Balls, not bubbles?

To throw a lil spin into normal night time events, we decided to give Hannah a bath in our tub. It just so happened that for some odd reason we had all of the plastic balls from her ball pit in the tub. we looked at them and said, 'why not'. It also didn't hurt that Hannah was soooooo excited and repeating 'ball, ball, ball...'.

She had a blast and we go all of the sidewalk chalk off of her in the same process. We had a great night with her tonight. She ate a good dinner and then we hung out on the deck, in the gazebo, or 'zebo' as Hannah calls it and created some artwork on the front sidewalk.

Sometimes it is the simple things in life that are the true reward.

Catching up with Celebrity Gossip...

I have to say, this was the best purchase we have made in Hannah's first 18 months. Hannah LOVED her new sand and water table. Thank you Iplay... for giving all parents a little time back  into their lives. Hannah played with her new toy all morning, gave mom a few hours to catch up on celebrity gossip and relax in the sun while Hannah's poured water and sand from side to side. What I thought would start out as making some starfish molds in the sand, became a mess very shortly, so on the suit went and Hannah could dive right in, and that she did. We are looking forward to playing with this quit a bit... Hannah gets to have fun, and mom and dad can kick back little on the deck and relax while she is entertained :) 

Lawn Girl NOT for Hire

Starring into the grass and sitting on the front steps is about as far as she got mowing the lawn, and even that was quite tramatic. Realizing there went $20 we will never get back .  A nice Sunday afternoon Dad prepares to mow our now some what large yard. I thought it would be cute to get Hannah her own lawn mower to follow along, as she loves watching Dad mow the grass. Well, as it went, Hannah did not budge with her lawn mower, much less follow Dad around the yard. There were tears, tantrums and a bit of anxiety around her new "toy".  In early retirement, her lawnmower not sits in the garage, waiting someday to be used again. 

Yeee Haw

Not only was it Hannah's first Rodeo, it was everyone else's first Rodeo experience too. And what an experience it was. The highlight of course for these events are generally the people watching, but in this case, the highlight of the evening was watching Hannah. We pulled into the grassy parking area to find a person directing traffic next to us on a horse. I am pretty sure Hannah stopped breathing at one point gasping for air with the shock and excitement of seeing a horse right next to her. It was pretty funny. She was yelling "neigh, neigh". We all had a good laugh.

Besides to rodeo, it was ac action packed weekend. Grandma and Grandpa were nice of enough to make yet another trip to MN to help us move into our new home. It was so a huge help as we were able to get settled in  a short time thanks to them. We had a nice time at the rodeo, and took a trip to the zoo as well.  Hannah loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa again. When I told Hannah they were leaving in the morning she got pretty sad and called out for Grandpa while rocking her to sleep.... grandpa got a little tug on on the heart strings and went to rock her good night. I think Hannah found a good friend :) 

Happy 4th of July 2008!!

Happy 4th of July!! We started our morning with a neigborhood parade. Hannah was excited to meet all the nieghbors and show off her new wagon that Daddy surprised her with. All the neighbors and kids gathered this morning with the fire truck to walk the streets of the neighborhood while people handed our candy to the kids. Hannah had her first sucker.. and a really messy chocolate chip cookie. It was fun to meet everyone and see so many kids in the neighborhood. This afternoon we are off to play at Bella's house. They will just keeping getting more fun as it goes!! Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

Our new home

It has been a busy week for us, we closed on our new home on Monday. We are so excited to get moved in and settled. We are most excited about the modern amenities we have dreamed about for years.. ahhh... a dishwasher, a walk in closet, and a all bedrooms on one level!  This is huge coming from our little 1930's house. So far we think Hannah will love her new home, and Murphy, well Murphy needs to go to boot camp. He has already learned how to escape from the deck squeezing himself between the slats and running for dear life.  We already think he will be causing some chaos in the neighborhood.   We are just so excited to build new memories and give Hannah a nice home and a great neighborhood to grow up in. We hope she meets some little friends and enjoys her home as much as we hope she does. 

Sum-sum-summertime!!

Today we went to the St Louis Park pool for a few hours which kept Hannah quite busy. She is still a bit leary of the water, so we spent the majority of the time in the sand play area. She absolutely loved it. We were a little surprised she didn't end up with hypothermia by the end of the day. She spent a long time filling up water from a faucet to a tub of water.. and the water was REALLY cold. She didn't seem to mind, but mom and dad didn't think the goose bumps she was covered in was a good idea for a long time.  Hannah's favorite part of the park was going down a whale slide. She would climb on up and down she went .. all different directions! 

Neigh, Neigh!!

Hannah made it to her very first horse races on Thursday night! She LOVED it. We talked about the horses all day. By the time we got to the races she was yelling Neigh, Neigh in the car. She screeched with excitement each time they ran by. She enjoyed so warm mini donuts  during the races, which might had helped get her a little wound up. She entertained Mom's team from work by dancing to the music and being busy little Hannah. 

A day at the park..

And they worked hard.. climbing, swinging, sliding and putting sand in their buckets. Hannah and Eleanor enjoyed a beautiful day at a neighborhood park... It was so much fun to watch them dig, pour and move that sand all around - except in their shoes. 

Hannah and Eleanor enjoyed the sitting on opposite ends of the teeter totter and laughing at each other as they went up and down. Then came the slides, yes slides, at first they would only go on the little on, but by the end of the day they were going on that tall cork screw slide. Mommy and Aunt Kim also went down too, but not as gracefully :)

A day at the beach, minnesota style.

This is truly Minnesota style for a beach day. A lake beach! We headed to Lake Minnetonka Regional Park for a few hours with Heidi, Michael and Bella and thought we would check out the beach and lake. It is actually a great place to go with kids.  It is a filtered, clorinated lake witha  surrounding beach. The deepest water is only 3 ft, with the majority of the lake only 1-2 feet so kids can play around.. and the water was rather warm too which was nice.   You can get a season pass for the whole family for only $20 and use the beach, lake, picnic areas and a really big play ground as well. We see many more trips here this summer!  Hannah enjoyed playing in the sand more than the water, and Bella just loved playing around in the water and floating on her back. She did such a great job!