The Swanson Family

Dress

2012-02-12T09:12:00.000-06:00

Work has been a little slow around here the past couple months for me. Not that I'm ever really bored, but I do find a little extra time on my hands. I had been searching for this one particular dress pattern that was out of print. I just couldn't find it in the size I wanted, but then they decided to re-release the pattern in a digital format. I snapped it up so fast!

Last weekend while everyone was watching the Super Bowl I was sewing away. Actually for a couple whole days - this dress was trickier than the others. But at last I finished it and it is so cute and I can't wait until the weather is warm enough for Ella to wear it - she can't wait either.

February

2012-02-09T09:15:00.004-06:00

It's February and there's still no snow on the ground! Yes, I'm loving this winter. I remember back in November and December saying oh just one more week without snow and winter will seem shorter. Now I don't really care if it snows because it won't be around too long. The kids would like some snow to play in though. I kept telling them not to worry because it always snows - well at least I don't remember a winter where there wasn't any snow. I'm still sure we'll get something - maybe???

Sorry about the radio silence around here. There really isn't anything going on. January and February are just really slow and boring. We went to Monster Jam in January. Sam got over his croup just in time to be able to make the show. He had a fever for a few days and even Saturday morning, but it was gone by lunch and we made the show that evening.

Our tickets were for a suite which we were excited about, but didn't realize that we had the best suite in the house - the Vikings Legends Club!! That place was fabulous! There was a bar right there and two bathrooms - right there!! The bathroom's were probably the best part, especially with two children.

Sitting in a regular seat now will seem pretty sad compared to this. The kids had a great time and so did we.

They even had some car racing in between the Monster trucks. They had trailers attached to their cars this time. It was pretty comical.

What else????

Last weekend Sam took a scissors to the top of his head resulting in a very short haircut. I will have to go back in a week or so and even it out once the shorter hairs grow back a bit.

And that's been our last few weeks in a nutshell. Sam has a Valentine's party next week, both kids have dentist appointments next week and that's about it for February.

I've been making lists and getting excited for gardening this year. I'll be ordering a few things for the garden to help in the growing and spacing of the things I'll be planting. Spring can't come soon enough!!

Croup

2012-01-19T14:00:00.003-06:00

Sam has the croup. Was hoping I'd never have to say that. I figured by now we wouldn't ever get that around here. On Tuesday he was just fine, but had this little cough once in a while. Strange, but nothing to be worried about. On Wednesday he started that barking cough a little bit and even though we've never had that around here it is really distinctive and I knew that's what it was.

He took a nap around four in the afternoon and I went to check on him around six. He had just woken up and was panicking because he couldn't breathe well and was coughing uncontrollably. After getting him calmed down he was doing better, but I called Zan to make sure he got his butt home so I could take Sam in to either urgent care or the hospital.

After Zan got home to stay with Ella we went to the urgent care. He definitely had croup and they gave him an oral medication and a nebulizer treatment. He slept all night through really well. (Not so well for me.) Today he has a little cough, but I haven't heard any barking coughs, so we're getting better. He's currently playing in his room with his robots.

He's trying really hard to get better because we have tickets for Monster Jam on Saturday. I'm sure he'll be just fine by then. We'll be in a suite too! I think that might make it more enjoyable for me anyways.

Christmas and New Years

2012-01-11T09:16:00.001-06:00

This is pretty much going to be a pictures post because I don't really have much to add to the photos. We had a great Christmas here and New Years in Sioux Falls. There hasn't been much else going on around here - loving the weather!!

Christmas Morning:

Sam's turned into a couch potato! :)

New Year's in Sioux Falls:

Sam "patiently" waiting

Here's a snowman Sam and I made with the little bit of snow we had.

And lastly here's a video of Ella in the church choir rehearsing before the service.

That's all that's been going on around here. Now we just wait for spring. I love the fact that there's no snow on the ground! I know we'll have some eventually, but the longer we don't the better in my opinion.

