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!

Fall & Winter 2013

Sophie started kindergarten this Fall. She enjoys taking the bus to and from school, spending time with her friends and learning how to read and practicing math.

Jack also started school this Fall. He has the same preschool teacher that Sophie had a couple of years ago. Jack has a knack for remembering numbers and is starting to identify the letters of the alphabet. 

Here is Sophie's very first school picture.

For Halloween, Jack dressed up as a rocketship and Sophie was a peacock. They loved going trick or treating around our neighborhood and luckily, the weather wasn't too cold. 

Since they have the same preschool teacher, we are seeing many of the same projects. Here are the kids pictured with their handprint Thanksgiving turkeys. 

Every year, we put together a gingerbread house. This year, Bryan's aunt gave us a very easy-to-use kit and the kids enjoyed putting all of the candy on the house.

We visited Santa Claus again this year. Of course, they received gifts from him at Christmas.

Jack and Sophie, all dressed up for Christmas. Jack looks a little taller than Sophie here, but they are really about the same height.

Here's the Hanson Family at Bunny & Steve's house, celebrating Christmas.

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!