Pinkilicious

After many recommendations from friends, I finally bought Hannah the book "Pinkilicious". After all, Hannah's favorite color is pink, and insists on pink everything, this is only appropriate. The book is about a little girl who loves the color pink, makes pink cupcakes, and eats so many cupcakes she turns pink. I could probably recite the book to after only owning it for about 18 hours, as we have read it about 30 times already. Hannah wanted to make pink cupcakes today, just like the book. So, with some cake mix, and lots of red food coloring, we have pink cupcakes. It was actually really fun to do together, she talked about the book while mixing the cupcakes, she was so excited!!

The Minnesota Zoo

Yesterday, while the dads were at Jimmy Buffet concert in Wisconsin, Kim and I took the girls to the MN Zoo. While the day started out a little rough, the girls ended up having a great time. To start, I was driving Hannah to the zoo, approximately 45 minutes away, which turned into a 1.5 hour trip because a highway was closed. Hannah wasn't in the best mood after being a in car so long... we made it and it was time to see some animals. We met up with Kim and Eleanor, and as it turns out, it took another 1.5 hours just to get past the entrance of the zoo. There were potty breaks, snack breaks, lunch, and a few meltdowns along the way. Kim and I were looking around at all the other parents wondering if anyone was having as much fun as we were? Finally, we thought.. hmmm, ice cream generally cheers kids up right? So, Hannah and Eleanor split some dip n dots, got some sugar in there system, and off the went.


After we finally made it past the entrance, our first stop was the Grizzly coast. The girls were much more interested in splashing through the fountains surrounding bear statues than actually seeing a real live bear. At that point, we thought, hmm, maybe we should had just gone to a park today?



Finally, the picture above shows they did actually see a few animals along the way. Stretching their necks, climbling on fences, we saw bears, leopards, camels, zebras and tigers. It was a beautiful day, we got lots of walking and laughs in. And now we can say we finally made it to the zoo this summer!!

Alice in Wonderland

Todd had his work cut out for him last night..... holding up Hannah and Eleanor watching Alice in Wonderland play in the park. It was a gorgeous night last night.. Kim, Jason, Eleanor and our family went to a park in Plymouth to watch a kids play and have a picnic. While the play wasn't maybe worth watching, the girls had great time running around and having a picnic. When it was time to catch a glance of the play, Todd had them on his shoulders so the girls could see. They are always so cute together and always have a great time!!

Tuckered out...

The tired threesome. Todd had been in NYC since Wed and was suppose to return late last night. With bad weather in NY, he didn't get back until this afternoon. Hannah has missed him so much, I told her when she got up from her nap, Daddy would be home. Well, that was a mistake, because then she was way too excited to sleep. So, after an hour of her playing in her room, not napping, when Dad got home he went in her room to say hi. Minutes later, I walk in to find Dad, Hannah and Murphy sound asleep....

Field Trip!

Yesterday I chaperoned my first field trip for Hannah's class, and this being only the 2nd field trip she has been on. The first was to the aquarium, and now the splash pad. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the mid 70's. All the kids preschool on up went, and they had a great time. When we got their, all the kids just started running straight for the water. After about 20-30 minutes of fun in the water, their attention spans were quickly dwindling.... so off to the playground they went. The above picture is of Hannah and one of her best friends at school, Elsa. Elsa is a sweat heart, and I was in charge of the two of them for the day. They were great, and really easy to watch.


This picture is of some friends from her class... Ja'Mirah, Elsa, Hannah, another Hannah, and Courtney.

It was a nice 3 hour get-away from work, hopefully I can find time in my crazy work schedule to attend more of her field trips. I like to call them "organized chaos", but fun.

And before school today...

Hannah loves to look through the pictures on my camera ( what did we do before digital?). We were looking through pictures this morning and she asked if I could take her picture and put it on the computer, so here you go!! Ready to go to school, and she was pysched to were her new "Monkey shirt". This morning Hannah says " who bought this for me, I like it, I want to say thank you". I love her little manners .. :)

Gabby & Abby say "Night Night"

The above picture is Hannah's world lately. She is all about pretend play at it's finest. It is really cute to watch her, and even better, she is finally entertaining herself more and more each day so Mom and Dad aren't full time play mates any more. This is good timing with her little brother arriving soon! Hannah loves to take all the pillows from the couches and lay them in lines throughout the kitchen, family room, and living room. She then uses every blanket she can find, and every little "friend" she has, including Mickey, Minnie, Dora, Abby, Hello Kitty, and just some baby dolls to put them "night night". She tucks them in, reads them books and sings then a song... just like her night time routine. The keeps her busy for a good hour. And last night, I was quite impressed, she told us she was going to have a BBQ at her little table and chair set. I was cleaning out a cabinet, and when I looked back, she had her play hot dogs, corn, chicken, and cups with napkins and forks out. I thought, hmmm.... and she actually chose BBQ food.. way to go! It is so fun to watch her little imagination & creativity at this age. She is getting really excited for her little brother too. Now, each time we are at a table with 4 chairs, she makes sure to point out the chair where her brother will sit, she always says she is "saving his seat".. pretty cute!!

