A horse drawn carriage?

Last Sunday I took Maddie (and William) to her classmate Katerina's 5th birthday party. She was so excited when she got the invitation in her folder at school. Katerina isn't a friend I'd heard much about but Maddie was thrilled to get the invite and there was no way she was going to miss out on a party. On the way, Maddie kept talking about whether there was going to be a jumper there. Of course William jumped on the bad wagon and starting talking about a jumpber. I had to give them the whole speech of, "You know Maddie, there might not be a jumper there and if there is not, that is OK. Don't be talking about it and you can't walk in and ask where the bouncer is". Turns out there was NOT a jumper but instead, Cindarella came and entertained the kids and to top if off...
Cindarella's horse drawn carriage!! Wow...let the birthday party games begin. Holy smokes...a horse drawn carriage? Needless to say, the kids all had a blast. It was a fun party and quite a success. Very cute to see all the little girls from her class together and playing. Maddie's becoming quite the social butterfly. :)

Fall is here...

it finally feels like fall. we hung the fall wreath on our door and put out "mr. pumpkin" man last week. the weather has been cool and crisp which is beautiful. i came home from work last night and made a pot of chili. it was delicious. i love this time of year. love it. i barely remember it being cool last year. i fear that a heat wave is on it's way. but for now... loving the "season change" in southern california.

Disney Live

on sunday of this last weekend, we took the kids to see disney live at the nokia theater in downtown los angeles. the show started at noon so we jumped in the car straight from church and made the trek to see the show. it was a really cute production. the show was about mickey and minnie and a talent show they were in search of talent for. we saw lots mickey, minnie, goofy, donald, cindarella, woody, jessie and buzz from toy story and tigger too. william sat well and was engaged by the show for the most part (he's our wild card these days- never quite sure if he's going to get nutty on us or what). we did have to bust out the sour patch kids about 3/4 of the way through the first half and he did a little jumping between laps, but he was a trooper for the most part and had a good time.
we hit a little traffic on the way home but we didn't mind. william was out like a light before we even got on the freeway and maddie chatted the whole way home about the show. gotta love L.A.!

Preschool- take two!

i don't know where the month of september has gone. this month has been a blur. it's hard to believe october is right around the corner. mike has been busy with work and has traveled quite a bit this month and for whatever reason, i fell of the blog bandwagon. it's not that i didn't have the time on my hands to keep up, i just didn't have the motivation. the biggest thing this month was that my little maddie started her SECOND year of preschool. she was so excited to get back and she loves her new teacher.gotta love the first day of school--- hip, hip horray (as William would say)!

Extended playdate

This past weekend, Sarah and Erin came down to hang out and have a sleepover! Our husbands were all golfing and hanging out in Santa Barbara together so we too made the most of the weekend and enjoyed eachother's company. The kids all had a really good time playing together. They ran around the backyard, went crazy with the little pool, played on the slide and tuckered themselves out.William, Fletch, Fallon, Lucy and Maddie (in order from L to R) licking up some cool treats on the patio. This was our one and only chance to get a picture of them all sitting still for a minute. They are like busy little beavers and constantly moving!It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. They were all climbing up the slide like this and than sliding down and tumbling onto eachother on the grass. It was so cute. They were giggling and having a blast. Lucky for us, no one got hurt. It was just fun, fun, fun the whole weekend. I say let the husband's leave town anytime. :)

Minnesota overload

Ok. So I realize I'm going on MN overload here but these are the last of some fun photos from our trip. On our last day there, Grandpa took out the four wheeler and entertained Maddie and Wil while I packed up our gear and got ready for the car trip back to Minneapolis.

Grandma Jeanne busted out her cool new margarita maker and mixed up some delicious non-alcoholic slushies and snow cones (nd some with a little tequila as well)!It was a great week back at the lake. I can't think of a more relaxing place to go with the family. We can't wait for our next visit at Christmas this year!

Turtle Races

On Wednesday, we took Maddie and Wil to their first ever Turtle Races in the little town of Nisswa. I remember turtle races from when I was a kid. Every Wednesday in the summer months, the town puts on the event. It's quite organized. You pay $3 per turtle and when they call your number, you go to the center of the race ring which is drawn out on the pavement, pick out a turtle from the yellow buckets and race it! The crowd gathers around the race ring and everyone cheers and shouts. It's a bit chaotic but well worth it. Maddie loved it. The races start at 2:00 so William was in need of a nap and a bit of a handful but we really had a great time anyway. Nisswa is a very cute town. We parked right by this old train caboos that is like a mini-mini museum. You can walk through and check out the memorabilia and imagine what it would have been like to sleep on the train. On the way out, Maddie wanted to take her picture by the American flag.We couldn't miss a shot with Paul Bunyon's Babe the Blue Ox.

This shot was taken right before Grandpa handed Maddie the turtle to hold and she dropped it flat on it's back! Good thing turtles have hard shells. You could tell she felt bad but said it "pinched" her.

I definitely want to make the Nisswa Turtle Races an annual tradition on our summer trips back to Minnesota.