swimming lessons

our little claire started swimming lessons. i was a bit worried because she does not like bath time anymore. at all. the first week da hubs took her swimming and i took some pictures. 

 

and i cant resist. heres a little picture of claire with her favorite necklace and bracelet.

stay-cation

last weekend we had a mini stay-cation/family weekend. we went to the zoo, a splash pad and the childrens museum.

the zoo was fun. claire really enjoyed watching some penguins swim but i think her favorite part was pushing her stroller. this girl i tell ya. she loves to push her stroller and carts in the grocery store. man on man she just loves it! and let me tell you, shes pretty strong too, pushing the shopping carts with groceries in them. now we just gotta teach her to steer and watch where she goes. 

we thought she would enjoy the splash pad a bit more than she did but maybe it was because we were the only ones there? who knows. 

and the childrens museum. surprisingly there were more things for her to do than i thought. they had an entire room/exhibit for kids under 4 years old. she loved climbing the rope ladder, going down the slide and just climbing in general.

a girl after daddys heart...loving the outdoors & flowers...

a girl after mommy's heart...learning all about stethoscopes...

pro pics

thanks to a great groupon offer we were able to do claires one year pictures at jcpennys. after some awkward faces at the beginning claire warmed up and we got some pretty good shots! :) she is definitely NOT a baby anymore! (when did that happen?!?!?!)

wisconsin fiesta!

during the first weekend of august we made the trek over to wisconsin to celebrate claires 1st birthday and miles 4th birthday. and what better way to celebrate than with a lil fiesta? 

as usual there was a lot of delicious food, lots of presents and lots of good time with family and friends. after the party there were some friends who stayed and played a few games of kubb. (i wont even go into what type of game it is or the object or the point cuz lets face it, i have no idea) 

*sorry for the lack of posts lately. this writer has been in a funk lately and busy with life and prepping for a lil remodel. and by prepping i really mean mentally because im not the one doing any of the work. more on that remodel to come.

other bday weekend fun

for claires birthday weekend we had some family and friends come up to help celebrate. we always love spending time with these guys and (of course) the fime always seems to go by too quickly.

we enjoyed lots of different things, and unfortunately i dont have a ton of pictures of everything we did. we went to the sculpture garden. lunch at psycho suzies. shopping & cupcakes at mall of america. grilled out. played jenga. and pass the pigs. and that was all on friday.

saturday was claires party so we prepped with that, partied and then napped. ha. we are definitely getting old. and then we had a girls night. typically the guys always get a guys night and then say "next time you girls will have a girls night" and when next time comes, guys get another night. so we hit up the boys 2 men, 98 degrees & new kids on the block concert. i wont go into details but man oh man...the hard core fans are a whole nother world. just saying.

and of course the kids got to play together. its always so much fun to see them play together and give each other hugs and kisses. i love seeing how each one has grown since the last time we saw them!



ps i love this picture of claire wearing daves ankle socks. they are pretty much pants for her!



first birthday