A Mild Winter Revisited

I don't have very many photos from last winter. I guess I forgot to get the camera out, or we had a pretty uneventful winter, or both.

We have a tradition that each kid gets to pick one present to open on Christmas Eve. Here they are proudly displaying the gifts they picked first:

Here they are Christmas morning, eagerly awaiting to open all of their awesome presents!

The 3DS that their dad bought them was (and continues to be) a big hit!

We also made lefse during our winter break. Here are my little helpers:

And we adopted a cat! Her name is Pippi. We got her a few days after Christmas. She is definitely spunky. And did I mention constantly hungry. (We must be related.) The girls really enjoy her, so I think the adoption was a good decision.

In February, Miss Doodle had her 1st Grade Breakfast. It was a country theme this year. The kids were encouraged to dress as cowboys and cowgirls. She did a great job performing with the rest of the 1st graders!

(If you are wondering what's on her cheek, it's a tattoo. I did not okay that. Thank goodness it was only temporary.) 

A Peak at Last Autumn

It's almost summer! How did that happen?!  As you are aware, I never got my pictures up throughout the year. It has been such a busy school year and I have had very little time at home or on the computer. I still want to share a bit of our autumn with our extended family and friends, who may not know what we've been up to since October.

So here we go: 

My little roller girl, making Auntie Cass proud! Could her roller derby name be The Great Bugsby? 

We enjoyed the Apple Festival held at the Gibbs Museum during the first weekend of October. 

This is a young Cam Jansen pumpkin, which we made for a school project and also kept on our front step for Halloween. Miss Doodle loves these books! They got her excited and motivated to read. I credit them with helping her to go from easy readers to chapter books. 

Miss Doodle at her class Halloween Party.

Here they are ready to go trick or treating. Miss Doodle looked very menacing as a vampire, while Bug turned on the charm as an adorable fairy princess.

We enjoyed our annual tradition of picking Haralson apples at Fischer's in Hastings. We didn't make it down there until November. Lucky for us that the weather was mild or we might have missed out on all of the fun and apple crisp that followed. 

This orchard has a big wooden train. The girls enjoyed posing playing on it. 

So much for getting a nice shot of the three of us. Somebody was not being very cooperative. 

We had a party at the local nature center for Miss Doodle's seventh birthday in November. We enjoyed meeting a turtle and going for a lovely nature hike. She also gave a big thumbs up to the DQ ice cream cake. Yummo! 

Before autumn's beauty faded we took a trip down to, my favorite place in Minnesota, Nine Mile Creek, located in Bloomington. We had fun doing our own little photo shoot. I'm glad we did. It's nice to have lovely pictures of my girls that I will cherish for a lifetime.

The Bona Fide First Grader

I can hardly believe it myself. Miss Doodle started first grade last week. The proof is in the pudding photos*:

If you are thinking that the entryway looks different from last year's first day photo, then you would be correct. I made a difficult decision. One which, at the moment, I'm not so sure was the right choice. I switched her to a closer school. This saves forty minutes of driving each day.** Which is great for me since I don't like driving. And I know it will be especially nice once the snow starts flying, but the adjustment hasn't been the easiest. I had hoped for the best, but it isn't going exactly the way I had expected. It turns out the curriculum at the new school is slightly different and there are different characters that she needs to learn. So we've been working hard to try and get her caught up.

I've got my fingers crossed (yet again) that she'll be able to, not only catch up, but also thrive at this new school. And the sooner the better, because the Regime is upset. I think he might want me to put her back in the other school, or worse, to quit Chinese immersion all together.

*And our tired eyes. We aren't morning people over here. It's seriously gonna take some time to get adjusted to our new routine.

**I love our house and neighborhood. But sometimes I wonder if we rushed that decision. Maybe we should have rented a place near the previous school until we could find a house in our price range out that way. Ugh. Too late for that now.

Our Summer Whirlwind

I'm still in disbelief that our summer vacation is over. We had a wonderfully fun and relaxing summer. I loved every day of it and I was very sad when it had to come to an end. I love spending time with my girls and doing fun activities with them, so adjusting to the school routine, and Miss Doodle's absence has been hard.

The following is a quick photo recap of our summer.*

We made it to the MN Zoo. It's fun to act like animals there.

We made some wonderful new friends over the summer. We met at the splash pad and hit it off right from the start. We stayed in touch and made a habit of going to Library Storytime with them. Here's Miss Doodle with the Big Bad Wolf:

The pictures below are from the end of season T-Ball picnic. They all got trophies, a pink flamingo statue (their mascot), and necklaces with their team number and name engraved on them.

We got to take a trip, with good friends, to Como Zoo. We've known these friends for five years. So they have grown up together. We have lots of happy play date memories from years past. And it's fun to stay connected. (Thanks again, Lisa & Shannon!)

We visited my dear friend, Mary Jane, at her workplace. She made us some delicious drinks. Hot chocolates for the girls, and a Caramel Macchiato for me. Yum, yum. She's the best barista ever, in my opinion. (Thanks again, Mary Jane!)

It's also nice to have friends who live in a condo with a pool. Especially when they invite you over to go swimming! (Thanks again, Danielle!)

This sunglasses shot was taken after we went swimming at Elm Creek Swimming Pond. Also known as the "fake lake." We didn't get up there as much as I had hoped, but the two times we went were lots of fun.

We helped one of Bug's friends celebrate her third birthday by going with them to the MN Children's Museum. We all had a blast. (Thanks for inviting us along, Anne!)

There were many bike trips up to our local playground. I'm glad I finally remembered to bring the camera along.

Bug mastered sliding down the pole this summer.

Miss Doodle took a swimming camp at Foss. Her swimming skills improved dramatically. I was very impressed. Here she is learning to float:

The Regime took Monday, August 29th off so that we could enjoy a day at the MN State Fair. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for the fair. We made sure to stick to our traditions. Visiting the barns, riding rides at the Kidway, the Giant Slide, Little Farm Hands, visiting the Art Building, a little shopping at the International Bazaar (the girls bought fans, again), and the Space Tower. And, yes, of course, we enjoyed lots of delicious food along the way.

The following pictures were taken on August 31, 2011. It was our Big City Adventure day. We started at the Sculpture Garden, and then crossed the bridge to play at Loring Park, but we didn't stop there. Nope. We walked to Nicollet Mall and explored all along the way there and back. It was unforgettable. I felt like a tourist in the city next door. (Thanks again, Dawn!)

Miss Doodle took lots of pictures along the way. Including this one, which I love:

*And that was just a small sampling of our summer fun. There were many times when I forgot to get the camera out. Like when we visited the local Aquatic Center, and splash pads. Or when we went to a drive-in movie, visited our old neighbor Helen, had fun at the Penny Carnival, went to a parade, saw fireworks, rode rides at Nickelodeon Universe, picked raspberries, saw Bill the Juggler at the library, played with friends at Adventure Peak, saw a play at Stages, enjoyed an outdoor concert, went to a T-ball pool party, and visited Grandma & Grandpa. Phew! (No wonder the time flew by.) We also slept in. A lot. It was awesome. Some of the best days of my life and I'll never forget them.