Summer 2013

What a wonderful summer we've had! We started it in June with a family wedding. Kyrsten and Craig got married at Rush Creek Golf Course in Maple Grove and both Sophie and Jack were in the wedding.

In July, we headed to Bemidji for Independence Day. The kids and I picked strawberries at a local patch and we sampled delicious berries many along the way.

Celebrating the 4th of July in Bemidji.

We even had a chance to meet up with the Arnold family for lunch.

Sophie and I celebrated her 5th birthday with lunch and dessert at American Girl.

Here's a collage of Sophie through the past 5 years. My little baby is such a big girl now!

We took a very fun trip to the Wisconsin Dells. We spent time at the water park, played mini golf, went on the Duck boat tour, went shopping and had a blast!

This summer, we discovered the Mill City Farmers Market. There are so many great vendors at the market and the view is gorgeous.

We had our friends, the Elingers, over for a dinner and a play date. 

Sophie took this picture of me at the MN Landscape Arboretum.

Spring 2013

Sophie will start Kindergarten in the Fall. The school held an open house and we got to see her classroom and meet the teacher. I think she's going to enjoy her time at school.

To celebrate going from preschool to Kindergarten, Sophie's class held a performance and sang many songs. Since Sophie's the smallest one in her class, she stood right at the very front. In the past, she would never sing along, but this time, she did!

To celebrate Jack's potty training success, we went to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America to enjoy a day of rides. He loved it and we even went on the log ride twice.

Here's the two of them at the Mill City Museum. We learned about flour and baking! The kids are the same height now and Jack weighs a pound more than Sophie. Jack is 20 months younger in age.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Fargo, North Dakota to visit our friends Tyler, Jess, Lexi and Brecker. The kids had fun playing together.

Sophie's favorite toy is "Monkey-La". She even drew a picture of him on her Magnadoodle. Can you see the resemblance?

Jack and Sophie just before Grandma Linda's surprise birthday party. They love to dress up. Later this month, they'll both be in Bryan's cousin Kyrsten's wedding.

Last weekend, we went to an event at Powderhorn Park sponsored by the MN DNR, REI and Minneapolis Parks. We went on a canoe ride and went fishing. Here is a picture of Jack's very first fish!

And here is Sophie's first fish!

Minnesota Children's Museum: Communication

It's no secret that we love the Minnesota Children's Museum. Teaching our kids to communicate in a respectful manner has always been a child development priority at home. So when I saw this blog post from the MCM about the importance of communication, I thought back about the different visits we've had the museum, Sophie and Jack's favorite exhibits and how they've learned to develop their communication skills through fun play.

During a recent visit, Jack (age 2) decided that he wanted to be a mailman when he grows up. So he put on the mailman uniform, grabbed a bag a mail and wandered around, dropping off letters here and there (since he can't read the addresses yet!).  Since that day, Jack has noticed mail trucks driving around in our neighborhood and always points them out. He's keenly aware of the importance of the mailman coming to our mailbox each day to deliver mail and is always very excited when there's a piece of mail addressed to him.

The kids love playing at Sae Mot, the Korean restaurant within the museum. In the picture below, Jack is taking my food order and Sophie (age 4) can be seen in the background, getting food out of the refrigerator. I'm amazed as watch all of the kids work together in unison (yes, sometimes there's a some bickering as a couple of kids both want the broom or the mop-- it's always the cleaning supplies, for some reason). I'm always served by other people's kids and that makes the experience even more fun. When we're out having dinner at a restaurant, Sophie now asks about whether the waiters work there and where to go after work. 

One of Jack's must-do activities at the museum is driving the MetroTransit bus. Over the past couple of years, he's learned to wait patiently in line and then jump on to the driver's seat, turn the wheel and drive for a few minutes before giving the next kid in line a turn. It's a great way to teach patience, taking turns and sharing, all while having fun! (And judging by the pictures, I have a thing for drawing facial hair on my little boy!)

The grocery store! Too bad real-life grocery shopping isn't as fun as pretend grocery-shopping. Both Sophie and Jack love filling up their carts and checking out. I usually sit back and just observe. Mainly because there's not a lot of room in the grocery store, but also because I want to see how they react and work issues out with other kids playing in there. Sometimes, another kid will take Sophie or Jack's half-filled shopping carts. I consider it a lesson in conflict resolution as the kids try to negotiate their way to a compromise.

These communication skills that they learning in their toddler and preschool years will follow them for the rest of their lives. I hope that they grow up to be respectful adults that know how to effectively communicate with friends, family and colleagues.

There are so many things to learn (and the kids don't even realize that they are learning) while playing at the museum. Whenever we go to other wonderful museums in town the kids are always ready to fun around, play and I find myself running after them, saying "don't touch!" and then they always beg to go to the Minnesota Children's Museum instead. So that's where we'll keep going!