Church Program

2011-12-18T16:06:00.001-06:00

Ella and Sam had their church program this morning. It was an early morning! Zan and I were at his work party and got home late; then had to get up early for early church. We made it though. Sam sung with the preschoolers and kindergartners and was so cute. Ella was in the nativity program. She even had a few lines and was super cute.

Here's a photo I took this morning - still dark outside - before we left.

It's been a busy week so far. Sam had his preschool concert on Thursday evening, which was also Ella's rehearsal at church among other things. We made it on time to everything. Now all we have left is Ella's school concert on Monday and Christmas Eve service at church that Ella sings in the choir for. Whew, I'll be happy to take a week off after that.

And by the way I'm loving not having any snow yet!!!

Been Busy

2011-12-13T11:24:00.002-06:00

Can you hear the crickets chirping?

Sorry, I've been pretty busy lately just trying to knock some things off the to-do list. I'd say I'm doing pretty well. I got the Christmas cards mailed out yesterday, finally baked some cookies yesterday, getting all the shopping finished up and just generally getting things done.

The next week is going to be really busy. We have things going on everywhere. Ella has rehearsal for the Christmas program at church and Sam's preschool sing-a-long on the same night, we have Zan's work party and Ella's school holiday program. Busy week and I can't wait for break.

The little bit of snow that we had melted - yay!! The longer we go without snow the better if you ask me. It stays warmer and the winter doesn't seem so long. I know it will snow soon enough. Yesterday it was 40 degrees outside and it smelled like spring. It was kind of sad because I knew it wasn't going to be spring for a long time.

Well I think I'll get some more cookies baked today. Yum!!

Another Dress

2011-12-06T14:59:00.001-06:00

It was nice finishing up the last dress that I thought I'd start on the next one. Only took a couple days and voila - another summer dress.

I'm starting to make a dent in my fabric stash, but not enough. I've got some really cute fabric that I need to find just the right thing to make.

Summer Dresses in Winter

2011-12-01T10:21:00.001-06:00

I bought a couple dress patterns for Ella over the summer and even cut out the fabric for one of the dresses. Then it sat and sat and sat. I looked at it all the time thinking that it wouldn't even fit her by the time I was done sewing it. Well on Monday I had some free time, so I sewed it up. Just finished the buttons this morning (there are buttons all down the back).

The good news it will fit her next year!

I didn't get a picture of the back, but it has the same little pleats on the the back and buttons all the way down. It turned out really nice. Now on to my other to-do projects.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T09:22:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a good, long weekend over here. Zan took off Wednesday and we've just been hanging out until yesterday.

For Thanksgiving we went over to Nana and Papa's and had a nice dinner and the kids had fun playing. Friday we went and got our Christmas tree. It was just too nice not to go get it. If you remember we went in October and picked our tree out, so we just had to find it and cut it down. We found it pretty quickly.

Ella and Sam on the tractor ride to the tree field:

In the field getting the tree:

The kids were so excited to see Santa.

Saturday we actually made it to the mall. It was busy, but not too busy. Didn't really stay too long or find too much. It was just nice to get out a little. Sunday after church we just kept busy around the house. I was in my office cleaning it out all day. It's much more organized now.

Ella has a part in the Christmas pageant at church this year. It's a non-speaking role, but she's really excited about it.

I downloaded the pictures from my point and shoot camera and there were 1100 photos. I've let Sam take pictures from this camera and he's been very busy. I have a lot of pictures to go through. Some of them are really cute. I'll get some up once they've been sorted.

New Crafty Space

2011-11-14T13:23:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend Zan and I built the kids a new table to do all their coloring and crafting. Until now they've been in the kitchen sitting at the kitchen island. This has been driving me absolutely nuts! Paper everywhere, markers rolling under the refrigerator - it needed to stop!

Last weekend I reorganized Sam's room and brought the train table and some other toys into his room. Then this weekend we built the table to put downstairs and move their stuff out of my kitchen. It's brilliant and I love having my kitchen back!! There's a nice big shelf underneath the table too. We're going to buy some new pretty bins to put under there and they will have all the room they need for their things.

