Summer...bring back the heat!

These cooler (not very welcomed) temperatures have not stopped us from being out and about this summer....although we have altered our typical past-times recently. Instead of swimming laps, playing pool games and having water races, we are exploring local play grounds, pedaling the bikes and even roller skating! 

This week, Sidney wanted to pull out the roller skates and go for a spin. Keep in mind, she has no idea what she is doing when it comes to wheels on her feet, and kept her head safe with a helmet. So Regan grabbed one hand, and I the other as we went back and forth on the side walk. Sidney giggled the whole way, and on one occasion while she lost her balance and started to fall, she laughed and said "they should make butt pads!"

At 4 years old, she can be quite witty :) 

Loves

I'm missing my "stay-cation" weeks with my two loves this summer. Normally by now I'm knee-deep into planning and experiencing some fun adventures around town. However, with a bun-in-the-oven, practicality has taken over and I'm reserving most of my paid time off for baby's arrival. 

Today, I took the day off from work, despite that, to spend it with the girls. Regan requested we head to Minihaha Falls. 

And boy were the falls going. Complete gush of water over the edge. The girls were mesmerized.

Both had high hopes of wading in the (normally) shallow parts of the area; however, when I saw the falls I knew better. By the time we got to the bottom, they were convinced it wasn't a safe idea as well, though that doesn't mean they didn't ask over and over again! 

We were able to find a great spot for a picnic lunch though. 

And when the fun was over, it was time to climb back up. I asked Regan to show me how much fun she was having.....

She laughed after we took that picture. Because really, she was having a great time. Stinker. 

Looking forward to a few more days with my loves! 

Go Twins!

We are thankful to Ryan's amazing company for giving us tickets in the suite to last night's Twins win! Target Field's suites are wonderful. The suite themselves are big and spacious and then the seats in front of the suite are comfy with great views of the field. 

Hands down, this is the way to watch a game. The girls brought totes of books, colors and other trinkets to keep them busy. And of course, there was all sorts of ball-park food to keep everyone happy :) 

Check out those cozy seats! And a bathroom just outside the suite reserved practically just for me! It was a pregnant lady's dream. 

Around inning 6 or 7, Sidney was ready for a little down time. She ventured inside the suite and settled in with an iPhone for some TV time. The girls did great and while leaving, admitted that they weren't thrilled to go to the game, but once there, they sure had a great time :) 

Valleyfair

Our girls love rides. It's no lie that they could go round and round and up and down all day long, neither of them wanting to stop for a meal or to go to the bathroom. So each year, we try to make a day out of Valleyfair. Some day, I'm sure they'll need season passes like the older kids in our neighborhood, but for now, they are happy with once or twice a year. 

And so are we! 

Ryan is just a big kid when it comes to rides. He loves them as much as the girls. Who am I kidding, so do I! But Valleyfair is much more strict than Disneyland and I wasn't allowed on much of anything. So Ryan took them on rides that spun, and he/Regan went on rides that went way up high! Her favorite is still the Corkscrew, and Sidney might tell you this Scrambler is her favorite (listening to her giggles and seeing the laughter plastered on her face is priceless!). 

One of only two rides I was allowed on today, the Ferris Wheel. So I jumped at the opportunity to take a spin into the sky with these two little girls. We watched as the sun was setting after a very long day of fun. 

Our spunky Sidney was striking some poses for me :) 

Thanks grandma Sheri for a fun filled day!

Some Pig

last weekend we caught the end of the Aquatennial sand castle competition. This competition is really quite amazing and we try to see the end results every year, as it gives the girls some fun inspiration while digging and making their own sand creations.

Our top winner this year went to Charlotte's Web "Some Pig" pictured below. 

You can see the girl laying down next to Wilbur, and the spider in the web with the words "Some Pig". 

Pretty cool stuff.  

Minnesota summers-we love them!

Summer goals

We have several informal 'summer goals' around here. Nothing drastic or written out for all to see. But things we've discussed that we should try to accomplish during the summer. One of Sidney's summer goals was to jump off the diving board and swim to the edge, without help or a floatation device. Keep in mind she's 4 years old, and rather hesitant at trying something so daring, so I wasn't sure this was realistic. 

Well, today she went for it. Out of the blue she asked me to stay close to her in the water, but yet allow her to do this 'trick' on her own. I coached, encouraged and cheered for her as she made the initial leap! She was so excited and proud of herself that she did it over and over again. Thank goodness she kept going because that allowed me to take a quick video! 

Click HERE to watch her :) 

24 weeks

Here we are at 24 weeks (and one day). Baby is growing and at about 1.5 lbs, is sitting breech currently. We got another peek inside today and s/he is looking good. The cord was across the face, casting a shadow on the cheek in the picture below. 

