Take Me To the River

The St. Croix River, that is.

We went camping at the Wild River State Park on Saturday and Sunday night. We even rented a canoe and spent most of Sunday on the water.*

We had a wonderful time! It was so refreshing. The weather was good except for one small downpour on Saturday evening. The quick shower was followed by a beautiful rainbow all across the sky, so I'd say that small hiccup in the weather was totally worth it!

Some other things that made the trip very enjoyable: very few mosquitoes, only one tick (on my husband's leg), and no bee stings. Nice State Park amenities - like clean showers, a fun visitor center, and beautiful hiking trails. Yummy food - blueberry pancakes, s'mores, and pb & j.

Hanging out with our good friends didn't hurt either. It was so great to see them and spend the weekend with them after months apart. I hope we'll do it again. Thank you Bodkes for a great weekend!

*No pics of that, cause I left my camera behind. I was too afraid it would end up at the bottom of the river. I also have very few pictures of Bug, and that's cause she was on my back in the Ergo most of the time.

Picture Proof

Whee! Go Doodle, go Doodle, go Doodle, go!



Doodle can be a really wonderful big sis. When she wants to.

I love it when they are actually having fun together instead of trying to wrestle (bite, pinch, or steal from) one another.

Whose Glasses?

Fuhgeddaboudit! (She's just doing her Sicilian heritage proud.)

These are actually Miss Doodle's sunglasses. But Bug just loves them. And she looks so funny cute in them.

In the Summertime

When the weather is hot, you've got swimmin' you've got swimmin' on your mind. (Dee dee dee dee dee da da da da da.)

Yesterday it was hot, hot, hot. In the 90s and we had to cool off somehow. Unfortunately, I wasn't going anywhere, and our little inflatable pool has a hole in it and needs fixing.

So this is what we ended up doing to remedy our predicament:

Making the Sale

Our neighbors across the street had a garage sale last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They asked us to join in the drudgery fun. I got rid of loads of junk little treasures. And made a little cash while I was at it.

Doodle and Bug had fun terrorizing the place helping while I was working the sale. Bug was into everything and covered in dirt by the end of each day. (Garage floors in Minnesota get dirrrrtttty!) Our neighbors also have a black poodle, so you can imagine that Bug was in heaven everytime she got to see that dog. She's obssessed. In her own words, "Dog, dog. Woof, woof. More dog."

On Saturday, little Miss Doodle enjoyed working her first ever lemonade stand. I'm happy to report that she was extremely succesful. She even had some (kind) people give her quarters even though they weren't taking any lemonade. And at least one person gave her a tip because she was so helpful. When we got home we only had two lemonades left, out of a box of twenty. (Don't count how many lemonades Doodle snagged while she was working. Having a job is thirsty business after all.)

I think she is going to be a wonderful saleswoman one day. She is very aggressive. She would follow approach people and ask them if they wanted lemonade. And on the days that she didn't have the lemonade stand set up she was busy asking them if they wanted to buy her Dorothy book.*





*She had picked out something from her room to sell, and it was a copy of The Wizard of Oz. (Don't worry we have another, slightly different copy of it.) And yes, she did manage to sell it. Bless that nice woman's heart.

Bubbly

Normally our yard is always very windy.* Today it was oddly quite still, with only the occasional small breeze blowing. Not only was it a great photo op,** but I'm also happy that my girls were actually able to chase after AND catch the bubbles.


*Like wind tunnel windy. Too bad our association probably wouldn't go for a wind turbine. Cause it would totally make sense in our yard.

**Would've been better if I had more hands. Imaging how hard it is to blow bubbles with one hand, quickly switch to the camera in the other hand, get the shot. And all while making sure you don't destroy the nice camera with bubble solution (or slippery fingers).

Fun with Chalk

Somebody oughta tell her that you are supposed to draw with it, not eat it. (Oh wait, I do tell her that. Constantly.)


Don't you want to join our fun?


Sometimes I think I have more fun with chalk than they do.

And covering the driveway with chalk wasn't the only fun thing we did yesterday. We also went to see a Yo-Yo Master perform at the library near our house, had lunch at Noodles & Co., played at the park, went for a walk, and played some more at yet another park.

All of that and little Miss Doodle still complained when it was time to go in. Can you say spoiled? Rotten.

Who, who. who, who?

Are they? (Cause you really wanna know.)

The Doodle is the big sister. She is four and a half years old. She loves (as the nickname implies) to work on art projects. Yes, much doodling goes on.

She is learning Mandarin Chinese and hopes to go to an immersion elementary school. She also takes swimming lessons, and loves the water. She's great at making up stories and has an invisible friend named, Monster. The Doodle begs to be read to, for sweets, to stay up way past her bedtime, and to watch T.V. (real original, right?) Like other girls she is in love with anything pink, ballerinas and princesses.


The Bug is the toddler of the house. She is going to be 15 months old this month. She's extremely curious and into everything. If you want to know whether or not something is childproof, she's your girl. (And yes, she is a girl despite the lack of hair on her head.) She can play well by herself (and take things apart), but also loves to cuddle.

Being outside is the Bug's absolute favorite thing. She's also a big fan of dark chocolate, dogs, cats, blueberries, climbing, screaming, wearing dresses and her blanket.



So that's a little bit about my girls. I will continue to update you about them. For this is a blog dedicated to them and their lives. Unlike my other blog, which is often more about me and my hippy mama, tree huggin', tryin' to save the world pursuits.

Hope you enjoy reading about their tales, trials and adventures as much as I enjoy experiencing them firsthand (at least most of the time).