And He Dressed Himself

2011-11-09T15:21:00.001-06:00

Sam was still in his jammies at lunch time so I told him to go get dressed. This is something I usually help with, but I was trying to finish up my work and figured it would be good practice for him.

He comes back wondering if he can wear these pants...

I don't know if you can tell but this is a jacket turned upside down and he has his feet in the arms and the hood is hanging down. Before I told him that they weren't pants I had to take a picture.

Then I told him that it was a jacket and not pants and to please go get changed.

Then he came back in wearing this...

Much better!

Partied Too Hard

2011-11-07T19:27:00.000-06:00

I think we partied too hard tonight. :)

Fall Photos

2011-11-03T14:01:00.002-05:00

The burning bushes in front of the house are so red and beautiful I just had to get some photos. I have the kids' school photos, but none of them together. So yesterday I made the kids change for some photos. I didn't get any of just Ella (I took the one's of Sam while we were waiting for Ella to get home for school), but the pictures are very cute! In my opinion of course.

Trick or Treating

2011-11-02T07:59:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure what to do with all the candy we have here at the house - oh wait, eat it! I had two huge bowls full of candy and didn't run out this year. I think we had about half of one bowl left, plus what the kids got around the neighborhood and we have almost the same amount I started with - just a better variety. I think it will last until Easter.

The kids had lots of fun trick or treating. The weather was nice - cool, but calm. Ella was a butterfly and Sam was a robot.

Instead of carving pumpkins this year which usually consists of Zan and I carving them we decided to let the kids paint their pumpkins. They had a fun time and I didn't have to stick my hand in a pumpkin (yet anyways). :) I do have plans for those pumpkins though and it requires a large knife.

Here's what the front porch looked like webs and all. (Oh and aren't my burning bushes pretty??) (And please ignore the dead mums - not quite sure what happened to those - other than them dying.)

Now off to get ready for Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T12:43:00.003-05:00

This year I have my very own Jack-O-Lantern!

She lost another tooth the other day. Thankfully I don't think any more will be coming out any time soon.

The kids are very excited for trick or treating this evening - we have a few different places to go. I have stocked up on candy!! Last year I ran out - this year I will not. We have tons of kids in the neighborhood, so I have to buy a lot!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!!

Cooking with Pumpkin

2011-10-24T07:48:00.001-05:00

At the pumpkin farm a couple weeks back I bought a small pumpkin specifically for me to cook and eat. The kids thought I was crazy and they were a little sad when they saw me pull out the biggest knife I have and cut that pumpkin in half and proceed to put it in the oven. I told them their gourds were safe and that put them at ease. :)

I've had this little thought in the back of my head for a while that I should use more pumpkin when I cook/bake. It's so good for you and yummy too. I'm not talking about making a lot of pumpkin pies either - just straight pumpkin.

Last week I made pumpkin pancakes and they were so yummy!! Everyone loved them. Good I thought, there's one idea that worked. I also tried adding some pumpkin to the kids macaroni and cheese. It kind of worked. I added too much pumpkin and they weren't quite sure why they didn't like it as much, but they still ate it. Easy fix - next time not as much pumpkin.

I'm always looking for ways to try and make a dish healthier and this works for me. I need to come up with some more ways to incorporate this great food into things.

Oh, and by the way the pumpkin that I cooked in the over didn't turn out as good as I had planned. I think I'll stick to buying the canned pumpkin. I was considering putting pumpkins in the garden next year, but I don't think I will. Canned pumpkin is nice because the kind I buy doesn't have anything added to it, just pumpkin. We'll stick with that.

Oh, and we are growing gourds in the garden next year!! Ella's so excited.

Dragons

2011-10-18T07:27:00.001-05:00

In case you thought that last picture Ella made of worms was a one time thing - nope, she does it all the time. Each page has a different theme if you will and she goes through all her colors so she doesn't repeat any.

Yesterday's drawing - dragons.