As for me, I can't complain. This pregnancy is both similar and different from the previous two. Strangely, I get some horrific side aches from simply walking. I can do an elliptical for 30 minutes, but can't walk one block. At this point, we are chalking them up to muscle pains and nothing more. Baby is constantly moving and that is very reassuring. Feeling the breech movements is something unique to this pregnancy, as neither of the girls were ever in that position by this stage. So I get a lot of kicks to my bladder....yea, that's fun :) S/He is very active in the afternoons and evenings, this is very much a pattern. I'm up most nights with a wild one and I can't help but smile at 3am :) 

So far so good. The girls are thrilled and excited and both enjoyed seeing baby today during the ultrasound, commenting "ohhhh, it's so cute!". Sure is! 

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Now I know that when we bought this house several years ago, we were going to have our share of critters. After all, in ground pools are warm places for critters to hang out.

So I've seen lots of dead animals floating in the pool, and I can muster up the energy to scoop them out and toss them in the trash. But imagine my surprise, when I glance in the pool yesterday afternoon and see something swimming in the water! To say I was in hysterics is putting it lightly. I'm sure the neighbors thought I had just severed a limb the way I was screaming. But there it was, a mouse swimming laps in our pool. Who knew mice could even swim!? And to make matters worse, I was home alone with the girls. Awesome. Hysterically, I mean calmly, I called Ryan for advice. He chuckled and offered up a solution "fish it out with the net and clobber it". There was no fishing anything LIVING out of the pool by me. No way. I couldn't even fathom it. My pregnant self just kept screaming. But I knew I couldn't just leave the darn thing in there, so I did the next best thing and called Shane to my rescue. Thankfully he was just up the street running errands and gladly came home to to put me at ease. By this time the darn thing had swam into the skimmer (white box in the picture) and I stood watching to make sure he wasn't going to climb out of the hole (white box to the left on the deck). Shane bravely stuck his hand into the skimmer, scooped out the ugly thing with a shovel and gave him a good ending. This one is gone, but I know more are to come! 

Weekend of fun

It was a typical HOT weekend around here. Once again, we have a calendar filled with pool parties and we are all loving every second of it. This weekend was stock full of time with great friends, great neighbors and even a family night swim! 

Ryan's getting pretty good at launching the littlest of the family into the air; and she's loving her view from high up in the sky.

The girls were pretty giddy as we hosted a group of Ryan's college buddies/families and they had plenty of friends to play with. 

And since it was dark by the time they left, Ryan promised the girls we could climb back into the water and take a family night swim. The look of shear joy spread quickly across Regan's face, since she has been begging to stay up late and swim with the light on. 

The ending of this picture turned out better than it looks. Ryan didn't really do a belly flop, but rather had some fancy term for the type of airborne dive he did. 

The closer they swam to the light, the happier the girls were. So much of our time was spent going off the board over and over and over again.

All that late night action must have tuckered them out! They both slept until 8:30am today; not a common occurrence by any means!

Happy 4th

It was a fun-filled 4th of July once again with a day watching a parade (or golfing depending on who you are in this family), swimming, eating and fireworks. We hope you and your family had a great day celebrating the 4th as well! 

No Daycare-Part 2

 On their final day without daycare this week, the girls spent the day with Uncle Shane. It was initially a bit of a scary thought considering he has never babysat them and we were leaving for nearly a full day! I gave him two instructions before leaving the house: keep them alive, and keep them entertained! Boy did he have his work cut out for him with the entertainment part, and he did a great job documenting the entire day and giving me updates via pix/text, assuring me that he was, in fact, keeping them alive! 

Of course, I'm sure they had a great breakfast in front of the TV...here's hoping they didn't start the day with chocolate (though they both tattled later and told me just how much candy he fed them throughout the day!)

For the days leading up to his babysitting job, he told the girls they would be throwing pancakes in the street for the cars to drive over (not actually tossing them AT cars). And he did not disappoint! Even bought a box of frozen pancakes-which he told me later "flew like frisbees" into the street. 

That afternoon, Sidney told me all the pancakes were gone from the street, now stuck to the wheels of the cars. Great life lesson he taught them :) 

I'm pretty sure he loved the play time with American Girl dolls.....

And what day isn't complete without a Cadillac ride?, all the way up to Subway for lunch! Thanks Uncle Shane for keeping them alive and entertained. The girls have some great memories of their day with you :) 

No daycare-Part 1

I normally take several weeks of vacation time in the summer for "stay-cations" with the girls. However, while trying to save every ounce of vacation time for my upcoming maternity leave, we've been left to either 1) leave the kids in daycare each week or 2) round up a back up plan. 

And this week, we opted for option two. 

My mom came and spent 2 days with the girls and lived it up, just like I would have done. They stayed busy busy busy! She took them to Como Town one day where they went on rides for 5 hours! My germaphobic mother is much like me and her hand sanitizer was never far away :) 

On her other day with the girls, they ventured to a nearby park/lake where they had a picnic and enjoyed a paddle boat around the lake. I'm quite certain, the girls had a great time with Grandma Jan and we are happy to have her nanny-like services!!