I took the kids to Minneapolis to pick up Derek and we went to the Lake Como Zoo and Amusement Park.  It was a great time!  

 This is where Ollie wanted to stay all day Saturday!  He sure did miss his Daddy!

Fun with boxes!

This is what I can do now....

My favorite thing to do!

Fun with Neighbors

We truly lucked out when we moved into this house when it comes to neighbors!  Our immediate neighbors, Sue and Lars are wonderfully nice and have a perfectly manicured lawn and do NOT care about kids running through it (well, OUR kids can run through it!  Next to them are Jay, Amber and Aaden.  Aaden is the same age as Evie and they are best friends!  Every day, they are either on our patio or theirs, constantly playing until we force them to come inside, usually kicking and screaming.  Lunch picnics and dinners are already being swapped back and forth!  Here are a few of the kiddos in their prime....


Evie and Pink Baby.....always together!

Evie and Aaden playing in/on the patio

I see you Aaden!

Ollie and Jay, banging on the table!

The kids are playing doctor!

Amber and Ollie on the plane!  He doesn't look too sure in this photo, but he loved it!

The kids are trying to carry Pink Baby on a stretcher up the stairs and it was a total failure!

Get back up Pink Baby!

We did it!

My blue-eyed baby boy!

In the Cozy Coupe!

Enjoying a picnic on a perfectly sunny day!

Just give me anything Mommy, I can make it fun!

He's ALMOST crawling!

He loves his Jump and Go!

Wisconsin Dells Trip

We took the kids to Wisconsin Dells this week for a quick impromptu family vacation.  Derek is leaving on Sunday for a month and we wanted some alone family time!  The Dells are about 5 hours away and its basically about 40 or so hotels with water parks inside them (and some free standing ones!).  We stayed at the Wilderness Hotel and Resort http://www.wildernessresort.com/ and it was amazing!  I can't wait to go back in a few months.

Evie loved every single second of it.  She was a little scared at first and wanted either Derek or myself to go down the slides with her.  Once she did them a few times, she was all over it, doing it on her own.  There were several raft/tube rides we rode with her and they were completely in the dark.  She loved those just as much and was asking to ride them over and over again!

Ollie, well, that was another story. This kid loves everything about being in the water at home. I assumed he would love the water.  Yea, not so much!  He didn't want to go anywhere near the water.  I think it was a little overwhelming (it was a little crowded the first day) and loud.  The water was cold (for us it was) and he would cling to us, terrified.  The second day, he decided it wasn't so bad and played in the water for about two hours or so off and on!