She just whips those things out in a jiffy and moves on to the next one. We go through an amazing amount of paper around here. Especially since she's teaching Sam how fun it is to draw different things.

They're just too cute though. I have quite the stash of saved drawings.

Sunday Funday

2011-10-16T15:19:00.000-05:00

Well, not really, but it rhymed.

It's going to get cold this week, so I went out to the garden and picked all the tomatoes and pulled the plants. Red and green they all came inside. They had to have weighed at least 50 pounds because I had a hard time getting them from the garden into the house.

The green ones will ripen over time. I pulled out all the ripe ones this morning and was going to cut them up and freeze them. I diced them and packed them into ~about one can size~, which is approximately 2 cups. I ended up with 13 packages. That was maybe a quarter of the tomatoes I have here. At least they aren't all ripe or I would have been in the kitchen all day instead of just this morning.

I made some spiderwebs in our stairway that were really quick and simple and are super cute. I might have to do some more.

Here's Sam playing with their ship. Didn't you know Bumblebee rode on a ship? Yeah, neither did I....

And last, but not least one of Ella's drawings. This is a bunch of worms. There are two queen worms and other various fat and skinny worms. (Her words; not mine.)

Bats in the Entry

2011-10-15T20:24:00.001-05:00

Here are the bats that came to stay for Halloween....

Gift Opening Videos

2011-10-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

For those of you who mailed your gifts to Sam - they all arrived today - I took video's so you could ~watch~ him!! He loves all his presents!

Opening present from Auntie Jill and Uncle Bob. *Box was totally smooshed and open upon arrival, but bounced back nicely* :)

Here's the first gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Second gift - I love the way he loves it then tosses it aside for the last one!

And last gift from great-grandma.

I hope you enjoyed the video's. Sam's currently working on the Optimus Prime puzzle.

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

2011-10-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Sam's 4th birthday. We've been celebrating over the past few days and he's been having a great time!

Sunday we had Nana and Papa over for some cake and presents.

Here's the cake. It was so good!! As you can see on the bottom left my finger slipped through the frosting trying to get it out of the box. Oops!

Sam with his cake.

Singing happy birthday to him.

Blowing out the candles.

He got the Transformer Bumblebee - he loves robots and Transformers!!

Birthday card from Nana and Papa.

Lego robot from Nana and Papa.

A little wind up robot we found at the Science Museum.

Monday evening we went out to Applebee's for his birthday dinner. They sang happy birthday and he got a yummy dessert.

Yesterday on his birthday I blew up four balloons and had another little robot waiting for him when he came down. He went to preschool and brought little treats for all his friends. He thought it was great that his teacher knew it was his birthday.

Birthday morning.

Today he is hanging around in his robot Halloween costume. Good times!!

Remember Those Holes???

2011-10-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

You haven't forgotten about the holes I dug a couple weeks ago have you? I sure haven't. Romeo really hasn't because he keeps falling into them. I've been a very patient girl waiting for my ~package~ to arrive and yesterday it did!!!

These are my new apple trees!! I really wanted apple trees, so I did some research to find out what I needed. First of all we're really much more limited in MN with what types of trees we can plant. It just gets too cold during the winter. Then you need to have two different types of trees so they can cross pollinate. I found two happy trees!!

This is a Jonathan apple tree.

And this is a McIntosh apple tree.

Both trees are dwarf trees and should produce lots of nice apples within a couple years or so. I can't wait until I can get bushels and bushels of apples!!

Smile!!

2011-10-04T18:22:00.001-05:00

Ella finally lost that top tooth!! (With a little help from me.) She looks so cute. She likes to stick her tongue between her teeth when I tell her to smile.

Weekend Hiking

2011-10-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

We packed up in the car and headed about an hour away to do some hiking and geocaching yesterday. The weather was absolutely beautiful and is supposed to stay that way all week!!

It was our first time using our GPS for geocaching and it was a lot of fun. We'll be doing more of that soon. Ella was looking for (and found) some caterpillars. Sam was looking for the giant robot (because he lives in the woods) and didn't find him - maybe next time. We also saw a tiny little snake, butterflies and fish.

