Apple Jack's Apple Orchard

There is an apple orchard in Delano called Apple Jack's that Chris and I took Mira and Amelia to today. It was really fun! They had lots of kids activities, like a horse and goats to pet, face painting, wagon rides, and pumpkin and apple picking. Mira really enjoyed the place, especially picking her own pumpkins. They are gracing our porch steps right now. Amelia slept a bit of the time in the Snuggli. It was a perfect day to visit.

Princess Party, Take II

Mira finally was able to go to her princess party today. It was planned for last week, but the "Princess" was rear-ended on her way there so they postponed it. It was worth the wait. Mira had such a good time, along with 15 other little girls dressed in their princess best. They heard the story of Cinderella and were helping the princess to tell it. Then they did a craft and she painted each of their faces. Then they did some songs and games, and each got to take a picture with the princess.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a happy 34th birthday today! Honey, you are a terrific father to our two beautiful girls and a terrific companion to me. We all hope you have a birthday worth remembering!

Love,
Michelle

Blast from the past

It's a tradition for us to take the kids to the State Fair every year. Chris and I like to capture our family in photos at the arcade. It's so fun to see how we change every year. We started doing this when Mira was 3 months old. Judging from this year's photos, we won't be able to fit all our heads in next year!

Princess Party, Take 1

Mira was signed up to go to a "Princess Party" at the Community Center last week. She got all dressed up in her princess best (the dress was given to her from Grandma Lindell for her 3rd birthday). When we got to the party, we were told the "Princess" who was supposed to lead the party and the craft was in a minor car accident on her way to the event and so they had to cancel it. Fortunately, they rescheduled it for a week later, so we'll post photos of the party. But I wanted to show a photo of the girls in their cute dresses!



And, of course, a couple random shots of the girls. Can you believe Amelia is 5 months old this Saturday? Where did the time go?

Thirty O'Clock?

Mira: Mommy, when it's 20 o'clock, it's your turn to watch your show.
Me: There is no 20 o'clock.
Mira: Oh. When it's 30 o'clock, you can watch your show.

I'll never get to watch my show, will I?

A career in Princessistry?

I asked Mira today what she wanted to be when she grows up and she said, "A fire fighter!" I think she might be channelling Grandpa Bob's volunteer career choice. Looking for a lesson to teach, I was just about to launch into a discussion of how she would have to be strong to be a fire fighter and therefore would have to eat all her vegetables.

But before I could even start the vegetable lecture, Mira said, "I change my mind. I think I want to be a princess."

Twarted again! Unless someone can figure out a way to explain why a princess should eat her vegetables. Lovely skin and hair, perhaps?

(To be fair, Mira is pretty good at eating her broccoli, peas, corn, and cauliflower. We pretend she is a giant dinosaur eating all the green trees!)

Our happy baby

Here is a video of Amelia laughing. When we get her going, she has the greatest laugh!

Amelia eats cereal and rolls over again

Tonight we started feeding Amelia rice cereal with a spoon. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly she took to it. She was pretty hungry, so I'm sure that helped. By the end of the bowl, she was eating like a champ!




And here is a little video of Amelia rolling over for us. She does it so quickly sometimes when we put her on her stomach for tummy time. She's getting to be so active!

Mira goes to dance class

Mira had a dance class tonight. It's the first of an 8 week course. She was so excited to go and picked out her pink tutu. I need to get her ballet shoes tomorrow, which I'm sure she'll be so excited to pick out! She tried a dance class last summer, so I wanted to get her used to the classroom environment. She was the one in the class who pretty much did her own thing and didn't really listen to the instructor too well. She kept twirling in the middle of the circle and running around a bit. Fortunately, the instructor was very patient and understanding, so that was a relief. Mira's daycare friend Olivia was in the class too, and she and Mira had a ball together. Here's a photo of the two of them. Hopefully next week Mira will listen a little better. I think I'll be pleasantly surprised at how much she learns in the next 8 weeks.

Just a few photos

Just wanted to post a few recent photos. One is of Amelia in her Minnesota Wild outfit. It will soon not fit her, so we had her wear it when the weather cooled down. Chris is so proud of his future hockey star!

Amelia seems to be getting a tooth already! It looks like it's a side tooth, next to the bottom front teeth. Hopefully it won't be too painful. She's been a little fussy this weekend and oragel seemed to work on it.

Mira is doing well, although is having a problem wetting her pants. It's been ever since Amelia joined the family, so we are trying all we can think of to get her to use the toilet. I think we'll try to just ignore it for awhile and see if it goes away on it's own. We're also having a hard time keeping her in bed at bedtime. She keeps popping out of bed and scaring us by lurking in the hallways. So we hope that ends soon too. Other than that, she's still a sweet little girl. She is really doing well at her daycare school where they learn their letters and numbers and colors and shapes. She's there three days a week so that's really helping her get ready for kindergarten in two years.

No strawberries in MY pudding!

Regarding dessert:

Michelle: Hey, Mira, why don't we dip strawberries in your pudding?
Mira: No. I don't think that's a good idea. I think we need to keep the strawberries out of the pudding. Grandma says we can't do that.
Michelle: Oh. Okay.
Mira: But you can dip the strawberries in your pudding. You can do that. Oh! Seinfeld's on!

