Happy 3rd Birthday, Adam!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Among many, many other things, I am thankful that my sister and Jim's parents could join us for the weekend and for the beautiful fall weather.

This was an awesome idea from my awesome husband. Homemade tablecloth from a roll of drawing paper. Everyone contributed a hand turkey!

More like a beautiful table runner, I guess.

Erna the dog has been visiting us. She's a great dog and has added a lot to our holiday.

Aunt Kim made a candle out of an orange! Beautiful!

Haven't used your yoga mat lately? I used mine just the other day!

Caponi ART park

We have been to the Caponi Art Park here in Eagan many times, but we generally get distracted by the nature trails on the parking lot side of the park and rarely make it over to the actual side with the sculptures.  A few weeks ago, Laura asked about that strange sculpture she always sees when we are driving down Diffley Road, so we made a special trip to the sculpture side a few days later. 

Laura with her "strange" sculpture

There are some really neat paths and fun things to discover in this park. It is beautiful hiking, interesting art and just a great place to be on a nice fall day.

Coming home at 6:30 tonight, it was very dark (up nord here in Minnesota, ya know).

Laura: Will I ever be at school this late?

Me: Well, probably not, unless it is for something special.

Laura: Well, I guess when I go on a date someday, I'll probably be out this late.

*THUNK*

Me (picking myself up off the floor in a stupor): Huh? What? What do you know about dates? Where did you hear about dates? When do you think you'll ever be going on dates?

Holy crap, what just happened here?

MN Children's Museum and Mickey's Diner

Still playing catch up....

Several weeks ago, the kids and I went to the MN Children's Museum using the passes from the library (awesome!). Adam is still terrified of the thunderstorm and the kid-sized ant hill, but the rest of the place was a hit.

After we were done and the place was starting to get crowded, we walked a block down to Mickey's Diner. If you've driven around downtown St Paul, chances are you have seen this place. I think it will probably become a regular stop for us the few times a year that we go to that museum. Kids, food, and ambiance were all stellar. 

Pretty Glad

After all the other gladiolus were looking sad and dead, we had a late season pretty surprise us in mid-October.

Tumbling

In September and October, Adam was in a parent and child tumbling class at the Y. I wasn't sure what he would think about a "structured" class and the teacher was a young man that was very loud and boisterous. After Adam warmed up, he really had a great time in the class. At first he was freaked out by the loud cheering of the teacher, but by the end he would look expectantly at the teacher with a shy grin. It was so good for him to get out there, follow someone else's rules, and be around more personalities.

School playground

I'm playing catch up on the blog, as usual. A few weeks ago, the kids and I went to Laura's school playground on an out-of-school day. The original point was to fly a kite since it was a very windy day, but that didn't last long with the lure of a sort-of-new playground in view. 

I like this slide. You have to walk way around, through the forest, to get to the top. Its fast, but not too fast for Adam.

The entrance to the slide is back between those fences.

Laura's half-day kindergarten doesn't get regular recesses, so this was pretty exciting for her too.

There are traditional monkey bars and stuff too, but I didn't get pictures of that.

Tea for Two

You must have a these two over for tea.
Some highlights:
Laura came out of her room all spruced up.
Adam kept saying: "Mom, this is a great tea party!"
We all talked about our 'daughters' named Laura. A couple even 'joined' us after 'school'.
Adam farted and giggled.
Water (tea), cashews and pumpkin seeds were served.
The tablecloth and floor below was sopping wet at the end, but everyone was smiling.

Halloween

Trick or Treating at St. John Neumann around a circle of cars. 

Hi Aunt Kim!