See - I was there too!!

We found our treasure.

Looking for caterpillars in the parking lot before we started.

Fit-a-Thon

2011-09-30T08:14:00.004-05:00

Ella has her Fit-a-Thon today and thank you to all of her sponsors. She easily reached her goal this year.

She also lost one of her teeth last night! No, not the top one (that one's in for the long haul). It's the second bottom left one. This is the first time she's had a gap in her teeth waiting for one to grow in. The bottom two were already growing in before the baby ones fell out.

I took photos so you could see her teeth. You can see the gap that the top on is making because it's so loose. It's shifted to the middle more because it's not really connected on the one side. (Lovely isn't it)

Early Bird

2011-09-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

I'm a planner, yup one of those people. I starting thinking about things way in advance and try to get things done early.

I'm talking about Christmas cards!!! You know there's only three months until Christmas!! And you know that time flies as you get closer and closer. Fall is the perfect time to take an outdoor family photo to go with your Christmas card with all the pretty colors. We haven't taken one yet, but I would like to.

These days it's so easy to get your Christmas cards done. There are great online retailers and all you have to do is upload your photo, choose a design and bam - they send you your cards. Some places will even address the envelopes for you too. It doesn't get much easier than that.

My all time favorite place to get any type of card it tinyprints.com. This is where I had Sam's birth announcements done and the first place I go to look for cards. They have the best selection and ~in my opinion~ the cutest cards.

I was looking through their Christmas selection yesterday and I now know that I am going to have a very, very hard time deciding which card pattern to go with. Thankfully they have some helpful filters to help narrow down the cards depending on if I want one picture or two - price, etc. There are so many and they're all so great that I am going to need the three months to decide.

Go here - http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm and look at their great selection! You won't be disappointed.

Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/27595/christmas_cards_wreathed_charm.html
Love the green on this one!

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/30005/christmas_cards_melodic_swirls.html
Also love the color scheme on this one. Can you tell I like the square cards? There's something about them.

http://www.tinyprints.com/product/27808/christmas_cards_hopeful_sincerity.html
This one's really neat too!! I love how they have a nice design on the back of the card as well - you don't see that on other cards.

So they literally have hundreds of cards and it's going to take me weeks to decide - but that's a good thing I guess. There's really only about two and a half months until you need to send out the cards - so you'd better get working on it.

So go check out http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm to get started on your Christmas cards.

What I Did Today

2011-09-26T16:56:00.002-05:00

And now I'm tired!

Apple Picking 2011

2011-09-24T16:31:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again - apple picking. We trekked on over to the usual place. What a beautiful day to go apple picking!! We saw the animals, we played on the hay, we rode the wagon to the apple field, picked apples and of course tried a few too!!

Ella was most looking forward to going into the barn afterwards to pick out her gourds. She's been looking forward to that for a month or so. We still have the gourd from last year that double's as a rattle.

Ella found it hard to eat the apples because of all her loose teeth. Her top left tooth is extremely loose and if you look in the pictures you can see that it hangs lower than the other one and has opened a gap on the other side. It's really attractive and makes it harder to eat apples. :) Two of her bottom ones are also a little loose. I think she has four teeth all together that are loose. I hope they don't fall out at once or she'll look very funny!!

Sam and Daisy

2011-09-23T10:16:00.001-05:00

Sam loves playing catch with Daisy! If anyone knows Daisy, then you know she's my shadow. But since she's come to live with us she is getting more comfortable and will go off and play with the kids more.

She loves playing catch with her sheep. No matter who throws the sheep she brings it back to me. So if Sam throws it in another room she brings it back to me and Sam comes running after her to me to get the sheep again. This game involves a lot of running by both Daisy and Sam. Good exercise!

Like Sam's scarf? I knit this for him a long, long time ago. It was one of the first things I knit. He was wearing it all morning the other day. It was quite chilly in here and he looked really cute!