Fun with Photoshop

I work with this cool program (Photoshop) and was trying out some different effects today at work. Here is a photo of Mira with a few different filters applied. These would make great prints for framing. I can't wait to get creative and hang some of these around the house!

Original photo:



Angled strokes effect:



Bas relief effect:



Chalk and charcoal effect:



Rough pastels effect:



Stamp effect:



Water paper effect:

Amelia's 4 month appointment

Amelia had her 4 month wellness exam yesterday. She's a very robust baby! Very healthy, which is always a Godsend. Amelia is weighing in at 14 pounds, 13 ounces, so she's gained a healthy 6 pounds, 11 ounces since she was born. And she's 25 inches tall (20 inches at birth). She's 75 percent for height and weight, and 90th percentile for head. She's our little Charlie Brown! We're sure her body will catch up to her head someday!

Amelia is hitting all her milestones, which is wonderful. She's very happy baby. Easy to figure out and so fun to be around. There is nothing better than when she sees you first thing in the morning while she's lying in her crib and that huge smile of recognition crosses her face. Her arms start flailing in that cute uncontrolled baby way and her legs start kicking with all the excitement. It's fun having a baby in the house!

Reliving a memory

Last night we were watching a country music show in which the past songs of the year were being covered by some current artists. One of Mira's favorite bands is The Wreckers ("Leave the Pieces"). I had just put Mira to bed when I saw The Wreckers were about to sing. So I got Mira out of bed and brought her into my room so she could watch them sing a song.

That brought up such fond memories of when I was a child. I remember a few instances when Mom and Dad would come up to my and Kelly's room after they had put us to bed and told us that either Kenny Rogers or Dolly Parton were singing on television. They'd let us come downstairs in our pajamas just long enough to watch the performance. Those were special memories.

Looks like I'm just like my parents in wanting to share special moments with my little girls.

State Fair photos

Our digital camera was broken when we went to the state fair, so we used our film camera. The photos just got back to us. What a blast from the past having to develop film! Here are some highlights from the fair. That photo where Mira is in that big "basket" ride, she DID NOT LIKE that at all! By the end of the ride, she was ready to cry and Chris and I kept telling her to just hang on and it would be over in a minute. I felt so bad that I didn't ride it with her. It was raining a lot that day, so we all look a bit waterlogged!

Labor Day Fun

Chris and I took the girls to his dad's cabin for Labor Day. It was nice—just us and them, so a pretty quiet day. We took a ride on the pontoon around the bay and the lake. It was such a nice day for it. Not too hot in the shade. Mira loves to sit on her grandpa's lap and "drive" the boat. She loves riding the pontoon. Amelia is becoming an old pro at it as well. She was awake for this entire ride even!






We borrowed a Bumbo baby seat from a neighbor of ours to give Amelia more choices of where to sit. It's a nifty seat where a baby can sit in an upright position as long as they are able to hold their head up. She is slowly getting used to it, but still prefers her papason. She's rolled over a couple more times this week, which is so fun to see. And she's gotten a pretty strong diaper rash that we are trying to get rid of. Hopefully in a day or two it will be gone. She's getting lots of naked time.



Mira is enjoying the days playing dress-up and singing to the songs on a CD. She's always requesting specific songs on my CD in the car, to the point where I don't want to hear them anymore. But the repetitiveness helps her memory and she feels so proud when she sings the words.

Michelle

Looking good, Snarlyhissopus!

Mira took an opportunity this morning to dress her Snarlyhissopus for the Labor Day festivities. This photo was too cute not to post. Hope you all are having a wonderful Labor Day.

Michelle

Visiting Grandma and Great Grandma

While Dad went to the Twins game today, Mira, Amelia, and I drove down to Cannon Falls to have a playdate with Sarah and GeorgiaRae, then to Grandma Lindell's to visit with her and Mom. Uncle Mark was there for awhile. We had a really nice time. I even managed to catch a photo of Uncle Mark with his eyes uncrossed!

The hills are alive . . .

Ahhh, the joys of "The Sound of Music." Tonight, Mira discovered for herself what a wonderful movie it is! I found it on television, and snuggled up with the girls to watch some of it. Mira was really paying attention to it, asking questions. She knows all about what a convent is now, thanks to Julie Andrews! I think Mira was really enamored with "My Favorite Things," as was I when I first saw the movie. Watching it reminded me of watching it with my mom every year. What great memories! "The Sound of Music" and "The Wizard of Oz" are two movies that remind me of my parents. I think I'll hold off a little while longer before letting Mira watch "The Wizard of Oz." I remember having nightmares about those monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West when I was 8 years old. Mira is in her scared-of-the-dark phase, so adding daytime scares to that wouldn't be a good idea.

Here are some photos from today. Just a lazy, hang around the house day. Amelia discovered her hands and toes recently, so she spends much of her floor time exploring those wonderful things!







Tomorrow the girls and I venture to Cannon Falls to visit with Grandma and Mom. We have a playdate with Cousin Sarah, Jack, and GeorgiaRae, so that will be fun to get the kids together. I'll post some photos of the playdate later.

Love,
Michelle