Happy Holidays!

Fall 2014

It's been a fun and exciting Fall. Here's a catch up picture of us from Split Rock Lighthouse.

We visited Sever's Corn Maze for the first time on a chilly day and enjoyed the corn pit and other activities.

Jack ended his t-ball season and had a fun time playing and learning the game with the other kids.

Here are some pictures from the first day of school. Sophie is now in 1st grade and Jack just started his second year of preschool.

Sophie's school photo.

We just got home from a fabulous trip to Disneyland! We met Elsa and Anna from Frozen.

We went to Disneyland and to Disney California Adventure.

  

Here we are, all ready to get the high score at Toy Story Mania.

We attended Mickey's Halloween Party and had so much fun trick or treating and taking advantage of the short ride lines.

Sophie was Snow White, Jack was a construction worker, Bryan dressed up as Mr. Incredible and I was Maleficent. It was great to spend time with my sister Michelle and her boyfriend Daryl.

Do I look like Maleficent? :)

Jack and I on Dumbo! 

The kids enjoyed many, many treats during our trip. 

Cars Land at Disney California Adventure is amazing! It felt like we were really in Radiator Springs. 

The kids enjoyed meeting Tigger...

... and Winnie the Pooh.

No one wanted to go home. We had so much fun!

Summer 2014

What a fun and busy summer it has been! We've been enjoying every single day of it. In early June, the kids went to day camp at Camp Christmas Tree. Sophie and Jack spent every single minute of their time at camp outdoors, enjoying the swimming, archery, arts & crafts, singing and playing. They can't wait to go back to camp next year!

My mom arrived a week after and stayed with us for a couple of months. My dad was also here for a while. It was nice to have them visit.

We went to two Minnesota Twins baseball games this summer and lucked out with good weather. The kids even ran the bases after the game.

Bryan and I did the Color Run with our friend Greg. It was messy, but lots of fun. A very well organized 5k.

Sophie turned 6 in July and celebrated with a birthday party in the rain. The kids still had fun and she enjoyed seeing her school friends after a month hiatus.

Jack now weighs a little more than Sophie. Here's a picture of them from the Mill City Museum.

Sophie got her ears pierced! She says it makes her feel "older" and she didn't even cry.

Bryan did his very first triathlon this summer. He's been training hard and has another tri this weekend.

To celebrate the end of summer, we took a long weekend trip to Duluth. We visited Split Rock Lighthouse, Gooseberry Falls and Canal Park. The kids enjoyed the water park at the hotel where we stayed.

It's been a very fun Summer and we're looking forward to the Fall!

Walgreens Diapers review

This is a review for the Well Beginnings brand of diapers, available at Walgreens. I received a package of Size 4 (22-37 lbs) 31 count diapers. My son recently turned 4 and potty trained about a year ago, but he doesn't consistently stay dry at night, so we like to keep a diaper on him overnight.

The diaper was consistent with the other brands of  disposable diapers we have used in the past-- Pampers, Huggies, Luvs, Target and more. I was not able to smell any scents/fragrances. The diaper was sized appropriately and fit my son well. Even when he didn't stay dry at night, his pajamas and sheets were still dry in the morning. This isn't the case with all diaper brands! I don't do my regular shopping at Walgreens, but if I needed to get diapers in a pinch, I would definitely stop at Walgreens and pick up their Well Beginnings store brand diapers.

Here's a picture of the front and the back of the diaper. Cute elephant designs!

Here's a picture of the Walgreens size 4 diaper on the left, compared to Target brand size 5 diaper. 

Notice how they are almost the exact same size. 

 

Picture of the Walgreens diaper open.

Disclaimer: I was selected by Green Moms Meet to receive a free sample of Walgreens brand diapers to try and review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Paris- July 2014

One of the highlights of my summer has been my trip to Paris in July. I traveled there with Jennie and met up with Swany, YC, Sam and Gwen from high school. We had an amazing time!

