Practically A Year Overdue - Part Two

Another excuse for my lack of entries would be the fact that school started. Our lives have been extra busy ever since. I am truly thankful for the fact that Minnesota allows open enrollment, therefore giving Miss Doodle the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese. But I am also learning the challenges of living outside of her school district.

Our drive to her school is between fifteen and twenty minutes. She is only there for two and a half hours in the afternoon. To me it doesn't really make sense to drive all the way home while she is there. So Bug and I rarely come home. We usually stay near her school. We often enjoy the nearby library. We also make lots of trips to Eden Prairie Center or Ridgedale to play in their little play areas. Other days we get the grocery shopping done or visit with friends.

Fortunately over the months we've figured out how to make it work. And Bug is mostly done with naps now. That is unless she's really tired and falls asleep on the way home. But that seems to be happening less and less often.

Yay! Now I will share some nice photos from the last six months and then I will be all caught up until next year month. (I'm really, truly going to try and post at least once a month.)

Miss Doodle on her first day of Kindergarten:




We made our annual trip to the apple orchard last fall. (If you are interested in seeing how they've grown, here are the links to entries about our past trips to the orchard: October 2009, October 2008)

I couldn't resist adding this one. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Miss Doodle obviously, really wanted her sister to look at and smile for the camera.


Can you find the needle in the haystack bug in the leaf pile?

Our neighbors have a huge Sycamore tree with ginormous leaves. Its branches overlap into our yard a bit. Its leaves made for an awesome pile to jump in!

Miss Doodle dressed up as Wednesday Addams. And Bug dressed up as her namesake.

Miss Doodle turned six. Yes, six! We had her party at Adventure Peak. (It's a really awesome indoor play structure.)

We visited our former neighbor. We really miss living close to her. She doesn't have any biological grandchildren so she kind of adopted us. And the girls' biological great grandmas (and great grandaddy*) live far away so it's nice to have her filling in.

We enjoyed a visit from my mom and sister. (You can also read about that visit in depth on my blog.)

Miss Doodle donated her hair to Locks of Love:

A clean and smiley bug:

A sleepy, dreaming bug:

Goofing off upstairs in the playroom:

A little fairy playing with Barbie:

Tag you're it!:

Joy on Christmas Eve:

Even more joy on Christmas Morning:

Bug had her first dental cleaning. You can tell she was prepared for it just by looking at her shirt. (Yep, that's a toothpaste stain all right.)

She did a great job of sitting nicely and opening wide. Just like her older sister. (Remember this post? It's the same dental office...different chair.) And those lucky girls were both declared cavity free.


Miss Doodle's school had a very fun Chinese New Year Celebration on February 11th. She even sang a couple of Happy New Year type songs in Chinese, along with her class, in front of a very packed gym. Here's a picture of her standing next to the rabbit she made. (It's the year of the rabbit, hence all of the rabbits.)


This was just last Wednesday. We made it to the awesome story time they have at the Ridgedale library. When that was done we had plenty of time to grab lunch at Chipotle, one of our favorites. Yum! After that we still had a few minutes to burn before it was time for Miss Doodle to go to school so I let them play for a bit.


Until next time:

*I had to throw that in for all of the Northerners who pick on me because we call him that instead of grandpa.

Practically A Year Overdue - Part One

I look at this blog and I am proud of myself for my past efforts, but then I also get disappointed in myself for giving up the fight. It's been an entire year since I last posted here. And I really wish I'd been posting all along.

When I come here and look back I realize that without the documentation I would've easily forgotten all about those fun, cute, happy times. And it makes me really glad I took the time to post it. Then the pit of my stomach drops. I feel sad. A whole year lived but not recorded, and therefore not shared with friends and family far away, or well remembered.

I will do my best to explain...so I can live with myself. And anyone who still checks this will also, hopefully forgive my absence.

Either shortly before, or shortly after that last post (see I can't remember) we put our townhouse on the real estate market. Which led to a whirlwind of showings. Life was so busy trying to keep the place clean and ready to sell, that I had very little time for anything else. Fortunately, all of that hard work paid off and we managed to get a reasonable offer at the end of April. Then we had to find a new home, and get everything packed up in about a month. We were moved into our new home by the end of May 2010. Then came the unpacking, and learning the new neighborhood.

Did I mention it was summer by then? So all we felt like doing was enjoying summer, after the hectic spring we'd had. Most of the blog postings would have been about us living the life of Riley swimming, going to splash pads, playgrounds, zoos, feeding farm animals, or even collecting cicada skins. (They leave them behind when they molt, and there were tons of them in our new yard.)

This cicada is actually alive, not just a skin.

(Just in case you were wondering what they look like.

Don't worry I've got pictures of a much cuter bug below.)

They found it on the tree in our yard:


Well, last summer was so laid back that I didn't always remember the camera. Other times I chose not to bring it along so I wouldn't annoy the Regime. The final excuse is that the camera doesn't work properly very often, it has a serious focusing issue. (It is still on the fritz and we need to figure out how to fix it.) But here are some of the pictures I did manage to take last spring and summer. And yes we did go to the Minnesota State Fair and I would love to have pictures of that to end this post with. Alas, I found out my camera battery was dead only after we arrived at the Fair. So you'll have to make due with what I've got.

Bug helping with the move:


Como Park Zoo on our 11th Wedding Anniversary (5/16/10):


Wow do I look tired here.
Must have been all of the work involved in moving.
Yep. It was definitely that.




Bug in front of our new home:


Miss Doodle enjoying the swings, at the playground on the end of our block:


Visiting the farm at the MN Zoo:


Surrounded by goats:




Enjoying a mini vacation at the Ham Lake campground with friends:










MN Zoo again. This time we went with Grandma and Grandpa.
We had to go one last time before the membership ran out:


Bug hunting for butterflies:


I think they found some:








Our new house has a lego room. Yay!
Notice Miss Doodle in her swimsuit.
She practically lived in it last summer:


We even got a dog. (you can read all about that misadventure here):


P.S. - I promise to get part two of this post to you before this month is over. It will cover our fall and winter adventures...or lack thereof.