right before we left for Duluth! Her adult tooth has almost fully grown in already right behind it and FINALLY that baby tooth fell out! She was so excited and even more excited that the tooth fairy found her all the way in Duluth!

Toes

Saturday, June 12th.... first official day of summer vacation....

wanted to do something fun for the girls for doing a great job at school this year so we all went to get our toes painted.

All the Asian ladies just loved Summer with her cute voice and blonde-blonde hair.

It was a fun girly thing to do.

Budding artists

Yesterday was the last day of school.

Ainsley celebrated her freedom by having her 1st late-over at a neighbor's house (since we don't do sleep-overs). She spent the evening eating pizza and watching back-to-back Tinkerbell movies with her good friend Lilly who lives right behind us. They lasted until 10:20 when Lilly's mom brought Ainsley back because Lilly had fallen asleep. Ainsley, my night owl, could've gone longer but what do you do when your friend has sacked out??

Kenzie, Summer and I watched Kit Kittredge then they got to watch a Barbie movie in their room on sleeping bags with a little TV we brought in for the special occasion. Between movies Summer and Kenzie drew some beautiful pictures of them and me. I'm flattered by the likeness. Summer drew her and me(I'm on the left.) Then Kenzie followed suit with a similar portrait with me on the left again.

Beautiful!

My front door

This is my front door...

This is what I just added to my front door after someone came to my house at 7:45 AM yesterday morning trying to sell me gigantic text books for my kids that would cost me over $500!

I like my front door. My builder wanted to add transem windows on both sides of the door. I took them out of the plan because I don't want people to see me inside my house. If I don't want to open the door for someone I shouldn't have to. I have been known to tell the kids to be quiet and don't answer the door while some stranger is knocking at it. It's MY house! I do not need people intruding into my personal space. Especially, at 7:45 AM when I'm still in my p.j's or at dinner time or right before I'm ready to leave or anytime!

Do you get my drift?

However, my friends are always welcome!!!

swing set

The girls went all last summer with out a swing set? How did they survive? Well, they did no problem. But Bart and I did still want them to have a swing set in their own backyard. We don't mind them playing at friends houses sometimes but we also feel it's really important to have them in our own yard where we can see what's going on. And to have friends and neighbors feel comfortable and want to be at our house and in our backyard.

So we found this one at Costco and the kids LOVE it. I'm sure it'll get a lot of wear and tear this summer. Bart did an awesome job putting it together by himself. (yes, he's that kind of guy that would rather do things himself than ask for help.) And since he didn't break anything doing it I really don't care.

It was cold and drizzely yesterday but that didn't stop the kids from inviting our neighbors over and playing on the new swingset.

River rock

That is the new color of my bedroom. I love it. It is calming, peaceful, tranquil and pretty.

Lemonade stand

The family across the street from us have 3 girls just like us. Two of which are the same ages as Kenzie and Summer. They have all become great little buddies.

Mackenzie and Elle had been planning to do a Lemonade stand all week last week. They were finally able to do it on Friday. It was a bit cloudy out and a little late in the day so they didn't have a ton of customers but that didn't matter one bit to them.

Elle, Kenzie and Reese

They made cute signs for it and felt proud of their entrepreneuring skills. They are keeping their signs and plan to open shop again later this summer. Come by and visit later this summer and bring your nickles!

A customer!

One year

1 year ago today we moved in.

I love our house, and I love our neighborhood.

I love the lake, the paths, the pool and the parks.

I love our neighbors.

Really good choice for us.

I am happy.

Ainsley's birthday

I have a 9 year old now. How did that happen? Amazing what can happen in a decade. 10 years ago I was living in a small student housing apartment complex, working as a travel agent and had 0 kids. Now, I'm in my 2nd home, I don't get paid for my job (well, not monetarely, only in eternal blessings)and I have THREE kids - the oldest one is 9!


Which brings me back to the reason on this blog post....Ainsley. I love this gal. She is such a hoot, so beautiful, talented and fun to be with. She loves to sing, has a wonderful imagination, loves Tink and all her fairy friends, loves to read and is a fabulous older sister to Kenz & Summy.

We let Ainsley invite 3 friends out to dinner this year to celebrate her birthday. She had a lot of fun. And so did her friends. (Do kids get louder as they get older??) She had a hard time just picking 3 friends. She is such a social girl and very friendly to everyone so picking three was hard for her. But she did and they were a fun group. Here are some pictures from that night.