Canoeing

2011-09-22T16:19:00.001-05:00

We took the kids to a small little lake to go canoeing a couple weeks ago. The weather was beautiful, the water was super clear and hardly a boat on the lake.

It was fun being able to see all the little fish swimming around. I even saw a small northern. Ella loved seeing the dragonflies and butterflies. The lily pads were also a huge hit.

We need to get out more next year!!

First Day of School

2011-09-22T08:11:00.002-05:00

Ella started school on the Tuesday after Labor Day and Sam started the Thursday after that.

Here's Ella's picture of her first day of 2nd grade:

And here is Sam on his first day of preschool:

Both kids are loving school so far. Ella's teacher is a long-term sub (regular teacher is on maternity leave for the year). She appears to be just out of college (I'm getting old). She is the nicest teacher and the kids just love her.

Sam loves his preschool and is so excited to go! He goes on Tuesday's and Thursdays this year. Next year he will do Mon., Wed. and Fridays. He has the same teacher that Ella had when she was in preschool - she's the best.

I have a feeling this will be a great year for them both!

Growth

2011-09-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

I've been going through and editing my photos. I came across the one from the fair this year and compared it to the one last year. You can see how much the kids have grown. Especially how much Sam is catching up to Ella. He's only a couple/few inches shorter than Ella. It won't be long before they're the same height. Pretty scary considering he's almost 3 1/2 years younger!!

2010

2011

Cocoon

2011-08-22T09:06:00.000-05:00

For Ella's birthday she got a little butterfly house. After we got back from vacation in July I went online and ordered her some caterpillars. They arrived and grew and grew and grew and actually turned into cocoons. After about a week the butterflies emerged and the kids loved watching them eat and fly around their little house.

After a couple days we decided it was time to let them go. We went out in the back yard and opened their little door and away they flew. Ella was pretty sad that they flew away so fast and didn't stay around to play. I told her we'd have to get some more caterpillars for you.

Jump ahead a couple weeks....

I was out in my garden and came across a monarch caterpillar. Upon closer inspection there were two caterpillars. So I cut off the milkweed that they were hungrily eating and brought it inside and put it in the butterfly house. After a couple/few days they turned into beautiful cocoons.

Now we wait for them to emerge beautiful butterflies. It's hard to see from the photo, but their cocoons are very pretty and they have a line and some specks of gold on them as well.

Now on to the garden - I have to take a picture of this thing. I have cantaloupe and watermelon growing in my pepper plants. I have tomatoes growing in my zucchini plant, cucumbers everywhere - you get the idea.

Here is a photo of what I picked on Friday.

See what happens to your pickling cucumbers when you let them grow too long? They get big, but I'm just making relish so it's fine. The cantaloupe are almost ready to pick and the watermelon is getting bigger. The squash are almost done also - it's fun!

Hair Today - Gone Tomorrow

2011-08-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

I did it! My hair was finally driving me nuts, so I went and got it cut. Long hairs everywhere, always tickling something, getting stuck, and the most annoying of all was when I would be sleeping and roll over and my hair would get stuck. Argh!!

Well I looked and looked and found a cut I liked. A long bob, or rather termed the "lob". I'm quite in style right now! My hair was also long enough to be donated, so that was nice.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

It feels so nice and it really is the perfect length. I can still fit it up into a ponytail too, which is key. And yes I know it's a little redder now, but that will wash out. :-)

Carousel and Bug Safari

2011-08-06T15:17:00.000-05:00

On Thursday we went to the zoo with Nana and cousin. Everyone had a great time. Man the place was packed! No matter when you go the place is always busy. Before we left the zoo the kids wanted to ride on the carousel. It's a really old carousel - nearly 100 years old. Nana went with the kids because those things make me really dizzy and I don't like to ride them. Ella wasn't so sure at first, but had a great time and Sam LOVED it and cried when he had to leave.

Today we went to the local nature center and went on a bug safari. We were trying to find bugs from all eight bug categories. I think we found all of them. The kids had so much fun chasing the bugs with their nets and showing our guide all the different things.

