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...

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

bubbles and daddy

oh claire. how she is growing and changing so fast. she loves bubbles and gets REALLY excited over them. we got a bubble machine and man does this thing crank out the bubbles. seriously its kinda overwhelming for me let alone claire but she enjoys it. every once and a while. 

and she is always on the move. always. and it seems to always be where we are. especially when we are in the kitchen. she wiggles her way into the smallest of openings...or whines until we make room for her.

and im about 99.9% sure shes a hard core daddys girl. which i like. (and so does the hubs!)

birthday and baseball.

we went to visit good ole wisconsin again...to celebrate some more birthdays. claire loved all the hugs and kisses she got (mainly from her cousins) and had lots of fun playing and seeing everyone again.

miles was helping uncle dave fix a headboard. 

and then at the birthday party all the young ones celebrated in the bounce house. even uncle dave was jealous and wanted a turn too! and then miles showed off his new hairstyle! (which he did all by himself!)

we even caught some baseball games too. of course i think dave & andrew were the only ones really able to watch, shannon & i were busy corralling the kids. i love these 2 pictures. showing off how claire LOVES to point at everything and is so interested in her older cousin emma.

miles showin claire some love. 

and auntie shannon. spending some quality time with claire and yet keeping emma entertained at the same time. now thats a good mama!

late entry

over memorial day weekend we trekked on over to wi to see family & friends and to celebrate our neice's 2nd birthday. we had a lot of fun...so much fun that i didnt get a lot of pictures (bad mom, i know)

even though she doesnt look like a happy camper here, claire had so much fun playing with her cousins and seeing her extended wi family. she even got to play with her friend jameson too. buuuut check out that hair! its growing!

we went out to eat and claire loved eating grandma kellys supper with her. we even attempted to get a shot of all three grandkids...as you can see...its pretty funny & pretty much impossible to get everyone looking the same way at the same time...and you gotta love all these facial expressions too!

grandma kelly also found this piano at a garage sale (i think) claire loves it! shes always walking around it, sitting down and trying to play some music. that is when she isnt distracted by her purse. she loves this purse & some how knows to put it on her arm...

auntie kenzies birthday

auntie kenzie celebrated her golden birthday on the 21st.
turns out claire sorta stole the show. (sorry auntie kenzie)

after playing with her new sunglasses, claire ate some table food. ive never seen her eat so much at one time. of course we typically dont have the wide variety of  foods available. she tried bites of flatbread with mozzarella and peppers, chicken fettuccine alfredo, french fries, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes and a giant pickle slice. pretty sure the pickle was her favorite. (i think thats everything.)

and after all that eating she was happy to relax by uncle kyle.

(probably because he didnt bring his big dog with)