Splish Splash

This morning we had a girls outing, Kim, Eleanor, Hannah and I. We went to the splash pad so the girls could run through the sprinklers and play at the park, then we headed to lunch at McDonalds, of course chosen by the girls so they could indulge in chicken nuggets and apples. The girls had a great time, and loved playing together. Everywhere they went, the held hands like the picture below, it was sweet and endearing.



And tonight, Todd and I actually have a babysitter for the 2nd time this year... sad really. We definitely need to get out more!! Tonight we get to have a nice dinner out to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary ( which was actually yesterday). We are excited to go somewhere that doesn't have mac and cheese on the menu, and enjoy each other's company. If only I could indulge in a nice glass of wine, the evening would be perfect.... only 7 weeks to go.

We can't believe we have already been married for 5 years, and been together for almost 8 years. The time has gone so fast, it seems like yesterday were were nervously standing at the alter saying "I do". We our thankful to have eachother, and such a beautiful healthy growing family. From one day to the next, you never know what curve balls life may through you, but as long as we have eachother, we know we can handle it. We we excited to start the next journey of our lives with Baby #2 to complete our family. In 7 short weeks, let the chaos begin!! :)

Minnesota Lynx Game with the Girls...

Another busy weekend!! This weekend Todd and I took Friday off to get some things done around the house. Even with an extra day of the weekend, there still doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. Friday night we took Hannah to get her haircut, at her request. I am sad to say her little curls in the back are almost all gone. I think she is destined for straight her like her mom and dad.

Saturday was eventful, we had her friend Elle and her mom Stacy over in the morning to play. We were suppose to meet up at a park, but the weather was not cooperating. So they came over, the girls had a great time playing and then they had some yummy grill cheeses for lunch. Saturday night some bad storms and weather came through Plymouth, about 1/2 mile from our house a tornado hit and we went by this morning to see. There was a house that lost a garage, and lots of trees down. We are thankful that everyone was ok and no one was hurt, and we are very happy that our house wasn't hit given our luck lately!!

And finally, Sunday and did a lot of yard work and Sunday night we went to the Lynx game in a suite with Bella, Mia & her parents, Kim, Jason and Eleanor, and Becky, Rick and Allisa and her little brother Tyler. The girls had a blast, tons of running around, screams and giggles. I wasn't able to get a good picture of all the girls together, they were just too busy!!

We thank the Cristaldi's for a great time!! It was so fun to see everyone and get the girls together.
And finally, we are ready to get a good night sleep, and gear up for the week ahead at work. Never a dull moment, we keep thinking we never seem to have a minute of down time now.... 7 weeks to go until Hannah's baby brother arrives, we really aren't going to have a minute's rest then... yikes!

I was trying to get a cute picture of Hannah before the Lynx game, the was the best I could do...

Splash Pad

We had another busy weekend. There never seems to be a dull moment these days. Between getting our house put back together, work, and preparing for Hannah's baby brother, there isn't a lot of down time. In between all the chaos, we always try to fit in some fun as Sunday's have become family day. On Saturday we spent the majority of the day running errands and getting Hannah some fall clothes, she even picked out a few things herself this year which consisted of Hello Kitty items. Unfortunately on Saturday, it felt like fall too... it didn't even get to 70 degrees out.... brrrr for July, heat wave for April. Funny how perspective can change quickly.

On Sunday we made a picnic lunch and went to the Splash Pad and playground. When we were there, we ran into Hannah's friend Greta. Hannah and Greta are in the same class at school, and we work with Greta's mom Vanessa at Target. It was fun to run into them and let the girls play around for a little bit. It turned into great day just being able to spend time together. Hannah told us her favorite part of the whole day was the picnic. I think Hannah would had been just as happy had we had a picnic lunch in the backyard, we often forget it is simple things the kids seem to enjoy the most.