It's been a good day. I canned my last batch of peaches. I have about 20 jars in my pantry. Yummy!!

I also gave Sam a haircut the other day. Zan said he was starting to look like a hockey player. He didn't want me to cut it too short though. Apparently he likes it longer.

Here...Then Gone... And Back Again...

2011-08-02T14:55:00.003-05:00

Hold on to your hats - this could get long!

Wow, I can't believe July went by without a post. We've been pretty busy around here. In mid July we took a vacation out to Racine, WI on Lake Michigan.

Our trip was fun. The kids had a great time - they especially liked staying in the hotel with the pool. The hotel was right on the harbor and looked out over the lake.

On our first day there Zan was doing race stuff so the kids and I walked along the pier/harbor and down to the beach.

Ran into a little history about Racine...

There was a drawbridge on the way to the beach that the kids loved watching go up to let the tall sailboats underneath. (Didn't get a picture)

The beach was great! I couldn't believe how soft the sand was. I really wasn't expecting it. The first day we went there the seagulls had taken over the beach. I told the kids to go get em!!

They had a playground there that I had heard was really great. It was very nice - it was also very, very similar to the playground in town here. I guess we have great playgrounds here.

They loved walking along the sand dunes...

This picture screamed to be in black and white too!!

One of the other reasons we went to Racine was for Zan to complete in the 70.3 Ironman race. He did well. Here he is crossing the finish line...

And with the kids afterwards...

Before we went to watch Zan finish the race we found a splash pad that was only a couple blocks from the hotel. Yeah, the kids were wearing their clothes, but we were on vacation and they were having a blast!!

The following day we went to visit the Jelly Belly warehouse. We took a tour of the warehouse; unfortunately not the factory and dropped a fair penny in the store!! YUM!!

We also went to the beach to go swimming. The water was very cold, but it was hot so it felt pretty good. Up to a certain point anyways...

Apparently sand castles are not my thing, but I made a sand turtle...

We drove a little out of town to go see the dinosaur museum - it was small, but fun.

We also found the best toy store with attached ice cream shop!! I wish it was closer because it really was the best.

Here's a picture of Sam's dinosaur that he was feeding crackers to.

So that was our trip in a nutshell and photos. I'll put some more photos on my other blog if you want to check them out.

Other than that everything has pretty much been business as usual. The garden is doing very well. I've been picking tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, green beans and a couple blueberries. I have cantaloupe and watermelon growing also. Here are some pictures I took today.

Then I realized I hadn't posted a completed photo of the deck, so here you go...

I also finished Sam's new big boy bed. He really likes it and his new robot sheets too.

See, July was kind of busy, but not too much. Now it's only five weeks until school starts again. The summer is going too fast. I wish it would cool down a little bit though. It's been so humid and sticky out.

I'll try and get some more posts here in August!! :)

Please Welcome....

2011-06-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

Daisy

We adopted Daisy last week from the Small Dog Rescue of Minnesota. She is a 6 year old terrier mix. She originally came from Tennessee and was found as a stray. She's been in a foster home in MN for a little over a year. Daisy has been a great dog so far and we expect her to continue that way. :)

She's a little bigger than Romeo - they get along well. She is fast and loves to run. She is my shadow and follows me around everywhere - and I mean everywhere. She loves Ella and tolerates Sam very well. She's even warming up to Zan. She also has shown some tendencies towards being a good watch dog - very attentive. She's a great dog to go on walks with too.

So we are now a family of 6 - 3 girls and 3 boys. :)

It's going to feel like it's over 100 today and very muggy. The kids want to play in the pool, which is great. Otherwise we'll be hanging out inside with the A/C cranking. Summer has finally arrived.

My garden is doing great. We have strawberries almost every day with dinner. My tomato plants are growing super tall. I have some zucchini's and summer squash already. My butternut squash are growing quickly as well. I have one pepper and there are others not far behind. Now that the weather is warmer it won't take long....