Sightseeing during our 4 days in Paris:

• Musee d’Orsay
• Musee du Louvre
• Arc de Triomphe
• The Panthéon
• Sainte-Chapelle
• Palace of Versailles
• Went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower
• Saw the Centre Georges-Pompidou
• Saw the Palais Garnier
• Went shopping in the Marais district
• Notre Dame de Paris
• Montmartre/Basilica of the Sacré Cœur
• Shopping on Champs-Élysées 

Food :)

• Ladurée  on Champs-Élysées (famous for their macarons)- had breakfast there and it was one of my favorite meals. Still dreaming about their French toast. They also have the best bread I tasted in Paris.
• Le Comptoir du Relais- famous for French cuisine, waited a long line for a table and menu was entirely in French, but it was a cool experience.
• Le Perchoir- not sure if you enjoy tasting menus, but this is one of the best I've ever had. Might be a nice evening out for you and your wife. They have an amazing rooftop bar with great service and views of Paris, including Montmartre/Basilica of the Sacré Cœur.
• Le Garde Robe- hole-in-the-wall wine and cheese bar located near the Louvre. They will recommend wines based on your preference and I really liked their charcuterie and cheese plate.

Winter/Spring 2014

We're been busy! Here's a picture of Sophie and Jack at Tristan and Colin's birthday party at the Maple Maze. The kids had fun playing with friends,eating pizza and cake and running around. It's been a harsh winter, so we're always looking for ways to burn energy indoors.

Another birthday party! This time, it was Alex's party at the Tree House. The kids get along well and play together, so it's fun for us adults to watch. We are grateful that our friends all have kids around the same age as ours.

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Bryan and I ran the Get Lucky 7k race with 10,000 of our best friends. It was so much fun, even though we had to wait 50 minutes to actually start the race.

My little baby boy turned 4 years old. Happy Birthday Jack!

We celebrated Jack's birthday with a tour of the Golden Valley Fire Station. The kids had a great time checking out the three fire trucks.

Jack and Sophie at the fire station!

For Spring Break, we took a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. We enjoyed our trip there so much last summer,  that we decided to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge again. We all enjoyed our time in the water park, evening story time, shopping and eating at different restaurants.

Minnesota Children's Museum Updates!

I attended the Minnesota Children's Museum SmartPlay Ambassador program kick-off meeting at the museum last weekend and had a great time! I met the other 2014 ambassadors, got to know them a bit and we learned more about the new and exciting changes coming to the museum for this year and beyond. 

The most exciting change is that the museum will be expanding and renovating and the artist renderings of the new museum look amazing. It won't be until 2017, but I'm already excited to bring my kids there (Sophie will be 9 and Jack will be 7-- so hard to imagine). The multi-story play structure in the middle is the most intriguing to me.

Another exciting piece of news is that the museum will have a Thomas the Train exhibit in June 2014! Almost every little kid I know loves, so this will be a very popular exhibit. I'm proud of fact that our local children's museum creates so many of the amazing traveling exhibits for other children's museums all around the country.

Other upcoming exhibits include the return of Creativity Jam in May 2014, the last round of Clifford the Big Red Dog in September 2014 (and then Clifford will be going into retirement) and Sid the Science Kid in January 2015.

Right now, the museum is featuring a brand new Dinosaur exhibit. My kids had so much fun climbing on the dinos and checking the place out. Sophie learned about dinosaurs last month in kindergarten and we've visited the dinosaurs at the Science Museum, so we thought this exhibit was perfect. Another exhibit that recently opened is called Native Voices and teaches kids about the Native American tribes in the state of Minnesota. 



Hawaii

Bryan and I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Hawaii. We flew into Honolulu and took a 7 day Norwegian Cruise and visited Maui, Hilo, Kona and Kauai. The weather was warm and sunny with temps in the 80s. It was nice to get away from the snow and frigid weather of Minnesota for a little while. Linda came and stayed with the kids while we were gone.

Here we are enjoying frozen margaritas at the sail away party!

 

We took a tour of Honolulu city and saw the King Kamehameha statue by the Iolani Palace.

We also took a tour of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.

One of my favorites experiences was surfing at Poipu beach in Kauai. It was hard work padding out into the ocean and catching waves!

Another amazing experience was seeing the Na Pali Coast from our cruise ship. It's definitely one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

In Kauai, I took a movie tour and saw the famous Kīlauea Point Lighthouse. It was such a gorgeous view. 

Here's another view of the coast in Kauai. In case you can't tell, Kauai was definitely our favorite island. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

In Hilo, we visited Volcanoes National Park and walked on lava rock.

Here is a Hawaiian shave ice with mango, pineapple and passion fruit syrups. Inside, there's a scoop of vanilla ice cream and there's sweet cream drizzled on the top. So delicious!

I made this lei in a class on the cruise ship. They offered some interesting Hawaiian cultural classes and demonstrations.

Here's a picture of our ship. We had such a fun vacation and would highly recommend the cruise as a way to see so many different parts of the Hawaiian islands. Aloha!