Spring Break 2013

This is the first time I think I've ever taken an entire week off work without leaving town. Daycare's closed and Sophie's preschool is on Spring Break, so I'm hanging out with the kids and finding fun things to do around town.

Monday
Day 1! I dropped the kids off at an Abrakadoodle Pirate Adventure Art Camp at Edina Community Ed in the morning and then ran a few errands. Picked up a new shoe rack for our entry way from the Container Store, among other things. The kids cried when I left them at art camp, but after a while, they calmed down and had fun. After art camp, we had lunch together at Noodles, then stopped at the public library. Sophie and Jack both got their first library cards! They checked out a few booked and played around on the computers. In the afternoon, Jack had his 3 year old well-child check-up at the doctor's office. Everything looks great, but like his big sister, he didn't do so well in the vision screening, so he'll be coming with us when we go to the eye doctor later this month.

Tuesday
Homemade pancakes for breakfast! I could get used to this :) Then we played "library storytime" in our living room.  Later in the morning, we went to the Mall America for Toddler Tuesday, where we met a couple of Lalaloopsy characters.

Jennie and Tristan met us there and we had lunch together and then went on a few Nickelodeon Universe rides together.

After that, we went through the Lego store and then checked out the Disney Store before heading home. Doesn't Sophie look just like Boo from Monsters, Inc.?

We're watching Wreck-It Ralph right now, one of our favorite movies!

Wednesday
This has been our most low-key day so far. I made homemade waffles and sausage for breakfast this morning. The kids went to Grandma's house for a couple of hours while I met my colleagues for lunch. We stopped at the mall for a bit and then headed over to my friend Patty's house for a play date with her kids. Sophie and Jack both had a fun time.

Jack's been potty training and it's been a different experience with him than we had with Sophie. He's actually started the process earlier, but he's not overly motivated, so we set an alarm every 60-90 minutes to remind him to go. He'll be rewarded with an outing to Nickelodeon Universe once he's fully potty trained and he's excited for that experience.

Thursday
Crepes for breakfast! We went to Como Zoo and Conservatory today. They had a Toddler Thursday event going on in the lobby area and the kids enjoyed playing with lots of musical instruments and doing arts and crafts projects. We thought the weather was going to be a bit warmer, so unfortunately, many animals were inside today.

We packed a picnic lunch and ate outside. I'm trying to get more ideas to pack for Sophie once she starts Kindergarten in the Fall.

It was nice to walk around the conservatory and see all of the pretty flowers and plants. The Sunken Garden area smelled lovely!

On the way home, we stopped by the park and played outside for a bit, until we got too cold from the wind.

Friday
We met Jennie at the Minnesota Children's Museum in the morning and then we went to Cosetta's for lunch-- YUM! The kids had fun playing at the different exhibits in the museum and we especially enjoyed the two new exhibits-- Dora the Explorer and Secrets of Circles.

Saturday
Made French toast for breakfast this morning and then we headed to the Mall of America for their free Saturday morning movies. Today, they were showing The Muppets. Sophie really enjoyed the movie and it was Jack's first time watching a movie in a theatre. In the beginning, he was wondering why they turned off the lights! We had lunch at the mall and then we all went on the log ride at Nickelodeon Universe. It was both Bryan and Jack's first time on the ride and we all had fun.

So I guess that's the end of Spring Break. It was so much fun and I loved spending time with the kids.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Jack!

We've had a busy and fun-filled winter. Sophie is now 4 1/2 years old and Jack is almost 3 and recently, we turned both kids forward-facing in their car seats. This was Sophie's reaction. Even when we were driving at just 15 mph, she thought we were going so fast. Both kids were waving at the on-coming cars.

Sophie recently quit sucking her thumb! We are so proud of her and she is very proud of herself. To celebrate, we had lunch with her dolls at the American Girls store at the Mall of America. Then we went on rides at Nickelodeon Universe (just the humans, not the dolls). Pictured below (L-R): Rebecca McMillan, Sophie, baby Calla. 

Sophie is enjoying preschool and will start Kindergarten in the Fall and Jack will be starting preschool. Sophie's class has a pet cat (don't worry, it's just a puppet) and she brought it home, complete with it's own kennel, for the weekend. She named the kitty kat "Buttercup" and wrote in a journal about what they did together. Buttercup even watched Sophie during her swimming lesson!

Hard to believe, but Jack is almost 3 years old! We celebrated with a birthday party at the Williston Treehouse. The kids ran and played in the treehouse adventure area had a blast. My dear sweet boy is growing up to be such a kind and gentle little man.

Jack loves the Disney Jr. show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates", so that was the theme of his birthday party.